Vigilante | ✔

Annual #5

Sometimes, Eli had to really question his life choices. Granted, he'd made many questionable decisions in the last couple of years — namely, the whole dating the local vigilante thing. Now though, as he sat in his darkened living room with what had to be the absolute worst poker hand he had ever been dealt, he figured there had to be other terrible choices he'd made along the way for it all to end up like this.

Across from him, Matthew looked particularly smug. If Eli weren't so sure the man was winning, he would have said something about him having the worst poker face he'd ever seen. As it was, Eli was pretty sure Matthew was about to win — again.

"Oh look, I win," Matthew said moments later as both their cards lay on the table. Eli's expression looked particularly murderous thanks to the dim lighting of the candles on the table.

"This sucks," Eli said with a scowl, leaning back in his seat and crossing his arms with a petulant look on his freckled face. From his spot on the couch's armrest, Matt mewled in seeming agreement. Eli felt strangely validated.

"Well I told you, if you want to make it more interesting we could always try playing stri-"

"Say it and I swear I'll kick you," Eli cut Matthew off. It was the third time he tried to suggest they play strip poker instead. As always, Matthew seemed completely unfazed. "Why'd the power have to go out today of all days," Eli said, huffing as he reached over for his improvised fan — an old magazine he'd found under the couch.

"I bet you wouldn't be as hot after a couple hands of strip poker," Matthew said with a grin, already shuffling the cards. "Or actually, you'd be hotter," he added, because he just loved terrible jokes. And pissing off Eli. The redhead still wasn't sure which amused Matthew more.

"You're such a pervert," Eli said, with an accusing look.

"And you love it," Matthew said smoothly, mouth twitching as he tried not to laugh. Eli would have kicked him if he hadn't been sitting out of reach. As it was, he was just glad that it was dark enough to make his blushing face less obvious.

"Why are you even here?" Eli asked, deciding that he needed to distract Matthew before he kept saying stupid things.

"Well, I live here," Matthew answered with ease, dealing the cards.

"Unfortunately," Eli said with a roll of his eyes. "But it's dark and you haven't been stabbed, shot or maimed lately, so why exactly are you still here?" It wasn't like Eli was complaining, he was just genuinely curious. Usually Matthew would have already gone off to terrorize all of the city's petty criminals. Some part of Eli's brain was already coming up with stupid images of Matthew appearing before criminals with some cheesy line about being the terror that flaps in the night, or something. He probably needed some time off if his mind was already that far gone.

"What, I can't take a day off every now and then?" Matthew asked sounding entirely too suspicious to Eli. The way he avoided looking at the redhead didn't really help his case.

"When have you ever willingly taken a day off?" Eli asked. "Seriously, if you didn't need to work, eat, and sleep you'd probably be out there all the time." Eli honestly thought Matthew was just a couple billions of dollars away from wearing a pointy eared cowl and getting a theme to go with his crime fighting.

"Aw, are you feeling abandoned?" Matthew said with a stupid looking — at least to Eli — grin on his face. Before Eli could do anything, like throw another pillow at Matthew, the dark haired man was already sitting next to him with an arm snaking its way around Eli's shoulders. "Don't worry, I promise I won't abandon you," Matthew added, doing his best not to laugh at Eli's face.