Disclaimer: I do not own Misfits or any of it's characters, they belong to their respective owners.

Tie My Heart Back Together With String

Nathan had finished his community service for the day about an hour ago and was ambling around the estate for no reason at all.

Sometimes the community centre was really fucking boring and Nathan liked to get out of there for a while every now and again.

He knew Kelly was going for a drink with some of her friends and he had contemplated joining her but if he was being honest with himself he was just too fucking tired.

He just wanted to go back to the centre, maybe have a wank, then go to sleep.

"Oi, you!" Nathan's thought process was interrupted by a male's voice calling out to him. Turning around, Nathan watched as a big bruiser he didn't recognize came walking up to him.

"What?" Asked Nathan, "do I know you?"

"You're that prick that's sleeping with my girlfriend."

Nathan's eyes went bambi-wide and a genuine confusion swept through him. "Listen, mate-" he began, gearing up for some sort of confrontation. "Even though that does sound like exactly the sort of thing I would actually do...It wasn't me that shagged your girlfriend. All right?"

But the guy stood in front of him didn't look all right at all, he had at least a foot on Nathan and besides his mouth, Nathan didn't have much going for him in the way of defense.

"Look, calm down." He tried again. "You got the wrong guy."

"I'm going to beat the living crap out of you!" The bruiser announced, swinging his gargantuan right fist towards Nathan's face.

Nathan ducked quickly and the fist just skimmed over his hair, but he lost his footing and fell to the floor.

But before he could think of anything else, he spotted a dark figure out of the corner of his eye running along the rooftops.

Hoping beyond hope that he was right about this, Nathan rolled out of the way of the bruisers second punch and called out:

"Oh, so you've finally decided to make yourself useful!"

Less than a second later, the guy in the mask that neither Nathan nor his friends could identify dropped from a building and landed next to the bruiser.

"What the fuck do you think you're playing at?" The angry man said, turning to the guy in the mask.

Nathan watched in amazement as the ski-masked man rained one, two, three punches to the surprised bruiser and sent him running across the estate, shouting profanities back to the pair of them.

"Well, are you going to help me up?" Asked Nathan when the masked man turned to him.

Apparently, having regarded Nathan with a quick look, he decided not to help him up and Nathan watched as he scaled one of the grey buildings and ran onto the roof and out of sight.

Nathan pushed himself up and craned his neck to try and see where the guy in the mask was going.

"Hey!" He called out after him, but no one called back.

He was alone.

…

"So this big fucker was giving it all that, saying that I'd shagged his girlfriend or some nonsense..." Nathan explained. Simon, Kelly, Curtis and Alisha were all stood around him in the community centre locker room, listening intently. "Then that guy in the mask turns up out of no where, saves me from getting my arse kicked, not that I needed saving-" he quickly clarified, earning himself a few eye rolls. "Then he just fucks off, what's that all about?"

"He's never stuck around before." Simon reminded him quietly. Nathan pulled a face at him then returned his attention to the group.

"So, did you do it?" Curtis asked.

Nathan fixed him with a confused stare. "Did what?"

"Did you sleep with that guy's girlfriend?"

"No!" Nathan replied indignantly, "is that the sort of thing I would do?"

He saw some of looks he got around the group and rolled his eyes. "All right, do you lot really think I'm organised enough to cheat with someone?"

"Yeah, he's got a point." Said Alisha eventually.

Nathan shook his head. "That's not the point, the point is, that weirdo turned up again and saved me. How the hell did he know what was going to happen?"

"Are you all right?" Kelly asked, looking at Nathan, forehead creased in concern.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine." Nathan brushed her off, too preoccupied with the guy in the mask to care about much else.

"He seems to know everything." Simon said aloud, like he was wondering it himself.

"Maybe he's spying on us?" Alisha pointed out, "I mean, he does always turn up when we're in trouble."

Nathan felt an idea spark into his brain and his face broke out into a grin. "Yeah, he does, doesn't he?" He said, zipping up his orange jump suit.

…

All the guy's Nathan has scoped out so far wouldn't do, they were either too scary or too dodgy-looking. He just wanted to find someone nice and easy to pick on, he momentarily wondered where Barry was.

He saw a man walk towards him and he quickly leant against a concrete wall to try and look as normal as possible.

He waited for a moment until the man has passed him until he shouted out, "I'll give you 50 quid for a blow job."

The man immediately turned around, face pulled down into a grimace. "What did you just say?"

Nathan pushed himself away from the wall, more confident now. "You heard, and for an extra hundred I'll let you have your way with me, I mean, you do look like a perverted queer that needs to pay for sex."

He momentarily wondered if he should be worried that this sort of thing came naturally to him but he didn't really have enough time to worry as the man he had just called a perverted queer practically snarled at him.

"Come here, you dick!" He called out, Nathan looked desperately above him, waiting to see that familiar black blotch running across the rooftops, but there was nothing.

He closed his eyes momentarily. "Well, now is a great time to decide to stop following me, thanks." He said quietly to himself as he watched the man advance on him.

"Listen, mate..." Nathan tried, but the man lashed out and Nathan felt his head smash heavily against the concrete wall. His whole vision swam before his eyes and the last thing he saw before he passed out was the guy in the mask running towards him.

…

Nathan felt like he was coming out of some kind of weird dream as his eyes focused and he realized he was no longer lying on the cold concrete of the floor. He rubbed his eyes and saw that he was lying in a large bed, a large bed that was not his own.

His eyes struggled to focus and the main thing he could see was grey.

After a moment, he felt a throbbing pain swarm in his head and he let out a surprised gasp and his hand instinctively flew to his head.

He could feel something there that wasn't supposed to be there, retracting his hand he crawled slowly out of the large grey bed and saw a mirror close to him.

Inspecting himself, he looked past his tired eyes and focused entirely on the dried blood on the side of his head that was slowly cracking.

Nathan closed his eyes as another wave of pain shot through him. His eyes opened almost immediately as something occurred to him. He looked closer into the mirror, trying to see if there was any actual wound on his head because he might have died again.

Checking his underwear just to be safe, Nathan felt himself growing thoroughly pissed off about his head. Looking around, he tried to ascertain where the hell he actually was.

It just looked like one big, grey...room. It was like an open-planned flat and from his place at the bed, Nathan could see a kitchen and a sofa.

The whole ceiling was covered in mad lighting that was starting to make his already over-sensitive head hurt.

He walked towards one of the walls, it was littered with digital clocks and scraps of paper and Polaroid photographs.

Upon closer inspection, Nathan saw that the photographs were of them. Him and Kelly and Barry and the rest of them. Alisha was right, the guy in the mask was spying on them.

"Sick bastard." Said Nathan quietly to himself.

He wandered around the flat for a few moments more before he heard the familiar sound of a shower going. He licked his lips in anticipation.

Nathan walked slowly towards the sound of the shower, he stopped as he saw a metal railing with the guy's ski-gear hanging from it.

Eyeing it for a moment, he turned and saw him in the open shower. It was a man, but Nathan had expected as much.

He had sort of short hair and he was muscular...Nathan momentarily wondered if it was kind of weird for him to be perving on some guy in the shower but he quickly shook it off.

He figured this guy owed him some answers, naked or not.

He'd obviously heard Nathan walking up behind him but he slowly turned to face him, the water dripping down his face. It was Simon.

"Shit!" Nathan exclaimed loudly, immediately taking off in the other direction.

Simon didn't make a sound as he turned the shower off and ran a towel over himself, Nathan approached the large bed and began to frantically search for his jacket.

He hadn't even realized it had been missing, Simon must have taken it off of him, the sick...

"Nathan."

The word was calm and collected, Nathan spun around and saw Simon stood staring at him. He had put on a pair of tracksuit bottoms but remained shirtless, he was surprisingly toned.

Nathan laughed cruelly at him. "I knew this was the sort of thing you'd get up to in your spare time, pretending you're a fucking superhero!" Nathan gestured to the wall of photographs. "And keeping pictures of everyone? I mean, I always knew you were a sick pervert but what the hell are you playing at, jumping off of buildings...?"

Simon just stood there, patiently waiting for Nathan's rant to end, he knew he would eventually run out of steam.

Realizing he wasn't getting any reaction from Simon, Nathan fell silent. He merely stared at the man for a long moment before he finally spoke again.

"Simon, since when are you the guy in the mask?"

The sentence made Simon smile slightly, this may well have been the first time Nathan had ever called him Simon.

Nathan was staring at him with a look of total confusion and desperation.

"Ever since I traveled back from the future."

Within a matter of seconds, Nathan's cocky demeanor was back and he rolled his eyes, finally spotting his jacket out of the corner of his eye.

Reaching over the bed, he picked up the black material and proceeded to slip it hurriedly over his arms.

"Of course you did." He finally said sarcastically.

"Yes," Simon agreed, "I did."

Nathan stopped for a minute and stared at him, what the hell was going on? "Seriously? You...traveled back from the future."

Simon merely nodded again. "Yes, I did." He repeated.

Simon couldn't tell what sort of emotion was going through Nathan's mind at this point, but after a moment he seemed to regain his composure.

"So that means there are two annoying bastards running around?"

Simon laughed before he spoke. "Yes, there is. But you can't tell anyone I'm here, especially Simon." That last bit was serious.

Nathan stared at Simon for a long moment, he didn't know what the fuck he was supposed to think. "You're...so different." He eventually decided on.

Simon looked at him questioningly and Nathan shrugged.

"Well, you know, you're confident and...not afraid of me and shit." Nathan scratched his head awkwardly, aware that he was making a total idiot of himself.

Nathan risked another glance at Simon, the future Simon, he guessed. He was lean and muscled and he looked strong.

"I had no idea what you were packing under all them clothes!" He said, attempting a smile before it faltered. How much of a freak could he sound at the moment?

He was never speechless, never. But right now he had absolutely no idea what to say.

"I'm not packing anything yet," Simon explained, "not the present version of myself."

Nathan shook his head in bewilderment and shot Simon a pretentious look. "Do you even know how retarded you are?" He asked rhetorically, zipping up his jacket.

"Nathan, wait." Simon called out when Nathan turned to leave. "Don't go yet."

Nathan turned back, Simon didn't sound like he was commanding him, it almost sounded like he was pleading with him.

Nathan wanted to laugh, he wanted to make some cocky retort but he couldn't. This Simon was different, he didn't get offended at Nathan's jokes he just laughed at them.

He looked around the flat, trying to look anywhere but at Simon himself before he sat down awkwardly on the bed, hands stuffed in his pockets, facing away from Simon.

He felt the bed dip as Simon sat down next to him, he turned his head slowly to see Simon staring at him.

His eyes were inquisitive, like he was studying Nathan's movements and his lips were pulled up in a half-smile.

He thought about Simon, the real Simon, the other Simon. The way he would look so scared to join in and when he spoke it was barely above a mutter.

"No offence," said Nathan, "but this is too weird."

"How is it weird?" Asked Simon gently.

Nathan exasperatedly waved his hand, gesturing up and down Simon's body.

Simon grinned, "what?"

"You!" Said Nathan, "you're...you're not..." He sighed to himself. "You're not Barry."

And Simon laughed, full-on laughed freely and it was the first time Nathan had heard that noise come from either one of the Simon's. The noise seemed to instantly relax him and he found himself smiling despite himself.

"So, what possessed you to come back here then?" Nathan asked, turning more towards Simon. "I mean, you could travel back to a hundred cool places and you decide to come back here? Back to your community service with all of the people you never liked."

"I always liked you," Simon told him, catching Nathan's attention. "There were times when I was doing my community service that I thought you were my only friend."

It struck Nathan how easily it was for Simon to tell him that, to drop bombshells like it was casual conversation.

Nathan tried to laugh it off but laughing just made his head twinge. Simon saw him wince and immediately reached out towards him but Nathan stood up instinctively, backing away from the proffered hand.

They stood there staring at each other in silence for a long moment.

"Did I die?" Nathan asked eventually.

Simon retracted his hand and shook his head. "No, but you would have done if I'd left you there any longer."

Nathan laughed, confused. "Why?" He asked, "why didn't you just let me die?"

Simon smirked but there was no humour to it. "Because ever since that storm struck I must have watched you die a hundred times," he said darkly, he looked down at the floor. "And it never got any easier."

Nathan blinked a few times and his breath faltered. "What do you mean, man?" He asked nervously.

Nathan watched as Simon stood up and faced him, he reached out and touched Nathan, just below his wound.

Nathan's eyes fluttered for a moment as the warm hand came into contact with his chilled skin.

He and Simon had never actually touched before, not skin on skin. He murmured something that may have sounded like a quiet "no," he should be haven't these sorts of stirrings in his stomach, he was a woman kind of guy...but that didn't even make any sense.

This was ridiculous, this was Barry.

But then, this wasn't Barry.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Asked Nathan, his eyes darting to the hand on his cheek.

Simon smiled. "You sound angry."

"I am angry."

"But you haven't moved my hand away yet."

Nathan slapped his hand away and backed away from him, infuriated.

"You know, I think I preferred you a lot more when you were a shy, social outcast."

Nathan thought he was imagining the momentary hurt that flashed across Simon's face before it disappeared.

"You don't prefer me as anything yet." He informed him and Nathan very nearly growled.

"Will you stop talking so fucking cryptically and tell me what you actually fucking mean?" He practically shouted, feeling the ire rise in his stomach.

Simon took a deep breath before he spoke again. "This may be hard to believe," he said calmly, walking closer to Nathan who didn't back away, "but in the future, you and I are together."

There was a beat of silence and neither of them moved. Simon half-expected Nathan to shout at him and leave but he just stood there, staring at him.

"You mean," he asked quietly, "together-together?"

"Yes." Simon answered quietly, aware that he was treading on thin ice. There were times when Nathan was like a tiger, he could react unexpectedly at any given moment.

Something in Nathan's brain seemed to snap and he shook his head. "You're crazy," he said before turning on his heel and walking into the lift.

Simon watched him go in silence.