You Couldn't See The World (If You Could See At All)

Misfits | Simon/Alisha | PG-13 | ~1,738

Space AU. Simon's been living on the station for two years now, though if you asked anyone about him they'd frown, a "who?" caught on their tongues, and that's okay. It would hurt more if they could actually see him. (Although it's set in a different world, spoilers for the Christmas Special.)

A/N: For the au_bingo prompt 'Other: Aliens'. Apparently - when left to the day before the deadline - I end up writing strange, stylised fics. Good to know. I was actually writing something else for this prompt entirely and then the idea for this popped into my head and wouldn't leave.

He watches another ship leave from his spot in the hanger bay and ticks off the correct numbers on his chart. They stole two crates of Denizian spirits and an oxygen tank, snuck in amongst a barrel of spare parts.

He doesn't tell anyone.

That's not his job.

Simon's been living on the station for two years now, though if you asked anyone about him they'd frown, a "who?" caught on their tongues, and that's okay. It would hurt more if they could actually see him.

There's a girl (Kelly, born off planet on a transport ship) who works on the flight deck, slotting bits of machinery together until it flies, that looks up in surprise whenever he walks by; every time he wonders and every time he's disappointed when her eyes slide over him.

Still, he supposes it's a start.

The war started before he was born but the order for the hunt and collection of the Special Ones didn't come into place until his fourteenth birthday.

His parents tried to hide him, and it should have been easy except for the fear and panic etched into their skin.

Rumours started of a machine that could detect the empowered from three towns away.

Simon left in the night; it was safer for everyone that way.

Nathan (tells people he's a foundling, a product of the universe, but really born and raised on the mining planet of Rin), the…well, Simon's not exactly sure what he does except sexually harass the female crew members and occasionally set fire to the life support systems with a sheepish "oops!" Anyway, he's staring at Simon (not at him, through him) and it's disconcerting.

"Who's there?" Nathan asks, waving his hands around dramatically and catching Simon's arm.

"Ouch," Simon says, and the word feels strange on his lips, his throat clenching around it painfully.

Nathan lets out a high-pitched scream and runs away, casting nervous looks over his shoulder.

Simon feels weirdly proud.

"I swear," Nathan says, "I'm not making things up!"

Simon's been resting his eyes (not sleeping, never sleeping), his clipboard hanging loose around his neck, and he sits up in surprise.

"Mate," Curtis (communications officer, native of the third Pertugi moon, runs six laps around the station each morning) says, rolling his eyes, "are you sure you weren't drunk?"

"No," Nathan protests, and then: "well, okay, a little bit but that doesn't make it any less true."

"Maybe you should bring Kelly along?" Curtis says, and Nathan nods.

"Yeah."

Simon doesn't know what good that will do but he's interested to find out.

Simon's woken up (and oh gods, he fell asleep, he fell asleep) to Kelly's face hovering over his.

He blinks but she doesn't react.

"So?" Curtis says from where he's leaning against a post. "Is Nathan taking the piss or is he onto something?"

"Oy!" Nathan says with a pout, and Curtis rolls his eyes.

Kelly tilts her head to the side.

"For once he's telling the truth," she says, and Nathan cheers, chanting 'I told you so' at a disinterested Curtis.

Simon's still looking at Kelly.

Shit, he thinks.

"Don't be scared," she says.

They come back every day and sit on the floor with a pack of cards or a bottle of whisky, passing the hours as though they're not waiting for something.

Simon still doesn't speak.

He knows Kelly's listening, sees her head tilt just a little, the corners of her mouth tugging upwards when he wonders why anyone ever let Nathan near a spaceship.

They still don't see him but they know he's there.

That's more than he's had in years.

"Uh," the girl says (Alisha…new), eyes flitting across the room without settling, "sorry. Kelly forgot her keys. I just came to get them."

She's beautiful.

More than beautiful.

He gently reaches and grabs the keys from where they've slipped down the side of the control panel.

Alisha startles as he extends his hand.

"Oh," she says, and her eyes are looking at his face now (approximately, almost) and it's like she can really see him. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," he says, and she smiles a little, gently.

She glances back over her shoulder as she leaves and Simon feels real for the first time.

"Okay," Nathan says as he barges in, everything about him loud and dramatic. "Not fair! I found you first, you're supposed to talk to me."

Alisha follows him in, smirking, arms crossed over her chest.

"Yeah, but why would anyone want to do that?"

"She's got you there, mate," Curtis laughs, and Kelly smacks Nathan on the arm as she walks by.

"What's your name?" Alisha asks when they've calmed down, banter simmered to something like peace.

"Simon," he says.

It's a new start.

"We all have them," Curtis says, "the powers."

Simon nods even though it's irrelevant.

"I can turn back time," he continues, "sometimes."

"Kelly reads minds," Nathan interrupts, "which you already know. Me? I'm immortal."

"We really wish he was joking," Kelly says, but there's something fond about it that Simon's been hearing more and more the closer he listens.

"And you?" he asks, looking at Alisha, and it takes her a moment to realise she's being spoken to.

"I'm…complicated," she says.

He thinks he could have worked that out on his own.

"What do you do?" Alisha asks. He's following her and Curtis through the passageways towards the brig and it's loud and hectic enough that no one notices the extra voice.

"I make sure things are in their place."

"But, I mean, you don't get paid right?" Curtis asks. "I mean, does anyone know you're here?"

"No," Simon says, "I just like to help."

"What kinds of things?" Alisha asks, tilting her head towards him, and he bites his lip as the ends of her hair brush his shoulder.

"Things that are taken," his says when he's got his voice back. "I replace them."

"Surely there are people to do that?"

Simon shrugs.

"People don't always notice," he says, "and one day they might be needed."

"It's good that you help," Alisha says after a while, and when she smiles he knows she's really smiling at him.

He sees it coming through the airlock but it's too late to do anything but run.

Sirens wail as the station goes into red alert and the passageways are little more than a crush of bodies trying to remember where they're supposed to be and what job they're supposed to be doing.

They'll think it's an attack, go on the defensive and prepare to fight.

Simon recognised the symbol painted on the ships hull though.

They're not here for the station.

They're here for them.

"We have to go," he says, and Nathan startles but Kelly's nodding.

"I know," she says, "I can hear their thoughts. We can't be here."

"Where's Alisha?" Curtis asks, throwing a bag over his shoulder and reaching for a portable control system.

There's the sound of footsteps sliding on metal and too many voices trying to drown each other out but right now they need to focus, think, survive.

"I'll find her," Simon says, and he doesn't stop to hear the protests he finally knows will come.

"Oh," he thinks as he reaches the hub, and then clutches his head as waves of pain flood over him.

It's too much, so much, and he should have thought about this, about the possibility of them having developed a weapon to suit their needs, but right now all he can see is red, red everywhere, and it feels like dying.

He's screaming, can feel it in his throat even as the sound washes over him. There's too much noise right now but eventually it will stop and they'll know he's there even if they can't see him.

He needs to find Alisha, pushes forward against the pain, but it's too much, too much.

"Simon," Alisha says, running her hands across his face, and tugging at his arm, pulling him away.

He catches sight of an unfamiliar hand as they run.

It takes him a moment to realise it's his own.

Curtis has altered the setting on a shuttle so they can jump immediately while Kelly tries to boost the life support systems and Nathan flaps his hands around uselessly, obviously trying not to freak out, only stopping with Kelly reminds him with a shout that he's immortal so he can just shut up.

None of them can stop looking at Simon, even as they do everything to make their escape.

"It didn't hurt you," Simon says, turning to Alisha, and she's watching him too but not in the way the others are.

"No," she agrees, and then closes her eyes as she says: "They took away my powers years ago. I wanted them to. But they still wouldn't let me go."

"Do you miss them?" he asks because he doesn't know how he'd feel in that situation when it's so much a part of who he is.

"No," she says, "they were bad. But at least then they were trying to kill me for a reason. Now they just want to kill me."

Simon nods and lets her hold his hand as the universe twists around them.

The desert stretches out as far as the eye can see but the suns feel light against his skin, like they're apologising for the landscape and offering a little reprieve.

He holds his hand in front of his face and focuses until it disappears, controlling his body in a way he's only just learning to do.

A few steps over the others are arguing as they build a fire (away from the shuttle this time, and Nathan nowhere near the matches) and it doesn't matter that they're only stopping for a night or that tomorrow will be another day of running, for now it feels like home.

Alicia reaches for the space where his hand should be and smiles as it fades back into visibility.

"I like it when I can see you," she says, running her thumb across his palm, revelling in the touch that they've both gone so long without, and he curls his fingers around hers as he steps closer.

He kisses her like they're both invisible and for the first time in his life he lets go.