"You're a fucking genius."

Those words, the way that Thor had looked at him as he spoke them...it was eye opening, it was life changing. Thor saw him. He really saw him, for all the beauty in his head. He didn't think Dizzee was some weird kid, too stoned to be grounded in reality. He understood. He understood Dizzee, he understood Rumi, and that? That had changed Dizzee's life.

And it hadn't stopped there.

Every moment they spent together felt like a first for Dizzee. He'd spent hours working on his page in Thor's book, excited, practically buzzing to meet him back at the artist's bench that weekend, and when he'd been there, Dizzee couldn't help but smile.

Thor had smiled back.

They'd gone off together painting, working, and sure, Dizzee had tagged with others before, but this was different. He could say what was on his mind, every thought, every fragment of a thought, and Thor was there to take it in, to elaborate on it because understood Dizzee in a way that no one ever had. He didn't think that Dizzee was weird.

He thought that Dizzee was beautiful.

He opened Dizzee's eyes to a new world - a world that Dizzee had longed for, but had no idea actually existed, a world of freedom, art, expression, and Dizzee? He had never felt more alive. He wasn't alone anymore, he wasn't a square peg in a round hole, not when he was with Thor, and that? That was life changing. When they'd kissed for the first time, things that Dizzee had kept inside of him for years, they came bursting to the surface, and he didn't think that anything had ever been more important to him than meeting Thor. Every single day, Thor taught him a new way in which it was okay to be himself.

And the way Thor looked at him, when they ran together, painted together, it was everything Dizzee had never known he craved.

And then Thor went away. He hadn't been fast enough, and Dizzee, he could hardly take it. To go from having someone, finally having someone that was his, someone who understood him, who didn't think he was some weirdo, who didn't put up with him just because he was family, or from the neighborhood, to having no one again? It was rough. It wouldn't be forever, he knew that, but what if Thor had too much time to think? What if he realized that he didn't want Dizzee anymore? That there was better out there for him?

That didn't happen, and when he saw Thor in the crowd at his show, he thought he was hallucinating.

He was.

And he wasn't.

When he woke up, in bed, his family around him, all he wanted was to ask for Thor, to find Thor, but he couldn't explain to his parents why the other man meant so much to him, couldn't explain to his brothers why some white boy with long, stringy hair was the only person he wanted to see right then.

He couldn't explain what they were. It was theirs, and theirs alone.

But he got better, and Thor's loft, it became a sanctuary for him, a place where he could paint, be free, be himself. With Thor. They talked of being more careful, so they wouldn't be separated again, and Dizzee? He didn't want to. Every touch, every kiss, every glance, it felt new, exciting, and comfortable. The mattress on the floor was more home to Dizzee than his own bed was now, and the way it felt, sleeping there, Thor's arm cast over his waist as casually as anything? It felt incredible.

He lay awake. Many nights he lay awake while Thor slept, his hands carding through the blonde hair cascading over the pillow. He thought about the first time they met, how instantly Thor's soul had recognized his own, how they had reached out to each other in that dark tunnel, and Dizzee had fallen in love without even realizing it, because he had always been in love with Thor.

He just hadn't met him yet.

He had thought that he was in for a world of hurt, loving a white boy who would never feel the same, but he had been wrong. This wasn't pain, and Thor didn't reject him. He welcomed him with open arms, he told Dizzee that he was beautiful, that he was brilliant, and Dizzee had only the same to say about Thor. He didn't know everything about Thor's life, his past, he didn't have to know that they connected. It was some cosmic thing, something more beautiful and tenuous than Dizzee had ever expected to feel, but it was there.

They had a routine. They'd go to Thor's, they would paint, they would talk, they would get high, they wouldn't get high, they would fall into bed together, tangles of arms and legs, and Thor would fall asleep first. It always took Dizzee longer, he always tried to make himself stay awake, to take in every moment with his beautiful boy, but he eventually got there.

Thor woke first.

Some days, when Dizzee woke, Thor was in the kitchen area making coffee, sometimes he was in a chair reading a book, sometimes he was already out, gone for the day, and sometimes, he was still in bed, looking at Dizzee like the world would stop spinning without him.

And it would.

Thor loved those early mornings, when he was awake and Dizzee wasn't. He didn't understand how he had gotten so lucky, how in that night, reaching his hand out to catch the running boy, pulling him into that little tunnel had been his soul reaching out to another, pulling him in, pulling him close. He'd connected with people before, on emotional levels a few times, and physical levels many times, but this? This was different. This wasn't his body wanting another body, this was everything.

He didn't have to share Dizzee. The world that they created was their own, and sure, sometimes it bled into greater things, but this space, this sanctuary, he had never had anything like it. He had never had anyone like Dizzee. Someone so brilliant, so beautiful, so kind.

He was in love, maybe for the first time.

He reached out, the sheets pooling around his waist as his palm met Dizzee's cheek. He kept his touch light, he didn't want to wake the other man, but sometimes, he needed to prove to himself that Dizzee was real, that he was there. When he had been behind bars, he hadn't missed anyone the way he missed the man who now lay beside him. He had never missed anyone like that before, and getting those pages from him? The letters? It had meant everything to him.

He had been glad that it was him, that he had been the one caught. If they weren't both going to get away, it was better him than Dizzee. Dizzee was strong, yes, but he also had so much more to give to the world. Locking him up behind bars would be such a waste. If it happened all over again, well, he'd rather be the one locked up any day.

But he would prefer be here, lying close with his Opera-bound alien.

Thor smiled when Dizzee's eyes fluttered open, his hand still resting gently on the other man's cheek as he moved to lean over him, looking down at that beautiful face, those eyes that reached into his soul and beyond.

"What?" Dizzee's voice was thick with sleep, and Thor loved that, the way Dizzee sounded when he woke, and it was just the two of them. He loved having Dizzee here. This place that was once his private home now served as a place for both of them.

When Dizzee isn't there, it feels empty.

"Nothing," Thor said, gently stroking Dizzee's cheek. "You're beautiful. I love the way you see the world." He leaned down, pressing a soft kiss to Dizzee's lips. "I love the way you see me."

Dizzee smiled sleepily up at Thor, and Thor felt his heart soaring, his spirit. He wasn't alone anymore. This boy, this...alien had brought him to a place where he felt safe, where he felt happy, and sure, maybe they have been helping each other, but even with his friends, Thor felt incomplete before Dizzee. Not anymore. They haven't talked about it, about what they are to each other, but he knows.

They were together.

He lay back down in the bed, pulling Dizzee in closer to him.

"One day," he whispered in the other man's ear. "One day, I'm going to take you to the Opera."

Dizzee just smiled. He fit himself into Thor's strong arms, and looked up at the ceiling, flecked with paint in all sorts of colors, and he thought that it would be nice, going to the opera.

He wasn't afraid anymore. After all, what does an alien have to fear if he's there with a god?

It was a long while before either of them spoke again. Dizzee turned, looking at Thor, who was looking right at him, and god, that look. No one had ever looked at Dizzee that way, and Thor? He had never looked at him any other way.

"Rumi, Do you love me?" Thor asked. He thought he knew the answer, but he wasn't not quite sure.

Dizzee paused. He'd never said it out loud, not in words, but he had painted his love for Thor all across the city, and he was pretty sure Thor knew that, but sometimes...sometimes the words have to come, too.

"I don't think," Dizzee started softly. "That four letters can encompass how I feel." He reached out, running his fingers through Thor's hair. "But until they come up with a word that describes what this is, yes," he said. "I love you."

The smile on Thor's face made Dizzee wish he had said something sooner. He had no idea that there was doubt in the other man. He knew that Thor loved him. He could see it in the other man's eyes, but Dizzee? He's eyes were a universe away, and that made him harder to read. Thor leaned in, kissing Dizzee softly.

"I love you too, Rumi," he said. "Rumi, Dizzee, Marcus. I love all of you."

The words "I know" died on Dizzee's tongue. They don't need to be said. Thor had always been the only one to see every facet of Dizzee, and care for them - to love them. Thor knew that he knew how he felt, and now Thor knew for certain how Dizzee felt.

"I want to see the galaxy with you," he said instead, because the world? It was too small for the two of them.

Thor just put his arm around Dizzee and kissed his jaw.

"You will."

Dizzee let out a content sigh, and looked around the loft, thinking that, just maybe, he already has.