Simon walked into the community centre the next day and raised an eyebrow at the sight of Nathan, his boyfriend, assaulting the vending machine.

"Get in." Nathan hissed quietly to himself as a diet coke fell out of the dispenser.

Simon struggled to conceal a smirk.

"Hi." He said.

Nathan straightened immediately, startled by the sudden company, causing Simon to laugh loudly.

Nathan shook his head, Simon had already changed so much and all it took was someone actually being nice to him. Nathan felt momentarily guilty for all the shit he'd given Simon in the past.

"Don't sneak up on me you little shit." He scolded playfully, opening his diet coke which had unfortunately fizzed during its ordeal and sprayed all over him.

Nathan swore quietly and looked up to see Simon staring at the wet patch on the front of his jumpsuit.

Nathan waggled his eyebrows suggestively before leaning against the vending machine.

"Don't get too turned on, now."

Simon rolled his eyes at him before turning away and walking in the direction of the locker room.

"Hey!" Nathan called out after him, taking a hold of Simon's hand and pulling him back into a kiss. Simon laughed against Nathan's lips and kissed him back.

It was in that moment, however, that the door opened and Alisha, Curtis and Kelly all entered.

Alisha began to laugh earnestly and Nathan sighed as Simon sprang away from him. He turned his head to see Kelly staring at them with her mouth agog.

Poor Simon looked like he was a rabbit in a headlight but Nathan supposed he looked no different.

"That is so wrong." Said Curtis, shaking his head.

Nathan felt his fear dissipate. "Sorry, what's wrong?" He asked.

Curtis suddenly looked like he had nothing to say. "No, nothin', man." He said quietly.

Before Nathan could even process this response, Kelly had stalked across the room and slapped him across the back of the head.

"Ow!" Nathan yelped, instinctively ducking away.

"When you told me you were seeing Simon, you told me it wasn't this one!"

"Wait, you knew about this?" Asked Alisha.

"I was telling the truth," Nathan told Kelly, ignoring Alisha. "That was a...different Simon," Nathan's chest constricted momentarily, "me and Simon...we...err..."

"With Nathan and I..." Simon suddenly interrupted, stepping forward. "Things just sort of fell into place," he glanced at Nathan, smiling nervously but reassuringly, "and if anyone has a problem with it, well, then..." He trailed off, not particularly sure where he was planning on going with that sentence. He suddenly felt a little glum, there was nothing threatening about him.

He wasn't that Simon.

"Okay," Curtis said after a moment, "you've changed your tune."

"Err..." Simon glanced nervously at the track star. "What do you mean?"

Curtis shrugged.

"You've just never tried to stand up for yourself before."

Simon wasn't looking at Nathan, so he couldn't see the proud little smile Nathan was sending in his direction.

…

Nathan absent-mindedly scraped old paint from an alley wall, so engrossed in daydreaming that he didn't notice Alisha sauntering over to him.

"I didn't have you down as gay." She said, catching his attention.

He turned to her for a moment but for the life of him couldn't think of a response so returned to his work.

"So," began Alisha, leaning against the wall. "What's Simon like in bed?"

Nathan rolled his eyes. "None of your business."

"That's just code for 'we haven't done it yet'." She observed.

Nathan rounded on her. "Yeah, well I'm not like you. I don't shag everyone I meet."

There was a moment of silence, Alisha's eyes lowered.

"Sorry." He said after a moment.

"It's alright." She said, but didn't look back up at him.

He hesitated.

"The thing about me and Simon, it's really complicated." He said, and she finally looked up at him.

"Really?" She asked. "Why?"

Nathan looked over at Simon, working diligently beside Curtis.

He thought for a moment.

…

"That can't be very comfortable." Nathan observed, reaching across the short distance between them and undoing Simon's top button in one fluid motion.

Simon rolled his eyes as he brought his energy drink to his lips.

"Am I not cool enough for you now?"

"No." Nathan said pointedly, "but you should be now that you've got a bit of air in you."

Simon sent a small smile his way. It was a nice smile, a comforting smile. It made Nathan feel strangely safe.

He frowned.

"What is it?" Asked Simon immediately. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Said Nathan, scratching the back of his neck.

"Nathan..."

"I just wish things weren't so complicated between us." He explained.

Simon quirked an eyebrow. "Complicated? Are things complicated?"

"You know they are." Nathan responded, sounding a little sullen.

He reached out and entwined his fingers with Simon, lifting their hands until they were in plain view. "I want to just do this without anything else. Without being reminded about how much your hand feels like his except it doesn't, not thinking it's awkward because we're new and we're fresh and we don't know each other that well yet..."

"You know me." Simon pointed out, giving Nathan's hand a little squeeze. "And I'm getting to know more and more about you everyday. I'm glad we have all of this time stretched out in front of us to get to know each other, properly. Aren't you?"

"Yeah," Nathan replied, smiling shallowly before leaning his head on Simon's shoulder. "Thanks for being so understanding about all of this."

"It's okay," Simon replied, enjoying the comforting warmth of Nathan's curls against his shoulder. "You just need to figure out a way to...start again. I'm sure that's what..."

He meant to say he was sure that was what Simon would have wanted, but he stopped himself.

"Look at me." He said softly.

Nathan lifted his head and his eyes met Simon's, wide with questioning.

"Why?"

"Just, look at me, just for a moment. And...don't see him."

Nathan's eyes searched Simon's, big and wide and so very young and innocent. Yet at the same time as wise and as intelligent as someone twice his age.

Nathan smiled after a moment.

"Simon." He said, as if it were an affirmation.

Simon returned the smile as he let his forehead fall against Nathan's and their bodies connected in a mixture of warmth and familiarity.

Simon couldn't help but wonder about his future self, had they, in fact, been the same person? Or were they two different people? He felt like it shouldn't matter, not 30 seconds ago had he told Nathan to forget about the future him and yet he was all Simon could think about.

He supposed it was different, though. Nathan needed to move away from his future self, yet it seemed that Simon had no choice but to move towards him.

…

Simon ghosted his fingers against one of the grey walls as he walked slowly around Nathan's flat. Well, Simon's flat, well, the other Simon's flat...

Simon shook his head. When he watched Doctor Who this sort of stuff made sense but now that he was in the middle of it he couldn't make any sense of it.

Simon paused when he came to the wall of clocks that were all set to zero. He stared at them for a moment before his eyes drifted to the cluster of polaroid photographs pinned to the wall. There were photos of all of them, and of him which was odd, but mostly they were of Nathan. He found himself smiling and feeling jealous of himself at the same time.

He couldn't help thinking about what Nathan had told him, about it being Nathan that turned this Simon into the future one but he couldn't picture it. He couldn't imagine being that guy, running around and jumping off buildings and saving people, like a superhero. He smiled wistfully at the idea for a moment, that was all he'd ever wanted growing up, but then he remembered Nathan telling him about the future Simon's death and the smile faded.

He looked around a little bit more until he came to a rail containing various items of clothing, he ran his hand on the fabric until his fingers were met with a coarse plastic.

He pulled out the hanger and saw the outfit the guy in the mask had always worn, mask and all. He must have had a spare. He couldn't help smiling a little, of course he would have a spare.

He looked down at the black plastic/cloth outfit he held in his hands, his eyes meeting the sightless gaze of the ski mask. He thought about all of the times Nathan had told him that he'd saved him. That he had known that he would die saving Nathan and yet did it anyway, because he'd said Nathan was worth it. He remembered Nathan's eyes tearing up as he recalled how the future Simon had told him to burn his body so no one would know he had been there.

He instinctively looked up and was met with the sight of the large grey bed across the open-planned space. He was unceremoniously graced with the thought of how many times Nathan and the future Simon had had sex there, and he felt himself get irrationally angry at the idea.

Nathan was right, their relationship should have been new and fresh but it wasn't, Nathan had all of these expectations about how brilliant the future Simon had been and all of the things that the present Simon was not.

Simon momentarily wondered why Nathan was with him, was it because he was waiting for him to be just like his future self? Was he only with him to get the actual love of his life back?

He looked back down at the outfit he was holding in his hands.

…

Nathan looked around the locker room several times before raising a quizzical eyebrow to himself and glancing at Simon's unopened locker beside him.

"Hey, Kel, have you seen Simon?" He asked. "He disappeared after lunch and I haven't seen him since."

Kelly shrugged a 'no' in response.

Alisha laughed. "God, will you give him a break for a minute?" She asked rhetorically, causing Nathan to smile minutely.

Curtis, Alisha and Kelly were being surprisingly supportive about this whole situation and Nathan was grateful for it. Although he would never admit it.

"He mentioned something about 'having to go do something'" Curtis chipped in unhelpfully, "don't know where he went, though."

Nathan's brow furrowed. It wasn't like Simon to just disappear off. Maybe something had happened to him?

Nathan felt a tightening in his stomach but forced himself to expel it.

He quickly finished changing and stuffed his jumpsuit in his locker and locked it.

He threw a quick "see ya" to the rest of him before he was out of the community centre, trying to figure out where Simon would go.

An idea suddenly popped into his head and he had no idea why, it would be completely improbable for Simon to go there.

Why had he thought of that?

Nathan shook his head to himself and changed the direction he was walking in.

He won't be there. He kept telling himself rationally, but he kept on walking.

…

Simon took a deep breath and stepped up to the edge, the ground below him was a little blurry due to the ski mask he was wearing.

Simon slid the mask from his eyes and onto his head and, with a better view, saw just how far down the hard, concrete floor was.

He took a quick step back, wondering why the hell he was on the roof of a tenement block wearing the future Simon's outfit.

He shook his head. He couldn't do this. He knew he couldn't do this.

He remembered all of the things he'd watched the guy in the mask do; scale buildings, jump from roofs, climb around like an acrobat...

He felt his heart pumping heavily in his chest and took a few long breathes to try and calm himself. He felt his pulse slow slightly.

He remembered being a young boy, he remembered how his father had presented him with a shining new bike for his 10th birthday and instead of being excited he'd been scared to death. It looked huge and all he could picture were the scrapes he would get falling onto the pavement. Which he did. A lot.

Still, he reasoned to himself, you can ride it now.

Simon took a deep breath and stepped up to the edge again, looking down below him. He needed to learn.

Among other things, he had a destiny to fulfil, and learning this stuff, and probably a few scrapes, were a part of it.

He slid the mask back down over his eyes and took one more breath.

The image of Nathan flitted across his vision before he jumped.

…

Nathan slid the elevator door open and stormed into Simon's flat, looking around wildly.

As soon as the crushing feeling entered him he knocked it back, trying to follow Simon's advice and not see him.

He didn't particularly know why he thought Simon would be here. He supposed there was still a part of him that confused the two, but part of him just expected to see Simon stood there.

Which one, however, he wasn't sure.

Nathan walked across the open-planned space, his eyes momentarily flitted across the bed but he quickly turned his head away and walked over to the shower area.

He stopped when he noticed the clothes rail that was always so meticulously stowed away left strewn across the floor.

He cocked his head to the side, wondering why exactly would anyone go after Simon's clothes, unless they wanted his spare outfit...

Nathan's eyes widened as he realised just which hanger was gone. He bolted to the clothes rail and search through the items wildly until he realised it really wasn't there.

Simon always had a spare outfit, it was slightly different to one he normally wore but he had told Nathan once that he often damaged one of them jumping off buildings or...

The blood in Nathan's veins ran cold as he realised exactly what was going on.

He legged it quickly out of the flat, deciding in that moment he would have to go and save him. And then after that; kill him.

Nathan ran around the estate a couple times with no sign of Simon. He stopped himself suddenly when he felt a painful stitch appear at his right side. Clutching his abdomen, he turned on his feet and looked around himself, trying to think.

He couldn't see why Simon would go any further out than the council estate.

He remembered always thinking how small and dingy this place was but right now it was huge.

Ignoring the pain stabbing at him, he jogged slowly in between a few tenement blocks and stopped again, looking around.

He sighed frustratedly and pulled out his phone, ready to try Simon again until he heard a small groan coming from somewhere to his right.

He quickly pocketed his mobile and ran to the source of the noise, he turned a corner and let out a small gasp.

Simon, his Simon, was lying on the floor, wearing the black outfit, and writhing around in pain.

Nathan shot to him and collapsed to the ground next to him, the movement causing the shooting pains in his side to return. He grimaced slightly as he turned Simon's shaking form over.

Nathan quickly hauled the man to his feet and was met with Simon's wide eyes.

"Oh my God," he said as he noticed the thick gash across Simon's cheek.

"Nathan..." Simon said in a shaky breath, pain evident on his face. He reached a hand out and placed it on Nathan's cheek.

"Are you okay?" Nathan asked worriedly, "what the hell are you doing?"

Simon took in a few gulps of breath. "I need to learn to be him." He said softly.

Nathan stared, wide eyed, for a few moments until he clutched Simon closer to him, realisation dawning on him.

But, I don't want that.