"When has better ever been what I'm after," Kira asks, narrowing a look up from their pressed shoulders. Too late does he remember: when has Ty? Just tonight, he thinks, staring down the barrel of eight more years.

Just--Prom, like any other person his age.

Until Ty gives it back, leaning up close and personal. His breath touches Kira's ear, heat disturbing the chill of a Manhattan night settled to Kira's hair--and he breaks away. Gently shoves Ty off in mock offense, skulking ahead with his cigarette.

"My presence is a present," he quips, pulling ahead on the sidewalk. "And if you invited me so you could stand on the sideline drinking punch, discussing how to best save the seals with your friends whose parents inject baby seal blubber into their faces to stay young, I will absolutely leave you in a corner."