Happiness was a very complex thing.

Happiness was before Miles' friends had been Altered.

Happiness was late nights and happiness was adventure and happiness was Ty.

Before everybody in his grade had started turning sixteen, life was wild. Miles remembered it all so vividly; it had ended hardly a few months ago, after all.

Life was the desperation to tick everything off your bucket list before you reached sixteen.

Life was attending every party in the neighbourhood and life was staying up all night and life was Ty.

Miles remembered the routine that used to steal away his weekends. Leave a window unlocked. Wait until the household fell asleep. Noiselessly clamber outside, close the window, lose himself to the cool air of the night and Ty's breath on his neck and his own undying sense of wanderlust. Transition then to the stifling heat and thunderous music that his heartbeat scrambled to pound in time with. The scent of - undoubtedly stolen - alcohol in the air and blaring lights and slurred words. The very definition of party.

Unaltered were dangerous, ruthless animals when the sun went down.

Without supervision, there were no rules.

Then he'd party through the night, leave early hand-in-hand with Ty, find somewhere dark and quiet and sap the last of their energy.

They'd part ways; return home; sleep till noon and prepare to repeat the same procedure the following night.

Whether it was yelled over blaring music or whispered to preserve the tranquillity of the moment in someplace where there was just Miles and Ty, Ty and Miles, Miles would say, "I love you."

And Ty would say, "I know you love me, but would you die for me?" And he would say it with a silly expression, mischief in his eyes. He'd say it every time more dramatically, more playfully than the time that came before. He'd say it for fun, because dying for somebody was such a thing that only happened in movies.

And Miles would say, just as playfully, "You know I would, Ty."

And never had Miles known it would turn out the other way around.

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+354 Words.

Filler chapt. for extra heartbreak <3