Freshmen weren't supposed to go to prom. Of all the rules for him to break, it had to be that one, and that didn't even actually come with the risk of getting himself hurt!

Marco sighed, turning away from the mirror. If the mirror showed anything, it was that he better not let anyone take a picture of him. No matter how much hair gel he used, his chocolate brown hair continued to move everywhere, defying the very law of gravity. The "tux", an old white polo, black pants, and a tie that he had dug out of his father's closet, was a bit too short on him. The pants looked more like capris.

His mother had told him to gather up his old middle school, pre growth spurt clothes, and for once he wished he had listened.

Still, short or not, this was the best that he could have come up with on a short notice. It wasn't every day that someone had to save the world by going to prom after all.

"Star," Marco called, turning his head towards the door of his room. "Can you come in and tell me if I look presentable?"

The echo of his own voice was his only answer.

Marco sighed. He was doing all this for Star and yet she couldn't even give him an answer? It wasn't as if he could ask his mom or dad for help on this.

Marco looked back at the mirror. He had certainly looked worse before. His recent acne spell had cleared up, turning his brown skin smooth and flawless. His hair had seen far worse days. And did anyone really like looking overly formal?

These are demons, Marco reminded himself. Why would they want to dress like business professionals?

Marco swallowed the heavy lump in his throat.

Maybe this wasn't going to be as safe of a night as he had originally thought. This was demon prom, after all; it was going to be one hell of a night - quite literally.

Marco hadn't expected a limo (from the way that Star had described Tom, he hadn't seemed like the guy who relied on cliches), but he hadn't expected to just walk through his mirror either. He turned towards the wall of the gym (or whatever this place was) and only saw a wall. No mirror of any kind. Yet he must have stepped through it to get inside the gym.

He had been busy adjusting his tie when Tom had appeared in his mirror. Though Star had heavily spoken on his personality, she had said next to nothing about his physical features. Three piercing eyes had stared into Marco's own two before Tom's gaze had descended down his body. His lips had remained a thin line as he gazed.

Was this, Marco had wondered, how cattle felt before they were picked for slaughter?

"Well," Tom had finally said. As he spoke, Marco couldn't help but notice just how sharp his teeth were. They were like a dog, no a wolf's, fangs. "I suppose that we should get going." Then, he had pulled his hand through Marco's mirror, as if the glass weren't even solid, and held it out towards Marco.

Marco had blinked.

"Can you hurry up?" Tom asked. His hair turned fiery, and his glare looked sharper than any of his teeth. "We need to get going."

Marco bit his lip. Quickly, he reached out and took the demon's, surprisingly cool, hand into his own. Tom's grip was tight and firm.

With a strength that his lean body did not show, Tom had pulled him through the mirror. It hadn't hurt; Marco hadn't felt anything at all, not glass or a liquid feeling, like moving through water, that he had expected.

One moment he was in his room, staring at his mirror, and the next he was in a stone gym surrounded by what could only be described as monsters. Some kids had two or three heads, while others seemed to not have any at all. He could only see a handful of monsters that actually had two eyes, the rest having one or three or more. Teeth as sharp as knives covered just about every face, and if he had thought that his acne was bad, then he was glad that he didn't have the bulging, puss filled warts that covered a number of student's faces.

"So," Tom said.

Marco turned back towards him, away from the wall. He could worry about getting through the mirror of his room and back home again later.

"Yeah?" Marco raised an eyebrow. He scratched one of his arms, his eyes turning away from Tom's eyes and to the ground.

Tom thrust his hand forward, nearly shoving a whole bouquet of roses directly into Marco's face. Marco stepped back, the heavy smell of water mixed with the flowers' aroma filling his nose. They were certainly fresh.

"Uh, thanks," Marco said, holding his hand out and taking them. His hand brushed against Tom's own. His skin was hot to the touch, not enough to burn but enough to remind Marco just who he was dealing with.

Some people had a fiery temper.

This guy? "Fiery" was too nice of an adjective. No, Tom was a volcano, dormant then but ready to blow over at any moment.

"Well, I had to give them to someone." Tom's frown was heavy. He sighed, looking over to the other demons around them. Most were busy dancing to loud music and yelling at each other.

Marco bit his lip. Star had been so adamant that Marco go in her place. Her eyes had widened and she had begged. Star might have been persistent when asking for things, but she wasn't the type of person to genuinely beg.

He could still hear Star's voice in his head from a few hours before.

"Marco," she had said, her voice shaking as she spoke, "you have got to do this! If you don't, Tom will get really, really angry. Like destroy the world angry. And you like the world, don't you?"

Marco continued scratching at his arm.

"So," Marco said, observing the cracks in the grey stone floor. "Want to dance?"

There was a heavy pause. Looking back up, Marco saw Tom with his mouth open, though he said nothing. His forked tongue hung between his cheeks half raised. Finally, he simply nodded. "Sure."

"I'll uh, warn you," Marco admitted. "I have two left feet."

The demon looked to the ground. He raised three eyebrows. "Really?"

"Sorry, Earth expression." Marco shrugged. "It means that I can't dance too well."

Tom held his hand out. "Well, I can't say that I'm much of one either."

Marco leaned down and placed down his flowers. Once his hands were free, he took Tom's own. His hands felt even warmer than before.

"You're hot," Marco commented. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, his cheeks flamed.

Oh man, he thought. That definitely came out wrong.

Either Tom didn't catch the Earth expression or he just didn't care. He said nothing, just began to move. Marco quickly followed suit, mirroring the demon's movements as best as he could.

The songs that were playing changed every few moments. It was a like what Marco expected for an Earth prom playlist, at least if Earth proms had various sounds of high pitched shrieking put on shuffle. How anyone could dance to this was beyond him.

Around him, other demons swayed and moved freely.

"Hey, Tom!" a blue skinned demon with five yellow eyes called. The creature was practically yelling to get over the "music" and chatter of the prom goers. "Where's Star?"

Tom's frown deepened. "She couldn't make it tonight." His tone was cold and heavy. "Luckily, I was able to get a, ahem, replacement."

"Hey, Tom!" another demon called, this one with pink skin covered in what looked to be dark blue veins. The creature had only one eye, which covered what looked to be nearly three-fourths of its face. "I didn't know that you were into humans now!"

Tom just gave the other demon a sharp, toothy smile and continued dancing.

Tom hadn't been kidding when he'd said that he wasn't a good dancer. The two probably looked ridiculous. Still, Marco kept moving along with him, his body swaying. The two touched more skin than Marco would have hoped. The demon's own suit was short sleeved, though others wore long sleeves.

For once, Marco was glad that his old suit was so short. Sweat rolled off of him and coated his skin; he felt like he was in a water park.

And he thought his school's gym was bad! This one was hot as hell.

The two kept dancing for some time, changing their moves as they went.

"You know, you're not half bad at this," Tom said. "At least you're better than me!"

Marco laughed. "You've got to be better than me. Everyone is better at dancing than me!"

Tom's smile spread across his entire face. His eyes turned soft, losing the hard flecks that had previously defined them. Perhaps, back when Star and Tom had still been dating, this had been what had originally attracted him to her.

The two danced on in silence. Seeming to have made their comments, the other demons turned quiet. Eventually, the two just became another couple dancing together.

After a while, Marco began to huff.

"Want to take a break?" Tom asked.

Marco nodded.

The two moved past the throngs of other dancing couples and to the side of the gym.

"There's a snack bar over behind there," Tom said, pointing towards a group of demons. "Want me to pick you up something?"

Marco nodded. "Yeah, thank you."

Tom smiled again. "No problem."

He turned and walked away.

Marco's back hit the stone wall. Despite himself, he smiled.

The night certainly could have been going worse.

Well, it looks like the apocalypse has been avoided, Marco thought. He smiled to himself.

Still, he couldn't shake the image of Tom from earlier, quite literally on fire. Any part of him that had even looked a little human had vanished, transforming him into the kind of creature that existed only in Marco's nightmares.

He shivered. Whatever Marco did, it had to be something to keep Tom from getting like that again.

"Do whatever it takes," Star had said.

Tom came back a few minutes later with a red, meat like substance in his hands and a cup of purple liquid.

"Thank you," Marco said, taking them both from his hands. It was only when the meat was mere inches from his lips that he stopped himself.

Even with crappy music and swarms of horny teenagers, this was not by any means a human prom. Human proms had cupcakes and fruit punch. Demon prom?

"You okay?" Tom asked.

Marco nodded. Quickly, he ate a chunk of the meat, trying to ignore the way that the gooey red stuff seemed to fill his entire throat.

"Tom!" someone called across the room, waving their long, tentacle like arm.

"Geneva!" Tom replied. He turned back towards Marco. "I'm gonna go see them. You wanna go with me or stay here?"

"I think I'll just stay and have a break."

Tom nodded. "I get that. I'll be back after I'm done seeing them." He waved to Marco and then turned to leave.

Marco leaned further against the wall and looked down at the food in his hand. Was that purple stuff grape juice? Could someone have messed with the drink? What were spiked demon drinks like?

Marco wasn't sure if wanted to know the answer to that question.

The meat had actually tasted pretty good. Before his brain could get in the way, he took another bite of it. He'd already eaten some before, so what harm would a little extra cause?

His eyes wondered over to Tom. Star had seemed determined to avoid him in any way possible, even if that had meant setting Marco up with him.

But it's not a date, Marco thought, at least not a normal date.

This was just something that Star had thrown together.

Well, she could have done worse.

The image of the fiery eyed Tom was weaker in his mind now; it couldn't quite compare to the vast smile that had spanned his face a short time before.

Marco's eyes were heavy. Was he even going to make it to after prom? Did demons even have after prom?

"And tonight's head prom royalty," a winged demon with light green skin spoke into a microphone.

The entire gym paused for a moment, the only sound the beating of wings or heavy breathing of a monster. Other than that, it was unusually silent.

"Tom and Marco Diaz, our two prom kings!"

Tom's eyes were just as wide as Marco's.

"We were on the ballot?" Marco asked.

Tom shrugged. "Who cares? We won!" He grabbed Marco's hand and pulled him towards the stage.

Marco's heart was racing and a large smile spread across his face. He had won!

The eyes of the entire gym were on Marco and Tom. Despite the weight of their gazes, Marco couldn't stop smiling; he hadn't felt this giddy in a long time.

"Congratulations!" the demon repeated into the microphone before two others placed matching plastic crowns on their heads and sashes around their waists.

Marco squeezed Tom's hand, and the demon squeezed back.

"Wow, you got a crown!" Star held it up to the light. "This is amazing!"

Marco laughed. "It's just made of plastic." They had probably gotten it from a dollar store."

Star held it close to her eye and began to examine it. "Nah, this seems more like it's made of bone."

"Bone?" Marco's heart slammed against his chest.

Star snorted. "You'll fall for anything." She tossed the crown over to him. "But hey, congratulations." She walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder. "And really, thanks again for doing this for me. Tom and I-"

"It's fine, Star." Marco spoke before she could continue. Some subjects were touchy, but this... This was an issue that Star normally wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. "I'd do something like that for you any time soon."

Star's hugs were always fast, coming when Marco only half expected them. Still, her hugs were always warm, and this one was no exception.

"Have I ever told you that you're the best, Marco? Because it's true."

Marco grinned. "Thanks, Star." He returned his friend's hug, doing his best to squeeze her just as tightly as she was doing him.

Marco's eyes wondered back to the mirror. Chocolate brown eyes looked back at him.

Marco had to hold back a sigh. If only Star would teach him how to use her magic mirror. Until then, he was stuck using this mirror and hoping that Tom would appear.

And he would. Something inside Marco told him that he would eventually, and Marco better be there to see it. The idea ran through his mind, gaining speed and heat until it warmed every part of him.

Marco's reflection smiled.