Shylow Phillips was on his way to visit several friends and classmates from the Xavier Institute, accompanied by his boyfriend Nat Crestler. He and Nat had spent the last several weeks visiting Trilight, Shylow's adoptive mother who lived in the Morlock colony, below the streets of New York City. Shylow had enjoyed getting the chance to introduce Nat to his mom and subsequentially, many of the Morlocks who had been like family to him and Blake growing up.
Nat had enjoyed meeting Trilight for the first time and was honestly fascinated by the Morlock society. When he first learned about them in school, he was shocked to hear that a whole city of mutants was just living under the feet of everyone. Learning that Shylow had been one of them made him even more curious.
Meeting Marrow had been incredibly intimidating, especially considering that Shylow had actually intended to avoid her. While things weren't as tense at home as they had been when he left, it was still discouraged for people to be constantly coming and going. It was best that attention wasn't drawn to where the colony occupied and the constant in and out made Marrow nervous for the people she led.
Now the two were approaching the stoop of the home that was occupied by the Agents of P.R.I.M.E., a group of mutants who worked with S.H.I.E.L.D. to handle mutant-related situations. Blake's older brother Darius had encouraged Shylow and Nat to visit whenever they wanted, knowing that they both lived at the institute full time and had no other places to go aside from family time in the sewer.
"So, you're sure that Darius and his team don't mind if I join you… right?" Nat questioned the other boy softly, looking up at the house.
Shylow rolled his eye before he pulled the other over to his side, placing a kiss atop his head.
"Darius literally said 'You two should come by sometime over summer vacation!', assuming that he counts me as one person…" Shylow told the other before giving him a poke to the side.
Nat made a small 'Eep' sound before blushing and laughing, pulling away from the other boy.
"Ok ok… So, I guess the three of us should go in then?" He retorted, seeing the other's eye roll in his hand.
Nat stuck his tongue out at the other before moving through the door that the elder had opened for him. Shylow made a face back at him, making him chuckle in response. As they stepped into the main hallway they were greeted by Colton who was coming down the stairs, chuckling as he saw them.
"Half of that school has been around here lately…" He stated as he reached the bottom step, "Shylow, right?" He extended his hand to the telepath who nodded in return.
"Yeah… Colton?" Shylow answered with a question of his own, receiving a nod from the other, "This is Nat!" He added motioning to his younger companion.
Nat waved to the other awkwardly, giving Shylow a look when he chuckled at the younger teen's response.
"Look out ya'll, more rowdy teenage misfits!" Colton called as he passed the living room doorway, heading toward the kitchen.
Shylow and Nat exchanged a look before heading into the living room and finding Blake, Darius, Lorna, Pietro, Wanda, Envy, Ruby, and Bryce all seated around the coffee table silently placing cards on the table, all looking up but only Ruby speaking.
"Ayo Shy, Nat-" She began before Envy grabbed a card from the middle of the table, laying it in front of the younger girl.
"Talking!" Envy stated simply before laying a card down on the discard pile.
"Fuck!" Ruby cried out before grabbing the card, only to have Wanda pick up another card and hand it to her.
"Swearing!" She pointed out, picking her own cards up from the table, only to be handed a card by the previously penalized girl.
"Nit-picking!" Ruby stated looking over with a wide-eyed, challenging gaze.
"Retaliation!" Darius added handing her a third card.
"Fuck you guys!" She bit out before grabbing a fourth and final card, "Swearing!" She added making Lorna and Bryce both stifle a laugh.
"What are you all playing?" Nat questioned, watching the game with intrigue.
"Mow!" Shylow told him as they both moved to sit on the window seat, just high enough to see over the game.
Nat looked over to him, still confused but nodded in response. Nat and Shylow watched the game progress for several minutes, no sound to be heard aside from Ruby shifting to her metal skin, and Lorna picking up her metal teacup with her mutation, occasionally sipping from it without lifting a finger. Nat was getting more and more enthralled in the game when he felt a strange, rising in his chest. He went wide-eyed momentarily, getting a look from Blake, before he sneezed loudly.
In the seconds after his sneeze, Ruby's metal form retracted back, and Lorna's cup went clattering to the ground. The whole group turned, looking from the two girls to Nat, who stared on with wide eyes.
"I'm so sorry!" He told them all quickly, blushing profusely and looking away.
"You did that?" Darius questioned looking over at the younger mutant in surprise.
"I really didn't mean to… I'm so sorry!" Nat stated again, Envy of all people seeming to notice how panicked he looked.
"Hey, it's cool… Paige and Darius' boy toy teleport when they blow off sometimes… It happens!" She told him, most of the others in the room were surprised by her demeanor.
Darius knew why she was being so understanding though, he had suspected that child abuse-related trauma was something that the two may share.
"So, is that what you do then, you can turn off other people's mutations?" Blake questioned from the floor seeing Shylow nod, "Can you normally control it?" She added to which Nat nodded quickly.
"Yeah… normally I can make it turn on and off… it just happens like that sometimes!" Nat clarified for the group, noticing Blake's eyes light up.
"That's cool… You guys want in on this next hand?" Darius told the boy who nodded, "We can deal you in and sort of teach you as it goes, but you have to be observant!" He added, trying to smooth over and help Nat move forward from his embarrassment.
"Yeah… sounds great, you in?" Shylow asked the younger who nodded slowly after a moment, moving to the floor to join the group.