DELETED SCENE #1:
DOUBLE DATE

"RORY, PHILLIP'S HERE!"

Aurora looked up from where she was adjusting her flower crown in the mirror. It was still cold out, as it was only the weekend after her birthday, but she tried to dress as nicely as she could underneath her large coat and gloves. Marisol had insisted that she wear a beanie, but Aurora refused that plainly; the woman also offered to raise the temperature so it wouldn't be too cold, but after a strong reprimanding she retracted the offer.

Grabbing her back, she raced down the stairs, jumping down to find Phillip sitting on the couch, sprawled out and more comfortable than it seemed her godmothers would like, Gazelle smiling out him fondly while the other two looked on with varied looks of concern and discontent.

"Hey," Phillip drawled, looking up when he heard her, removing his sunglasses as he stood, yawning, "You look cute."

She grinned, saying a goodbye to her godmothers as Phillip slung an arm around her shoulder, the two headed towards Samson who was waiting out front, still clean and new as ever; Phillip loved the car more than he loved himself, as he often stated, and Aurora tried not to let it worry her too much.

"What if she doesn't like me?" she asked as they drove to SoHo where they were supposed to meet at a place called Black Tap, "I mean, after all she's been through, I don't know if she's super good being around people."

"From what I know about Diana, it's that she hates people bringing up her parents, so as long as you don't do that, I don't see why she wouldn't like you, I mean, you're adorable and you're wearing a flower crown," Phillip said, leaned forward as he made his way around New York traffic.

Aurora bit her lip, her heart racing and feet tapping as they continued to drive, her stomach churning in anticipation. At some point, Phillip reached over and took one of her hands in his own, holding it as they continued to crawl their way to the restaurant.

"I mean, what if she doesn't trust us because we're so close to Peter, you know?" she said, ignoring Phillip's groan, "I'm serious, what if she thinks he cheated on her with one of us—with both of us?"

"That's easy, we simply say, 'Sorry, Diana, but we have higher standards than your baby faced twelve year old boyfriend,' and call it a day," Phillip said, laughing as Aurora stomped her foot, "I'm joking, and, hey, the only reason I'm joking is because we're gonna get there and you're gonna see that it's gonna be fine."

"I sincerely doubt that," she huffed, turning away from him and looking out the window, her arms crossed, "I'm a highly optimistic person, but I don't know about this."

"Your near brush with death has jaded you...we should buy you a puppy or something," Phillip said, his lips curling as Aurora squealed, begging him to take her to the shelter, gushing about how much she loved puppies and kittens and her dream was to have a big dog and a tiny cat and have them be best friends.

"God, you're so cute," Phillip sighed, jogging around as he and Aurora climbed out of the car, jumping onto the sidewalk and kissing her while shoving money into the parking meter.

"We're late," Aurora hissed, but she was grinning madly and her arms hadn't unwound from where they were laced around his neck, so he counted that as a win, kissing her again before pulling away, pausing when they were faced with two doors.

"I think Peter said they were upstairs," she said softly, grabbing his hand and tugging him along, forcing herself to be brave and dive headfirst, Phillip whispering encouraging things as they headed towards a booth in the back, weaving through people.

"Hey!" Peter said, standing up from where he was facing the door and waving, Aurora waving brightly while Phillip motioned for him to sit down, hiding his face from onlookers.

"Hey, guys," Peter said, motioning towards the girl across from him, "Lip, you two've met, but I don't know about you, Rory, so...platonic partner, this is my girlfriend."

"Hi!" Diana chirped around her milkshake, waving at Aurora, "I heard you had a really interesting birthday."

Aurora immediately fell into the seat next to Peter, chatting away with Diana who scooted over to make room for a smirking Phillip, talking a mile a minute as she explained the details of what happened, as well as mentioning the sleepover where Peter detailed his relationship with her, Peter cutting in at times to keep Diana from breaking up with him right there in the diner.

"He bought you two dresses?" Diana asked, leaning forward, and Aurora giggled, nodding as she opened her coat to reveal the brown dress he had bought, the blonde nodding in approval, "Keep him."

"Rory was afraid you wouldn't like her," Phillip whispered to Diana, the blonde scoffing instantly.

"Why wouldn't I like you?" she asked, her expression softening as she gave Aurora a sweet smile, the other girl fidgeting slightly, "You're friends with Peter, you're a mutant, you cheated death, and your boyfriend is one of the only people who can stand Flash, you're already cool by default and we haven't even gotten to you as a person yet."

Aurora turned to Peter. "If you want to be the man of honor at my wedding, please keep her."

"Man of—" Peter squeaked, looking to Phillip who raised his eyebrows in confusion.

"The wedding doesn't necessarily need you to be in it," Diana explained, patting Phillip on the back, the boy coughing.

The two girls looked back at each other, nodding in agreement. "We should hang out sometime without them," Diana suggested.

"I really like that idea, you should invite Gwen, I'd love to meet her," Aurora said, the blonde nodding eagerly as she pulled out her phone, passing it to Aurora who put in her number.

Peter and Phillip shared a look, the former shrugging. "Mission accomplished?"

DELETED SCENE #2:
BONDING MOMENT

PHILLIP SCARED PETER. Of course, he hadn't known the boy for long, but there was something about him that was scary. He wasn't usually scary, of course, he tended to walk with the same air and swagger that Harry and Flash did—the air of money—but it hadn't been until that morning that Peter knew Phillip had money. In general, Phillip was a charming guy who didn't seem to care too much about anything.

Until now, where he was terrifying.

Aurora's godmothers had sent Flash's car through a portal they had created, the key stuck on with a web courtesy of Peter's friend Spider-Man who had taken time out of his busy schedule to help out his best buddy Peter, as was the very articulate and formulated lie the boy had texted the other, with a promise of an autograph for leaving Flash without a lab partner again.

The boys themselves jumped through a portal that landed them a few blocks away from the large mansion owned by Hubert Prince himself, the two making the short trek to the gates that Phillip was given spares to, as he had thrown the first set of spares into the river.

"Flash is really mad that I'm not his lab partner," Peter sighed, and Phillip gave him a quirked smile, wearing his sunglasses; it was almost like he was laughing at him rather than with him.

"I don't get your face," he said, squeaking when he realized what he just said, clasping a hand over his mouth, the other boy continuing to walk, his brow furrowed.

"Gee, thank you, Peter, I don't get yours either. I mean, you're supposed to be, what, fifteen? But you look like you're nine, so what do I know?" the boy drawled, his words dripping with poison, and Peter was not only hurt, but confused.

"Hey, c'mon, you were super nice when we first met," he pointed out, gawking as they neared the sprawling mansion, Phillip sighing wistfully as he unlocked the gate, opening it for Peter who slid inside quickly, afraid it would be closed in his face.

"Look. Normally, I'm a very nice guy. I'm charming and I smile a lot, whatever. But we're under a lot of pressure, Peter, and I'm really not in the mood to try and act like I'm okay after what just happened with my dad," Phillip explained, rounding on the boy, his voice nearly raised to a shout, taking deep breaths as he stared Peter down, slowly coming to realize what he had just done.

"Okay, 'm sorry," Peter mumbled, scuffing the road with his foot, yelping when he was enveloped in a hug, his entire body constricted by the surprisingly strong Phillip.

"I'm sorry," Phillip whispered, "I-I'm sorry. I swear to God, I'm usually not this mean, I swear, I'm sorry."

Peter patted his back, glancing around to see if any people were looking in on two adolescent boys hugging on the gravel pathway leading to the sprawling mansion of King Candy, unsure of whether he should pull away, as well as wondering when the last time Phillip had been hugged.

"Let's get to the garage," Phillip coughed, pulling away quickly and heading towards the large estate, nearly sprinting away from Peter, fiddling with the keys in his hand.

Peter sent a quick text to Harry, asking him if his friend was prone to heavy mood swings and bouts of emotion.

º º º

The inside of the house was as nice as expected. While Phillip knew exactly where the car was, since they were driving back, he figured it wouldn't hurt to go snoop around the place and see what his father had been up to.

"We used to live in the Bronx," he explained, leading Peter up the spiral staircase, the latter admiring the polished marble, "But then when things took off, we moved here. Then my parents got divorced for work and emotional reasons, so now my mom and I live in Manhattan and my dad lives here."

Peter nodded carefully, his socks slipping against the hardwood floor, his shoes in his backpack to keep from dirtying anything while Phillip seemed to be purposefully messing it up.

"It's more work for the cleaning lady, but it'll force him to pay her more," he explained, and Peter wasn't sure how to handle the logic or the reasoning so he simply stayed silent and continued to gawk.

Phillip hummed a song to himself as he danced around his father's office, leaving the double doors open for Peter to enter, watching the boy spin around as he flipped through a stack of envelopes, clicking his tongue, tossing them aside and rummaging through drawers flippantly; it was like a terrifying version of the self Peter often saw of him, and he contemplated running away.

He paused when he caught sight of a picture frame surrounded by many others on a small drawer. "Wait, you have a twin?"

Phillip looked up from where he was pocketing some items from the drawers to look over at what Peter was holding, a small smile curling on his lips as he shook his head, walking over with all the usual swagger and charm the boy regularly held, seemingly forgetting himself as he took the picture frame from Peter's hands.

Harry really needed to get back to him about the mood swings theory.

"No, he's my cousin," he explained, pointing to the two boys standing in front of the large family, "He's from my dad's side, so he shares the same last name as me. Eric Prince. Yeah, he was cool, he really likes fishing and swimming and all that, he lives in Florida. Yeah, we haven't talked in forever, and everyone used to joke that we were separated at birth, 'cause we do look exactly alike, I think we still do."

"Which one's your mom?" Peter asked carefully, looking over the family photo, and Phillip pointed out a woman with light brown hair, "Why is your hair so black?"

"I was born with lighter hair, but it got darker as I grew up," he explained, coughing as he set down the picture, "C'mon, let's get to the car. I don't...I don't like it in here."

Peter followed the boy out of the office and down the stairs, Phillip refusing to look behind him as he marched across the main entrance and towards a darkened hallway, disappearing out a door. Peter wished he could explore the rest of the place—"I bet it's like a Willy Wonka type thing in here, you know?"—but they had a job to do, so he watched as Phillip flipped a switch, illuminating an entire house sized garage.

Peter gasped as he approached the various sports cars, hovering his hand over them, not trusting himself to even breathe as he bent low, inspecting them carefully; his uncle would have loved this. He felt a slight pang in his chest at the thought, but it was thankfully pushed aside by Phillip's voice.

"Hey, Samson. Sorry I'm a little late, but we're leaving now."

Peter quirked an eyebrow as he stood, catching sight of Phillip sitting inside an older white Mustang, filling it with gas from a large red can. "You talking to the car?"

Phillip froze, as if remembering that Peter was there. "I-It's a long story, okay? Yeah, I named the car. C'mon, let's get back to Briar."

Remembering the stressful morning Phillip had, Peter refrained from saying anything—he wouldn't have regardless, that was more Spider-Man's line of work, not his—climbing into the passenger seat and buckling up, relaxing into the pleather.

Phillip used the fob to open the garage and the gate, backing up and out into the road, closing everything and glaring at the house before he left. Peter stared forward as they made their way back, fingers tapping against his legs as he debated on whether or not he wanted to ask Phillip what the entire ordeal in the house was.

Finally, the older boy spoke, "I'm sorry I've been an ass, Pete, that's not fair to you."

Peter caught onto the nickname, but didn't point it out, shrugging. "It's fine."

Phillip sighed. "No, it's not, you're gonna cry about it later, and I'm sorry, okay? You're a nice guy and I'm being really unfair to you."

"I'm sure you have your reasons," Peter mumbled, and Phillip sighed, setting farther back into his seat, shrugging.

"I'm just sorry, okay? And we can be friends or whatever if you want, I don't have a problem with this, I'm nicer when I'm not under extreme stress, I promise," he said, and Peter didn't know what to say, simply reaching out and trying to pat his shoulder.

"I believe you," he said, nodding, "You know, maybe we can try this when you're not super upset, because this sounds very difficult for you."

Phillip huffed out a laugh at that, shaking his head. "See? You can be fun for me, Pete."

Peter laughed as well, facing forward as he shrugged; at least they were getting somewhere. "Well, thanks, Lip. Maybe you can be fun for me too."

DELETED SCENE #3:
LOCKDOWN

STEFAN WAS SUPPOSED TO RETURN TODAY. Maleficent was buzzing with excitement at the prospect, trying to peer out her window without touching the cast iron bars that were meant to keep her safe inside. Stefan's mutation was interesting, he could control any natural material and bend it at will, which meant he had made everything in the tower—and the tower itself—by himself, which filled Maleficent with a warm, fuzzy feeling; he made it all especially for her.

She had met him when he was sixteen when he had been on a mission, and took her in. He said she looked to be about ten, but she explained that her growth rate was different than most mutants; it was slower, so while she looked to be ten, if they counted in Gregorian years, she was about his age, maybe a little older. He didn't care, however, as she was still mentally ten and he took her in.

They had fun. They had fun for a while, though there had been some discrepancy in her living at the mansion, as she refused to stay in a room by herself and no one else wanted to stay with her for fear of what she could do. Stefan didn't share their sentiment, at least not until the bunny.

She hadn't meant to kill it, she hadn't. She saw it on the grounds and had wanted to bring it back inside to show everyone, but once she touched it, it started to rot and soon she was standing there with a rotting bunny in her hands and people were screaming, but she didn't mean to do it. But Stefan hadn't believed her.

So now she lived up in the tower. She still went to classes with everyone in the mansion, but she lived up in the tower and, if Stefan was on a mission, her books would simply appear on her desk and she would work by herself, only allowed back when he returned. She didn't know where the tower was located, since they had to go a long ways away to make it back to the mansion, but she had a feeling it was in a forest or a bog.

She moved to sit on her bed, careful of the now retracted iron spikes. She had a strict schedule, needing to be in bed two hours after sunset so as to be in her bed when the spikes appeared to keep her inside, the spikes retracting at sunrise.

She didn't quite understand all the iron in the room. Iron burned her skin on contact, yet the room seemed to be filled with it, with the iron bars on the window, the iron spikes around her bed, and the iron handle and plates on the door. She understood she wasn't supposed to leave, but the room frightened her with all the ways she could be hurt if she wasn't careful.

She liked to lean as far forward to the window as possible to look out and try to see if she could spot Stefan as he made his way up the tower. He never seemed to come in through the door, they only ever left out of it, but she still liked to see if he stood at the bottom before he came up.

She lived in the tower yet it seemed to be part of a large being, almost like a castle, but it was as if he had ripped the tower off the castle and left her to only stay in the one area. She thought it a rather extreme waste, but she wasn't to question him on his choices.

He stopped smiling with her ever since he placed her up here. He still laughed and joked, but he didn't treat her the same. She pretended she didn't notice for his benefit, but she spent countless hours wondering what she had done wrong.

He knew she didn't want to hurt the bunny.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone else in the room and she whirled around to find Stefan standing in the middle of the room with a small smile headed her way.

She squealed, rushing towards him and jumping into his arms, hugging him tightly, and he laughed, rubbing her back as he grabbed her book bag and made his way to the door, opening it and heading down the stairs.

"Hey, Mal," he greeted, and she kissed his cheek, giggling as she buried her face in the crook of his neck, listening to him tell her about his mission and what they had planned once they made it back to the mansion.

Whenever he came back from a mission, he let her stay with him for three days. It wasn't quite three days, as it counted strangely, but that was fine by her. She was happy to spend any time with him, and she would like to visit Gazelle, Rosalee, and Marisol again; they were the only ones at the mansion with similar powers as herself.

"Can we have ice cream?" she asked as he deposited her into the front seat of his car, climbing into the other side, just on the outskirts of what she assumed was the forest.

Stefan glanced towards her as they drove, smiling softly as he reached out to touch her cheek, so soft that she could almost imagine she was still living with him at the mansion, that he wasn't upset with her, that he still loved her.

"Anything you want, Mal. It's good to see you again. I missed you."

She was foolish enough to believe him.

DELETED SCENE #4:
PHILLIP GOES HOME

PHILLIP WASN'T SURE IF HIS MOTHER NOTICED HE WAS GONE. After waking up Aurora and watching the sunrise, the three had promptly fallen asleep on her bed, though he had woken up around noon in his own bed with an explanation that Aurora and the others were heading back to the mansion to check up on the other mutants, so it was best that he head home. He hadn't left his room since then, as no one was in the house, but he knew his mother would be arriving some time after midnight, as it was Valentine's Day and she did work as a pastry chef at one of the best restaurants in Manhattan.

He wondered if she had noticed he was gone. He hadn't received any calls and he even asked his uncle if his mother had mentioned him. Nothing. He wasn't too surprised, she had told him she was going to be busy the days leading up to Valentine's Day, and he had texted her about staying over a friend's house to ease the minds of Aurora's godmothers, but that didn't mean he still didn't feel bad.

He was disappointed, but not surprised.

He thought back to his father as he rolled around on his bed, swinging around the pretend sword he still kept in his room, thinking about whether the man would have noticed his absence. He felt a sick feeling in his stomach, but tamped it down, thinking to himself; Peter had given him the card of a psychologist before the two fell asleep, maybe he would give that man a call.

"I can't believe I have to go to a shrink for my daddy issues," Phillip scoffed, falling into his desk chair, pulling out his phone to see a text from Aurora.

It was a video she took running through the halls of the mansion, everyone thanking him for helping to break the curse. He felt a smile play on his lips as he listened to everyone thank him, Aurora cheering in the background. It was nice. He knew Peter was taking Diana out after school for a date, and as far as he knew, all his friends had things to do.

So he was alone. That was fine, really, he had himself and his car, and he and Aurora were going on a date the next day, so he had something to look forward to, so he was fine.

With nothing left to do, he grabbed his laptop and opened up to the first TV show he could find, settling back against his bed and watching the show until his mom came home. If he came home, he wasn't sure if she was seeing anyone and, maybe, she would return home in the morning. He didn't know.

But as he was starting the third season, he heard the front door opening, his mother's sigh making its way through his opened door, alerting him of her presence. Setting the laptop aside, he climbed out of his bed, bounding down the stairs to meet her where she was opening a bottle of wine in the kitchen.

"Hey, honey, how was school? Do you know who's car's parked in front?" she asked, greeting him tiredly, perpetual bags under her eyes and her neatly tied up hair now down and frizzy around her.

"It was good," he lied, glad he had emailed the school and erased the evidence from her inbox, "And the car's mine, mom, I got it from dad."

She frowned at him then, raising and eyebrow. "Is that why he called me? Why'd you ask your dad for a car?"

"He owed me that car, mom," he explained, trying not to sound too strained, "He promised me it back when I was five, it's my car."

She sighed, shrugging as he poured herself a glass of wine. "Okay...what happened to your face, did you get into a fight?"

"No, I fell into a rosebush," he replied, surprised that she was still speaking to him, happily jumping onto the barstool, trying not to breathe too deeply for fear of smelling the chocolate on her, "How was work?"

"Exhausting," she groaned, the two laughing as she reached into the fridge and dug around, pulling out a bottle of the apple cider he always liked, "I got this yesterday, but you were at your friend's house. Happy Valentine's Day, did you do anything?"

"No," he said, grinning as he opened the bottle, his heart soaring as he realized she had noticed he was gone, "But I do have a date tomorrow. She's out of town today, but her name's Aurora."

"Aw..." his mother cooed, reaching out to pinch his cheek, "Look at you, little man, a car and a girlfriend. Should I be worried?"

He snickered, too elated to bat her hand away, watching as she seemed to remember something. "Hey, do you remember your cousin Eric? The one from dad's brother?"

"Yeah," Phillip said, thinking back to his snooping in his father's office, "The one who looks just like me, right?"

"Yeah," his mother said, leaning forward against the counter, "Exactly. Listen, so his family is actually going to be moving up here at the start of next month, I don't know all the details, but he's going to be going to school with you, so that'll be exciting, right?"

Phillip blinked, opening and closing his mouth. "Uh, yeah! Yeah, that's great, that's cool, um...wait, why are you telling me?"

"Well, since he looks exactly like you, I thought you'd want to know before you run into him and have a little freakout," she said, and he could hardly muster a laugh, thinking to what she was probably referring to.

"No, I'll be chill, this-this'll be fun. Another Prince at the school, now people won't think too much about my last name," he said, nodding as he watched his mother start to walk away.

"Well, I'm glad you're good with the news. I'm going to turn in for the night, I'm exhausted. Sweet dreams, honey," she called, disappearing down the hall to her room, leaving Phillip alone with his apple cider.

He set down the bottle, staring at it as he thought. Eric Prince. He could hear the roll call already. Prince, Eric. He laughed softly, shrugging to himself as he took another swig of his cider.

This should be fun.