A/N: This story takes place in the near future of the MCU. The only things it assumes about the world post-Avengers 4 is that the Avengers were able to undo the major effects of Infinity War, and that Captain America died in a heroic sacrifice. Neither is particularly crucial to the story, however.

Update 6/20: This story has changed categories to become a crossover fic. Welcome new readers! The X-Characters in this story are not related to the movie X-Men, though I did base the X-23 in this story off of the one from Logan, and I always picture Ellen Page and Patrick Stewart when I write Kitty and Xavier. Reviews welcome!

Deerfield Illinois, 2006

Kitty Pryde was having a strange day. For one, she had woken up on her kitchen floor, when she was sure she had fallen asleep in her room upstairs. For another, her parents had guests. Few had come to visit since the divorce talks began. Kitty wasn't entirely sure what the word meant, but it had something to do with the fights her mom and dad had gotten in over the last several months.

They were a strange lot too. A boy, maybe high school age with sharp features and gleaming eyes. He wore a coat and hat even indoors, and fingered his wrist watch anxiously. A scary man with a rough face and thick sideburns. He faced the window wearing a biker jacket and felt hat, and was sniffing the air with a scowl. A beautiful woman with red hair and a green sweater, enjoying the tea Kitty's mother had put out. A thin man with peculiar red sunglasses. Kitty thought he might be blind.

When she came in the room the woman smiled at the eleven-year old and got off the couch to meet her. "You must be Katherine. I'm Jean. Very pleased to meet you."

"Kitty, these people are from the Xavier School in New York," her mother said. "They said they wanted to talk to you."

"To me?"

"Yes Katzchen," the boy said in a light German accent. "My name is Kurt, that's Scott, and the grumpy one by the window is Logan."

"Mm," the man said, not breaking concentration.

Jean smiled again. "You may not have realized yet, but you have a gift."

Scott stood up now. "Kitty, do you know what a mutant is?"

She never got to answer. Suddenly the man at the window tensed up, and three knife-like claws sprung from his knuckles. Then the front wall of Kitty's house burst inward in a hail of splinters. The shapes of three heavily armored figures and one woman appeared in the cloud of dust...

Kitty sat bolt upright in bed. She turned to her nightstand. The clock showed 3:15 in the morning. "Shit," she swore under her breath. She had to be up in 3 hours to get to work. Looks like she had another double shot espresso in her future. The nightmares had been getting worse. Though perhaps it was wrong to call them nightmares. Her home really was attacked that day, and her life changed forever. That was 17 years ago. Back when her parents were still together. Back before the world was full of superheroes. Back when she was nearly an X-Man.

|X-Men: Resurgence|

Chicago, 2023

Kitty had her coffee at 6:30. She caught the Blue Line into Washington at 7:05. She sat in her cubicle at the tech firm in Chicago she worked at until 5. She swam at the gym down the street from her apartment until 6:30. She ate a bowl of instant noodles for dinner.

It was a perfectly average day in her miserably average life.

Though she only spent about two years with the X-Men, Kitty continued to think of her friends throughout her adolescence. Back then it made her sad. Now that she was "an adult," (as her mother liked to say) well, she liked to think she had evolved beyond "sad." She liked being able to use her computer science degree, but every time she looked around her office a small part of her thought about her room at the mansion.

She flicked on the news. Might as well see what Spider-Man got up to today, she thought.

In the 15 years since the Xavier School closed so much of the world had changed. Heroes rose. Aliens fell from the sky. Gods lived on Earth. But the mutants remained hidden. Kitty didn't know how Professor Xavier had managed to do it. He had the power to read and influence any mind he could touch. Somehow he must have used that power to make everyone forget that mutants were around, and that they hated them. It hadn't been the way he wanted things to go. The professor dedicated his life to bridging the gap between human and mutantkind. I guess that gap is there forever now, huh Professor?

With a yawn Lockheed flitted into the living room and curled up in her lap. At least one thing in her life wasn't normal. The little purple dragon was a friend of the professor's that took a liking to Kitty when she was at the school. After the place closed down, he allowed Lockheed to accompany her. It wasn't an easy life for him; he had to spend most of the time outdoors in a cat carrier, specially disguised with the tech Kurt and Doctor McCoy used to blend in. He didn't get to fly much. Still, he had her and she had him, and things had worked out so far.

Not for the first time Kitty found herself wanting to go to New York and join up with the Avengers there. Nobody had to know she was a mutant. She could just claim to be "enhanced" like that Maximof girl. But if the Professor had wanted that, surely one of her stronger friends like Peter or Jean would have already tried it?

So I'll stay put, she thought, as she stroked the tiny dragon's head. She had this power within her desperate to come out, but it really wasn't that impressive.

Face it Kitty. This is where you belong.