Chapter 21 – Epilogue

Kurt finished packing, and stared at the suddenly empty room for a long moment. He had not wanted to come here, never really felt that he belonged in the Brotherhood Boarding House, yet, looking at his room for the last time, he could not help but feel at least a little bit wistful. This had been his home for several months, even if it had been unwillingly thrust upon him, and he felt a twinge of sadness at the thought that he would probably never see it again. The last few weeks since the destruction of the giant robots had seemed to just fly by, and now he was waiting, with as much patience as he could manage, for Professor Xavier to arrive and take him back home to Germany. Kurt was glad that he would be spending Christmas at home with his family; he had missed them so much the first few weeks that he had been in America, and then he had just been so busy with school and rehearsals and stopping giant robots from terrorizing everyone, that he had not really had time to think about them very much, although he had emailed them frequently. Still, there was that annoying time difference between Germany and America, which had meant that it was often a day or more before he received a reply to his emails. And it wasn't as if he could tell his family everything in an email, anyway. Oh, he had told them about school, about his friends, about the school play, but had left out the more…controversial topics, those involving mutants or mutant hate groups, and any associated giant robots. That was not really the sort of thing that could be adequately explained in an email, especially as he still suspected that someone was hacking into his email account. In any case, there was a lot to tell his family about his time in America, from the friends that he had made to his role in the school play.

The play had gone really well. He suspected that his brothers and sisters would be calling him Romeo for some time now, especially as he had often told them about Kitty, and they had been quick to point out the parallels between Romeo of the Montagues and Juliet of the Capulets and Kurt of the Brotherhood and Kitty of the X-Men. Kurt had just laughed it off at first, but now that he thought about it, perhaps they did have a point. Either way, Kurt had decided that he would not be returning to the Brotherhood Boarding House. Professor Xavier and Kitty had shown him around the X-Man mansion, and had said that they would arrange one of the spare bedrooms to be his when he returned to America in the New Year, as an X-Man himself. Kurt was quite looking forward to that, but not as much as he was looking forward to a nice long break back in Germany, and a chance to see his family once more – his real family – who were far more important to him than his biological mother, who he would be quite happy to never see again. Hopefully, the courts would accept his decision to have nothing more to do with Mystique, and even if they didn't, they could hardly accuse Kurt of not going along with everything that they had ordered of him, as he had indeed done exactly what they had asked him to do, by coming to America and spending time with his only known blood relative.

There was a knock at the door. Kurt walked over to it, and let Kitty in. She looked around the room for a moment, and then turned her attention back to Kurt. "He's outside in the helicopter," she began, "Professor Xavier. He asked me to ask you if you're ready yet."

Kurt looked around the room once more. He had checked everywhere, made sure that he had picked up everything that was his, but nevertheless decided to check once more, under the bed and at the back of the bookshelf. This didn't take long. He turned his attention back to Kitty. "I guess I'm ready to go," he said.

"You sound almost sad about that," said Kitty.

Kurt shrugged. "I know I shouldn't be. I never even wanted to come here to begin with, but now, the thought of leaving the Brotherhood Boarding House forever…" his voice trailed off, and he shrugged once more.

"It was a part of your life, you're time with the Brotherhood," said Kitty, "even if you didn't want to be a part of them, even if you didn't have any say in the matter, a small but still significant part of your life was lived here. And now that part of your life is almost over, so you feel a little bit sad, because there's still that sense of loss, even if it wasn't something that you chose or wanted. Is that it?"

Kurt shrugged once again. "I guess so," he said, "I mean, I really want to see my family again, I really want to be with them for Christmas as always, but I…I guess I've also come to love America, and I don't know exactly when that happened."

Kitty smiled at him, "America is easy to love," she said, "some parts of it, anyway. Besides, it will still be here when you get back in January and join the X-Men."

"I'm a little scared about that," Kurt admitted, "I mean, what if I'm not very good at it?"

"Then you'll learn to be better, just like all of us at the X-Man mansion," Kitty replied confidently, "don't worry, people often make a mess of it when they first join the X-Men, but usually get better with practice."

"But what if I don't, can't?" Kurt asked worriedly.

Kitty shrugged, "Then I guess you'll try something else until you find something that you are good at and something that you do love. But quite honestly, I think that you will do really well with the X-Men, and Xavier thinks so too."

Kurt smiled at her, "I hope so," he said.

"Are you ready to go now?" asked Kitty.

Kurt looked around the room once more. There was nothing left for him in this room, and no reason to stay here any longer, "I guess I'd better not keep Professor Xavier waiting any longer," he said, "I think it's time that I left the Brotherhood Boarding House forever."

With that, Kitty helped him carry his bags down the stairs and into the waiting helicopter. Kurt gave her a small kiss on the cheek good-bye, and then entered the machine. Professor Xavier then flew the helicopter into the bright December sky, flying Kurt eastwards to his home over the Atlantic. And Kitty watched the helicopter as it gradually disappeared into the distance, taking Kurt back to his true home in Germany once more, and to the only family worthy of the name that he had ever known. She would miss him, of course, but he would only be gone for a few weeks, and would return, no longer Kurt of the Brotherhood, but Kurt of the X-Men. In the New Year he would return to America and would come back to the new future of fun and adventure that awaited them both, together, as members of the X-Men.