Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters. Just the plot. Please don't sue me; I have no money. At all. No, really, I don't.

'All's Fair in Love and War' started when I was watching 'Growing Pains' and I wondered why Lance was so surprised Kitty wasn't willing to forgive him and that got me thinking; what if 'X-Impulse' wasn't completely accurate? What if Lance and Kitty were friends in Northbrook? Would their relationship have been as awkward or would it have been easier? I have written a one-shot prequel to this called 'Lost' which is quite angst-heavy, but this fic will be as angst-free as I can make it.

Parings: Lancitty, Jott, Romy, Amyro (Pyro/Magma), Jubby (Bobby/Jubilee), Rahm (Sam/Rahne), Xietro (Pietro/X-23). If you don't support these pairings, but want to read this fic, I welcome you with virtual open arms; just don't flame these pairings, since I will just point and laugh. You have been warned.

Chapter One – Thanks for the Memories

September 1994…or is it?

Katherine Pryde – better known to her friends and family as 'Kitty' – and Lance Alvers had but one dream.

The two had been nearly inseparable since two years previously when Lance, new to the area, had noticed in his first week that Kitty was barely eating, despite her friends' pleas. Finally ignoring the 'none of his business' aspect, he had sought her out one lunch break, shoved a sandwich into her hand and told her to 'eat, before you kill yourself'. Stunned that a stranger cared, Kitty had done as she was told and the two had gotten to talking.

The rest, as they say, was history.

Six months ago, amidst the panic of the discovery of the tectonic fault line that lay beneath the state of Illinois, Lance had discovered that he was a mutant, who could create the very things they were living in fear of: earthquakes.

Bypassing his aunt and uncle, whom he lived with, and his mother, who was suffering an emotional breakdown several hundred miles away, he confided only in Kitty, who stayed by his side, despite the fierce migraines he suffered in the first few weeks.

Now she herself had developed a mutation; that very morning she had woken to find that she had fallen out of bed and managed to pass through the floor of her room and through the floor of the living room, finally landing on the floor of her basement.

And, conveniently, this brings us back to their dream.

Northbrook High School had, as do most schools and businesses, an internal email system. When the system was first installed, the teachers became fed up with chain emails being sent around the school and blocked it so that only the administrator's computer could send an email to the entire student body at once.

This was, if nothing, a challenge, especially to these particular students, who often found themselves in lessons below their abilities and used the spare time trying to work out how they could beat the system.

Of course, with Kitty's new powers, this challenge was severely diminished, and this was why they found themselves huddled over the computer in question, in the still-locked administration office, trying to hack into the software.

As yet another password came up as incorrect, blue eyes met brown in a look that any onlooker would describe as exasperated, but Lance knew his best friend well enough to know that the system was no match for her and that the look she had just given him was amusement at the lengths the teachers had gone to stop this from happening.

"They'll know it was us, you know." Kitty commented, trying another combination. "There's only so many in this school who would be able to do this and Vice Principal Burgess already blames us for everything including the current state of the economy."

"Yes, but you forget, Kitten, that Principal Fisher thinks that you are the incarnation of all that is good in the world." Lance reminded her, planting a kiss on her cheek, eliciting a smile from her.

Everyone who saw the two together, including her parents and his aunt and uncle, thought the two were boyfriend and girlfriend, as opposed to best friends, because of how comfortable the two were with physical contact, but, for the moment at least, their relationship was purely platonic.

"That's true." Kitty conceded. "Hah! I'm in!"

Before either could do anything else, however, the lock clicked and the door swung open.

"Katherine!"

Kitty winced as her mother's voice echoed the room. Only when she was in serious trouble did her mother use her full name. Slowly, she twisted round to see her parents in the doorway with another girl about Lance's age, with vibrant red hair and green eyes, who Kitty didn't recognise.

"This is breaking and entering, kids; you know that, don't you?" Mr. Pryde asked seriously.

"Well, technically, what we did was just entering." Lance answered. "That was breaking and entering."

Standing up, Kitty elbowed him in the side. "Not helping, Shakedown. Look, we're sending a prank email; it's not like we're breaking into Fort Knox." She glanced curiously at their companion.

Taking the hint, she held her hand out. "My name's Jean Grey; I'm from the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters up in New York."

"Nice to meet you." Kitty shook her hand, racking her memory for any exams she'd taken recently that might have doubled as a scholarship. She couldn't think of any other reason why she'd be with her parents, but even that didn't make sense. Contrary to popular belief, Kitty needed work extremely hard to maintain her straight-A record, unlike her best friend, who had the irritating ability to achieve the same grades with half the work, despite the general belief that she was the smarter of the two, which, in some ways, she was.

Their strengths and weaknesses complimented each other perfectly, which was one of the reasons they were so close.

Jean must have seen the bewildered expression on her face, because she held her hand out again and Kitty's school bag, which was lying on the floor beside the desk, lifted into the air and floated into its owner's hands. "The Institute was set up by Professor Charles Xavier to teach young mutants, like us, how to control and use our powers for good."

This was starting to make more sense, but Kitty was still confused. "How did you find out? I only told Lance."

"Professor Xavier developed a computer called Cerebro." Jean answered. "It picks up strange energy signatures and pinpoints the location and cause."

Kitty looked at Lance. "You ever heard of these people?"

"Never." Lance shook his head.

"So this computer…" Kitty said sceptically "…picked me up as a mutant, but missed Lance?"

Jean moved her gaze from Kitty to Lance, and her brow furrowed slightly. "You're mutant? I don't know how we could have missed it."

"Well, I've got a hunch." Lance admitted. "You said it picks up energy signatures, right?"

"Right." Jean confirmed. "It sends a message to the main-frame computer telling us what the signature is and then the Professor goes down to Cerebro to define it."

"So if an earthquake showed up around a fault line, you'd assume it was natural, wouldn't you?" Lance pointed out.

Jean nodded. "We have noticed tremors round here, actually. You're right; we shouldn't jump to conclusions. Well, now that's worked out, we'd be delighted if…"

All five stumbled suddenly as a tremor shook the building, rattling the windows in its frame.

"Lance, please tell me that's you!" Kitty almost lost her footing as another tremor, stronger this time, made itself known below them.

Lance caught her as she fell into him. "I swear, Kitty, I'm not doing this. Can you get us out of here?"

"I…I don't know." Kitty admitted. It had taken more energy than she'd expected when she phased just the two of them into the room; she wasn't sure that another three people wouldn't be beyond her ability.

She looked up into her best friend's eyes and saw the same worries reflected there and she took her mother's hand, knowing that her father was already holding the other one and that Lance would have taken Jean's arm.

However, when Kitty concentrated, the strange sensation she'd felt earlier was nowhere to be found and she knew, as chunks of ceiling plaster began caving in, that she had very little time to decide which of her companions to leave behind.

As if reading her mind, Lance pulled Jean closer and placed her hand in Kitty's before moving out of the line. "Now go."

"Lance, I can't…" Kitty protested.

"Yes, you can." Lance insisted. "You have to. I'll be fine."

Against her better judgement, but with no other option that she could see, Kitty tried again and felt the now-familiar tingling travelling up her body and down her arms into her passengers, who, by their startled expressions, felt it too. Pulling them towards the wall, she phased them all through the brick to the relative safety of the grounds outside.

Much of the school had already succumbed to the force of the earthquake, and Kitty knew she had seconds to pull Lance out, but, as she spun around, the office collapsed before her eyes, burying the room they had just been in and her best friend along with it.

Unable to hold back the scream of horror that escaped her lips, Kitty lurched forwards, stopped by her father seizing her around the waist. Forgetting about her powers and ignoring his assertions that it was too dangerous, she fought to get free; the earth continued to shake, debris continued to fall and, like the destroyed office, her world tumbled to the ground around her as she collapsed in her father's arms, tears streaming down her face as sirens rent the air: police, ambulance, something she didn't recognise…

Wait a minute…

Her eyes flickering open, Kitty rubbed at her eyes, trying to rid herself of the suppressed memory that had haunted her for more than a year.

Only when she was awake did she realise that the last siren in the dream hadn't stopped; if anything, it had gotten louder. "What the hell is that noise?!"

When no body had been recovered after a week of searching, Lance Alvers had been officially listed as missing, presumed dead, and Kitty arrived in Bayville to join the X-Men in a state of numb shock, having had to bury her best friend. After five months at what she considered to be rock bottom (no pun intended), she had discovered that Lance was alive and well, but in the Brotherhood of Mutants and was now considered her enemy. Hurt, she had thrown herself into her training; the boy she once knew a mere memory, vanished into the mutant she thought of only as Avalanche.

Then Magneto and Mystique had disappeared after the fight at Asteroid M and she began to see Lance more and more. The Brotherhood stopped being 'the bad guys' and became merely rivals.

If only her team-mates thought that way.

Even phone conversations had to be undertaken in secret, because they were afraid of him 'corrupting her'. When Scott had first commented on this, Kitty had refrained from telling him that he was giving Lance too much credit; she had been a willing participant in any mad things they'd done in Northbrook; hell, a lot of them had been her idea. What the X-Men saw as corruption was, in reality, Kitty's old self returning, the numbness of what she'd seen as betrayal lifting and allowing her to see life clearly again.

This particular dream had plagued her every night for several months, the memory haunting her; although logically she knew that there was nothing she could have done, she couldn't help feeling that she should have been able to prevent the whole thing. Because of that, she already lost sleep; the last thing she needed was the current siren keeping her from her rest.

Across the dark room, her room-mate, Rogue, sat up as well, running a sleepy hand through her striped hair to get rid of the tangles. "Bit early, isn't it?"

"What the hell is that?" Kitty asked again, feeling sure she should be able to place the noise.

Rogue rolled her eyes. "I think you'll find that's the intruder alarm, Kit."

"Oh, damn." Throwing her covers off her and shivering as the cold January air hit her, Kitty stalked over to their shared closet, brushing aside day-clothes to reach the two spandex uniforms at the back.

Throwing Rouge's across the room at her, Kitty slipped into her own, before tying her hair back into her trademark pony-tail. "Who in their right mind would break in at this time of the morning?"

"Kit, it's only five o'clock!" Rogue called after her.

Kitty ignored her; every one of her team-mates knew that she was not a morning person and Saturdays were the only morning when there was no reason to wake up early.

Jogging along in her wake, Rogue slowed down to wait for Scott and Jean, who were joining them from another corridor. "Morning."

"Morning." Jean replied, as Scott nodded a greeting. "What's with Kitty?"

"You just answered your own question." Rogue told her. "It's morning. I just feel sorry for whoever's breaking in."

"Why?" Scott asked.

Rogue rolled her eyes again. "Because they've got to deal with a pissed-off Shadowcat as well as Wolverine. I'm not sure which is worse."

"Shadowcat." The two answered in unison immediately; they knew how bad Kitty's temper could get.

Ignoring her team-mates' byplay, Kitty phased through the front door, to see that Ororo, Kurt and Evan had beaten her to it. "Alright, we're up! What's happening?"

Kurt pointed wordlessly at something behind her and she turned to look into a very familiar pair of brown eyes. "Lance? What are you doing here?"

"That's a very good question, Kitty." Scott ground out from behind her.

"Yeah." Logan added. "Something we can help you with, bub?" The question was punctuated by the unmistakeable sound of Logan unleashing his claws.

Once again, Kitty found herself in the awkward position of choosing between Lance and her team. As the X-Men closed in around her, clearly readying themselves for a fight, she focused on Lance, trying to read his intentions.

Once, this would have taken a glance into his eyes, but nowadays, his expression was always guarded, so she resorted to analysing the scene in front of her.

He was dressed for battle, in his uniform and helmet, but the only evidence of his powers was in the form of the gates, which had been bent open. Over one shoulder, he was holding a duffel bag and she knew immediately what had happened. "Most people knock, you know."

"Kitty…" Scott began.

Kitty held up a hand. "I don't think he's here for a fight, Scott."

"I'm not." Lance confirmed, moving slightly so that Kitty was standing between him and the other X-Men; he knew better than them what her temper was like. "I've come to join the X-Men."

AN: Oh, before I forget, I changed their ages, because it suits this fic; Lance was born January 29th 1979; Kitty was born July 29th 1981. And this is an AU, so please don't flame me telling me what I've got wrong; chances are I know. Review please!