The chapter title had been named this for a reason. The first part of the chapter title is how Angela feels and the second part is how Logan is feeling. Enjoy this chapter. :) Leave some love too.


Cold as Ice, Hot for Answers

Another day begins, but the sun wasn't there to start the day. It was hidden behind a thick layer of thunderheads, which had been letting rain fall from them since after two in the morning. When it rains, the sound is soothing for some and it helps them sleep. For others, it makes them restless and unable to even think about sleep. While the rain continued on through the morning, most of the people in Stark's mansion were already awake. Steve and Bruce gaze out through the windows and watch the rain steadily fall, while Pepper plans out her busy day. Not only did she have Stark Industries to take care of, she also had other things that needed attention, one of them being planning meals for the people now staying at the mansion.

Thor was walking around the mansion, admiring all of the things that he had never seen with his own eyes before. The room that he found most intriguing was the kitchen area. Walking into the kitchen, his eyes bounce left and right at all of the appliances that caught his attention, such as a refrigerator. A dishwasher. Even the stainless steel toaster intrigued the god of thunder. Seeing that the device had some sort of level, Thor decides that it would be alright if he just pushed the lever down; and he does so, making the lever click into place.

"You have toasters where you're from?"

Thor looks over at Pepper, who had just entered into the kitchen. "Uh, no. We don't possess such...inventions as this."

He glances back at the toaster right when the level snaps back up. It's sudden movement makes Thor jump slightly at it, then back away slowly from the machine.

"Well, it looks like you didn't put any slices of bread in it." Pepper states. "Tell you what. Why don't you have a seat over there and I'll make you some toast."

Seeing Pepper glance over at the island in the middle of the room, Thor nods at Pepper and takes up the offer. "Very well."

Pepper couldn't help but smirk every time Thor spoke. He spoke as if he came out of the pages of a Shakespearian play. "I'll go see if the others want breakfast as well."

Pepper walks back to the main room and asks both Steve and Bruce if they wanted any breakfast. They both did. Pepper quickly looks around the room.

"Has Angela been out here yet?"

"I haven't seen her yet. Have you?" Bruce asks Steve.

"No. I haven't either."

"Well, I'll go get her. She's probably still sleeping. Go ahead to the kitchen and we will be there in a minute." Pepper walks from Steve and Bruce and heads down the hall towards Angela's room, while Steve and Bruce make their way to the kitchen.


Pepper knocks on Angela's bedroom door. She waits for Angela to reply, but she doesn't.

"Angela?" Pepper turns the knob and opens the door slightly. "Hey Angela, are you awake?"

A moan could be heard from inside the room. Pepper takes that moan as a "yes" and decides to walk into room. All Pepper could see on Angela's bed was a mess of blankets. Pepper thought it was odd for her to have so many blankets out. She could tell that Angela had pulled them out of her closet some time during the night. Pepper leaves the thought behind as she approaches the bed.

"Hey sleepyhead, are you hungry?"

"Yeah." Angela's muffled voice says, buried deep under all of the covers.

Pepper grabs onto the blankets, about to yank them off of Angela. "Well, you better make your way to the kitchen then, because I'm not bringing it to you." She says jokingly. When Angela didn't reply back or move, Pepper manages to pull all of the blankets off of Angela.

The sudden change for Angela makes her curl up in the fetal position on her bed. Her body starts to shake. "Co- cold. So...cold."

Pepper's smile quickly fades away as she realizes that Angela wasn't being lazy or tired. Quickly gathering up the blankets that she had thrown onto the floor, Pepper gently places all of them back on top of Angela. Pepper then watches in silence as Angela grabs onto one of the blanket's edges and sits up straight in bed. She then wraps the blanket around herself, in an attempt to keep what little warmth she had left near her.

"That's just cruel." Angela 's voice was unusually quiet.

"Sorry about that. I thought you were just being lazy." Pepper sits down beside Angela, who was still sitting in bed, covered in her blanket like a caterpillar in a cocoon. "Are you okay? You aren't looking well."

"That's probably because...I don't feel well." She looks around the room before continuing. "Pepper, are you cold?"

"No." Pepper answers confused. She infers though that Angela was cold. She takes her hand and places it on Angela forehead, since only Angela's head wasn't covered by the blanket. Pepper feels that Angela's forehead felt normal; but, another look at Angela wrapped up in her blanket was enough to convince Pepper that Angela was cold.

"Well, I'm sure you'll feel better once you get something to eat." Pepper gets up and starts making her way out of the room, planning to bring Angela some breakfast so that she wouldn't have to get up from her bed. However, Angela would not let her being cold keep her in bed all day. She gets up from the bed, but decides to take the blanket, that was still around her, with her.

"You don't have to come to the kitchen, if you don't feel well. I can bring you something-"

"I'm fine, Pepper. I'm just cold." Angela gives Pepper a smile, telling her that she was well enough to come join the others for breakfast.

"Alright." Pepper makes her way back to the kitchen, with a blanket wrapped Angela following right behind her.

Both women entered into the kitchen. The men were sitting at the island, talking amongst themselves. However, once they glance at the doorway, they not only see Pepper return, but they also see a blanket that gently wrapped around Angela. Only her head is not cloaked with the grey fabric.

"Cold?" Banner asks, nonchalantly.

Angela sees an empty seat, that was to the right of Steve. She walks over and sits on the stool, then decides to let go of the edges of the blanket and place her arms gently onto the island. The blanket stays on her shoulders and keeps from falling onto the kitchen floor.

"I feel like I've been covered in ice the whole night." It takes her a moment to realize what she had just said. "I should probably rephrase that."

"It's fine. Hey, at least I know how you feel right now." Steve reassures her, even though her saying that brought back the feeling of unyielding cold cut through his whole body. He had felt its persistence overtake him, making him lose his consciousness for nearly seventy years. His body mentally shook at the thought of being that cold ever again.


Breakfast had been excellent for everyone. Even Angela felt slightly better after eating some hot, steamy food that Pepper had made for all of them. It helped her warm up slightly, but she wasn't as warm as she should be. She couldn't think of any reason she would be so cold.

By the time Pepper had woke her up, her clothes, that had been drenched in cold rain, had dried while she slept the last bit of night away. She didn't know about the late trip. Nobody knew, except JARVIS, who had come up with a couple of reasons why Angela went out so late. However, he kept Angela's late walk out to himself, not wanting Angela's secret to be known to the others. JARVIS knew that if Angela wanted to tell about her late night outing, then she would do it herself. JARVIS trusted that whatever the Jedi was doing was her own business; and he would keep her outing a secret, unless he needed to reveal it for Angela's and the other's health and safety.

A while later, Thor and Bruce decide to go out and mosey around the Malibu area. Even though the mansion was very comforting and somewhat homely to them, they were starting to get fidgety and decided that strolling around Malibu for some time would help cure their restlessness. Thor decided to dress roughly the way Bruce was, which was comfy, dark jeans, a nice pair of shoes, and a blue and white-checkered shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Even though he thought his new look would disguise him from the public eye, Pepper intervenes, just before he walks out the door. She tells him he still looked like himself; but, she thinks she knows how to quickly fix the situation. Telling him to stay put, she leaves him for a moment then comes back with a blue cap. Getting the hint, he takes the cap and puts it on his head. It wasn't good enough for Pepper. Standing on her tip-toes, she takes off the cap and tells Thor to gather up his hair into his hand. He does so and soon enough, Pepper manages to conceal most of Thor's long, blonde hair under the blue cap, which she had purposefully put on backwards. With everything in place, Pepper allows him to leave. With Bruce trying not to laugh at the situation with Pepper helping Thor out with his attire, the god and the scientist leave the mansion in one of the cars that Pepper had let them borrow.

Now, only three were left at the mansion. Soon though, it was two. Pepper had to do some business with people at Stark Industries and had errands to finish before the day ended. Noticing Steve as she was leaving, she says that if he or Angela needed anything, all they had to do was ask JARVIS. With that being said, she leaves the mansion, leaving Steve and Angela there to wonder what they should do today.


Angela knew what she wasn't going to do; and that was go out, at all. Even though the sun would help her warm up a bit, there was a slightly breeze that made the air feel slightly chilly. After all, it was December. Just because they were on the West Coast, didn't mean that it was perfect weather all day, every day. Accepting what her day would be, Angela sits down on one of the couches, that had a nice view of the Pacific Ocean. Since she wasn't wearing her boots, she brings her feet up on the couch with her and wraps the blanket, along with her arms, around her legs.

Steve didn't know what to do. He could go out, but he didn't want to. He could work on catching up with the world and all of its forms of entertainment and knowledge; but, he wasn't in the mood for it. Giving up on figuring out something to do, he decides to sit on the couch, on the end opposite of Angela.

"Felt like you were covered in ice, huh?" Steve asks.

Angela takes out her right hand from underneath the blanket, which Steve gently grips her hand in his. His calm, relaxed look he normally wears fades away quickly and is replaced with worry.

"You weren't kidding." Steve was about to take his hand back when Angela speaks up.

"You're hot."

"Hot?" Steve thinks Angela is telling him that he is attractive. But Angela explains what she had just said.

"Yeah. Like temperature-wise, you hand feels like fire." Wanting more warmth, Angela scoots from her end of the couch until she is sitting right beside Steve. The blanket had been wrapped around her body, but Angela did not want it separating her from Steve. "Can I steal some of your warmth?" She asks while looking into his light blue eyes.

"Yeah." He agrees, knowing that his warmth could help her to warm up quickly and help her feel better. "I take this side of the blanket." He takes the edge nearest him, leans forward on the couch and pulls the blanket back behind him, then around in front of him. "There."

With the blanket in place, Angela reclines back on the couch, along with Steve, and leans against him slightly. "Thanks." She is grateful that Steve did not mind being used as her personal heater, for the time being.

"You're welcome." Steve is worried that Angela was so cold. It was not normal or right. I hope she doesn't get very sick from this. Right now, she just seems cold. Better than being sick and tired. Glancing over to his left, Steve sees that Angela had rested her head on his left shoulder and had fallen asleep. Never mind, she is tired. Still though, I wonder why she is so cold. It wasn't like she was walking outside in the rain last night.

While Angela continues to sleep deeply, Steve starts to think deeply. He doesn't just think on how Angela could be so cold; but he also starts running through everything that had happened between him and had roughly been six months since Angela had crashed onto Earth in her Starfighter. Even though it hadn't been that long, spending any moment with Angela made Steve believe that time itself slowed down every time he was around her. Even though they had been born on different worlds, it seemed as though they had the same mindset for many things. Whenever Angela explained where she would stand on certain issues, Steve would agree with her exactly. Whenever Steve explained where he stood on certain issues, Angela would also agree with him. Every time they learned something new about the culture and history of Earth, they would tell one another and would have the same reaction to whatever they had recently learned. If Steve ever had a question about where she was from or other things from her place of origin, Angela would explain it, but wouldn't talk down to him like a parent does to their five year old child. It was the same when Angela wanted to know the answer to her questions about Earth. These events had started drawing the two closer and closer, without either one realizing it, until now. Steve sees that he didn't just like Angela as a good friend. It was something more.

Before he could even begin to say it to himself, the doorbell to the mansion rings loudly. He was about to get up and open the door, but remembers Angela. He looks over and sees that she still has her head on his shoulder and is still sleeping. He quickly figures out a way to work around Angela.

"Jarvis?"

The AI answers immediately. "Yes, sir?"

"Do you know who is at the door?" Steve asks quietly.

" I'm afraid not, sir."

A knock sounds from the other side of the front door.

"Shall I send him away, sir?"

Steve thinks about it for a moment, then asks Jarvis if he sees any weapons on the stranger. When Jarvis replies back saying he did not have any physical weapons on him, Steve decides on what he should allow Jarvis to do.

"Let him in and tell him to come in here. It's probably someone who wants Stark or it's nothing at all. But if he tries anything, it's nothing I can't handle."

"As you wish." Jarvis replies as he begins to let the stranger into the mansion.


The sun had risen from the horizon. Logan had found a place to sit until the sun had risen high enough in the sky, which was a flat piece of ground that had a ledge above it that stuck out a couple of feet from the side of the hill, near the road. It had allowed him to dry off after walking behind Angela in the downpour of rain. Logan decided that it was late enough in the morning. Crawling out from underneath the ledge, he straightens out his clothes and starts making his way across the street and towards the mansion.

"Hopefully, she will be in the mood for talking." He keeps talking to himself as he keeps shortening his distance between him and the mansion. "I have so many questions to ask. So many. Something tells me that she won't know the answers either. She didn't seem that she was all there. One thing I know for sure is that the marking that appeared on the back of her right hand looked very painful when it showed up on her hand."

Logan reaches the doors of the mansion. "Well, he goes nothing." He pushes the button for the doorbell, then waits. No one answers. He knocks three times on the door, then waits some more. Finally, the door slowly swing in.

"Hello, sir and welcome. Please come in." A voice from inside the mansion greet him. Logan hears him but he doesn't see him inside. However, he knew the lady had walked into the mansion and that is where he would go. Once Logan steps in through the doorway, the door seems to shut itself, leaving Logan in the foyer, wondering on who had spoken to him and who had let him in.


Well, next chapter will be mostly Steve and Logan talking to each other about Angela. Should be interesting. Let me know how I'm doing with this story so far. Leave them reviews for me to read :)

~TheJediAvenger~