On the third morning in what would become her new home, Alice woke up to a thick but neatly packed envelope slipped underneath her bedroom door. After inspecting its contents for over an hour, she stormed down the hall into Loki's room, breathing heavily and red in the face.

"What do you want from me?!"

Loki looked up from examining the bristles of his own toothbrush a little too closely, shocked and perplexed. She barges into his bedroom unannounced, asking what he wants from her? He narrowed his eyes and replied quite simply, "I want you to live."

She holds up the envelope full of the brand new life he pulled out of his ass for her. "Social security card. Birth certificate. Driver's license. Passport. Credit cards? A bunch of other shit? No one does this for somebody else unless they want something!"

"I just told you what I want."

"How can you be sure I'll keep my promise? You just handed me enough money and proof of identity to leave the country in a private plane. I even checked 'my' credit score on this phone you gave me, and 'Alicia Greene's' credit score is 800! The only things you didn't give me are new fingerprints. How did you even do this?"

"Over the years, I accumulated my own secret stashes of wealth here and there throughout the Nine Realms, unbeknownst to my parents, in case of emergency. Sharing some of it with a friend is no trouble at all. As for your promise, I'll take your word."

She looked at him like he just recited the recipe for dog brain lasagna. From scratch. "Okay, first of all, money alone doesn't explain how you did all of this in three days. You're sleeping with the President, and I refuse to believe otherwise. Secondly, I thought you meant letting me crash on an air mattress until I got on my feet, not making up a perfect life and handing it to me for nothing in return."

Loki rolls his eyes, and tosses his toothbrush in the trash can. He's only used it twice, but he doesn't trust it. "Honestly, what tangible thing could I possibly want from you? No offense."

She completely misinterpreted the implication of his question. "I get it. You're trying to be my sugar daddy or something."

"Your what? Beth, I told you I would give you what you need to survive with or without me. You are welcome to stay here, but you do not have to."

She didn't even notice that he just used her real name. "So if I left the state, or the country, right now, you wouldn't stop me?"

"I would not."

"Then how can you be sure I don't just go buy a gun and blow my head off?" She could. She had a gun license now.

"I'll take your word for it," he repeated, though he was lying a bit. He would let her go, but he would stalk her for the rest of her life, just in case. He had the time. Probably best to not tell her that, though. "But I hope you will keep in touch, if you decide to leave."

"... No take-backs?"

"Beth, it's all yours. I gave it to you. You own it now. If I take it from you, that would be stealing, and I do not steal from my friends."

She looked down at the envelope in her hand again, wanting to say something, but not sure what. This is so confusing to her.

And to Loki. Not once has she come close to thanking him, which doesn't offend him in and of itself, but it does make him wonder… "Why is it so difficult for you to accept this gift?"

"Well, the first problem is… kind of stupid. You see, here on Earth, in this day and age, it's considered… 'degrading' I guess, for a woman to live off of a man."

Loki scowled. Yes, that is stupid. "Have you people never heard of Charity? You are not 'living off of me'. I gave you something. Even animals give each other things. You decide what to do with it." He paused and added, just for her benefit, "I never said that I would rescue you if you squander this opportunity, did I?"

"No." And Alice put that part behind. She sighed. "The real problem is that I've lived for so long without even half of this, I don't know what to do with it now. Other than upgrading the things I already do, like eating and wearing clothes."

"Start there, and the rest will come in time. You have enough to be comfortable for a few years."

Alice smirked. "What is 'a few years' to a 10-time centenarian?"

"About the same amount of time it took for your life to fall apart to begin with."

"I'm 28 now, so... 15 years to get my shit together."

"Anything else?"

"I still don't believe that all you want from me is to stay alive. But I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt because you are a literal space alien, so... Thank you."

"You are very welcome."

She almost turned to leave, but a question she had meant to ask the other night popped into her mind. "Hey, you never told me... Why did you come to Earth of all places?"

"'Tis easy to fit in here, because you do not have to."

"That's not true everywhere."

"That's another reason. I dislike the idea of a global community. Midgard is many different worlds in one. Try attacking any of Asgard's cities, and see if you can make a single friend in that entire world afterward. Midgardians can start life anew without leaving the ground. No magic bridges. No ships. No secret portals. Just step over an arbitrary border, maybe change some superficial details about yourself like your hair color and legal name, and you could start a whole new family. You don't even necessarily need to lie about your past. People here don't care about things that don't affect them."

Alice can't tell if Loki means this to be a good thing or a bad thing. Or maybe neither. Maybe he's just telling it like it is and why it works for him.

"Hmm." Was her only answer as she stared downward at the carpet.

He wanted to tell her something, but wanted her full attention for it. "Beth?"

Alice's heart raced, and she froze. Didn't say a word. A stone wall with a wrecking ball banging at it from the inside.

"Beth." He repeats gently, but a little more firmly.

"That's not my name." And she went back to being a wall.

"Alice?"

"Yes?" She looked at him with a false smile.

"Allow me to make a suggestion: Do not go back to Gotham City. If you reconcile with your sister or father, let them come to you. That place is..." He just shook his head rather than finish his sentence.

"Like New York and Chicago had a mentally challenged steroid addict for a baby?" She perkily finished on his behalf.

Loki's lips tightened and curled up in an awkward half-smile, and he slowly nodded. "That being said... I believe you have some work to do. Things to learn. Hard decisions to make." He averted his eyes at that last sentence, and his frozen silence afterward told her he wanted to be alone at that moment.

"Well, I'm right down the hall." First thing she planned to do was order some clothes online; all she had were the ones she came in, and they were barely presentable even before she spent four days in them. Before turning to leave, she said. "Thanks again, for everything."