"Pepper," the woman in question spoke aloud to herself the next morning as she went around her kitchen, fixing breakfast for two. "How stupid can you be? Really? You have a frost mutant in your guest room! You'll probably melt the guy if you get within twenty feet of him! To say nothing of the fact that you don't know him from Adam! What if he's some kind of criminal? A mutant gone bad? He could- he could be anything! And he didn't even want to tell you his name?"

Pepper planted her hands on the counter, strengthening her resolve as she decided that there was nothing else to do but kick this guy out of her apartment, since he obviously seemed to be hiding something. Going to the bedroom, she opened the door, steeling herself to see the strange blue man. But what she saw startled her even more, and she couldn't help the scream that ripped out of her body as she simultaneously burst straight into flames. Then the man in the guest bed – the god actually, Loki! – woke up screaming as well, and shot a blast of energy at her, which she skirted, only for it to make a huge dent in her wall.

"Please," Loki said frantically, scrambling onto his feet. "Calm down!"

"Do I look calm?!" she screamed.

He took a step back, registering the hot fire that appeared to dance on the surface of her skin. "No, not at all… but… I may be able to help, if you'll allow me to touch you."

"Touch me? Are you nuts? You threw my ex out of a freaking window while you were in the middle of trying to take over the planet!"

"Are you capable of calming yourself down and… extinguishing yourself so that we might have a civil conversation?"

"'A civil conversation'?" Pepper repeated in disbelief. "Get out of my apartment before I call Dr. Banner!"

"Give me a chance to explain; I have nowhere else to go." He reached a hand hesitantly towards her, requesting again, "Allow me to help you. Please."

Then he switched back to his blue form from the night before and laid a hand on her neck. Little by little, his hand became colder and colder. It was only once she shivered that Pepper realized that after relaxing under his touch, the cold had actually helped to calm her back down.

Loki withdrew his hand and nodded stiffly towards the living room, asking, "Now may I say my piece?"

Still shaken – literally shaking from the shock of having Loki in her house – she felt she had no choice but to nod and lead him into the kitchen where she had been working only a few minutes before. While she finished making breakfast, he sat at the kitchen table and told her how the Chitauri had controlled him during his attempted takeover.

Though she didn't want to, Pepper found herself believing him. Yes, he was known for having a "silver tongue," but he had that same haunted look in his gaze that Pepper had seen before in Hawkeye's eyes when she'd briefly met the other Avengers after New York. He was telling the truth. And considering what that truth was, he'd just become a lot more trustworthy in her book.

She rested her chin on her palm, elbow on the table as she considered the man across from her and the story he'd just told her. "So… you're dad-"

"-Odin is not my father-"

"Kicked you off of your home planet and ordered you to live in NYC?"

"Yes."

"And you have nowhere to go, no one to take care of you, no real skills with which you could take care of yourself, no money, and no place to stay?'

"That is correct."

"And you somehow managed to land yourself in my path," she said, rubbing a hand across her eyes. "Me of all people. That's just great."

"'Of all people'?" Loki repeated. "What do you mean, Ms. Potts?"

"Do you have any idea who I am?" Pepper queried.

"You introduced yourself as Virginia Potts. Is that not your true name?"

"It is, but no one's called me that in years. I guess it's just wishful thinking that people will stop now that I'm not with Tony."

"Tony Stark?" Loki asked, raising his eyebrows.

She couldn't help asking, "Did you throw anybody else out of a window mid-failed-takeover?"

"No, come to think of it," he answered with a shrug.

"Well then, yes, Tony Stark."

"And you are his…" Loki waved a hand in the air, trying to find the word he was looking for.

"Girlfriend? Not anymore, no. He booted me out of his life two months ago, thanks to that little light-up trick you saw earlier."

"I should think you might be grateful for disentangling yourself from his world."

"Yeah, I guess I am," Pepper admitted, stabbing the last of her eggs. "But a little more recognition would've been nice."

"I didn't think Stark was capable of allowing the spotlight onto anyone but himself."

"You know, you have a point there."

Loki hesitated before saying, "Ms. Potts, if you're going to order me to leave, you might as well do it."

"I don't know yet," Pepper replied thoughtfully. "You need help from somebody, and that little ice trick you did when I freaked was the quickest cool down I've had since I got my little… powers."

"So you are suggesting that we could become mutually beneficial to one another?"

Pepper nodded slowly, saying, "Yeah, I think I am." And then, "Maybe just on a trial basis for a week?"

"Agreed," Loki said instantly, appearing greatly relieved to have a place to stay for even that little bit of time. A thoughtful look crossed his face then and he asked, "But… may I inquire? You said you had gotten your powers? You haven't always had them?"

"Goodness, no! Only for the past three months."

Loki cocked his head curiously to the side, and Pepper sighed, resigning herself to the fact that it was now her turn to tell her story.

When she was finished speaking, Loki asked, "Do you have your own – how did you phrase it – code name?"

"No; I'm not a mutant."

"Neither am I, but apparently I now have an alias of a mutant known as Frost. You ought to have a mutant to blame your flare ups on too."

In her opinion, that idea was stupid and useless, but she didn't want to get on her new housemate's wrong side already, so she answered, "Well, there you go. If you want me to come up with a name I won't ever use, you can call me 'Flare,' if you like."