.

.

1.

There were certain things that came with the job.

Wrangling investors, speaking with the press. Teleconferencing with the Japanese and shmoozing with the VP who coordinated the meeting. "I was promised to meet with Mr. Stark," the VP said.

And Pepper smiled. Tight-lipped. Polite. Professional.

Regretfully, Mr. Hashimoto, Mr. Stark is busy saving the world.

xXx

.

Pepper's days usually starts like this:

6 AM she wakes. Showers. Peruses the Wall Street Journal while sipping a cup of coffee. Jarvis opens the curtains and sunlight pours into the mansion, and Pepper stretches, refreshed.

She will check her PDA, make sure there are no early morning meetings. After that she will dress, put on a business suit and skirt (or slacks, depending on the weather), put on her lipstick and snap shut her briefcase, after which it will be a day of meetings, investors, and merchandisers. Product developers will knock on her door, and reporters will try to out-scoop each other with Pepper at the center of it all.

But today, Tony had a different request.

xXx

.

"Wait, what do you mean we have to watch him?" Pepper followed after Tony, folders clutched to her chest. "Isn't this the same guy who tried to take over the planet?"

"Well as it turns out, it was a total ruse," Tony said. "Looks like the Chituari wanted to take over Asgard. Loki diverted them."

"So that they'd take over us?"

Tony waved his hand. "I don't know the specifics, but Stark Towers is the only place he can stay. He doesn't have powers, Pep. Someone could kill him."

Pepper's mouth thinned. He pressed a hand to her shoulder.

"He's a little prick and a pain in my ass, and I'm sorry I'm dumping him on you, but I'm pretty sure everyone else would kill him, literally," Tony said.

"And what if he tries to leave?" Pepper said. "I don't have powers. I don't have any special skills-"

"Jarvis will handle it," Tony said.

"Tony, Jarvis is a computer, I don't think-"

"Just," Tony said, and he clapped both hands on Pepper's shoulder. "Just don't go near him, Pep. He'll be on a completely different floor, guarded by completely different agents. Everyone is trying to kill him. He wouldn't want to escape."

"Okay," Pepper said, but she still wasn't sure.

xXx

.

Loki came the next day. Pepper watched from the third floor window as a throng of guards entered Stark Tower. "Jarvis, can you track their movements?"

"Of course," Jarvis said, and Pepper moved from the window to the wall of security monitors behind her.

They entered the foyer. Loki was surrounded. Hands chained in front, eyes facing forward, he passed the security cameras, which switched over to the ones mounted in the hallway. "Ms. Potts, it appears as though he is unarmed."

"Thank you, Jarvis," Pepper said.

She ignored that uneasy feeling seated at the pit of her stomach, tightening her jaw and going back to work.

xXx

.

Keycode. Thumbprint, then off to a merchandising meeting, Pepper checking her PDA and talking on the phone.

The days passed into a full week, and Pepper didn't hear a word from anyone. Not the SHIELD task force, nor their secret agents or anyone from the Avengers. Not even from Thor, who had occasionally stopped by the Stark Mansion to sample the little cheese treats Pepper kept in the refrigerator. She began to wonder if Loki was even in the vicinity; when more days passed, she forgot full stop that he was even supposed to be there.

And then she opened the door to her office. She nearly dropped her papers in shock.

"Hello," Loki said.

She gaped at him for a full minute before she remembered it was polite to shake someone's hand, even if that someone was a malevolent god of Norse mythology, said to be hellbent to bring about Ragnorak and more recently, the destruction of the world.

"Pepper Potts," Pepper said, and she extended her hand.

"Pepper pots?" Loki said. He stared at her. Pepper frowned.

"My name," Pepper said. She smiled. Kind. Professional. "Pepper Potts. CEO of Stark Industries."

"CEO," Loki said.

"Chief executive officer."

"Ah," Loki said, and he shook her hand. "And here I was told you were Mr. Stark's secretary. Forgive me for not realizing."

"A common misunderstanding," Pepper said. She smiled again. Personable. In-charge. "What can I do for you, Mr.-" and she hesitated, because she couldn't remember if he went by Odinson or Laufeyson, or if it was even necessary to have the honorific in the first place.

"Loki," Loki said. "Loki is fine."

He seemed...well, normal. Not too imposing, not too frightening, and certainly without that psychotic self-aggrandizing of his earlier attempts to rule the world.

Something muffled, banging on the background. Pepper glanced back.

"Oh, don't mind them. They are just upset I got them all tied up."

"Excuse me?"

And Loki grinned, then kicked back the cabinet door, one of the SHIELD agents tied and trying to scream through the gag.

"They are rather adorable, aren't they? Curled up like this?"

And he thumped the side of the cabinet, grinning. Pepper only stared.

xXx

.

After Loki had insisted he most assuredly meant her no ill-intent, only was bored and curious and a little annoyed at how dangerously incompetent the agents seemed ("I have no powers, how can they let someone like me best them?" Loki sniffed), Pepper allowed him to follow her to her corporate meetings, but only on the condition that he sit outside and wait for her to be finished. When she realized he wasn't going to wait and was more likely going to set fire to the lobby, she grudgingly led him into her office, where she had a pile of expense reports she had to go over, and generously asked if he would like to help.

Except going over expense reports didn't seem like Loki's idea of fun, and he started clicking his pen, at first idly, but now with ever increasing speed. Click click. Click click.

"Can you not do that?" Pepper said. She had a headache and an important meeting and Loki seemed hellbent at making her crawl out of her skin.

"Do what?" Loki asked. He clicked his pen again. "This?"

"Yes," Pepper said. She forced herself to smile. "It's actually one of my biggest pet peeves."

"Ah, I see." Loki smiled. "It won't happen again."

"Thank you," Pepper said. Her head hurt. She settled back to her expense reports, wondering silently when Tony would be back, and how soon could they lock him back up in that cell.

Click. Pepper looked up.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I needed to click it to write." Loki showed her the pen.

Pepper smiled. Tight-lipped. Professional. "That's fine, Loki," Pepper said. "Thank you for being so considerate."

"Of course," Loki said. He seemed completely sincere.

Click click. Click click. Click-

Pepper raised her head.

Click.

Pepper stared at him. Loki looked at her, innocently.

"I find it kind of soothing," Loki said.

"Well I don't," Pepper said. "Just...help me look over the expense reports, we have a meeting at three."

"As you wish," Loki said.

Pepper decided if Loki were born on Earth, he would most definitely be the type to be shoved into countless gym lockers, the victim of wedgies and toilet bowl swirlies because even his face was that annoying.

Silence. The clock ticked. The room was silent except for the occasional shuffling of papers and Loki clearing his throat.

"Ahem," Loki said. He cleared his throat again. "Ahem."

"Cough drop?" Pepper said. Sharply, her teeth on edge.

"Oh no, thank you," Loki said. "Just a bit dry. Forgive me."

"There's water in the cooler." She forced herself to smile. "Maybe you should get a cup."

"Ah, perhaps I will," Loki said. He stood.

Pepper closed her eyes. Her headache, which had started at the base of her neck, seemed to march its merry way across her temples, the headband pressure squeezing her skull like a vice grip.

Click click. Click.

As he walked right past her, sipping water from a paper cup.

Clickclickclick.

"Okay, you know, how about I give you a different pen?" Pepper said. "One with a cap? Would you mind?"

"Why?" Loki said. He sat down, setting the paper cup on the table.

"Just-the clicking is giving me a headache." Pepper forced herself a smile. "Please. Take pity on me. I've had a really long day."

Loki smiled. Genuine. Understanding. "Of course," Loki said. "Have you a pen with a cap?"

All at once, the tension in her neck and shoulders dissipated. "Yeah," Pepper said. "Thank you." Loki smiled again (he had a very nice smile) and went back to his expense report.

Tap tap.

Tap.

-

xXx

.

"Tony, seriously, I'm going to kill him," Pepper said.

She had escaped from the office, calling Tony on the cellphone and crouching at the window by the stairwell. "Did he hurt you?" Tony said.

"No, but he keeps clicking his pen and I swear to god, Tony, if he keeps drumming his fingers on that tabletop-"

There was a sound, like muffled laughter, and Pepper's eyes bugged out of her head. "Are you laughing at me?" Pepper said.

"What? No, Christ, I'm not-okay I am, but c'mon, it's pretty hilarious if you think about it."

Pepper stared daggers at her phone.

"Pep? Pep? Hey Pep, c'mon-"

"Seriously, Tony, I'm not in the mood," Pepper said.

"Well as long as he's behaving himself, I don't see what th-"

She hung up on him. She took a moment to glare at the phone, then rearrange her face into something more classy and more professional, pulling out her compact and touching up her lipstick, when she saw Loki's reflection suddenly appear in the mirror.

"What-" Pepper jumped. Loki smiled.

"Everything all right?" Loki said. Pepper stared.

"It's...fine. I'm fine. I have a meeting at three," Pepper said.

"With whom?" Loki asked. Pepper ignored him, turning out from the stairwell and back to her office.

"With the board of investors. It's our quarterly meeting. It's very important," Pepper said.

"I see," Loki said. "I suppose I should let you go back to work, then."

"Thank you," Pepper said. Loki smiled.

xXx

.

2.

When Tony appointed her CEO, Pepper knew it would be hard work. She knew the stress of it would be overwhelming, that her days and nights would be consumed with the welfare of the company, with its business model and its numbers and the way the corporate world seemed to buzz and hum along the selfsame trajectory as Stark Enterprises, how they were more than an example of how a business ought to be run.

And yet. Pepper was not dumb. She was not unaware of the rumors, the subtle sneers and the pointed whispers that Pepper had slept her way to the top, that the phenom woman with a newly minted MBA had been hand-plucked as Stark's personal assistant before falling, arms splayed, in the center of Stark's bed.

It didn't matter. Pepper was named Woman of the Year, Top CEO, and was lauded for bringing Stark Industries into the fore; while it didn't exactly languish under Tony's care, it certainly took off once Pepper was at the helm, and everyone, from Singapore to China, to Europe and the farthest reaches of Japan, knew it was because of her.

Loki disappeared, but a quick scan of the security monitors showed him casually perusing the Stark Tower gift shop. He seemed particularly interested in the plastic action figure of Tony's Iron Man suit, which Pepper thought was of horrendously bad taste but Tony seemed to think was pretty hilarious. Well, if Loki breaks it, he buys it, Pepper thought, and she swallowed another motrin with a glass of water.

It was almost time for her meeting, and Pepper, went back to the office. She needed to download the data for the newest projections, so she tapped on the computer screen and cleared her throat.

"Jarvis, download the latest projections for today's quarterly meeting into my laptop, please."

She waited. "Jarvis?"

All at once, the lights flickered. "Back up systems online," the computer system said, but it wasn't Jarvis' voice, only the prototype female Tony had played with before Jarvis was fully developed. "I am unable to process your request."

"Run a systems diagnostic," Pepper said. She reached around the computer, trying to remember where Tony had shown her the manual override to the computer mainframe.

"I do not have the capacity to run a full systems check. Jarvis is offline."

"I see that," Pepper said. She gritted her teeth-the meeting was in an hour!-and inwardly she kicked herself for not downloading the data, sooner. "Why is Jarvis offline?"

The computer hummed. "All units are busy."

"Busy doing what?" Pepper said.

"There is not enough memory to perform sufficient calculations," the computer said. "Jarvis remains offline."

"What-" Pepper banged her hand on the console. "Tell Jarvis to stop," Pepper said.

"Invalid request," the computer said, and Pepper wanted to push it down a hole.

"I suppose I shouldn't have asked him that riddle," someone said, and Pepper whirled around, shocked to see Loki sitting on her coach, feet propped up on the table and playing with the Iron Man action figure.

"Riddle?" Pepper said.

Loki grinned. Slowly, the corners of his mouth curling into a smile.

xXx

.

In robotics, there is a riddle fabled to stump even the most advanced of supercomputers, clogging up their logic systems and causing them to whirl in an infinite loop.

Loki, apparently, asked Jarvis this riddle.

"I was curious," Loki said. "Our Jarvis seemed so lifelike. I figured if there was an AI out there to call out the impossible, it would be him."

Pepper moved over to the console and pulled up the main menu. CALCULATING. It flashed in bright red letters.

"Too bad the Man of Iron isn't here to fix it," Loki said, cheerfully. "Now, I wonder how this will affect your expense reports?"

"My investors are meeting in an hour, Loki! Tell me, how are you going to fix this?"

"I'm sure your investor won't mind," Loki said.

"Investors, Loki. Investors. The Board of Investors, plural. Stark Industries stock has been falling and we need to know why-"

"But you are looking at your investor," Loki said, calmly. "The most important investor in your company, in fact."

Pepper was only half listening to him, digging through papers and somewhat frantically opening and closing the drawers to her desk. "I don't have time for this," Pepper said. "My meeting is in an hour and Jarvis is offline, and goddammit, Loki!" Pepper said, because Loki was biting his lip and looking at her like he was going to laugh. "What?"

He made a sound, not quite a giggle, but not quite a snort, either.

"This morning I bought the remaining 49.1 percent."

And Pepper dropped her papers on the floor.

xXx

.

As it turned out, manipulating the stock market, hacking into a bunch of banks, and transferring funds into a fraudulent account were fairly easy for a god of mischief bored and with ample enough of free time.

"You would be surprised at how quickly a few choice rumors and hints of industry secrets can ricochet through Wallstreet," Loki said, after he finished laughing for a full five minutes, while Pepper tried her utmost not to throttle him with her own bare hands. "By the way, it was my understanding that insider trading was illegal: after today, I'm fairly certain it's a common practice among the businessmen of your planet. Not surprisingly, anyway."

"Loki, Tony is going to kill you," Pepper said. "These are people's livelihoods at stake. You can't just mess around with the stock market like that."

"And why not? When it is so much fun?"

"Loki, you need to sell back those shares," Pepper said. She watched him fiddle with the computer screen, the big ERROR message flashing in red bold leaders.

"Do you suppose he is permanently broken?" Loki said. "Your computerized butler, I mean? It would be a shame if it were. I promise you, it was actually quite disappointing. I would have figured your Mr. Stark would have programmed something for impossible riddles, but apparently that sort of thinking was beyond him."

"Loki-"

"I think we should do lunch," Loki said. "It's not as if you're not meeting with the most important investor in your company: in point of fact, your only investor. Your precious Stark wouldn't mind. Not when I quite literally own him."

Pepper's headache, which had started as a dull ache at the base of her skull, was now doing jumping jacks at the front of her forehead. "I'm not hungry," Pepper said. Loki smiled.

"Well then come with me," Loki said. He held out his arm, as if inviting her. "And anyway, it is not as if you can't clear the rest of your schedule. What with your meeting with an important investor, and all."

xXx

.

3.

Pepper's afternoons usually went like this:

A lunchtime meeting. Coordinating between project managers. A conference call to China and a press conference with reporters, after which she would go over the daily expense reports and cost analyses generated by her staff.

Pepper's afternoon today, however, consisted of following Loki down the city street, as he frowned and looked at all the different eateries, before declaring he hated shawarma and perhaps they should eat in?

Pepper agreed, because it seemed safer on further reflection, because at least Pepper could corral Loki in Tony's mansion, and he wouldn't be apt to flip over cars or monkey with the traffic lights.

Now they were in Pepper's kitchen, Pepper watching tiredly as Loki looked at the pots and pans and turned on the gas burner of their stove, delighted, before getting bored and evidently hungry, humming a little bit and rummaging through their cupboards.

"I didn't actually want to take over the Earth," Loki said.

Pepper was watching him make a sandwich. It was oddly fascinating: two pieces of bread, cheese, a piece of lunch meat, except every time he laid a slice down, he flipped the bread, once, twice, before setting it back down on the plate.

Pepper watched. A piece of bread. Cheese. Flip flip. A tomato and a pickle slice. Flip flip.

"What are you doing?" Pepper said.

Flip flip. "I am making a sandwich," Loki said. Flip flip.

"Yes, but why are you flipping it like that?" Pepper said.

Flip flip. "Flipping what like that?" Flip flip.

She counted silently. "Nevermind," Pepper said. She made a mental note to ask Thor.

Loki walked around her and opened the refrigerator. He rooted around for a moment, and it wasn't until Pepper stepped around the counter that she saw him opening every single condiment jar, sniffing it, then setting it back into the fridge, tops still unscrewed. She couldn't tell if he was doing it on purpose or if that was some weird Asgardian thing, but when Loki finally located what he was looking for (yellow mustard, as it turned out), she silently hoped Loki would use a knife and not do something else bizarre, like lick the contents or scoop it out with his hand.

He used a knife, thankfully. Spread it on the bread, like a normal person would do.

"As I was saying, taking over the Earth was simply a ruse," Loki said. "The Chitauri were looking at Asgard. I simply redirected their attention."

"But why? I thought you hated Asgard." There was mustard on Loki's thumb. It was smearing the side of the jar.

"I do," Loki said. "But you will forgive me if I would rather Asgard fall by my hands than a race of pathetic parasites. Wouldn't you agree?"

Loki raised his plate, as if toasting her, then walked toward the kitchen table, licking the mustard off his thumb.

"So, I floated through space and got sucked into a vortex, and on the other side was the Chitauri. And after I had used my fabulous charisma to convince them not to kill me, I had them redirect their attention toward Earth," Loki said. "Et voilà. I told Thor. Thor told Odin, and here we are. Indefinite exile on this miserable planet, without my powers or my scepter, as compensation. Rather ironic, is it not?"

"I don't understand," Pepper said. "You were trying to help Asgard. Why would you be exiled?"

"Because apparently annihilating an entire race is a rather large faux pas," Loki said. "I suppose I should have figured it out the first time."

"I see," Pepper said.

Loki ate the sandwich. Except instead of eating it like a sandwich, he proceeded to take it apart again, taking each individual slice and rolling it up in his hand.

"Okay, I'm sorry, but you're not supposed to eat it like that," Pepper said. "You're going to get mustard all over the table cloth. Just-oh my god, just give it to me. Give it to me."

Loki raised his eyebrows.

Pepper washed the dishes. She washed it because she didn't trust that Loki wouldn't get bored and start breaking things, or start mixing up silverware and putting the cups where the bowls should be, which ordinarily she would chalk up to unfamiliarity with her kitchen rather than boredom and a simmering urge to up-end civilized rule that seemed to bubble up to the surface. "So," Pepper said. "When should we take you back?"

"Back?" Loki said. "You mean to Asgard?"

"No, I mean back to your-" cell, Pepper thought, "-room," Pepper said.

"Oh I don't want to go back," Loki said. Pepper raised her eyebrows.

"We're keeping you safe there," Pepper said.

"Safe?" Loki said. "With those incompetent boobs guarding me, day and night? An epileptic child could just as well break in, let alone some deadly assassin or a Chitauri kill squad or my brother-"

"Thor doesn't want to kill you," Pepper said.

"Yes but that doesn't quite hold true the reverse, does it?" Loki said. "Besides, it's rather boring, sitting there all day with only your thoughts to keep yourself company. I enjoy solitude as much as the next man, but after an eon of floating through a vortex wormhole portal, I'd rather not be alone with my thoughts. Things can get rather...complicated, quickly. It would be best if I had some distractions."

Pepper couldn't decide if he was being threatening or conversational, because while the tone and look was menacing, the fact that he was holding a half-eaten sandwich kind of knocked the threat scale down a notch.

"Distraction?" Pepper said, as Loki grinned at Tony's dedicated computer system, complete with playstation and XBOX connected through a central hub, the controllers gleaming and sitting on the plastic stand. "I don't know how to play," Pepper said.

"There are little buttons and you push them. Perhaps he has Call of Duty..."

"What?" Pepper said.

Loki fiddled with the controllers, somehow figuring out how to switch the computer screen from system to system. "Ah, there we are," Loki said, when the Linux OS switched to the PS3, (whatever system Loki had picked, Pepper didn't know too much about these things).

The picture on the screen was that of a battlefield, and Loki seemed to take a particular delight in shooting at the enemies, laughing and pointing with the controller. "Here," Loki said. "You play."

"I don't play videogames," Pepper said.

"It's easy. Point and shoot."

"I don't-" Pepper checked herself. "All right," Pepper said, and she forced a smile.

She had canceled an important development meeting. She was supposed to meet with merchandisers that afternoon.

"You are terrible at this, aren't you?" Loki said.

"Which button do I use to re-load?" Pepper asked.

The VP of marketing had scheduled this meeting months in advance. Not to mention the fact that Loki had singlehandedly dropped their net worth by a couple hundred million.

"You're very good at sniping," Loki said. He seemed impressed.

"Thank you," Pepper said, and she landed another head shot.

On from Call of Duty to God of War, which Loki delighted in watching Pepper play ("I enjoy the story," Loki protested), and then onto crank calling the people in Tony's Rolodex, in-between drinking bottles of wine and laughing at the headlines in the news. ("I did that," Loki said. Pepper rolled her eyes.)

The afternoon wore down to evening, and pretty soon Pepper was ordering pizza while Loki was pouring wine, pointedly shifting into what looked like a shirt and jeans. "It matches the ambiance," Loki said. Pepper raised her eyebrows.

When Tony finally called, finally finished with the mission, he was frantic. "Jarvis went offline!" Tony said. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," Pepper said. She was holding the phone between her chin and shoulder, busy trying to negotiate walking from the kitchen counter and holding a slice of pizza in her hand. "Loki gave Jarvis a riddle and he shut the computer down."

"A riddle?" There was static on the other line, and from what Pepper could tell, Tony was flying. Pepper nodded.

"Yeah, a riddle," Pepper said. "By the way, Loki bought out all the investors-"

"What?"

"-but it's okay, because it was fraudulent and he already made the corrections this afternoon," Pepper said. She glanced behind her shoulder, where Loki was playing with one of Tony's robots-a replica of a rather small cat, which mewed and pawed at Loki's hand with metallic claws-and silently she thanked her lucky stars Loki got bored with the stock market. "When are you coming home?"

"Soon," Tony said. "I just got worried when Jarvis got offline. I'm glad to hear that you're okay."

Pepper beamed at the phone. "Fly safe," Pepper said.

"Always," Tony said, and his voice winked out.

Pepper set down the phone, then turned to look out the window. Below her, the city gleamed in the dark, the bright grid of city lights casting a glow out through the horizon. "Shall I keep you company, then?" Loki asked, and Pepper turned.

"Company?" Pepper said. Loki spread his hands.

"The palace Thor and I grew up in was not unlike this place. A person can go mad with grief and envy, being locked up in here," Loki said. "I only offer my company."

"I'm fine, thank you," Pepper said. Loki looked at her and she couldn't place it, so she smiled politely and offered. "You can stay in the guest bedroom if you'd like. If you promise not to leave anywhere."

"You would trust me to stay here?"

"Well they said you don't have any powers," Pepper said. Loki frowned.

"It does not take power to kill a human being, Ms. Potts," Loki said, quietly. Pepper's smile faded. Loki stepped around her, looking out into the window.

"Have you," Loki began, and he hesitated a little, glancing at Pepper, briefly. "Have you met with him? My brother?"

He seemed distracted, and a little lost. "Not that he was ever my brother," Loki said. "It is more a habit, you see, calling him that..."

"Thor?" Pepper said. She nodded. "Yes. Yes I've met with Thor."

"And how has he fared?" Loki asked.

"Well," Pepper said. Loki nodded.

"He tends to overexert himself," Loki said. "Especially when he is caught up in a mission or is worrying over his comrades. If...someone could remind him," Loki said. He wasn't looking at her. "If someone could remind him that while he has long life, he is not immortal, it would be very much in his benefit."

"Of course," Pepper said.

"I had half-expected him to see me," Loki said. "At the very least, come down on clouds of thunder and lightning to threaten me and vouch for Midgard's safety. But he did none of that," Loki said. "He is quite busy, you see."

The quiet, which was earlier very warm and familiar between them, seemed now awkward, thick with expectation. Loki's eyes were distant. A little far away.

"I did not wish to take over this planet," Loki said, again. His eyes flicked upward, meeting hers. "No one believes me, however."

"SHIELD believes you," Pepper said. "Tony believes. Why do you think you're staying here, if no one believed you?"

"Because I am to be observed. Dissected. Because my presence suits them," Loki said. He sat beside her, quietly. "Shall I tell you a story, Ms. Potts?"

"Of course," Pepper said, and she settled back on the couch, tucking her legs underneath her, and listened. When he spoke, it was with broad strokes, painting the loneliness and hurt of his wandering. Despair was a dull ache in his chest, punctuated by bright points of regret and longing. His voice seemed to carry with it the weight of his isolation, soft and mournful and wrapping itself around her like a slow fog. He had bared his soul to her, laid it out as if a tattered cloak on dirt-packed ground, and there were times Pepper felt herself moved to tears. Those times she would look up, shocked, to see Loki watching her quietly, both of his eyes completely dry.

Cold. It was the first thing Loki had felt when he came to consciousness, harsh whips of wind and flurries of snow biting the sides of his cheek. Loki had always well-tolerated the cold-in fact, it was the one thing he was better at than Thor and the rest of Thor's comrades, though now there was a supreme irony in it, knowing its origins-but this cold was different. It cut him to the bone, sharp and bright like teeth on his skin. He was lying face-down in a snow-covered field, and his body ached when he finally pushed himself upright, holding his arm and looking at the blue waste around him.

"And I came face to face with a chituari greeting party," Loki said. His eyes seemed to look inward, as if remembering. "They surrounded me with spears, tipped with ice and blood of their fallen enemies. Actually to great effect: I was positively terrified."

"And then what happened?" Pepper asked. Loki shook his head.

"They recognized me for who I was: Odinson, heir to the throne of Asgard. They knew of Thor's exile but not of Odin's sleep, and so to them I was quite valuable. They wished to blackmail Asgard for my freedom. Only you and I both know, the peoples of Asgard would rather think me dead than to suffer more of my admitted long life."

Pepper listened. How Loki was pushed to his knees and shoved face-first into the ground, the blade-tip digging into the side of his neck, and how at that moment he really didn't care if he lived or died, except that he heard the words invasion and Asgard and knew, deep down, he could not live to watch it burn.

"Earth is such a tiny planet," Loki said. "And yet your years in this universe are so incredibly short. It took time," Loki said. "It took lies. And trust. And subtle manipulation. But I convinced them Earth would be a worthier target, one that I had hoped to rule."

He made a little sound, something between a laugh and a scoff, shaking his head.

"Really. If I wanted to conquer you people, there are easier ways to go about it. Why use an army when I could wreak quiet havoc among earth's populace? Manipulate world leaders into nuclear war? Let loose a few isolated pockets of super viruses. Or if I were bored enough, get myself elected to public office," Loki mused. "I am quite photogenic, you see."

"And what about Odin?" Pepper asked. "Are you still estranged from him?"

Loki made a noncommittal little shrug, pushing around the paper plate in his hand. "Well let's just say it's complicated," Loki said.

Tony had warned her Loki lied. Thor had warned her as well, taking her aside and touching her on her shoulder. "My brother would say anything if it were to cause mischief," Thor said. "It pains me to say this, but do not trust him. Words are his weapons, you see."

"I thought you don't have powers," Pepper said, suddenly, looking at Loki's shirt and jeans and watching him play a little with the half-eaten piece of pizza. "I just realized, you shifted right in front of me. I thought Odin took them away?"

"Magic isn't power," Loki said. He tossed the pizza crust into the box, quietly. "He took my strength and my scepter, but this?" and he curled his palm upward, a small globe of light hovering above his hand. "This is something different from all that. Elemental. Something from the earth. The scepter only helped me focus it," Loki said, and he waved his hand, the globe dissipating into a puff of smoke.

Pepper nodded, taking a sip of wine. "You know, you're different than I thought you'd be," Pepper said.

"How so?" Loki said.

"Nicer," Pepper said. Loki smiled. "Everyone told me you'd try to manipulate me," Pepper said. "That you were crazy and evil and that if you had the chance, you'd try to kill me-"

"A child pulling the wings off a fly. I have no use for that," Loki said.

"Yes, but-" and Pepper struggled for the words. "You seem...decent. Normal. Your brother told me-well, Thor, that is-Thor told me, 'Believe you not the lies that drip from his tongue,' and he-" and Pepper giggled a little bit, a little drunk, "he made me swear not to go near you."

The light flickered. The muscles in Loki's jaw tightened. "My brother said that?" Loki said. His voice was very low.

"He did," Pepper said. "But I thought you said not to call him your brother? I'm sorry," Pepper said, because something seemed very wrong. "I didn't mean to offend you. I meant it as a compliment. I just drank too much wine-"

"No," Loki said. "Do not apologize. He was right," Loki said. "It was unwise of you to get so close to me. Let me into your home. I could do anything to you," Loki said, and his voice was low. He trailed a hand up Pepper's shoulder, looking into her eyes.

"I could kill you if I wanted, Ms. Potts. It is only by my good graces that I do not."

And he looked at her in a way that made her uneasy, blue eyes peering as if through the surface of a darkened pool. She felt her insides being pulled, twisted, vivisected in the darkroom of Loki's eyes, each gesture and nervous word plated behind panes of glass. It was as if thin slices of herself were mounted, layers of cells on a microscope slide, which he examined with closest scrutiny.

"Did they tell you," Loki began, slowly, the consonants of his words stretching over his tongue, "how I could drive a man to suicide, with a few choice words? It is true," Loki said. "If I wanted to, I could cut you at the knees and make you bleed for me. Tear down those little lies you tell yourself at night. That you are successful. That you've earned your title by right. That you are not, in fact, a fraud, sitting at the top of your pathetic little throne."

"Stop it," Pepper said. Loki stepped forward. "I said stop."

"Shall I tell you the truth, then?" Loki said. "The sad truth of your miserable existence. Virginia 'Pepper' Potts. Leading CEO and Stark's personal whore."

Her throat was dry. She stared at Loki with burning eyes.

"Get out," Pepper said. Loki smiled.

"Get out!" Pepper said.

And suddenly she was alone in the room, the empty bottles of wine rolling on the floor.

xXx

.

4.

Jarvis was fully operational again by 5 AM, and by then Pepper had wrenched herself awake, her body groaning and protesting its hangover.

"He's gone," Fury said, and the rest of the Avengers scrambled, Loki somehow off their radar. Tony wasn't back, but then again, he often was gone for long stretches of time and it wasn't anything Pepper wasn't used to.

She had sobbed on the phone while Tony listened on the other end, his voice tinny and distant through the Iron Man speakers. "Pep, listen to me. It's what he does. He's just messing with you," Tony said, but Pepper sobbed and sobbed.

"I don't care," Pepper said. "Tony, please. I just want you home."

xXx

.

5.

Her day began like this: opening the front section of the Wall Street Journal, making herself a cup of coffee and looking out the window. She will shower and dress and put on her make-up, and she will greet the day with a closed-lipped, professional smile.