Title: Don't Piss of the Personal Assistant
Fandom: Avengers/Bleach
Characters: M'Baku, T'Challa, Ichigo, Various AI's
Chapter: 30
Word count: 1493
Warnings:
AN: Okay, so A) Welcome to October. I hope it treats it well.
B) I'm tired. That's why I didn't post last week for this chapter. I was exhausted for about 3 days, had a pissed off stomach for 2 and had to edit this.
I'm also editing another story to send to the beta but I hope you enjoy this.
With M'Baku in the back of the car, lounging along the backseat with wraparound sunglasses on his face, and T'Challa in the passenger side, Ichigo started the car. He pulled out and away from the courthouse, aiming for the store while T'Challa added their orders and paid with the help of Friday.
Finding that they had close to thirty minutes before their order would be ready to pick up, Ichigo decided on a smallish store and parked, allowing the two men to stay in the car. He took a moment to make a quick list of what he would get; he decided to stick to fresh fruits, a few easy breakfast foods, ginger ale, fresh ginger, and some saltines.
He took his time in choosing each time, taking up about twenty minutes since the courthouse and the store wasn't far from the tower. Packing it into his trunk, he handed M'Baku a single bottle of diet ginger ale before heading to get the food. T'Challa was nice enough to hold the rather large box while Ichigo headed for the tower and parked in his personal space in Tony's private garage.
"I am so very tired," he groaned as he parked and tapped his key tag onto the box that popped up the moment he parked. He turned off the car and stepped out, eyeballing M'Baku as he passed to the trunk. "How are you doing?" he asked as he popped the trunk, T'Challa walked around behind him with the food.
M'Baku hummed as he gathered a few of the lighter bags. "It is not too horrible. I have had worse head injuries," he promised, smiling slightly as Ichigo looked up at him. "You do not train as we do without getting a few hits to the head much less anything else. You learn to dodge better because of them," he teased.
Ichigo smirked, knowing that the man spoke the truth and turned to lead the way down the hallway, M'Baku and T'Challa following him. Friday turned on the lights as they walked so that they could see where they were going. "I am sure that you have since met Valkyrie-san, yes?" he asked.
"Indeed. She was the one to greet us when we arrived for the trials, acting as Banner's guard," T'Challa said. "She seems very competent. How long have they been here?" he asked.
"The ship with the Asgardians landed just over two months ago, and Valkyrie-san started to work as the head of the security for the village about a week in," Ichigo told them as they stepped into the main hallway.
"So I was told by Banner," T'Challa said. "She seems like a good woman, strong and smart but with a past that haunts her footsteps."
Ichigo smiled sadly. "She is very smart. And strong. You are right about her past though. I'm still trying to convince her to write out her story." He adjusted the bags in his arms and opened the door to the penthouse when Friday unlocked it for them. "My father and sisters left yesterday, so I told Tony-san that I didn't want to stay home. I'm staying in the other guest room."
"Do you not have classes during the summer semester?" M'Baku asked, Ichigo nodding.
"I do, but most of them are 'do this and turn it in by this time' kind of work," Ichigo said. "A lot of it is padding work for my portfolio and essays for my resume work. I do most of that when I'm not working, or when I am eating my lunch." He shrugged as kicked off his shoes just inside the doorway.
"Welcome back, Mr. T'Challa, Mr. M'Baku. Hello, Ichigo," Friday greeted in a low voice.
"Thank you, Friday," T'Challa greeted. He smiled in sympathy when M'Baku winced and rubbed at his head. Friday was quick to lower the lights while making sure that all of the windows had been darkened out.
"Ichigo, Boss warned me that Mr. M'Baku has a mild concussion and instructed me to make sure he was as comfortable as possible. Thus, all the lights in the penthouse, outside of your room and Boss' room are on the dimmest possible setting that will allow you to see without issue. I am also willing and able to change them to a soft blue should that be the wish," she said, having lowered the volume of her voice.
"That is perfect, Friday, thank you," Ichigo said. He smiled at M'Baku and waved him to a recliner to rest. Ichigo nodded to Friday, who switched the lights in the living room to a mix of soft purples and blues. He then led T'Challa into the kitchen with everything, setting the bags onto the counters, the bigger male going for the bags that M'Baku had left next to the door.
Ichigo checked the stacked ovens, he found them already heating up for him to cook with. He pulled out one of the deep-dish pizzas and their pasta, sliding them into the oven. Leaving them to cook, he found Tony's pasta that he would start to cook when he was on the way home, the salads, and the soup that he had gotten for M'Baku, wanting to have something easy for his stomach.
He put the rest of the food way, grabbing a sleeve of the saltine crackers, and handing them to T'Challa, along with a cup and a larger bottle of ginger ale. While T'Challa checked on his lover, Ichigo used some of the few carrots that were left, shredding them for the salad. He never liked the carrots that they used at the restaurant. He mixed it in with the pepperoni chunks, shredded cheese blend, cucumber, leafy lettuce and fresh tomatoes.
Setting it to the side as the food finished cooking, Ichigo was careful to go through the cabinets and create the list to be bought. He stopped halfway through the list to pull out the pasta and bring out a plate of it along with soup for M'Baku, allowing them to eat for the moment.
He found that he didn't have time to continue as the timer for the pizza went off with a soft buzz. Pulling it out, he dished himself and T'Challa a large piece of the pizza before adding some pasta to his plate, putting the salad into bowls for them, adding a bit of dressing to each.
Ichigo walked out to find M'Baku testing to see if he could stomach the pasta and smiled when he didn't have any trouble with it, promising more if he was able to eat the soup. Ichigo was glad that he had gone for a lighter pasta option. The two men praised the pasta and soup.
Leaving T'Challa to respond to e-mails after lunch on his computer while M'Baku settled back in his chair to rest, Ichigo returned to the list of things to order, texting back and forth with Loki and Tony about things that wanted. He added more coffee to the list along with a few teas that he would leave there. He also did as Tony instructed, buying a few things that he could use when cooking when he was in the mood to do it.
He loved to cook whenever possible, but it wasn't often that he had time to cook for his friends. With T'Challa and M'Baku there for the trials, he wanted to make them some of the foods that he had grown up on. But with M'Baku's concussion, he decided to put off the ramen and go for things like grilled squid, rice, tempura vegetables, yakitori, and maybe udon noodles in a simple broth for the next day.
Singing under his breath, Ichigo double checked his list, making sure that he had all of what he wanted and needed, glad that the company they used went to his preferred Japanese market. He marked half of the list for delivery that day and the rest the next day, not wanting to put a lot of things away when he had to do his own work still.
With that done and a confirmation number on his phone, Ichigo jogged out to his car and grabbed his work bag before heading back in. He set his laptop, tablet along with the keyboard for it, and a mouse onto the table. He found his work phone as he plugged things in and called down to Pepper's assistant, asking him to bring his paperwork up for him. He apologized for coming in at such an odd hour, but since he was taking care of the two Wakanda's, he figured that he would do some paperwork while he was there.
The assistant said it wasn't an issue and that he would be up in just a few moments. Ichigo hung up with a smile and settled at the table to log into his work account, Friday popping up in her chat box on his tablet.
