Title: Don't Piss of the Personal Assistant

Fandom: Avengers/Bleach

Characters: T'Challa, M'Baku, Ichigo, Various AI's

Chapter: 35

Word count: 1633

Warnings:

AN: I am just flat out going to say that life hasn't been kind to me. Okay? I've been dealing with sinus issues and taking care of my mother.

So please enjoy the chapter.


Staring down at the city, Ichigo shifted on his perch as he crossed his legs, holding out a bento box with a smile. Spiderman landed next to him with a soft thump. "I hear that we should talk," he said in greeting.

Peter sighed as he tugged at his mask, leaving it pushed up over his nose, allowing him to eat as the lenses over his eyes turned transparent. "You talked with Mr. Stark and Kamala, didn't you?" he asked. "What did they say?'

"Tony doesn't want to see you hurt during this thing and neither does she. Look, we know you went up against some heavy hitters when you were first starting out. You were underage then, and you are underage now," Ichigo said. He held up a hand at the opening mouth. "Just listen to the guy who is an older brother and who has seen war. You have nightmares. From the Goblin, from Vulture. From a giant fucking lizard who used to be a man. Thanos? Thanos is the reason why we've had to work on vetting new therapists and psychologists to work for the Avengers Initiative for the PTSD that we're all going to walk away with for the last year." He smiled softly. "War will change you in ways that we don't want you to see happen yet."

Peter sat next to Ichigo as he opened the bento, finding that Yuzu had made it, the rice and sausages shaped cutely. He loved her food and if he wasn't happily with Harley, he probably would have asked her out for her food alone, not to mention that she was a sweet woman. Clearing those thoughts away, he asked what he wanted to ask. "How did it change you?"

Ichigo hummed, reaching into the bag that he had brought with him, pulling out a thermos of hot tea, giving it a shake. "I was six when I was first introduced to the Spiritual side of the world. I didn't know what I was seeing at the time. My mother and father had worked hard to distance themselves from that side to protect me and my sisters. They hadn't wanted Seireitei to take notice of us when we were younger, knowing of the corruption. What they didn't know was that I could already see spirits. Could touch them too. I could smell the softness that came from a soul that wasn't tainted or losing itself, and the oily slickness of tainted souls."

Peter turned to stare at him, fork lowering. "Wasn't that when your mom died?" he asked, swallowing heavily.

"Yes. She gave up her life when she went up against a hollow named Grand Fisher. That fucker would lure those who had high spiritual power by using a kind of lure that could take the shape of any soul that he had eaten. Think of him as an angler fish but in a humonoid shape," Ichigo said. "We lost her, and I closed myself off. I wasn't able to deal with that pain. It was when I was fifteen and met Kuchiki Rukia that I started to face it. It wasn't until later that I found out that she was an aunt through my mother's side of her soul family, and that is a whole 'nother story."

Peter snorted as he shoved a bit of rice into his mouth. He chewed and swallowed. "I'll eventually get that story from you," he promised. Ichigo looked at him with a small smile.

Ichigo chuckled and wiped a piece of rice off the side of Peter's mouth with a finger. "She was following my power and didn't even know it. She fought a hollow and would have died if I hadn't been there. That hollow was very intent on eating me and my sisters, so I demanded that she needed to tell me how to destroy the damn thing to stop it." He took a deep breath. "She ended up sharing her power with me, and it awoke my abilities just enough to shatter the bonds that humans naturally have on their power to awaken my Shinigami abilities."

"Zangetsu told me that you didn't actually meet him and Tensa until later," Peter said. Ichigo side-eyed him, eyebrow raising. He blushed and shrugged with a smile. "What? Your zanpakutos are cool. Zangetsu can be a bit of a jerk to those he doesn't like, and his eyes really creep you out the first time that you meet him, but Tensa is cool."

Ichigo chuckled. "Let me tell you, before things happened, Tensa used to be the one who was being used under Zangetsu and he used to be an old man," he said. "And they're right, I didn't meet them until later. After Rukia's brother-in-law came for her and left me with a sealed saketsu and hakusui. Both of those points are comparable to pressure points with holes, but when those holes are sealed…"

Peter swallowed, staring over at Ichigo with wide eyes behind his eye protectors as he put two and two together. "He had tried to kill you…"

"Yep. Though since I'm still mostly alive, it didn't quite work the way he thought it would be," Ichigo hummed. "I'm kind of half-dead now. My body had to be turned into a kind of living gigai when he did that which means that if my body is damaged beyond repair, I can go to Urahara. And I can have him recreate a new body for me using my own cells."

"Does that mean you could live forever if you wanted to?" Peter asked. The sadness in Ichigo's smile made his heart ache.

"Peter, I won't age past a certain point in my life. I will watch the world around me shift and change," Ichigo told him. He looked to him with sad eyes. "I have long come to accept that and know that any that I lose through my lifetime, I will be able to visit or one day join when I want to." Peter nodded. "After Rukia was taken, I worked to go and save her. I learned how to call Bankai and fight against those who were stronger, more powerful than me. And I walked away even when I was so injured that I should have died dozens of times over."

Peter shivered as his hand pressed to one hip, remembering the many times that not only he, but Tony had walked away from a fight with injuries that he hadn't been able to take care of. Not until he was sure that everyone was safe and taken care of, just like Ichigo most likely had done.

Peter smiled softly in understanding and bumped their shoulders together as he turned back to his bento.

"We found all about Aizen and what he had done during his time in the ranks of the Gotei 13. I went to war because that asshole dared to hurt my friends and family. I wasn't going to stand for that. But I can't see certain butterflies without twitching now. And loud noises after a nightmare is a great way to send me into a panic attack. My room has specialized wards on it to stop any sound that isn't in the house," he said.

"I guess that it's a good thing most of the rooms at the compound are soundproofed then when you stay after," Peter said, smiling and shrugging. Ichigo let out a soft laugh and patted his shoulder.

"Indeed. Going through all of that meant that I changed in a lot of ways. I'm much more mature than what you would think of a young adult. I'm prone to attacking threats to my family and taking them out. If I don't have time to relax, I'll disappear for a couple of days and relax that way," Ichigo admitted. "Tony doesn't want you to lose that little bit of innocence left. It's going to be bad enough that you're going to be patrolling New York with the rest of the younger mutants and the meta humans. Tony really does care for you. Deeply. And to have you killed during this invasion, much less hurt, would kill him. You've already had your own share of nightmares at the airport."

Peter sighed as he nodded, finishing off the last of his bento before closing it with the chopsticks laid inside of their holder. "Yeah. I'll…I'll talk with Mr. Stark tomorrow," he decided. "Talk with him about what I'm going to do during the invasion in the city. And I'll talk with Aunt May too." He looked up at the sky with a frown. "Just another month, right?" he asked.

"Yep. Or so they're thinking. There are two ships and one of them has a secondary way of creating a portal to allow the rest of the army to come through by what Loki-san has been able to determine," Ichigo said. He stood to stand on the edge of the building, smiling down at Peter and patting his head. "I'll see you tomorrow. Harley is going to be escorting his mom and sister to one of the safe houses. His mom is being paid to make sure that the stock and set up is ready and to meet with Rose. It's been decided that he'll file his own suit to join you guys during patrol."

Peter smiled up at him and nodded, watching as Ichigo stepped off the edge of the roof and dropped down before he bounced off air two stories down. He disappeared with a flicker of power that barely rustled anything around him, making Peter roll his eyes. "What a showoff," he complained as he pulled his mask down and shot his web over to a building close by, sliding off and swinging towards home.