freeoftheflash asked: I loved whatever snippets you gave of Renji and Momo in the Academy (and Momo's cookies!) I'd love to see more of Renji+Momo, or even Renji+Ichigo but really any Renji you write would be God Tier Renji so I await his birthday in eager anticipation!

HERE IS SOME ACADEMY ERA RENJI+MOMO FOR YOUUUUUUU

Momo was concentrating so deeply on her homework for Mathematics of Interdimensional Travel that she didn't even hear anything before her roommate, Kajita, cocked her head and said, "Do you hear… something? A tapping?"

The window was directly over Momo's desk, and when she looked up from her page of calculations, it was directly into the face of her good friend and classmate, Abarai Renji, smushed up against the glass. "Lemme in," he mouthed.

Momo's face abruptly turned scarlet and her tongue sputtered uselessly. "Maybe someone's at the door!" she finally managed, jumping up and trying to block the window with her body.

"I don't think so," Kajita replied, scratching her nose with her writing brush.

"That reminds me!" Momo yelped. "Teramoto said she had something to tell you! She lives on the first floor, I think?"

Kajita made a half-hearted mark on her paper. "I'll see her tomorrow. We have hohou together in the morning."

"Hmm, it was something to do with...someone named Kenmotsu?" As if Momo could possibly be oblivious to Kajita's enormous crush on Kenmotsu Sawao, a third year who used far too much hair product.

Kajita sprang to her feet. "That sounds important, I should go check in with her!"

As the shoji slammed shut behind Kajita, Momo frantically spun and opened the window. "What are you doing?" she hissed, as Renji tumbled into the room.

"I dunno. I got lonely," he shrugged. "Whatchu up to?"

"You got- where's Izuru?" Momo demanded. It would be just like Renji to misplace his own roommate.

"Oh, I mean, he's there," Renji frowned, scratching the back of his neck. "In our room. I got restless and it's a nice night out and I wanted to take a walk and he didn't want to and then I guess I just found my way over to this side of campus and thought I'd swing by and say hi."

Of course Izuru didn't want to go for a walk, it was past curfew. They were supposed to be in their dorms. Not that things like curfew concerned Abarai, who had a somewhat uncanny ability to disappear into the shadows, in spite of the fact that he comprised nearly six feet worth of bright red hair and bony elbows.

Momo started to open her mouth to scold him, when it hit her what Abarai had actually been doing. She wondered if he had done it consciously, or if he had really intended to just get some air, and his feet had wandered naturally over to the girls' dormitory. She wondered how long he had stared at Rukia's old window on the second floor before coming up here instead.

"As long as you're here, help me with this," Momo said instead, shoving at her homework. "I'm doing travel time estimates, and you're supposed to get the same answer for #12 and #13, but it always comes out longer through the dangai than through the senkaimon. I don't know what I'm doing wrong."

Renji peered owlishly at her homework, wrinkling his nose. "You know I'm no good at this stuff."

He always said that.

"Well, what good are you, then?" Momo sniffed, and Renji cracked a grin.

When they first met, Renji had scowled almost all the time. The only time he ever grinned was when he was around his best friend, a girl called Rukia. She was from his home district, they had come up to Shin'ou together. As Renji got to know Momo and their other friend, Izuru, as he started to feel comfortable here at school, they had started to get a few grins, too. Renji had wonderful grins, all big, pointy teeth and mischief. Momo and Izuru competed, a little, sometimes, to see who could get more Renji grins. They didn't compete against Rukia. That would have been no contest.

Then, Rukia had been adopted, mysteriously whisked away to go live with the elegant Kuchiki family, and it had been back to scowls, with the occasional wistful, thousand yard stare thrown in. Momo hated the wistful thousand-yard stares. It had been months now, and they had started to get the occasional grin back now and again, but sometimes they also got this.

"I don't have any treats from Grandma right now, I'm sorry," Momo blurted out. "I stress ate the last of them before the Kidou Theory midterm."

"Oh, that's okay," Renji shrugged. "They were yours anyway."

Momo fidgeted. It wasn't that she didn't want him here. Renji was her friend, and he was cute, and it gave her a rather fluttery feeling in her stomach that he'd taken the trouble to come see her, but her roommate might be back any minute and also, she wasn't sure what to do with him. "Renji," she finally said. "When you used to visit Rukia, what did you do?"

Renji stared at her blankly. "When I used to… aw, jeez, I mean, you think this…? I mean, I was just walking by, and… uh…"

"It's okay to miss her," Momo replied, rather bluntly.

"It's been four months," Renji pointed out in a way that indicated he knew the exact time, down to the minutes and seconds.

"It's still okay to miss her," Momo repeated.

Renji chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment. "I dunno. Usually, we just shot the breeze, I guess. Just liked to see her a little every day and we weren't in any of the same classes, y'know. See if she'd come up with any new insulting nicknames for me."

Momo frowned thoughtfully. "Do you want me to call you by an insulting nickname?"

Renji gave a big snort through his nose, and his face cracked into a huge, genuine grin. "Nothin' personal, Momo, but-"

"You noodle-headed dingdong."

A huge guffaw burst out of Renji's mouth.

"Treelegs. Stripey head frowny-face."

Renji was doubled over now, wheezing with laughter.

"Porridge pants."

"Stop- stop," Renji gasped. "You are going to kill me." He took a deep breath and managed to straighten up.

"Butts-for-brains."

That time, they both lost it. Renji had to lean on her desk to keep from falling over. Finally, he wiped his eyes and shook his head. "How are your insults so terrible and also so cutting?"

"I have a younger brother," Momo intoned. "I learned it from him."

Renji rubbed one eye with the heel of his hand. "I'm sorry I bothered you, Mo. I was just walking around and got feeling real down and I wanted to see a friendly face. Thanks. I really needed this."

Momo shrugged. "Look, my roommate's probably gonna be back any minute."

Renji nodded. "I understand."

"She's in a singing group that meets on Tuesday evenings. Come back then. We can shoot the breeze. I'll work on better insults between now and then."

"Terrible insults only," Renji demanded, ruffling her hair with one of his big paws, before climbing back out the window. "And you reversed the sign on the time dilation term, that's why your dangai numbers are coming out too big."

"Teramoto forgot what she was going to tell me, can you believe it?" Kajita announced a few minutes later, when she returned. "Why's the window open?"

"Just thought it was a nice night out," Momo replied, as her numbers came out perfectly.