This AU drabble was a two-part art/fic request from Tumblr user serene-faerie

I was wondering: can you draw the Spirit Society versions of Rukia and Byakuya meeting Renji (as either his shinigami self or him as a human samurai) and some ensuing shenanigans (and a little RenRuki)? I'd love to see what you'd have in mind!

and

For the AU drabbles, can you do Renji ending up in Spirit Society and meeting Tengu!Rukia and Tengu!Byakuya?

Unfortunately, does not care for either pictures or links, so I can't reproduce the pics, but you can find them on my Tumblr (recurring-polynya) or the ao3 version of this story.

I described the gist of this AU there, too, which is the following:

I love the idea of BBS, and I would want this AU to be as BBS as possible. Therefore, the basic premise of this is that Renji is bumming around with Ichigo in the World of the Living and they end up going to Spirit Society in the usual way, which is to say, walking through a park and then they're in Spirit Society. None of this is important, except for the fact that Renji is wearing the orange Zabimaru shirt, because the casual outfits are the #1 greatest thing about BBS.

Anyhoo, they go to Kuchiki Manor: Spirit Society Edition, and Ichigo introduces Renji to Spirit Society Byakuya and Rukia. Byakuya would want to fight Renji, because Byakuya fights Renji in like 75% of the Bleach OPs, Byakuya fighting Renji is obligatory. The thing is, though, that Renji has fought Regular Byakuya approximately 9000 times and studied him for 30 years and Spirit Society Byakuya just met Renji 5 minutes ago, and I'm not saying B got trounced, but my feathery man got trounced. Not that he'll admit it. The upshot of all this is that Byakuya and Rukia are Very Impressed with Renji and Ichigo is so, so tired.

Presumably there's a very filler arc-y plot, where Grimmjow is planning to invade the tengu territory with a bunch of demons or something like that, and Renji and Ichigo agree to hang out and be helpers. I thought it would be fun if, at some point, they have to disguise themselves as tengu warriors, because I... wanted to design some armor? That's as far as I got, artwise.

The scene I really wanted to write in that case happens pretty deep in the story, but I spent three weeks drawing feathers and pompoms, so I can skip around if I want. Please enjoy this self-indulgent, out-of-context Feels Fiesta where Tengu!Rukia doesn't want Regular!Renji to go home.

Rukia staggered over to the library table, carrying far too many rolled-up maps. She attempted to tip the first one gently onto the table, but instead, half a dozen rolled out of her arms. "Watch out!" she yelped helplessly.

The Shinigami Abarai Renji had exceptional reflexes, though, and he deftly scooped his ink stone out of danger as a map rolled past the spot where it had sat just a moment before.

"Sorry," Rukia apologized, her feathers wilting. She wanted so badly to be a help for once, and instead, she couldn't seem to stop embarrassing herself.

Renji flashed her one of his brilliant smiles. She wondered if all shinigami smiled so freely. It seemed a strange quality for a god of death to possess, but very little about Renji comported with her conception of what death gods should be like. The Shinigami Kurosaki Ichigo smiled often as well. Rukia had assumed that might be due to his human half, but perhaps ushering souls to the afterlife was not such a grim occupation as one might expect.

"Don't worry," Renji reassured her, the corners of his warm brown eyes crinkling. "I am a champion ink-spiller, so I'm pretty good at avoiding it. Thanks for digging these out for me. Were you able to find any that show the old kitsune trade route you mentioned?"

"I'll have to check," Rukia sighed. "I'm afraid they weren't very well organized. My brother's servant, Wakame Ambassador-"

Renji made a face like he was trying very hard not to laugh.

"You must not make fun of Wakame Ambassador!" Rukia warned in a hushed voice. "He is just a magical construct, but he does have feelings!" She frowned at the maps. "It's not his fault Brother didn't put a whole lot of brains in him."

"I would never," Renji reassured her gently, "make fun of Wakame Ambassador." He fiddled with his brush. "He just… reminds me of something from back home."

Rukia knew she should get to work looking for the map he wanted, but she couldn't help herself. She was so curious about his Soul Society, and he was so close-mouthed about it. "Do you miss it?"

"Hmm?"

"Soul Society," she said, rolling the word around in her mouth. "Do you miss it?"

"Oh," Renji replied. "A little. I haven't really been gone that long, and I do want to help you folks out. I am starting to get these little pangs, though." He chuckled. "Wouldn't've expected to get one over Wakame Ambassador."

"They must miss you," Rukia pressed. "You're a very important person, there, right?"

Renji let out a sharp guffaw. "I wouldn't say that."

Rukia's brows furrowed. "But you said the captain you serve is a powerful clan head and a great warrior! Aren't you the leader of his armies?"

Renji rubbed the back of his neck and laughed. "I guess you could say I have an important job, that's true. It's not quite the same as being an important person."

It made no sense, in Rukia's opinion. She had never seen swordwork to match his, and then he knew shinigami magic as well. He spoke so knowledgeably of strategy and tactics, he must be a scholar of warfare. Yet, he interacted so easily with the tengu troops. He was a natural leader in the way she wasn't. Not that Brother would ever let her lead troops into battle in any case. "You know," she started slowly. "Brother is very impressed with you."

Renji raised one skeptical eyebrow.

"He is!" Rukia insisted. "And… if you are not appreciated in your homeland, I think that Brother would be most happy to have you stay! He would make you his war leader, I am sure of it!"

A very strange look came over Renji's face. Rukia found herself talking faster and faster, as if her words could outpace his doubts.

"Demons notwithstanding, the Spirit Society is a wonderful place to live, and the tengu are the best of its tribes. I know you would feel self-conscious to not have a set of handsome wings or magnificent horns, but you have such interesting barring on your skin and your plumage is a lovely color. You would be very popular nonetheless!"

"Plumage?" Renji echoed blankly, his hand going to his hair.

"The costumes you and Kurosaki Ichigo fashioned were very clever. They would not fool another tengu, of course, but…" Rukia trailed off, unable to put into words the way her heart had sped up when she had seen him wearing the dark pinions and red-tipped horns of a tengu warrior. Of course, if he had been born a tengu, she was sure he would not have such common coloring. She could imagine him with a fine set of double wings, like her brother's, blood red, tipped in black, and with great curling horns, like the woodcuts of the mighty warriors in her history books. "Or maybe there's a spell that could grow you wings!" she realized suddenly. "I am very good at magic, you know, I could look through my spellbooks."

Suddenly, his big, warm hand with its funny, blunt fingernails encased her own. "Rukia," he cut her off. "Thank you. That's a very generous offer, and believe me, I'm flattered."

Rukia looked into his face. With its sharp nose and narrow, beady eyes, it was so clear that he belonged among her beautiful bird tribe, not a bunch of boring, ugly ghosts. It was unfair. "But?"

He shrugged. "But I gotta go home."

There was a long silence. "Why?"

"Well, I got my friends, my squad, my captain. People who depend on me."

"People who care for you?"

"Er, right."

He hesitated. If he hadn't hesitated, Rukia would have held her tongue. But it seemed, in that hesitation, there was a chance, and she felt like she had to take it. "There… there could be people here who would care for you, given time. Maybe there are already." She took a deep breath. "I would like you to stay."

A deeply pained look came over his face.

Rukia's gut plummeted. It had been a mistake. "I'm sorry," she stammered. "I should not have said anything."

Renji's face hardened. "Don't say that. Please don't say that." He squeezed his eyes closed for a moment and his hand tightened on hers so hard it hurt a little. "It's not easy to put yourself out there, but you've always been braver than me."

Rukia frowned. What could he possibly mean by that?

"It's really hard for me to say this. You have no idea how hard. I like you, too, you know. I like you so much. But there's… my heart's already spoken for, Rukia. It has been for a long time. She's… she's a lot like you. Tough and clever and beautiful and the best friend you can imagine. And that's part of why it could never be fair to you if I… if you and I..."

Of course. Of course he already had someone, how could she have been so foolish? But why hadn't he mentioned this before? And why did his voice crack so when he spoke of her? "She does not return your love," Rukia realized, the words escaping her mouth before she could catch them.

Rukia expected Renji's face to look even more pained, but instead, his brow softened and his mouth curved into a fond smile. "I dunno, actually. It's… it's never been the right time or the right place. We've been through a lot together, though, her and me, and I know that she'd miss me if I didn't come back." He snorted ruefully. "I'd give every kan I got to hear Ichigo try to explain to her why I didn't, though."

Suddenly, a number of things he had said clicked together in her head. And it had not been wishful thinking, she realized. His smile truly was brighter for her, his gaze softer.

"It's the other me, isn't it?" she said softly.

Renji's face stiffened, and then he sighed. "Of course it is. I can't manage to keep stuff from you in any world, it seems."

"I met her once, you know," Rukia noted coolly, despite the turmoil in her chest. "The last time Kurosaki Ichigo was here." She paused. "She did not seem a fool."

Renji laughed, and patted her hand boisterously. The tension between them released like steam from a kettle. "Believe me, she'd have to be, to put up with me after all the grief I give her."

Rukia regarded him under lidded eyes as she reached for one of the maps. "You already told me that she resembles me. Do not pretend she does not pay you back four-fold."

Renji regarded her right back. "I won't."

Rukia's heart felt tender and achy, but warm, as well. The other Rukia must love him back, she was sure of it, even if she couldn't say so. The alternative was too sad to bear. "I wonder," she sighed, "why there is no version of you in this world."

"Oh, that's easy," Renji replied. "There probably is. He's just not a tengu. You folks are way too elegant and clean-cut for the likes of me. It's an honest miracle I ever met my Rukia in the first place."

Rukia gaped. "Surely not! You are a noble warrior! Strong and handsome and polite!"

Renji gave out a bark of laughter. "That's only because I've spent a long time trying to get this way. You got any nue in Spirit Society? Or ookami?" He thought for a moment. "I'm not sure I'm even classy enough to be a wolf spirit. Inugami?"

"We have all of those," Rukia replied, bristling. But the dog demons are not to be trusted! Brother says they are barely better than the kitsune!"

"Mmm," Renji replied with a shrug. "Right. Well. Like I said. Never the right time. Never the right place." He turned back to the war record he'd been looking through.

Rukia's face fell. She felt like she had failed him, somehow. Was it something about her brother? He could be a bit… insular to be sure, but the inugami were the very worst of the… dog... Rukia blinked and she traced a finger over the map in front of her. "The inugami are not the only dog tribe. Here, on the other side of the mountain. It's hainu territory, which is why Brother doesn't want to travel through it, but it has to be safer than that old kitsune trail. The hainu are an honorable people, if a bit unsophisticated, and they, too, would be affected if the demons were to swarm the valley. If they allied with us, I am sure we could fight off Grimmjow's forces! You are a genius, Abarai Renji!"

"Me? What did I-?"

Rukia jumped to her feet. "Come. Brother won't like it, but I am sure he will listen to you!"

"Why would you think that?!" Renji yelped as she hauled him from the library. Suddenly his eyebrows drew together. "Wait, this actually isn't a bad idea. Do you think it would work? Have you ever actually met a hainu?"

"Well, no," Rukia admitted. "But at least they have wings, how bad could they be?"

A/N: Okay, I know you asked for Byakuya, who… did not appear in the previous scene. So here's Byakuya omake. A Byak-omake, if you will.

"What do you mean, the other me does not adorn himself with beautiful feathers?"

"Well, you've got a whole bird motif goin' on, he's not much of a bird guy. I mean, he likes birds. I guess. He just doesn't dress like one."

"How does he accessorize, then? Does he have a lush cloak of fine velvet?"

"Er… he's got a haori?"

"Ah! Is it richly embroidered?"

"It's got a six on the back."

"A six."

"Yeah, like the number six."

"..."

"He said he's thinking of adding some tassels? Gold tassels?"

"Gold tassels are good. How many?"

"He wasn't specific at the time, but I'm guessing… two?"

"...Two?"

"Isn't two enough? It's two more than anyone else has."

"...Two?!"

"..."

"Wakame Ambassador! Fetch my traveling cape and headdress! I must travel to the Soul Society to teach my other self how to dress properly!"