Momo had developed a liking for her scraggly companion – heaven knows why – who was all dangly arms and legs (though he was nearly the shortest person she'd ever met), jutting angles and a scowl to make any practiced pessimist jealous. He'd call her names, and push her away, but they both knew - like an unwritten promise - that he'd never leave her side and she'd never leave his.

But neither were very good at keeping promises.

---

When the kindly old lady had found them and invited them in to stay, they steadily grew apart. No longer relying on each other solely for survival, they strayed farther and farther each other's sides.

Hinamori Momo was accepted into the prestigious Shinigami academy.

Hitsugaya Toushirou turned down the offer without a second thought.

She promised she'd come back every weekend to visit.

He promised he wouldn't welcome her back.

Neither of them were terribly good at keeping promises.

----

And when he got sick and tired of being left behind (but he swore he'd just been bored), he'd joined her school, and tried to stay as far away from her as possible. And she still called him Shiro-chan, bellowing in her optimistic way across vast hallways, and he'd remind her every time that she'd promised to call him by his last name instead, she'd remind him that he'd promised to never join the academy at all (so his point was a moot), and neither of them were any good at keeping promises.

-----

And when he'd advanced though the academy faster than she could blink, and when he got all the awards and gossip, she promised she'd never ever get jealous.

And when they told him that he showed the most potential that they'd seen in any student in the past decade – at least! – and when he was the one leading her missions, and telling her how to do things right, suddenly she didn't have to protect him anymore.

And neither of them had any talent at all for keeping promises.

------

He'd been the first to graduate, by a whole year even though he'd started three after her, and they made a flippant promise to land themselves in the same division so they'd never have to fight.

And even though they both knew it wouldn't be possible, they both applied for the fifth division (because Hinamori was hell bent on getting closer to that Captain, even though she wouldn't admit it to herself), but when it came right down to it, Hitsugaya was strong enough for his own seat, and there were more potential openings in the tenth division than anywhere else.

And so neither of them could have kept that promise to save their lives.

-------

And when Hinamori Momo fell head-over-heels in love with Captain Aizen, Hitsugaya promised he'd be damn happy for them no matter what.

But when his letter, the words of a dead man, who hadn't even been by her side as long as he had, caused her to point the tip of her sword at his face, Toushirou decided that he was utter crap with keeping promises.

--------

So when the whole shebang was over, and years had passed like the pure blur of infinite time that they now possessed, and Bed Wetter Momo and Shiro-chan were still inseparable, just as they were when they were but newborns to the world of the dead, they decided that maybe they could start working on that nasty habit they had of breaking promises.

Fin.