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Blake let herself enjoy the embrace for a good few moments, and for a while it was almost like she and Mina were all alone in the world, and that was fine. No Grimm, no White Fang, no discrimination, no worries… It was nice. All she let herself be conscious of were Mina's arms wrapped around her, and Blake shut her eyes to enhance the effect; they really didn't do this enough… Eventually though she did let reality creep back in and spoke up.

"Did you have you blood pack yet?" Blake asked.

Mina shook her head, but didn't pull away, "No… I was getting your clothes while you showered,"

"You seem rather awake then…"

"I slept quite well…" Blake could feel the smile tug at Mina's lips against her own cheek.

Blake smiled bashfully, "I think I slept better…"

Mina chuckled.

"But seriously though, you do need to feed…" Reluctantly, Blake broke off the embrace and moved over to the mini-fridge over in the corner, "Let's see…" Blake rifled briefly through the contents, "Ah, O negative; your favorite…"

"Only because that is your type," Mina pouted.

Blake shrugged with a little smirk, "What can I say? I'm a universal donor-,"

"I should certainly hope not…" Mina's pout deepened.

Blake came back over to resume the hug, "Oh come on, you know that was a joke…"

"Yours is still the best…" Mina mumbled, taking the packet of chilled crimson liquid before returning the embrace, "But I must wait and so I shall; I'd sooner starve than risk your health Dearest,"

"Three more days…" Blake promised; her aura certainly helped to speed her recovery each time, but the infirmary staff insisted that they space out Blake's contributions by at least two weeks just to be safe, "Then you can ,"

Mina nodded her sober acknowledgement, "Thank you…"

"Don't mention it," Blake shook her head, "It's just one of the ways that I can show how much I love you, okay? It doesn't hurt that much, and besides… It's… kind of exciting…"

That restored Mina's trademark smirk, "Then we shall have to make an event of it…"

"Maybe…" Blake replied, playing coy perhaps just a little.

"Shall we use the shower then? Or something more… romantic… out under the moon and stars?"

Tempting choices… "I don't see why we couldn't do both…" Blake suggested shyly.

Mina's smile broadened, "I do like the way that you think Dearest…"

Blake pecked her on the lips before stepping away again, "We can look forward to it then. For now though…" Blake grabbed the hand in which Mina held the blood pack, lifting it to Mina's lips, "you need to drink this, and then we have class,"

Mina's pout returned, but she sank her fangs into the packet nonetheless.

Nodding her approval, Blake couldn't help but smile at the expression on Mina's face; she looked like a little girl stubbornly trying to look upset whilst drinking a juice pouch, Adorable…

Blake remembered fondly how Mina would always wear a similar, if more genuine expression when they were kids. Mina had been a very furtive and cautious girl at seven years old, and Blake didn't blame her; it was hard to even think about what Mina's life before the White Fang had been like given not only that she was a Faunus, and a blind one besides, and then there were her particular needs… That pout though, Blake would only ever see that when she offered Mina her wrist so that she could feed, and for the longest time, she didn't know why; Mina would never hesitate to accept when offered by anyone else after all. Still, she hadn't actually pressed Mina to explain it until they were twelve – in retrospect, around the time she started to recognize her own feelings for Mina – and Mina's hesitation started to hurt more than the bites.

"But you need it, don't you? Aren't you hungry?" Blake had asked imploringly on one occasion when Mina had been particularly reluctant to accept.

Mina had looked away, "Yes…"

"Then come on, I want to help you…"

"Does it not hurt?" Mina had asked, upset.

"Well…"

Blake hadn't known how to respond to that at the time; Mina's fangs were indeed a bit on the painful side, and letting Mina feed on her had taken more out of Blake then, but she had been determined, then as now, to help Mina.

"Yes…" Blake had finally admitted, "But you've always-, I mean-,"

At that, Mina had looked about ready to cry, and shook her head in refusal, "No! I do not like to hurt you!"

Blake shook her head vigorously in the negative, "No! It's not like that! I promise! It's just like when we share clothes!" Looking back, it was a weak argument, and Mina hadn't failed to notice.

"You do not drink my blood…"

"…" Blake had needed a minute to think before responding to that, abandoning that line of argument, "It's okay Mina… I want to help you…"

Thankfully Blake's insistence had eventually been enough to convince Mina, and however tentatively, she'd accepted Blake's offered wrist, not unlike how they'd first met. Blake had told herself at the time that she was just being a good friend, but she couldn't deny the blush or the warm fuzzy feeling she'd gotten when Mina was finished and thanked her with a big hug. Totally worth it… Blake had thought, and still did to this day.

She had been a lonely kid before she met Mina; despite having the White Fang as a sort of cobbled-together home and family, and the conviction that she wanted things to be better for Faunus, at seven years old she was pretty much alone with her books when she wasn't demonstrating. She really hadn't known how to describe what she'd felt at the time when she met Mina, but retrospectively, it probably started with pity, and then, finding that Mina would cling to her and hang on her every word, excitement that she would finally have a friend her own age. Perhaps it had been somewhat selfish of her to think this way, but Blake had especially enjoyed having someone in her life who never had a higher priority in life than her friendship; Blake mentally cringed a bit as she acknowledged that this thinking had essentially positioned herself as a massive emotional crutch for Mina from the outset, but things had worked out alright.

Blake had still been learning to read at the time they'd met too, and having learned that Mina was blind, Blake had been determined to master it. Reading aloud to Mina had helped, even if Blake had been jerky and stilted in her readings at first, and she loved it when Mina would cuddle up close to listen. Little Mina would listen, wide-eyed and with rapt attention as Blake relayed tales of heroes, princesses, and romance to her from the pages, and awed as she was, would asked Blake if it was all true; apparently no one had ever read to her before and she didn't have much concept of 'fiction.' Blake fondly remembered a particular instance when she had just finished reading Mina a fairy tale when they were nine, and, her pale blue eyes brimming with sincerity, Mina had asked Blake if she would be her Prince Charming; Blake had laughed it off at the time, explaining to Mina that the 'Prince Charming' in the story was a dashing young man, and Mina had looked away, replying with a disappointed 'oh' and nothing more.

There was also their sharing clothes of course. Mina had only the tattered and oversized shirt and threadbare leggings that she'd been wearing when Blake had found her, and so while she didn't have much herself, Blake was quick to dress Mina in her spares. As a consequence of this though, her clothes wore out faster – seams would come undone, threads would unravel – and Blake would begin to worry what they were going to wear; the White Fang didn't have a lot of money for replacements after all. It had been when Mina had caught on to these worries that she had scrounged a needle and some thread, quietly setting about the task of patching holes and mending tears; apparently Mina's mother had taught her to sew – and quite well, considering her young age – and knit as well, as became apparent when Mina surprised Blake that winter by presenting her with a blanket she'd made with odds and ends of yarn that she'd gathered together. It was small, but it was warm, and that night was especially cozy when they'd shared it.

Cold wasn't the only reason they'd shared a cot back then though; Mina had also once been prone to nightmares. She never would talk about them; just wake up crying, and after a while, Blake would wake up in the morning with Mina snuggled close unannounced, sometimes clinging to Blake for comfort. It was around this point that Blake started to puzzle out that maybe Mina was more than just a particularly shy orphan, but she never asked what her nightmares were about; she didn't want to make Mina think about them while she was awake too, and she'd never liked to see Mina cry. Instead, she would let Mina cuddle up whenever she wanted, no matter how late Mina came sniffling to her bed.

Eventually they started combat training together around the time that the White Fang's leadership changed. They were told that they would use the skills that they were learning and the weapons that they were training with to protect the people they cared about from the Grimm or whatever else, and while Mina had been surprisingly emphatic about doing so, at first it hadn't seemed that she was suited for it; her blindness was just too much of an obstacle. The best that she could manage while Blake was learning to use a sword was to swing in the general direction of a target and throw knives, and while she did better than could have been expected – probably on account of her uncannily sharp ears, even for a Faunus – her accuracy was mediocre at best, and even then, only if the target made noise. That was a hard time for both of them; Mina because she had to struggle against failure after failure, and for Blake because she had to watch as Mina gradually lost what little faith in herself that she had and began to suffer from episodes of depression. Blake remembered becoming more and more worried, but there wasn't much else that she could do, as she was already trying to help her train in every spare moment, even at the expense of their reading time. It was puzzling though; Mina didn't seem very motivated – at least not to fight for their rights – but nonetheless she refused to stop training.

Things changed again shortly after Mina's thirteenth birthday though. She'd been having a rougher week than usual in training, and her nightmares had been more intense and frequent than usual. It all came to a head one night when Mina had woken suddenly in a cold sweat and breathing heavily, and unfortunately, Blake had gotten up to get a drink in the middle of the night, and so wasn't in the room when Mina woke. What Blake remembered most about that night was the way that Mina had founder in the communal kitchenette and nearly tackled her, sobbing. It was also the only time Mina ever volunteered any details about her dream.

"Blake! I… I thought that…."

"M-mina?" Blake had asked nearly dropping the little paper cup she'd been drinking from, "What's wrong?"

"I thought… I thought that you had gone…"

Mina had been shaking as she stood there, not letting go, and Blake felt a lump forming in her throat as she saw the tears streaming down Mina's face, "It's okay…" She patted Mina awkwardly on the back, "I'm right here… You found me, see? Only…?"

"Hmmm?" Mina sniffled.

"…The bunks are on the other side of the building… How did you find me?"

Mina was quiet for a moment as she collected her thoughts and calmed her breathing, "I… I just did…"

When Blake had gingerly broached the subject with their instructor the next morning, it seemed that the conclusion was obvious: waking up in a panic, Mina had finally gotten in touch with her semblance. Thanks to her newfound spatial awareness, Mina was suddenly the most alert of the trainees, and with a little more practice for coordination's sake, she was more accurate too. The best part though, for Blake at least, was the way that Mina would light up and joyfully turn to her and ask if she'd seen it every time she'd done something correctly. In what had then been the six years of their friendship, Blake had never seen her so happy.

It's like she's just doing it for me… In hindsight, that had been exactly the case, but that mattered little then and less now; it was just comforting to know that there was at least one person in the world who genuinely lived for her sake. It made Blake feel valued, regardless of how the rest of the world treated her.

"Dearest?" Blake was snapped out of her reveries as Mina addressed her, head tilted, "Shall we be along then?"

Blake shook her head to gather her wits, "Oh uh… yeah. Did you-?"

"Yes Dearest, the empty pouch is in its proper little disposal box. Though it seems that someone was not paying attention…" Mina interrupted, "What was it that so preoccupied your thoughts?" Mina draped her arms over Blake's shoulders, "Something good, I hope?"

Blake smiled, giving her a peck on the lips, "Just some memories; nothing to worry about,"

Mina raised an eyebrow, "You mean like my sixteenth birthday-?"
"No Mina…" Blake rolled her eyes.

Mina sighed, "Very well then… Shall we go?"

Blake nodded, "Yeah… hopefully we won't be late…"

Author's Note: Hello all, and happy Easter/day of no particular significance depending upon whether you care and when you are reading this! I hope you all enjoyed these reminiscences about little moe mini Mina and itty bitty Blake… (Oh… God, I am so sorry for that… it didn't sound so stomach-churningly saccharine in my head…). At any rate, and misguided attempts at alliteration aside, I wanted to take another look at their history, and I do hope that you enjoyed it. As always, reviews & comments are welcome, and have a nice day/evening/whenever you happen to be reading this.

t one should be up at some point this weekend. As always, feel free to leave your thoughts. See you next time.