Neither of them was sure how it actually happened.

They had been friends - the best of friends - for years.

How they met, and how they became friends, was certainly far from ordinary. Perhaps that was why they clicked together so easily. There were no questions, no doubts; it was just simply that they trusted each other explicitly, and that they would so easily show their backs to each other as comrades-in-arms without hesitation.

Troubling situations, emotionally or otherwise, even danger, death; they had faced them together, more than just a few times.

Naturally, a bond would be forged. A bond stronger than steel, harder than diamond. Not cursed, but blessed. Unbreakable. Untainted. More than best friends, but not quite lovers.

Sister-like, perhaps?

One was no stranger to physical contact. She loved it, in fact. Maybe it was because she relished seeing those cheeks blaze so easily, or maybe it was because the other was warm...truly, truly warm.

While she, on the other hand, was unused to being touched, let alone being hugged on an almost daily basis; it made her heart beat go up, and it would make her face redden.

But it was only a matter of time before she came to expect a tug of hand or a glomp out of nowhere - though perhaps prior training from her own familiar helped - and in time, too, she came to respond, despite being more subtle.

There were times when they were apart for days, weeks, perhaps even months - but it would change nothing between them. All it took was a quirk of lips, a smile, and they would naturally fall in step with each other again, as if those days apart never passed.

So when did things change, exactly?

When did they start to look at each other differently?

It h