Hey, This is my first BBB fanfic so I hope you like it. Please give me some feed back! (I'm only going to write this for this chapter, it applies to the whole story, I don't own BBB)

"I…..I have…..I have something I need to tell you..."

She wasn't exactly sure how she was going to complete this task. For months now, no years, she had been debating over whether or not to admit her true feelings for the black haired black blood. She never felt this way about anyone, nothing even close to this. Mimiko looked down at her feet awkwardly running her foot along the carpet, more to remind herself that she was standing, and that this was real, not an imagination.

A sad and concerned expression crossed Jiro's face, one that Mimiko had seen many times when she ended up in dangerous situations, due to her high risk career choice. Being a compromiser put her in situations that, at times, could get out of hand and become dangerous. She supposed that this was the reason that The Company had Jiro stay with her. She seamed to be given all of the potentially higher risk situations over the past two years and half of the time Jiro ended up having to keep things from getting out of hand.

"What's wrong?"

At first Mimko crossed her arms at her chest, for a long moment she wondered if Jiro was playing dumb or if he didn't have a clue about how she felt. Over the past two years Jiro and Mimiko's relationship had grown closer. Although they were still just completely plutonic friends, tension between them had grown to an almost unbearable point. At least on Mimiko's side it felt unbearable. She wished that Jiro would be the one to say something first, or to act first. Wasn't the guy suppose to make the first move? That's how it always worked in the movies….that was how Mimiko wanted it to happen. She wasn't exactly sure what she should do next or even how to put it. Grant it she had gone over this exact situation hundreds, no thousands, of times in her head…but nothing ever went the way she planned it. Mimi licked her chapped lips and took a long breath while glancing out the warehouse windows at the setting sun. She looked back at Jiro with a new calm, and confidence, she moved her hands to her hips, looking directly into Jiro's eyes.

"Jiro…..you say you've been alive for a hundred years…you say you can read people, you know when people are telling the truth or are lying….can't you tell how I feel?"

As Mimiko trailed off she returned her eyes to the floor just in front of where Jiro was standing. Dam it Mimiko, that's not what I wanted to say, it should have been very direct….I'm a direct person…..You can do this just put some dam words together and tell him how you feel!

Mimi sighed audibly as she was trying to think of something else to say without having to just blurt out that she was in love with Jiro, she didn't want to use the word Love. Love was a serous word these days and in the case of being rejected she wanted to be able to deny the whole thing as a simple physical attraction. She might have loved Jiro but she also loved being a compromiser. She was a veteran now of dealing with situations in and outside of the special zone. She may have just been a compromiser but The Company did recognize the importance and unmatched skills of the Silver Blade. Since their partnership Mimiko had noticed that her position within The Company had changed and she had a lot more influence on the overall goals and direction that The Company took with certain aspects of the special zone.

"Mimiko….It's because of who I am…I'm a black blood….I'm a vampire…Humans are naturally attracted to vampires…..It's not your fault"

Mimiko wasn't blinded by this fact. Humans were naturally attracted to vampires, she always thought of it as Mother Nature's way of letting vampires feed on humans. This natural attraction was what black bloods used to find a red blood in to feed on. However, in the special zone this was not something many would tolerate. Especially since the humans knew nothing about the different affiliate houses living here.

However, Mimiko also wasn't blinded by the fact that she interacted with black bloods on a daily basis. Every single day Mimiko met with a dozen black bloods dealing with situations that arose, and while retrieving vital information from all of the affiliate houses that assisted her. Even after dealing with all of these black bloods she had never once been nearly attracted to them as she is attracted to Jiro.

"I'm also the only black blood that has bitten you…it's only natural for you to feel a connection with me…"

Jiro stared quizzically at Mimiko as if to ask if he was getting through to her. For a few moments Mimiko stared back into his eyes with a sad and tired look before her eyes again dropped to the ground. Her shoulders sagged forward, which looked odd since Mimiko normally had spectacular posture. She took another deep breath and audibly released a sigh of confusion. She didn't even know what to say. All day she had been planning hundreds of comebacks for Jiro's endless excuses but currently she couldn't find a single one to fill the silence.

"Mimiko, all I'm trying to say here is that it's not your fault you're attracted to me, so you shouldn't let it bother you"

Jiro tried to perk up the end of the sentence to make Mimiko feel better; he even smiled to show her that everything would be okay. However, a long moment passed where Mimiko didn't move a muscle in her body, her expression didn't change, and if Jiro wasn't a black blood he would have thought she had stopped breathing all together. Finally, Mimiko took another deep breath and returned her gaze to Jiro. She was smiling, and although her mind was telling her not to, her body told her to smile, she had an actual genuine smile on her face. She wasn't exactly sure where it came from, but she was smiling.

"Yeah, your right….I didn't think of it that way."

Out of the hundreds of times Mimiko ran this conversation through her head the majority of them included what Jiro had just said. However, none of them ended with Mimiko agreeing that she was just confused about what she wanted. Mimiko knew what she wanted. She wanted love, she wanted someone to want her back and she right now she wanted Jiro to want her.

"I'm sorry Jiro, I'm going to go shower…..I feel gross, today was a long day"

Jiro smiled happily hoping that he had cleared this situation up. However, deep down inside Jiro also knew that Mimiko was not over this. He knew that a simple conversation would not clear up her feelings for him. He wasn't an idiot. Like Mimiko said, he has been alive for over a hundred years. Although he was in love with Alice Eve the entire time he was a vampire he knew how things worked outside of relationships. He had learned over time to discern lies, traitors, and crooks but he had also developed a keen ability for detecting tension. Within the past year Jiro had noticed a lot of tension between himself and Mimiko. It wasn't something that would ruin their friendship so he never mentioned anything about. He also noticed, however, that her hectic job, with The Company working her to the bone, she didn't ever go out to have fun with friends other than him and Kataro. He had mentioned it to her previously that he wouldn't mind if she went out on the town, however Mimiko just tossed it aside saying she had too much to worry about with all of the problems concerning black bloods in the special zone.

Mimiko grabbed some fresh clothes and headed for the shower, a nice hot shower was what she needed right now. While she let the water run all of the dirt and sweat from the day away she went over and over again in her head what Jiro said. Maybe he was right; maybe she was just attracted to him because she hadn't been bitten by another black blood or because she hadn't actually had a boyfriend worth mentioning her entire life. It wasn't that she was avoiding a relationship, it just never happened to be something that was a priority on her list. She liked helping others and caring for people, both red and black bloods. With her busy life she never had a chance to really meet anyone. Maybe all she needed was a night out to enjoy her youth and to clear her head. She knew she could at least use a large portion of alchohol to push the conversation that just occurred between Jiro and her to the back of her mind.

Mimiko slowly got out of the shower and took her time blow drying her hair and getting dressed for bed. She was exhausted from the day. They had escorted several high priority black bloods from far away into the special zone, and dealt with a rouge vampire that was starting to wreck havoc and killing red bloods around the 3rd district. As she stepped out of the bathroom she let the rush of dry air from the warehouse steal any remaining moisture left on her skin. She headed towards the corner of the warehouse that had been partitioned off as her bedroom. On her way she noticed Jiro sitting on the couch, reading some form of newspaper.

"Jiro, I decided that I'm going to go out with Hibari for my birthday next weekend, after the incident with that black blood today and all this hard work The Company has been throwing at us, I think I just need some down time"

Jiro nodded as Mimiko continued to walk towards her room; however when she could no longer see his face a fanged smiley emerged from him. Jiro thought to himself that maybe a conversation was all she needed. Jiro took a deep breath as he leaned back against the couch and allowed the paper to float onto his lap. He stared up at the ceiling of the warehouse and remembered the conversation that occurred between Jinnai and himself more than a year ago. Jinnai unfortunately reviled that he was no longer able to fight alongside Jiro like he had in the Hong Kong Explosion. Jiro was already aware that he was unable to fight, put up against one angry vampire and Jinnai might make it out alive, but more than a handful and he would certainly fall. In Hong Kong Jinnai had fought near Jiro almost the entire time, grant it he wasn't killing nearly as many Kowloon as Jiro was, however he was holding his own.

Jiro also specifically remembered the revealing moment that the Kowloon King, who Jiro so desperately fought back in Hong Kong, was being kept in the 11th yard. This fact was aggravating to Jiro, why had they not disposed off the ashes in the ocean, why were they being kept in the 11th yard? Jiro had pondered this many times and had attempted to ask Rinsuke however Cain and Sei hadn't revealed any information to him. (Jiro may or may not have used Eye Raid to ensure this fact) Jiro understood that it wasn't that Cain and Sei wanted to keep it from him, however the Special Zone had rules and one of those was that certain secrets were to be kept between the heads of the affiliate houses until it was necessary for it to be released. Jiro supposed that he didn't need to know why Adam Wong's ashes were being kept in the Special Zone, only that he needed to make sure no Kowloon ever got their hands on them.

Jiro finally remembered Jinnai directing him to stay with Mimiko, and to protect her and the Lord Sage. Jinnai hadn't had to tell Jiro to protect the Lord Sage; it was his job and life now to protect Kotaro. However, he had contemplated just as much over the Kowloon king as he did over the fact that Jinnai made absolutely sure he specified that Jiro protect Mimiko equally as much as he did the Lord Sage. There had to be some reason for this of which Jiro had yet had an opportune moment to ask Jinnai about it. Currently Jiro's thoughts returned back to the Cassandra and whether or not she was planning on attempting to enter the Special Zone again. If she comes near Kataro again I'll finally end her existence. Jiro's rage for Cassa was never ending, the pain she caused Jiro for betraying them and killing Alice couldn't never be forgiven.

Jiro slowly began to drift into sleep after he had laid his head back on the couch. He too was tired from the work that The Company had been throwing their way. The work did allow him to keep up his hand to hand and sword combat skills however, he too felt like he needed a little break. It didn't help that it had been a long time since he had blood that wasn't supplied to him in a plastic bag. Now that he thought about it, the last time he had blood that wasn't from a plastic bag was from Mimiko when Cassa was in the Special Zone. Jiro must have drifted off into sleep because that was the last thing he thought about.

Meanwhile, Mimiko walked into her bedroom feeling clean and fresh after the long, hot shower. She stretched and yawned several times as she checked her cell phone for messages and set her alarm clock for the morning. It was only Tuesday and she had three more days of work until the weekend. She texted Hibari

'Hey! Wanted to know if you wanted to go out with me this weekend! It's my 23rd Birthday!'

She placed her phone on the night stand as she crawled into her sheets. Mimiko loved the feeling of fresh sheets after a shower, it made her feel more relaxed and although she couldn't prove it she felt like she slept better. Just as she laid her head down on the pillow she heard her phone vibrate from a text message, obviously from Hibari.

"OMG, Mimiko you are SO OLD! Of course we'll go out. Boss said I have to keep you happy anyways. I just heard about a new place down by you in the Old Yard. (^_^)"

"I AM NOT OLD!" She hoped that Hibari could feel her anger through the phone. Hibari had just turned 20, but still, 3 years was not that much older. Hibari could be abrasive at times, but they were still friends. They had become kind of even close over working near each other in the past year. Being compromisers their jobs seemed to over lap almost on a weekly basis. Although Mimiko had her suspicions that the boss had added her happiness to Hibari's job description….she could tell when Hibari was being true or not.

"I'm just kidding Mimiko! I'll see you Friday! (^_^)"

Mimi put her phone back on the night stand and turned her light off. Her bed was by the window and she was able to look up at the clouds and moon as she was trying to fall asleep. She wished she could see the stars; however the lights from the special zone concealed them. As Mimiko stared up at the sky she slowly drifted into sleep as she rested up for another day of work tomorrow.

Hope you like it! Please read and Review!