Comfort, the reassurance of another's touch, is exactly what she had been needing.
"Poor thing..." The whisper caresses her soul.
She'd cried herself out already so despite the emotions of the embrace, there are no more tears. She does tremble in the elf woman's arms, though, and wraps her own arms around the other girl for support if nothing else. The experience is only a few moments, but those seconds renew her very wounded spirit.
"I can give her the comfort she desires...if you can trust her," Strawberry practically sub-vocalizes into Minnie's inhuman and perceptive ears.
Minnie's breath catches at the offer, unsure what it means. She has a suspicion, though. She knows from experience that, while she couldn't leave her own body in magic space, others could. She also knows that out-of-body travel made a person even more vulnerable than she herself was in that strange parallel world.
"I do trust her," Minnie responds quietly. For the rest, she slips into astral speak since it was hard to share such things with a man nearby, even a gentleman like Athos. "I...I just don't ever want her to go through the pain I had to go through. Nagi...she's so full of life. She's so smart and yet so naive about the world. I...I'm not just afraid she'll be hurt in body but also that she'll end up changed by all this. The idea of us both carrying such demons scares me. I don't know if I could handle supporting her through what she's supported me through. It's too close to home."
She knows she's rambling. She knows she's being incredibly vulnerable with someone she barely know and had just met. Something about Strawberry reminds her of her mother, though. Her mother before things totally fell apart. Before the twins were born. It's strange considering she also desires Strawberry like a lover, but at this exact moment she feels like a child overwhelmed by fear at something she has to face but which seems too much to bear.
But she isn't a child anymore. She's a big mouse with responsibilities. So many people depend on her. Nagisa, yes. But also Athos. Perhaps Dame Valentina. Maybe even Strawberry herself. These bastards had shown themselves able to overwhelm Strawberry's defenses enough to set a well-designed array of explosives in the warehouse. What was to stop them from bringing in just one big bomb to blow apart this very building? As powerful as Strawberry seemed, Minnie knew full well that she was meat just like anyone else. She could be killed, and these people she was facing were not afraid of a body count.
It's hard, but she brings herself to separate from Strawberry's embrace. Her own brown eyes meet Strawberry's green ones. "I'll be grateful for what you can do, Strawberry," she says, "but don't take any risks for it. They already have Nagisa. We can't...I can't afford for them to have you, too."
