Blessed, and, we earned them and likewise they earned us. Not many know that blood is thicker than water is a distorted edit of "the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb." Now that full quote is open to a religious interpretation but I choose to interpret the covenant as an agreement between friends.

I wrote this tanka and explanation many Medium moons ago: https://medium.com/p/c3f8645c856f