After the whole mess with the witch with the house made out of candy, Hansel hadn't had anybody except for his sister. She hadn't had anybody but him either though, so it kind of balanced. They had each other, and that was it. They depended on each other, they comforted each other, and they trusted each other. They only trusted each other. No one else.
They killed more witches over the years. They'd developed something of a prejudice against them, after their first encounter with the evil old hag in the candy house that wanted to eat them, and had effectively poisoned Hansel by force-feeding him too much candy. That their witch-killing had saved other children was a nice bonus, as was the money they got from the hunting, but they hunted the witches because they were witches, not because they'd taken kids or because of the reward.
Hansel was, admittedly, a bit more prejudiced than his sister. Gretel insisted on making sure that it was a witch they were killing, and not some innocent woman. A witch was rotten, and it showed. In her teeth, skin and eyes, and Gretel insisted on making sure that these traits were present before the suspect was burned. Most witches, it was pretty damn obvious. Some of them though, some of them were more subtle.
Hansel didn't much care, one way or another. If a woman was suspected, he'd be fine with burning her, just in case. Gretel kept him tempered, and had saved a whole lot of women from the stake.
The latest woman who he'd checked, and verified as clean of that rot most recently was called Mina. As part of the service, he'd made it clear that anybody attempting to harm the innocent woman would have to go through him. He was all for burning anybody suspect, but the woman was clean, so she was no longer suspect, and Gretel had impressed upon him a particular desire to make sure that innocent women weren't killed.
She was the first one to actually... want to return the favour though. Other women who'd been accused of witchcraft had just run. They'd done the sensible thing and just plain cleared out of the places where they weren't wanted. Mina hadn't just stuck around though, she'd actually helped him out.
She'd helped him up when he'd fallen from that tree, taken him to a healing spring and tended to all of his injuries, and then she'd... well. That had been nice. That had been very nice. He'd never done that before, what with him having only ever had his sister for company, and, well, there were some things that siblings, however close they were, just didn't do together.
And then she'd asked if he'd come back and see her after he found his sister. He'd have been more offended if she hadn't already told him that no one in the town would even look at her. With the accusations that she was a witch, he could understand that. No town ever accused pretty young women of being a witch if they didn't already dislike her and her habits generally.
"Yes," he told her, smiling. "Of course," he added, and happily kissed her.
Hell, he wasn't some scoundrel, whatever some people thought. Having just... well. He fully intended to marry her as soon as this witch-hunt was dealt with.
He found more than just his sister though, after he left Mina. He found their old house, built over a definitely irregular witch's lair, and while they were there, they finally got the truth behind what had happened to their parents.
From a Grand Witch, of all people.
Their mother was a witch. A Grand White Witch, apparently. A witch that, according to the Grand Witch, was of a distinctly different sort. Then again, Grand Witches could hide what they were but... then there was them.
And then Mina had come and saved him again, but he was just too worried and confused to make much sense of it – and then she said "something that can help us." Not 'you', meaning only and exclusively him, but us. A witch that was willing to help him hunt down other witches. A witch that had cared for him, healed him, a witch whose magic worked on him when none of the other witches spells had ever touched him or his sister. A witch like his mother had been.
A witch, a woman, who said 'us'. She was going to help.
Even when he'd told her he hadn't yet met a witch he didn't want to kill... well. He was re-evaluating that now. She'd shown gratitude in town, help in the woods, and then she'd told him he talked too much. And now she was helping him get his sister back.
Mina had never fired a gun before, never used a weapon of any kind, according to her, but there she was, ready to fire on a whole lot of witches with the biggest gun he and Gretel had ever come up with for hunting witches with. A gun that she'd blessed using the spells from a book that had been owned by his mother.
It was a situation he knew that she hadn't ever been in before, and really, she – and the kids – all handled it remarkably well.
"And where are you going?" he yelled after Gretel when she started to run off after they'd dealt with most of the witches.
Most. Not all. And she was going in the wrong direction.
"I have to help Edward," she answered.
"Edward. Who the fuck's Edward?" he demanded.
"Troll, saved me," she replied shortly, and then just kept going.
"Fine," Hansel grumbled. "There's clearly no stopping her. Mina, do you want to stay behind from here? Help the kids get back to the village? Or..."
"I'm coming with you," she answered firmly.
Hansel couldn't believe that they ended up back at the candy cottage of so long ago.
"Is this...?" Ben asked. Why had he let the fan-boy come along again?
"Yeah yeah yeah," he groused. "Whatever you do, don't eat the fuckin' candy."
Behind him, there was a thud, and of course he brought up his gun as he turned around.
Mina was on the ground, and the witch had Ben held in front of her, wand to his throat, like a shield, only her face visible over his shoulder, one hand around his neck to hold him in place.
Hansel, having already been creeped out by Ben – and the boy having only very slightly redeemed himself by having managed to land a hit on the witch a little earlier – didn't hesitate.
He shot at the witch's face.
He'd already had a few successful head-shots that night, and it really was all that he could hit of the witch.
Granted, he wasn't always the best shot, but she wasn't moving a whole lot, even if she had a human shield. Hansel was rather pleased with the way her head just exploded, neat as you please. That she'd shoved her rather pointed wand up into Ben's cheek was slightly less awesome, but the kid would probably be just fine.
Hansel was more worried about Mina.
"Hey," he said as he knelt down beside her. "You alright?"
"Yes," she answered, and smiled up at him. "Yes, I'm alright."
Hansel couldn't help the relieved smile that spread across his face. "Good," he decided, and bent down to kiss her.
He felt her smile for a moment before she kissed him back. Now, the current witch-hunt was over, his sister was somewhere taking care of a troll, but otherwise just fine, and he had something he wanted to ask the beautiful woman in his arms. The beautiful woman who was also a witch, and for once, he had no desire to see a witch dead.
"Will you marry me?" he asked softly as he broke away from her.
Mina blinked up at him, stunned.
"It's not exactly the most stable life," he admitted when she didn't answer him straight away. "Me and Gretel, we're pretty much always on the move, hunting down witches, but you could come with us, please?" he begged, his voice small but thankfully not having to travel far to reach her ears.
"I will," she agreed, and a bright smile lit her face. "Yes, Hansel. I'll marry you."
Hansel smiled back brightly, and kissed her again.
"You gotta be fuckin' kidding me," he heard a familiar voice say as he helped Mina off the ground.
"On the bright side, the witch is already dead," Hansel offered, and pointed his gun at where the Grand Witch lay, headless.
Gretel smiled weakly back and shook her head.
"Did I miss anything else?" she asked.
"Well, I asked Mina to marry me," Hansel answered with a happy smirk.
Gretel blinked in surprise, and turned a questioning gaze to Mina.
Mina smiled back. "And I said yes," she told the young woman who would soon be her sister-in-law. "I liked being able to help with hunting the dark witches, and... I'll be able to help you learn what it means to be a white witch," she added to Gretel.
"I hadn't even thought of that," Hansel admitted, but he was still smiling. "So, Edward?" he asked Gretel.
"He's alright now, and I insist that he comes with us when we leave," Gretel answered. "He'll come in handy. I know he will."
Hansel nodded. "Yeah, yeah, okay," he agreed. He was bringing a witch along on their witch-hunts, he couldn't really tell his sister to not bring along a troll. No way was he letting the creepy stalker fan-boy come with them though. No way.
~The End~