May 2013

Because I watched H&G on the flight to England a couple weeks ago and I needed to play with the sudden head-canon that Hansel knew all along.

Two postings in one month what is this madness.

Call it another hare-brained drabble.

It always bothered her. That he seemed to know, and wouldn't say. That he so fervently dodged her questions. That no matter what way she tried, he always gave the same, finalizing answer: "We don't talk about that."

It worked when she was a child, when she followed him everywhere like a baby duckling, blindly, endlessly trusting that whatever Hansel said, was best.

But now Gretel was all grown up. Now she was deciding things for herself. Now she'd discovered something and it was all he could do to hold himself in.

The murmurs in the night she could barely remember, but he could. Their mother, whispering Blessings over her children night after night until they took hold permanently. Hansel remembered every syllable. Until their father took them out into the night, for the last time.

Gretel never knew a thing. Never even thought of it. Only ever asked what happened, why. All those years of lying – he had no idea why witch magic didn't work on them, he had no idea why their parents abandoned them. No idea, whatsoever.

She'd called him on it before, why he was so content to accept that Mum and Father were gone, and move on with only that in his cap. He'd always played it off on being the gruff older brother who had to be tough for his baby sister to be strong, too. That wasn't it at all, though – he knew.

Part of him wished she didn't have to find out the way she did. That he could have told her. But he'd been too scared.

And now Gretel knew. She knew in the wrong way.

He saw how the Grand Black Witch's wand glowed in his sister's hand. The darkness planted in her. It scared him.

All Hansel had ever worried about, was protecting Gretel.

But he'd never imagined how he would have to save her.

Granted, we do see that Gretel turned out all right by the time they got to the desert, but AU-fic exists for a damn good reason.

I have no idea if I'll ever do anything more with this one, though I sure would like to...

Thank you for reading! :D