A/N: Grimm/Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters crossover. Hansel and Gretel are Grimms! LOL. Rosalee and Monroe don't appear in this first chapter, but don't worry, they'll be in this; they're my Grimm OTP, so I can't leave them out.

Read, enjoy, and review if you like!

Grimm In Love

Chapter 1: Copper & Candy

Opening Quote: "Alas!" Said She, "I Believed Him True To Me, But He Has Forgotten Me."

Lately, Nick had been having a lot of dreams about houses. Burning houses. Big-ass mansions made of copper and candy, going up in flames, melting to the ground in hot puddles of metal and sugary goo.

He tried his best not to bother Juliette with these bizarre nightmares. After all, she'd had enough problems lately, thanks to him. He was already putting her through so much worry. Turning into a zombie, looking comatose, fighting more Wesen than ever...

Yes, whenever possible, it was best to spare her.

And, thanks to his new abilities, he realized he was getting better at not jumping up in a cold sweat or panting or doing anything else that would give his imaginary troubles away. Nick could wake up, calm and collected, no problems, half a slow smile already forming, from any given nightmare. Sometimes, for ever increasing minutes, he didn't even remember them. It was all blackness. Then it would come back. The longest it had ever taken was until he'd been getting dressed. That had been kind of weird, since for a second there he couldn't figure out where the melting houses in his mind had come from, until the fact that it was a dream -a nightmares of sorts- came back, slowly, spilling into his mind like flowing thick chocolate batter, or molasses.

This morning, though, it was harder to forget about his dreams once they'd come back, because Juliette was making some kind of gingerbread house for a holiday fundraiser at the vet's office.

And here it was, a perfect miniature of a candy house, right in the middle of Nick's kitchen. Oh, joy...

"Hey." Juliette smiled at him, licked a bit of icing shingle off her fingers, and made a grab for the coffeepot. "Coffee?"

Nick grinned. "Yeah, sure." He was still so happy to have her back in his life, without any trouble, without memory loss, without secrets. Nothing was standing between them anymore. Everything should have been perfect. Maybe, in a way, it was. Maybe this was as close to perfect as the life of a Grimm could ever get.

And honestly? Nick thought he could make do with that.

"Here you go." Juliette handed him a steaming mug.

"Thanks." Nick reached for it, only for his iphone to go off as soon as his fingers made contact with the warm porcelain. "Damn." Answering, he sighed, "Burkhardt."

Juliette looked down at her feet, disappointed. She knew what that apprehensive expression on her boyfriend's face meant; they were calling him in.

"Homicide a few streets away," Nick announced, after hanging up and putting his phone back in his pocket. "Gotta go." With that, he gave Juliette a quick peck on the mouth, took a single swig of coffee before putting it in the sink, and fast-walked right out of there.

"See you when you get back, Nick..." she called after him, not sure he'd actually heard.

This was not something she was glad to remember: him always going, work always calling him away. Sure, she got called away for emergencies when people's pets got sick, all the time, but somehow that just felt different.

As soon as Nick arrived at the scene, Hank and Sergeant Wu showing up at the same moment in another car, seven grizzled old men came running out of the house to meet him.

It was a nice house, homey and old, sort of like a big two-storey cottage renovated. Kind of small for seven (or eight, assuming the victim lived here too) people, but cozy-looking and luxurious otherwise.

"That bitch killed her!" snapped the first man to make it to Nick. "I want her arrested!"

Two others, right at his heels, nodded in agreement, muttering angrily. One of them shook what looked like a rolling pin and stomped his foot in the grass. The others, slower, were sobbing too hard to talk properly. Even the first three -apparently fuming and out for blood- had swollen, puffy eyes, like they'd been crying.

"All right, all right." Nick held up his hands. "One at a time. What happened here?"

"Got a call in," read Sergeant Wu; "Young girl, Bianca Snowlight, age fifteen, living with her seven uncles, found dead less than an hour ago."

The uncles, still muttering about wanting some woman dead, led Hank, Nick, and Wu into the house, past a darkened living room with evergreen curtains, up a staircase, and into a pink bedroom where a girl's body was sprawled across the rose-and-snowflake patterned comforter.

"God," whispered one of the uncles. "She was so beautiful."

The girl had long dark hair, black but with dyed red-tinged streaks, fanning out around her corpse. Her skin, in death, was ashy white. There were no other marks on her body, or cuts to suggest how she'd gone.

"Poisoning?" Hank wondered aloud.

The oldest uncle, who indentified himself as Asher Dwarton, gritted his teeth. "Gee, you think?"

"Usually," the next brother whispered to Sergeant Wu, "he's got the nicest disposition. He wouldn't dream of scolding the police like this... But this is hitting him -all of us- really hard."

"That's understandable, Sir," Hank cut in. "But please cooperate. We only want to help."

"You can help," snapped Asher, "by arresting the psychotic bitch that did this."

"You have an idea who it was," Hank noted.

"No, we know who it was," choked the youngest uncle.

"It was her stepmother..." another one chimed in softly.

"Name?" Hank pulled out a notepad and pen.

"August Applesmith." Asher shook his head angrily. "You know, that woman is the reason Bianca lived with us, instead of with her father. She's always seen her as a threat."

"Her father is...your brother...?" Hank asked.

"No, thank God," growled Asher. "He's an idiot. No, we're her mother's brothers. She passed away five years ago. In a car crash. Bianca was only ten when it happened. I don't think she really...understood..."

Nick went closer to the body and realized something. No, it couldn't be... Could it? He put two gloved fingers to her neck, feeling the slightest trace of a pulse. "Oh my god." Apparently it could be. "Hank, she's still alive."

A shocked, collective murmur went through all seven uncles almost in a straight line.

Wu spoke rapidly into a walkie-talkie. "We need paramedics down here immediately."

"She's breathing," Hank noted, bending down next to Nick and feeling Bianca's pulse for himself. "But just barely. She's fading fast."

"Well, do something," Asher urged, wringing his hands. "Lift her up... Make her breathe!"

"Sir," said Nick slowly, "take it easy. We'll do everything we can." Carefully he lifted up the girl's back, trying to get her to sit up. Maybe if they could help her regain consciousness...

Just then, a jittery, dark-haired young man -around nineteen or twenty- came running in.

"You can't be in here," Sergeant Wu told him, holding up a hand to stop him from coming any closer. "This is a police investigation."

"Bianca!" he cried, trying to push past Wu's arm. "God...Jesus... What happened?"

Asher gave him a withering look. "Look, Mate, this is not the time. I told you I didn't want you around here no more."

"Please, let me through," begged the man. "My name's Carl Fieri. I'm her boyfriend."

"You're not her boyfriend, you sick, junkie pervert." The strongest-looking uncle, with the whitest beard (almost a red-neck Santa), glared at him. "If you'd stayed away from her like we told you to, none of this would have ever happened."

"How dare you!" Carl finally succeeded in pushing past Wu, leaning forward like he was going to make a lunge for the uncle.

"Everyone calm down." Hank put his hand on his gun, just in case. "There's no need for this. The important thing now is to try and help her."

Carl made his way over to Nick, Hank, and Bianca. He only meant to help, not to fight, but then, in a moment of weakness, the surge overtook him and Nick saw him woge.

He was a dragon-like Wesen. Daemonfeuer.

Both Hank and Carl seemed to register Nick's expression at the same time.

"Is he...?" began Hank.

"Sweet Jesus!" Carl stared at Nick in horror. "You're a...a..." A Grimm! "You..." He roughly snatched Bianca into his arms, as if to protect her. In his terror, he'd forgotten. Bianca wasn't Wesen. A Grimm wouldn't have any reason to harm her. "Don't hurt-"

"Take it easy!" Hank's gun was out now.

The jolt, however, had created a little miracle. Somehow, it had made Bianca vomit. A chunky slice of half-digested fruit (a peach? apple?) lay in a pool of brownish puke.

She gasped in air, coming back to life.

"Bianca!" Carl tightened his grip around her. "Oh thank god."

"Bianca," Nick said softly. "I'm with the police. The paramedics will be here soon."

"Arrest him," demanded Asher. "He and that stepmother of hers should both rot in jail."

"Whoa... Okay, what did we miss here?" asked Wu, confused. "Cuz all I saw was him trying to save her."

"He's corrupting a minor," Asher insisted. "He's way too old to date her. Thinks just because he can woo older woman at the drop of a hat, younger is all fine and dandy too."

"He's been having an affair with her stepmother for years," the Santa-like uncle added venomously, all but spitting in Carl's direction. "Now he's after Bianca."

"Carl..." moaned Bianca.

"I'm sorry, I have to go... You're safe here. He'll kill me," he whispered into her hairline before kicking at Hank's legs and making a jump for the window. Sprays of human fat bubbled up hitting poor, unsuspecting Wu in the face when he tried to pursue him.

"Stay with Bianca and Wu!" Nick called, running out the door and down the stairs. "I'll get Carl!"

Chasing Carl was no easy task. For someone so scrawny-looking and jittery, he was as fast as a squirrel. In fact, if Nick hadn't seen him woge into a Daemonfeuer, he would have thought he was some kind of skittish, fast-running rodent Wesen.

Even in his increased state of skill and speed, Nick felt sure he was going to lose him. "Carl! Come back! I'm not going to hurt you, but we need to talk! You know what I am, I know what you are...I'm a detective...all I want is to figure out if Bianca's life is still in danger after this... I need you to come back to the station with me."

Fat chance, thought Carl, currently curled up behind one of the trees only a few feet away from the spot where this horrible Grimm had almost caught up to him. Like any Wesen would be that stupid...

He jumped out from behind the tree, making a beeline away from Nick.

Nick saw him out of the corner of his eye and kept chasing.

Finally they came to an alleyway.

Carl set a fire with his human-fat breath to distract Nick and then dived into a dumpster.

The fire, an insubstantial thing, died out quickly and Nick was ready to resume the chase. Carl didn't get far, he was sure of that. The kid wasn't that smart. If he was, he would have kept running. But Nick was somehow positive the kid was trying to hide, making whatever was available a makeshift dragon's lair. One of the dumpsters was the obvious conclusion. Which one? There was the trickier part...

Suddenly, a grunt and scream rang out from the other side of the alleyway. Two slimmer figures, which appeared to be female, were fighting off a bulkier one in a hooded black cape.

"Take that!" one of the woman beings did a roundhouse kick that clipped the forehead of the cape-wearing man-thing.

Nick came closer. "Hey, stop right there." He flashed his badge. "Police!"

The hooded man punched the woman opposite to the one who'd clipped him in the jaw, knocking her down.

The woman rolled and pulled what Nick now saw was a crossbow on the hooded guy. "Let me go, or I'll nail your Reaper brains to the effing wall."

Reaper... Getting closer, Nick had realized the hooded man was holding a scythe.

"Oh, look, another Grimm with a death wish," the reaper taunted, his eyes darting from the woman with the crossbow to Nick with his badge and gun.

The woman who'd clipped him spat up something in his face and breathed fire.

Nick almost choked on his own spit. Oh come the heck on! Two Daemonfeuer in one day? What were the odds of that happening?

Yet here she was, this Daemonfeuer woman, in full woge, charging at the reaper.

Before Nick could think what to do next, the reaper was dead and the Daemonfeuer was looking up at him, her face shifting back to it's human-like form.

It was no stranger. He'd met this girl before. Except, she was supposed to be dead...

"Ariel?" gasped Nick. "Ariel Eberthart?"

She grinned, in that crazy way of hers, almost leering. "Hello again, Handsome."

"You're..."

"Alive?" She laughed, flicking back her hair. "Yeah, I know. Shocking, isn't it? Long time no see." She gestured at the dead Reaper. "You're welcome, by the way." With that, she disappeared into a smog-like mist Nick wasn't convinced she didn't somehow make herself.

"Ariel, wait..." a voice called after her.

But it wasn't Nick's. The woman on the ground slowly started to get up.

Nick ran over to help her, the reaper's words finally registering in his mind. Oh, look, another Grimm with a death wish...

Another Grimm...

And if he hadn't meant Ariel, the reaper must have meant this woman...

Nick gaped at her as she slipped out of his grip, taking her in. She was like him! A Grimm, in Portland. Since his mother left, he hadn't had another Grimm to talk to. He'd heard rumors of others like him, sure, but seeing one -meeting one- in person was completely different.

This tough, disheveled, brown-haired woman, dressed in leather and lace, scratches on her cheeks, just fighting side-by-side with a Daemonfeuer, was like...like...kin... It was like looking into a funhouse mirror. Nick looked at her and saw a vaguely distorted version of himself.

"I didn't know there were any other Grimms in Portland," she said, kind of quietly.

Nick breathed out, just realizing he'd been holding his breath. "Neither did I."

"Nice to meet you." She rubbed at a sore spot near her hip.

"Likewise."

"What's your name?"

"Nick," he told her. "What about you?"

"I'm Gretel."

A few blocks away, Ariel Eberhart was meeting someone at a cafe. She cleaned herself up in the bathroom and then walked over to his table. "Hey, Cuz. Still trying to kill your brain cells with Jay?"

"Not funny, Ariel." Carl glared at her over a mug of tea his badly shaking hands were barely able to keep their grip on.

"Aw, come on, I'm just messing with you." Ariel pouted and took a seat across from him. "You're my cousin, you know I love you even when you're high as flaming kite."

"Whatever. I'm getting clean," he said to his tea. "I have to. For Bianca."

"Come on, that's never going to work out."

"Will so."

"She doesn't even know what you are."

"She almost died today." He sniffed and rubbed the back of his hand against his nostrils. "She almost died, and I had to leave her there, all alone. One day it's going to be different. One day I'm going to tell her everything and-"

"And what?" Ariel prompted, shaking her head. "She'll understand and her uncles will just let bygones be bygones? I think you've got to slow down on the doses of Jay you're taking. No judgment, but you're starting to sound like a crazy person."

"Next time she needs me, that Grimm won't stand in my way."

"What Grimm?" Ariel asked, leaning forward. "Do tell."

Carl noticed a red mark on her chin and a spot of blood near one of her eyebrows. "You been in a fight?"

"Yes, with a Grimm, ironically enough."

"You fought a Grimm?" And he'd just run from his...

"No, no, you silly, I fought with a Grimm. Against one of those stupid Reapers."

"Ew, why?" He blew on his tea.

"I have my reasons."

"I say let the Reapers kill them all."

"Bite your tongue," sighed Ariel, clicking hers emphatically.

"So how many are there?"

"You mean Grimms? Here in Portland? Well, one girl and one guy. The guy's been here a long time." Ariel smirked, almost dreamily. "He's the one who helped my father."

"He doesn't happen to be a cop, does he?"

"Yep..." Ariel waved at one of the waiters, trying to get some tea for herself.

"I think that's my Grimm."

"Aw, you were scared of Nick?" she cooed.

"Of course I was!"

"Aw, he's not so bad."

"What do you think he'll do to me?"

Ariel snorted. "Nothing. If he comes after anyone, it'll be me."

"You kidnapped his girlfriend or something, right?"

"He has a hard time letting things go." A waiter put a cup down in front of her. "Thank you." She blew on the hot beverage. "Grimms and their silly grudges."

"And you're not even a little scared of him?"

She cocked her head. "Course not. He's the one who's scared of me. I baffle him just by being alive."

"Well, let's just hope you're right, Cuz." Carl shuddered. "No offense, but if you'd kidnapped Bianca, and I was a Grimm, I'd be coming after you with an ax."

"Hmm." Ariel licked her lips playfully. "Guess I'd better sleep with one eye open."