Thank you all for the reviews and faves. I am so sorry this took so long to post. I work FT and go to school, so haven't been able to work on it as much as I wanted. This chapter is a little shorter than I wanted it to be. I will update and re-post asap. Added a paragraph 2/16/13 to transition into Chapter 3.
Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden, five years earlier
"That's what you get, you old hag!", Gretel screamed as she tumbled on top of the headless body of the witch a millisecond after Hansel relieved her of it with his axe.
Hansel threw his axe to the ground as Gretel proclaimed victory over the nasty old beast and then looked up at him glaringly, "Well are you gonna help me up off this pile of shit?" With a quick flash of his hand, she was off the ground and in his arms. "Do you want a little blood to remember her by?", she chuckled as she wiped off her hands on his jacket.
They roared uncontrollably in laughter, twinkles in their eyes as they play fought each other, forgetting the hordes of townspeople surrounding them and the now defunct witch. An uncomfortable throat clearing brought them out of their victory dance. It was the mayor of the city and he looked none too happy to be standing in front of a headless witch. "Excuse me, witch hunters, but what do we do with it now?", he paused with great reverence has he looked down upon the body and then glanced over his shoulder to where the head lay at a man's feet. Hansel smirked at his sister and said, "I got this one." Turning around to the mayor, he aloofly exclaimed, "Burn it, burn all of it, until there is nothing left but ashes, oh, and don't forget to burn her damn wand too!"
With that he and Gretel turned on their heels and headed off for the Pub never missing a beat as their footsteps trailed off together in unison down the cobbled street.
Of course, several of the townsfolk followed them to the Pub, some in awe of their accomplishment and others still so scared out of their heads at what they just witnessed. Everyone needed a pint or two to bring them back down to earth and relief to shaky hands. After a couple of hours, several rounds of drinks and quite a few toasts to the witch hunters, Hansel being quite drunk and tiring of the crowd of hangers-on readied himself to retire to the room they rented above the brewhaus. He looked around for Gretel and found her over in the corner sitting on top of a table with several men surrounding her, laughing as she reminisced out loud about one of their wild ass witch kills, where an axe just wouldn't do. He leaned back against the post, casually drinking his ale and taking in the expressions on the men's faces as they accosted his sister with their eyes. It was typical wherever they went, as Gretel was quite beautiful with her flowing dark hair and porcelain skin. The leather pants didn't help her cause. Men just loved the leather pants she wore. He took note of one man in particular, a redheaded man with a wiry beard whose eyes almost bore a hole right through Gretel. He did not care for the man's looks or the sinister demeanor aimed at his sister. Hansel could tell this guy wasn't listening to Gretel's tale in hopes of spending a few more minutes in awe of this beauty, this man either wanted to best her in battle or to dominate her in bed. The last part of that thought made him cringe as he sucked in his breath and made his way over to the table.
Hansel waited patiently and continued to nurse his beverage as Gretel wrapped up her last story. He stood right behind the redheaded jackass just waiting for him to make a move towards his sister. And of course, as he suspected, said jackass spoke up and crudely remarked, "You're just a woman, you are no match for a real man, maybe a witch, but not a man."
Gretel cocked her head and made bug eyes at Hansel before jumping off the table and striking the man in the face with her fist. Blood squirted out of his nose and he reached out and grabbed her hair and tried to drag her to the floor, but Hansel threw an arm around Big Red's neck and stopped him in his tracks. Gretel reached up and hit him in the face again, so he would let go of her hair. As the man's breath became ragged from near asphyxiation, she belted out one last insult, "You goddmamned bastard! Do you know how long it takes me in the morning to fix my hair?" She smarted over her the pain in her scalp, but managed to laugh at her own joke.
Hansel released his grip around the man's neck just as he started to pass out. He let the jackass fall to the floor and looked up at the other men, daring them to retaliate. No one stepped up to challenge him, so Hansel picked up his stein and went to the bar for another refill. Gretel followed him and did the same.
After the night's festivities, they retired upstairs to their room. "I think it's time you and I take a break from all of this", Gretel slurred out as she undressed and tossed her leather pants over the chair by the bed. Hansel tossed back the final drops of his ale and remarked, "What in the hell else are we going to do?, it's the only thing we are good at."
Gretel climbed into the bed that was pushed up against the far wall of the tiny room they shared. Hansel followed suit, but so drunk he stripped completely naked. She curled up facing the wall, with her back to Hansel, he turned on his side and faced her, his arm casually draped over her shoulder, his fingers tangled in her hair as they both drifted off to sleep. They had slept like this since the day they were left alone in the world with just each other to survive.
Morning broke quickly and Hansel woke with a start as Gretel tried to climb over him to get out of bed. With the slanted ceiling above them, Gretel hit her head and knocked herself off balance and plopped directly on top of Hansel, straddling him. Her hands crashed onto his chest as she tried to hold herself up knowing full well that sometimes in the morning before he woke up, he was prone to having an erection. She never mentioned it, she just knew it from him sleeping next to her all these years. This morning was no exception and as her hands slid up his chest as she tried to regain her balance, she realized he was naked and he had become completely lodged in between her thighs. His eyes flew open in a groggy haze and he tried to grasp the situation with the fog of drink that still enveloped his head.
Gretel could not move because Hansel grabbed her hands and further set her off balance. With his member lodged between her thighs ever so close to her sex, she was frozen with fear. It washed over her with an intense rush and then she felt the tingling in her lower stomach as she half laid, half sat on top of him waiting for him to let her hands go or help her get up. He continued to hold her hands tightly to his chest as he tried to surmise where he was and what was happening. She could feel the heat rising up between her thighs, she couldn't stand it, he was ever so near her entrance. His hips moved and he inadvertently rubbed against her center, which sent a shockwave through her body. She herself was still pure, but she knew the ways of man and woman. Gretel thought to herself, "Good God, is THIS what I'm missing out on?" She let out an exasperated breath and moved her hips closer to him to feel him brush against her again. As she did so it made her quiver and Hansel looked up at her intensely as his fog lifted. To her, he almost seemed like he was trying to will something away, but it was too late. Gretel felt what he was trying to hide from her. She felt him slightly shudder beneath her, almost as she had done when he rubbed against her center and then she felt the warm and sticky wetness high up between her thighs and as it trickled down to her sex, he quickly pulled her forward towards his face. They could both feel the wetness between them as Hansel furrowed his brow and exclaimed, "Gretel, what the hell are you doing?"
It was the first time in her life, that she was speechless. She just stared at him with doe eyes. He quickly reached up and pushed her off him, so that she was back where she started against the wall. Still lying down, he covered himself with the blanket and sighed as he lowered his hand over his eyes, covering his face from her wide eyed inquisitive look and half in embarrassment of the acutest kind. Gretel was able to stammer out, "I'm sorry". Hansel did not respond. Gretel reached out and put her hand on his chest to get his attention, after several unbearable moments he finally removed his hand from his face and he turned his head to look at her. She simply looked at him and said, "It's okay", as she laid her head on his shoulder and nuzzled against his neck. He wrapped both his arms protectively around her and breathed in her womanly scent. Hansel was only partially embarrassed by what happened, the rest of his anguish came from why it happened. This guilt weighed heavily upon him for he would not share that he had been dreaming of making love to her when she startled him awake.
"Well, I think I'm going to go wash up and get this day started", Gretel finally got up the nerve to get out of bed, this time not looking at Hansel and certainly not falling on top of him as she made her way to the floor. Before grabbing her pants, she casually walked to the wash basin and found a cloth to use to tidy herself up. She quickly washed herself down from head to toe, dried off with the towel that was hanging on the hook next to the door and threw her pants on before scurrying out of the bedroom. As she closed the door behind her, she glanced back at Hansel and let out a sigh for she knew he was damning himself silently for the earlier mishap. She loved him so much, yet she didn't know how to make this better.