A White Witch

Summary: CONTAINS SPOILERS. Hansel saves Mina from Muriel and after he and Gretel kill the dark witch, Hansel realises just what it means to care about someone other than his sister
Warning(s): Spanking; spoilers for the whole film; AU
Author's Note: I was actually quite surprised how much I liked Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, but then again, I quite like the two main actors in it. Soo... I got this plot idea from watching it

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Hansel felt a little dazed from where he'd been thrown into the ground, but it certainly wasn't the first time he'd been hurt in a fight against a witch... or even the first time he'd been slammed into the ground.

It took Hansel only a moment to realise that the witch had Mina pinned up against the wall. She wasn't human, but particularly after he'd learned that his own mother was a which witch, he wasn't prepared to let Muriel harm anyone else.

And not anyone he cared about.

Hansel pushed himself up and grabbed his gun that had fallen. As he lunged towards Mina and the other witch, he fired off a shot that went wild as Muriel jerked backwards, letting Mina fall to the ground.

Hansel only took a moment to glance at Mina and make sure she was unharmed, but when he looked around for Muriel, he couldn't see her at all. Focusing on the door, he took a step forward, intending to follow the dark witch into the house. After all, he was pretty sure that that was where Muriel had gone.

"Hansel?" Mina struggled to sit up.

Hansel crouched down next to Mina, looking quickly over her body to make sure she wasn't injured. He wasn't used to being concerned about anyone other than his sister and wasn't prepared for the rush of relief that flooded through him when he saw no visible injuries. Still, he had to ask. "Are you hurt?"

Mina shook her head. "You can't let her get away."

"Don't worry about it. I do this for a living." Hansel was tempted to kiss Mina, but he knew they didn't have much time. "You stay here. I mean it."

"I can help you."

"By getting yourself killed?" Hansel shook his head. "I'm going after her. Tell Gretel where I've gone." He didn't give Mina a chance to reply, stepping into the house with a tight grip on his gun.

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By the time the fight was over and Muriel was dead, Hansel ached in so many different places, he wasn't sure he'd ever been in such a vicious fight. He stared at the witch's remains and then turned to his sister. "What now?"

"We return the children and get the rest of our payment - and then we move on." Gretel shrugged.

"So the same as before?"

Gretel met Hansel's gaze. "It won't be the same. You know that as well as I do."

Hansel didn't try arguing. She was right. There was a witch outside who had made him realise that not every witch was bad - and, of course, Muriel had let it slip that his and Gretel's mother had been a white witch. Hansel hadn't had a chance to dwell on that knowledge before now, but things had calmed down and he was going to have to deal with his feelings for Mina.

"They're going to need training."

"Who?"

"Ben. And Mina." Gretel held eye contact with Hansel. "I assume we'll be taking them both with us."

Hansel frowned. "I admit Ben was useful, but he's not a fighter. There's a reason I left him by the wire."

"But you trusted him enough to leave him on guard."

"I'm not sure I want his death on my conscience," Hansel said bluntly. "Or Mina's, for that matter."

Gretel's face didn't change. "So you want to leave them both here?"

Hansel looked towards the door of the hut. What did he want to do? He really wasn't sure. He actually liked Ben. The young man was the only one who had ever looked up to Hansel and his sister - and he'd proved useful when it came to the research, as well as not having frozen when face to face with a real witch. But Mina had already insisted on being involved in a fight once - and came close to getting herself killed.

"What's on your mind, Hansel?" Gretel asked.

"If they're going to come with us, we need to devote a lot of time to training them," Hansel said. "Mina can make our weapons more powerful, but if she's facing a dark witch and doesn't have any power, she'll get herself killed."

Gretel nodded. "Do you want me to take Ben off and talk to him while you speak to Mina?"

"Are you sure?" Hansel didn't spend much time around people other than his sister, but he had a pretty good idea that Ben felt more than mere hero worship towards Gretel. "We could always do it the other way round."

"I think Mina would respond better to you talking to her." Gretel looked briefly amused, but that look quickly faded. "I'll take Ben and make sure the children are safe and meet you back at the village. All right?"

Hansel nodded and stepped towards the door. Then, he paused and turned to Gretel. "You never told me who Edward was."

"The troll. He saved my life and was nearly killed trying to help us. Now that we know who our mother was, it makes a lot more sense. I don't think we can just abandon him."

"Whatever happened to it just being the two of us?" Shaking his head, Hansel opened the door and stepped back outside, squinting in the sudden brightness before quickly looking round.

Mina had moved over to Ben's side. Ben was awake and sitting up, looking around with a dazed look on his face that seemed to indicate he'd taken a slightly hard knock on the head. Gretel, who had left the hut after Hansel, walked over to the man and knelt next to him, holding up three fingers in front of his face. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Three." Ben smiled up at Gretel. "I'm fine. Are you?" He reached out towards Gretel's face.

Gretel immediately moved back, out of Ben's reach. "It's nothing - just a few scratches." She looked at Mina.

"He's going to have a bump on his head, but he isn't too badly hurt," Mina said. "If we can leave here, I can use some herbs to reduce the swelling."

"Let him have a few war wounds," Hansel said lightly, walking over to them. "People will start taking you more seriously if you have one or two scars to speak for you." He clapped a hand on Ben's shoulder. "Unless we've scared you off, of course."

Ben looked between Hansel and Gretel, as if he didn't know what to think. "I can travel with you?"

"Do you want to?" Gretel asked.

Ben nodded enthusiastically. "That's all I ever wanted!"

Hansel couldn't quite hold back his response to that. "Oh, I'm sure that's not all you wanted."

Gretel directed a sharp look towards Hansel, but turned back to Ben. "We need to go over a few things," she said smoothly. "Why don't you walk with me? I need to make sure the children are all safe and returned to their homes."

"I can do that." Ben quickly stood up - a bit too fast, if the slightly queasy look that passed across his face was any indication. He seemed to recover fairly quickly, though, and gallantly held an arm out to Gretel. "Shall we go?"

"Yes." Gretel ignored Ben's arm and began walking, heading back through the forest. Ben hurried to keep up with her.

"Is she dead?" Mina asked softly.

Hansel turned towards Mina and nodded. "But she wasn't the last dark witch we'll need to fight."

"You don't sound happy."

Hansel hadn't given much thought to how he was feeling, but hearing it said out loud, he was pretty sure that 'not happy' was an understatement. During the battle with Muriel, he hadn't had a chance to think of how badly things could have gone - but now that things had had a chance to calm down, he realised just how close Mina had come to dying. "She could have easily killed you."

"When you first met me, I was going to be burned at the stake. I'm not a stranger to violence - and I couldn't just stand by and do nothing."

"I wasn't expecting that. You had a job to do - one that didn't include endangering yourself." Hansel walked slowly over to Mina. "You might be a witch, but you're not used to fighting. If you were, you would never have let her get the drop on you like that."

"I was trying to help," Mina said.

Hansel took a deep breath. When he was fighting, he relied on staying calm and in control at all times - and he drew on that iron discipline now, looking down at Mina who was now standing up. "I'm not used to caring about the safety of anyone other than my sister, but if you're going to be a part of our team, this can't happen again."

"I'm not going to just stand by and do nothing when I can help."

Hansel shook his head, realising that he wasn't going to get through to Mina with words alone. He wasn't prepared to just leave her. If she was serious about fighting the dark witches - and he had no doubts that she was - then she'd still end up getting herself killed.

As much as Hansel wasn't used to caring about anyone other than his sister, he had interacted with other people enough to know how families tended to deal with things. He was starting to consider a punishment he'd seen in use before - and although the punishment was one people often used with children, Hansel figured he could modify it for using it on an adult. "If you and Ben are going to be part of our group, then we'll need to get you both trained with more weapons. But I'm going to give you a reminder to make sure you're more careful next time." As he spoke, he reached out and closed his hand around Mina's wrist.

A wary look came over Mina's face. "What kind of reminder?" She tugged a little at her trapped wrist.

"I plan to punish you." Hansel looked around and then started towards a fallen tree log.

"You can't be serious."

"Oh, I am." Hansel stopped in front of the tree log and took a seat, using his grip on Mina's wrist to give her a gentle tug, pulling her across his knees. He was pretty sure that Gretel hadn't intended this when she'd suggested Hansel talk to Mina, but his sister wasn't here right now.

And he had a different relationship with Mina in any case.

Apart from a slightly startled sound, Mina didn't show any reaction to suddenly being over Hansel's knees. When Hansel wrapped an arm around her waist, he could feel how tense she was. Not wanting to draw this out any longer than he had to, he lifted his hand and brought it down in a solid smack at the crest of Mina's bottom.

Mina jumped, but made no sound. Taking her reaction as a sign that he was using the correct amount of force, Hansel settled quickly into a rhythm, each sharp smack making a dull slapping sound as he went all the way down to Mina's thighs and then began smacking back up again. As he covered skin that had already had attention paid to it, Mina's legs began kicking a little.

After repeating the pattern, Hansel paused and shook his hand out. He suspected Mina's backside and thighs had to be stinging, because his hand was beginning to get a bit sore. "Do you understand why I'm doing this?"

"Because I endangered myself and you were angry." Mina's voice was a little ragged.

Hansel resumed the hard swats, increasing the force a bit. Within moments, he saw Mina lower her head and heard her begin to cry softly. He paused, letting his hand rest lightly on Mina's back, wondering if maybe he shouldn't have been so hard on her.

What if she hated him now?"

After a moment's pause, Hansel paused and then gathered Mina into his arms, relieved when she just let her head drop to his shoulder, slipping her arms around his neck. "I'm sorry," she said softly.

"This can't happen again," Hansel said. "If it does, then the next spanking will be worse. All right?" He rubbed her back gently to take the sting out of his words.

Mina nodded against his shoulder. "What's the plan now?"

"When you feel up to moving, we'll meet Gretel at the village. After we collect payment, we'll figure out where to go from there."

"Do we have time to do anything else?"

"Was there something you had in mind?" Hansel asked.

"Perhaps." Mina tilted her head up to look at him.

It occurred to Hansel that her lips were in exactly the right position for him to kiss her. He slid his hand round to the back of her neck and, when she didn't pull away, leaned in and pressed his lips against hers, at first gently, but then he began to deepen the kiss.

The End