Page 10 of Hansel and Gerhardt (The GriMM Tales #3)

Hansel looked ready to leave the water altogether, so Gerhardt swept his arms in a wideoutwardcircle, propelling himself towards Hansel. His toes soon found the pebbly bed of the river, and he glided up to him. On firm footing, he stood tall, but never as tall as Hansel.

Hansel, curling his broad shoulders against the cold, made to step back, but Gerhardt took his hand.

How strange his fingers felt beneath the water, cold, like his, but comforting, confident. And when he pulled him forward, how warm his body was, a sandy island in the sea of ice.

Gerhardt threaded arms around him.It wasn’t unusual for them to bephysicallyclose, of course not. Butneverlike that. Not wet and naked.As cold asHanselwas, he could feel the inviting heat in Gerhardt’s strong arms.

He resisted, not Gerhardt, but the deep water, dangerous, appallingly cold, but Gerhardt braced a foot against a rock and kicked back hard.

“Gerhardt!”was all Hansel managed to get out, and it was garbled with a splash, andablissful moment of pure silence in the forest, until he surfaced again, heaving in a great and unnecessary gasp of air, as though Gerhardt had nearly drowned him. “What the hell are you doing?”

“You can’t learn to swim if you don’t get wet,” Gerhardt returned on a laugh.

Hansel’s huge hands covered his face as he swiped the water away. “I never said I wanted to learn!”

“You didn’t have to.” Just as soon as the excess drops were clear, Gerhardt cupped his hand and ripped it along the water’s surface, assaulting the pale complexion with a thousand frigid sparkles.

Hansel’s mouth dropped wide open.

Had he never once been splashed in the face?

The concept was tragically ridiculous.

Gerhardt watched him, heart beating hard for his reaction.

It took him a moment, butthe quiet spark in Gerhardt’s eye launched a blaze inHansel’schest,andhe threw himself at Gerhardt.Yet hemet nothing but water as Gerhardt slipped away from him,laughing out,“You’ll have to do better than that.”

To his complete bewilderment, Gerhardt was behind him, nothing but a ripple of water and a taunt to signify his transition.

Hansel jumped, and this time locked arms over slender shoulders, the length of his body sinking flush against Gerhardt’s as he felled him into the river. Everything went quiet, a bubble and rush, and Gerhardt fighting him, rolling him over and locking legs around his waist.

His air began to run out, but Gerhardt pulled him up, his fingers linked at the back of his neck, his pelvis grinding against Hansel’s abs, and Hansel felt his own dick slide right in between Gerhardt’s ass cheeks.

Gasp!

They were above the water again, and Hansel was thankful he’d blown his load ten minutes prior, because when Gerhardt threw his head back with a laugh, the feel of him and the thought of kissing that neck… No, he was getting hard anyway.

Why was this happening?Why now, after allthis time?

But how solid his thighs felt against Hansel’s.And the shame of it!If he only knew what his own stepbrother was thinking about him. And this while they were lost in the woods, not a scrap to eat, no shelter, and now wet, likely to freeze to death in the night if they couldn’t findheat.

“Hansel!”Aslap of warm flesh, and he was under again, rolling in the bubbles and water-softened sunlight.

On top of his brother, Gerhardt’s chest fighting againsthim, trying to flip him.

Hansel was stronger, but he let Gerhardt win, if only for the huge grin andshouted“Aha!” as he leapt to his feet.

That smile struck him in the heart.

So he caught him at the ankle and pulled him over. Gerhardt sank beneath the water and was gone.

Silence fell over the forest, and Hansel awaited a splash or a laugh. Even a ripple.

Nothing.

Everything went still.

Terrifyingly still.

“Gerhardt?”he called out. He looked around, nothing butbrowns and oranges, and all of autumn, and no Gerhardt. He called his name again, his voice hollow and frantic, echoing back from the black woods.

“Gerhardt!” His heart pounded loud in his ears, and a vast and primal emptiness seeped into his very bones.

It was a few seconds, then five, then ten, then twenty, and it was a profound emptiness beyond the loss of company.

It wasGerhardt. It was this Gerhardt,who he’d lived with fortenlong years, but only begun to know that very day.

Then thelaugh,finally,so rare and warm, announced the attack. Hansel turned in time to catch him as Gerhardt sprang out from behind a rock, knocking them both into deep water.

Hansel scrambled for a handhold, something to stop his panicked fall into the icy abyss.

He found Gerhardt’s hand, wrenching him back.

His toes found a ledge, Gerhardt gripped his forearm, and pulled him out, and there they twofellinto the shallows side by side, Gerhardt absolutely crackingup atthe tricks he’d played.

His body stretched out long, totally exposed, head flung back in mirth.

“You should have seen your face, Hansel! You were priceless.”

Hansel tried to pull a scowl from somewhere, but there wasn’t an ounce of anger in his whole body. “You could have killed us both.”

Gerhardt looked at him, a bright shimmer about his eyes. “I wouldn’t let anything happen to you, Hansel.Not ever.”

Strange, the tenderness in his voice.Growing up, hewas perpetually on the edge of sarcasm, but here in the stream,he was genuine and true.

Gerhardt’sever-cheeky lips pulled into a soft grin. “You know, it’s good to see you smile.”

Why hadHanselnever noticed how beautiful he was? Why today, here, now, after all thesewinters, did his heart beat like branches in a storm? “Thank you.”

Gerhardt’s grin widened. “Thank you?”

“Um.” Hansel blushed. Actually blushed right there in the freezing coldwater. With Gerhardt. “It’s good to see you, too. Smiling. Happy. You look, um… good.”

Gerhardt’s eyes settled on the far bank of the river and narrowed, the shade of a frown falling across his features.

Ohfuck , Hansel thought to himself. Oh fuck. Not ‘good’ . What was he saying, ‘ good ’?

“I don’t mean ‘good’,” Hansel blustered out. Why don’t you just lick him, you dumb fuck ? “I meant… it’s good to see you… looking like…”

“Hansel,” Gerhardt said softly, leaning his beautiful head soclosethat his cheekalmost touched Hansel’s. It might have been delightful, but his frown was deeply carved now, histone ofvoiceworrying.

“I wasn’t saying that you look good ,”Hansel attempted.“I mean, you do, but I wasn’t saying that, because what I was trying to say was—”

“Shh.” The sound came out sharp. Then, barely audibly, “Don’t say anymore.” Heslippedforward over the rocks, disappearing into the deep to leave Hansel alone, exposedandreeling.

What had he said? What exactly had he said?

He’d said he looked good.

Gerhardt knew.

He must have knownthatHansel was having dreadful, filthy, embarrassing, repulsive, awfully wrong thoughts about his own brother. That he wantedto…

Anxiety caught Hansel at the throat.

Would he really have done those things he’ddreamed about?

No.

Never!

Of course not.

Unless Gerhardt were to—

“Hansel!” The word washarshly whisperedfrom across the water, then Gerhardt splashed over to him. “There,” he said, raising his long arm to point to the other bank. “Do you see it?”

Hansel, made nervous by his sudden closeness, strained his eyes. “I see nothing. Just more trees…” Yet even as he said the words, his gaze lit upon a strange glistening—sunlight through the canopy hitting something moist… but not the water.

He leaned a little closer, only to feel Gerhardt’s wet and icy cheek brush against his when he whispered, “We’re saved.”

Gerhardtdivedinto the water, just as seamlessly as he had the first time. Hansel waded deeper, trying to get a look at that sparkling object. It was onlyat thetopofthedark moundthat it glistened. The restof the objectwas almost black and… undefined. Soft edges. It was… fur?

He stumbled into the deep, slipped, went under, but in the very moment, two strong arms were around him, the corded muscles of a woodcutter.

Gerhardt’s inner thigh swept against his leg as he kicked off some rocks, and he swam them up to the other side, Hansel breathing the air deepwhenthey breached, but intimidated into silence by their find.

Their naked bodies flopped down on the mud, Gerhardt scuttling ahead with fingers grasping deep. “Do you see it there?”

“Yes. Yes, of course. Is it…”

“It’s a carcass,” Gerhardt whispered. “And it looks almost complete. Look at all that meat.”

Hansel searched along the banks, alarm hammering down his veins. “What kind of animal is it? It’s enormous. What could have killed it?”

“Only one way to find out.” Gerhardt was up and climbing the bank, low and wary, but still far too cavalier for Hansel’s liking. He scrambled after him, and they two came upon the corpse of an enormous wild boar.

Its half-decapitated headhadlolled back on the undergrowth, a fat, pink tongue, limp between sharp teeth,slopping out onto the dirt.

Four hooves stuck up in the air, rigid with rigor mortis.

The animal was slit from gullet to groin,its entrails half pulled out, a lather of blood and guts oozing down the sides.

“What the fuck?” Hansel whispered.

But Gerhardt was on his knees, inspecting the rest of the animal. “It’s fresh.” He said it on a laugh. “It’s fresh! We’re really saved this time.”

“Look at these cuts,” Hansel replied, keeping his tone urgent and low. “This was made with a knife. There’s a human in these woods.”

Gerhardt jumped to his feet. “All the better! Maybe we’ll find them. Maybe they can help us make our way to a city.” He took a deep breath to yell out, and Hansel slammed a hand over his mouth.

“What kind of person does that? Just guts a boar and leaves it?”

Gerhardt smashed his hand away, their unclothed dicks flapping with the volition. “I don’t know. Maybe they’re coming back for it?”

“Then why rip its insides out like this?”

“I don’t know! And what’s more, I don’t care!”

“These are the actions of a mad man,” Hansel declared. “Like the trapper the hare was talking about. The one who prefers humans.”

Gerhardt took a moment to consider the predicament, then he gave one small nod before falling to his knees. He summarily thrust two hands deep into the innards of the beast, up to his elbows, sloshing guts all about the place.

Hansel’s body shook with an enormous retch, the squelches and gurgles not helping him get control even when he looked away.

“Calm down, Hansel,” Gerhardt said, not needing to see him to know how sickened he was. “At least this one isn’t speaking.”

“That’s disgusting,” Hansel grit out.

“It’s still warm,” Gerhardt replied, sending Hansel’s stomach into another spasm.

With all his considerable strength, Gerhardt took two armfuls of organs and threw the lot out onto the ground.

Hansel reeled back a few steps. “Why would you do that?”

“This should make it easier to carry, shouldn’t it?” A slopping sound emanated from the cavity as Gerhardt scraped nails deep, ripping out whatever innards he could. “If you think someone’s coming back, then we’d better make away with it fast, right?”

Hansel, impressed with Gerhardt’s foresight, looked around again for any sign of the hunter. “You’re right. Can we get it back across the river?”

“I think it should float. People do.” He stood tall, blood coating him to his biceps, assessing the mess on the ground.

“We could throw that kidney back in to eat later. But the…” He searched through the mess, tossing portions of the endless intestines aside.

“The liver’s gone.” A little more sifting. “And so are the lungs.”

“Someone killed it for no purpose but to take its liver and lungs? What kind of…”

One terrified meeting of the eyes was all it took, and they’d grabbed two legs each and hauled the carcass down to the water. Gerhardt swam it across, Hansel wading as deep as he dared to help him. The crystal stream turned red, washing Gerhardt and the dead boar in its purifying waters.

Gerhardt strained with their prize in the sunshine, naked and shockingly beautiful, every muscle flexing as he dragged their salvation ashore. Smart, strong, capable. Hansel’s heart swelled in his chest. He admired him with a depth he couldn’t possibly voice, but his eyes spoke it.

Gerhardt looked up, met them, and smiled.

His face shone happy and true that beautiful autumn morning.

He dived back into the water, surfacing right in front of Hansel.

The water ran down his neck, down his chest, all the places Hansel wanted to run his hands.

But he held himself steady, shy in his brother’s presence for the first time in years.

Sweetly shy. Happy to be near this Gerhardt.

Gerhardt took his hand up in an easy movement, but before he led him back into the water, he said, “We’re going to make it out, you know? Together. We’re going to be just fine, Hansel.”

And, oh, how badly Hansel wanted to kiss him.

He was the sweetest thing.

And Hansel was sure they’d never have so much as another argument to dim the bright days they had ahead of them.