"I think we smelled like feet for three days." Though it wasn't necessarily on her lips, her voice carried the sound of a smile. She could tell he'd let a little steel out from his spine, and hugged him tighter for it.
Over the years, there'd been plenty of people who saw fit to judge the two of them for their closeness; most simply didn't try to understand, some even accused them of heinous acts that crossed natural lines of siblinghood. Hansel had laid out more than one of them just for hinting at it, but the smug-nosed opinions of others were never able to get under her skin. It was just the world against the two of them. Righting what evil they could and each other is all they had, and that's just the way it was.
"And the year we celebrated our thirteenth birthday seven times..." Twice in one week for one town full of particularly dumb hillbillies.