Warnings: H/Hr, AU, Kinda sad

My Beautiful Annabel Lee

It was many and many a year ago,

In a kingdom by the sea

That a maiden there lived whom you may know

By the name of Annabel Lee;

And this maiden she lived with no other thought

Than to love and be loved by me.

Death is unknown to man. It always has been. Nobody truly knows what death is. Well, no one but one man. He had died no less than eleven times. Twice when he was eleven. Once when he was twelve. Once when he was thirteen. Twice when he was fourteen. Once when he was fifteen. Once when he was sixteen. And thrice when he was seventeen.

There was another as well. A woman that had died six times. Once when she was twelve. Once when she was thirteen. Once when she was fourteen. Once when she was sixteen. And twice when she was eighteen.

I was a child and she was a child,

In this kingdom by the sea;

But we loved with a love that was more than love-

I and my Annabel Lee;

With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven

Coveted her and me.

They, of course, did not know this. Their minds had been erased of their times in the afterlife. They also did not know that they had found that they loved each other so very much. But they had forgotten and, therefore, hid their true feelings from each other.

Therefore, he married his best friend's little sister, whom he had grown to love. And she married his best friend, so as to stay close to her true love. But, they were never truly happy unless they were together.

One day, when he was twenty-one and she twenty-two, he went on a mission for his job. He was killed in the midst of the mission. She got in a bad fight with her husband and, suddenly, she couldn't take it anymore.

She couldn't continue watching him be happy when it wasn't with her. If she couldn't have him then she didn't want to live.

She went out and bought a small pistol. She went home and, glad her husband had stormed out, went up to their empty room. Her hands shook as she loaded the pistol. As soon as she finished, she felt it. The complete and utter emptiness that represented his death. Her hands stopped shaking and she raised the pistol to her temple. She took a deep breath and pulled the trigger. Her heart stopped two minutes after his.

And this was the reason that, long ago,

In this kingdom by the sea,

A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling

My beautiful Annabel Lee;

So that her highborn kinsman came

And bore her away from me,

To shut her up in a sepulcher

In this kingdom by the sea.

They met in death. They embraced as if they were lovers reunited. In truth, they were. They were found in their loving embrace by his mother who had died when he was but a babe. They released each other and he was swept into the motherly embrace of his mother. He had to admit, his mother's hug was almost as comforting as her's was.

His mother explained many things to the couple, including that Death would be willing to send her two favorite mortals back to right before they ruined their lives. The couple needs only to look at each other before he told his mother that they accepted Death's offer, graciously.

Death appeared then. She was smiling at her two favorite mortals. Of course, she would never admit that they were her favorites. Death touched them both on the forehead and the chest. They disappeared, simultaneously.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,

Went envying her and me

Yes! That was the reason

(as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea)

That the wind came out of a cloud by night,

Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

They woke at the same time in separate parts of the castle in which they resided. He was in his dormitory, which he shared with his best friend and three other men. She was in the library, one of her favorite places, other than in her love's loving embrace.

He sprang from his bed, immediately, only knowing that he wanted to see her. She sprang from her chair, not caring about the books she had used as her pillow, just of her love who she needed to talk to. They both ran to the other. They met somewhere in the middle and without a second thought from either of them, their lips crashed together and everything around them disappeared.

But our love was stronger by far than the love

Of those who were older than we

Of many far wiser than we

And neither the angels in heaven above,

Nor the demons down under the sea,

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

He was nervous. This wasn't something that he had ever done or that he ever remembered doing anyway. The small, velvet box burned a hole in his pocket as he stared at his love. He had planned to wait until they got back to her house but he didn't think he could wait any longer.

She was worried. He had pulled away from her the last few day. She couldn't help but think that this was he last date. An the, as if he sensed her worry, he sighed and got down on one knee in front of her.

"I was going to wait until we got back to your place before I did this. I swear I was but I don't think I can wait any longer. I need to know." He dug the box out of his pocket and opened it for her. "Will you marry me?" He asked.

She was overwhelmed by the love in his eyes. She almost couldn't tear her eyes away from him to look at the ring. It was silver with an emerald center gem that matched his eyes perfectly. Two small diamonds rested on either side of the emerald. Her eyes filled with tears and all she could do to answer him was to nod her head.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

They held hands as they watched the two sleeping figures. The boy, who was older by ten months, slept with one harm holding a stuffed animal in the shape of a stag, and the other wrapped protectively around his little sister. The girl, who was four years old, slept curled up next to her older brother with her otter stuffed animal held tightly in her arms. They smiled to each other and headed to their own beds.

And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes

On the beautiful Annabel Lee.

They'd been together for a long time. Their two children were grown and had their own kids who had their own kids and so on for three more generations. They were weary and finally ready to depart this life together. So on the thirteenth of January, 2100 at two o'clock in the morning they passed for the final time, finally reuniting with loved ones long passed.

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side

Of my darling, my darling, my life, and my bride,

In the sepulcher there by the sea,

In her tomb by the sounding sea.

The poem in italics is Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe

Sepulcher means tomb.