Chapter 21

Come grow old with me.

The best is yet to be.

William Wordsworth

With a smile on her lips she stood beside the big old apple tree, one shoulder leaning slightly against the sturdy trunk, her fingers playing with a fallen blossom, a few faint pink stripes adorning its plain whiteness.

She was early for their encounter, just as she always was, but usually Gilbert was too – their set time like a sweet joke between them.

Six days had passed since she had finally confessed her love to him. Never had a week seemed that short to her. Unjustly short. Every hour she thought of him turned into a minute, every hour she spent with him, turned into a second. Anne wished someone would keep the night from falling, the moon from rising, so she would never need to sleep and could simply stay with him twenty-four hours a day.

But then again, even twenty-four hours seemed so cruelly short. There was so much she had to catch up on, so much she still had to learn about him.

This was the strange and yet oh so beautiful part of it all – even though she knew Gilbert since years, suddenly he was an entire new person to her. She saw him from a completely different side, got to know him all over again, couldn't look at him anymore without the desire to let her fingers follow where her eyes travelled.

And yet at the same time he couldn't be more familiar to her. It couldn't feel more natural to speak to him the way she did, to feel him the way she did, to give in and surrender her heart.

She learned to trust him, and knew he would take good care of it.

So far, only Diana and Marilla knew that everything had changed. Anne would have liked to share the news with Rachel Lynde as well – she knew the woman always wanted her to be with Gil – but she knew as well that once Rachel knew it, the whole town would too.

But they didn't want to be the gossip of the town, watched by everyone, and everyone forming their opinion about them. They wanted to seize the last two weeks of their summer break to spend them together as every newly enamoured couple should, and decided to drop the news not until they would leave for their last year at college.

Anne had been so deep in thoughts that she hadn't perceived his steps. Suddenly two warm hands were laid upon her eyes from behind, and almost simultaneously a grin spread across her face.

"Who am I?"

She giggled, "I do not know, dear stranger. You will have to give me a hint."

"Someone you adore."

"Someone I adore? Hm… Lord Tennyson perhaps?"

She heard him gasp, "I beg your pardon?"

"So you are not?" She lifted her hands to touch his, "You certainly can't be Gilbert Blythe - for he ought to know that I love and not adore him."

"Is there a difference?"

"Why of course! There would be no need for two words, if they would have the same meaning. You adore someone from the distance, always with a certain demureness, sometimes maybe you wished you would be this person. But when you love someone… you want to be with him. And there is no distance – or shouldn't be – no aloofness, only… warmth."

Anne shuddered as he slowly removed his hands from her eyes and placed a kiss on her nape.

"It looks like I have to learn many things from you, Miss Shirley," he whispered.

She turned around in his hold so she could finally face him, encircling his neck, and captured his eyes, "You have many years to do so", she smiled and raised herself on tiptoes to kiss him.

It wasn't until they parted that she studied him really for the first time today, and a surprised expression appeared on her face.

"What?" He laughed, knowing exactly what she had just spotted.

"You're wearing your cap?" Her sparkling eyes returned to his.

Gilbert nodded with a mixture of solemnity and mischievousness, "I recounted you missed it – turned out it missed you too."

Anne chuckled, warmth rushing to her cheeks, "Now I know I can never trust you with anything ever again, Gilbert Blythe."

She knew it was pointless to deny her fondness for it anyway. It added such an … impish aura to him. "It is verified once again – you truly are incorrigible."

"Maybe you can still improve me a little?" He pecked her nose.

Anne smiled lovingly at him. Strange how fast everything between them had changed. Or maybe not so fast at all, if one considered that their story had its beginning already a decade ago.

Maybe this relationship had always slumbered somewhere underneath, and it took all her walls of doubts, fear and blindness to break down, to finally be ready for him. The way she had always been meant for him.

"No, no. You're just perfect the way you are."

He grinned, tipping his cap with one hand, "Uh-huh?"

He leaned down, teasing her lips with feathery brushes, before capturing them completely, while his arms encircled her back, bringing her closer.

"You were on time?" she breathed when he withdrew, pointing out something, nobody else could understand.

Gilbert nodded, stealing another kiss, "I had to go back again and get Max. He hasn't had any run today."

Anne craned her neck to peer over his shoulder, only now spotting the brown horse tied to one of the sturdy trees, munching away in all his calmness the green lush grass.

"I'll take him to the fenced meadow on our way, and then we can go for a walk, alright?" Gilbert looked expectantly at her, noticing her pensive expression.

Anne bit her bottom lip while watching Max, before she returned her gaze back to Gilbert, looking unassertive at him.

"Gil… when was the last time you rode him?" She nodded to his horse.

Gilbert shrugged, dropping his gaze for a moment, "I haven't."

She studied his face. She could see that this subject was a sensitive spot to him. It was not like she would have expected a different answer, she had never seen him riding ever since his accident, it was just that only now she realized what effects and reasons it had.

"You should, Gil", Anne spoke with a soft voice, "I know you miss it. And I know he misses you too."

He dared to meet her green-grey eyes again, a hint of an amused smile on his lips, "And how would you know that?"

"He told me", she chuckled.

"Told you, huh? I'm starting to see what conversations you use to have with my horse."

"Well, I have to find informations about you somewhere, don't I?"

Gilbert shook his head, taking a deep breath. Then he took her hands and removed them from his neck. It was too hard to be so close to her while speaking about something like this.

"I know I should", he finally spoke, then he let out a bitter chuckle, "I suppose it's rather fainthearted to be afraid of doing something, just because it-"

"Gilbert Blythe," Anne placed her hands on his cheeks so he was forced to meet her eyes, "There is nothing fainthearted about this. There is nothing fainthearted inside you at all. I understand why you stopped doing it. In fact… I was rather glad that you did. Don't you think I am afraid for you too?

But now… that so many weeks had passed, I can simply feel that something's missing... Would you tell me to give up on writing just because I failed once?"

Gilbert looked at her in awe.

Everyday he woke up and couldn't help but carry this little doubt inside of him, that everything had just been a dream. Or that Anne would still change her mind, because he's not the ideal she had dreamed of for so long. But everyday she amazed him more in everything she said and did.

If the affections she had showed him in their years of friendship had already been heaven, then the love she gave him now was pure paradise.

"Alright", he finally whispered.

Anne gave him a radiant smile and reached up to kiss his cheek.

Gilbert looked chuckling at her. He was sure Anne's eagerness had the ability to bring even a tree to move.

"What?" He asked confused as she kept on looking expectantly at him. "You mean now?"

She nodded, "You don't think I will let you ride him alone, Gilbert Blythe! I have to make sure you're careful, after all." She encircled his hand, waiting for him to give in.

First she wanted him to ride and get rid of his fears, and as soon as he promised he would, she was the one being afraid? Anne and all her contradictions...

No, Gilbert suddenly realized, it was more her strong devotion...

His smile froze suddenly as something hit him. Something bigger than his fear from falling again. And something truer than all he had ever known.

He hadn't intended it to be this way. He had promised himself to wait. But now all of this didn't matter, because he didn't have any choice anymore.

His heart was at the wheel.

"Anne. Wait a second," he spoke as she tugged his arm, and something in his voice caused her to stop and look at him.

"W-what?"

"I…" He dropped his gaze for a moment, taking a deep breath and trying to control his nervousness. "Anne, I need to ask you something."

With eyes wide open she looked taken by surprise at him, letting go of his hand without realizing it. "Yes?" She swallowed hard.

"Well…" Gilbert lifted his gaze again, finally having gathered enough courage to meet her eyes, but puzzled he had to see that Anne had closed them.

"A-Anne?" He asked in a baffled way.

"Yes?" she replied without opening her eyes.

"Why, why have you closed your eyes?"

"Because I'm afraid", she explained matter-of-factly.

"Uh…" Gilbert turned his head confused to every side, searching for any hint what she could be possibly talking about. Finding none, terror crept suddenly up at him. Was she afraid of him?

Of his question?

He felt nausea rising inside of him. Yes, he had been afraid to ever ask her the same question a second time. Much more afraid than he had been the first time. And that even though they were actually together now.

His heart may be whole again, but still it had bruises everywhere it had fallen apart, and it would take some time to heal them all.

But never had he expected to get such a repulsed reaction. Anne had told him she loved him, after all.

And she had showed it too, in many ways.

How could that all be true if she never intended to become his wife someday? Was he still too plain and unromantic for that? Was he just a stopgap?

"A-afraid… of my question?" he managed to utter after some moments. The pure thought of it stinging everywhere.

Anne nodded.

That was all that it took? One second and his entire dream was shattered again? Sure, Gilbert had thought this was all too good to be true, but still-

"I'm afraid you won't ask me what I wish you to ask me so desperately. And then I don't want you to see the disappointment in my eyes."

Anne gulped. That was so typically of her. Of course she always had to be excruciatingly honest once it wasn't fitting at all. Just like when she had to tell Rachel Lynde that she was rude and impolite and that she would hate her.

Her eyes still closed, wringing her hands nervously, she was completely unaware of the crooked grin which spread across Gilbert's face. Or this certain sparkle his hazel eyes suddenly caught.

"Gil?" she asked mortified, "Have you le-"

Gilbert brought his hands up around her neck, and his lips down to capture hers in a fierce kiss.

Anne let out a startled moan. She had already been in the depths of despair, thinking of how inappropriate and embarrassing her statement had been, and that Gilbert must think of her now as the last woman he would ever desire to marry.

But his lips certainly spoke another language than her imagination.

Hesitantly she laid her hands upon his arms, somehow still waiting for some rejection to come. But all that came were vows of love – not uttered in words, but displayed in touches.

After some moments she let herself fall into his hold and respond to his kisses, her hands now wandering upwards and encircling his neck so she could reach up more easily, their bodies pressed together just like a kiss themselves.

Gilbert released her mouth to bestow her skin with butterfly kisses from her jaw to the earlobe.

"I am so in love with you, I'm afraid I need more than a lifetime to live it out", he whispered, tickling her skin in such a delicate way that it sent shivers up and down her spine.

"Wha…" Still a little anxious about where his question had just disappeared, Anne loosened her hold on him to meet his eyes.

Gilbert chuckled as he saw the confusion mirrored in her green orbs, withdrawing from her so her skin wouldn't tempt him the next minutes.

"Anne", he lifted his arms to remove her hands from his neck for the second time today, but this time he kept them in his, "I love you more than I could ever express in words. " He caressed her smooth skin with his thumbs, watching her tense expression.

"I… I wanted to wait to ask you this. I didn't want to make the same mistake twice, and press you to something. But… but I just can't keep my heart from speaking any longer.

There is only one true wish I carry with me, every day…", Gilbert took a deep breath, "and that is… to be with you - for always. To experience whatever may come along that path, together with you."

Tears were swimming in her eyes, and she felt how the first warm droplet crawled down her cheek. But for once she didn't feel the urge to wipe it away. It was only another witness of her love towards Gilbert.

"Anne Shirley – No, after all we've been through, this just doesn't sound right. Not now. Carrots-"

Anne let out a chuckle, but mingled with all her tears it sounded more like a sob. He absorbed it and smiled down at her.

"Would you… will you do me the honour of becoming my wife?"

Gilbert hadn't even uttered the last word when Anne couldn't keep herself back any longer. She removed her hands out of his hold, and threw herself into his arms, hers wrapped tightly around him.

She sobbed against his warm neck, a few salty tears meeting his skin and shirt.

Anne had thought she knew by now what coming home meant, but feeling her heart finally bonding with his completely, she realized that she would feel nowhere home, where Gilbert wouldn't be.

He felt her nods against his shoulder, and Gilbert could hear how dozens of stones fell off his chest. Stones which maybe had been there since that day she had broken her slate over his head. Only they have become more and heavier with each year that had passed, and each part of him that had loved and yearned for her even stronger.

"Yes!" she finally exclaimed after bringing her voice only so much under control. Then she removed her head from his shoulder to meet his hazel eyes, sparkling with tears of joy as well. Anne placed her hands on his cheeks, smiling at him, her tears slowly decreasing.

"Gil, I'm so sorry", her voice sounded husky from all her sobbing, "I'm so sorry, I said-"

"Shh," he shook his head, brushing her lips just enough to keep her from blaming herself any longer.

"Everything turned out how it was meant to be, Anne."

She believed him, and decided from now on she should always believe him, because he had been right all along. Anne threw her arms around him once more, squeezing him as tightly as if she would be afraid he could suddenly disappear into air.

"What do you say?" Gilbert whispered after some moments. "Do you think Max should be the first one to know?"

"Well…" Anne withdrew a bit, so she could look at him, "I always promised Diana to be the first one... but we didn't involve animals", she grinned.

Gilbert laughed.

"But, did he even know we are together at all?"

"Tsk, Anne, you don't think I could have kept that a secret from him!"

Now it was her turn to laugh and shake her head. Gilbert just somehow seemed to have jumped out of some book, a little too perfect for this world.

"Then let's go. After all, he did bring us together in some sort of way."

"That is true…" He looked flabbergasted at her when Gilbert realized that nothing of the things which happened, would have, if Max wouldn't have thrown him off his back.

"Yes, let's go", he smirked, and before Anne could realize what was happening, Gilbert had lifted her up in his arms, cradling her.

Dumbfounded she looked at him, feeling how heat was rushing through her body – reaching every finger, every toe – until it settled down in her stomach and cheeks. "What do you think you are doing?"

"Well", he gave her a mischievous grin, "Sweeping you off your feet, of course."

"Gilbert Blythe," a chuckle left her mouth despite all her self-awareness, "don't you realize you already did?"

Holding onto him with one arm, she reached her free hand out to take his cap, and placed it on top of her head.

The image of the fourteen year old boy with his grey cap, and the eleven year old girl with her braids flashed through his mind, and Gilbert realized that no other gesture - or words - could have screamed louder that she was his and he was hers.

With a smile on his lips he leaned down to seal the promise they've just made each other.

AN: RHrGreatness: Should you have a sugar-shock right now, no need to worry, I'll get someone for mouth-to-mouth respiration! *superman pose* xD

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