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anydragonsneedslaying · 5 years ago

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We Can Leave The Christmas Lights Up Until January

NA Modern Shirtbert AU

He was eighteen and too young to know that what he was doing was stupid.

She was eighteen and too young to care even though she knew.

“Let’s move in together.”

He’d been her friend for many years, a rival, a nuisance from when she was growing up. But somehow underneath all that, he became her Gil. The love of her life.

She was eighteen and young, but there were truths you knew no matter what age you are.

Maybe it’s your old soul, from another life, that knew with as much certainty as you did.

That Gilbert Blythe was the man she was going to spend the rest of her life with was one of them.

“Anne. Move in with me.”

So was there any other answer other than yes?

—

It wasn’t easy telling your parents who stood firm on values and virtues that you were essentially going to live in sin with the boy from the Blythe farm.

“You… you are not even… live together… with Gilbert!”

But she stood firm, because she loved him, stupid with it, brave with it, sure with it.

“I’ll marry him anyway. I’ll spend the rest of my life with him anyway. What difference does it make, if I start now or after college.”

Marilla wanted to ask how she knew, how she was so sure. But she had been in love with a Blythe boy from the Blythe farm once. And she knew, for a fact, that you love them forever.

“Oh… Matthew talk to her.”

Because she wasn’t a reliable source, not when it comes to Blythe men.

“Do you love him?”

“Yes.” She smiles then, everything in her relaxes, as if the mere thought of him, of loving him, was enough. For anything.

“More than I can say. More than I imagined.”

Which was saying a lot, she imagined her tragical romance and all… and she never thought it would be Gilbert.

“Then that’s all I need to know. Be happy my girl.”

She smiles and looks to Marilla, who sighs and raises her arms in resignation. She hugs them in thanks, and runs outside only to find Gilbert pacing a hole in her front porch.

She smiles when he raises his head and looks at her, the furrow on his brow ever present and she jumps into his arms. He smiles, tension easing from him.

He held her hand as he swore to Matthew and Marilla to love her. Not care for her, not be responsible for her, not be her chaperone. But simply to love her, and be there for her when she needs.

He didn’t ask for permission. Knew it was not his place. Knew Anne was not some product handed to him. She was a person, someone he loved, and he simply promised to love her.

She never thought she could love him more in that moment, but she did.

She loved him more and more with every passing moment.

—

He was eighteen and in love but she was a bed hog.

She had no respect, whatsoever for personal space.

It wasn’t the first time he shared her bed… well that was a story for another day, he thinks, with his ears turning pink and his naked torso feeling hotter than usual.

But he would usually leave at 2 in the morning to sneak out of her dorm bed.

He never actually slept a full day with her. Until now. And she was such a bed hog. Her arms and legs are splayed between them and he was pushed to the end of his side of the bed, without a stitch on his naked form, and she was heavily wrapped around the quilt, drool from her open mouth flowing onto her pillow.

She was beautiful like this.

So beautiful like this. His Anne with an E.

With a smile he carefully lifts the quilt and untucks it from her burrito form and she grumbles a bit, but remains steadfastly asleep.

Then he tugs her arms, pulling her closer to his chest, and cuddling her close, tucking them both in the quilt.

“You’re cold, Gil.”

She mumbles as she tangles her legs with his, and rubbing her nose against his neck, burrowing there.

“Whose fault is that?”

“Sorry.”

He chuckles and kisses her hair.

“Nowhere I’d rather be darling.”

She was fast asleep again but he savors the feeling of her against him.

“I love you.” He whispers against her skin.

“Love you. Go sleep.” She tightens her arms around him and he falls asleep like that, in her arms.

—

“No it was your turn to pay the electricity, Gil! I put up the bill on the fridge.”

“Well you know how it is with us and notes - your note fell off! You could have sent me a text!”

“You never read my texts! Not when you’re off with your pre-medicine buddies with that Dr. Ward!”

“No, Anne, you just didn’t charge your phone - again! Because you were out for so long with Cole doing the Lord knows what-”

“My study group doesn’t allow phones you know that!”

“This is 2019 not 1989 Anne!”

“What does that have to do with you not paying our electric bill!?”

He growled at her and she growled back.

There were days when they still fought bitterly with each other. But that was the way they worked.

It wasn’t always easy, living together, seeing each other at the best and worst of times - but he learned to be patient, he learned to communicate, to want to be understood, to work things out - even if it meant 2 AM fights in the bitter cold in their electricity-less apartment.

He sneezes and she sighs, anger forgotten as she touches a hand to his forehead. “You feel warm.”

He grabs her hand in his and lays his forehead on hers, huddling closer in his blanket to her.

“Sorry I didn’t pay the bill.”

“Sorry I didn’t call you about it. How was your exam?”

“It was okay… It’s ending soon, I know I’ve been absent lately but-”

“No Gil.”

She shakes her head and takes his hand, kisses it.

“We help each other, okay? This was a bad week, but we’ll work it out. I’m sorry I exploded… I just… you can hang out with me, I wanna hear about your stories.”

“Why, Miss Anne Shirley-Cuthbert, are you jealous of the amount of time I spend with my pre-med counselling group.”

“Maybe.”

He smiles and pulls her close. “If I can stay in this blanket with you forever I would. There’s no one else for me Anne. Now… about Cole.”

She giggles and silences him with a well timed kiss to his lips.

—

She loved him, truly she did, but as his MCAT drew near, Gilbert became more and more of a big fat slob.

Four years it’s been. Four years that she lived with him and it was never this bad.

He had clothes littered all over the place, she couldn’t find a pair of socks that matched, and his books were scattered all over their bed. Their wall was covered with hundreds of sticky notes and there was Gilbert, the love of her life, in his boxers, a pen in his hands, chewing away at his nail beds as he typed from a book he was reading.

She didn’t say anything, but continued to pick up his clothes and throw them to the bin.

During her thesis submission he was the patient one who picked after her, and now she was her to submit the favor. She would never have written her novel if he didn’t help her. If he didn’t soothe her moods. Force feed her when needed.

And now a publishing house wants to hire her and her life was beginning.

And she wanted to be the same support to Gilbert that he had been to her.

So she grumbles to herself, but she picks up his clothes and straightens the sheets, and presses a kiss to his unwashed head with his unruly mane of hair and he absently grabs her hand and kisses the palm before muttering away at his notes and books once more.

She smiles and decides she might as well do his laundry so she takes the hamper to their tiny wash area in their kitchen and she checks his pockets because Gilbert always has some piece of paper stashed there but then she turns one of the pockets inside out and out falls a turquoise box creating a huge thunk on the floor and her heart drops to her feet because she has seen that box before.

And with shaking hands she drops his pants and reaches for the box, opens it and gasps because there, right there, was his mother’s ring. Of the modest emeralds that reminded his father of his mother’s eyes.

The same eyes that she passed to her son. Her Gilbert. The love of her life.

“It was my mother’s.”

She startles at his voice and he was still in his boxers, with his feet bare and staring at her from across the kitchen foyer and love for him just fills her up. He smiles as the tears drip from her eyes and he kneels down to her, and clasps her hands in his, the ring in her hands.

“My father gave it to me before he passed. He told me he wanted to give it to me - to make sure, I remember how precious love is, and how I should value it - because I don’t know when it will be taken from me.”

He brushes her tears away, rests his forehead against hers.

“I knew, from the moment you hit me with your magic erase board all those years ago that you were it for me Anne. I loved you from that moment. And I never stopped. I never will. I know it has been fast for us… we lived together all this while, but that’s because I knew. There will never be anyone else for me but you Anne. My Anne with an E.”

“Oh, Gil.. I’m sorry it took me a little longer. But I love you. I do. Enough to put up with your snoring and you being the world’s biggest slob.”

He laughs and kisses her. And she laughs and pulls away.

“Wait! You have to ask me.”

“Oh, this was not how I imagined it. I imagined… well wearing pants for one.”

“Gilbert!” She chides him with a laugh but his eyes grow serious, and looks right at hers, in that way of his, in that all consuming, see through my soul, are you really here, loving me kind of way.

“Anne… I have to know… will you do me the honor of becoming my life mate?”

She smiles because he remembered, from that one conversation they had.

“Yes, Gilbert. A thousand times yes.”

And he kisses her and she knew… with every scar on her, she’d take this man to be her life mate.

—

It wasn’t always rainbows and sunshine.

She was busy as a writer - she had multiple deadlines, she lived on coffee and toast most of the time.

He was in medicine, he barely slept, he was always in school and there was a million hoops he had to jump.

They sometimes only saw each other on the weekends

Chores were left undone

Dishes piled in the sink.

There were a couple more times the electricity went unpaid.

But through it all they loved.

The Christmas lights stayed up until January because she loved twinkle lights, and loved the way they shines on his hair as they sat under the tree talking about their days.

They danced around the kitchen, and they ate out of the pan.

She still hogged the covers.

He still cuddled her even though she’s a bed hog.

She likes to watch him wake up, and would often absently kiss the top of his head when he’s buried in work.

He likes to read lying down on her lap as she read edits her editor sent.

This was their love, they made the rules. It wasn’t perfect… but it was theirs.

#fanfic #anne x gilbert #modern!au

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anydragonsneedslaying · 6 years ago

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Meet me at Dryad's Bubble - a dianne flowershop!AU

I had great fun writing this for the awae secret santa. This is a gift for @colemckenzies Hope you like!

(663 words, G, first meeting, headcanon: pan!Ruby)

The little bell rung above the door of Dryad’s Bubble, a cozy flower shop in an up-and-coming neighbourhood of Halifax. Anne Shirley had started the business two years ago and had built a small but loyal clientele via word-of-mouth and social media. Looking up from a bouquet of freesias and baby’s breath she was putting the final touches on, she saw a young woman with jet black hair and a cute button nose standing uncertainly in the doorway.

“Welcome!” she chirped out, smiling genuinely at the new customer.

Seemingly encouraged, the black-haired woman smiled back, displaying two winsome dimples, and approached the register.

“Hello,” she said, “I’m looking for a bouquet for my mother’s birthday. A friend of mine told me you made divine arrangements.”

“Oh lovely!” exclaimed Anne, “May I ask you who it was? I know most of my clients by name”

“Ruby Gillis.”

“Oh yes, she does love her roses! I’m always quite excited to share my new varieties with her: she shares my appetite for the beauties of the natural world!”

“Yes exactly,” the woman replied, “Ruby’s very romantic; always giving bouquets to her latest beau.”

“Yes, she was telling me about a girl called Jane most recently, how did that turn out?”

“Oh they've been to the botanical garden and I think they're having tea this Sunday…” the woman came to a halt quite suddenly, as if she had fallen into the conversation without meaning to. “But as you already seem to know Ruby so well, I should introduce myself: I’m Diana Barry.”

“Oh Diana! What an exquisite name that is! Yes, Ruby has mentioned you before. How lovely to make your acquaintance!” Tying the final bow around her bouquet, Anne added “But you came here for flowers and here I am nattering your ear off. What did you have in mind for your mother?”

“Well, she is quite traditional. Classic. She grew up in England and she’s mentioned the tea roses that grew in her father’s garden on occasion.”

“I think I have just the thing,” Anne replied.

Walking Diana over to the fridges, Anne started pointing to the various buckets.

“So I have some lovely purply-red tea roses that just came in, we could combine those with some lavender, and then these purple sweet peas? As well as some greenery of course.”

“Yes, that looks lovely!” Diana smiled to herself, obviously imagining her mother’s reaction.

“Then please feel free to look around & I’ll wrap these up for you in the meanwhile.” Anne said.

As Diana meandered back over to the register a few minutes later, she had a dreamy look in her eye. “I feel really at peace here,” she said, “it almost feels like being out in a field of wildflowers.”

“That is too kind,” Anne said, blushing slightly. She placed the wrapped flowers on the counter in front of Diana, depositing a little posy of yellow tea roses next to the bigger bouquet. “These are my treat,” she explained, “just because it was so lovely to meet you.”

Now it was Diana’s turn to blush. “That is too kind. Thank you so much.”

As she paid, Anne added “by the way, that tea you mentioned Ruby going to on Sunday?”

Diana nodded.

“I think she’s coming here. I host a small tea group on Sunday afternoons. Ruby's been a frequent attendee. We all talk about the symbolism of plants, botany, things like that. This week we’re discussing the Secret Garden. You’re very welcome to join if you like!”

Diana’s smile widened, “I would like that very much!” They stood there just smiling at each other for an extended moment until the bell over the door rang. Startled from their reverie, Diana picked up her bouquets and headed for the door with a last backwards glance at Anne. As she was closing the door behind her, she heard Anne address the person who had just entered the shop:

“Cole! I just met the most wonderful person!”

#colemckenzies #dianne #anne shirley #annesecretsanta #diana barry #aogg #anne netflix #anne fanfic

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