Made and Meant for Each Other (an Anne of Green Gables fanfiction)

Anne

Anne turned sorrowfully to Gilbert, looking up into his face, trying to memorize his features, as if they weren't already burnt on her heart. "To think that this is the last night of our golden summer."

"We have made the most out of the time, haven't we?" He took her hand, holding it in both of his.

"We have. Glorious rambles, long chats, all the joys of true companionship." There had been other joys, the beginnings of the intimacy they would enjoy one day as a married couple, that Anne was too shy to allude to yet. She could feel her cheeks heating at the thought. They heated more, her heart pounding, as Gilbert's hazel eyes warmed with the thought of those same moments. He drew her against him, holding her there in his arms, where she could contemplate the present and the future safe in the knowledge that they were consecrated to one another, and nothing they did together would be wrong. Her first taste of what that kind of intimacy could feel like had been heady and exciting—but overwhelming, too. In some ways, she wasn't sorry for the time and distance that would separate them. Much as she would miss Gilbert, their acknowledgement of their love had been so intense, coming as it had after Gilbert had nearly died, and they had had only a few weeks to throw themselves headlong into the enjoyment of that love. Anne felt she had never had the chance to really catch her breath, to stop and look around her at the rapid alteration of the dreams she had cherished since she was a young girl, the dreams in which Gilbert Blythe had been nothing more than a friend and companion.

She was the better for the change, of course she was, and she wouldn't have had it any other way—but it was still a change, and the reality had been so much deeper, sweeter, more consuming than her dreams had ever come close to being that she had felt herself swept along with it like a tide. It was different for Gilbert, who had swum so far through choppy waters to get here that he had readily, completely surrendered himself to the undertow pulling him out to sea, but Anne hadn't even known she was in the water until after Gilbert's illness, and she was still getting the feel of it.

"I'll dream every night of the next three years of the day I make you my wife," Gilbert whispered huskily into her hair.

"And the home o' dreams we'll make together," Anne agreed. That, at least, was a familiar idea to anchor herself to. There was less frightening reality to furnishing imaginary rooms in nonexistent houses. Not that she didn't look forward to the reality—waking up to love had been romantic beyond her wildest dreams—but she was glad to have the time to get used to it.

Gilbert released her, saying cheerfully, "It'll be a hard slog, but we'll make it, Anne-girl."

"I almost envy you, going back to Kingsport. Go by Patty's Place for me occasionally, see if Miss Patty and Miss Maria are still knitting?"

"You don't expect them to stop, do you?"

"No, but ... just to know you'd been to the dear old place. And the middy's grave in St. John's, you'll take flowers?"

"When I have time," he promised. "When are you going to Summerside?"

"Mrs. Lynde and I will go early next week to find me a lodging, and then I move there in two more weeks. Doesn't the name Summerside have such a cheerful flavour to it? Oh, Gilbert, I just know the next three years will fly by, filled with useful work and the opportunity to really have an impact on the students' lives."

"You won't mind giving up teaching at the end of it, will you?"

"Oh, no, not if ..." She could feel the blush again, but pushed boldly through. "Not if we have a few young lives of our own to raise."

"A houseful!" he said, hugging her again. "At least five."

"I'm certain there will be twins. They're my destiny, you know."

Gilbert took her face in his hands. "As long as you're my destiny, I'm content to take whatever else comes along. Oh, Anne, what a long time it was, waiting and wondering."

She clung to him. "Don't think of that. When I remember what a goose I was, how I hurt you ... I'm so sorry. I promise to spend the rest of our lives making up for it."

And she stood on her tiptoes and kissed him, to seal her promise.