Work Text:
It was Mary who started it.
Gilbert hated it when people called him "Gil". It irritated him for no discernible reason, and it had for as long as he could remember. He thought that perhaps Billy Andrews had called him that at one point in their childhood that he couldn't recall, and the name had been sour ever since, for anything remotely connected to Billy in Gilbert's mind could not be a positive thing.
He knew that Mary had meant no harm when she had used it the first time. She had always thought Bash's nickname of "Blythe" rather curt, and she thought that "Gil" though equally as unimaginative, was much more suited to him. She had tried it out one afternoon whilst he was helping her cook, and Mary could tell instantly by the look on his face that he detested it.
And boy, did she love it.
It was not clear by looking at her, but Mary loved teasing Gilbert just as much, if not more than Bash. She made a point thereafter of including "Gil" at the beginning, middle and end of every conversation she had with him. It delighted Bash so much to see his discomfort that, much to Gilbert's horror, he abandoned the use of his old nickname and replaced it with this new instrument of torture.
The use of it had become so frequent at home that Gilbert had started to forget that it was not his real name. He signed his homework with Gil Blythe, before remembering and having to cross it out and correct himself. When Miss Stacy calls his name on that class register every morning, it takes him a moment to respond as he does not recognise his own name.
One chilly winter evening, Gilbert sat pouring over a geography book in his bedroom, whilst Bash was repairing a broken fence in the pasture and Mary was cooking dinner in the kitchen. He had been studying for hours, determined that he was going to give Anne a good fight- though he was certain she would manage to beat him anyhow- in the test that Miss Stacy had forewarned them about. Miss Stacy had a hatred for timed examinations, but the school board had requested that not all decorum was lost in her classroom, and she had to oblige. Once Gilbert felt sure he could recite every fact and figure about the Maritimes in his sleep, he was able to relax at last, setting his books aside on his chest of drawers and sighing of relief.
He sat by his windowsill, gazing out into the open fields that surrounding his house. If he squinted his eyes he could see Bash at the bottom of the pasture, battling "the air that's out to kill him" and shivering manically. The ground was covered in a thick blanket of snow, signalling to Gilbert that Christmas was on its way. Christmas has always been his favourite time of year as a little boy. When he was much younger, his father used to take him to someplace new and exciting every year, though the tradition ended when frequent travel became too much of a struggle for his father to handle. On the steamer two years prior, Gilbert had forgotten about Christmas altogether. He had spent December 25th shovelling coal, thinking about his father, and for a short half-hour before he fell asleep, wondering how the Cuthbert's were holding up. Secretly, Gilbert hoped that he, Bash and Mary would be invited to Green Gables for Christmas dinner, though he supposed it was unlikely they would be now that they were a whole family at last, and there was no reason to extend an invitation.
Gilbert and Anne's friendship was one of the best things to come out of the year, followed closely by the time that Billy had boasted of his athletic abilities at the church picnic and promptly lost the three-legged race to Anne and Diana (much to Billy's dismay) and when Josie Pye has slipped in a patch of dry ice on her way to school and got her dress soaking wet and muddy. Their friendship mainly consisted of school rivalry and relentless teasing (though Gilbert tried his best to steer clear of anything regarding her appearance, for fear of getting slapped) and though it was not much, they had come a long way from the day they first met. Anne still ignored Gilbert in class, and he could never figure out why, but every time she would walk away from him during lunch or blank him when he asked to walk home with her, she would arrive at school extra early the next morning, to apologise for being rude, and that it would never happen again, even though it always did. Gilbert had stopped trying to get her attention in school, but when there was nobody else around, they were really quite friendly towards one another.
He was interrupted from his latest Anne-related daydream when he saw a flash of red against the white of the snow. He knew immediately who it was coming up the path, and rushed to be in closer proximity of the door so that he could answer it before Mary. He pretended to Mary, wo had questioned his "elephant feet" as he ran through the house, that he had left his slate on the bench and he had come to retrieve it. There was a knock at the door, and Gilbert almost-too-quickly called "I'll get it!" and rushed to the aid of the unknown caller. He opened the door, and to his (faked) surprise, Anne stood before him.
She looks even more pretty in the snow, was Gilbert's first thought. Her cheeks were pink from the cold, and the snowflakes that were resting on her fiery red hair sparkled like diamonds. Gilbert scolded himself for thinking such a thing about her. How could she possibly look any different in the snow as she did any other day. She was always pretty, he knew that much, even if she did not believe it herself. The snow had nothing to do with her beauty, it simply brought out different features.
"Hello, Anne," Gilbert smiled. "What are you doing here?"
"Marilla asked me to return this basket to Mary," she replied, holding up said basket so he could see it, to prove she had indeed come over to drop it off, and not to start a conversation with him, which is what Josie Pye had accused her of when they had met on her way over. "Is she here?"
"Um yes, I'll-" he began.
"Who is it, Gil?" Mary asked, abandoning her cooking and coming to join him at the door. "Oh, hello, Anne,"
A smug smile broke out on Mary's face. So that's why Gilbert had appeared in such a hurry. Not a slate in sight! Which was thankful considering the history of their relationship.
"Is that for me?" Mary asked, pointing to the basket. Anne nodded and handed it to her, and Mary placed it on the slate-less bench inside. "You tell Marilla I say thanks, alright?" she said.
"Of course, Mary," promised Anne, and Mary disappeared into the kitchen once again. She felt that Gilbert could not do with her interrupting this.
"Gil?" Anne said, raising an eyebrow, when Mary was safely out of earshot.
"Oh, don't you start too! I get enough of that here," Gilbert groaned.
Anne laughed. She had a beautiful laugh, Gilbert thought. He would like to make her laugh more, if only she would allow him to. To him, it sounded more perfect that a thousand angels singing all at once, in perfect harmony.
"I like it," she smiled mischievously. "I think I might use it more often."
"Perhaps it will distract you from your schoolwork for long enough that I will be able to beat you in English as well as the geography paper on Thursday," Gilbert said.
"You wish," said Anne, rolling her eyes. They both knew perfectly well that Anne would always have the advantage in English, and much to her annoyance, Gilbert would always have the upper hand in Geometry.
"Hurry up and shut the door, will you?" Mary yelled from the kitchen. "You're letting all the cold air in and Bash'll be shivering for weeks!"
"I'll see you tomorrow then, Gil," Anne teased.
"See you later, Carrots," retaliated Gilbert.
The old insult had long since lost its sting (coming from Gilbert's mouth at least) so Anne did not take the opportunity to whack him in the face and merely smirked.
"You know, if you keep calling me that, I might have to permanently resort to calling you Gil,"
"Is that a promise?" Gilbert asked cockily, running his fingers through his hair,
"It's more of a threat." Anne said gravely, and Gilbert's breath caught in his throat.
"Well, goodbye Gil!" she teased as she practically skipped down the path with delight that she had found a new way to exasperate Gilbert- something that he had never and would never object to.
"You're hilarious, Carrots!" he called sarcastically as she walked away, shutting the door firmly behind him as she waved to him from the bottom of the hill. He made his way into the kitchen, hoping that the heat of the stove could warm him up from standing in the cold with no jacket. He planned to berate Mary for using the horrific nickname in front of Anne, because as much as he found he loved it when she called him it, if it caught on at school he would never forgive her.
"You've gotta stop making heart-eyes at Anne for so long, Gil" Mary chuckled when she noticed him standing in the doorway. "That poor girl is gonna catch her death of cold,"
Gilbert scoffed, and decided to put off the lecture to a time where Mary did not have a new supply of Anne-related material stacked against him. His only wish was that Bash never found out. He would never live it down.