Chapter Text
she thought about her first kiss a lot, more than she probably should have.
but in her defense, that was all anyone in school could talk about anymore.
all of her friends only ever talked about was kissing boys and how they dreamed their first kiss would go.
anne simply rolled her eyes at these comments while diana giggled, being the only one in the group who had ever been kissed.
jane had told them how she didn't really care who she kissed first, as long as he was very romantic and gave her some sort of flower. tillie had even blushingly admitted that she wanted to be kissed by charlie, and josie pye had told them that she wanted to kiss billy andrews (which made jane extremely uncomfortable)
while of course ruby rambled on about how handsome gilbert blythe was and how she would just love to kiss him.
and while ruby gillis rambled on about how good gilbert's lips would feel pressed against her own.
while ruby talked her redheaded friend could not listen. she felt her stomach drop. she hated to think of gilbert blythe kissing ruby gillis and she didn't know why.
anne simply watched birds flying by outside the school window, tuning gout her smaller friend's word.
she listened to the girls rambling on all of lunch for months and months while anne simply sat, watching the birds flying in the blue sky.
well until an early november day when no birds were in the sky and all she could do was listen to the words of her friends.
"oh gilbert's lips would be so soft." ruby said, dreamily, looking off into the distance. "don't you think?"
" i don't like to think of gilbert blythe's lips." anne said, scaring her friends slightly, they had not expected anne to speak, she never did in these situations.
"oh but he is so dreamy!" ruby said, "i want him to kiss me so much!" making anne stand up abruptly.
"i think i will be going outside to eat my lunch." she said before walking away from the group of girls and into the front of the school.
she walked to the place where she had sat on her first day at school, remembering how gilbert had walked over to her and offered her the apple, which she could not take.
she sat there, trying to figure out why the image of ruby and gilbert kissing bothered her so much.
it's because he is absolutely repulsive and she is one of my dearest friends.
anne tried to convince herself, but she shook her head. she knew that gilbert blythe was most certainly not repulsive.
in fact, even though anne hated to admit it, he was rather handsome and she a weird sensation in her stomach whenever he smiled at her and his dimples showed.
the girl frowned, she couldn't possibly think of any good explanation on why she hated to even think of gilbert and ruby as a couple.
she knew ruby was most desperately in love with the boy but she could not understand why since his return to avonlea that affected her more.
well, ruby's crazy crush had always bothered anne a little bit. considering that it wasn't fair that ruby could call dibs on a boy, simply because she had seen him first.
anne never really cared, her main goal was to make friends and if she wasn't allowed to talk to gilbert blythe for that, so be it.
but ever since the boy's return to avonlea, anne felt something different. all along she did truly want to be his friend, but now she longed to be his friend.
for him to tell her all the secrets he had been hiding from everyone even bash. she wanted him to always be at her side if she ever needed him and she wanted to be always at his side whenever he needed her.
maybe that was it, she wanted to be his friend and because of ruby she wasn't technically allowed to be.
but really didn't explain the sickening feeling she felt. the same feeling she got when she had watched other children get adopted at the orphanage or when she saw diana for the first time, anne had wanted her long, pretty, brown hair. marilla had called this feeling jealousy.
but that didn't make any sense.
why would she be jealous, she didn't even like gilbert?
the redhead sighed, exasperated she put her head in the palm of her hand, trying to think of possible answers.
"reviewing your spelling, are you?" a familiar low voice said from behind her, making her turn around swiftly, "you don't need to, you'll beat everyone without studying."
"gilbert, i didn't see you there." she said, pushing one lock of her growing hair behind her ear.
he laughed lightly before speaking again, "what are you thinking about?"
anne froze for a minute, trying to come up with a good lie.
"i was thinking about the word, er, tranquility, it's such an odd word, isn't it? to think it means calmness when the word itself is so complicated to spell and to sound out." she said quickly.
the boy next to her let out a small laugh, knowing she was lying.
"though you are gifted at almost everything else, you are a horrible liar, anne shirley cuthbert." he said, raising is eyebrows at her.
"i am not!" she protested, but she knew he was right, she was in fact, a terrible liar.
"anne, what are you really thinking about?" he asked, looking at her with a trace of a small smile.
she sighed, knowing he could see right through her. "the girls are talking about kissing inside." she said, looking down at her boots.
gilbert's face tinged pink. "kissing? well why does that bother you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at the teenage girl.
"because i'll never have my first kiss." she said, huffing.
"why do you say that?" gilbert asked, bewildered.
"because no one would ever want to kiss me!" she said, only half-lying. she knew she couldn't tell gilbert that she had ran outside because ruby would not stop talking about kissing him.
she did hate to talk about kissing with her friends because unlike them, anne was positive that she would never be kissed.
gilbert frowned, wondering why on earth she would think that.
"that's a silly notion." he said, cocking his head at her. "why would you think that?"
"because!" she snapped, standing up abruptly and walking away, leaving gilbert standing there.
•••
anne was unusually quiet for the rest of the day, she barely spoke 7 words.
instead of waiting for diana like she usually did when it was time to leave, she hurriedly grabbed her coat and ran out the door.
gilbert glanced at diana who looked absolutely bewildered.
grabbing his coat, he ran outside to follow the redhead.
in the past few months anne has showed him some of the places she liked to go to be alone.
his had heart swelled knowing that she trusted him enough to show him such sacred places.
ever since the clubhouse had been destroyed she had spent most of her afternoons in a large tree she had found, she often would talk to a bird who nested there.
gilbert knew this by following her out to the large tree everyday. really, he didn't mean to spy, he wanted to go over and talk to her but he could never work up the courage to do so.
he followed the path he usually took to the large tree and as he had assumed, she was there.
the strange thing was that she was not sitting in the big tree like she usually did.
no, she was standing, leaning forewords on the tree.
he could somewhat hear her whispering quietly to herself.
gathering courage, the boy walked closer to her, taking a deep breath before speaking.
"anne?" he said, making anne spin around swiftly.
"gilbert! what are you doing here?" she asked, startled.
"are you alright?" he asked, ignoring her question.
"i'm perfectly and utterly fine." she said, "now why are you here?"
he sighed before speaking, "i just wanted to make sure you were alright."
her expression noticeably softened. "oh, well i'm perfectly fine, gilbert." she said, looking to her shoes.
"you will be kissed." he said softly, making the red head look back up at him, her bright eyes meeting his soft, brown ones.
"what?" she asked, her heart beat quickening.
the boy swallowed the lump in his throat, his hands were sweating but nevertheless, he took one step closer to the girl making her breath hitch.
"you were worried about being kissed, i said that you will be." he whispered, taking yet another step closer to the girl.
"gilbert," she started, unable to finish her sentence.
they were close now, closer than they had ever been before, a bubbling feeling of excitement and nervousness rose in their chests.
the teenage boy did something he never thought he would have the guts to do, he placed a hand on her pale cheek.
at first, the girl stiffened before she melted into the warm embrace. her eyes flitted from the hand on her cheek to his eyes.
he was unsure what to do next.
was he supposed to kiss her?
he questioned himself, knowing in books that usually this would be the time, but he had no idea if anne would even want to kiss him.
he pondered on what to do.
but before he had come to a decision, anne had.
she closed the space between them, her lips pressing onto gilbert's, catching him by surprise.
his eyes widened for a moment before he melted into the kiss, closing his eyes and pressing his other hand to her cheek.
for a few moments they stayed like that, their lips pressed against one and other's, a burning feeling running through their veins.
anne pulled away after awhile, blush crawling onto her features, she stared at the boy who was speechless for a moment before she turned around quickly and grabbed her books.
she gave him a shy smile before whispering, "see you tomorrow, gilbert."
she ran off, leaving gilbert there, smiling like an idiot.
maybe she had figured out why she didn't like the idea of ruby kissing gilbert.