Chapter Text
It took only a second for the memories to come flooding back. Gilbert felt the tickle of her hair first, and then came the realization that the smooth skin under his hands was most certainly not his own. He shifted her a little closer to him, savoring the feel of the bare skin of her back against his chest and the softness of her torso against his hands. She sighed contentedly, and he finally opened his eyes. The first image before him was of a tumble of fiery locks, some of it tickling his cheek, some of it brushing over her exposed shoulder and down her chest. It moved and shone a little as she sighed, since the sun was now high in the sky and streaming through the window.
He buried his face in her hair, breathing in deeply. He’d had so many fantasies about what a morning like this would be like, but it seemed that his imagination hadn’t been nearly enough. It hadn’t captured the way she smelled, the warmth that radiated from her body, the sounds she’d emanated that had haunted his dreams. He knew he’d be doing everything in his power to hear those sounds again for the rest of his life.
Still, even more than all of that, there was something else he hadn’t expected, the thing about this morning that had him blinking back tears as he adjusted the blankets over her shoulders and smoothed the hair away from her face.
“Good morning, my wife,” he murmured, though he could see that she was still asleep and hadn’t heard him.
It was really happening, and he knew it now, as he watched her peaceful face and saw a window into their future together. He didn’t give any thought to the likes of Roy Gardner anymore, and he had no doubt of Anne’s love. After so many years of longing, though, and so many painful months of separation, sometimes he still had trouble believing it was all real. He’d come so close to losing her forever. He tried to banish those memories whenever they unwillingly rose to the surface, but sometimes he would still find himself waking in the middle of the night, momentarily believing that he’d ended up in some terrible other world – one where Diana hadn’t found him, one where Anne hadn’t forgiven him, one where he’d given up on her entirely before he’d even tried. He would remind himself in his darkest hours that none of those terrible futures had come to pass, and instead she assured him, with every word and deed, that their future would be full of love and hope, together.
And yet, there was something elemental about what had happened between them last night. Once again, he had incontrovertible proof that she was his life partner – in his heart, his wife. He still looked forward to the day when everyone else would know it, but that day wasn’t the day that counted most. Every day counted, because they chose each other, again and again. He knew his Anne with an E – if she didn’t love him as wholeheartedly as he loved her, she would never have trusted him with her heart and her body.
It was enough to sustain him more peacefully in the long years that remained - to have had even a glimpse of what it would be like to awaken by her side every day, where he could be sure every morning that she was safe, healthy, and loved. He would always come home to his wife.
He let his leg slide over hers as he settled back against the pillows, enjoying the contrast between them. She always felt so soft and delicate. Anne was, in fact, not generally a delicate woman at all (at least her mind surely couldn’t be described in such a way, to his delight), but he very much enjoyed the difference between her feminine form and his more angular, muscular frame.
She finally roused and twisted in his arms until she faced him.
“Good morning,” she whispered against his lips as she kissed him.
“Good morning, my beautiful wife.” She flushed so brightly that her skin was pink as far down as he could see, and he was certainly looking his fill.
Her hands began to wander over his back, and by the time she reached his hips, she had no doubt of the effect she was having on him.
“Again, my handsome husband?” she giggled.
“No, Anne, don’t worry about that. It sometimes just happens in the morn—” he wasn’t going to be able to continue speaking if she kept touching him like that.
“Are you saying you don’t want to?” she asked, though her faux innocence wasn’t fooling him, and he jerked his hips in surprise as she continued her ministrations.
“Anne,” he gasped, “you can assume if I’m alive that I want to.”
“Just what scandalous thoughts have you been keeping from me all these years?”
“If you keep touching me, you’re about to find out in the clearest way I can show you,” he growled into her ear, just before she found herself on her back with her legs wrapped around him. “Is this what you want?” It was more a demand than a question, and she bit her lip with glee. It seemed that driving Gilbert Blythe over the edge would become her new favorite activity.
“Yes,” she gasped, just before his mouth descended on hers and she lost the ability to speak at all.
The shock of his sudden transformation thrilled her. She’d noticed it a little before, but nothing compared to the surprise of finding herself almost entirely surrounded by him in an instant, while he kissed her fiercely. He was turning passionate before her eyes, and she loved it. No one but her would know exactly how wild Gilbert Blythe could be, and it thrilled her to her core that she was the cause. He loved her, and he wanted her, and he showed her so intensely that it nearly took her breath away.
By the time her senses focused on anything other than Gilbert and his body, her stomach was grumbling insistently, but she tried to ignore it. She was splayed across Gilbert’s chest, smiling at the feel of her cheek pressed to him while he fanned out her mussed hair over her back with his fingers.
“I’ve always wondered what your hair would look like against your bare skin,” he mused. “It glows perfectly, just like I thought it would.”
“Always?” she teased, not daring to move an inch from her comfortable spot. “Such naughty thoughts for a mere schoolboy.”
“You wound me,” he protested, wrapping an arm more tightly around her under the covers.
“You never dared to have a scandalous thought about my naked form whilst seated across from me in the schoolroom?” Gilbert’s hand stilled and the silence stretched. Anne looked up to find him staring at the ceiling, blushing sheepishly.
“Gilbert Blythe! You were naughty!”
“I was a young man in love and you had asked me about reproduction the day before, in front of everyone! Is it any wonder that my thoughts...wandered...when next I saw you?”
Now it was Anne’s turn to blush sheepishly. “I suppose I have had scandalous thoughts about you at some terribly inconvenient times in my life, so you can be forgiven for neglecting your schoolwork momentarily in favor of more...erotic subjects.”
“Dare I say, we may be neglecting many things in favor of bed in the future?” Anne’s eager, all-consuming kiss was the only answer he needed.