There you were.

Standing in the front of a church you didn't want to be in. Knowing that a man far too old for your young age was waiting for you in the inside. It was wrong, how could your parents not see it? They had sold you out to a man they barely knew but seemed to blindly trust.

Your own family, the ones you trusted the most, were selling you for a price that wasn't worth your liberty. You had expected something as important as your freedom would be worth more than a few coins.

You knew your family was going through a rough patch in their lives, but doing this to you? Their first born, their own daughter?

Your face was stained with tears. You had never liked the idea of marriage. Or well, you had, just that not in this circumstances. Not when you were still such a young kid, and when you thought of marriage you certainly didn't pictured an old man standing as the groom while a kid stood as the wife. It was wrong and it was sick, and unfortunately it was what your life was going to become.

When you thought of marriage you thought of happiness. You thought of yourself, when you were older and could actually fit properly in the wedding dress you were currently wearing. You would be wearing it with pride, all your friends would be there too and Diana would be your maid of honor. You would have a career and your husband would, too. You would be equals in all levels possible.

Oh, when you thought of your future husband only one boy's face light up in your mind. It was such a shame he was overseas only Gods knows where. Gilbert Blythe wanted to see the world, he wanted to explore, and unfortunately, you were nowhere near his plans.

At least not as more than a best friend. You both had been best friends for as long as you could remember and you two were inseparable. It was not a surprise when you found yourself developing feelings for the young boy. After all, almost every girl in Avonlea had a crush on Gilbert at least once in their life solely based on his looks, so it was expected for you to be head over heels for him, after all you got all of Gilbert.

Who could blame you? Gilbert was a gentleman, he was a man in a crowd of immature foolish boys.

Once, a long time ago, you had believed he felt the same spark you felt for him. Oh, how wrong had you been! If he really felt that spark he wouldn't have been pinning after Anne Shirley-Cuthbert the last months he had been in Avonlea. If he felt that spark you felt every time you saw him, he wouldn't have left.

But he did, and he left you alone in the worst moment. Maybe if he was there, he would've helped you. Maybe he wouldn't have let your parents marry you off to a man you didn't knew.

"I can't, Gil" you whispered to yourself. "I can't do this"

With that, you ran.

Gilbert Blythe was a man of his word. He had promised you he would come back someday, he wasn't about to let his best friend down. He thought it was a good moment to come back, he had seen enough of the world and he had decided the world was decaying place without you in it.

And even though all the places he went were beautiful and could've offered him so many opportunities and so many open doors. He didn't want open doors, he wanted you. He wanted to see your smile every day on your way to school.

He had been a fool for not realizing it sooner.

He had been so excited to see the world that he hadn't noticed that his own world was in front of him all along. If he wanted the world, he had to have you.

You brought all the excitement and thrill he needed in his life and so much more. You brought beauty, you brought cleverness, and you brought happiness. The list could go on and on.

He smiled to himself, breathing in the fresh and cold air from Avonlea. He had left Bash at his house, the man had been happy to stay inside by the fire, Bash seemed to never have experienced a winter in his whole life. Gilbert thought he probably hadn't, and it made it even harder the fact that he had to spend one in Avonlea.

Winters there sucked.

You hated winter, too. You preferred the warm of summer, where you didn't have to wear ten layers of clothing to keep yourself warm. Gilbert knew this by heart for all the times he had to give you his coat for you to stop shaking.

He smiled at the memory.

He was walking towards town, he had to buy some supplies first if he wanted his old house to be adequate for two men to live in. Then, he would drop by your house.

He wondered if you had gotten the letter where he told you he would be coming back, the last letters he had sent were returned to him without an answer, which left him more than surprised. He knew you weren't happy with his decision of leaving, but he never thought you would stop exchanging letters with him so abruptly. It was an agony not knowing what had been of you.

He was surprised when he saw a commotion going around the town's church, a lot of people were walking around the church in formal clothes. He suspected a wedding was taking place, but the panicked expression in everyone faces told him that if it was a wedding what was taking place, it wasn't going so well.

He was surprised to see a group of his classmates standing hurled around each other, he frowned. However, he walked towards them. Moody was the first one to take in his presence.

"Gilbert?" He had asked, more to the group than to Gilbert. "Gilbert!"

They had all turned to him, and the person's closer to him had exclaimed his name. "You're back!" Anne said. Gilbert couldn't help but notice her extremely short hair, she looked like a newborn baby bird. Gilbert knew Anne hated her hair but didn't think she would go to such extremes to get rid of it. He wondered what had happened. However, he did not ask or comment. He didn't want to be whacked over the head with a slate ever again.

"Yeah, I'm back"

He supposed that if his classmates were there, you had to be there too, almost everyone was there. Even your parents were there, he could see them from afar, and even form that distance he could notice their worried faces. But you were nowhere to be seen.

"You came for the wedding, surely" Anne continued, and Gilbert frowned.

"What wedding?"

He was more than confused now, he already suspected there was a wedding. But if Anne believed his return was because of it, it must've surely meant the bride or broom was someone he knew. He couldn't think of anyone that he knew that could be getting married, though.

"Oh," Diana gasped. "You don't know..."

Now he was getting even more curious and slightly worried. The expression in his classmates' faces didn't help to ease him. "What? Who is getting married? And if someone is getting married then why are all of you outside, has something happened?"

They all looked at him. He stared back, anxiously waiting for an answer to be given to him. Why did they looked so shocked? Finally, Anne spoke, the words leaving her lips rapidly.

"Y/N is getting married today but she ran away"

Suddenly, he couldn't breathe, his breath had caught up in his throat. For a few minutes he couldn't move, either. Y/N is getting married, his best friend is getting married and he had no idea with it.

All that is going through his mind is that you are getting married, the girl of his dreams is getting married and you are running around only God knows where. But you are getting married and his whole world is crumbling down.

In the depth of the forest, the only thing that can be heard apart from the rusting of the winds and the sound of the curious animals walking around are the terrible wailing sobs coming from the top of a tree.

In the top of the tree, there is a small but noticeable little house. It's odd, it looks like it might fall at any moment. After all, it was constructed by two twelve years old who barely knew what they were doing.

There is nothing inside the little house. It hast been used for almost a year since Gilbert has gone. You had refused to set foot in there after he left, it bought too many memories you didn't want to remember. You barely fitted there anyway, the only way to fit was to stay either seated on in a crawl position and it only gave space for two people, but that was more than intentional. Gilbert and you didn't intend to invite any more people in the little tree house you two took so much pride in.

But you had found yourself with nowhere else to go, you needed a place to hide. Maybe if you hid well enough, they would call the wedding off and you would have at least a few more days to digest the whole thing.

You knew that even if they gave you years to digest it, you would never come to terms with the situation. It was just too much to handle, and you were known for being a very mature person. But this? This you hated, this you would run away off until they didn't have other option than to drag you in arms to the altar and marry you to a man you would never love.

You had always prided yourself to being a very mature person, you barely let feelings cloud your judgment. But this wasn't a clouded judgment affecting the thoughts of a mature kid. This was you being the kid you were always supposed to be, you were reacting as any normal kid your age would.

All the tantrums you had held back against your parents when they did awful things to just where now exploding and you weren't going to hold back. Anne had once said that letting your feelings out would often be better than bottling them all inside.

It had been almost half an hour, you supposed, when you swore you had left your heart dry from any tears. You were leaning against one of the walls of the small house, you were hugging your dress, feeling the soft silk brush against your hands as you made fist out of them.

You wanted to rip all the white silk out, but at that point you were too numb to move at all, you could just grip the fabric harder.

You wanted Gilbert, you wanted your best friend to tell you everything was going to be okay.

It had been half an hour, half an hour since Gilbert had received the dreadful news that you were getting married, he wanted to scream his lungs out. He had been a fool for going way. Maybe if he had stayed with you, you wouldn't be getting married.

He wondered, as he looked around the forest for you, if it had been your decision to marry. The thought of it being your decision only hurt him more. But the thought of you being forced into a marriage had the same effect on him. Thinking of you in that kind of situation was hardly bearable and he really hoped there was a good explanation for the whole ordeal.

He wanted to slap himself as he realized, there was only one possible place you could be right now since all the other places he had hoped for you to be in had failed. He had thought so much of the place in the ship that he had been a fool not to think of it now, your safe place, the house in the tree.

He almost ran to the place. He couldn't hear a thing, but there was still a possibility you were there. You had to be there, it was the only reasonable place he could think off. He climbed the old and creaking stairs up the tree, peaking his head over the small hole that acted as a door.

And he saw you, after months of being away from you, he saw you. Damn, he could feel you. Unfortunately, this was not old you, and this you was a you he never wanted to see again.

You looked beautiful in the wedding dress, except for your face. You looked so lost, like a child who has lost his parents in a crowd, but worst. There were dried tears still making lines down your cheeks, your eyes were swollen of so much crying.

He slowly climbed inside.

When you noticed someone else entering the small space, you couldn't help but panic. Someone had found you, they had found you and they were going to send you back to that church. They would force for you to vow yourself to a man you didn't loved and would never come to love, they would take you apart from your childhood, from your friends and from your education.

And there was nothing you could do about it.

You didn't even dare to turn towards the person you were now sure was crawling inside, you kept looking to the wall besides you. "Please," you sobbed. "Please don't take me back there."

Gilbert's heart broke into a million pieces at the image before him, a worried frown had now settled in his forehead and wasn't going to leave until he made sure you were okay.

"Y/N..." he whispered soft, he put his hand on your shoulder. You flinched, turning around looking at him with tears again beginning to build up in your eyes.

"Gilbert?" Your voice was hoarse, and it was more a whisper than anything else.

"I'm here."

You fell into his arms without doubting it, you missed that warmth of his so much, and you buried your face in the crook of his neck. "Gilbert, you are back"

"I'm back, I'm back" he hushed you, trying for you to calm down. You couldn't help but hold him closer to you, you didn't want to let go any time soon. But you had to explain the whole situation.

If the time hadn't been so dreadfully wrong, it would have been like when you were kid and used to reunite every day in the tree house. You two sitting there, just talking and being with each other.

He tells you that he came back for you, that when he stopped getting your letters he was worried sick, and that he couldn't handle being away from you, much less not knowing what had been of his best friend.

You tell him you had stopped getting his letters, and you came to the conclusion that your mother had been taking the letters and sending them back without answer. After all, she did not like Gilbert Blythe that much, mainly because she knew you were in love with him and she wanted you to marry a rich wealthy man.

You tell him between tears how your own family had sold you for a few coins, you tell him that when the old man you're supposed to marry looks at you there is something sinister about it. You tell him about how he licks his lips and tell your parents that he can't wait for you two to marry so he can finally take you to his mansion and treat you like a princess.

When you tell him that, he feels sick to his stomach and he wants to lean against the opening of the house and puke, however, he holds back.

"... But, I have to marry him" you cry out, and retreat your head from his shoulder, looking at him in the eyes. He looks sad. "My parents, they won't-"

"No," he says firmly. "You will not marry that man! I will not allow it"

Your lower lip shakes at you speak. "How?"

"I don't know how, yet" he admits. "But I can't let them do this to you, Y/N, you deserve the world, you are the world, you are my world and Y/N," he chuckles softly. "I love you."

You sigh softly, looking at him bewitched by his words. He doesn't expect you to answer him, you know you are going through a lot at the moment. And he knows you will give him an answer when your mind is cleared and you are not standing in a position where every movement seems like is about to detonate a bomb.

Instead, he runs his hands through your head, he takes your veil away. Handing it to you, he smiles. "Go ahead, rip it"

You laugh slightly and sniff, grabbing the veil in your hands, you grip it tightly and it doesn't even take you a lot of strength before the fabric rips with a satisfactory sound. Gilbert smiles widens.

You pull again and again, until the veil is nothing but stray pieces of teal in your lap, you rest your head in Gilbert's shoulder.

You are twelve years old again, and there is nothing in the world to worry about. There is just you and Gilbert and your little house in the tree.