anne with an e crossover ! i'm actually proud of this one —

requested by @supersimp-2000

———

I walked through the quiet woods, my books tucked under my arm as I walked to the schoolhouse, eager for Ms. Stacey's lesson for today.

As I make my way around the corner, I hear a familiar voice call out for me. "Y/n! Y/n, wait for me!" The hyper redhead calls out as she runs through the woods, her hand holding her hat as she catches up to me.

A large smile is present on her face as she looks around the forest and then back to me. "It's this day just magnificent?" Anne asks, to which I nod in reply, a smile making its way to my face as I continue to walk with my friend.

"It always is in the mornings, the blue sky, the birds chirping, the water in the creek." I reply, "It's absolutely breathtaking."

I see Anne glance at me once again and adds, "So are you this morning, Y/n. That color is the perfect shade for your gorgeous y/h/c locks. I wish I had hair as pretty as yours, and not my terrible red hair. It's awful, my hair." She mumbles to herself.

I grab she shoulder and squeeze it reassuringly. "You're hair is 10 times as amazing as mine, it's such a stunning and unique shade, I bet anyone would die to have your hair, Anne." I tell her, which makes the smile return to her face.

Linking her arm with mine, she starts to pull me faster along the path. "Come on, we mustn't be late for school, and we've got to meet up with Diana!"

I laugh at her excitement, but hurry along nonetheless, seeing the black-haired girl standing a few yards in front of us. Diana waves as we draw near, and Anne simply links her other arm with hers and the three of us resume a slowly pace, talking and laughing with each other.

As we approached the schoolhouse, I noticed that there were kids outside, the younger ones playing what looked to be hide and seek and the older ones talking around the entrance of the school.

Diana started to pull the three of us towards the girls who were huddled around each other in a whispered conversation.

Anne and I shared a look and sighed in defeat. It's not that we didn't like the girls, per say, it's just that sometimes the topics they spoke about were so mundane. Anne and I preferred to talk in our little group, or at least I did.

I felt like I had to close myself off when we are in the large group, watching what I said and whatnot. When it was just the three of us, I could relax.

Before we could reach the girls, I pulled my arm away from Anne, which made my two friends look at me when I stopped walking. "Are you alright, Y/n?" Diana asked with concern lacing her words.

I nodded quickly, looking around for an excuse, when I spit out, "I'm fine. I just need to, um, talk with Ms. Stacey about something. You two go ahead." I urged, turning and walking into the schoolhouse.

I hang up my coat and hat, finding my seat as I took out my sketchbook and worked on finishing my latest project. It was a portrait of the whole class, which I planned to give to Ms. Stacey hopefully before the end of the year.

I heard the footsteps enter the class before I could register them, and the person slammed their books down next to me, making me jump in my seat. Turning to the mischievous boy, I slapped his arm when he snickered at my reaction. "It's not funny, Tewkesbury! You could've messed up my drawing!" I snapped, turning back to the page with a huff.

I could practically see his smirk as I continued working, the weight of his stare making me hyper aware of my actions. Sighing in annoyance, I turned to the fidgeting boy. "Can I help you with something?"

Tewkesbury peeked over my shoulder and looked down at my work. "It's very good." He whispers, looking between me and the page, "Really good. What's it for?"

"It's for Ms. Stacey. A thank you for all her hard work." I answer, turning back, "Now unless you want to be excluded from this drawing, I suggest you stop pestering me." I respond playfully, watching as he mocks offense.

Before he could respond, voices filled the classroom and we turned to see the rest of the class filing in, Anne and Diana towards the back of the group. They make their way towards me and stop when they see Tewkesbury sitting next to me, immediately sharing a teasing glance, to which I roll my eyes.

They are aware of my friendship with him, but why they act so odd around him is beyond me.

Behind them comes in Gilbert, the last to enter as he finds his seat across the isle, frowning when he realizes his partner isn't sitting in his normal seat. Raising a questioning eyebrow in my direction I shrug innocently as if to his silent question.

As Ms. Stacey starts class, we turn our attention to the front. Tewkesbury, in a last minute attempt to hold me attention, taps my hand which was lying on my dress, making me spare him a glance as I see him scribbling on a piece of paper, sliding it towards me,

Meet me in the clearing after school?

He links his hand with mine under the desk, silently telling me to use our "secret code" to answer his note, as I squeeze his twice in response, meaning I said yes.

After my response, I go to pull my hand away, but he grips it tighter, not letting it go. I look at his face for any indication of a sign of his actions, but all I see is a lopsided grin, to which makes me fight the urge to smile, but ultimately it peeks through as we sit together, hand it hand, as the lesson continues.

———

After the school day, I gathered my things bidding goodbye to Anne and Diana, and headed to the clearing a few paces deep into the forest from the edge of the school.

The clearing, while not so secret, led to a beautiful meadow that Tewkesbury and I had discovered when we were young.

Claiming it to be "our meadow," it was a special place for the two of us, usually whenever he wanted to get away from his overbearing parents, or myself from my not-so-great home life, or just whenever we wanted to.

It feels like so long ago that we were able to just come to the meadow and play until we could barely stand, to watch the stars until we fell asleep, to just be children.

But, I guess this was growing up.

As I head the crunching of leaves, I turned to find Tewkesbury with a basket in his hands instead of his school books. He sent a smile my way and we started to walk together, a silence between the two of us.

But it wasn't an awkward silence, or the silence that's actually so loud that you feel like your ears might pop, or the silence so thick you could cut with a knife. No, this was a comfortable silence, the type where you could just enjoy being in the other person's presence, the way you smile by just being near them.

As we finally made it to our favorite spot in the meadow, which was basically right in the middle of the flowers because when you laid down, you were surrounded by flowers and the sky really popped against their colorful petals.

Taking me by surprise, Tewkesbury pulled a blanket from the basket, laying it out on the ground. I gasped, realization hitting me. "You sneaky little — you planned this, didn't you?"

The smirk I got in return was my only answer as I rolled my eyes and plopped down next to him.

I don't know how long I sat with Tewkesbury there, but all I know is that we spent hours laughing and talking, so late that we could now clearly see the stars. I didn't really mind being out this late, especially since it meant I could stay away from my parents longer.

That's what one of the reasons why I loved to come out here with Tewkesbury when we were little, it meant staying out of the house longer. Who cares if I went to school with twigs in my hair the next morning?

Currently, both of us were sprawled out on the blanket, my head resting on Tewkesbury's stomach as we laid down on the blanket, the stars above us giving us a spectacular view.

We had been going back and forth, asking each other random questions, and it was currently Tewkesbury's turn to ask a question. "Who would you rather be friends with: Josie or Billy?"

I groaned, making Tewkesbury chuckle causing his chest to move a bit under my head. "That is a terrible question, Tewkesbury. Can I pick neither? You know I don't particularly like either of them."

"Really? I hadn't noticed." He teased, to which I elbowed his side lightly. "All right, your turn." He spoke after a moment.

I thought for a second, looking up at the sky as if it would give me some sort of inspiration. I thought about how there are so many things in our universe, and yet we're so small and insignificant. How wonderful would it be to mean something more?

"If you could be anything in the universe, anything at all, what would you be?" I ask, my voice in a hushed tone as if to avoid breaking the mood we had created.

Tewkesbury moved a bit under my head, not speaking right away. I lifted my head to get a better look at him, but he kept his gaze on the stars as he muttered his answer, "Yours."

I froze in place, not quite expecting that. "I'm sorry, what?"

He sat up to meet my eyes, fidgeting slightly as he nervously brought his eyes to mine. "If I could be anything in the universe, I would want to be yours." He answers again, more confidence in his voice.

"Wha — What do you mean?" I ask hesitantly, not sure I actually want to know the answer.

"Like I want to be yours." Tewkesbury answers, wincing when he realizes he already said that and tries a different approach. "I want to take you out on a date. If you'll let me."

He looks at me, trying to maintain a calm outer layer, but even in the pale moonlight, I can see the nervousness in his eyes.

I felt like I had to sort out many years of very confusing feelings in a matter of seconds. Goodness, why was this so difficult, but also easy at the same time, and yet so confusing?

Mustering up what small courage I had, I leaned over the remaining space and pressed my lips to his cheek, drawing back slowly to gage his reaction.

Even in the starlight, I saw the blush that painted his cheeks.

"I would love to, Tewkesbury." I answered, lying down once more to look at the stars.

I saw to movement from the corner of my eye, but I didn't dare look at him. I felt him lay down next to me, his body parallel to mine. I also felt him tentatively reach out and link our hands together.

It wasn't like every other time, no, this time my heart pounded in my chest as the simple gesture, and I found myself squeezing his ha d to which he copied before bringing my hand up and pressing a kiss to the back of it and bringing it back to the space between us, gently rubbing his thumb over the skin on the back of my hand.

———

The week after our first date, and Tewkesbury and I had already had another. The only thing is that we hadn't told anyone due to the fear of my parents finding out.

And by telling no one, of course it means I told Anne as well as Diana, since they were my closest friends and I trusted them. Plus the fact that I knew perfect ways to get back at them if they so much as even whisper about it to someone else.

The dates had of course been in the meadow since we were positively sure that no one would find us there. The dates had just been like how we were normally, hanging out, talking, laughing, reading. Except now we say a little closer, and I found Tewkesbury would take whatever chance he hand to hold my hand, or have some kind of physical contact with me, whether it was a hand on my back, his fingers braiding my hair as I read aloud, or his head in my lap as I ranted about all the things bothering me.

But hey, I wasn't complaining. This small step might've been minor for some people, I however had gone from almost no comforting contact to a lot of it, which I was extremely grateful for.

But now I found myself walking with my hand in Tewkesbury's, which was in his coat pocket to keep them warm.

We found ourselves walking to the meadow as we talked, letting our feet guide us on one of the trees that lined the flowers, setting our things down and leaning against the strong trunk. Leaning my head on his shoulder, I felt him press a light kiss to the crown of my head before we continued to talk about our upcoming exams for Ms. Stacey.

Minutes passed by before we both grew silent, just watching as the breeze blowed through the flowerbed, making the scene all the more calming.

"Y/n?" Tewkesbury asks quietly and I lift my head to face him. He raises his hand to trace my jawline, making me shiver a little at his cold touch. "What happens when we leave for college?" He asks in the same quiet tone.

I sit up slightly to watch him, sucking in a breath nervously. "Well, I don't know. I don't know so many things, like where I'll end up, where you'll end up. Like, what if my parents send me to France, just to be rid of me? I truly don't have an answer because I don't know anything. I guess it depends on the exams."

He nods slowly and tucks a piece of hair behind my ear, making me look at him again from where my eyes had dropped to my hands. "That's okay, I mean, I think we'll make it through. And besides, I've waited this long, what's a little more?" He says, finally leaning in to connect our lips, nothing more than that, and then kissing my forehead before taking me in his arms, as if that would protect us from the horrid world that wanted to do nothing but tear us apart.

Maybe, if I believed, I could pretend that Tewkesbury and I could stay here together, but I knew that would never happen. I knew my parents were mostly likely to send me to some fancy boarding school and never see me again.

That would mean I would be away for four years. Four years. I don't know what I would do.

But for now, all I could do was focus on the present. On the boy seated beside me, and the way he made me feel. Safe, rooted, and loved. Something I haven't felt in a long time.