"Merry! Merry, back here!"

Exasperated, Merry followed his younger cousin's voice through Bag End's sprawling corridors until he came to a door he knew all too well. Merry winced, a myriad sources of mischief presenting themselves before his mind's eye. A game of hide and seek had been well enough, but if he actually opened the door, what would he find? And furthermore, how would he explain it to Frodo, who was still (Merry hoped) reading in the shade, now and then raising his eyes to idly watch Sam begin a new row of petunias.

"Pip, if you've so much as gotten into one flour sack, we've outstayed our welcome."

Pippin whined audibly. "I haven't ruined anything, honest! We've only been here two days, besides. What fun would that be? I'd much rather wait till the week's out."

Merry gritted his teeth at the brazen mischief in Pippin's tone. Had he been that reckless at eighteen? He hoped not.

"Are you going to find me or not?" Pippin called, apparently in a full sulk.

Merry gripped the doorknob, pushing inward with a resigned flick of the wrist. His eyes adjusted quickly, as the pantry was dim, but brighter than the hall. Through a haze of dust suspended in dusty sunlight filtering through the solitary window, he caught a glint of copper bobbing ever so faintly behind a large ale cask. Merry strode across the room silently, dodging a basket of apples and a butter churn before making a grab at that mop of unmistakeably Tookish curls.

"Ow! Merry, why'd'you have to--"

"Get out of there, this instant!"

Pippin howled, but allowed himself to be dragged out of hiding. Merry's grip on his shoulders was relentlessly strong, and he stared at his feet sheepishly as his cousin jostled him to his feet. When he finally lifted his eyes, Pippin winced. Merry's hazel glare had quite a few things to say that he didn't want to hear.

Pippin licked his lips, breathing in a short huff. "Now, before you go tellin' me I ought to be more--"

"Peregrin, see here! I shan't do any such thing! What good has lecturing ever done? None. And I daresay I ought to've lectured myself more than half of those times as well, so consider us even. Just--let's--oh, for the love of Eru! Let's get out of here before--"

"I had rather hoped," Pippin sulked in a cutting tone, green eyes suddenly cold and hard as gems, fixed on Merry's, "that you would want to stay." He kicked something on the floor for emphasis. Something soft.

Merry looked down. Pillows. "Had you planned on catching a wink or two back here, if I hadn't found you? Calling rather defeated the purpose, you know."

Pippin bit his lip. "I was impatient."

"I certainly waited long enough behind the shed," Merry chuckled, raking his fingers through his cousin's hair fondly. Merry froze as Pippin caught his hand and dragged it down to his cheek, nuzzling into it with eyes half closed.

"Pip, that's--"

"You cheated me," he whispered, eyes opening full-wide once more. "You know you did, Merry, there's no dodging it, so you'd better fess--"

Merry pulled his hand away and sank on a nearby barrel, feeling dizzy. "Pip...that...that was...last...accident. I thought we said we'd never--"

Too late. Pippin had already squirmed his way into Merry's lap, straddling, his mouth hovering next to Merry's ear. From the feel of things, Merry reckoned that Pippin's quivering lip was of the most dangerous variety he could muster. He slid his arms about the young Took uncertainly, finding the reflex of pulling him up altogether too automatic.

"I can't forget it," Pippin cried softly, and Merry felt tears fall on his neck as Pippin bowed his head. "I tried, Merry, really I did...but I couldn't...just...you looked so nice lying there in the sun, and I didn't feel like swimming anymore, I felt like..."

Merry choked, reaching up to stay Pippin's words with one hand clapped fiercely over those tremulous lips. He closed his eyes, and the memory rushed up to meet him. Soft, soft fingertips grazing along his upper arm. Couldn't open his eyes, mmm, felt lovely, such nice hands, has Pip. Good for massaging away the soreness of climbing trees. Of swimming against currents too strong. Of tumbling down ravines with arms full of peaches from--

And then, there had been Pippin's breath. On his lips, a gasp away. Smelling of fresh peach. Merry had opened his eyes to a green no less startling for the dark glaze of fascination. Pippin's fingers had been in his hair, then. Trembling.

"Merry."

"Hmm?" So lazy, so warm. And Pippin's mouth smelled so good--

"Oh!"

And tasted good. Oh, beyond good. Better than peaches, better than blueberries. And how fine those soft, pale freckled shoulders felt, too, and how--

"Oh!"

The exclamation had been his, that time, Merry remembered, for the very reason he had just uttered it at present. Pippin's weight on him, his soft-but-lithe body no longer quite a child's. Not a child's at all. No, because there against his thigh had been--silken and damp--

"Pippin, stop," Merry gasped, pushing him off.

Pippin stumbled and landed in a heap against the basket of apples, knocking a few free. He blinked up at Merry in hurt surprize, the evidence of his wanting made as painfully obvious as Merry's by virtue of his sprawling.

"You're too young, and I'm bloody reckless," Merry said curtly, rising to his feet, wincing as he made to brush his trousers off. Oh, Pippin.

"I'm bloody reckless, too!" Pippin yelled, struggling to his feet. "That counts for something--and--and! You said you loved me, Merry. You did."

Merry spun around, jaw working soundlessly. "I--well--of course I love--"

"You said it there. You said it by the river," Pippin whispered, lip quivering afresh, tears threatening to spill. "Before you started thinking and pushed me off. You gasped when I wasn't kissing your mouth. When I kissed," Pippin continued in an accusing tone, approaching Merry with one index finger pointing, "right here."

Merry closed his eyes and swallowed hard as Pippin brushed the digit gently across the hollow of his throat, and back again. Oh, Pippin!

"I...well, so I did, but...Pippin...Pip," Merry groaned, grabbing his cousin's wrist. "I don't know what I'm do--you don't know what you're--granted, you seem to have a better idea than I do, but that's not--think of--of--"

"Consequences, Merry, pah," Pippin whispered, crying in earnest. "You're always on about consequences, even when you're as much to fault as I am. Consequences are those whippings your Da threatens to deal out and never does. Consequences are...Merry," Pippin sobbed, throwing himself into his cousin's startled arms. He pressed his chin into Merry's chest, gazing up with pathetic honesty. "I...I think the only consequences here'd be...wishing we hadn't tried to forget?"

Merry made an exasperated sound low in his throat, wrestling Pippin away. How could he explain? How, when he didn't even care to explain what he'd seen that day--

Six years ago. He and Pip on a visit to Bag End, a visit not unlike this one, save for the fact that they'd been sent because Esmeralda and Saradoc had simply had enough of their capers, and Frodo must have been feeling exceptionally brave. Bright, bright summer mornings in the garden. Awake long before their older cousin, chasing butterflies and hiding pocket change amidst the marigolds for the fairies to find (Pippin insisted). On the third morning, they found that their offerings had indeed gone missing. Pippin's gleeful shriek as he went tearing back into the smial, Merry breathless and just barely on his heels. Pippin dashing back the halls, shouting, "Frodo, Frodo, wake up! Come and see--"

Pippin's words dying as he pushed Frodo's bedroom door open. His own impetus nearly knocking them over as he skidded up behind. Breathless gasps, one too many sets of eyes wide open. His own hands clapping over Pippin's so quickly that the youngster yelped in protest--

Barely able to avert his own as a dumbfounded Frodo and blushing Sam fumbled with bedsheets, naked and still half-tangled in each other. He had stammered an apology and dragged the protesting boy out, slamming the door behind them. When Frodo appeared for breakfast (which Merry had prepared in complete agitation, hardly answering Pippin's squawks of "Why didn't you let me see?"), he had murmured a warm, but clipped good morning and made off with a tray enough for two. Coward of a Gamgee, he'd thought, stabbing at his eggs while Pippin sulked, threatening not to eat his own if Merry wouldn't tell him--

"Why? You tell me why, Merry. Give me one good reason why we shouldn't--"

Merry rounded on him, almost shouting. "You know why! I don't want you making a decision just because you--well--remember--expect--I--Pip! You're young and--"

"I am eighteen," Pippin asserted softly, grasping Merry's wildly gesticulating hands. "Merry...yes. I was young then. What did I care, really? Not too young that I...that I didn't...have some idea, I..." Pippin was blushing to the roots of his hair. Eru, he remembered.

Merry drew one of Pippin's hands tight over his heart. "I don't want you to think that they...that I--"

Pippin's breath left him on a low, pleading note. "Oh, Merry, please. Please tell me that you, yes, you...!"

Merry closed his eyes, bit his lip again, struggled against the sting of admittance. Pippin squeezed his hand, pleading.

"Merry--"

"Yes!"

Pippin gave a soft, breathless laugh, tugging Merry closer. "Say it. Truly say it."

Merry groaned.

"You're not as shy as all that."

"You're not as shy as all--"

"Merry!"

"Iwantyoulikethere'snotomorrow!"

"Oh, Merry," Pippin whispered, lips parting, tongue darting, as if to taste the very air of his confession.

Merry dropped Pippin's hands, staring at his feet, raking his damp palms down his thighs. "So...there..."

Pippin leaned forward, lips still parted, breathing shallowly.

"But...well, with them it was--it still--still is...I mean..."

Merry laughed softly, rubbing his eyes with another disbelieving groan. "Love, Pip? Yes. I'm quite sure of it."

Pippin took a step backwards, lip trembling. "B--But with...with us...you said--by the--you--you know--"

"Hush!"

Merry hardly understood how his arms had come to be around Pippin. Before he'd even had the chance to blink. Before either of them had. Low around the young Took's waist, tugging him close, gentle but sure. Until their profiles touched. Until Pippin's glass-green tears shone an inch away from Merry's own, dark and unshed. But not for long.

"M--Merry," Pippin whimpered.

"I said yes, you silly--!" Merry cried, and made sure neither of them could get another word in edgewise.

Pippin no longer tasted of peaches. He tasted of himself, slippery and hot, and peraps of a stolen bite of apple. Merry tugged at him, kissing open-mouthed, allowing his tongue to delve with a gasp. Pippin squirmed in his embrace, knees buckling. Merry supported his weight and sank to the floor. The impact tugged them apart. They sat staring at each other for long moments, breathing hard.

Pippin stared at his legs sprawled out in front of him, eyes creeping upward slowly with the blush in his cheeks. "I need out of these," he whispered.

Merry's heartbeat tripled. "Out of--?"

Pippin crawled forward with a growl of annoyance. "My trousers, you ninny. And you," he added boldly, "need to take off that shirt."

Merry's breath caught in his throat as Pippin's fingers attacked his buttons. Despite his rush, he noticed, Pippin was careful. And looking down, hard. Fingers shaking worse than Merry's own arms as he leaned back on them, watching in awe.

"Well, aren't you going to give me a hand?"

Pippin's eyes locked on his.

And Merry could breathe again.

"I think so," he whispered breathlessly, popping the last button of his shirt in his haste to shrug out of it.

"Oh!" Pippin cried softly, eyes rounding as Merry bared himself fully.

"Oh." Merry closed his eyes as one tentative hand splayed itself over his belly.

"Merry," Pippin murmured, his other hand tilting his cousin's chin up slowly.

Merry opened his eyes, leaned, and did not look back. Pippin squeaked, but whether it was the intensity of the kiss or Merry's hands working at his own shirt buttons... There. Merry softened his mouth as his fingers came in contact with warm skin that heaved with Pippin's every breath.

"Mmmhy!"

Merry eased his mouth away for only a moment. "Hush, here..."

Merry 's hands froze at Pippin's waistband, clutching.

Pippin whimpered. "Please."

"Oh, Pip," Merry murmured, sealing their lips once more. His hands moved slowly, carefully. As slowly as he dared.

"Oh...my..."

And suddenly Pippin was pushing into his hand, filling it with pulsing heat like the sound of Merry, Merry! on his scattered breath. Merry breathed his own fractured responses, tugging Pippin's trousers down. He tossed them aside, sitting back despite Pippin's frantic protests.

"Touch me again, please--"

"Let me look," Merry breathed, his voice rough with wonder.

Pippin sat up with a whimper, eyes pleading on Merry's, letting his legs fall open.

Merry's fingers clenched against his thighs. Need to feel this.

"Merry," Pippin whispered again, squirming against the floor, pleading.

"Mmm." Merry groaned through pursed lips, leaning forward to meet Pippin's own. Their mouths molded and parted on a single gasp. Merry was brushing at him with gentle fingertips.

Pippin scooted forward, breath hitching on little cries until kissing became too difficult. And when Merry's caresses became unbearable, he forward on all fours, climbing into Merry's lap with hands intent on finding their own mischief.

"Is'at all right?" Pippin breathed, lips crushed to Merry's cheek.

Merry's head fell back as Pippin's fingers found him. Ah!

Rather than linger to explore, Pippin pulled Merry's breeches from him immediately. Merry couldn't think, other than to grab that energetic body and clasp it to his own. Pippin melted against him with a trembling sob. Merry tried to respond, but at the feel of them brushing together, his jaw had gone utterly slack.

"Uh!" Wide-eyed, Merry held Pippin by the hips as he wiggled out of his shirt with a series of grunts, pausing to lean every so often with a pleased little yelp.

Pippin finally threw the garment aside and clung to Merry, panting.

"I...oh, I like you here," Merry breathed in his ear, lapping at it feverishly.

Pippin quivered. "I like me here, too," he said in a heavy whisper. "Though, I think...I like...me even better...here!"

Merry clutched at Pippin fiercely as he shifted more securely into place, winding his legs tight about Merry's middle. Merry hadn't imagined how...how...

"Oh, oh...I think...push," he breathed in a ragged tone, raking his fingers down Pippin's dampening back, one arm winding tight about his slender waist, the other hand pressing urgent and low against his bottom. "Push, Pip--like--y--esss...!"

"Merrymerrymm," Pippin sighed, nuzzling blindly at Merry's hair as he rocked.

Merry whimpered, finding it difficult to thrust back. Holding Pippin tight with one arm, he let his other fall free and braced himself, palm flat against the floor. Merry felt dizzy, flushed, full of Gandalf's sparklers. He wanted to fall back and let Pippin grind him into oblivion, but the desire to reciprocate was still stronger. Dimly, he remembered the wall, and the pillows--

"Uff!" Pippin grunted as Merry let his weight go, meeting with down at his lower back and hardwood at his shoulders. Perfect. Pippin squirmed and whimpered with delight as Merry met his movements in counterpoint. Too much.

"Pippin," Merry mumbled against his neck, low and urgent, wondering if Pippin could feel him tensing, pulling taut against his own quickening pace.

Pippin's response was half-growled into a bruising kiss that sent Merry into a wrenching shudder. "Oh, mmm, Merry dear, do!"

And he did. Jerked hard into Pippin with a yell of surprise, felt tears burn behind his eyelids as the heat rising in his belly pulsed and snapped. Oh, it had never been like this. So painfully pure. Never, never, never!...

"Oh," Merry gasped weakly, leaning forward into Pippin's shaking and whimpering at the new slickness between them.

"Merry...Merry, I..."

"Don't be afraid, Pip, shh," Merry murmured, kissing him soundly, rocking to soothe him as much as to please. "Just let it...just let it."

Merry felt Pippin's tears on his shoulder. "Can't," he choked. "How...will...Merry, is it...different...?" Pippin fussed miserably, writhing in frustration.

Merry slid both arms firmly around Pippin, kissing him gently. "Much better," he whispered against the younger hobbit's chin.

"Ohmerry!"

Merry pulled him down tight and whispered in his ear--comforts and wishes, hopes and teases--kissed, stroked, held--until--

"Mmer--!"

The rest of his name never knew breath. Pippin snapped forward, head falling back, wail dying in his throat, feathering into a series of choking gasps as it passed his lips. Merry gathered the shuddering lad close, felt it in every muscle, felt it in the toes curling tight against the small of his back. Oh, Pippin.

Pippin's head dropped to the curve of his neck, curls tickling. Merry cradled it, mouthing Pippin's forehead gently. "Better?" he whispered, tenderly stroking his spent cousin's back.

"Ohmm," Pippin responded at length, burrowing against Merry with an exhausted shiver.

Merry knit his brow. "Pip, if--"

"Yes, yes...yes."

"Mm, yes," Merry added, allowing his eyes to drift shut in elation. Dear, dear Pippin. There, on his shoulder. There in his arms. In his lap, on his belly. Everywhere. Merry covered his lazy, half-lidded eyes in grateful kisses.

" 'M sleepy," Pippin murmured, wriggling enough to stretch.

"Yes, I daresay you are," Merry murmured, brushing his untidy curls back from his damp temples, smoothing the faint furrows from his forehead.

"Merry..."

"Darling?"

Pippin flushed and hid his face. "I'm darling now, am I? Not silly tart, or meddling Took?"

Merry shifted and settled down on he pillows, careful not to roll Pippin's precious weight off of himself. Merry yawned and murmured in his ear. "Darling as they come, Pip."

"I love you," Pippin breathed softly, tears edging into his voice.

Merry hushed him with long, soothing caresses. "And I you, so none's the worry."

Pippin settled down with a soft, relieved sob.

Merry kissed his hair, breathed warmly into it. "Go to sleep, dear heart."

Pippin didn't answer. His weight was already slack, his breath already even. Merry tugged at the nearest garment he could find--Pippin's shirt--and spread it over Pippin's back. He closed his eyes and rubbed it for long moments, drifting...

"Lady have mercy!" Samwise Gamgee dropped the crate of fresh peaches no sooner than he had nudged the pantry door open.

"Sam?" Frodo's voice drifted down the hall.

"You...Well, if you were askin' where your cousins have gotten off to, Mr. Frodo..."

An exasperated utterance. "Oh, don't tell me they've plundered--"

"No, no. Can't say as your produce has suffered any, sir."

Footsteps approaching. "Then, Sam, what in the name of--"

Sam turned his head, a smile twitching at his lips as he took in his master's expression. Frodo looked as if he had developed a sudden headache.

"Couldn't they have waited till they were back in Buckland?"

Sam blushed and pressed a kiss against Frodo's cheek.

"No more'n we could've waited till after breakfast."

~finis~