WIP #6 : Patching Up

[browngirl]

Posted for this year's WIP Amnesty Weekend

Title: Patching Up
Fandom: Lord of the Rings
Rating: As it is: PG-13 As it was intended to be: R, maybe NC-17.
Pairing: Frodo/Sam, Merry/Pippin, Frodo/Pippin, Frodo/Merry, Merry/Estella mentioned, Frodo/Merry/Pippin, Sam/Rose hinted at, assorted others
Notes: This is a little installment of "As the Shire Turns", more or less. I ended up writing some of what I wanted to say in here into "A Fair and Lordly Lad" and "Merry's Lesson in Teamwork", but I think I have more to say. The careful reader may notice yet another bit of Ruby refusing to separate het and slash, because she's wacky like that.
Oh, and a big shout-out to blackbird_song *wave*



"Of course," muttered Frodo in a low voice, "Pippin hadn't the sense to write." Sam merely shook his head, busied as he was with mashing potatoes to fill out their luncheon enough to feed the unexpected guest. Pippin, having arrived bedraggled and wet in the early-spring muck, was off in the bath, and Frodo was transferring the red-flushed pippins that their namesake had brought with him from their damp sack to a basket, wiping them dry as he went.

Frodo was about to say something else, then stopped and tilted his head; Sam paused, as he did so often and never often enough, to look at him, his long neck and fine bones and eyes deep and blue as the sky. Feeling his gaze, Frodo turned those shining eyes on Sam, and smiled so that Sam couldn't breathe for a wonderful moment.

Then the moment passed, as Frodo's expression slid to a slight frown. "Do you hear that, Sam?"

"Hear what, sir?"

"Just so," said Frodo. "Pippin always sings in the bath. I'd better go see that he hasn't drowned himself. Can you roast some of these apples meanwhile? By the time Pippin is done eating all the luncheon they should be ready." With that Frodo went off to the bathroom, though not without passing near enough to Sam to run one finger in a tingling line along Sam's shoulders. Sam closed his eyes and just felt the touch for a moment, before turning his attention back to the potatoes.

By the time the apples were roasting, and the sausages, onions, greens, bread, potatoes, and some leftover chicken pie from the previous night's supper had all been arranged on the kitchen table, Frodo returned, looking thoughtful. "Pippin told me he had a row with Merry, and wants to talk to me about it. He asked to stay the night with me." Frodo paused to look into Sam's eyes. "What would you like me to say?"

Sam looked at him until his heart felt as steady as his gaze. "The truth, Mr. Frodo."

Frodo smiled at that, and stepped closer, laying his warm hand on Sam's shoulder. "You always go to the heart of the matter, Sam. The truth is, I don't yet know what he will need from me, nor what I ought to give him."

Sam smiled in return at the fond expression in Frodo's eyes, overlain now with desire, and with worry. "Then do what's best for both of you, me dear. Just don't stay up all night." Frodo laughed, and Sam leaned in to kiss him, quickly but warmly.

Just as they broke apart, Pippin wandered into the kitchen, damp and subdued, quite un-Pippinlike. He didn't even tease them about kissing, just glanced at them, glanced at the table, sat down, and cheerlessly began to load his plate. "Master Pippin, how are you?" asked Sam gently, as he and Frodo sat down as well.

"All right," mumbled Pippin; then he took a bite of mashed potato, seemed to come back to himself a bit, and looked up at Sam with a smile. "I'm better for some luncheon. Thank you, Sam."

Sam smiled back, as did Frodo beside him. "You're welcome, Mr. Pippin. There's few troubles a good meal can't help."


*


Frodo was in bed reading a book of herb-lore when the expected knock came. "Come in," he called, and put the book aside as Pippin came in, shutting the door behind him and climbing into bed to curl around Frodo like a child needing comfort. Frodo put one arm around his cousin's shoulders and stroked the copper-brown curls and waited.

Soon enough, Pippin began to talk. "I'm worried about Merry," he said in a small voice. "I'm worried he's stopped loving me."

"I very much doubt that," said Frodo, carefully not smiling. "Merry loves you, and he knows you love him. It's not like you to borrow trouble, Pip. Why don't you tell me what happened, from the beginning?"

"From the beginning. Well, I spent this past summer and half the fall at Brandy Hall. There are over sixty tweens there, did you know that?" Frodo made an interested noise, and did not ask how many of them Pippin had lain with. "But I spent most of my time with Merry. We made a great team. Sometimes we even shared a partner." Frodo glanced down at Pippin in surprise, and didn't know whether he wanted to laugh or gasp at the dreamy reminiscence on the young face. "That's, um, adventursome," he managed at length.

"Oh, it was fun!" replied Pippin, with a grin, before his expression faded to seriousness and he took up his story again. "After we came here for the Birthday he went home, and we were planning to see each other again and come see you before Lithe. But then Merry wrote me a
letter---" Pippin's voice broke, and he squeezed his eyes shut and squeezed Frodo's hand for a long moment. "He said that he and I couldn't, well, you know, tumble anymore. He said he was in love with Estella, Fatty's sister."

"What did you say to that?" Frodo asked gently. Pippin clenched his eyes shut again, but kept talking. "I wrote him back that he had forgotten me, and that I hated him. But Frodo, I don't! If he's in love I'm happy! I was just sad and afraid, and I sent the letter before I knew better, and I
couldn't go back to Brandy Hall after having sent it. So I came here. He must hate me. I don't know what to do."

Frodo gently stroked the edge of Pippin's eye. "Did he meet anyone over the summer?"

"Oh, when I arrived he was walking out with Peony Brandybuck, and then there was a week with Cowslip Underhill-Took, and then---" Frodo's suppressed laugh escaped in a snort, cutting off Pippin's recital of Merry's succession of partners, not that Frodo was terribly surprised at
Merry's mercurial nature. "Do you think he is serious about Estella?"

"I don't know. I can see why he likes Estella, she's cheerful and sensible and has a pretty bosom," said Pippin with a conscious magnanimity that made Frodo smile and bite his lip. "I can see why he likes lasses. They're pretty and soft, not firm like lads. A little damp, in a nice way. I tumbled with several over the summer." Frodo's lip was quite dented by now with the effort to keep from laughing, but the pain in Pippin's next words sobered him. "But I didn't love them, I was just fond of them, and I told them so if they asked. I love Merry, and I thought he loved me."

"He does, Pip, he has since before he knew what it was." Frodo thought for a moment. "Why would his loving a lass stop him from loving you?"

"Because he told me!" cried Pippin, sitting up, his hands balling into fists. "He said he'd love only me. He said it. And now he says we can't lie together anymore, maybe he loves her. If he loves her, maybe he doesn't love me any more. And even if he doesn't love her, one day he
must love some lass, he has to marry because he'll be the next Master of Brandy Hall, and then he'll stop loving me." The green eyes shimmered with tears.

Meriadoc Brandybuck, when we are done here, I am going to take this out on your sorry hide, thought Frodo, with more rue than anger, as he kissed Pippin on his brow, making soothing sounds and getting him to lie down again. "Pippin, I have a question for you." Pippin nodded, eyes wide and serious. "Sam's been of age for two years now. He might well marry; I know several lasses have their eyes on him. Do you think he's going to stop loving me if he weds?"

Pippin shook his head, but didn't quite look mollified. "Yes, but won't it be different?"

"Of course it will be different, Pip." Frodo stroked Pippin's curls as he spoke, as much to reassure himself as Pip. "Of course it will change, but change is part of life. No matter what changes, Sam and I will love each other. Perhaps," he went on, putting that Mad Baggins gleam in his eye, "if he weds the right lass, they might move in here with me, and fill Bag End with children." Pippin laughed with Frodo at that image, and looked the better for it."Ah, likely not, unless he weds the right lass." Frodo had an idea on that score, and thought Sam did too, but couldn't quite ask as yet. Perhaps in a little while..."Still, I am Mr. Frodo Baggins of Bag End, and that lets me do what I please, and also binds me. You are the heir to the Took's heir, and will one day be the Took and Thain yourself, and that has let you do as you please, but it also binds you, just as Merry's being the heir to Brandy Hall frees and binds him. Those all may control what you can do about your love, Pip. Whether you love each other is another matter."

Pippin considered that for a moment, then yawned hugely. "Thank you, Frodo," he said as his eyes fell closed. Frodo slipped down beside him, feeling a vague disappointment that all Pippin seemed to want was comfort; then he laughed silently at himself as he curled up beside his cousin and went to sleep.


*


Frodo awoke when a pair of lips pressed themselves to his. For a moment he thought it might be morning, and Sam waking him up, but the light was moonlight and the angle was wrong, and the mouth felt smaller, the nose pointier. "Pippin," Frodo mumbled against his cousin's mouth, "Pip, what are you doing?"

"Kissing you," said Pippin in isn't it obvious? tones, as he wound his arms around Frodo and pressed the kiss firmly enough that Frodo couldn't talk. For a moment Frodo considered giving in to the warm, slender tween curling around him in a way that was definitely not childlike; then some blood managed its way back to his brain, and he firmly took Pippin by the shoulders and pushed him up. "Pippin Took, what is this about?"

"Frodo, if you don't know what this is about by now I shall have to have a talk with Sam," said Pippin wickedly, his eyes twinkling even in the low light. Frodo contemplated shaking him or kissing him, and did neither, settling for an exasperated, "Peregrin..."

Pippin laughed at that, and pushed his head forward to lick Frodo's nose. "I did ask if I might spend the night with you, didn't I?"

"Yes, but then you went to sleep!"

"I was tired then. Now I'm awake." A wriggle accompanied that comment, a wriggle that took Frodo's breath away and made the comfortable nightshirt feel far too warm. "And so are you," Pippin observed, pressing his thigh into the evidence. Frodo gasped, and gulped for air, clutching at a thread of control. "Pippin," he said as seriously as he could manage, considering Pippin's thigh pressing between his legs and Pippin's teeth on his ear. "Pippin, is this because of Merry, because of---"

Pippin raised his head at that, looking cross. "Now would I do that, Frodo? Besides, I told him that the next time I saw you I was getting myself into your bed again. He laughed at that and told me I was a danger to all the Shire." Frodo, too, couldn't help but laugh, and Pippin smiled and licked his bottom lip, then went on, settling himself comfortably atop his cousin. "But then all this happened, so I needed to talk to you first. I've talked to you. Can we tumble now?"

"Oh, Pippin." Frodo laughed with delight, his arms coming up around the slender, warm tween atop him. "Oh, how can I resist you?"

"Don't bother to try," Pippin advised, and kissed Frodo again, trailing his lips down along Frodo's jaw. "Now, have you got anything in the nightstand, or shall I go to the pantry for some butter?"

Frodo could hardly reply for laughter. "The nightstand," he told Pippin as he slid his hands up into Pippin's curls, pulling him up for another kiss.


*


At least Merry had the sense to write, Frodo thought wryly, as he scanned his cousin's scrawled and blotted letter. "Dearest Frodo, I don't know where to start," it began, launching into the story Pippin had told, more or less. Concerning Estella, Merry wrote, "I really want this one. I've known her all her life, she knew me when we were muddy children. She wants me, Merry Brandybuck, not the Master of Brandy Hall. When I told her of Pippin's letter, I thought she would be glad, and steeled myself to not be angry with her. She wasn't. She was right cross with me. She said I would be a fool to lose Pippin. But I already have!" That last sentence was blurred, as if tears had fallen on it before the ink was dry.

"Sam?" Frodo called, and Sam padded in from the kitchen. "It seems that Merry is coming to visit as well."

"We'll need provisions, then," Sam replied with a sigh, and Frodo smiled. "Take Pippin with you; if he's going to eat the food he might as well help carry it."

"Take me where?" Pippin said, inserting his tousled, sleepy-eyed head into Frodo's study. "Ah, Pip, you have decided to join us before noon after all," Frodo replied cheerfully, getting up from his desk to ruffle his cousin's hair further; Pippin yawned showily and kissed him. "Well, you wore me out---"

"I wore you out!" Frodo protested; Sam's cough sounded suspiciously like laughter. Pippin grinned, and Frodo looked from one to the other, the slender tweenager and the sturdy young hobbit, so different and so alike and both so dear to him, then turned back to Pippin with as much mock severity on his face as he could manage. "Just for that, I will instruct Sam to make sure you carry the heaviest items back from market."

Pippin put his hands on his hips. "Is that so! You're going to treat the heir of the Thain like a pack animal! In that case, I'd better build up my strength!" With that he was back in the kitchen, and soon clattering sounds emerged from the pantry. Sam raised his eyebrows eloquently, and Frodo could but laugh, until Sam joined him, crossing the room to take his hand.


*


[next scene: Sam and Pippin shopping. Frodo had mischeviously told Sam not to tell Pippin about Merry's visit. On Pippin flirting: "You know my heart belongs to Master Frodo". "What about other parts of you?" "This won't help mend matters with Mr. Merry." Consideration of that, then, "Sam, do you want me?" Sam sighs. "I once asked Mr. Frodo that." "What did he say?" "He sighed. Then he kissed me. I'm sighing, Master Pippin." Kiss. "And that's the only kiss you're getting." Pippin laughs at that and keeps walking.


*


[describe letter, entertaining Pippin, etc. Letter comes 2 days before Merry arrives. Pip hits on Sam *and* his sisters, and needs to be Talked To, (Sam calmly states that if Pippin lays a hand on his impressionable youngest sister, Sam will thrash him) and vanishes off somewhere and has to be fetched back.]

[Merry jumps Frodo, asking to be distracted, and afterwards Frodo gets him to talk. Sam had, ostensibly, the day off, and took Pippin home with him to charm his [Sam's] sisters.

More notes on that scene: When Merry arrives he says, "don't let me think" and jumps Frodo at the door. Afterwards, Frodo says, "all right, cousin, what is this all about? There is more to this than your sudden desire to exercise all your senses upon me." Merry asks what Sam will think, and Frodo laughs at the timing. As part of a discussion on the relationship of possessiveness to love, Frodo says, "where do you think Sam and Pippin are?" and Merry nearly flies out of bed w/anger before calming, as Frodo laughs.

What Merry did (the part that Frodo asks him about) was to write Pippin talking about Estella and about stopping sleeping together in the far future, not now. This is partially because after Pippin left, Merry had it impressed upon him by a parent that he'd be of age soon. Besides he figured if he did this Pip would forget him. Frodo says,"he was born into your hands, you ninny". Merry is confused about whom he loves and Frodo says, "do you remember a skinny young lad of eighteen who wanted desperately for me to bed him, but wanted even more for me to bed Sam? You knew then that someone could love more than one, why don't you know it now?" Merry admits that Estella told him off (said he was a fool) to break off with Pip for her sake when they so obviously love each other.

Frodo shuts them in a room after their reunion, and laughs at how happy and sleepy they look when they emerge for dinner, before they haul him away and Sam shakes his head and smiles.

Drabble inspired by the reunion, by blackbird song, to whom I shall dedicate this story:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/angharad001/46036.html?thread=202452#t202452
(don't write the story explicitly to fit it, though.)


Author's note: A little installment of As the Shire Turns, written mostly for my own enjoyment.

(M/P. [F/P, F/M,] F/S, F/M/P)

Comments

[blackbird-song.livejournal.com]

*blush* Even though this might never see the light of day in the form you originally envisioned, I am quite honored that my drabble would inspire you to write a story! Thank you so much for the shout-out, and for letting us see this.

Catherine

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

You're welcome, and thank *you*. :) *huggles you*

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed Pippin in this, and the lovely understanding between Sam and Frodo too!

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

*beam* Thank you. :) I do hope to finish this one.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

"From the beginning. Well, I spent this past summer and half the fall at Brandy Hall. There are over sixty tweens there, did you know that?" Frodo made an interested noise, and did not ask how many of them Pippin had lain with.

This is ever so As You Know Bob.