To Mel, my very own Pippin: Feel better soon, dear!

Title: Comfort

Author: Anso the Hobbit

Characters: Frodo, Pippin, Sam, Merry, Bilbo

Rating: G and F for fluff

Summary: How many blankets does a hobbit need to feel comfortable?

Note: Because hobbits are snugly creatures and I like to cuddle them. Not betaed.

Disclaimer: Sadly enough not mine. They just own me.

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ONE

Frodo sighed as he watched two small and thoroughly wet lads make their way up through Bag End’s garden, one sandy and one golden head huddled together as they tried to stay as dry as possible as they ran. The rain had caught them unawares and the chill autumn wind did not make the situation better. Frodo turned to look at Bilbo behind him, and the old hobbit nodded. "I’ll get the baths ready. Will you put a blanket in front of the fire and put the kettle on?"

Frodo agreed. He went to the blanket chest and took out the largest, softest and warmest blanket he could find and placed it on the rug in front of the parlour fire. It was so large that two chilled lads would have more than enough room under there to get warmed up again. Frodo stoked up the fire and went to put on the kettle.

Bathed and warm with wet hair and red faces and bright eyes each lad was dressed in a flannel night shirt before Sam and Merry were placed on the sofa close to the fire and Bilbo wrapped the enormous blanket tightly about them. Frodo handed them each a mug of sweet tea. Bilbo told them the story of how he had ridden on the barrel and he hadn’t even finished before both lads were fast asleep.

Bilbo looked at Frodo and smiled. “Excellent work, my lad. They should be comfortable now. Let’s go make supper so that we have something to feed these two hungry wolves when they wake up again.” Frodo laughed and looked fondly at the sleeping huddle of hobbit lads, sandy and golden curls mingling with each other so that the watching Bagginses didn’t quite know where Sam began and Merry ended.

TBC

TWO

Merry spun around himself in confusion and looked closely at his bed for the third time. He was sure he had put the old, red blanket there but now it was gone. How could that have happened? He had only been out of the room for a few minutes and as far as he knew blankets couldn’t move by them selves… unless younger cousins decided to make them move of course. Merry turned around slowly and tried to ignore the soft giggle he heard from the hallway.

Unfortunately for him, Pippin was hindered by the blanket he was hiding under and before he had managed to run far Merry swooped him up and dumped him on his bed before tickling until none of them had any breath left and lay side by side giggling.

“Why aren’t you asleep?” Merry asked when he got his voice back and the giggling had subsided to snickers.

“Because I wanted another blanket,” Pippin said matter-of-fact.

“And so you decided to take my blanket?” Merry turned to looked at him and put on his mock-stern face which always made Pippin giggle.

“Uh-huh,” Pippin disappeared completely beneath the red, woollen blanket and only folded it away enough to be able to peer up at Merry to quickly disappear again.

“And why is that?"

“Because it is your blanket," Pippin stated from under his cover.

Merry tried to reason with this logic and shook his head. “So, since it is my blanket that I even brought with me from Brandy Hall, you decided that of all the blankets available around the farm this was the one you wanted?"

A slight nod beneath all the red, then silence before Pippin asked. "Why did you bring your old blanket with you Merry? You just said we have lots of blankets here."

“That is a very good question, Pip,” Merry said. The blanket had once belonged to Frodo and he had given it to Merry when he moved to live with Bilbo. Merry had treasured that blanket from the first day and for as long as it held any smell of Frodo Merry would wrap it around himself and inhale the smell of his beloved older cousin and dream that Frodo was there with him. Now he looked down at a younger,  just as beloved cousin and smiled. "I brought it with me because it reminds me of someone I love."

Pippin looked up from the blanket then. “Frodo," he said more than asked. Merry nodded.

Pippin smiled. The blanket had once belonged to Frodo and even if Frodo was living up at Bag End with Bilbo now, Pippin understood why Merry brought it with him. Just as Pippin always had with him that green scarf Merry had given him one winter when he was visiting Brandy Hall when he had been four and it had been so cold that it had snowed. That had been Merry’s scarf since he was four and Pippin could smell Merry if he closed his eyes and held the soft fabric to his face.

“May I borrow it anyway?” Pippin emerged fully from the blanket now and sat up to look at Merry. “Because I too love Frodo and it would be nice to have something of his a little while. We won’t see him before Lithe and that is a long time, Merry.”

“Yes, it is.” Merry looked at Pippin's sad face, the face he almost never managed to deny anything. “Of course you may, but ask me next time all right?”

Pippin nodded solemnly. Merry scooped him up and carried him off to his own bed. Pippin’s blue quilted blanket lay on his bed but instead of crawling under it, Pippin lay down on top of it. Merry arched an eyebrow and looked at Pippin.

“It is more comfortable this way,” Pippin said and extracted his pillows from the blankets beneath him.

Merry only smiled and tucked Frodo's blanket snugly up under Pippin's chin and kissed his forehead. Yawning Merry went to find a new blanket and smiled as he extracted Auntie Tina’s yellow quilt from the chest. It was one of the first memories Merry had of visiting the farm: waking up in a bed covered by a yellow quilt and his aunt smiling down at him. Confident that Pippin would be warm and snug with Frodo’s blanket, Merry covered himself with the yellow quilt and drifted off, dreaming of when he was little and Frodo tucked him off to bed.

TBC

THREE

"Mr. Frodo, would you like another blanket?” Sam hovered over his master carrying two blankets in his arms. One was already lying on the ground to make it easier for Frodo to sleep on the rocky ground.

“Yes, thank you Sam.” Frodo took one of the offered blankets, wrapped himself in his cloak and snuggled down. Sam lay down beside him and did not tell Frodo that those three blankets were all that they had to protect them against the wind and rain. They were going southwards and the weather would be warmer, Gandalf had said, but Sam didn't like to think about what kind of warmth that was.

Some time later, Sam woke to Frodo shivering beside himself. It was a cold night and the rain did not make it better. Silently as to not wake Frodo, he covered his master with the last blanket, lying down beside him again to huddle in his cloak. That Frodo would scold him for giving him all the blankets the next morning didn’t bother Sam. He was there to look out for Frodo and if that meant letting him have all the blankets then Sam didn’t think twice about that.

Beside him Frodo sighed comfortably and slipped into a deeper and and more calm sleep.

TBC

FOUR

”Pip?” Sneeze. Sigh. Shuffle. Wait. “Pippin!” Wait. “PIPPIN!” Cough. Wait. Shuffle. Thump. Shiver. ”Bother! I’ll just do it myself then.”

“Merry! Get back onto that sofa with you at once. I said to call if you needed anything.” Pippin said, poking his head around the corner to the parlour and finding Merry standing halfway between the sofa and an armchair, his hand reaching out for the blanket wrapped over the back of the chair. “I’ll get your mum and Estella if you don’t do as I say and you know they would shoo you off to bed in a twinkling and send the healers to fuss over you, but I promised that I would look after you and they did agree on the one condition that you’d lie on the sofa."

Merry, knowing his mother and wife too well resigned and crawled back onto the sofa and huddled under his blanket. “I did call,” he mumbled, coughing again. Pippin eyed him critically before his eyes and voice softened as he looked at his cousin. “I am sorry I didn’t hear you. I was in the study talking to Uncle. What do you need Merry? Did you want that blanket?” Merry was pale except for two red spots on his cheeks and a red nose. His eyes were watery and his curls stood about wildly as if he had been lying in bed too long. A growing stack of used handkerchiefs were lying on the table beside him, a dwindling stack of fresh ones ready beside it. The fire was burning brightly on the hearth and several candles and lamps were lit. An open book lay on the floor beside the sofa.

“Yes, please, I’m cold.” Merry tried to sit up straight but his head felt like ten times it real weight and he slid down so his head rested against the backrest of the sofa. He sneezed and reached blindly for a fresh handkerchief, keeping his other hand over his nose and mouth.

Pippin reached for the blanket lying on the armchair and waited till Merry had dried his nose before pushing his cousin down into a lying position and wrapping both blankets around him. “I'll be back with tea in a minute, but would you like some pillows too? You'd be more comfortable that way."

Merry nodded and blew his nose noisily. “Dank you, Pip.”

After tea Pippin helped Diamond and Estella take the empty dishes back to the kitchen and Merry lay down to sleep a little. When he woke he was covered in yet another blanket and a smaller version of his own face peered worriedly at him. "Hullo, Da."

“Hullo, sweetie," Merry said and looked at his son and smiled. Perry - or Periadoc as his full name was - had Merry’s golden curls and face but Estella's brown eyes. “Was it you who gave me this blanket?" Merry lifted the corner of a white and yellow quilt that lay on top of the two woollen blankets he already was covered with.

“Yes. You were shivering so I went to get it in the chest in my bedroom,” Perry said, quite proud of the task of carrying the large blanket. He was only three years old and the blanket was heavy.

“Dank you," Merry said and closed his eyes again.

“Poor Da,” Perry said and patted Merry on the cheek. Merry smiled and ruffled his curls before he once again slipped into sleep.

When next he woke Estella was sitting on the sofa beside him. She kissed his forehead and frowned. He was a little too hot but not much. "It's late. We'd better get you to bed."

Merry nodded. It was all right to sleep on the sofa during the day but he preferred his bed at night. Struggling to get up, Merry wrapped all three blankets around himself and stumbled off to bed. Sighing wearily he lay down, still wrapped in his blankets and drew the cover up on top of them.

“Aren’t you feeling too warm?” Estella said, and felt his face again.

“No. I’m quite comfortable," Merry curled up and buried himself in his mound of blankets and started to snore.

Estella looked at her cocooned husband and couldn’t help but smile. Shaking her head she climbed in beside him. She knew that before morning he would throw off most of the blankets but being comfortable is such an essential thing to hobbits that if four blankets was what Merry needed now then she was not going to deny him them.