Peregrin Took decided he might be in love with Diamond of Long Cleeve on a cold and wet winter's day after she pelted him with snowballs.

His father ostensibly dispatched him to the Northfarthing to hear the complaints of the North-tooks. All parties concerned understood that the true purpose of his visit was the hope that Pippin might find a bride among the Bullroarer's many descendants. Friction had been growing between the North-tooks and their southern kin for some time and having a North-took wed the Thain's heir would entwine the two branches of the family once again. It sounded like a wonderful idea, but from a practical standpoint, it meant marriage-minded females and their mothers hounded Pippin from the moment he set foot in the Northfarthing.

He'd almost made a complete tour of the area when he came to Bindbale Woods. In the southernmost portion of the farthing, it was home to one of his favorite North-took branches. The lively lads and lasses of the family almost made forget his purpose was not a simple visit. On his second day at Bindbale Wood, he agreed to go for a walk with a group of cousins, all the while composing a letter to his father in his head asking for more time and informing him that no particular lass had yet caught his interest.

Give me a lass with fire, Pippin thought sourly as he kicked at an offending clump of snow, and I will court her with elvish poetry. He glanced left at his cousins Hyacinth and Lavender – they were charming lasses, but not likely to be supportive of adventuring. He hadn't told his father, but he intended that the Quest would not be his last journey.

To his right walked Diamond, a cousin down from Long Cleeve to visit her mother's people for the winter. Pippin thought her pleasant and noted that she didn't appear impressed with his position as heir to the Thain. She even shared his interest in history, but there was a wall between them that Pippin did not know how to breach. Was she shy or simply choose to be near him because of the presence of her cousins?

They'd managed to get a bit ahead of the trio of tweenagers they'd started walking with when something white and fast moving shot through the cold and clear air to blossom into a cloud of fine white powder on the side of Pippin's head. A snowball, he had just been hit with a snowball. Pippin's gaze searched the white blanketed landscape for its source. Just beyond the tree line were two teenaged lads who had just realized who they had hit.

While Lavender and Hyacinth expressed their shock and disapproval, the more aloof Diamond burst out laughing. When she recovered herself, she smirked at Pippin, and then bent down to make a snowball of her own. Pippin thought she meant to throw it at the miscreants, but instead she pelted him and hit the side of his head that had remained snow-free.

"Your right side should match your left," Diamond informed him. Her cool and practical tone was at odds with the gleam in her eyes. Pippin barely had time to duck behind a pine tree as he noticed a second snowball in her hand.

"Diamond!" the other lasses gasped, not quite able to believe their cousin had just thrown a snowball at the Thain's heir.

"Miss Diamond…" Pippin began formally while one hand scrapped snow from the boughs of the tree to form a small missile of his own. "You do realize… that this means war!"

With that, he threw the snowball and launched his campaign. Diamond took refuge behind Farmer Brownlock's stone fence while Pippin negotiated a hasty truce with the two who started this affair – lads who turned out to be Diamond's younger brothers. While Basil and Hawthorne distracted Diamond with a fierce onslaught, Pippin crept around the fence to ambush her from behind. He relished the look of shock on her pretty face as he pummeled her with a full dozen snowballs.

"Mercy! I surrender," Diamond cried. Pippin gallantly helped his fallen and defeated foe to her feet.

"I claim victory," Pippin said using the mode of speech he had heard in Gondor.

"You had help," an amused Diamond reminded him pointedly. "Three against one is hardly fair."

Pippin smiled at her. "All's fair in love and war, or so I have been told."

From behind them came a giggle. It was young Basil. "You two look like the dog after he got into the flour. You're covered in snow from head to feet."

Pippin and Diamond looked down at themselves, then at each other. "He's right," Diamond sighed as she began brushing away the fine white powder from her clothing. She glanced up at Pippin. "You even have snow on your nose."

Pippin grinned at her, and then shook the snow away like a dog. Diamond waggled a finger at him, laughing too hard to speak. She had to lean again the stone fence for support.

"And I thought he was proper gentlehobbit, not a reckless tween," Hyacinth huffed as she approached with her sister. Lavender nodded in agreement. They'd sought sanctuary in a clearing when the snowball fight began. He could see their opinion of his suitability as a husband plummet, but Pippin found that he did not care.

"Proper gentlefolk are dull," Diamond defended her distant relation and new friend. "And Mr. Peregrin is certainly not that."

"Are you proper lass Miss Diamond," Pippin asked, his green eyes sparkling, as he offered her his arm. "Or are you an adventurous and proper Took in the making."

"That depends," Diamond mused as she took his arm. "On whether or not there is anything worth seeing outside the Shire."

"Why don't I tell you about some of it as I walk you back to the hole and you can decide your yourself."

"I think," she said looking up at him with eyes as blue and clear as the mid-winter sky above them. "That I would enjoy that very much."