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Trust a Brandybuck and a Took!  by Grey Wonderer

First, let me say that this one is a bit different from the others in this series because it is a bit suggestive in nature.  I would rate it a PG-13, but that's just me.  I wrote this some time ago as you will see by the date at the end of it but I decided to post it here with the others.  It is about Merry and Pippin post quest at Crickhollow, but it is also about Merry and Estella.  So a bit of romance and a bit of drama, and, I hope a bit of humor.  If it looks familar to you, it is posted to my web page and was linked to Hobbit Het at one point.  As always, thanks for reading!     _   Grey_wonderer     08/02/2005
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"Strange Bedfellows"
Pippin fumbled with the key and cursed under his breath.  Why did Bucklanders lock everything?  He made another attempt to open the door to the Crickhollow house and dropped the key onto the stoop in his efforts.  Sighing deeply, he bent down to retrieve it and felt a hand push him down with its weight sending him to his knees on the stoop.  “Drop your key again?” Merry’s voice asked.

“I am not here simply for you to lean on, Merry,” Pippin growled, his key in one fisted hand, still feeling the weight of his older cousin pressing against his back between his shoulder blades. 

Merry laughed.  “Without me, you’d never manage to get into the house.  I think that’s worth allowing me to lean on you while I open the door.”  He put his key into the lock and Pippin could hear the gentle click of the tumblers turning and a soft snap as the door opened.  Merry gave one more firm press into the center of Pippin’s back and then stepped around him and went inside shutting the door on his younger cousin.

Pippin stood and grabbed the doorknob which wouldn’t budge.  “Let go of the door, Merry!” he ordered and rattled the knob, irritated.  “Merry!”

Laughing, Merry swung the door open and Pippin fell into him.  “Come on in, Pip,” Merry grinned.

“I hate door locks,” Pippin growled, stuffing his key back into his pocket.

“There are times when they are needed,” Merry said.  “You hungry?”

“Yes, I know we ate at the Hall but I could still do with something,” Pippin admitted, glad for the change of subject.

“I’ll go into the kitchen and see what we have,” Merry said.  “I do regret that we forgot the basket of food that my mum packed for us to bring back.”

“Yes, just how do we always manage to do that?” Pippin wondered.  It seemed to be becoming a habit just lately.  Merry’s mum would fix them a basket of delicious food to take home and somehow, they would manage to come off without it.  It was very unhobbit-like of them to leave good food behind and very aggravating.  Pippin sighed with regret.  “You would think that one of us might remember.”

“You would indeed,” Merry agreed.  “I’ll just go into the kitchen and try to find some sort of replacement for mum’s cooking.  It will be a big let down, to be sure, but I’m in no mood to walk back to the Hall and retrieve the basket.”  He turned to go into the kitchen.

“I’m going to take off this waistcoat and jacket while you do that,” Pippin said, and made his way into his bedroom.  Pippin walked into his room and draped his jacket over the end of his desk chair.  He stretched and began to unbutton his waistcoat.  He was always glad to get home so that he could relax.  He loved visiting the Hall, but he also enjoyed slouching about Crickhollow in comfortable clothing.  He tossed the waistcoat at the same chair and missed.  It fell to the floor next to one from yesterday and Pippin ignored them both as he slid his braces down from his shoulders and let them fall to his sides.  He was just untucking his shirt when a voice startled him.  “Take anything else off, and there is going to be screaming.”

Pippin’s head shot up and his eyes widened as he caught sight of the speaker who was sitting in his bed with the blankets drawn up to her chin and her eyes narrowed.    He took a step backward and bumped into the door causing it to close with a loud snap.  “W-W-What are you doing in my bed?” he stammered.

“Your bed?  I thought this was Merry’s room,” she said, still clutching the blanket.

“Well, it isn’t,” Pippin said, still leaning against the door to his room.  

“Oh, dear,” she said.  “I was sure that this was Merry’s room.”  She frowned thoughtfully and let the blanket slip down past her bare shoulders as she relaxed her grip on it.

Pippin squeezed his eyes shut quickly.  “Watch what you’re doing, Estella!”

She blinked and looked over at him, remembering that he was there and giggled.  “Relax, You’ve seen all of me that you’re going to see,” she said, adjusting the blanket but making no attempt to move it back up.  She looked at him, his eyes shut tightly and his back against the door and giggled again.  “Honestly, Pippin.  One might think that you’d never seen a naked hobbit lass,” she teased.

“Not in my bed,” Pippin blurted out and then blushed furiously at the admission.  “I mean, not one that I didn’t invite,” he corrected, trying to undo the damage, but she continued to giggle at him and he felt the color rise in his cheeks.  “I think you should leave now that you know you’re in the wrong room,” he said, trying to sound casual and failing.

“All right,” Estella said, moving to get up.

“Wait!” Pippin objected, covering his eyes with his hands.  “What have you got on?”

“Nothing,” Estella said, sweetly, enjoying his discomfort.  “Nothing at all.  I’m as naked as the day that I was born.”

Pippin gulped.  “Don’t get up, please,” he said, his hands still covering his eyes.  “I don’t think either of us wants that.”

She laughed and then sighed.  “This is certainly not going the way that I had planned it.”

Pippin uncovered his eyes and took a step toward her.  “You planned this?”

“I planned to surprise Merry, not terrify you,” she said.  “I was supposed to be in his bed, not yours and he was supposed to come home and find me here, er, there.  Well, you know what I mean.”

Pippin groaned.  “Have you lost your mind?  Do you know how improper this is?”

Estella smirked.  “Please tell me that I am not going to receive a lecture on proper behavior from you, Peregrin Took.”

“You should receive one from someone, Estella,” Pippin said, folding his arms over his chest and looking disgusted.  “This is hardly the way that a proper lass behaves herself.  Lasses just don’t show up naked in lad’s beds.”  He shivered as he looked at her, sitting there in his bed, with that amused smile on her face and her eyes sparkling with mischief.  “It isn’t done,” he tried.  “What will Merry think?”

“Well, I was hoping that he’d think himself very lucky,” Estella said.  “I mean, you don’t seriously think that I go about the Shire offering myself to all of the lads, do you?”

“How should I know?” Pippin winced, as he began to pace in a small circle.  “I’ve never heard of this happening before, but how am I to know that it doesn’t?”

She glared at him.  “Because I am telling you that it doesn’t!  If Meriadoc Brandybuck weren’t so stubborn, then it wouldn’t be happening now.  In fact, if he were a bit more observant, I might not have to do this at all.  He might have realized that this was what needed to happen and have invited me!”  She was coming dangerously close to moving the blanket down too far as she ranted on and Pippin turned his eyes away as she continued.  “Here he goes off for ages and leaves me to worry about him and then when he does come back, well, I do understand that he needed some time to adjust, but, I think he’s had quite enough time!”

“You should think this over,” Pippin suggested.  “In fact, you might want to get dressed and slip out of here.  I won’t say a word about any of it.  I just want to forget it.”

“Well, I don’t,” Estella said, firmly.  “I’ve made up my mind to do this.  I am tired of waiting for Meriadoc Brandybuck to make up his mind to do something.  I am taking charge of this situation.”  She let go of the blanket with one hand and smacked a fist against the bed.

Just then, the door to the room opened and Merry stuck his head in and spoke, “I’ve found a few things for, oh.” He paused and looked from Estella to a very nervous Pippin and frowned.  “It seems you’ve found something too.  I’ll just leave you alone, then, shall I?”

Pippin fairly flew at Merry and grabbed his arm. “No, no, don’t go, Merry.  This isn’t what you think,” he said in a rush.  “This was supposed to be your room only it isn’t, it’s mine, but she didn’t know that and please don’t leave me alone with her, Merry.  She’s not decent.”

Merry grinned at Pippin who was obviously in quite a state and then looked over at Estella questioningly.  “Is Pippin trying to tell me that you thought this was my room?”

Her nerve faded a bit and she nodded at him, pulling the blanket up underneath her chin again.  She felt him looking at her appraisingly and chill bumps formed on her body.  She met his soft, grey eyes with her own blue ones and waited for him to say more.

“So, all of this is for me, then?” he said, putting his hands on his hips.

“It was supposed to be,” Estella said, softly, rediscovering her voice.  “I thought this was your room.”

Merry wrinkled his nose as he took in the clutter of objects strewn about the room and the piles of clothing on the floor.  “You did?”

“Well, that is your favorite walking stick over by the door, isn’t it? And isn’t that a set of your stack of herb books on that chair?” she asked, pointing while still keeping herself covered.

“Yes, sometimes my things make their way into Pippin’s room,” Merry said with a glance at his cousin.  "I wondered where my books were." 

“I meant to put them back,” Pippin mumbled.  “I had no idea that those would get me into this much trouble.”  He shifted from foot to foot and looked at the floor.

Merry grinned at him and then returned his gaze to Estella.  “What are you wearing?”

“She’s not wearing anything, Merry,” Pippin blurted out.  “She’s under that blanket in her altogether and not a stitch on!”

“I was asking Estella,” Merry sighed.  He then wrinkled his brow and looked it Pippin.  “How do you know?  Did you see something?”

“Not this time, no,” Pippin said.  “She told me she was naked, Merry.”

“Not *this* time?” Estella frowned, looking at Pippin intently.  “What do you mean when you say 'not this time', Peregrin Took?”

“Nothing,” Pippin said, backing up a bit more and nearly running into Merry.  His hands moved nervously about and he quickly stuffed them into his pockets.

“What do you mean this time?” Estella demanded, leaning forward.  “Answer me, or I’ll get up and come over there.”

Pippin blanched and Merry smiled.

“Fine,” Pippin said.  “Once, when you were visiting Pervinca when I was about sixteen or so, I accidentally saw your chest is all.”

Merry looked over at Pippin in amusement and Estella sucked in air.  “You saw my breasts?”

“Just very quickly and only the once,” Pippin said, blushing brightly.  “I never meant to, honest and I didn’t tell anyone, not even Merry.”

“No, you didn’t.” Merry frowned.  “I might have enjoyed hearing about that, Pippin.  You should have said something.”

“You might have seen them yourself by now, Meriadoc, if you had been paying any attention to me at all,” Estella said and then looked back at Pippin.  “How did you see my breasts?”

“You were changing in Pervinca’s room and I opened the door without knocking because I always dothat and there you were,” Pippin said. 

“I told you locks were a good thing sometimes,” Merry smiled.

“Well, I opened the door and there you were with your breasts exposed for anyone to see, just standing there with your frock about your waist as if that were expected,” Pippin went on ignoring Merry’s comment about locks.

“I was in your sister’s room with the door shut,” Estella said.  “You should have knocked!”

“I know that now,” Pippin said.  “There they, er, you were and I couldn’t help but see them.”

“And?” Merry asked, looking at Pippin.

“And, I backed out of the room, tripped over my feet in the hall and then made it to my room and hid under the bed,” Pippin said.  “I missed supper over that!”

“Why?” Merry laughed while Estella smirked from the bed.

“Well, you can’t sit across the table from a lass when you’ve just seen her breasts and act as if you haven’t,” Pippin said, nervously.  “What do you say to someone when you’ve seen their, well, her chest exposed?”  Pippin was twisting the bottom of his shirt and breathing a bit too fast.  “They were just out there, the pair of them, big as all out doors!”

“That big, uh?” Merry grinned and he looked at Estella.  “I’m impressed, Miss Bolger.  I had no idea.”

She frowned at him.  “Of course you didn’t!  How could you when you never seem to give me or them a thought?”  She sniffed and looked away from him, insulted.  “In fact, I have begun to wonder if you are even interested in seeing them or me in any way.  This was a bad idea.”  She said this last and then with the blanket wrapped about her, she got up from Pippin’s bed and began to walk to a pile of clothing on the floor that most definitely was not Pippin’s.  “If you two will just kindly give me my privacy, then I will get dressed and go,” she said in a shaky voice.

“Now, just one minute there, Estella Bolger,” Merry said, softly taking a step in her direction.  “Let’s discuss this a bit further before either of us makes any rash decisions.”

“I think one of us has already made a rash decision,” Pippin objected.

“Pippin, would you mind terribly leaving Estella and I alone for a minute or two?” Merry asked, still looking toward Estella.

“No, I’d be happy to,” Pippin said, not moving.

“Then do it,” Merry said.

“Do what?” Pippin asked, confused and looking at Estella also.

“Leave,” Merry said, firmly.

“Oh, right then,” Pippin said, moving toward the door.  “I’ll just be in the next room if you need me.”

Merry sighed and turned to face Pippin.  “Go back to the Hall and spend the night, Pip, will you?”

Pippin looked from Merry to Estella and then back again.  “All right, but what shall I tell them is the reason that I’m back so soon?  I mean, what should I say?”

“Tell them that I have company and that I wanted to spend some time alone with my company,” Merry said, raising an eyebrow.

“Should I say who your company is?” Pippin asked, hand on the doorknob.

Merry glanced at Estella and then back at Pippin.  “No, just tell them that I required privacy and that I threatened to kill you if you didn’t give it to me.”

“But you didn’t threaten to kill me, Merry,” Pippin said.  “You only asked.”

“Pippin, leave now, or I will kill you,” Merry said, sternly.  “Leave this room and do not come back until after noon tomorrow.  I have personal business to attend to and I require some privacy and I mean to have it.  Is that clear?”

“Fine,” Pippin said.  “But she handled this thing very poorly if you ask me.”

“No one asked you,” Estella snapped.

Pippin leaned toward Merry and whispered,  “They truly are enormous.  Be careful.”  Having said that, he hurried from the room slamming the door behind him.  Merry picked up Pippin’s coat and tossed it out of the room and closed the door again. 

Merry smiled and turned his attention to Estella who was still standing near her clothing wrapped in the blanket but making no move to dress.  He studied her carefully, taking in the soft, brown curls that framed her face, the large light blue eyes encircled by dark lashes, the small upturned nose, the full pouting lips, the firm chin and graceful neck, the curved form of her body that was not completely hidden by the blanket, and finally, her feet firmly planted on the floor with the toes slightly curled.  He swallowed as the front door to the house banged shut and took a step in her direction.  “So, you have something to say to me, Miss Bolger?”

She returned his gaze and nodded.  Now that Pippin was gone, she found that she was a bit nervous.  She was alone in a bedroom, naked, with Merry Brandybuck.  Here before her stood one of the most notorious young single hobbits in all of the Shire.  If any of the rumors were true, then she would hardly be the first naked lass that he had seen.  She felt a wave of insecurity hit her and wished that she had taken Pippin’s advice and slipped out unnoticed earlier.  Merry must have been with plenty of lasses and most likely many of them were far more attractive and far more self-assured than she was.  Maybe Merry hadn’t paid her any more attention than he had because he wasn’t interested.  Maybe she had been wrong about how he might feel about her.  Maybe what she thought she’d sensed from him before he left the Shire had not been so, or maybe, now that he had returned home, he didn’t have any interest in Fredegar Bolger’s little sister, Estella.  She trembled.

He looked at her, worriedly.  “Are you cold?  I could build a fire,” he offered, moving a bit closer but stopping a few steps from her.  “I won’t hurt you, you know.”

She bit her lower lip and nodded.  “I know.  It’s only that I feel so silly now and it wasn’t supposed to be this way at all.  I was supposed to be in your bed when you came in and you were supposed to come to me and be glad that I was there.  You were supposed to take me in your arms and hold me.  You weren’t supposed to feel sorry for me like you do now,” she said, softly.

“I don’t feel sorry for you, “ Merry said.  “I felt a bit sorry for Pippin earlier because the poor lad was so flustered, but I don’t feel sorry for you, Estella.”

“Then what do you feel?” she asked, afraid of the answer and knowing that she had to have it all the same.  She tightened her grip on the blanket and held her head high, trying to meet his gaze with some dignity in spite of her current state of undress.

“I am feeling a bit over whelmed at the moment,” Merry admitted, with a small smile.  “Whatever I had been expecting today when I returned home, this far surpasses it for interest.”  He pulled Pippin’s desk chair over toward himself and knocking the clothing from it, sat down to face her as she stood before him.  “In all of my wildest dreams, I would never have thought to find you here in this manner.”

“You’re shocked,” Estella said, dropping her gaze now, embarrassed.

“No, not shocked,” Merry said, gently.  “Only surprised.”

“You don’t find this to be improper behavior?  You don’t think me less of a lady for it?”  Estella asked.

“I could never think less of you in any way, Estella,” Merry said.  “I have always held you in very high regard and I find that I still do even at this moment.  You see, I have always admired your spirit and your nerve and this certainly took a lot of nerve on your part.”  He smiled at her with his eyes twinkling.  “Why most lasses, having heard the rumors about me, would hardly dare to do what you have done.”

“I needed an answer and I wasn’t getting it,” Estella said.  She moved to lean against the bed.  “I needed to know if you felt anything at all for me, Merry or if I was fooling myself.”

“When I was away, I thought of you,” Merry said, slowly.  “I would lay awake at night during our travels or sit in the dark during my turn at watch and think of you and of home.  I used to wonder what you were doing and try to picture you among family and friends, laughing and having fun.  Then, I didn’t know what was happening here in the Shire and I thought of you as safe here.  I thought of things as being normal and happy here.  I took comfort in that when things were at their darkest for us.  I would say to myself, at least everyone at home is safe.  Then later, when I knew that might not be so and that if things went ill for us they would also go ill for all that we loved, well, then I would try all the harder to be of some use in our quest.  I wanted to protect all of you here in the Shire from the evil that had come.”  He paused and she remained silent, listening to him breathe and waiting for more.  “It was at times like that, when I wished I had said more to you of how I felt.  I feared that I might not have the chance to tell you later.  I was afraid that I would never see you or home again.”

A tear formed in the corner of her eye and she moved to him and seated herself on his lap still wrapped in the blanket like a small child.  She put an arm around his shoulders and leaned her head against his chest and said, “Then why, after you returned, did you not come to me and tell me how you felt?”

He ran a hand through her hair and breathed in deeply, inhaling the scent of her.  “I was afraid to, Estella.  I have changed so much that I was afraid that you might not be interested anymore.  I am not the same Merry Brandybuck that you used to kiss underneath the trees behind the barn.  I am not the Merry Brandybuck who used to dance with you and hold you and tease you at parties.  I can’t be,” he said, sadly.

“I think you’re wrong, Merry,” Estella said, slowly.  “I think you are still that Merry Brandybuck, but that you are also more than that.  I think that the part of you that I knew is still there.  It’s only that it has been joined by an older, wiser, Merry Brandybuck who has seen things and done things that my Merry never thought that he would.  I think that the Merry who used to hold me is holding me now, only now, I think he knows how easily things can be lost and what is really important in our lives.”  She buried her face in his shoulder and felt his arms about her.  “I think I have just answered my own questions.”

“What do you mean?” Merry asked, enjoying the feel of her in his arms and being grateful for her words.

“I mean that the Merry that I knew before would have crawled into that bed with me without thinking where it might lead,” Estella said with a slight giggle.  “The Merry that holds me now, needs to know where it will lead.”

She pulled back from him and stood.  “I can wait for this Merry to catch up to the old Merry,” she said with tears in her eyes.

“Can you?” he asked, hoping that she could.

“Yes, I could wait a very long time for such a hobbit as that,” Estella said.  “Not forever, but for a long time.”  She stood up, turned and walked over and retrieved her clothing from the floor with one hand while holding her blanket with the other.

He stood.  “I want to tell you things so that you can understand it better, Stella, but it isn’t easy to say.  It won’t be easy to hear either,” he said, his eyes filled with the pain of the memories that he was offering to share with her. ”I don’t think that there is another lass in all of the Shire who could face this with as much bravery as you save Rose Cotton who has stood by Sam in all of this.”

She smiled at him.  “I am not Rose Cotton, but I do think that I love you enough to hear these things and to accept them.”

“Can you accept me even though I am not what I would have been before this journey?” Merry asked.

“I am here before you willing to give you every inch of myself, Merry,” Estella said.  “This was a desperate thing that I did and I did it to hold onto you.  Not just a part of you, but every inch of you.  I want you as much as I wanted you the first time I set eyes on you when I was ten and you were putting tadpoles into the punch at the summer dance in Hobbiton with my brother.  I have always wanted you, don’t you know that?”

“I might have suspected it a time or two.  I might have hoped that you did many times, but I was never completely sure until just now,” Merry admitted.

“Why are lads so slow to catch onto what a lass wants?” she asked, smiling at him.

“Because lasses are a mystery to us,” Merry said.  “I have always enjoyed a good mystery, and you, Estella Bolger are my favorite mystery.”  He turned to the door.  “I’ll let you dress and I will make us a bit of supper.  We can sit by the fire in the parlor and eat and talk and maybe later, when I’m ready, you can show me your enormous breasts.”

She giggled.  “Yes, it won’t do for Peregrin Took to be the only lad in the Shire that has seen them.”

Merry laughed.  “I hardly think he was old enough to appreciate them fully at the time, and you deserve to be appreciated in every way, Estella.”

She watched him leave the room, closing the door behind him.  She may not have gotten all that she had planned to get, but she had managed to get more than she could have hoped for.

The End

G.W.     03/03/2005





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