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