A/U: This is a gift for harrowcat in place of the story about Pippin and his falcon that I promised her. I apologize for that, I lost most of it on my USB because it died a week ago. I still plan on finishing it though! Happy Yule! Love, Ellie

Pippin sat on a rock on the side of the road, kicking his feet into the snow dejectedly. How had his Yule turned out to be so miserable? All he had wanted was to find the perfect gifts for his cousins, but he’d ended up missing out on the first day of Yule.

He’d been looking for days, and had several ideas of what he could get them, but none of them seemed just right, and so he’d procrastinated buying something, in case the perfect gift would just pop out at him. His mum had warned him that if he didn’t choose something soon, he would end up with nothing for them at all, and she’d been right.

He’d spent most of the morning of First Yule searching in vain for something, and now he knew Merry and Frodo were both back at his home wondering where he had run off to and probably annoyed with him for not being there.

Sighing, he kicked the snow even harder, and crossed his arms over his chest, frowning out at the white landscape around him.

Suddenly his eyes fell on a few twigs lying at his feet, and he got an idea. Leaping up quickly, he grabbed as many of the twigs laying around as he could, and dashed back home as fast as his legs could carry him.

***

Frodo and Merry were standing around outside waiting for Pippin to come home. They had been worried when Eglantine had told them that he had been out all morning looking for their gifts, but they had decided to worry at home instead of going to look for him, in case it would ruin whatever plans the young hobbit had in mind.

“Well,” Merry said, puffing absently on his pipe. “Perhaps we should send Da and Uncle Pal out after him if he doesn’t come home soon.”

Frodo nodded. “We said we’d give him till noon before looking for him.” He scanned the horizon, then laughed suddenly. “No need. Here he comes.”

They watched as Pippin dashed up the lane, cheeks red, scarf flying out behind him, and his hands full of twigs.

“Hullo!” he said, smiling breathlessly at them.

“Hello, Pip. What’ve you got there?” Merry asked, looking confused and amused.

“Nothing. I’ve got to go finish your Yule gifts! See you later!” Pippin said, hurriedly dashing into the house.

Frodo and Merry looked at each other, eyebrows lifted. What was their cousin up to?

***

Pippin closed the door to his room and dumped the sticks onto his desk. Then he stuck a chair under the door handle for good measure, just in case his cousins decided to seek him out again.

He grabbed all his pencils and paints from under the desk, and the special paper Frodo had given him for his last birthday, and a spool of twine.