Rating: G
Summary: Pippin pays a visit to the village of Long Cleeve...

P: LIKE A PINK PIPPIN

“Pippin, I’d like you to meet my mother, Chrysanthemum North-took. And this is my Great-Aunt Hepatica Greenhill.” Diamond bit her lip, and Pippin thought for an instant that she looked timid. He could not imagine his Diamond as timid. “Mama, Aunt Hepatica, this is Peregrin Took.”

Now, Diamond’s mother? She did seem timid, as she extended her hand to him. “I’m pleased to meet you, Mr. Took,” she said in a soft voice, and Pippin nearly had to strain to hear her.

He bent over it, and gave it a courtly kiss, as they did in the South. Merry had told him that it went over well with the matrons--and so far, he’d discovered that advice to be sound. Sure enough, Chrysanthemum’s eyes widened, and she smiled at him.

“I’m very pleased to meet you, as well,” he said, “and do call me Pippin.”

Diamond’s aunt gave a thump to the floor with her cane, and fixed Pippin with a gimlet eye. “And just what is wrong with your given name?” she demanded. Diamond paled, and Pippin blushed. He cleared his throat, and said diffidently, “Well, Mrs. Greenhill, I do not suppose there is anything wrong with it, it is simply that my friends and family have called me Pippin since I was a baby.”

She snorted. “A great strapping lad like you? You should not still be carrying about your baby-name. *I* shall call you Peregrin.”

Diamond winced, and, trying to lighten the mood, Pippin quipped “As long as you do not call me ‘fool of a Took’ that is fine.”

“*Are* you a fool?” she barked.

Pippin blushed again. “I hope not.”

“Then don’t take such names to yourself.” She turned and looked at Diamond, and her gaze softened. “It is good to see you again, child. You’ve been so long away.” She leaned over and gave Diamond a soft kiss on the cheek, and then turning a sharp eye on Pippin, she nodded and sailed out of the room.

Pippin stared after her, and let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.

Diamond looked up at him and grinned. “Aunt Hepatica *likes* you,” she said triumphantly.

Pippin’s jaw dropped. If that was the way she spoke to those she liked, he wondered what it would be like for someone she *didn’t* like! Or, on second thought, perhaps he did not want to know.

“You are very brave, Pippin,” Diamond whispered.

Pippin blushed.
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He’d slept the night in the best guestroom, on a bed too short for him, and had wakened with his back and neck stiff, and his knee bothering him. He wondered if he should have brought his cane. He’d thought it might lead to awkward questions, but his limping would probably do the same. He sighed, and dressed for the day. He had very pointedly *not* brought his livery, though he did not travel without his sword. But he had put it away in his other gear before they had come to the smial.

As he made his way to the vicinity of the dining room, guided by the tantalizing smell of breakfast, he could hear Diamond’s voice. “I got to know him well when he broke his leg.”

“And *how*, pray tell,” barked Aunt Hepatica, “did he come to do such a thing as *that*?” Her tone seemed to indicate that only a person of very little wit could have such a misfortune befall him.

Pippin halted briefly, uncertain. He heard Diamond’s reply. “He was very bravely saving his brothers-in-law from a fallen tree branch during a thunderstorm.”

“Oh,” said Diamond’s mother, “the dear lad!”

Pippin blushed.

Aunt Hepatica sounded mollified. “A most courageous thing, indeed! I am impressed Diamond!”

“But that is not the half of the brave things he’s done! Why, when he and the others were in the Outlands--”

Pippin decided it was time to intervene. “Good morning, everyone!” he called cheerily, as he entered the room. “This smells like a very lovely first breakfast.”

“It is second breakfast, Peregrin,” corrected Aunt Hepatica, though her tone with him was not nearly so sharp as it had been before.

Pippin blushed.
_______________________________________

Later in the day, after Pippin had seen to Sable’s well-being in the stable, and had been taken on a tour of the smial and its grounds--not terribly extensive, but the garden was very nicely kept--he and Diamond sat in the front room on a settee talking.

He wished that he dared sit close enough to put his arm around her shoulders, or to at least hold her hand, but Diamond’s mother and aunt sat across the room: Chrysanthemum knitting something white and lacy, Aunt Hepatica with a lapful of mending. Every time Pippin would glance up and see them there, he would find himself blushing.

“So,” he said to Diamond, “when will I get to meet your sisters? Ruby and Sapphire, right?”

Diamond smiled at him, and the sight of her dimples made his heart flip. “Well, Sapphire’s been visiting Ruby and her husband Archibold--he’s another North-took cousin. But they will all be here today before teatime.” She giggled. “Sapphire is wild to meet you! Why you would not believe the way she has been questioning me--” she continued speaking, but Pippin found himself paying more attention to the way her eyes sparkled as she laughed than to what she was saying.

“Pippin Took! Have you heard a word I said?”

Pippin blushed.
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They arrived shortly before tea. Ruby was about five years older than Diamond, and seemed to take after her mother, being a bit shy. Her husband Archie was the hearty sort, who had a more than passing acquaintance with some of Pippin’s Great Smials cousins, such as Ferdibrand. It helped to have a topic of conversation.

Sapphire was less than a year older than Diamond, and though she too had dark curls and green eyes and dimples, to Pippin’s mind, she was not half so pretty. As soon as Diamond introduced them, Sapphire’s eyes went wide. She blinked, and then she said “Oh my! You *are* a tall one! Are you certain you aren’t descended from the Bullroarer yourself?”

Pippin blushed. “No, I’m afraid not,” he said.

Sapphire frankly simpered at him, and he noticed Diamond’s eyes narrow as she glared at her sister. Quite fortunately, tea arrived, and he was able to escape. But he couldn’t help feeling a bit uncomfortable under Sapphire’s appraising gaze, and he blushed.
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Later that evening, coming in from a pleasant smoke with Archibold, who had a rakish sense of humor and a store of tales about the Old Bullroarer that had never made their way down to the Tooklands, he saw Diamond and Sapphire in the corridor. Diamond was quite obviously berating her sister, for her arms were folded and she looked quite angry as she spoke. Sapphire hung her head, and then after a few moments the two sisters embraced.

They looked up and saw him standing there. Pippin could feel himself blushing again.
___________________________________________

The next evening, the whole family, accompanied by Pippin, went up to Northcleft, the ancestral home of the North-tooks. It was by no means so large as either the Great Smials or even Brandy Hall, though it was somewhat larger than Bag End.

They were invited to be the guests of Bandigard North-took, the Head of the North-tooks in the Northfarthing, although he acknowledged Paladin in the Great Smials as *the* Took. Still, by tradition, the North-tooks had always been more or less autonomous in their family affairs. Pippin was curious to meet him, as he had not seen Cousin Bandigard since his father’s investiture as Thain, years before. He thought it quite hospitable of Cousin Bandigard to invite them all to supper.

However, as their small group approached Northcleft, it became clear that this was more than a small dinner-party for a few guests--it appeared to be a full-fledged party--every window in the smial seemed to have light pouring from the windows, and there were other groups of hobbits making their way in that direction. Pippin could also hear the sounds of musicians warming up. This was definitely not an intimate family gathering!

Their host stood at the door, greeting each arrival. It clearly was not a birthday, for he saw no evidence of gifts. And then Diamond’s family approached, and Cousin Bandigard’s face broke into a huge grin, as he gripped Pippin’s hand. “Ah!” he exclaimed, “at last the guest of honor has arrived! Welcome, Captain Peregrin!”

Filled with consternation, Pippin blushed furiously.

And it seemed he was fated to blush the entire evening through. Cousin Bandigard’s daughter Gemma tried to flirt with him, much as Sapphire had done the day before, and Diamond hauled him off unceremoniously with a scowl for her cousin. Then several of the lads seemed to want to re-hash every detail of the Battle of Bywater, making some very unkind and unflattering remarks about Men in general. This forced Pippin to recount some of the details of his journey, that he would rather not have spoken, in order to defend his King and his friends. At least his listeners seemed to take his words to heart.

Before supper, he found himself called upon to make a speech. He kept it short, simply thanking his host and those who were gathered there--this was popular, and the loud applause made his face warmer than ever.

He thought the evening would never end.
_________________________________________

The next day he said farewell to Diamond, to return to Crickhollow. She would be staying with her family for a month, before she returned to Mistress Lavender to take up her apprenticeship once more. But the healer had returned to Budgeford, so at least she would not be *quite* so far away.

Diamond’s family allowed the couple the illusion of privacy, though he was all too aware they were all watching from the windows.

He took her hands before he got ready to mount up, wishing they were *really* alone, so he could kiss her.

She reached up, however, and pulled him down, and bussed him soundly. “I might as well give Aunt Hepatica *something * to scold me over, dear.”

At the sound of her voice, calling him “dear”, Pippin felt every last drop of his blood rush to his face. “Oh, Diamond,” he said, “I *do* love you!”

“I know, Pippin. Now be off with you, before she comes out and scolds *you*!” she laughed.

He mounted, and as he rode off, she called after him “I love you, too!”

He rode away, aware that he had never been pinker--or happier--in his life.