By: Dana
Summary: Thirty years in a long, long life.
Characters: Merry, Pippin, Others
Pairings: Merry/Pippin (also, Merry/Pippin/Estella/Diamond)
Rating: G through PG-13
Warnings: Slash, also, polyamory (femslash, slash, and het), Pippin being Pippin
Author's Notes: A collection of thirty drabbles. Written over the course of June, 2005.
Disclaimer: The author makes no claim to owning the rights of anything to do with J.R.R. Tolkien or New Line Cinema. Any and all characters and situations that have been borrowed are for the author's personal use only, and for the entertainment of others.

1410 SR: Catching Up to Height

Pippin is near a head taller than Merry recalls him having been at Yule - well, close enough, at least - and it's well and clear that Pippin's no child, not that Merry had thought him one for years. And Merry only notices that Pippin has been growing because Pippin had kissed him at the summer fair the year before, and Pippin had had to tilt his head up into the kiss, just so. But they're eye to eye, this time, and Pippin grins, and when he leaves Merry - because he does leave - Merry is speechless, and Pippin wears that same grin.

1411 SR: Long-cuts

Pippin insisted on the walking party round to Bag End, and they kept themselves entertained while following along the East Road - though Pippin had thought it best that they cut north-then-south, wandering through Budge Ford though never so north they crossed the Water. South again (and Pippin didn't go looking for shortcuts). They were a day out of Hobbiton, at least, when the rain came, and though Pippin thought to make the best of it - they were a day out from proper shelter, too.

Soaked through before long, Pippin made sure Merry was well-compensated for all the troubles he'd faced.

1412 SR: Making Merry Dance

It was spring that found Pippin returning to Bag End, when Frodo had decided that he and Merry were amongst his closest friends. March, and with it the spring fair (the best in the farthing, though there'd be many more), and Pippin making a sight when he ended up on the tabletop, and bid Merry follow him along.

And Merry said no, but Pippin insisted, and the music was merry, quick, and Frodo laughed and pushed Merry towards the table, and Merry climbed up onto the bench, and then the tabletop.

Laughing, they managed not to step on the cakes.

1413 SR: The One That Isn't About Secrets

Pippin had been on about secrets since Yule (Merry could have known, right then, but then Pippin had caught him beneath the bough of mistletoe, and they'd not said much after that), but it wasn't until after the planting was finished that Merry found it most prudent to go visiting him at Great Smials - had managed the time. But Pippin - along with whatever he'd been meaning to tell Merry, and what hadn't been good enough for the post - instead went about acting the Took.

When Pippin made it up again - and Merry insisted - this time they had a proper bed.

1414 SR: Strategic Maneuvers

Pippin frowned when Merry's king took his, and the game was ended. Again, he said, persisted, and Merry grinning all through setting his pieces back in place. And the game started, once again (but only because Pippin was bull-headed, even for a Took), and one by one, Pippin's pieces fell from the board (though, to be fair, it wasn't as if he'd not managed to take at least one of Merry's pieces, in return).

But then Pippin grinned, and Merry wondered why, but then felt Pippin's heel press up against - oh. Pippin won that round, and the one that followed.

1415 SR: On Those Occasions

They didn't often fight, but when they did, there was always a period of time that came afterwards where one could not stand to face the other - especially those times - when they'd almost come to blows. More often than not, it was Merry who realized what asses they'd both been and went after Pippin, knowing that enough of it had been enough and it was beyond time to put what the fortnight (and what a miserable fortnight it had been) behind them.

When Pippin only wanted to snap, Merry proved that kisses, at least sometimes, worked better than any words.

1415 SR: Not All Things Pass
not an error, 1415 ended up with two

For at least the full length of the summer Merry had been unable to visit as he had wanted, and if not for his birthday (his coming of age, and he thanked Pippin for making that as memorable as he had), he'd not have seen Pippin at all. Things were changing and Merry only somewhat-but-not-fully understood how Pippin had to be feeling his father had been made Thain, after all, with Ferumbras II having passed.

When Merry did finally manage a visit, Pippin was glum and very hard to cheer. Merry persisted, until he won Pippin's smile. And his kiss.

1416 SR: Where Everyone Wins

When the road itself faded to the worn whisper of a travel path they turned from it to the open fields, where meadowgrass was growing tall, burning bright gold in the afternoon light. They don't stop, not until the grass grew shorter and they had found their way back to the water, and it was Pippin who first stopped his pony and decided that they had raced at all, and that he had won.

Merry was the one who mentioned prizes, and what needed be claimed, and Pippin admired him his quick thinking - and quickly turned Merry's words to action.

1417 SR: Sharing

Freddy and Folco saw to the music, while Merry and Pippin saw to Frodo - both of them taking hold of Frodo, one to each arm - and bringing him out onto the parlour floor, where he less-than-reluctantly joined in, laughing. These were, of course, the two hobbits Merry loved best of all - and Merry kissed Frodo on the cheek, after, and Pippin on the mouth. Of course, then Freddy and Folco were jeering, so Merry invited them out. Freddy put down his fiddle, and Folco his flute, and they near knocked Merry off his feet.

And Pippin laughed, catching Merry before he fell.

1418 SR: A Simple Choice

It wasn't all that often that Pippin put thought to thought, as he often did to action, but if Frodo was planning on slipping out on them, they well enough knew that couldn't be. But Merry was torn - that Frodo would trust Sam, more than he'd trust him - and couldn't see how Pippin could be right. Perhaps it would be best, if they simply let Frodo go.

And thinking that, Merry knew Pippin was right, and that meant something would have to be done. Frodo might have made his own plans, but that wouldn't stop Merry from making his own.

1419 SR: Such Grand Relief

The battle had ended, and Merry found Pippin - blood on his sword, dirt smudges on his cheeks, and a bloody gash at his temple that had matted hair there, the blood - dripping slowly down his face. Pippin loo?ed at him, and it felt to Merry that Pippin looked through him. Then Pippin smiled, and though for a long empty moment Merry had felt that he had lost his Pippin, it was a grand relief to see that such hopeless thought had been nothing more than a mistake.

Merry wondered if he'd ever been happier, and took Pippin in his arms.

1420 SR: Turning of the Year

Freddy (who was no longer Fatty at all) had insisted on singing an old Bolger song, even when Pippin had insisted that he would see to the singing himself, though his singing-voice was rough from long months of disuse. Funny, then, how it almost felt like this was how it always had been - good friends, yes, the very best of company - and Merry wondered at what might have made it better than just good.

Maybe not knowing all that had gone. Not having had to put Folco in the ground.

In the end, Pippin and Freddy decide on a duet.

1421 SR: (Not Yet) Time For Words

Still they stood, though there was little light left now that evening had long since gathered into night - there were not even shadows upon the outstretching sea. There was so much Merry felt that he could say, but his mouth did not seem to hold to this - for all that he might say, he had said nothing, and now it felt that the time for all - words had long passed.

Pressure at his hand, Pippin, and soon enough, Merry knew, they would leave.

(Words would return, but for now and through the ride home, it was not yet their time.)

1422 SR: And Memory

Pippin led Merry from the front door, and Merry followed after. He remembers, all too clearly, how their first kiss had left him dazed, and Merry feels that he is still too soon from their latest (but not the last), and does not feel that he could properly compare - not when their first is still as sharp as their seventh and their fifty-eighth, - and memory is smell as well as taste - and he has too often almost-lost Pippin, and Merry has decided he will not ever almost-lose him again.

Still, it's a wonder he doesn't lose himself fully in past.

1423 SR: Sometime In Between

Pippin had lured him from the house, had insisted on the ride to the river - and Merry had went along if only to keep from nagging, though Pippin would never say that he nagged. But the day was cool enough though it should have been warmer, and Pippin's voice lulled him more effectively than the sun would have, if the day had been hotter. And Merry was almost asleep and Pippin finger-stroked through his hair, and what really mattered was that though Merry couldn't tell if it was spring or summer, it felt like it was 1413 and not 1423.

1424 SR: Summer at Brandy Hall

Estella came to Brandy Hall in the summer, with Pippin half the Shire away. Merry didn't even think that he might be doing a regrettable thing, though Estella had always been sweet enough and she could be just as prickly as a thicket of thorns. Still, she was there, and Pippin was gone, and she might not have approached him and it might have been unwise to approach her - maybe what had happened was that they had simply found each other.

Merry loved Pippin with more than just all his heart, but he knew he'd be marrying Estella one day.

1425 SR: Riding Back to the House at Crickhollow

When Pippin rode with Merry back to the house at Crickhollow, it ended up that they needed to talk - because Merry thought there were things that needed discussing. Merry should have expected, having known Pippin far more than just half his life, that this would be no easy thing - but Pippin had said, if Merry thought Estella should stay for a time at the house, then why not, and if there was to be a wedding, then it would best be had th?t next spring.

Why give up what you have, Pippin had said, when you could have even more?

1426 SR: At Open Water

They hardly spent anytime at home, that year, and Merry ended up wondering if he even had a home, though it wasn't as if he minded the open road. North and south again and back again, and they went out so far that they ended with open water before them, and salt sharpened air. The day was pleasant, cool, and the sand hard and wet beneath Merry's feet - and he thought, maybe they might stay, at least for a while.

And Pippin said, you'd best not brood, and tackled him to the sand. After that, Merry hardly had the time.

1427 SR: Planning

For all their planning, it was Pippin who was wed first, and Merry thought that Diamond was a fine enough lass. And Pippin said, a week after the wedding, that they had long had this planned - and Merry wondered if Pippin could stand the thought of a marriage without love, and decided he'd not - and if he had thought Pippin exceptional, and even more pigheaded than normal, it was certainly more than just him being a Took.

But Diamond came back to the house at Crickhollow, and Merry wondered how there'd be enough room.

And Pippin said, they'd make it.

1428 SR: Home

He thought they'd leave soon, when autumn came again and spring was close enough to coming, though there was still winter between - but Merry would wed Estella come the spring, like they had long planned, and of course Pippin and Diamond would leave. This has lasted as long as it was meant, but now Merry knew it was time to let go.

And Pippin told him he was a fool, and Diamond agreed, and when Estella came back from visiting family at Budgeford, she'd kissed him and said, what a fool you are, My love.

And they would all stay.

1429 SR: Waiting and Meeting

Merry had waited as long as was possible, and it was spring just as Pippin said it would be, when he and Estella finally did wed. While the ceremony itself happened at Brandy Hall, not long after the wedding party all rode out from the grand smial, going first across the ferry and then riding north along the Causeway, and finding themselves at the Brandywine Bridge. And beyond, a grand group was waiting, and it was there that Merry and Pippin first had Estella and Diamond make acquaintance with the great of Rohan and Gondor, and their very dear friends.

1430 SR: Naming

Pippin spent that first week after in a constant state of amazement, which Merry thought was right enough as if he'd been in Pippin's place, he'd have felt the same. Well, he almost did feel like he was, and when he first held Diamond's and Pippin's son, he almost felt his heart breaking, but he thought it was for the best. He was very - small, and perfect, and Pippin had smiled when he had said, I'm a father now, Merry. That's something, don't you think?

Diamond thought the lad should be named Faramir, and Merry was the first to agree.

1431 SR: Trying and Again

It was autumn, and autumn was a very sad time of year, even more than winter, when things should have been bleakest. And the winter hadn't been a mild one, and it had snowed more than Merry could recall having happened in years, but things were as they should have been, at least, at the house at Crickhollow, and it was autumn now, and Faramir was trying but failing at his first steps.

Faramir was now a year and some months, and Pippin had not stopped him - instead he'd encouraged him, and had laughed and smiled at his son's success.

1432 SR: Endings

Saradoc was sick and wasting, and while Merry was wishing for something of a miracle, there was little he co?ld do. Saradoc never had understood his son, or his choices, and Merry wished for little more than that, though admittedly, he never had understood his father, in turn. Almost a year now, then, since they'd all left their proper home, and Merry should've known that it wouldn't be that easy to work things out with his father, but, and this Pippin had said, and meant, at least Saradoc had known what had mattered most when it came to the end.

1433 SR: Towers

Diamond reckoned Faramir must be old enough, and he never had met the one he'd been named for, and so it was planned and decided and it was that summer that they all went to Minas Tirith, and Diamond and Estella first saw the city for their own. It had been too long, Merry reckoned, as Pippin at least had been younger that last time they had thought to visit, sometime back in - oh, too many years had passed, at least.

Diamond marveled at the towers, and Estella the Queen, and the Prince of Ithilien met his namesake, at last.

1434 SR: Home Had Been

Home had been Brandy Hall, but Pippin had said goodbye when word came that Paladin had taken ill, and he didn't come back through the summer, sending word in autumn instead when his father finally did let go. For Diamond, though, and not for Merry, though Merry rode along with her and young Faramir, and Estella made him promise that he would return, and of course he promised that he would return.

Pippin told him, when he came to Great Smials, that it had been too long and he had forgotten so much, but he'd not forget him, would he?

1435 SR: Names

They name their first Theodoc, as Merry wanted a proper hobbit name, and Estella had thought it best that he remember their first to one who mattered in Merry's heart. So his son was named after his father, in a way, and after the man who had been like a father, when he had been away. He likes this name, and it seems strong, and his mother likes it, too, and doesn't tease him like she had Pippin, for having a son with such an outlandish name.

Merry's not seen Pippin since spring, and he'll not see him until Yule.

1436 SR: At The Lake

They went with Sam (and their families) to the Brandywine Bridge, and with Aragorn, who had been living at Lake Evendim for a time. It was something, watching the King give Sam the Star of the Dunedain, and it was something more to see his Elanor be made a maid to the Queen. But it was something, too, when it felt like Merry is stealing time, and stealing it with Pippin, so that he felt like a tween again, not near as old as he really was.

Oh, Pippin said, you might complain, but I know you don't really mind.

1437 SR: To Be Done

It hadn't been the first time that year and definitely not the first time that season, but Pippin came to Brandy Hall, and he was in a mess. And Estella had told him that it did no good when he tried to run, but it wasn't just that, and Merry always had thought Pippin a smart one, even when he played fool. But he left, and went to Diamond in the Northfarthing, but he went back to Great Smials in time - and Merry was waiting, with Estella, too.

Something had been wrong too long, and something had to be done.

1438 SR: Seasons Are

Spring and summer are Great Smials, though Merry and Pippin spend time as well in Buckland, seeing to the planting as they had in Tuckborough, too. Autumn and winter are Brandy Hall, as Brandy Hall is after all known for the very best Yule celebrations in all the Shire.

And they often ride out and Merry knows their wives wonder if they will return, and it often does come back to the point when they do ride home, and Estella puts their daughter in Merry's arm, and Pippin holds their son, that Merry?said, I promised you, and I'm back.

1439 SR: Caught Up to Height

Pippin definitely was taller than Merry, but Merry didn't think it mattered (and even if it did, he still wouldn't have admitted that Pippin that had caught up with him, and more). This is his own Pippin, after all, a father three times over and a Knight of Gondor still, the same Pippin he has kissed more times than he could ever count, who has saved his life on more than one occasion, and who still loves him, even when he's been more pigheaded than his norm, and who else would love him just the same, and after all that?