By: Dana
Summary: Sam has been spending most of his time about Bag End with the Master's younger cousin.
Characters: Sam (Frodo, Bilbo, the Gaffer)
Pairings: None
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Author's Notes: For sorrowful eagle, for my birthday.
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.

For as much time as Sam has spent helping his Dad about the Bag End gardens, the lad feels that the most of that time has been spent speaking with Mr Bilbo's young cousin - Frodo, and he's not so young, as he's years on Sam and more than Sam knows. And for all he's spent with Mr Frodo, and for all the time he's spent wondering on how a gentlehobbit could act as though he'd want to spend his time with a child, they have been telling one and the other stories - stories of all sorts. Though there's hardly an improper thing as a boat about, Mr Frodo has told Sam of the Brandywine and the ferry boat and swimming, too, and Sam thinks, what proper hobbit would want to go out and swim?

And Sam tells Mr Frodo of Hobbiton, as he'd not ever spent much of his time about, and there are good folk who work hard, and in the spring, there will be a great fair -

But right now, it's September, autumn has yet to end, and winter's coming is a promise that one feels when chill bites at the end of the day. Years, Hobbiton had seen anything more than a light snow, and Mr Frodo says that Buckland often has the sort of winters that Sam can only recall having heard in tales.

And it does come back to that, and Mr Frodo tells Sam about his cousins, and all that he'd always known that he'd had to leave behind. Yes, that's right, Sam thinks, he's fresh out of Buckland, and Sam supposes that the differences must be - very noticeable, at least.

So Sam tells Mr Frodo about the only one he can recall having lost, and that was his old dog Snapper, who'd been more his dad's than his own, but still, the kids had all loved him, and it had been years (well, three), since it had been summer who had taken him away.

And there are other stories. Like Mr Bilbo's, and Mr Frodo says them all better than even he (but Sam'd not tell Mr Bilbo, for all the kindness that's been shown).

And (at least, this had been the last time they'd spoken) Mr Frodo says no more than that, but thanks Sam for his time, and goes back into Bag End. And Dad says, those gentlehobbits, they're a queer sort, son. But Sam thinks, queer or not, Mr Frodo is the sort of hobbit that he can't help but - well, like, though he doesn't think he'll ever come close enough to understand.

Wouldn't he laugh, or think it odd, if he knew that that was just the same way Mr Frodo was looking at him.