By: Dana
Summary: It is Pippin's idea, and they take their luncheon in the gardens.
Characters: Merry, Pippin, Eowyn, and Faramir
Pairings: Merry/Pippin/Eowyn/Faramir
Rating: G
Warnings: Cheerful interspecies nonmonogamy more or less implied
Author's Notes: Jen wanted: Merry/Pippin/Eowyn/Faramir (in any combination that I wanted). Sparkles. Faramir smiles.
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.

It is Pippin's idea, and they take their luncheon in the gardens. "The warmth will do you all good," he says, and Merry thinks, but Pippin, you're the one who last saw battle, and come freshest from its arms. But Pippin is right, and the spring does not seem so bitter now, a recollection of words spoken, but long ago, as the warmth of the sun sinks through flesh down to bone. It will do them all good.

"If we could have apples today," Pippin says, and sighs. But Merry knows, yes, that the last of the winter stores are long gone. Still, there is bread, and milk and honey, and Merry does not know how Pippin managed it, but sweet mushrooms, too -

"Mushrooms?" Eowyn asks, befuddled yet amused.

"You eat them, my lady," Pippin says, and smiles.

"Whenever I tried that as a child," Faramir says, "my nurse would scold me, and say they were nasty things, and poisonous, too."

"Well, there are some that are not good," Pippin says, where they sit out on the spread blanket, the whicker picnic basket before him. "But these ones here are sweet, and good. You have my word, my lord."

Faramir laughs, and smiles, and nods his head. "Might I have the first?"

"But of course," Pippin says, smiling in return. Merry cannot help but smile, and there seems that there is more strength and warmth in Pippin's smile, than even in the sun, and he is not so surprised to find that their hands have twined together, his and Eowyn's.

"My lady." He nods his head, courteous.

"Master Meriadoc," she returns, near ladylike.

"Come now," Faramir says. "We are all here friends."

"Yes, my lord - Faramir, that is."

And Merry sees: Pippin and Faramir, their bodies meeting, too, touching hands.