Just a drabble for Hobbit Day! ...Well, it was supposed to be but it got longer, like always, and I was too lazy to count the words :)
Frodo knew he would have to admit the terrible truth about what happened on Orodruin to his cousins, who had stuck by him so faithfully as long as they could.
So when he recounted the tale of his adventures, he admitted his failure in a barely audible voice, hardly daring to look at Merry and Pippin, whose innocence he had ruined... whom he had nearly killed.
When he had finished, there was a long silence. "Go on," Frodo said glumly. "Just say it."
He did not expect Pippin to burst out gleefully, "Frodo, you dodo!"
"Have you been waiting your whole life to get a chance to say that, Pip?" Merry asked incredulously.
Pippin nodded eagerly, eyes alight. "'Dodo Frodo"- it's so much fun to say! But I was waiting for just the right moment, and now this is it! But I love you anyway, Dodo Frodo, and nothing that happened was your fault," he admitted, his voice growing slightly more serious... but then he finished, "just like your silly name isn't your fault!"
Frodo, Sam, and Merry just stared at him.
"It's true!" Pippin protested. "Just think about it- "Frodo" is such a weird name! Frodo Baggins, your name is weird and you are not to blame for giving in to the Ring!" he finished triumphantly.
Frodo looked at Pippin for a long moment and then hugged him- his younger, taller cousin who had grown up so much- tightly, never wanting to let go.
"You know," he choked out through a tight throat, "'Pippin" is an even sillier name."
"No it's not!" Pippin protested.
"It's all right," Frodo soothed. "The four of us, Frodo, Samwise, Merry, and Pippin- the four hobbits with the weird names who saved the world."
A/N: No, Frodo doesn't fully believe it's not his fault yet. But he thinks it's not entirely his fault, and I never really found any evidence that he ever thought it was. Hence the last sentence, because he (rightly) thinks that Sam did much more than him.