I woke up suddenly. The clock read exactly midnight. Nightmare again.

I lit a candle and made my way to the kitchen, where I made some tea. I took it back to my bedchamber where I got out my sketchbook and some charcoal. Sipping the tea, I began to draw Pippin. I'd made so many drawings of my dear cousin, yet could not get my fill of drawing him.

I stared out of the black window in a moment of daydreaming. Suddenly, a figure appeared from the dark and began pounding on the window. It was Pippin! His eyes were glazed and unseeing, and he was breathing heavily. Sweat was pouring off him. His hair was tangled and his shirt torn and half off. This I observed as I ran across the room to open the window. He stared at me with haunted eyes, then turned to look behind him.

"Merry..." he panted. "Help me..." He reached out his hand. I took it, and made to pull him in through the window, but his vision wandered again and his hand was slippery and boneless. He fell onto the ground under my window, unconscious with terror. And whatever it was that was chasing him wasn't getting any farther away.

"PIPPIN!"

I was suddenly lying on soft grass, blinking in the bright afternoon daylight streaming through trees overhead.

"Yes, Merry?"

I scrambled onto my elbows, still gasping for breath, and there next to me sat my dear Pip.

"Nothing. Just a dream."

He grinned cheekily. "A good dream, by the sound of it."

I ignored his comment. "Hardly! It was a nightmare. Never let me fall asleep in the forest again."

"Forgive me, O Meriadoc the Magnificent. I could not bring myself to wake you."

"You needn't get all stuffy about it. It really scared me. I'm not sure why."

He grinned again. "You weenie."

"I beg your pardon!"

"Afraid of a dream you had. One would think you were a little lad of 7."

"I don't believe I gave you permission, young cousin, to tell me I'm acting like a child."

"I took it anyway."

I didn't mind at all really, but any excuse to tickle him...

"Oi! Stop! No, no!" He wriggled all around, laughing almost as much as I. We wrestled, and he finally came up sitting on me. No, I can't stand it...

"Ha! Now I'm going to tickle you." That he did, and I was well repaid for taking the liberty of doing so to him.

When he jammed his finger into my bellybutton, it was too much. I gasped. He had no idea what he was doing to me- or did he? "Good grief, Pip, stop! Stop it before I do something drastic."

But he just laughed his beautiful laugh and kept right on going. "How many drastic things can you do with me sitting right on top of you?"

He was enjoying driving me mad. "I mean it, Pippin. I can think of a few."

Noticing that I'd stopped giggling, though not stopped my tortured squirming, he took it as an incentive to tickle me more. I couldn't stand it any longer; I took his head between my hands and brought him down and kissed him.

His surprise was expected. Not three seconds after his lips touched mine he broke away, sputtering.

I grinned. "Like that!"

He touched his mouth, seemingly to make sure it was still there. "But... but you... are you supposed to do that?"

"No more than you're supposed to tickle me like that."

"Merry?"

"What?"

"I love you. Always have."

"Oh good. I love you too, Pip."

I brought him back for another kiss, and this time, he did not pull away.