Disclaimer – I wrote this story for Wattpad's LOTRFanFicRec's first contest called "Merry and Pippin Oneshot". The title is very self explanatory, but the one-shot needed to be under five-thousand words. This ideas also been stuck in my head for over nine years waiting to be written.

Underfoot

The day felt long. Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took sat of a Hobbit hole watching the clouds go by. Merry folded his arms behind the back of his head. "I'm bored."

"Bored? Me to." Pippin continued to look up at the cloudless sky. "We could get something from Farmer Maggot's place."

"We did that yesterday."

"Then what should we do."

"You two young Hobbits can wash dishes. That's what you can do." The two young Hobbit's felt their ears grabbed from behind by the owner of the Hobbit hole. They both let out a groan as the female Hobbit dragged them in front of the sink.

The two began to work. Pippin let out a sigh as he pulled out a pipe and opened up his pouch. The pipe slipped out of his hand into the dish water, and the young Hobbit let out a sigh as he reached in to grab the pipe. He placed the tip into his mouth. "How am I to enjoy my pipe-weed with my pipe wet like this?"

"We shouldn't be smoking our pipe-weed like this."

"It's not as if we've done anything wrong. At least not this time." A few bubbles lifted up to the ceiling and Pippin watched as they floated up. A random thought popped from the young Hobbit's mouth. "I wonder if there are any strange things going on among the Hobbits."

"What?"

"You know. Perhaps some ghost story which really isn't a ghost story. Something's missing."

"What's gotten into you?"

"I don't know." Pippin turned his head to see the Hobbit was gone. "Sounds more fun then this. And these bubbles are fun." The young hobbit dipped a cup into the soapy water and headed to the door. "We weren't doing this out of punishment."

"I think she was trying to keep us out of trouble." Merry shrugged his shoulders as he followed after Pippin and watched the bubbles coming out of the pipe Pippin had. Every so often Merry would dip the pipe down into the cup to replace the bubble mixture. The two went around asking questions of the villagers only to receive strange looks.

One finally listened to Pippin. "I know what you can look for. You can look for Underfoot."

"What does this Underfoot look like?" The young Hobbit asked while Merry turned his head to see a little dog run behind the older Hobbit. A Hobbit carrying flower pots almost tripped over the small dog.

"Small with black curly hair."

"Anything else you can tell us?"

The older Hobbit glared at Pippin before heading back into their Hobbit hole. Pippin sighed. "He didn't even give us the young Hobbit's name."

"Pippin..."

"We should find the child's name." Pippin headed off with Merry close on his heals. He stopped by a group of young Hobbits. "Do any of you know of a young Hobbit with the name of Underfoot?" The young Hobbit's blinked a couple of times at Pippin. Merry watched as a little black dog hurried across the path behind Pippin only to disappear into the growth as one of the young of the Hobbit's triped over the dog. The other young Hobbit's pointed and laughed

Pippin turned his head in confusion. "His hair's brown, so that can't be the Underfoot we're looking for.."

Merry sighed as the other young Hobbit's laughed. "Pippin..."

The young Took took off before Merry could say anything. "Where could that child be?"

A small black curly dog hurried out from the bushes in front of Pippin tipping him and causing the young Hobbit to drop his bubble pipe and his cup of soapy water. The cup smashed on the ground. The young Took scooped up the young dog. "Hey! Why do you need to be under foot little dog?"

"I think that's why his name is underfoot Pippin." Merry let out a sigh.