They continued on their way until they entered the light-filled building, bursting with song and joy from relaxing hobbits.
"Blue!," Came the shout only a moment before a weight slammed into her side. "Merry, look who it is!"
"Yes, Pippin, I know. We called for her, remember?" responded the other hobbit as he got up from the table to greet the two newcomers. The smile he gave them was warm as he hugged Sam first before fighting for a spot to hug Blue as Pippin refused to yield.
"Pip," she said, tapping him with increasing pressure, "I need to breathe!"
"Oh!"
He retracted his limbs from her, smiling face still in front of hers. "We just haven't seen you in a while!"
"We saw her a week ago," Merry interjected from behind him.
"Well, yes, but it was your idea to come visit wasn't it?"
"That doesn't change time, Pippin,"
The younger hobbit ignored his cousin but moved to sit at the table regardless. His perpetual smile while in the Green Dragon was of course partly due to ale and partly due to spotting Merry hug Blue with a tight albeit brief squeeze. For being a 'regular rascal' as some of the older hobbits would tell them in good humor, Merry could sure be proper in his interactions with Blue. If they were all together the energy between them was light and filled with laughter but if it was just the two of them Merry would be…well.. as reserved as Merry could be. Quieter. More sincere. Maybe he was growing into a prim hobbit. Who knew.
However, his smile slips as soon as the four find themselves in their seats. He knows why they are here.
No one speaks for a minute.
The silence shocks Blue who expected her friends to spend the night singing and drinking with their kin. In the back of her mind she also notes their table is not their usual. This table is tucked in the back, away from open windows and any possible prying eyes. As they all now sit, Merry and Pippin on one side and Sam and Blue on the other, a feeling unusual for a hobbit settles in Blue's stomach. More than the nervousness one might feel as having too little tea at a meal with their kin, this feeling is denser.
Blue's eyes slip to meet Merry's in an effort to find comfort and answers but finds his head is turned downwards to his hands which laid clasped together on the table.
She is almost scared to speak but cannot bear the silence.
"Merry?"
"Bilbo has something."
Something could mean anything. A book. Silverware the Sackville-Bagginses want. But she knows it could not be something so trivial to steal the light from Merry, whose heart was not usually harrowed, and Pippin whose youth made him feel invisible even when compared to his friends only a few years older.
The blonde continued in unusual seriousness. So unusual that Sam almost believed it to be a joke until Merry tells a story.
"I happen to see Bilbo one day on the road when the Sackville-Bagginses start making their way. I could hear Lobelia screeching about Shire knows what but I'm not listening because I'm making my way off to somewhere to hide. Well, when I turn around in the bush Bilbo is still on the road like he can't even hear her.
They start coming around the corner and- and- Bilbo just disappears!"
"Like he jumped into a bush?" Asked Blue.
"Mister Merry are you sure you haven't had anything to drink?" Accused Sam.
"Please, Sam! I know what I saw! No mead or brew could ever make me forget it- or imagine it. What's more I'm staring at the spot Bilbo was in just a moment again, long enough for the S.B's to pass and there he is again! Standing in the same spot as if he had done nothing, but he had done something since he was laughing to himself. And then I saw it- a small glint from something gold he put in his pocket."
Not sure what to make of it both Sam and Blue simply look absentmindedly at the table. Blue's eyes then shift between Merry and Pippin, both quiet, both with eyes filled with trepidation, hoping they are believed.
"Well, what could make him disappear? Something the dwarves gave him?"
Then Merry jumps into more stories, theories. Pippin is the most silent anyone at that table had ever heard him. Merry remembered details that the others have never caught, behaviors of Bilbo and how they changed through their youth, his unnaturally youthful appearance for his age. His eyes caught so much that Blue was curious if he had details on everyone like this or just Bilbo.
By the end Merry had led them by the hand to a conclusion none of them wanted to voice aloud. Not here. It was too evil to be voiced in a peaceful, joyful place like their home so distant from the wickedness.
They all agree to watch Bilbo closer if they see him (though Merry added his doubts as the old hobbit was determined to be away from people that weren't Frodo until the party) and to pay more attention to his nephew as well.
They spend the last hour or so eating and drinking, attempting to cover up the soberness of the night and dissuade any eyes who would have been curious why four friends come into the bar and whispered beneath the loud layers of songs and cheers. Blue is unable to finish her mug.
As they all walk away from the Green Dragon she expected her and Sam to go off on their own and for Merry and Pippin to go their own way but instead Merry is beside her and states "I can walk you home, Blue."
"I'd be glad, Merry. I might not be the best conversationalist at the moment, I'm afraid." She doesn't want him to leave but decides hee deserves a fair warning that their walk may only be filled with the sounds of feet hitting soil and not voices.
"Well, I can't say I'd be glad about that but I can't blame you either."
"No, but it was necessary we knew. Thank you... for telling us."
"Of course! We have to stick together right?" He puts his thumbs beneath his suspenders, pulling on them as they walk. His smile seemed slightly strained but it still clears some of the fog from Blue's head. After a short walk in silence his voice fills the air again. "I would like to ask you something though?"
His tone isn't as serious as it was in the pub but by his fidgeting fingers Blue knows he's holding onto words he desperately wants to say. He may be good at keeping secrets but he couldn't keep everything from his friends, especially her.
"Ask away, Mister Meriadoc." She teases.
"Will you save a dance for me at Bilbo's party?"
At first Blue thinks it a ridiculous question. At any event in which there was dancing she, Merry, Sam, Frodo, and Pippin would always have a dance. Sometimes all of them together and other times breaking off into groups. For him to ask was odd. Still the cold air made her warming cheeks apparent as the wind brushed past them. The flutter that flew through her stomach and heart made her speak before she evaluated more.
"Uh, sure! My first one, or last one, or whenever you can. I don't mind really. Just don't step on my feet like you did that one time!"
The nervous pull of a smile was gone from Merry's face as a genuine grin stole its place. He bit his lip to try to stifle the surely foolish expression but found it pointless. He could not hide his joy. When he looked over at Blue he could see the same expression hidden slightly by her dark hair.
"We were kids! And you were pulling me along so fast I couldn't keep up! Lucky for you I am quite the graceful dancer now."
"Uh huh, I am sure that is what Pippin tells you."
Their bickering did not end until the door of Blue's home filled their view and passed through the small gate on the outside.
She gave him a small curtsey (which he laughed at) and a large smile as she walked backwards toward the door.
"You better practice before the party!" She whisper-shouted, not wanting to wake her family inside.
"I shall not disappoint, my lady!" He whisper-shouted back. "Have a good night, Blue"
"Good night!"
He didn't walk away until the door clicked closed. The walk back home was not filled with any thought of possible danger but instead of the blushing face of a young hobbit lady and what that blush could mean. Before he could come to a conclusion he felt absolutely sure of he was back to the door of where he and Pippin were staying, not wanting to have to make two separate journeys from Bucklebury to come back to Bilbo's party in a few days.
As he opened it and for the rest of the night the only words he heard from Pippin were, "Why are you smiling?"