Author's note: Thanks to Dream Plane for reading and reviewing!

Pippin was sitting on the floor, singing happily and using the pots and pans that Merry laid out for him as drums. Frodo and Merry were working in the kitchen, but he didn't pay much attention to what they were doing but, one thing he knew for sure was that they were probably making something nice. Whenever his mother and sisters were in the kitchen, they always made something good, and he was sure his cousins were doing the same thing.

Suddenly he heard Merry cry out. He looked up and saw Merry drop a knife on the cutting board he was using and stumble backwards. Merry was hurt.

Frodo was instantly by Merry's side and was inspecting the wound. Pippin's eyes kept straying from them and to the object that inflected harm, which was a knife.

A knife.

Pippin was familiar with these sharp objects. They had a bunch of them back at his home in Whitwell. His Mama always kept them away from him and never allowed him near them. He always saw her use them to make pretty shapes on fruits and furniture and she always used them when she was in the kitchen to make pleasant things. From what he gathered, he thought that knives were nice.

But it didn't seem that the knives in Bag end were nice, especially towards Merry.

He stood up and walked towards the counter, where Merry was cutting the apples. He wanted to get rid of the knife so that his cousin wouldn't get hurt again but, unfortunately, he was too short and couldn't reach the countertop to get it. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Merry and Frodo leave the kitchen. Wanting to go after them, he decided to deal with the knife later and toddled behind his cousins.

He reached the washroom and looked inside. Frodo was cleaning Merry's wound and from the looks of it, Merry wasn't enjoying it. He stood silently, watching, while sucking his thumb.

"There," he heard Frodo say, " all done."

Whenever he was hurt or sick, thought Pippin, his mother always kissed it better, and somehow it was.

"You have to kiss it bettaw."

Merry and Frodo looked up. He walked into the room and stood between the two of them.

"When I hurt, Mama always kisses it bettaw, and it not hurt mowe."

"Can you kiss it better for me, Pip?" Merry sat on his knees and extended his finger towards him. Without hesitation, Pippin kissed it a rather noisy kiss that produced a loud smack.

"Bettaw now, Mewy?"

"Yes Pippin, thank you. Now it doesn't hurt anymore."

Together they walked back into the kitchen, and that was when Pippin remembered. The knife. The knife that hurt Merry was still in the kitchen.

"Come pay wit me, Mewy." He said, as he tried to pull Merry out of the room.

"I would love to play with you, Pippin, but I have to help Frodo finish the pie first."

"No! Come pay wit me now. Please." He widened his eyes and looked at Merry with his best innocent face. Rarely would anyone deny him anything when he gave them that look.

"Go play with him, Merry," Frodo told his younger cousin, "the pie is almost done. I can finish it on my own."

Merry sighed and looked at Frodo and then back at Pippin, who was still giving him that look that sometimes made him feel like he was a very cruel hobbit. After looking at both his cousins several times, Merry sighed.

"Fine I will go play with him, just don't reduce Bag end to ashes while I am gone, Frodo."

"You better hope I don't do that. If Bag end is gone, there might not be any elvenses."

"Did you forget that the Gamgees are your neighbours? I don't think they will let us starve. But I dare say that Lobelia would be rather disappointed if Bag end was gone, but you and Bilbo were still alive."

Merry and Pippin raced each other several times around the garden, until they came upon a ferocious dragon. Sir Merry and Sir Pippin fought it bravely. Deciding that he wouldn't be able to defeat these two heroic knights, the dragon retreated to his lair. However, the two knights wouldn't let it stay here and torment the Shire and they were getting ready to ambush the creature.

"Hello, Sam."

Merry looked up. Samwise gamgee was coming back from the well, carrying a watering pot.

"Hello, Master Pippin. Hello, Master Merry."

"How are you doing?" Merry asked.

"I am doing just fine, thank you."

"What are you doing?" Pippin inquired.

"I am going to water some of the flowers, like my gaffer asked me to."

The three companions walked together while Sam was going through with his task. They were chattering happily or more accurately, Pippin was chattering happily and asking all sorts of questions.

"Why is the sky blue?"

"Do flowews talk?"

"Why flowews need watew?"

"Do flowews eat?"

Deciding to spare Sam and himself any further questioning, Merry said, "Come on, Pip, the dragon is still in its lair and we need to get it out." He saw Sam heave a sigh of relief.

"Oh, right. Can Sam help us? He use this." He said, pointing at the watering pot. "It is heavy."

"I am sorry, Master Pippin, but I have to finish watering the flowers."

"It is alright, Sam." Merry said, as he held Pippin's hand. "Maybe next time."

The two knights were standing victorious when they saw Bilbo and Paladin. Both of them were carrying baskets filled with food and coming up the hill.

"Papa! Bilbo!" Pippin shouted as he rushed to meet them and Merry was right behind him.

The two older hobbits found themselves on the receiving end of Pippin's enthusiastic hugs and tried to desperately keep their balance. Thankfully, Merry wasn't much of a hugger and helped Bilbo by taking one of the food baskets from him. Pippin took Bilbo's empty hand in his, and together the four hobbits continued their ascent.

As they entered Bag end, the delicious aroma of baking greeted them.

"Smells wonderful, my lad." Bilbo exclaimed as they entered the kitchen.

"And I am almost done," said Frodo, "the jam sandwiches are the only thing that is left, but the jar we used at breakfast seems to be empty, I wonder how that happened. Do you have any idea where all the jam went, Pippin?"

"It went poof." Answered the exultant Took, raising his hands in the air. Everyone could see the jam stain on his shirt.

"I will go get another one from the pantry and put these things away as well." Bilbo said, gesturing to the food baskets that they put on the table when they had come into the kitchen. He then picked them and walked out of the room.

"And you," said Paladin, as he lifted his son, "need to get your hands washed. My, what were you doing?"

"I fight a dwagon, Papa. It was huge." Pippin explained, as both of them went to the wash room.

"Guess it is just you and me now, Merry." Frodo said. "Come, help me set the table."

Pippin and Paladin came back to the kitchen and found Merry and Frodo had almost finished setting the table and a new jam jar was on the counter along with a loaf of bread. After he had put the small box, which was kept in a corner for the little hobbits to use during meals, on the chair and had helped Pippin to his seat, Paladin went to make the sandwiches. Pippin watched in alarm as his father picked up a butter knife, while Merry and Frodo left to see if they could help Bilbo.

But something else caught his attention. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something that glistened in the sunlight coming from the window. Curious, he turned in his seat to see what it was and to his utter shock it was another knife. It was bigger than the one his father was using and bigger than the one that hurt Merry.

Without thinking twice, Pippin picked up the offending object and hurriedly scrambled off his chair, dropping the box in the process.

Hearing the sudden noise, Paladin looked up. "Pippin!"

But the little hobbit was already out of the door. He didn't want anyone to get hurt, especially Merry.

After hiding the knife under one of the armchairs' cushion, Pippin walked back to the kitchen, thinking he had done a pretty good job.

Finally everyone was in the kitchen, sitting around the table and enjoying their food, while Pippin was eagerly telling them how he and Merry saved the Shire from a dragon.

The pleasant atmosphere in the kitchen was suddenly disturbed. In Bilbo's hand, Pippin saw another knife. He screamed and tried to grab it, but his arms weren't long enough. He saw Bilbo put the first pie piece on his plate, but surprisingly enough, food wasn't the most important thing right now. He could hear Merry saying things to calm him, but he didn't pay any attention to him.

"Perhaps he is tired." Merry said, raising his voice so that they could hear him. Paladin agreed with him, picked up his son and went out of the kitchen.

Pippin screamed again and tried to kick his father. The knives wanted to hurt them, how couldn't they see that?

His father began to sing one of his favourite nursery songs, about two hobbit brothers who found a feast in the woods. Lulled by the singing, Pippin fell asleep.

After his nap, Pippin was his usual self again, especially after he had eaten some pie. Maybe all what he really needed was some sleep, because he came up with a few things. He laughed as he imagined Pervinca's face after finding out that he could think. She always told him that he had a bird brain and Pearl said birds have small brains. Well, Pippin's brain was certainly not small.

He figured out that the knives wouldn't hurt Bilbo or Frodo as they both lived in Bag end and had them for ages. They wouldn't want to hurt his father either, his Papa had already used them before elvenses. That left Merry.

Merry was Pippin's favourite cousin. He never told him he was too young or too small to do something and always came up with things for them to do, and taught him quite a few useful things like how to sneak into the pantry to grab a snack. What Pippin found funny was that sometimes when he got into trouble all on his own, Merry would rebuke him like his parents. He even looked like his parents when he did that.

One of the few memories that Pippin's three year old mind remembered was the time Merry defended him.

Two of his Banks cousins visited them along with their father, planning to stay for a few days. One of them, Tombold Banks, had taken his favourite toy pony and raised it high above his head, out of Pippin's reach. He laughed maniaclly as he watched Pippin jumping up and down trying to get his toy back.

Merry must have heard the commotion, because next thing Pippin knew Tom was on the floor and Merry was giving him his pony back and comforting him.

He was going to protect Merry like Merry protected him.

With that thought in mind, he went to seek his older cousin, planning to stick by his side to make sure no harm came his way.

Luncheon was a pleasant meal, especially for Pippin. He didn't see any knives on the table and no one obliviously brought one. Perhaps he had scared them away.

He couldn't be more wrong.

As everyone sat down for afternoon tea, he saw it. There it was, beside the strawberry and cream cake, pretending that it was an innocent creature while it was actually a monster. It was even longer and seemed sharper than the others.

Pippin screamed once again and started pulling Merry away from the table. Merry, however, was trying to stop Pippin's futile attempts to rescue him, something which made Pippin try to pull him away even harder. He could hear everyone comforting him but, he paid them no heed.

"I will just take him and go eat outside, he probably won't settle down for another nap, seeing that he had one already." Paladin said.

He began to gather a few things for their spontaneous picnic, while Frodo cut them a few pieces of the cake, reassuring Pippin once more that the knives didn't want to hurt Frodo and distressing him with the fact that they wanted to hurt Merry. He doubled his efforts to get Merry away from the table.

After everything had been prepared, Paladin tried to pick up his son in order to go outside, but Pippin cried even harder when he tried to pull him away from Merry thus, it was decided that Merry would join them.

As they ate outside, Pad checked his Pippin's brow several times, to make sure he wasn't coming down with something. Pippin was usually cranky when he was feeling out of sorts. To his relief, Pippin's forehead didn't feel warm. He wondered what could have possibly happened to make him so upset.

Pippin stood gazing at the countertop in the kitchen. Bilbo and his father were in the smoke room, Frodo and Merry were in the parlour, while he was on a mission. It wasn't a mission to steal some jam or grab a few cookies, it was a mission to save Merry.

He grabbed a chair from the table and dragged to the countertop slowly, so that no one can hear its sound scraping against the floor. He then took the small box, placed it beside the chair and used it to climb up to the piece of furniture. Finally he was standing on the chair.

He scanned the countertop till his eyes fell on the knife block. He knew this was where hobbits stored their big knives because his Mama had one and he saw it several time in the kitchen back home. She always warned him not to touch it or the knives inside it lest he should hurt himself. But right now, Pippin needed to disregard his own safety.

He pulled the knife block towards him, then picked it and climbed down from the chair and placed it on the floor, then he climbed up again to check the drawers. Surprisingly enough, the first random drawer he opened contained Bag end's dinner knives and forks. It took Pippin several trips up and down the chair to get all the dinner knives on the floor.

He thought he was done and had all of Bag end's knives spread infront of him but maybe the knives were playing tricks on him. They had done it before. Just to make sure there weren't more of them, Pippin dragged his chair and box to every drawer in the kitchen, because if his mother didn't store knives in her knife block, she put them in the drawers and he thought that Bilbo and Frodo would do the same thing.

Satisfied there wasn't any more danger in the kitchen, he went back to the pile of knives on the floor, trying to think of something to do with them. Suddenly, an idea came to him.

Because Tombold was constantly tormenting him, he and Merry decided to prank him. They took one of his toys that he brought with him and Merry buried it under one of the apple trees on the farm, saying that no one would be able to find it and he was right. Tom couldn't find his toy anywhere and he would have left the farm without it, if Eglantine hadn't suspected that Merry and Pippin had taken it. Pippin decided that he would bury the knives like they buried the toy, that way no one would find the knives, and they wouldn't be able to hurt Merry anymore as they won't be able to get out of the dirt, just like Tombold's toy.

It took him several trips to transport all the knives and place them in the entrance hall, directly infront of the door. Then he took his small box from the kitchen and walked to the entrance hall barely making a sound, as Merry told him if he wanted to sneak outside, he should do it quietly, in order not to be stopped by the adults, if they heard him. The parlour and the smoke room were very close to the entrance hall, so Pippin had to be very-very quiet.

He managed to open the door and hid the box in a corner, then he took all the knives outside and closed it.

But in his haste, he didn't close it properly leaving it a bit open, though no one would notice unless they looked closely or felt a slight breeze coming from the open door.

Pippin dug and dug with his hands in one of the flower beds. During his enthusiastic digging he accidentally knocked over the knife block and all its contents toppled to the ground.

Feeling satisfied with his hole, Pippin began to put the knives inside, without even bothering to put them back in the knife block. He picked one of the sharp knives by its cutting edge and placed it inside the gap he had made.

He was almost done, when he noticed that a strange red liquid covered some of the vibrant green grass. He wondered where it came from.

He looked at his left hand and saw that it was completely covered in the same liquid, trickling down his hand and onto the ground.

He wiped his hand on his shirt and looked at it again. There was a deep gash in his palm, bleeding profusely.

As his initial shock began to subside, it was replaced by pain. Pippin's chin and lower lip quivered and he whimpered. His whimpering turned into crying.

TBC*