The sound of Pippin's feet pounding through Brandy Hall was one of Merry's very favorite things to hear. He lay sprawled on the bed, listening as the feet skidded to a halt, backtracked, and scampered closer.

"Merry!"

Ah -- now there was his real very favorite sound: his names on the lips of Peregrin Took. He grinned and feigned sleep, lying quiet and still, as Pip knew perfectly well he was in here.

"Merry, open up, I've found the most wonderful--!"

Without waiting for the other hobbit to answer, Pippin threw open the door, a disarming grin on his face and a brightly-colored box in one hand. He took in Merry's ruse at once and carefully shut the door. Then with a gleeful yell he launched himself at the mattress. Merry's eyes shot open just as Pippin was mid-leap, and with a similar shriek he pounced and rolled Pippin onto his side for a merciless bout of tickling.

The sound of their mingled laughter rang throughout the hallways. They collapsed onto the bed, gasping and giggling. "You imp!" Merry grinned. "Since when did Tooks think they could fly?"

"About the same time Brandybucks thought they could pull off fooling a Took into thinking they were asleep, especially after such a waking-up as I gave you this morning!" he winked in reply. "But that's not the main issue. Look what I've found!"

He picked up the box where it had fallen during their tussle and handed it to Merry, who examined it with a thoroughly puzzled expression on his face. "Mr. Sketch Scented Water Color Markers? Pip, what is this?"

Pippin retrieved the package with a giggle and opened a flap on the side. A line of twelve thick tubes spilled onto the sheets. He picked up a magenta one, flicked off the cap, and inhaled deeply. A silly, blissful expression crossed his face. "Like raspberries, Merry -- try it!"

"Like raspberries? How can -- oh!" He stuck the open end up to his nose cautiously and suddenly felt the overpowering scent of the marker. He jerked it away in surprise and looked at his friend, astonished. A tinkling laugh escaped Pippin.

"You great goose! You've got it on your face! Here, let me..." He leaned forward and kissed Merry giddily. Merry couldn't helped but be caught up in the Took's enthusiasm, and he grinned through the kiss.

"I think I see what you're on about, Pip," he murmured, and reached for a marker of his own. His hand landed on a light blue: he held it up and bit his lower lip, the way he always did when he was plotting something. Pippin watched with interest. Merry uncapped the marker and sniffed gingerly. His eyes darted up to Pippin's face and he smiled.

"This might taste good right about... here!" He made a broad scrawl of color just below Pip's left ear.

"Ooh! That tickles!" he squealed, and pushed Merry away, giggling. He grabbed for the purple and drew a stripe down the bridge of Merry's nose. He had made a few haphazard streaks across his forehead before Merry retaliated with a swift stab of green across his cheek. Pippin squeaked, and Merry began to laugh. Pippin took the opportunity to tackle Merry and pin him, squirming happily, beneath a barrage of kisses. A light sparked in Merry's eyes.

"Hold on a moment..."

He reached upward and swiftly unbuttoned the top half of Pippin's line of buttons. Black marker in hand, he began sweeping it across Pip's bare chest, speaking as he did so. "Property... of... Meriadoc... Brandybuck!"

Pippin laughed gleefully. "Oi, now I get to do it too!" With almost frightening dexterity, he had stripped Merry of his shirt inside the space of ten seconds, and promptly sat down upon his stomach. He relieved him of the black marker and leaned forward, writing intently. He then sat back and triumphantly read, "This hobbit belongs to Peregrin Took!" After a moment's pause, he added a large smiley face beneath his proclamation. He snapped his head back and drew himself up to his full height, recapping the marker. "Well, Master Brandybuck, what next?"

Merry raised one eyebrow, which he was very good at. "I'll what next you, Peregrin Took...!" With a playful growl, he pitched forward, toppled Pip off his belly, and launched himself at the Took. For a few seconds, the two tumbled over each other, stabbing at one another with whichever marker was nearest at hand. Pippin emerged perched atop Merry's back, which was a field of scattered pink and orange. Nonchalantly, he placed his palm against Merry's skin. He felt the flesh tremble slightly beneath his touch. He smiled and stretched forward for the Blueberry pen, grazing the tip of Merry's ear with his lips as he passed."You bloody tease," the Brandybuck sighed. Pippin made no reply, slowly tracing the outline of his splayed fingers. He bent down thoughtfully and kissed the drawing -- Merry-flavored, with a hint of blueberries, yes. He chose another color, and repeated the pattern over and over, until a rainbow of hands wound their way from Merry's shoulder to the base of his back.

"Right. I can't take it anymore." Pippin was rolled onto the mattress, where he lay on his back blinking up into the glare of a Brandybuck smile. "My turn," he purred, and took Pippin's hands, which were rimmed all about the edges with scented ink. He examined them with a pointed deliberation, tasting them finger by finger, meditating upon each tip. A soft, shuddering sigh escaped the younger hobbit, who closed his eyes and let his head loll to the side. Slowly, one by one, he flexed each digit, hooking them on Merry's lower lip as he drew them out. He finally drew back and opened his palm: his cousin nuzzled it gently, murmuring. With a final caress, he drew away and reached for a new marker. With half-lidded eyes, he sat up and began improvising patterns of purple (Grape) over Merry's infinitely kissable shoulder, sprawling down over his arm and pooling in the hollow of his collarbone.

"Pippin?"

"Mmm?" he replied distractedly, intent on giving his lover a full-body tattoo of swirls, leaves, and stars.

Merry disentangled his legs from the sheets and wrapped them about Pippin's waist. A wide, languid grin slid over the Took's features. "Mmmmm," he chuckled, deep in his throat. Suddenly his breath hitched, and he stiffened all over. "Oh," he gasped. "Oh oh ohhh...."

The other hobbit slowed the movement of his hips just enough to channel some of the necessary concentration towards speech. He looked into Pippin's tea-saucer eyes and smiled. "Is that all right, then?" His gaze wandered downward. "Oh! Hey! Lookit this! If I do this--" He undulated his belly. "--The face moves!"

With a strangled cry lodged in his throat, Pippin launched himself at Merry's chest and pinned him against the mattress. "Let's -- do that -- again!" he moaned, urgently pressing himself against Merry. That warmth was rising in the pit of his stomach again. His kisses became more forceful, more wanton. "Merry," he whispered, savoring the taste of that name on his tongue. He reached out to compare it with the hobbit himself, who was more than willing to let him.

"Master Peregrin," he panted, unable to speak without the interruption of more unintelligible noise, "I do believe all your aaaahh! All your artistic endeavors may haaaa-ah-ah-ah! Mayhavegonetowaste!" He traced a weightless finger over Pippin's glistening chest: a smudged outline of purple had been printed onto the skin. Where his hand had touched, a smooth trace of faint lavender remained.

Pippin's mouth was suddenly everywhere at once: on Merry's eyelids, on his chin, on his lips, on his throat, by his ear, on his neck, down his shoulder, on his chest, down his stomach... "All?" he asked, his wicked grin fully enhanced by the fact that the lower half of his face had gone purple and blue, like a youngster who has just gorged himself on blackberries and knows it. His hands wandered.

"Oh! Oh, perhaps -- ooooohhhhmmmmm perhaps not!"

"Thought not," he mumbled to himself, pleased.

It was at this point both Merry and Pippin lost track of the conversation entirely, as it very quickly afterwards degenerated into shrieks of laughter and moans of pleasure, peppered with the other's name when they were collected enough to cry it out.

Afterwards, the two sat tangled in their sheets, soaking wet and streaming with color. Merry kissed the tip of Pippin's nose fondly. "Look at us. What a proper pair of savages we must look."

"Aye!" Pippin chirped. "Heathens, even!"

Merry chuckled and kissed him again. "I'll tell you who's a heathen..." he murmured into Pippin's neck. The Took laughed and licked away some of the licorice-flavored sweat on Merry's chest. He settled down into the Brandybuck's lap and surveyed the damage.

"Goodness me, we've made a right mess of these sheets, haven't we." He examined a piece of the linen, haphazardly dyed with a pattern of ink. He drew a reddish-pink splotch up to his nose and inhaled. His eyes fluttered and smiled dreamily. "Mmmm, Merry, like you rolled in raspberries."

Merry bit his lower lip thoughtfully. "You know what all this means, don't you..."

Pippin draped the sheet over his face and arched his eyebrows. "Whassat?" he smirked.

Merry leaned close and intoned, "We're going to have to take a bath before anyone chances to see us."

Pippin squealed and threw himself at his cousin again. "Right now, Merry love! Let's do it right now!"

Merry laughed from deep in his belly, which was one of Pippin's very favorite things to hear. "A fine plan, if I do say so myself!"

The laundry lady at Brandy Hall made no mention of the state of Master Merry's sheets, holding to their long-established deal, although the mystery of their inexplicable color was solved a few weeks later when, cleaning under his bed, she discovered twelve uncapped, completely dry felt-tipped markers.

~*~