Chapter Fourteen: Musings and Memories
A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. It was Merry, now clean and in his nightclothes. "Frodo? Are you asleep?"
"Not even close," said Frodo, opening his eyes.
"Come in my room, I want to talk to you."
Frodo followed Merry into the latter's bedroom, which was a bit smaller than his. "So," said Merry, lying down on the bed and grinning broadly, "it seems our Samwise is quite smitten with you."
"Meriadoc Brandybuck, you've been eavesdropping!"
"Of course I have," said Merry, patting the spot on the bed next to him. "My dear old hobbit, haven't you learned by now that it's impossible to keep secrets from me?"
"If I hadn't before, than I certainly have now," Frodo said. "But you're wrong, unfortunately."
"Oh, come now, Frodo!"
"He isn't, Merry," said Frodo, and tears began to form in his eyes. "If he was, he'd call me by my first name. I asked him to."
"And he wouldn't?"
"He said it would feel unnatural."
Merry grimaced. "Maybe he just needs time to get used to the idea." He looked directly at Frodo. "You're crying!"
"Only a bit," said Frodo, wiping his eyes.
Merry laid his hand on Frodo's shoulder. "Do you remember back when you lived in Brandy Hall and I used to have nightmares?"
"You woke the whole place up with your screaming," said Frodo, smiling a little as he remembered. "I was the only one who could convince you that everything was all right." He lay down next to Merry.
"I was so angry at Bilbo when I heard that he was adopting you," said Merry, his eyes staring off into space. "My mother says I scowled for a week straight."
"It was years before you'd come and visit me at Bag End," said Frodo. "I remember waking up one morning to Bilbo shaking me awake. 'You've got company in the parlor,' he said.
"And then I came out of my room and I saw you, sitting on one of Bilbo's overstuffed armchairs, your little feet kicking above the floor and a bundle on your lap. 'Frodo!' you cried. Oh, you were so excited! 'Frodo, look at my new cousin!'"
"I remember," said Merry, a smile twitching on the edge of his lips.
"You couldn't keep still about him! 'His name is Peregrin,' you told me. 'Peregrin Took, but Aunt Eglantine calls him Pippin. Look how little he is! Was I that little, Frodo?' I told you that you were a bit bigger. You were so ecstatic over Pippin that you forgot to be angry at Bilbo."
"He was?" said a voice from the door.
"Hello, Pippin," said Merry, looking a bit sheepish.
Pippin lay down on the bed next to Merry. "Some of my earliest memories are of Merry dragging me in and out of Bag End," he said. "I remember sitting on his lap, listening to Bilbo's stories."
Merry yawned. "I always loved the cold nights when we stayed over, sitting up and drinking tea. And then at night we three would huddle together for warmth in Frodo's bed and whisper until Bilbo would insist we go to sleep…"
"Things were so much simpler then," said Frodo.