A/N: I wrote this last night, after I updated my blurty, because I was bored and no one was online. Well, it turned out to be a real turning point in the story, and I hope you all like it! Sorry for such a long wait, I have really bad writers' block and wasn't getting around to finishing my chapters. I promise that my other two chapter stories will be updated soon, so please be patient with me! This chapter was going to be extra long to make up for my lack of update, but it got a little too long, so I split it up and uploaded both of them right after each other. Enjoy!
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Merry stormed back into his room and threw himself onto the cot. He shoved his face onto his pillow and let the hot tears of anger spill from his face. He didn't notice Pippin, who had been sitting on Merry's bed, get down and go over to him. Pippin put a hand on Merry's arm, showing his own concern. When he was sad, Pervinca always held him close and told him everything would be all right. But who would do that for Merry? Merry was too busy crying his anger on his pillow to notice Pippin climb onto the cot. Pippin gently climbed over Merry, and wrapped his tiny arms around his cousin's larger frame, in an attempt at a hug. Merry noticed this time, and roughly shoved Pippin off of him.
"Leave me alone!" Merry said, jolting up from the cot to stand on the floor. "You've been enough trouble already, and now my parents think I'm terrible. If you weren't here, it would have been fine. Me and Frodo are fine by ourselves, we didn't need to tagging along to cause any trouble, and you have!"

"Why are you yelling at me?" Pippin cried, his first real outburst. He had enough Took blood in him that he was prone to fierce emotional fits, and this was one of those times. But Merry was half Took as well, and he was prone to the same sorts of things. Merry glared at him in anger.

"You're the one who turned my parents against me!" Merry exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at Pippin. Pippin climbed from the cot and stood as tall as he could, which, for that matter, wasn't very tall at all. "Maybe if you were a nicer hobbit, they'd like you!" Pippin retaliated. Merry stood, temporarily dumbfounded, but he took up his argument again.

"Things were just find until you came here. My father can't even stand to look at me now."

"It's not my fault!" Pippin said, his voice faltering a bit. "I just wanted to be your friend, but you won't let me! Everyone always says I'm too little to do this, too little to do that. There aren't any boys my age at Tuckborough, just my stupid sisters. I don't have any other boys to play with, and I wish I did." Pippin let out a couple of tiny sniffles. "I just wanted to be your friend. No one else seems to like me. Your Mama and Papa are nice to me because I'm family. I wanted someone to play with!" He ran over and took a handkerchief from his trunk and sat back on his bed, wiping away the newly falling tears from his face. Merry scoffed.

"If you're trying to get my pity, it won't work. I'm not that stupid." Merry said. He started to pace the room. He snuck glances at Pippin, trying to see if the smaller boy would cease his crying, but Pippin would not look at him, instead turned away and kept crying. Merry rolled his eyes and went back to sit on the cot. He started to wonder what had happened. How was it that when they were in the carriage, coming back to Buckland, Merry had seemed to find a sort of delightfulness holding Pippin in his arms, watching him sleep. Of course, Pippin knew nothing of it, having been asleep, but Merry had held him and rocked him, and thought he even loved him. Now they were fighting again. Merry then realised that he could relate to what Pippin was saying. There weren't many other children his age around Buckland, with the exception of his cousin Merimas and his sisters Mentha and Melilot. But they usually didn't come around as often. Sometimes Merry would have to play with his younger cousins, Doderic and Illberic, who were six and four, but lately they never came by anymore, preoccupied with their baby sister, Celandine. They weren't much fun away, taking after their father, who was quite lazy.

Merry stared at the floor. Maybe I was too hard on him. He thought. After all, he's just like me. I haven't got any cousins to play with all the time. Maybe he needs a friend as well. Maybe I should try and understand him. It could be good after all. I should at least give him a chance.

"Pippin, come here."

"Leave me alone!"

"Come here. Right now. I have to tell you something important."

"You said you hated me."

"I don't hate you. Please, just come here a minute. If you want to go back crying, you can. I just want to tell you something."

Pippin sniffled and wiped his reddened eyes. He climbed from the bed and awkwardly walked towards the cot, sitting a couple of inches away from Merry. "What?"

Merry took a deep breath. "I'm sorry I was so mean to you. I never really did give you a chance. You didn't do anything to me, and I just exploded on you. I'm sorry."

"I ate your mushrooms." Pippin pointed out. Merry shrugged it off.

"It's not that big of a deal. Mama can make more. I guess I was nervous that day, meeting someone new and all. I didn't want you to come, really. And my party was called off, so I wasn't in the best of moods."

"A party?" Pippin asked excitedly, scooting closer to Merry, eyes wide. Pippin had never been to a party before, save the small ones his sisters had at home before they had their real parties. Pippin had always been told he was too small to attend those. "When is it? Can I come?"

"You're the reason I can't have it," Merry said. "My parents said it would be too wild with a bunch of tweenagers running around. They thought you'd feel left out." Merry's expression showed that it seemed he didn't care, but his tone said different. Pippin lowered his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Merry. I've never been to a party before. I wanted to go. I'm always too little. No one ever lets me do anything."

Merry thought of giving Pippin a comforting hug, but decided against it. He wasn't sure how the smaller boy would react to it. There was a very stretched silence, which last perhaps five minutes. Suddenly, Merry was hit with a wonderful idea.

"Say, Pippin...I was thinking. My parents said that for my punishment I wasn't to go beyond the Old Forest, and that I had to stay in Buckland. I have a pony in the stables that runs horribly fast, and she won't mind giving us a ride through Buckland and the Old Forest in her cart. I'm sure my parents would want me to spend time with you. Do you want to go tomorrow?"

"I should like that...aaaaaaaAaaaaahhhhh....very much." Pippin said, letting out a yawn in the middle of his sentence. Merry laughed.

"Then get some sleep. We'll have a big today tomorrow. It'll be fun."

"My mama always tells me stories when I go to sleep. Will you tell me a story?"

"I don't know any."

"Please? I don't care if it's silly, I just want a story."

"I-I suppose I could..."

"Okay." Pippin nestled against Merry's chest and Merry put his arm around Pippin. He decided to tell the tale he knew best of all, about Bilbo and the 13 dwarves being caught in the forest by the three hungry trolls and Gandalf tricking the trolls into arguing until daybreak when they all turned to stone. When he finished, he looked down at Pippin. The child was sleeping, his little body rising and falling as he breathed to some soft rhythm. Merry gently picked Pippin up and put him on the bed instead of the cot. Then, Merry changed into his own nightclothes and climbed into the cot, lulled to sleep by Pippin's soft snores and the cool breeze that floated in through the open window.