A/N: Pippin and Diamond story. Yay! Thanks for reading. I have been thinking of writing a hobbit romance for a while now. PG-13 for later chapters.

Unrequited Feelings

Chapter 1

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S.R. 1425 January 1st

"Come!" Merry nudged Pippin through the crowd of hobbits towards a platform where three hobbit lasses were singing a playful jig in perfect harmony.

Pippin recognized the one with bright blue eyes immediately. It was Estella Bolger, the lass Merry had sought after for years. He always wondered why Merry had never told her of his feelings. It was all he complained about on the quest. Pippin was starting to get the urge to strangle his cousin because of his stubbornness.

Pippin snuck a glance at Merry. He stared at Estella longingly. Pippin smiled and shook his head before he looked back up at the platform to identify the other two lasses.

The one with red hair was definitely Rosie Cotton, Sam's beautiful wife.

Yet the third lass, he did not recognize. She had dark brown curls and fair skin. "Merry, do you recognize the lass with dark brown hair?" He elbowed his friend.

"Huh?" Merry asked, his eyes still on the beautiful Estella.

"Merry, stop drooling over Stella for a second." Pippin said.

Merry tore his eyes away from Estella and looked his friend in the face.

"I am not fawning over Estella Bolger." Merry said, trying harder to convince himself than anyone else.

"The lass with dark brown hair." Pippin repeated.

Merry looked up at the platform again and looked at the hobbit. She did seem the least bit familiar to him. "I have never seen her before, yet I seem to remember her."

Pippin looked up as the jig ended and the three lasses bowed together in response to the thunderous applause.

"What a wonderful way to celebrate the New Year!" Sam Gamgee came up behind them with ale in hand. He had obviously had one too many.

"Right you are, Sam." Pippin clapped his friend on the back.

Rosie rushed past Pippin and leapt into Sam's arms. "You were wonderful!" Sam said as he hugged her tightly.

Estella and the dark haired lass stood awkwardly in front of Merry and Pippin. Estella had not seen them since they left for the quest to save Middle Earth. She was not sure how to react to seeing them after such a long time. She had only told Rosie and her friend, but she was in love with Merry ever since she was a child, despite the many times he and Pippin had ridiculed and annoyed her for years and years.

"Hello Estella." Merry said awkwardly.

"It's nice to have you three back." Estella smiled.

The lass to her left clasped her hands at her back and looked down at the floor.

Pippin sensed the discomfort between them and tried striking up a conversation. "I do not believe I have had the pleasure of meeting your friend."

"Oh!" Estella said suddenly taking her eyes off Merry. "Forgive me Pip, Merry. I'm sure you already know her, this is Diamond."

Diamond slowly raised her eyes to meet the two gentle hobbits' faces. "Merry? Pippin?" She asked, her smile turning into a scowl.

"Diamond?" They both asked in disbelief.

"Is it really you?" Pippin asked, unable to believe his eyes. This was not the small scrawny freckled thing he used to taunt until tears came gushing out of her eyes.

"It's very nice to see you both again." She said through gritted teeth as the two hobbits kissed her hand in turn. She could clearly see why Estella was so in love with Merry Brandybuck. He had a breezy aura and seemed very comfortable with himself as he had been when they were younger.

Pippin on the other hand, seemed a bit too comfortable with himself. He had always been that way, and she did not like the way he looked at her or kissed her hand.

She was so accustomed to him throwing grapes at her, spilling juice over her head, and pushing her into lakes as he had done so many times in their childhood. Yet no matter how old he and his cousin got, they were always still up for a good prank or laugh.

He seemed to be taking in her new found beauty and couldn't believe that the beauty that stared him in the face was the once young lass that he had known ten years ago.

"Diamond, where have you been in the last ten years?" Merry asked.

"We could ask you the same." Estella said, folding her arms across her chest. "It's a good thing you weren't killed on that quest."

"And a pity." Diamond muttered.

"Sorry?" Pippin asked with a raised eyebrow.

Merry shuffled his feet nervously. He sensed a row coming on.

"I said it was a pity you weren't killed on that quest." Diamond shot back, staring him full on in the face.

"How dare you!" Pippin started up angrily.

"How dare me?" Diamond asked.

"Yes, how dare you!" Pippin yelled. "You are still the same as ever! I would have thought you might have changed by now!"

"I wouldn't talk!" She retorted dangerously. "You are the one who needs a bit of changing!"

"No…you do!" Pippin replied lamely.

"Change from what?" Diamond said as her fury built up.

"You were always so sour!" Pippin replied.

"Maybe I could have been more cheerful when I was younger if you had not ruined my life!" Diamond said angrily.

"Ruined your life?!" Pippin asked. "I could have done a lot more to ruin your life if you wanted! You just always ran off in tears and I didn't have the heart to pester you more than I already had!"

"Right!" Diamond yelled. "Because you have no heart at all!"

Pippin was about to retort, but Merry beat him to it.

"Look!" Merry pointed in the opposite direction awkwardly in attempt to get Pippin away from the lass. "Um…ah…Ale!"

Estella snorted. "Nice job."

Merry took hold of his cousin's arm and dragged him away although they were both hurtling insults at each other from afar.

"Can you believe the nerve?!" Pippin asked angrily as he poured himself some ale.

Merry sniggered in reply. His cousin was impossible.

Pippin slunk against the barrel, defeated. He looked up at Merry with pitiable eyes. "I am still in love with her, aren't I?"

Merry shook his head. "Then why do you insist on treating her like vermin?"

"I do not treat her like vermin." Pippin stated.

"Yes you do." Merry said automatically.

"Well never mind that." Pippin replied stubbornly.

"I don't know how she put up with you." Merry took a swig of ale and set his mug down.

"What do you mean?" Pippin asked.

"You know exactly what I mean." Merry turned to his cousin. "Do not tell me you do not remember all of the horrible things you did to her so many years ago."

"I would think that she could have forgiven me by now." Pippin mumbled.

"I know as well as you do that you have done it all out of love for her." Merry smiled. "You just need to let her know that."

"Never." Pippin said.

"And why not?" Merry asked curiously.

"She would surely refuse me." Pippin said mournfully. "You know that."

"Do I?" Merry asked seriously.

Pippin looked happy for about half a second, but then turned back to his original state. "Yes you do, and even if I tried to tell her, I could not."

"Why couldn't you?" Merry asked.

"I do not know how." Pippin replied. "The hatred I have bestowed upon her in the past years is the only way I know how to express my feelings."

Ah yes. That would be a problem.

Merry looked over at Diamond sitting with Rosie at a small table. They seemed to be talking in hushed voices and Diamond looked upon the verge of tears.

"Oh, why must he torment me so?" Diamond asked no one in particular.

"There, there." Rosie comforted the lass as best she could. Though she could not help thinking how happy she was because her one and only had come back to her. She needed a way to make Diamond as happy as she felt.

"You know it is all in pun." Rosie said.

"Yes I do." Diamond moaned. "But what is worst is that I cannot help but love him."

Rosie smiled. Diamond had not admitted that to anyone but her and Estella about her great love for the Took. She made great show of her hatred for him to cover it up. And she did it well.

"I have tried time after time to forget about him, Rosie, but I cannot." Diamond wiped a tear away with the back of her hand hastily. "He is so impossible."

Rosie looked Diamond in the face seriously. "Diamond, how long have you loved him?"

Diamond looked up, tears brimming her lower eyelids. "I—I hardly know. It came along so gradually when I was younger."

Rosie looked down for a moment.

"Oh please, do not make yourself uncomfortable because of my tears!" Diamond pleaded. "You should be happy for you are expecting a child, and that is the one thing that would make any lass sublimely happy!"

Rosie smiled at her friend. Yes, she was expecting her third child, three months into her pregnancy. "I am not uncomfortable dear." She pat Diamond's arm with a smile. "I just wish there was something I could do to help you and Pippin."

Diamond shook her head fiercely. "Thank you, but there is nothing anyone could do for us right now, or ever, Rosie." She smiled, trying to cover up the hurt she felt from her sentence. "Pippin will never love me, and I must go on to be a lone seamstress until I grow old."

"Do not say such things!" Rosie scolded her friend.

"I cannot help it." Diamond blinked back the rest of her tears. "He clearly shows more hatred for me than any other hobbit in Middle Earth."

"You show hatred for him, yet you love him with all of your heart!" Rosie said. "Am I correct?"

Diamond looked up at her for a second. As soon as the eagerness came, it went away. "It is impossible."

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A/N: Hope you liked it! I'll try and update as quickly as I can. Please tell me what you think because I have been slaving away to find a good plot for months. Thanks to those of you who review!

-bertiebottsgeorge