A/N Well, I'm not one for disclaimers of author's notes, but thanks sooo much to my reviewers...it made me feel sooooo awesome!! Each one!! Shamon- is this better? This is not only my first m/p, it's my first slash, my first lotr, and my first fanfic all together. So I'm new at this :D Anymore helpful hints would be really really great! Thank you all sooo much! I hope you enjoy!!

As the next few weeks past, nobody noticed a difference. Merry continued his visits to the Great Smials. Pippin found that he was the only one who saw Merry talking overly confident to the girls, complimenting them and asking them to dance. Pippin was the only one who noticed the way he blew kisses to them and made them blush. It wasn't an easy thing to admit, but he himself was jealous. He told himself over and over to push all thoughts of that night out of his mind, only to find that the thoughts would invade again, probing deeper into his heart and soul, and making his head ache with all the possibilities.

But that's just what they were- possibilities. Pippin could now clearly see that out of all the times they had spent together, that one "drunken" night was the last one on Merry's mind. No one noticed the chance in Pippin. No one except Merry.

"Pippin, come help me finish these," Merry mumbled lazily. He was lying on his back, underneath the shade of a great oak on a hill overlooking the Smials. It had been a beautiful and prosperous day; they ran, hid, plundered, and all sorts of that manner, as they had always done during Merry's visits. The bright afternoon was slowly fading into night; they both watched the beautiful sunset from that hill, Merry on his back, and Pippin sitting next to him, pulling blades of grass from the ground absentmindedly.

"Sorry, do what?" Pippin asked, glancing over at Merry.

"I said, help me finish these. These berries? The ones we just picked?"

"Oh...right," Pippin said, grabbing a handful of berries and popping one into his mouth. Merry chewed thoughtfully, looking from Pippin to the sun, and then back to Pippin. He finally spoke, softly, and yet reassuring, in the way Merry always spoke to Pippin when he knew his younger cousin was frightened.

"Pip...are you ok?"

"I'm fine," Pip answered hastily, shoving another berry in his mouth.

"You just haven't seemed yourself at all today. Or for the past few weeks, really. Ever since..." Merry trailed off, thinking it wiser not to continue. Pippin said nothing in reply to the comment, and Merry stared off into the sunset, trying to think of something to say.

"Look, Pip. I know that something's wrong. You don't have to tell me...but I want to know. I want you to be happy, and it just seems like you're so...unhappy," Merry finished, trying not to sound like an adult trying to get a child to confess to a crime they had committed.

"I don't know Merry. I just don't feel too well."

"It's about that night. Isn't it. Just admit it. We can talk about it. Make it right."

Pippin looked over at him, his face now welling up with something between anger, fear, and sadness.

"What do you mean? There's nothing to talk about it. Nothing to make right. You said so yourself, didn't you," Pippin blurted out angrily. "But I guess you're used to it, as you go off drinking with the girls all the time. Just last night, in fact, I saw you and-"

"Wait a minute, Pip," Merry said, cutting him off. "What are you talking about? I promise to you that there's no other hobbit that I would ever even consider...well, you know. It's you that-" Merry stopped short, realizing what he had done.

"You wouldn't consider anyone else? It's me? What's me? What do I do, Merry?"

Merry turned away from Pippin.

"Pippin, I have something to tell you. I don't know what you'll think, but it seems I've already gotten my foot stuck in the door jam, and there's no way of getting out of this one."

"Go ahead," Pippin said quietly. His heart was beating so loud and fast that he was surprised that Merry couldn't actually hear it.

"I wasn't drunk that night."

"What?" Pippin said, astonished.

"I wasn't drunk."

"Well, if you weren't drunk then nothing could really happen, and..." Pippin stopped, realizing what Merry was saying. "You weren't. You hadn't had anything to drink all night," Pip mumbled. Merry nodded, and then turned back around to face him.

"I'm sorry, Pip, and I don't know why I did it, but I had to. It was too hard seeing you grow up, and have the girls interested and talking about you all the time, and wanting you, and I just...I guess I was just jealous. I wanted you all for myself." Merry stopped talking to let it sink in. He waited, and when Pippin said nothing, he continued. "I guess I should probably go, then. I am leaving tomorrow, I want to go ahead and get packed and ready." He cupped Pippin's face in his hands. "I'm sorry Pip." He gave Pippin a quick kiss on the forehead, and he stood up and began briskly walking down the hill and back to the Smials. Pippin saw him walk away like that for the second time. He put his face in his hands and cried, the sun sinking lower and lower all the while. The night time bells began to chime.