And another chapter! oh... sorry for the sorta time jump... i needed it or muses wouldn't come back. I swear, back to original plot now! slightly modified, but back!

Pixie: sure... and we're going to believe you?

Ami: well, they didn't know the plot in the first place, so yeah. P

Of Parties and Courtiers

Pippin once again sat in the corner of the party, watching the people dance. Once again, there was no reason for him to be there...

"Why am I here again?" he murmured.

"Because you wanted to see Merry," Nimrodel whispered back to him, folding herself deeper into the shadows. "He is your best friend after all."

"Best friends are always around," Pippin countered. "I've seen just slightly more of him then I have of you in the last three years..."

"But I did leave a reminder," Nimrodel touched his shoulder. "I am truly sorry for leaving..."

"It's alright 'Ro'," Pippin smiled up at her. "I forgave you almost instintally..."

"Insitntly?" she giggled and ruffled his hair slightly. Pippin looked back out to the dancers, finding Merry dancing with one of his sisters that had been there for the past week. "What do you think of, young hobbit?"

"That I want to go play hide and seek with Merry," he sighed. "Show him how much better I am at it."

"Maybe another night..." Nimrodel took a step out of the shadows, side-stepping out of the way of the dancers. "But it is rather stuffy in here... I shall be outside if you need me."

"I'll be out in a few minutes," Pippin muttered. "I just want another sip of ale or so." Nimrodel nodded, noticing the package gripped tightly in his lap. She made no commit on it as she left. He fidgetting in his chair as a new song started, and soon enough someone had taken Nimrodel's place...

"Why aren't you dancing Pip?" Pippin looked up to see Frodo standing over him with kind eyes. "You look so lonely over here."

"No one to dance with," Pippin answered sullunly.

"I'll dance with you," Frodo laughed as Pippin blushed.

"But-"

"Trust me... Esmeralda Took nor anyone else in the room will mind," Frodo pulled Pippin to a stand. "Besides maybe Saradoc, but Aunt Esmeralda has but a silence on his tongue. Come now... dance and be merry young lad!" Frodo took his younger cousin to the dance floor, easily falling in step with the music. Pippin found it more difficult... every time he looked up Merry seemed to be closer...

"Frodo," Pippin glanced at the package still in his hand, now also being held by one Frodo Baggins. "What are we-"

"You dance well Pip!" Merry called over to him. He looked up, realising that him and Frodo were dancing almost side by side with Merry and Pearl.

"How 'bout a change in partners?" Frodo called over to him. Pippin's blue flamed to the very tips of his ears. A dance? With Merry? Before he could even speak he was pushed into Merry's arms, and Frodo was dancing away with Pearl...

"Merry," Pippin said pleasantly, a smile plastering itself to his face.

"Pip," Merry grinned back. "I saw you in the corner the entire time... why weren't you out dancing? If your sisters said no, you know me and Frodo would dance with you."

"Yeah," Pippin's blush started to reside as he finally relaxed to the moved of the dance. A question came to mind... "Merry, what's a courtier?"

"A courtier?" Merry laughed. "Why did you want to know?"

"Nimrodel wouldn't tell me," he explained. Merry paled slightly.

"Nimrodel?" he muttered. "Pippin, please tell me that you didn't... that you aren't..."

"Aren't going to what?" Pippin blinked innocently.

"Aren't going to do something as stupid as you did last time," Merry glared at him slightly, his voice stern. Pippin looked away.

"You mean when Nimrodel-"

"Nimrodel isn't real!" Merry's voice was a little too loud, causing several people to stare. He took a few deep breathes, and pulled Pippin closer to him as he backed up , leaving the stares behind. Pippin pulled away from him, glaring.

"At least tell me what a courtier is," Pippin said back to him. "And leave Nimrodel out of this."

"A courtier," Merry sighed, trying to get Pippin to dance again. He didn't comply. "Is someone who wants to spend their life with you... and if choosen, they will."

"Then I guess Nimrodel was wrong," Pippin said, stepping away from Merry. He pushed the package into his chest. "Because at the moment, I don't want to spend any time with you."

Turning around, he left.

Nimrodel sat bathed in star light when he came... who was he exactly? His name laid forgotten at the tip of her tongue, not that she wanted to remember it. He snuck up behind her, but she knew he was there... she could feel his presense in her blood.

"What do you want?" she mumbled to him. His hand ghosted over top of her shoulder. She flinched away and looked up at him. A mortal man cloaked in white, wearing a crown of silver.

"We call," he whispered. "We call, love, we call... it calls, he calls, war calls... come with me and prepare to fight."

"Leave," she glared at him. His grey eyes bored deeply in her soul, but he left, like mist drifting away on the wind, or sand losts in the tide...

"'Ro'?" she turned to look at Pippin, walking towards her. His green eyes shone dimly in the night, tears damping his lashes.

"What is wrong dear one?" Nimrodel asked, sitting soundlessly as he approached her. "What happened."

"Merry doesn't trust me," the tears started to fall freely... and with him cried the heavens, just as the day he had first met her. Nimrodel wrapped her arms around his shoulders, willing the rain not to touch him. "He doesn't believe that you're real... he thinks that I wanted to kill myself three years ago..."

"And that you want to again, now?" Pippin nodded. "Come now... let us travel back to your home, alright?" another nod, and he stood up. Nimrodel walked closely behind him, pushing him along the dirt trails. She noticed how he was coming much clearer... too clear. His feet barely made a mark on the ground. "Cheer up Pippin, the rain will end."

"I told Merry I didn't want to see him," he was holding back sobs; she rubbed his shoulder. "And I don't... I don't want to see someone who would blindly insult one of my own friends. I don't want to be his courtier..."

"You don't-"

"Want to spend my life with him?" Pippin asked. "Yes, I do... he's my best friend, of course I do. But how can I be with someone who thinks that I would try to kill myself?"

"I don't know," Nimrodel smiled. "People do the strangest things for the one they love..." she sighed, remembering the mortal man dressed in white.

"Love's icky..." Pippin scowled. "Pearl and Pimpernel are always reading sappy love books... I read one of them once and I wouldn't want to do THAT with any girl..."

"What do you feel for Merry?" the raft was just a little way's ahead. Pippin shrugged.

"Content, I guess..."

"Nothing else?" Nimrodel prodded. He shrugged again.

"I like being around him," he said truthfully. "He makes me happy, and its nice being happy... but he also makes me sad sometimes... like right now. I just want to go back to when we were younger and we would play tag and hide and seek all the time... it was fun."

"It made you happy," Nimrodel whispered. Pippin nodded. "The Great Smials are a long way off, and so is Hobbiton."

"It doesn't matter," Pippin shrugged. "My sisters won't care if I leave Buckland with them or not... as long as they pick me up on the road."

"Right," Nimrodel nodded, calling to them a light fog... she heard running behind them. "Come now... onto the raft. I will push us off." Pippin stepped onto the raft, sitting down cross legged with his back to Buckland. Nimrodel pushed them away from the shore, stepping onto the raft as well...

"Pippin!" a voice called out; Nimrodel looked into the fog to see the form of Meriadoc running to the river... "Pippin! Where are you!"

Pippin didn't answer that.

Damn it Merry! He scolded himself. You really blew it this time... he'll hate your guts now! He saw someone get onto the ferry, and the little raft started to move.

"Pippin! Pippin where are you!" Merry called out helplessly. "Pippin! Please, come back! Please!" He reached the edge of the river, and looked out at the ferry... Pippin was on it. It had to be Pippin... no one had the same head of auburn curls, at least, no one that he knew of. "Pippin! Pippin, I'm sorry! Please!" But Pippin wasn't listening, and soon enough, he was lost in the fog...

Merry looked down at the package in his hands. Shaky hands slowly untied the gold ribbon and ripped appart the green paper, only to see a strange contraption of buttons and stitches. He flattened it out in his hands, only to realise that it was a hankerchief, and that the buttons, tiny and gold, messily spelt out his name... and in the bottom corner 'From Pip'.

Pippin... Merry bit his lip. My Pip, where are you going?

At the top of the hill, one Everard took looked down at the form of Meriadoc Brandybuck. How was he to claim his prize, if his prize wanted to claim another? How was he to take over Brandyhall if he didn't marry Merry!

"Your mine, love," Everard cooed on the wind. "You just don't know it yet."