I wrote this when I was fourteen, and I've just decided to post it on this site. I've fixed it up a little bit but it's the same story.I really appreciate reviews!

I don't know why this is necessary, but obviously LOTR is not mine. None of the characters are.

Please review :-)

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Merry sat upon his horse calmly, watching the long fields and small towns drift by. Pippin occasionally brushed his hair out of his face, but all was silent. Sam and Frodo were still a ways ahead of them, probably talking together as usual, but Merry noticed Pippin's uncharacteristic silence.

"What's wrong with you, Pip?" He asked quietly, his tone more like an accusation.
"Nothing. Just tired." He replied. To accentuate this he stretched out his arms and supplied a fake yawn.

"I'm serious, Pippin. You've not said one word since we passed Rivendell. This whole way home and so little yet to go, I'd thought you'd be ecstatic."

"Just thinking..." He mumbled.

"There's a shocker." He said without thinking. But when he didn't get as much as a small smile for a reply, he became more interested.

"'Bout what?"

"You said... I mean... you're right, and all." After Merry's silence, Pippin continued. "I know you have Estella and Sam has Rosie, of course. But I don't know, Merry... will I ever love someone?"

Merry laughed inwardly at his cousin's dramatic phrase. He almost felt embarrassed for him. "Well, Pip... do you actually like anybody of the female sort?"
"I might." He replied as he petted the ear of his horse, possibly to ease the awkwardness of the conversation.

"Well I could say I know somebody who would like you too, young Peregrine Took."

"I'm not in the mood for jokes, Merry..." Pippin replied, but with a spite of hope in the words.

"You know who I am speaking of." Merry said. "Though granted half the hobbit lasses of the Shire would jump a million fires to dance with you." Pippin's cheeks flooded with red. His eyes sparked a bit more vibrantly green at the thought of any lass watching him from a party table.

'No, Pip.' He thought to himself. 'Wouldn't be more chance of a girl liking you than there is Sam turning down Rosie at the alter.'

"I heard of a girl taking a liking to you. Diamond, you know that one."

At the sound of this, Pippin almost jumped. 'Diamond? She always hated me... Then again, any girl who had experienced both a frog in her apron and coal shaving's on the chair to stain her dress both in the same day would take a wrong thought or two...'

"She's a pretty one, too, Pip..."

'He's just saying that to cheer you up. No. She couldn't. Could she? No- don't be stupid. Could she?'