Ok, I do not own any of these characters because if I was, I would be making a lot more money that I do! Anyway, the song is from the extended version of The Fellowship of the Ring and the setting is from the book Return of the King so for those who haven’t read it, or don’t wanna know anything about it, don’t read it! : P
Characters: Merry and Pippin
Setting: The Houses of Healing in Minas Tirith

Read and Enjoy!
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Pippin hated himself.

He was sitting in a quiet room in the Houses of Healing. The only other living thing besides himself was his cousin Merry, but he might not stay in the lands of the living for much longer.

That was the fact that scared Pippin most.

It was only a day after Pip found his cousin wandering aimlessly on the battle field in front of the city Minas Tirith. It was a horrible battle and many were killed, so Pippin was overjoyed to find his cousin alive and whole. Merry was in bad shape then, but he got worse every second. The room the two were in was completely silent except for Meriadoc’s shallow and shuddering breaths. The only movements that were made by the older were the faint rise and fall of his chest.

So many why and what if questions were slowly eating Pippin’s sanity alive.

“Why did I go with Gandalf? Why didn’t I fight to stay?” Pippin thought. “Why didn’t I just stay with him!” he repeated angrily to himself. “If I never left, this might have never happened!”
“Or, what if something worse had happened, or something worse will happen! He could have been dead!” The words rung in his head, making him realize a new possibility.

“He could still die.” Pippin muttered miserably, looking at his cousin with fretful eyes.

The small, curly haired figure still sat in the chair next to Merry’s bed, refusing to let himself sleep. Despite the physical and mental exhaustion, Peregrin stood up stretching and pulled his chair closer to Merry’s bed. He picked up his cousin’s hand and held it in his two smaller ones. Pip held the normal hand, not the freezing cold one; not the one that helped slay the witch king. The blunt truth of holding that hand was just too much. The young hobbit needed to hold his cousin’s hand, just so he could prove to himself that Merry hadn’t left him completely and could still come back and be his normal self. As if the older hobbit was the same as always and consoling Pippin, like it had been before in the Shire.

“Merry?” Pippin whispered. He knew that he should have felt foolish about talking to someone who probably couldn’t hear him, but he didn’t. He just had to take the chance that Merry would hear him. Peregrin could possibly even bring him back. The Took new it was a fool’s hope, but the hope still existed no matter how unlikely. Without having him to talk to, for what felt like forever, was horrible for Pippin and just believing he was talking to Meriadoc as usual was an intense comfort.

“Merry.” he spoke slightly louder. “I don’t know if you can hear me, but I’m gonna keep talking anyway.”

He gripped at Merry’s hand a little tighter, but his was eerily still in the Took’s shaking grasp.

“I need to you stay here; I can’t go back to the Shire without you. It just won’t be the same.” The words were whispered, and they fighting with the tears welling up in the young hobbit’s throat and wide blue eyes. He couldn’t cry. He wouldn’t weep. He couldn’t loose hope! He hadn’t so far so what was the point of doing so now?

Peregrin was unsure if Merry could ever protect him as was before ever again, but he pushed that thought away with a chill shaking his body.

Merry still made no response, and stayed as still as ever. The pain would be Pippin’s own to endure.

Pip searched his mind for a happy moment between the two. Maybe Merry would be able to hear him, and maybe, just maybe be reminded of what he has to come back for. They had had so many together, how hard could it be? Harder than he imagined, because the Brandybuck’s cousin just kept getting all the angry and sad moments. Suddenly, though, a memory from a time not to long ago stuck out in his mind.

“Do you remember the night at the Green Dragon, a little before we went with Sam and Frodo on this adventure?” Peregrin felt a pang of guilt. Frodo and Samwise! He forgot about them and didn’t even know whether they were still alive. Pippin continued despite his thoughts.

“That song we sang, I still remember all the words…” Pippin mumbled, thinking back, reminiscing on the good times nearly lost forever. For the first time, he truly realized how much he missed the Shire.

“Hey ho to the bottle I go
to heal my heart and drown my woe.
Rain may fall and wind may blow
but there shall be… many miles to go.”

Pip felt the tears coming, but continued on.

“Sweet is the sound of the pouring rain,”

Pippin sang whilst his voice cracked and the tears rose back into his eyes. The image of Merry before his eyes began to get blurry and distorted with the tears.

“and the stream that rolls from hill to plain.
Better than rain or rippling brook,”

Peregrin felt the long unshed tears run down his face, but didn’t make an effort at stopping them.

“and a mug of beer inside this Took!”