"Pippin! Slow down!"

You stumbled but giggled as you clutched fist fulls of your thick skirts up and out of the way of your feet, Pippin's laughter reaching your ears and making you smile wider. 

"We are almost there!" He called back to you. 

You shook your head and ran faster, your smile never leaving your lips. But that smile disappeared the moment you crested the hill Pippin had soundly beat you to the top of. Your jaw went slack as the vast view of Hobbiton and it's cute round Hobbits just milling about as if there were no cares in the world. Not that there ever were any for a Hobbit save for his food and the nightly get-togethers and parties. 

But this...this was amazing. You dropped your skirts and placed a hand on your beating heart, your eyes not wide enough to soak all of it in. You could feel Pippin snickering beside you, his signature smirk appearing in your mind's eye. You reached out and very quickly and very harshly slapped the Hobbit's arm making him cry out in obviously feigned pain. 

"Oi! No need to go around mutilating the messenger."

You tore your gaze from the landscape and rolled your eyes, crossing your arms and lifting your chin. 

"So you think I should be thanking you instead of cursing your name up one hill and down another?"

Pippin lifted his chin too, but with a snarky expression. "Precisely."

You took a few steps, walking around Pippin, slowly, nodding in the direction of your Hobbit hole. "And so, therefore, you feel this view should be quite the reconciliation gift for frightening my chickens to mess up my pin, disrupt the pigs, and stomp through my garden?"

Pippen's cheeks colored and you smirked with satisfaction. But it didn't last long as the young Took closed his eyes briefly and took a deep breath, his eyes opening up and meeting your (e/c) ones. 

"One can forget all there troubles here. Including scared, flightless birds, bothered, walking pork, and a few wrinkly leaves."

You couldn't help but smile, returning your gaze to the landscape before you. "Hmm, yes I suppose one could." Suddenly your stomach growled. "But it would be loads better if there were something edible up here."

Pippen lifted a finger, his eyes wide. "Why good think I happened to scout the area and found us a nice hidden stash of food."

You raised a brow. "Peregrin Took have you finally coursed me into having a picnic with you?"

Pippin didn't answer but the mischief and laughter in his eyes all but screamed an answer. You rolled your eyes and swatted his arm. 

"Well don't just stand there, bring out the food! It's meant for eating not to lay around to rot."

Pippin scurried off behind a stash of boulders leaving you to collect your breathing and still your heart. You weren't sure when it started but all of a sudden even just seeing the mischevious Hobbit made you giddy. Thankfully your stomach was stronger than your heart because the moment Pippen called you over you forgot all about your racing heart and plopped down next to him on a soft blanket filled with various plates full of food.

"Pip, who did you take this from?"

Pippin perfectly executed the look of being offended but you knew full well that he found himself proudly clever. He placed a hand on his chest and clicked his tongue.

"Tsk, tsk, I would never take this from anyone. How could you ever think something like that? I made everything you see." He swept his hands like a proud mother.

You rolled your eyes and picked up a warm loaf of bread, waving it after taking a hearty bite. "Then what was this made with?" You mumbled with a full mouth. 

Pippen raised a brow and leaned in close, leaning on a hand as he took the bread out of your hand and placed it on a plate. 

"1-1/2 cups water at about70° to 80°, 1/2 cup honey, 1-1/2 teaspoons salt, 2 cups bread flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, 3/4 cup rye flour, 3/4 cup cornmeal, 2-1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast." He smiled wide as he sliced a piece for you and one for him, buttering it as you stared at him in awe. He handed you a slice, his grin not faltering. "I only had to steal some honey from Sam but I don't think he will mind."

You took your slice and slowly ate it as you stared at your closest friend. "Where is Pippin and what have you done with him."

The Hobbit laughed, his nose crinkling and his eyes bright. "Somewhere lost in here trying to not make a fool of himself in front of a pretty girl."

You felt your cheeks blush but ignored it by stuffing your face with the food around you, rolling your eyes. "Food is food I suppose."

The two of you dug in, laughing and talking as you filled your grumbling tummies. After a while you leaned back on your hands and looked up at the setting sun, smiling into its warmth and closing your eyes with peace. 

"Ahhhh," you sighed, "I have never felt so happy in all my life."

Pippen blinked. "Really? Even happier than the moment when your garden won biggest pumpkin?"

You kept your eyes closed and nodded, smirking. 

"Or when you learned you were an aunt?"

You shrugged a shoulder. 

"Or when you learned I was going to be your best friend forever?"

You peeked an eye open and looked at him with hard yet humorous (e/c) stare. "That least of all."

Pippin gasped and threw a small bundle of grapes at your face. You squealed and shielded yourself from other edible projectiles with a plate. You then took what landed by you to throw back at him, resulting in an all-out war. The two of you laughed as you chased each other around trees and behind bushes, across pastures and through rivers. 

You dashed behind a tree to catch your breath, thoroughly enjoying yourself when you suddenly got an idea. looking up, you took hold of the lowest branch and started to pull yourself up. By the time you could hear Pippin making his way closer to you, you were nearly to the top, spying on him through the leaves. 

"Oh come on (Y/N), do be a lass and show yourself. I'm starting to tire of all this."

You rolled your eyes as his fake whine of fatigue clearly didn't match the smirk on his lips and the last bundle of good grapes he kept hidden behind his back as he turned about the chirping forest.

"I've run out of food, you see, so I have nothing to get you with."

You bit back a laugh as your hand reached for your own last good food in your pocket, a slightly bruised tomato. 

"What of rocks or wild mushrooms?" you called out to him, giggling at his goofy and wide-eyed attempt to find where your voice came from. "There is nearly an endless supply of those here."

Pippin tisked and shook his head, looking hurt but clearly amused. "How-ever could you say wild mushrooms are good for accosting friends in their faces. If anything they are meant to be eaten by our faces not used as weapons." He still searched around your group of trees, his eyes yet to spot you. 

You rolled your eyes and let out a breath. "Yes well, what of those grapes in your hands? Are you saying they are not good enough to not be used as weapons? How unfair to those poor grapes."

Pippin then looked up, just as you wanted him to, his face scrunched as he tried to look through the leaves but a smile ever present on his lips. 

"Come on down (Y/n),  you're going to get hurt."

You scoffed. "I'm not going to get-AHHHHHH!"

You let out a bird scattering scream as your food slipped and your hand was torn away from your branch by gravity, you began to fall out of your tree. You hit a few branches with a leg or a shoulder that made you grunt and moan in pain. But as you kept your eyes shut and your fists clenched you braced yourself for hitting the ground. 

Instead, there was another grunt but not by you. You didn't hit the ground unless the ground sprouted strong arms and a warm chest. Peeking an eye open you saw Pippin looking down at you, eyebrows drawn in concern as he looked you over. 

"Are you hurt?"

You just stared at him, blinking, trying to figure out how he caught you. He repeated the question and for some reason, you nodded. 

His eyes widened. "Where are you hurt? What can I do to help? Is there anything I can do to help?"

You bit back a smile as you nodded. "Yes, there is something that could help me feel quite better."

Pippin nodded. "Yes?"

You reached up and smashed the remains of your squashed tomato into his forehead, rubbing it in and smiling as you did so. 

"There. I feel much better now. Who knew winning a war could make my aches go away."

Pippin opened his eyes from the attack and glared down at you. Then, ever so slightly a sly smirk grew on his lips and then all at once you remembered why he was able to catch you. He was taller. And now you were in his arms, completely at his mercy. 

You dropped onto his arms and started apologizing but Pippin didn't listen. With not so much as a blink, Pippin opened his arms and dropped you to the ground before walking off, dusting his hands off as if putting out the rubbish. 

Thankfully he left you on a pile of dried leaves. You sat up and scowled. 

"Hey! Get back here!"

Pippin turned around and raised a brow, a bit of tomato sliding down his cheek in mockery of a tear. "As it turns out, I like tomatoes. I hear they are good for one's hair. Who's the winner now, eh?"

"Oh, why you little..." you snarled as you got up and chased after him, your voices once more filling the forest and the little town of Hobbiton reminding the Hobbits that it was about time the two of you either moved away or got married already. 

Preferably both.