Disclaimers: I don't own the characters or have any claim to Tolkien's work.

A/N: This was written for the Middle-Earth Express challenge, Prompt #5: Lack. For this challenge, there is a maximum word limit of 500 words.

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"Just what were you thinking?" Gandalf asked as he looked down at the young hobbit sitting on the bed in front of him. Young Peregrin Took was covered with welts nearly from head to toe. Gandalf shook his head as he prepared a healing paste to cover the many bee stings. He had been on his way to visit friends in the Shire when he had heard shrieks of pain coming from the fifteen-year-old hobbit on the path ahead of him. Hurrying to arrive as quickly as possible, he had found Pippin attempting to fight off a swarm of honey bees. Quickly conjuring up a smoke cloud, he had chased the bees away from the hobbit, then picked him up and carried him into the village to tend his injuries.

"I thought that some honey would be good on my muffins," Pippin answered back in a pain-filled tone.

"If you wanted honey, why did you not venture to the bee-keepers home?" Gandalf asked in exasperation. "There is more honey there than even you could possibly eat!"

"Well, I was on my way there, when I looked up in the tree and saw a bee-hive just above my head," Pippin answered. "The bee-keeper lives on the other side of the Shire, and there was the honey I wanted, right above me. It seemed like a better idea to just get the honey from there rather than walk all the way to the other side of the Shire. I was hungry!"

"So you decided to knock it from the tree by throwing rocks at it?" Gandalf asked in disbelief. "Did you not think about the bees that would not take kindly to you destroying their home?"

Pippin shrugged self-consciously while Gandalf began slathering his many bee stings with a numbing, healing paste. "I didn't think about that."

"Fool of a Took," Gandalf said with a mix of resignation and humor in his voice. "I often think you lack the common sense that Eru gave a gnat!"

Pippin frowned, then looked back up at Gandalf. A shy grin crossed his face as he held up the remains of the hive. "Maybe so, but I have my honey."