Disclaimer: I do not own LOTR, I just obsess about it all day.
 
 
 

7. Chocolate!
Pippin 6, Merry 14, Frodo 28, Sam 16 (about 3 ½, 9, 18 and 10 in Man years)
1396 SR

Pippin had tasted many wonderful things in his short life: custards, pies, puddings, jams, cakes, candies and toffees of all flavors. He had never met a sweet he didn’t like. Unfortunately, he had also never been allowed to eat as many sweets as he would like to either. His parents kept a close watch on him and when they weren’t around, the staff and servants knew what he was allowed to eat and what he was not. He never got to eat sweets except at dessert, and then they were small portions at that. His sweet tooth was never satisfied.

Until now.

They weren’t at Whitwell or Great Smials. They were at Bag End and there were no servants to keep an eye on him. No one knew where Pippin was. They thought he was napping but he wasn’t. He had waited until Pearl left the room, then he had snuck out very quietly, like he had learned from his sister Pervinca and his most favorite cousin Merry. He had learned many good tricks from them, but sneaking was the most important one. If you didn’t know how to sneak, you couldn’t do anything else.

Pippin poked his head out of the guest room door and listened intently. He could hear the adults murmuring in the sitting room down the tunnel and across the way. That would be tricky. He would have to pass the sitting room to get to the pantry. He tiptoed down the tunnel and stopped just short of reaching the sitting room. He got onto all fours and discreetly poked his head into the doorway to look inside. All the adults were there, Bilbo, Uncle Sara and Aunt Esme, his Mum and Da, and none of them were facing the doorway! Pippin scooted by quickly and silently and was in the pantry within mere seconds.

Pippin liked the pantries here at Bilbo’s. They were always well-stocked with all sorts of delicious treats. The shelves were also built right into the wall and were stacked just like a bookcase, very easy to climb.

He glanced up at the many shelves, searching for the desired jar. He hoped it wouldn’t be too far up. There was bread, jam, honey, butter, apples and potatoes, peanuts, garlic, onions, carrots, milk. Up and up his eyes traveled, his mouth watering more with each passing moment. If he didn’t find it soon, he would just have to settle with the cupcakes.

His eyes landed on the second shelf from the top and at last he spotted what he was looking for. The sweet, thick, brown syrup peered down at him enticingly. He licked his lips in anticipation and scrambled over to the shelf. He was an excellent climber, ‘too good for his own good’ as his da often said, whatever that meant. How could one be too good at something?

Pippin reached up and pulled himself onto the first shelf. Once he was securely sitting on the shelf, he stood up and got onto his tiptoes, then pulled himself up onto the next shelf. Up and up he went, climbing with lightning speed, completely sure-footed, without a stumble or a slip. Within a couple of heartbeats, he was eye-level with the jar of chocolate syrup. He put his tiny fingers around the jar and tucked the container down the front of his pullovers. Once the jar was secure, he climbed swiftly down and sat upon the floor.

If he loved the shelves at Bilbo’s, he loved the jars even more. Bilbo’s jars didn’t have lids that could be screwed on too tightly so that no one could get them off again. It was just Bilbo and Frodo living here and they liked things to be as convenient as possible, including their jars. Their jars had snap-on lids, which could be put on or taken off as easy as you please. Pippin popped up the simple metal latch and the lid snapped loose. One half-turn and the lid came right off.

Pippin smiled at his prize and breathed in the rich, intoxicating aroma. He dipped a finger into the syrup, brought it to his mouth and tasted for his very first time the delicious, mouth-watering delight that was chocolate.

Little did Bilbo know the trouble he was starting when he served the children their midday snack. He had baked a batch of biscuits and wafers and had set out various jars of toppings: frosting, cream, caramel, butterscotch, and chocolate. The children had a grand time dipping the wafers and decorating the biscuits. Frodo and Pearl had supervised the snack time, making sure no one had more than three goodies each. Pippin had managed to sneak a fourth snack, but he had not been able to sneak a fifth one to try the chocolate.

Well, he was trying the chocolate now and he loved it! He could see why his sisters hadn’t bothered with the other things. Chocolate was much better than frosting and cream. It was thicker and smoother than butterscotch and richer than caramel. It was… chocolate.

Pippin dipped his entire hand into the jar and grabbed a handful of the dark, dripping liquid. He crammed his hand into his mouth and slurped until the chocolate was gone, heedless of the mess he was making on the floor, down his clothes and across his face. He repeated this process again and again, until he reached the bottom of the jar.

He frowned down at the jar and sighed in disappointment. Why did things always have to run out? He grabbed the lid and popped it back on and wiped his hands on his trousers. He climbed back up the shelves and put the jar back in its place. You were always supposed to put things back where you found them and Pippin didn’t want to get into trouble for being careless.

He was reaching the ground again when he heard Frodo and Merry’s voices approaching. If they came in here, he would have no place to go except… He ran to the cellar door, reached up on his tiptoes and tried to grab the knob.

“Pippin, what are you doing in here?” Frodo asked.

Pippin lowered himself flat on his feet and bent his head toward the floor. He turned around and looked up through his bangs with big, innocent green eyes. “Nothing.”

Frodo and Merry exchanged looks. Pippin was covered nearly head to toe in chocolate and the floor was covered in it as well. “Why do I highly doubt that?” Merry said.

Frodo smirked and looked up on the shelf and saw the now-empty jar. The smirk left his face immediately. “You didn’t eat that whole thing, did you?” he asked.

“No.”

“Peregrin.”

“Yes.”

Merry scoffed. “Thanks for inviting me along, Pip. I would have liked some more too you know.”

“Merry, please, that isn’t the point,” Frodo said. “Pippin ate that entire jar. You know what this means, don’t you?”

“No,” Merry said. “What does it mean?”

He needn’t have asked. Eglantine finally banished Pippin from the smial, and Frodo and Merry were put in charge of watching the lad and wearing him out. There was never a more impossible task to be completed by anyone in all the history of Middle-earth.

“Pippin,” Merry pleaded four hours later, “aren’t you tired yet?”

Pippin skipped around Frodo and Merry, happily enjoying his “freedom” outdoors. He had been cooped up all morning, just because it was a little bit chilly. Now he was heavily donned in a jacket and he was ready to play some more. He ran up to Frodo and tagged him. “Tag, Frodo! Chase me!”

“I’m coming right after you Pip,” Frodo said, making no effort to move. He and Merry were sprawled on the ground, winded from their afternoon of play. They had played sardines, hide and seek, hot potato, tag, dodge ball, kick ball, they had even run races and rolled down the hillside. Pippin’s sisters had come out and engaged him in a game of hopscotch for an hour before tiring themselves. Now they were inside helping with dinner and Pippin was still running about the gardens.

“Look Gaffer!” they could hear Pippin saying at the other end of the garden.

Frodo knew he should get up and rescue Hamfast from the irrepressible Took, but he couldn’t force his limbs to move. Merry managed only to lift his head and call, “Pippin! Leave Master Gamgee alone!” before going limp again.

“Look Sam!” Pippin yelled next. He ran over to Sam and threw him the kick ball. “Let’s play. You kick first and try to get it past me! And then I try to get it past you.”

Sam caught the ball and tucked it under his arm. Pippin was bouncing up and down and Sam smiled at the lad, getting an idea. He held up a finger to tell the lad to wait a minute, then went into the tool shed. When he came back out, the ball was gone and he was holding a small length of rope. He leaned down so he was eye to eye with the youngster. “Are you wanting to learn a new game, Master Pippin?” he asked.

Pippin nodded excitedly. “I do, I do, I do, I do!”

Sam laughed and held out the rope for Pippin to see. “You see this rope here? All you need to play is this. See, you take the rope like so, one end in each hand, and you swing it through the air and you jump over it. Easy as pie,” Sam said and demonstrated a few times for the lad.

“That’s it?” Pippin asked, not very impressed.

“No, there’s far more to it that just that,” Sam said. “You see, when you get good enough, you can try jumping with just one foot, or switching back and forth between feet, or swinging the rope backward, or swinging it fast enough that it hits twice between each jump. You could even run or skip while you jump, all about the garden.”

“Really!” Pippin said and Sam nodded. “I want to try.”

“Here you go then,” Sam said and handed the lad the rope. “Why don't you go over to that clear spot and practice? You should just try simple jumping until you get the hang of it, then you can move onto something more complicated.”

Pippin nodded eagerly and grabbed the rope. He ran over to a clearing and started jumping, or trying to. He was soon caught up in perfecting the timing of swinging the rope and jumping so it didn’t tangle around his feet. He wanted to be able to do it like Sam, without any mistakes.

Merry and Frodo sat up and stared at Pippin in amazement. He was entertaining himself and wearing himself out without any help. They looked over at Sam appreciatively, but the young gardener had already returned to work raking up leaves. “I think I want to adopt Sam,” Merry said to Frodo, who nodded in agreement.

The cousins sat on the ground and managed to gather enough energy to shout encouragements at Pippin. The longer they could keep him playing with that rope, the longer they would have to recuperate. Pippin was a determined little Took. He soon had the hang of it and was trying to perfect jumping with one foot when Bilbo called them inside to eat.

Merry, Frodo and Pippin had fallen asleep in one big lump on the parlor settee. Merry was leaning against Frodo, and Pippin was lying across both their laps, a length of rope held tightly in his one hand, the thumb of his other hand in his mouth.

“Should we move them?” Bilbo said, concerned that Merry and Frodo might develop cricks in their necks from sleeping in their current position.

“Don’t you dare!” Eglantine and Esmeralda said. Pippin had just fallen asleep. They didn’t dare move the child now. Saradoc retrieved a blanket from the linen chest and draped it over the lads while Paladin checked on his daughters. The fires were put out and the adults went to their rooms, whispering quiet good nights in the hall. Three doors clicked softly shut.

Pippin smiled mischievously and slowly rolled off his cousins’ laps. He tiptoed across the tunnel and over to the middle pantry. He let his eyes adjust to the dark and searched the shelves. Now, where had Bilbo put the leftover pumpkin pie?

End of this ficlet. More to come.

GF 11/27/04