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

So, what was Estella’s POV of that day by the river? This isn’t exactly Merry and Pippin centric, but it was just begging to be written.
 
 
 

#9: The Trouble With Lads

Merry: 28, Pippin: 20, Pervinca: 25, Estella: 25
~ 13 Halimath, 1410 SR ~
 

Estella’s POV

Vinca has gotten me to do some pretty saucy things before, but this one takes the cake.

It starts out innocently enough. Vinca and I decide we have enough of the lads acting like a bunch of aloof idiots, so we use our last day together to go swimming. We find a secluded spot of the River and test the water. It’s cool, but not cold. We swim about for a bit and talk about the last week and before too long I’m complaining, as usual, about Merry Brandybuck.

I don’t know why my heart decided to settle itself on him, but every time I see him, it gives a little flutter and jumps into my throat. Try as I might not to, I just can’t seem to stop myself from falling for him, and it confounds me completely. After all, he’s an obnoxious, pompous, arrogant, self-absorbed know-it-all, and the older we become the more impossible he gets. He spends nearly every waking moment that he can with little Pip and the two of them tear up Tookland and Buckland on their rampages of disaster. They’re always into something and they hardly notice anyone else, unless that someone else also happens to be looking for trouble, or is Frodo Baggins. But the way I hear it, Frodo caused his own share of trouble in his youth, so I don’t find it entirely comforting that they have his influence now. I at least haven’t seen them benefit any from it.

And yet, as much as he drives me to madness, I find myself pining constantly over Merry. His wavy brown curls, his impish grin, that little cleft in his chin, his smoky grey eyes… His complete and total pig-headedness. Why? Why does it have to be him?

That is the reason I begged Father to let me come with Cousin Wilco to Brandy Hall. In part to see Merry, but mainly to see Vinca. I needed to talk to her desperately, but instead of talking me out of my obsession, she immediately put me up to all sorts of games and ploys to try to find out how Merry feels about me. She insists that Merry ignoring me is a good sign. “He wouldn’t ignore you if you didn’t mean anything to him.”

I’m not sure this makes any sense, but she sounds so confident and knowledgeable when she says it. She also spends a good deal more time around Merry than I do, so I figure she knows what she’s talking about.

We lean against the rock and tread water. We’re in the process of deciding if Merry ignoring me at his party last night was a positive sign or not. I didn’t even get a present, not a nod or a scowl of acknowledgement. I’m getting tired of the games and think I should ask him outright, but Vinca disagrees.

“That’s a conversation I’d like to see,” she says and she commences to play-act Merry and me having such a conversation. “‘Oh Merry, I was just wondering how you feel about me.’ ‘What do you mean how do I feel?’ ‘I mean, do you like me at all?’ ‘Me? Like you? Not likely.’ And then he and his friends will laugh their heads off and go play more kickball. You can’t just ask a lad how he feels, Ella. You have to be sneaky about it.”

“But why?” I say and try not to whine. I just want to know where I stand with him for a change and all these games and guesses are taking their toll. I sink into the river and mope.

“Because lads don’t know how to answer questions like that, it’s too over their heads,” Vinca says. “No, we’ll have to think of something really sneaky, something he won’t suspect. If we want a truly honest answer out of him, we have to pull him out of his comfort zone.”

So we start making our plans and Vinca gets some very colorful ideas. She has me laughing in no time, no doubt that was her main plan all along, and we don’t notice that we have an audience until we hear Merry’s smug voice behind us on the riverbank.

“Well, well, what have we here,” Merry says innocently.

It is instinct more than anything else that make us scream and grab onto the rock and hide ourselves.

“Meriadoc Brandybuck, you insufferable brat!” I shout, my heart beating a mile a minute. I wonder how long he’s been standing there, listening to us. If he heard me call him ‘cute’ I think I’ll die right here where I am.

“Pippin!” Vinca shouts next to me and I see Pippin quail under her glare. Vinca and Pip may be siblings, but that doesn’t mean that she won’t clobber him if need be.

“You’re quite a long way from the Hall,” Merry says, in that faux concerned tone of his. He looks around dramatically. “And without any escort besides. That isn’t proper at all. What would your parents think?”

I see Pippin grab Merry’s hand and beg him to leave. I beg for Merry to leave also, but during that tiny exchange of theirs, I feel Vinca’s hand grab my own under the water. She squeezes it just so and she has that look in her eyes that means we should play along. “Playing along is the best way to find out what exactly a lad has in mind, and then you counter plan,” she is forever telling me. It’s so quick, it’s no wonder Merry and Pippin miss it.

Vinca turns back on our intruders and that angry glare is back an instant later. “An escort? Here? Whoever heard of such a ridiculous thing?” she says and I begin to calm down. It doesn’t seem that they heard anything we had been saying. Merry is just being his typical impossible self.

“Ridiculous is it?” Merry says. “Oh, I’m not so sure about that. An escort, for starters, would have seen to it that you weren’t come upon unawares. And he would make sure no one stole your clothes.” He smiles in that wickedly cute way of his and reaches down for our dresses.

We both realize the same thing at the same time and it’s all I can do to keep from laughing right there. We had wanted something sneaky, something he wouldn’t suspect, and Merry had just unwittingly delivered it. He had set his own trap and walked right into it.

Vinca doesn’t miss a beat. “Meriadoc, don’t you dare!”

“He won’t do it,” I say now. It’s like holding power in the palm of my hand. We have absolutely nothing to lose and Merry won’t know what to do with himself.

It’s almost beautiful, the way it unfolds so perfectly, so seamlessly. Vinca and I hardly have to look at each other for guidance, we know each other so well. And we know Merry well enough to know just what to say to get him to give up his mischief. And he knows us well enough to know that what I say is true. We would stay in the river all day and wait for help or nightfall if we had to. What he doesn’t know though was that there was no need for us to do such a thing.

We are being scandalous by being in the river like we are, but not to the extent that Merry and Pippin think. You see, Vinca has a knack for designing clothes, and she has made us some swim clothes that are not as cumbersome and bulky as the traditional attire. I don’t know why, but elders seem to think that lasses should be covered head to toe all day and night.

Vinca finally had enough of it one day and decided to make her own swim clothes and she made a suit for me as well. The fabric is light and thin enough so that we can move about freely, but its thick enough to keep everything hidden when wet. The skirt stops just above our knees and the top is a simple, close-fitting bodice, and it has no sleeves to hide our arms or straps over the shoulders or ruffles to cover the top of our still frustratingly-small breasts. So everything essential is covered up, even if we are more exposed than our parents would like.

It’s easy to see why Merry thinks he has the upper hand. He and Pippin are too far away and we’re too well hidden behind the rock for them to see our swim clothes. They clearly think we are skinny-dipping and Merry plans to use this to his advantage. He has no clue how wrong he is and we will use that to our advantage.

Now Merry’s looking down at our dresses, and we can see he’s upset. His plan so far isn’t working. We wait to see what he’ll do next.

“Very well,” he says at length and sits down. “Then I appoint myself as your escort. Just let me know when you’re ready for your clothes.” And he smiles coyly.

Vinca growls to keep herself from laughing and I roll my eyes and utter a swear word to keep up appearances. Then Vinca leans over and whispers in my ear. “This is perfect!” she mutters excitedly. “We wanted a way to find out how he feels about you. Well, here it is.” And she tells me her plan.

It’s exactly as she says: a win-win situation. Merry and Pippin may be troublemakers, but they know what limits not to push. Even if Merry made no move to cover his eyes, Pippin would, being as Vinca is his sister. So it would work like this. If Merry doesn’t peek, that means he respects me. If he does peek, that means he’s curious. Of course, if he peeks the ploy would be over as he would realize his error, but either way, the joke would be on him. And if he peeks, we would be able to gauge by his reaction if he’s interested at all.

We laugh, our plan perfected, and my hands shake in excited nervousness. We notice Merry and Pippin frowning at us and we turn our smiles on them. Now it’s our turn to be coy.

It is adorable really, the horrified look in Merry’s eyes and the way he smacks his hand over his and Pip’s faces. But we can’t simply put on our clothes. We want to give Merry a chance to peek if that’s what he is going to do. He is far too nervous and shocked right now to think of it, so we say we’re going to lie down on the rock. What we really do is sit on the rock, facing them, and talk about the one subject that never fails to get a contemptuous glare out of him: lads.

He doesn’t peek. Not once. He doesn’t even move. So we go on to Plan B. I stand as close to him as I can while I pull on my underclothes and dress. The closeness causes me to stumble at one point and I have to reach down to grab Merry’s shoulder to keep myself from falling flat on my face. That would have been embarrassing indeed, but still Merry doesn’t move. I do notice the skin on his neck and face glow red, and Vinca nods encouragingly. I guess this is a good thing.

When we’re dressed, we walk down the path a way so they can’t hear us. “Now what do I do?” I ask. I had expected Merry to peek, and then maybe laugh at our clothes. I had imagined he would then dart off to the Hall to find Wilco and tell him about the ridiculous swimsuit his cousin was wearing.

“Now, we go to Plan C. You’re going to kiss him.”

“I’m what!”

“Come on, don’t say you don’t want to,” Vinca says. “It’s the perfect opportunity. He’s completely rattled, out of his comfort zone and all that. His bravado has melted away to nothing. You want to know how he really feels, this is your chance. You can tell everything you need to know from a kiss.”

So I calm the butterflies in my stomach, knowing that I’m about to do this against my own better judgment, knowing there is no way Vinca will let me back out of it. I’m about to kiss Merry Brandybuck!

“Merry,” I say as casually as I can, and I realize that I sound much too happy. Luckily, he doesn’t notice. “Aren’t you going to escort us back to the Hall now?”

He and Pippin peek out from under his hands, and how Vinca and I manage to keep our faces straight when we see their looks of relief is beyond me. Vinca gets Pip out of the way for me and I slip my arm through Merry’s. I’m surprised and delighted at the muscles I feel there. Merry is stronger than he looks.

He’s very polite through the whole walk back to the Hall and as we come within site of the stables, my heart starts to pound even more than before. I think it’s trying to burst out of my chest, but Vinca’s presence keeps me calm. Even if this does turn into a complete disaster, she’ll find some way to make me laugh about it. Eventually.

There’s thankfully no one else outside the stables and I let go of Merry then. I half expect him to bolt for freedom, but he doesn’t move. He just stands there, like he doesn’t know what to expect next. I fortunately have been racking my brain trying to figure out what to do once we got here and I force the shakiness out of my voice.

“Now, Merry, it just occurred to me that I never got a present from you last night,” I say and start playing with his collar. I’ve seen Mother do this to Father a couple of times when they’re teasing each other and think they’re alone, so I know it will work. “I’ll just have to take a present for myself I suppose.” And I grab his collar and pull him into a kiss.

It’s absolutely splendid. It’s everything I ever hoped it would be. This must be how moths feel, when they fly into the flame: completely consumed. And if that isn’t perfect enough, Merry deepens the kiss! I can feel the heat of his hand hovering near my neck, I know he’s about to touch my face and as much as I want to let him, I choose that moment to end the kiss. “Always leave them wanting more,” I heard Pearl say to Pimmie once and now I know why.

I will never forget the look on Merry’s face as I pull away. He looks lost and bewildered and entranced all at once. And I know, without a doubt, that he likes me.

“Thank you for bringing us back safely Merry,” I manage to say and grin with giddiness. Vinca pulls me away and we run around the corner of the stables where I burst into relieved laughter and Vinca laughs also.

“Did you see?” she says when we’re safely in my guest room. “I told you it would work! I knew he fancied you.” And I sink to the floor and touch my hands to my mouth and laugh some more.

Now Wilco and I are returning to Budgeford. I didn’t see Merry at dinner and it worries me, but Vinca assures me it means nothing. If anything, it’s a good sign and she tells me all the reasons why. So we’re right back to where we started really, with Merry ignoring me and Vinca and I guessing what it means. But I’ve seen that look in his eyes and I know at least that he’ll never think of me in the same way again.

I still think it would have been easier if I could have just asked him how he felt about me, but I know Vinca’s right. He wouldn’t have known how to answer that question without acting like a buffoon. But that’s the trouble with lads: they take forever to grow up.

End of this ficlet.

GF 12/5/04