A/N: Written for Grey Wonderer as a holiday request ficlet.

Trust to Friendship

Usually Merry and Pippin wandered through Rivendell together, but this morning Pippin ventured outside for a walk and a smoke alone. He walked for a bit through the gardens, and before long he found Gandalf sitting on a bench, blowing smoke rings into the empty branches of a nearby tree and looking less grumpy than usual.

"Hullo, Gandalf," Pippin said, climbing up beside him.

The wizard smiled down at him. "Where are your cousins this morning, Peregrin?"

"Frodo is always with Bilbo and Sam, going through that book, and Merry decided he would rather spend time with maps than with me this morning," Pippin replied with a sigh.

Gandalf chuckled and sent another ring of smoke to the sky. "It would do you some good to join Merry now that you are part of the Company."

Pippin's smile faltered, and he turned aside to tap his nearly empty pipe against the bench. Beneath furrowed brows, Gandalf watched him curiously but said nothing.

"Lord Elrond didn't want me to go at all," Pippin said at last. "Though he almost allowed Merry to go without me. Why did you convince him to let me go, Gandalf?" he asked, searching the wizard's aged face.

For a long while Gandalf sat quietly puffing away on his pipe, until Pippin wondered if he would ever respond. At last the wizard spoke.

"This will not be Bilbo's tale of there and back," Gandalf said, casting a shrewd eye at Pippin. "There will be dangers, more than I can foresee, and certainly more than you can imagine. Nonetheless I would have you come with us. It may have been against his heart, as Elrond said, to let you go, but it is against my heart to separate you from your cousins. I do not know what role you will play before the end, my lad, but I sense that it is something of importance."

Pippin's eyes grew wide. He could hardly imagine doing anything important or useful, other than keeping an eye on Frodo, which he and Merry and Sam had done for so long anyway. And as for dangers, they almost seemed impossible, here in Rivendell with Gandalf at his side.

Pippin grinned up at Gandalf, but the wizard harrumphed. "Besides," he said, as grumpily as ever, though his eyes twinkled, "I have always found it best to keep a Took where I can see him."