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Twice Twenty  by Dreamflower

Title: Looking Back

Theme: Set #1, Theme #12, “Nostalgia”

Genre (s): Fluff
Pairing (s): N/A

Rating: G
Notes: Frodo is 35, Sam is 23, Merry is 21 and Pippin is 13 (or 23 ½, 14½, 13½ and 8 ½ in Man years)

Summary: In which Bilbo is fondly remembered…

LOOKING BACK

As Sam examined the shade-loving plants that grew beneath the ash in the lower garden, he became aware of movement in the branches above him, and glanced up.

“ ‘Morning, Master Pippin,” he smiled. Mr. Frodo might have taught that little Took to climb, but he spent far more time in the branches of the trees than Mr. Frodo ever had.

“Hullo, Sam,” he replied seriously.

“You’re looking mighty thoughtful today.”

Pippin swung around, and then slid off the branch to land lightly on the bench beneath the tree. Sam shuddered; that had to have been at *least* a four and a half foot drop.

The lad sat sideways on the bench, and drawing his legs up, wrapped his arms around them, leaning his pointed little chin upon his knees. “Do you ever miss the olden days, Sam?”

Sam’s eyebrows raised, and his eyes twinkled, but he kept his voice level. “The ‘olden’ days, Master Pippin?”

“Yes, back when I was just a child,” he said.

Sam put a hand to his mouth, and turned his bark of laughter into a cough.

Pippin looked at him astutely. “Oh, I know. You and Merry are ever so much older than me. Why, you’re tweens! And Frodo is *old*--he’s been of age for two whole years! But sometimes I miss the way things were when I was littler and Cousin Bilbo was still here.”

“Ah.” Sam sat down next to him on the bench. The lilies could wait a few minutes.

“Yes. Back then when Frodo wasn’t a grown-up, and you didn’t have to work all day, and Merry’s lessons weren’t as hard, and Cousin Bilbo was here--and--and it was so *nice*!”

“Do you miss Mr. Bilbo a lot?” Pippin had only been eleven when Bilbo left.

“Well, not most of the time,” he said honestly. “But I do when I come visit Bag End. I miss the way he always hugged me and smelled of peppermint and Old Toby, and he said--” he lowered his voice and attempted to imitate Bilbo’s rolling tones “-- ‘Peregrin, my lad, how you’ve grown! Soon you’ll pass the Bullroarer’” He glanced at Sam slyly. “I know that wasn’t really true, but I liked him saying it just the same. And I miss his *stories*” Pippin sighed and looked wistful and scooted a little closer to Sam on the bench.

Sam felt tears sting briefly, and he blinked. “I miss Mr. Bilbo, too, Master Pippin.”

Pippin impulsively threw his arms around the gardener. “I bet you miss him a whole lot more than me! I mean, you used to see him every day!”

Sam blushed and returned the hug. “Well, Master Pippin, I need to get busy.”

Pippin grinned. “What are you doing, Sam? Can I help? I’ll call it ‘watching’!”

“Bless me, Master Pippin,” Sam laughed. “You may ‘watch’ if you like--and I’ll even let you call it helping.” For it was an open joke that when the Gaffer had still been gardening, he would not allow the young gentlehobbits to ‘help’ him. It wouldn’t have been proper; but he would allow them to ‘watch’ and if somehow their little hands found themselves busy while they ‘watched‘, no harm done.

A short while later, Merry spotted them on their knees beneath the tree as Pippin aided Sam in the delicate task of dividing the lilies-- “Because,” explained Sam, “they been too happy under there, and now they’re all crowded like.” Pippin was gloriously dirty.

As he approached them, he heard Pippin’s high-pitched giggle, and Sam’s warm chuckle. He grinned as he came up. “What’s so funny?”

“We was just remembering Mr. Bilbo,” said Sam.

Merry knelt down alongside them. “Where are you moving these, Sam?”

“Right now, just into these pots. Tomorrow I’ll be putting them up by the gate.”

Pippin handed Merry one of the newly divided plants. “Merry, do you remember the year the Dwarves came?”

Merry laughed. “Do I? How could anyone forget? Bilbo got them to chase us to bed, singing like goblins!”

“Why would he do that, Mr. Merry?” asked Sam, his mind rather boggled at the image presented.

Merry blushed. Pippin said “He caught us listening to them after we were supposed to be in bed!”

Sam put on a droll expression of mock disbelief. “Now you wouldn’t've gone and done something like that, now, would you?”

This sent both the cousins into gales of laughter. When Merry could speak again, he said, “You know, Cousin Bilbo told poor Nuri some *awful* fibs while they were here!”

Sam grinned. “Well, Master Nuri was just too curious about hobbits. He’d come out and pester the Gaffer to death with his questions: do hobbits really like turnips; do all hobbits eat six meals a day; how do hobbits get anything done if they have to keep stopping for meals--after he asked the Gaffer that, he went off, and then the Gaffer, he turns to me and says ‘How do Dwarves get anything done if they have to keep stopping to ask daft questions all day?’ He was right put out he was. But Master Nuri didn’t mean no harm. So what awful fibs did Mr. Bilbo tell him?”

“Well,” chuckled Merry, “he told him that hobbits put their foot hair up in curling papers at night--”

Pippin looked horrified. “Merry! He didn’t!”

“He did. And he told him that guests must always leave a parting gift of mushrooms--I thought that was a good one! And he told him that there was a widespread theory that hobbits had rabbits for ancestors--he made that one sound really quite good. If he had not winked at me, I would not have guessed he was having poor Nuri on.” Merry laughed. “But he told Dori to set him straight after they left. Dori thought it was very funny as well.”

Pippin and Sam both laughed again, and Sam sat back and looked at the lilies. “I think that we are finished here,” he said.

Pippin flopped back to lie upon the grass, and remarked to the sky “I really liked helping him bake. We made lovely honeycakes when Cousin Bilbo was here.”

This drew a murmur of agreement from both Merry and Sam. Bilbo’s honeycakes were popular.

Just then, they heard Frodo calling: “Merry! Pippin! Sam!”

“We’re down here, Frodo!” called Merry.

“It’s time for elevenses! Is anyone interested in freshly baked honeycakes?”

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