Elements supplied by Golden:

seven lasses, green silk, drunken Pippin,

unwanted kiss, older cousins

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Pippin and the Empty Bottle

They sat in a mathom room at Great Smials, seven giggling lasses and one lad.

The lad was not giggling.

He had been earlier. Earlier he had been giggling and sniggering, cackling and chortling. Earlier his drunken condition had been uproariously funny.

Now he was frightened, a little weepy, and feeling as though he might be sick.

He hadn’t known until it was much too late why it was the lasses wanted the bottle emptied.

It had all started when Pervinca and her gaggle of friends cornered her younger brother in the game room of Great Smials.

“Ah . . . Eh . . . What are you . . . What are you lot up to?” Pippin eventually managed to sound angry instead of frightened.

“We aren’t up to anything, Pippin dear,” Delphinium sweetly smiled. She reminded Pippin of a cat he had once watched toying with a mouse before it killed the small rodent. “We’re here to help you fulfill a dream of yours.”

“Yes,” oozed Opal. “We’re only trying to help you.”

His sister said nothing and he could not tell from her expression what she was thinking.

Pippin wisely did not believe them. Delphinium was never helpful to him.

Delphinium, Rosemary, Opal, Amber, Pansy, Pervinca, and Aster. To Pippin Took they were the Seven Terrors of Great Smials.

Oddly, being that she was The Took’s daughter, Vinca was not the leader of this group of lasses. That role fell to Delphinium. She was larger than the others, older than the others and one of those who had the knack of making anyone who did not agree with her feel like an ignorant faunt.

Pippin feared Delphinium.

For the whole of his father’s first year as The Took and Thain, as long as Pippin, Vinca and Nel had lived at Great Smials, she had terrorized the lad. She had locked him in a privy. She had walked, bold as brass, into the bathing room while he was in the tub and stolen his clothes. She had flung his scarf high into a tree (she really had quite a strong throwing arm). She had embarrassed him in innumerable ways in front of the other lads at every social event at the Smials. If they had been in their teens it might have been understandable. But Delphinium had been thirty when Paladin Took became Thain. She was thirty-one now. They were a little old for such nonsense now.

Or well, lasses were supposed to be too old for such nonsense by then.

But the truth of the matter was that Delphinium had taken a liking to Peregrin Took the moment she had first seen him at the grand celebration to welcome the new Took and Thain. She just didn’t know how to show a lad that she liked him, so she teased him just to pay attention to him.

Pervinca had been terrified when her family moved to the Smials. She was a farmer’s daughter, not a Smials lass. And though her father’s holdings were large, even though they had hired hands and her father was referred to as a gentlehobbit farmer, it did not change the fact that she was a country lass. In her fear of being an outsider, she had readily gone with the first group of lasses that offered to take her in: Delphinium and her friends.

Paladin and Lanti had approved. They were well bred young lasses, polite and helpful to the adults in the Great Smials. They did not know that Delphinium was actually quite a horrid child. Pervinca had gradually realized that her new friend was not very nice, made all the more clear because Delphinium’s favorite target had quickly become her own little brother. Pervinca herself loved teasing Pippin, but it was different when it was someone outside of their own family doing the teasing – and doing so much of it.

But she was still terribly afraid of having no friends if she did anything that might put her out of Delphinium’s favor.

Pippin was no wimp, but this situation was rather strange. If they had been younger, he would have shoved her into a puddle or cut off a few of her curls. He would have had any number of ways to fight back. But they were tweens and, much as being rough with a lass was always frowned upon, it was absolutely taboo when a lad became a tween. He couldn’t tell his parents or hers as that would make him look weak and immature. He couldn’t use her own tactics against her. He was trapped.

Which was precisely his current situation.

“We have this bottle and we need it emptied.” Delphinium held out a large, three-quarters empty bottle of Took Whisky. “Vinca tells us you like Took Whisky but you’ve only had one or two wee sips. There’s not a lad in the Tooklands, no, not a lad in the whole of the Shire that is happy with only wee sips. I am generously giving you the opportunity to have more than a few wee sips. I am going to let you have all that is left in this bottle.”

Pippin’s eyes widened. It was indeed a generous offer, made all the more generous by it’s forbidden nature. He really wasn’t supposed to have whisky until he was of age. Early in the drink’s existence the Tooks realized that it was much more potent than ale or wine. When a couple of lads nearly died from drinking too much of it, it was decided by The Took at the time that no one should be able to partake of whisky until they were of age.

Which was, of course, why Pippin had only had a few sips. Lads were always finding ways to sample the liquor, and the opportunity to have one fourth of a bottle to himself had definite appeal.

“What’s in this for you, Delly?” He cautiously asked, not wanting to cause her to rescind her generous offer.

“The chance to win a wager, Pippin.” The lass tossed her hair and looked down her nose at the lad. “Your sister has no confidence in you. She has said you won’t be able to drink it all. She said you will be sicker than a cat with a hairball when you have only drunk half of it.” Delly leaned in, making Pippin feel smaller than he usually did. “I told her you could drink it all.”

“Of course I can!” Pippin exclaimed though his thoughts were screaming several reasons why he couldn’t, why he shouldn’t even try. He told his thoughts to stay out of it. “I can hold my ale just fine, no reason at all that I shouldn’t be able to hold good Took Whisky.”

Now his sister’s eyes widened. It was true that Pippin could drink more ale than folk expected but he was not a heavy drinker and he often ended up under the table when other lads were still going strong. More to the point was that she had said no such thing. Delphinium had gathered them all together, told them they were going to have some fun with The Took’s son, and off they had gone, trailing after her until they had found Pippin playing patience in the otherwise empty games room. Pervinca shook her head ever so slightly to Pippin. Pippin, eyes indignant, nodded ever so slightly back.

“You’re on!” he said holding his hand out to Delly who grasped it hard and gave it one quick jerk.

The group went off to a mathom room in a little used tunnel of the Smials. They lasses sat in a circle on the dusty floor, Pippin sat in the middle. The bottle was uncorked and Pippin began his drinking. To his credit, he choked very little as the burning fluid ripped down his throat. He coughed more than he choked but used further swigs of the whisky to chase away the coughing.

It didn’t take long for the liquor to start having its effect.

He felt tingly. Everything the lasses said was hilarious. Everything he said, or tried to say, was hilarious.

“Oo’re a snake, Delwy,” he eventually slurred at the large lass. “Gween, shinny, snaky lasssss.”

“Do I feel like a snake, Pippin?” she laughed, grabbing his hand and bringing it up to the shoulder of her green silk dress.

He looked rather lecherous as he nodded while petting the expensive material. “Schnaky! Hisssss!” he imitated a snake then pulled his hand away, laughing so hard he started crying.

“What about Vinca?” Delly asked.

Pippin tried to focus on his sister who appeared to be swaying in a breeze he could not feel.

“Scheee’s a weaschul.” He glared at Vinca who was sitting next Delphinium. “Schee bet ‘ginst me.”

“Drink up Pippin!” Delly lightly punched Pippin’s shoulder to get him to quit staring at his sister. He almost fell over.

Pippin held the bottle up and peered at the amount left in the bottom.

“One long swig should do it Pippin, and we’ll have won.”

“Long schwig.” He took a deep breath, put the bottle to his mouth and poured the remaining golden liquor down his throat. He almost fell over backwards but somehow managed to stay upright. Finally he lowered the bottle and glared at Pervinca. He also belched loudly at Pervinca.

“Wass m’ prize?” Pippin mumbled as he slowly turned from his sister to look at Delly. He turned past the group’s leader, looked confused and muttered “Wher sche go?” before his bleary eyes finally found and focused on her as best they could.

It was at this point that Pippin began to change from a silly drunk to an unhappy one. His condition was made worse by Delphinium reaching for the bottle, placing it on the floor between them and giving it a slight nudge. The bottle wobbled and spun slowly. It would have stopped with its thin neck pointing like an arrow at Amber if Delphinium hadn’t stopped it with her toe so that it pointed at herself.

Pippin wasn’t so drunk that he didn’t know what that meant.

“No,” he said in a pinched whisper. He tried to back away but his hands slipped on the dusty floor and he was suddenly flat on his back.

Delphinium was on him in an instant, her lips smashed tightly against those of the inebriated lad.

The kiss lasted a long time.

At first, Pippin had tried to thrash against her, but he was too drunk, and anyway she outweighed him. It was not a plain kiss. As drunk as he was Pippin did not like it one bit, but he was completely incapable to stop anything she chose to do to him. Finally the lad quite squirming.

It was a few seconds later that Delly realized he didn’t seem to be breathing either. She pulled away from him.

“Pippin?” she whispered.

His head slowly flopped over to the right and a trickle of drool dotted the floor.

“Pippin?” she screamed as she shook his limp body.

Pervinca screamed and threw herself upon Delphinium. “You’ve killed him! You killed him. You killed my brother! You horrible, wretched bully!”

Opal got up and ran to get help while the other four girls tried to pull Pervinca off of Delphinium. Moments later The Took and Thain himself burst into the room. Ignoring the girls he went straight to his son, falling to his knees beside the lad. Paladin put his ear to Pippin’s chest while the fingers of his right hand dug into the side of his son’s neck, trying to find his pulse.

Other adults began to arrive. The Took lifted his head.

“He’s alive! Someone help me lift him.”

Within moments Paladin, his son in his arms, hurried from the room. Shortly thereafter, the old dusty mathom room was empty.

“Schee gone?”

Paladin stared wide-eyed Pippin, still in his arms as he hurried towards their apartments.

“Pippin?” he asked redundantly then said, “Yes, she’s gone, or well I’ve taken you out of there.”

Pippin nuzzled into his father’s shoulder. “Goo. Schee wasch bein’ icky. Schee wasch . . . Ah ack’ed dead.” Pippin looked at his father, grinned broadly then belched as the grin faded into a frown. “Ah’m dwunk, Daddy,” he said tearfully. “Ah wasch na . . . nau . . . bad. Ah’m gonna pooke on ‘ou.”

Paladin managed to turn his son’s face away from his shoulder just in time.

Pippin was shaking with his sobbing as his father walked a few steps past the mess before sitting his son on a bench in the tunnel. “Schoorry. Ah’m schooo na . . . nau . . . bad.” Paladin kept him from falling as he leaned forward and vomited again. They sat there until the lad was finished then Paladin gently carried his now sleeping son to his bedroom. Eglantine had heard about it all by then and had the covers turned down. She would give Pippin her patent hangover remedy in the morning.

The next day, Delphinium’s parents were called to the office of The Took. Orders were given that they deal appropriately with their immodest daughter.

Pippin spent the next day in bed. His stomach had not yet recovered, nor had his head. While he napped and read little bits from his books, Pervinca, Pimpernel, Everard and Ferdi, two of Pippin’s older Took cousins, paid a visit to Delphinium. Pervinca no longer feared losing the lass’ friendship. Amber and Rosemary had both approached Vinca later in the day expressing their concern for Pippin and telling her they also no longer wished to follow Delphinium’s lead. Pervinca now had friends of her own.

“We handled Delly, Pippin,” Everard said later in the day when the sisters and cousins came to visit the recovering lad. “Let us just say, you won both that bet and the battle.”

“I’m only glad of the former because it brought me the later,” Pippin sighed. “May it be a long, long time before I get myself that drunk again.”

For reasons she never revealed to anyone, Delphinium never bothered Peregrin Took again.