A/N: This is just a bit of silliness, really. *grins* It was inspired by my little brother (my Aragorn) who has been trying to get me to buy an Airsoft gun lately. Love Airsoft, but they’re so darn expencive!! Anyways, that’s beside the point. I figured if Saruman had gun powder to blow up Helm’s Deep someone might have invented guns by now (even if they were rare.) Hope you enjoy! *goes to play Airsoft*

~Airsoft~

“What is it?” Sam asked, staring uncertainly at the objects Aragorn had given him and his friends.

“It’s an M-9 Beretta Airsoft Gun,” Aragorn replied, fingering the bigger one he was holding and smiling. “I gave you the pistols because they’re smaller and easier to use. I’ve got some that are nearly as tall as you are.”

Sam looked back at his, then glanced up at Aragorn, still completely confused by it and wondering if the King had been speaking in elvish just then. He hadn’t understood hardly anything he had said.

“How do you use it?” Frodo asked. He examined his closely, then pushed a button on the side, and part of it fell out, crashing to the ground with a clang. He jumped back, then looked up at Aragorn as if asking if that was supposed to happen.

Aragorn laughed. “That’s what you call the clip,” he said as Frodo bent and picked it up. “That’s where you put the bb’s that you shoot out of it.” He showed them a handful of little round colored pebbles.

“You shoot things out of it?” Pippin asked, staring down the barrel of his. “Whatever for?”

“To hit things with,” Aragorn said, quickly grabbing Pippin’s gun and righting it so the tween didn’t shoot his eye. “Targets, animals, people, pretty much anything.”

Sam paled. “Does it kill them?” he asked, suddenly feeling as though he wanted to drop the thing and hightail it away from there.

“No, of course not! Plenty of children have them. Unless you get hit in the eye, it’s perfectly harmless,” Aragorn said with a patient smile at Pippin.

“Why are they called bb’s?” Pippin asked, glancing up at the King, confused.

“Umm…” Aragorn thought for a second. “I don’t know.” He shrugged the question off and said, “Come, and I’ll show you how to use them.”

He led them out to a field behind the palace surrounded with some trees and showed them how to hold the guns and how to load and shoot them properly.

“We’re going to play a game now,” Aragorn said after about half an hour.

“Game?” Pippin said, brightening. “What kind of game?”

Aragorn smiled. “It’s a little like tag, only with airsoft guns. You try to hit people with your bb’s, instead of tagging them with your hands, though. If you’re hit three times, you’re out of the game.”

“Sounds like fun, let’s play!” Merry said, loading and cocking his pistol quickly.

Pippin agreed wholeheartedly. Frodo and Sam agreed, though not as enthusiastically, and Aragorn said, “All right, you can hide in the trees, or you can run around in the field, but I’d suggest sticking to the trees if you don’t want to get hit.”

They agreed, and scattered, hiding in the trees to wait for Aragorn to yell, “Go!”

Frodo knelt behind a tree and listened. Silence. Then finally he heard the heavy footsteps of the Ranger coming up to his tree. He quickly shot out and fired at the unsuspecting Aragorn.

Then suddenly there were shots from three other directions. Before he knew what had hit him, Aragorn had been hit three times and was out of the game.

Smiling ruefully to himself, he went to sit down on a bench to watch the ensuing war amongst the hobbits.

They fought it out for an hour before one of them was shot out. Frodo came to sit on the bench beside him.

“Are you out too?” Aragorn asked, smiling at the hobbit.

Frodo nodded as he climbed onto the bench and slid back, dangling his legs a foot or so over the ground. “My shoulder was beginning to ache, and I wasn’t as fast as I should have been, so they got me.” He laughed. “You should have known better than to play a game that involves hiding with hobbits,” he said. “I’m sure we could beat you every time, if we wanted to.” He looked up at Aragorn impishly.

Aragorn smiled ruefully. “I’m sure your good hearing had something to do with it as well,” he said, looking pointedly at the hobbit. 

Frodo grinned at his friend. “Now, why would that make a difference?” he asked sarcastically.

Aragorn smiled, glad that his dear friend had recovered some of his humor again. He had been far too serious since the Quest had ended and he’d woken up in Ithilien. Any chance to make the hobbit smile and have some fun, Aragorn thought.

“Now, I wonder who’ll be the next one out,” Aragorn said aloud.

Frodo thought a moment. “Probably Pippin, since he can’t stay still very long, he’s most likely to accidentally run in front of a shot,” Frodo replied.

Aragorn and Frodo sat and continued watching the game, and the Ranger was surprised at how fast the hobbits had come up with some pretty good strategies and learned how to play the game nearly as well as people who had played it for years.

But Frodo’s prediction was wrong. Sam was the next one out. He came to sit by his master and said, “I went out a’purpose. I wanted to make sure you were all right, dear.”

Frodo smiled. “Sam, you didn’t have to. I’m just fine, besides, Aragorn’s right here. Nothing would happen to me that he couldn’t fix.”

Sam smiled. “Well, I was gettin’ tired, too. Your cousins have far too much energy for me.”

Frodo laughed. “They do have a lot of energy, don’t they?”

They sat there to watch the rest of the battle, but it didn’t end.

About a half hour later, Frodo said, “Why don’t we go have luncheon and leave them here to fight it out? Knowing them, they won’t get hit until one of them gives in. It could go a while as it is.”

Aragorn nodded. “Sounds good to me. If they want lunch enough, they’ll end it on their own.” He laughed and stood.

“Will you two join me for lunch?” he asked loudly enough for Merry and Pippin to hear him.

“Don’t mind if we do,” Sam replied, just as loud.

Merry and Pippin froze.

“Did you hear that, Mer? They said lunch!” Pippin begain.

“Come on, I’m just about to win anyways, so why not just finish the game?” Merry replied, smirking at his cousin.

“Oh, you were not going to win! I’ve already shot you twice!” Pippin insisted.

“No you have not!”

“Yes I have!”

Frodo heard their exchange, and laughed, then followed Aragorn into the palace, stomach growling. The exercise had made him hungrier than he had been in a long time.

Suddenly he wondered if that had been Aragorn’s purpose in the game. He shrugged off that thought, and laid his gun down in the case Aragorn had pulled it out of. They would have to play again the next day.

~Finis~