True love

True love.

Thanks to Entwife for the beta-ing!


The first memory I have of you is one of butterflies.

Of you, sun shining in your bouncy curls, crawling through the long grass in your father’s orchard.

You were a little toddler, not much older than 3 I believe, chasing after those butterflies, trying to catch one.

I don’t think you ever did though, but somehow, that didn’t matter. You just kept smiling that mischievous smile of yours, you had it even back then, did you know ?

And when you grew tired, you simply crawled on my lap. Still turning and laughing dreamingly when your sleep had taken over.

You were the kind of child that made people laugh, Pippin.

The kind of child that made your father, the took, crawl on his knees after you, pretending to be a dragon, simply becouse you liked it.

The kind of child that never questioned people’s love for him.

You made me climb after you, when you had gotten to high up in one of those trees, stealing apples. And then you would hold on to me, so tight, counting on me to make it all right again.

You shared all your best hidingplaces with me, even though that meant we always had to hide together. I think you might have known, understood, back then, that I had been hiding alone too long already.

Today you lay in my bed here Pippin. Alone, with me next to it.

And I never want to forget how it feels. Never.

Right after the memory of the butterflies come many others, of shared meals and summers, tickles and feasts. Of you biting in apples, you bouncing on my knee, us going to visit cousin Frodo, your first pint, your first pipe and how sick you got from it.

Somehow those memories of you are much clearer than those of my own youth. Well, I was still young back then I suppose, but I just didn’t realise it. I was always the grown-up, much bigger than you.
I was the one who taught you how to swim in the Brandybuck river when you were seven. The one who knew you learned yourself to read at ten, so you could read my letters yourself when I send them to you. But that you pretended not to so your sisters wouldn’t tease you.

You thought I knew everything back then, didn’t you?

Do you still now ?

I don’t know.

I want to ask you, but you are asleep. The golden light of the upcoming sun playing in your hair.

I want to capture this moment,lock it in a cage, and never let it go, ever. But you thought me. You thought me the harder you hold on to something, the faster it slips away.

So I just cherish it now.

Becouse after this moment, after this quiet hour when dawn makes place for sunshine, nothing will ever be the same again.

He stirs, and slowly his eyes open and his gase wanders over my face.

"What am I to you, Pippin ?"

"My true love."

"Oh…" I could ruin this moment, between sleeping and being totally awake. But I don’t. I kiss him, and whisper : "You’re mine too, Pip."

He smiles. "I’ve always known that, Merry."