"Every Day With You Is Special"

Pippin forgets an important occasion. Will Diamond forgive him?

Author: Grey Wonderer

Rating: NC-17

Category: Canon-General

Every Day With You is Special

He was nervous. There was no question that she had every right to be angry. He'd been thoughtless and forgetful and this wasn't the first time. He needed some sort of method for remembering all of the many little important days that she could call to mind effortlessly but that he seldom recalled. Oh, he recalled the events right enough, just not the dates, not the exact hours and never at the proper times. He flexed his hands where they hid in his trouser pockets and tried to think of something clever to say but that was hopeless as well. She didn't respond well to clever. She wanted sincerity and honesty. She actually preferred it when the words tumbled forth from his mouth before his mind was allowed to sort through them. Imagine! The very sort of behavior that everyone else chided him for was the very thing that this lass required of him.

He rounded the corner in the twilight and stopped. He could see her. He was struck by how small and delicate she looked standing there bathed in the fading light of day. She reminded him of a set of tiny figurines that sat on a high shelf in his mother's parlor. The figures had always fascinated him when he'd been a small child. They were made of a translucent glass and each figure was of a young hobbit lass. All three of the tiny figures were posed as if dancing to some unheard music. He had always thought that they were rather too delicate and too slim to be proper hobbit lasses. They looked a bit like elves or fairies except for the feet. He'd never been allowed to touch them. They were far too breakable and in his careless grasp they would not have survived for long. He shivered a bit at the thought and wondered how the startlingly beautiful lass just yards in front of him had managed to survive his touch.

Her thin shoulders were still now, so at least she was no longer crying. Her dark hair fell unhindered between her shoulder blades. She stood with her feet slightly apart and her arms folded. He could tell that she was looking up slightly at the darkening sky by the tilt of her head. He was hesitant to approach her and yet desperate for her forgiveness. He stood behind her at the edge of the little meadow shifting his weight from one foot to the other like a guilty child. She was only a small wisp of a lass but she held a power over him that no other could wield. She held his heart in her hands to do with as she would.

He swallowed and one of his feet settled on a dry twig that snapped as his weight pressed it to the ground. She stiffened but didn't turn. She knew that it was him. He was caught. Now he would have to speak or do something. Summoning all of his courage, he started toward her. His mind raced with a thousand possible excuses for his thoughtless behavior, each more ridiculous than the last, until finally he reached her side. He stood as still as he was able and looked down on the crown of her head as the last of the daylight played across her hair. "I'm sorry," he said softly. "I never mean to forget."

She looked down at her feet and sighed. "Do you ever plan to remember?" she asked still sounding hurt. "Do you ever think to leave yourself a reminder or to mark the day on a calendar or do you think of it at all once it has passed?"

"I think of it all of the time," he said his voice catching. "I love thinking about it. True, I hardly remember parts of it because I was far too nervous to be thinking properly while it was happening, but I think about it just the same. The trouble is I don't remember dates very well."

"That isn't a proper excuse," she frowned moving a step away from him and turning her back on him again.

"Well, it's all I have," he said desperately. "I seldom have anything proper to say. I don't think of the dates when they've past. I don't remember that one day might be different from the next or recall where I was at this time last year. Someone always has to call it to mind for me and then I remember." He stepped forward and put his hand on her shoulder and gently turned her to face him. "I remember how you looked as you came toward me with a small crown of violets in your hair. You were smiling that little smile that you give me when I've made you happy in some way and your eyes were on mine. You didn't look at all nervous but I could tell that you were."

"I was not," she objected looking directly at him for the first time since he'd arrived.

"You were," he said. I could tell because you were holding so tightly to the flowers that you carried. I feared that you might twist those poor violets from their stems before you reached me." He looked at her intently. "I was even more afraid that you might change your mind and turn away."

"You weren't," she said softly.

"I was," he said. "My heart was nearly in my throat and I kept trying to rush you forward by thinking of you at my side. I was so afraid that you might not marry me when it came to it. I couldn't dare to hope that you would actually go through with it all." He looked away from her almost shyly now. "I wasn't the only one that you had asking for your hand, after all." He sighed. "I know that you turned others away but I've never known why I was the one that you wanted. Now, after three years, I still don't do properly by you and remember our wedding day when it comes 'round. Maybe one of those other lads would have."

He could feel her eyes on him but he didn't look up. He just stood there and waited for her to say something. "I was a bit nervous," she said reaching out and taking his hand. "I worried that I might trip or do something else embarrassing, but I didn't worry that you wouldn't be there when I got there."

"I would have walked out to meet you but I was told that it wasn't proper," he confessed. "I remember it all, or at least the parts with you in them. I remember when you finally made your way to my side and you let go of your flowers with one hand. You reached over and took my hand in yours."

"You were shaking," she said.

"I was," he said daring to look at her now. "I thought that I might shake myself apart if we weren't wed quickly. I stopped shaking when you took my hand and stood beside me because then I knew that you meant to marry me for good and all." He smiled ever so slightly and said, "I don't suppose that I've done much today to make you glad that you married me, have I?"

She looked up at him and seemed to search his face with her eyes. "Is it so much to ask that you remember?"

"No," he said looking miserable. "It isn't much at all. I let things go completely out of my head and I know that I shouldn't. I know that I should have come to you this morning and wished you a happy marriage day. I should have had a present and maybe even given you a special party or taken you somewhere that you might enjoy going, but I didn't. I truly forgot and no one is more sorry about that than I am."

"You were sorry last year as well," she said sounding stern. "And if a certain very dear friend of yours hadn't come to your rescue and remembered it for you that first year, you would have been sorry then too." She squeezed his hand again and he opened his mouth to speak but she continued before he could. "I am your wife and I am proud of that. I like to think that you are proud of being married to me also, but it is very difficult to believe that when you have such trouble remembering it."

"I don't have trouble remembering that we're married," he objected. "I only have trouble remembering when we were married." He hung his head as he said this. "I am very proud to be married to you. It is the most important thing that I have ever done in all of my life. I am just very bad at remembering the date is all. I love you." He looked at her hopefully; his eyes brimming with unshed tears.

She reached up and put a small hand on his face and held his chin in place. "And I love you which is why I want you to remember the day," she scolded. "I want to know that it means something to you. I want this day to be our special day."

"All of my days with you are special," he said meaning it.

"You are incorrigible," she sighed. "And even worse, you owe me a present which I intend to collect!" She put her hands on her hips and tilted her head to one side. "I mean to have something special for our special day, now what do you have that you can give me?"

He eyed her cautiously like one might a coiled snake. If this was a trap then it was a very good one. He stood there feeling like a fool for a minute as one large, fat raindrop fell onto his nose. He looked up at the nearly dark sky and then he looked back at his wife. "I think it's starting to rain," he said.

"Never mind that," she said. "I'm waiting for my marriage present, Peregrin Took. If it rains, it rains but that does not excuse you from giving me my gift."

Another drop of rain smacked him on the back of his hand and there was a distant rumble of thunder. "I forgot completely so I haven't shopped nor made you anything," he said taking a step toward her.

"So, you don't have anything at all that you wish to give me?" she asked looking disappointed.

"I wish to give you everything that you want, but right now, I only have one thing that I can give you and you've had it before so I don't suspect that it'll be much of a surprise to you," he said with a slight lilt to his voice that hadn't been there moments before.

"Well, as you've nothing better to offer you might as well show me what you have," she said with a rather wicked smile. "If I don't like it, then you can get me something better tomorrow."

He grinned at her and began to remove his waistcoat as he walked toward her. "I'm not sure that I'll be able to find you anything better," he said.

"I'll be the one that decides about that," she said watching him unbutton his shirt and slide his braces off of his shoulders.

She smiled slightly as he came close to stand before her and began to unbutton his shirt. She noticed that his long, thin, fingers fumbled over the buttons. He was nervous and she found that very endearing. He wanted to please her, this dear sweet husband of hers. The rain began to drizzle down on them both as he removed his shirt and let it fall to the ground behind him. She continued to watch him as he reached for her and pulled her into his arms. She turned her face up to look at him and watched the rain catch in his thick lashes. "Do you remember the first time?' she asked pressing her cheek against his bare chest.

"I remember it was dryer," he said running his hands through her damp curls. "I also seem to recall that you were wearing a wee bit less than you are now."

She arched an eyebrow and stepped back from him. She could feel him watching her as she began to unfasten the long row of buttons that ran down the front of her dress. She took her time pausing between each button for a second or two before moving on to the next while he stood there with rain drenching him. A small smile played on her lips as she watched him shift his feet restlessly as he waited. He wanted her. She teased him a bit when she reached the mid-point of the buttons and made as if to refasten them. He quickly moved to her and stayed her hands with his, shaking his head and frowning. "Let me," he said. "You seem to be forgetting which way to go with this."

She stood still and he bent down placing his knees on the wet grass and continued to unfasten the pearl buttons, which ran all the way to the bottom of the dress. When he had finished, he looked up at her and she shrugged her shoulders and allowed the dress to fall from her thin frame leaving her standing before him in not but her petticoat. From his position on the grass, he placed his rough palms against her legs and slowly slid his hands up her body underneath the petticoat standing as he went and lifting it over her head. She felt the cool, wet air strike her skin and she spun about in a circle in her tiniest of undergarments, rain trailing down her breasts.

She heard him laugh and watched as he awkwardly stepped out of his trousers and stumbled in her direction his arms outstretched. She turned to welcome him and he wrapped his arms about her and pulled them both to the grass in one motion with her coming to rest on top of him. He landed with a sound thud on the ground. A crack of lightening lit the meadow for a split second and his green eyes flashed up at her as he pulled her mouth to his and began to kiss her. She closed her eyes tightly and opened her lips eager to taste of him as his tongue darted into her mouth. She pressed her lips hard against his and tasted apples and pipe weed. She dug her fingers into the grass on either side of him as she felt his fingers take hold of her curls tightly. The rain pounded down on her bare back as she pulled away from him and began to run her tongue across his chest and down to his flat stomach. He held her curls and moaned softly. Just as she reached that special place near his groin that always made him jump, she surprised him by rolling off onto her back on the grass. She laughed. "This is supposed to be my present, remember?" she said, wickedly.

He groaned softly and turned over on his side. "So it is," he said. He then reached over and cupped her breasts in his hands and massaged them tenderly giving special attention to her nipples in that special way that she enjoyed. After a few minutes, he took the left one into his mouth and ran his tongue across it. She arched her back and sighed contentedly running her hands through his hair as he moved to give his attention to the right breast. There was a loud crack of thunder and she felt his hand slip gently between her legs. She dug her nails into his back as he pleasured her with his clever fingers. Her cries of delight were lost amid the thunder.

When he finally entered her she was already breathless with delight from his touch. The rain was falling harder now and the flashes of lightening were more frequent. As he pressed hard into her and they began to move together in the delightfully familiar dance she watched as the lightening showed his face and then winked out again. He entwined his arms about her waist and she arched her back against his grip. When every last ounce of passion had pulsed through them, she found herself lying on the grass exhausted with her head against his shoulder and her legs still wrapped about him. He was not putting his full weight against her but his body sheltered her from the rain, which had now become a downpour. He smiled at her and she watched as a large, fat raindrop ran the length of his slender, pointed nose, reached the tip, and then fell onto her cheek. "Am I forgiven?" he asked and she could just hear him above the storm.

"You are," she said pulling him to her for another kiss. When their lips parted she smiled and said, "I may still need to go shopping all the same."

"Disappointed with your gift?" he asked trying to look hurt but not entirely able to make the smile leave his face.

"Not at all," she said. "But I do still think that as you forgot our wedding day that I might be entitled to two gifts this year."

He grinned at her wickedly and said, "That can be arranged and you needn't wait until tomorrow."

It was quite some time later when Diamond and Pippin dressed in their soaked clothing, which was not at all easy to do. She had an easier time of it than Pippin whose trousers kept sticking to his wet legs and refusing to cooperate. She had stood and laughed at him as he struggled to dress himself but he had got the last laugh when they had been unable to find her undergarments anywhere in the wet, dark, meadow. She didn't really mind losing her underthings but she did hope that no one else found them. Buckland was a queer place but it wasn't every day that a lasses' underthings were found lying about amid the daisies. As they walked home to Crickhollow in the drizzle that was left over from the storm, she laid her head against him and he kept a protective arm about her waist. She had a moment to think that maybe it wasn't such a serious flaw in his character that he couldn't seem to recall their wedding day. He did love her and tomorrow he would still love her. With Pippin every day was like their wedding day.

The End

Grey_wonderer

08/17/2005 (posted on West of the Moon 03/20/2006 and then moved here on 10/23/2007)