By: Dana
Summary: Merry has never wanted to fail Pippin.
Characters: Merry, Pippin, others
Pairings: None
Rating: PG
Warnings: Angst
Author's Notes: For Lindelea, because she was not feeling well and wanted a ficlet -- Merry standing over Pippin, before the Orcs, with his sword drawn -- and I was only too happy to comply. Here's to your feeling better, and soon, my dear.
Disclaimer: The author makes no claim to owning the rights of anything to do with J.R.R. Tolkien or New Line Cinema. Any and all characters and situations that have been borrowed are for the author's personal use only, and for the entertainment of others.

Merry has never wanted to fail Pippin. He had had a habit of playing tagalong when he had been much younger, and Merry would often find himself having to look out for Pippin, when Pippin would not to think to look out for himself. Scrapes and skinned knees and broken bones, Pippin has been through so much, and Merry knows - this is different. This is, all of it, different than anything before.

And Merry, whether he had wanted to or not, had never allowed himself to even think of failing Pippin. He has always been upright and forthright and every other kind of right, in respect to his younger cousin.

And - up until now - he has never failed him.

They are both tagalongs, here, out in the wide world so far from their homes, and there might be sweat dripping into Merry's eyes, causing his vision to blur, and he almost feels like he has already failed, seeing Pippin lying crumpled at his feet.

But, Merry knows, it will go no further than that, and his sword is drawn and his hands are tight about the hilt, and he glares with such raw emotion at the orcs that surround him, them, daring them, with all the malice he can muster, to dare try and take Pippin away, that some of the creatures step back a pace, before the laughter of the ones behind scorns them forward again, creeping ever closer.

He has never really hated, but he does hate, now. They will not take Pippin away from him, though; for all he lies so still, unmoving, he could already be gone. They are only here after all because they thought to follow Frodo, but this is not their cousin's fault, and Merry would not dare think such a thing. They made their own bed, and now it seems time to lie in it.

And, if he is to fall, and if darkness is to overcome them and at last, the unthinkable has happened - he has failed Pippin - at least Merry knows he will not live to regret it.