| | grey_wonderer (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2){kind=small} grey_wonderer) wrote in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif?v=92.2){kind=small} hobbit_ficathon, |
For Dreamflower's teaching challenge.
Pippin is 22 and Amethyst is 24
This one takes place in the barn near Brandy Hall in Buckland.
“You Must Remember This…”
“Lean forward and turn your head slightly to the side,” Amethyst Brandybuck instructed.
“Which side?” Pippin frowned.
“Lean it slightly to the right because I usually go left, but really it depends upon the lass,” she clarified. “So with me it would be right but with someone else it might be left.”
“How do you know?” Pippin frowned deeper. “I mean, there you are with your courage all screwed up and just seconds before it comes time to do it, you have to bother about which way to lean your head?”
Amethyst sighed. “You’re making far too much of this part of it all. When you get ready to do it, the leaning will come naturally and if you’ve worked up to it properly then she’ll know what’s coming and she’ll lean first.”
“But suppose it’s gone a bit wrong and she doesn’t know?” Pippin asked worriedly. “I mean, what if you’ve not made it clear what you mean to do and so you have to lean first? Is there a direction that is most common like with writing?”
“Writing?” She looked at him in confusion.
“Well, most folks write with their right hand,” Pippin explained. “It just comes naturally to them and so they use their right hand. Some folks are left handed but not nearly so many as are right handed so you see what I mean, don’t you?”
“Not entirely, no,” she frowned, her blue eyes squinting at him.
“More folks are right handed and so are most lasses inclined to lean to the right when they do this?”
“I have no idea!” Amethyst shouted.
“Well, you’re the one giving the lesson so if you don’t know then who does?” Pippin wanted to know.
“Look, Pippin,” Amethyst sighed. “Maybe you aren’t really ready for this yet.” She started to walk away and he reached out and took hold of her shoulders.
“Amee, wait,” Pippin pleaded. “I have to be ready for this. I want to, so I must be ready. If you don’t teach me then I’ll likely do it completely wrong.”
She turned back to face him, looking intently at him as if sizing him up. “Well, you are old enough,” she said thoughtfully leaning her head to the left as she spoke. “In fact you’re starting a bit later at it than most if you ask me.”
Pippin scowled. “I didn’t ask.”
“And you’re tall enough for it in most cases,” she said. “There’s a lass or two that you’d not manage well with unless you sat her down first, but there are more than enough your height or shorter.” She walked completely around him taking in the set of his shoulders, the length of his hair, the way he wore his clothes, and his general appearance. When she again stood in front of him, she smiled and looked into his bright green eyes. “And you’re not bad looking.”
Pippin blushed. “You keep looking me over as if I were a stable pony that you had a mind to buy and it isn’t helping any.”
“Fine, then let’s get back to the matter at hand, shall we?” Amethyst said running a hand through her short, honey-colored curls and taking a step closer to Pippin. “Let’s say that you have given the lass the impression that you are about to kiss her and so she knows what’s about to happen and she doesn’t mind. In fact, let’s say that she’s all for giving it a go and she plans to let you kiss her.”
“All right,” Pippin agreed nervously.
“Let’s say that you’ve managed to move things along nicely and you’ve found a quiet spot and the two of you are alone,” Amethyst continued.
“Like we are now,” Pippin nodded glancing around the barn.
“Yes, like we are now,” she agreed.
Pippin stuffed his hands into his trouser pockets and rocked on his heels. He bit his lower lip and frowned at her, waiting. “Now, what?” he asked.
“Well, for one thing, you do not kiss a lass with your hands in your pockets,” she said.
“Oh,” Pippin said and he removed his hands from his pockets and held them at his sides. “Is this better then?”
She groaned. “Pippin, have you ever even seen a lad kiss a lass?”
“Of course I have,” Pippin said. “I have three older sisters and I’ve seen lads kiss them before. I’ve seen Frodo kiss a lass before and Merry, of course.”
“Everyone in the Shire has seen Merry,” Amethyst agreed looking slightly disgusted.
“Well, he must be doing it quite well because he gets to do it all the time,” Pippin said sounding as if he were defending Merry.
“Fine,” Amethyst said latching onto this idea. “Then remember what you’ve seen Merry do and do that!”
Pippin’s eyes widened. “I can’t do that!”
“What did you see him do?” Amethyst wanted to know suddenly very interested.
“Well, he,” Pippin stopped, then moved a step closer to her and then raised one arm but didn’t move again.
“Well?”
“He,” Pippin faltered. “He sort of put his hand on the back of her head and pulled her forward.”
“Do it!” Amethyst ordered in a sharp tone.
“Now?”
“No, three weeks from now,” she sighed. “Honestly, Peregrin Took, you are starting to get on my very last nerve.”
Pippin squeezed his eyes shut for a minute and then opened them and looked at Amethyst. He licked his lips and then reached out and put his hand on the back of her head and began to pull her forward until their noses touched. He stared at her, his eyes open wide and was unable to go any further.
She stared back at him, sighed and then put one hand on either side of his head and turned him ever so slightly to the right and pressed her lips against his while closing her eyes. She heard him make a tiny choking sound but she ignored it completely and continued to put pressure on his lips. When, after several seconds, nothing happened, she let him go and pulled back to find him staring at her, eyes still wide and mouth hanging open. “You’re supposed to do something when I kiss you,” she said.
“I was,” Pippin said recovering enough to look defensive.
“Really? What were you doing, because I didn’t notice anything at all,” Amethyst said critically.
“I was watching you so that I could learn what to do of course,” Pippin said.
“You left your eyes open?”
“Well, I can’t learn anything if I can’t see,” Pippin reasoned. “I didn’t want to miss anything.”
“You missed the entire point of the thing,” she frowned.
“Again?” Pippin looked dejectedly at her. “What did I do wrong?”
“Everything,” she said.
“Well, that’s not very helpful,” Pippin frowned. He looked down at his feet and at the fresh straw that coated the barn floor. “I mean how can I correct it, if you aren’t a wee bit more specific?”
“All right,” she agreed. “You left your eyes open, you made me pull you forward instead of the other way around, you didn’t remember to turn your head and so I had to turn it for you to keep your pointed nose from putting out one of my eyes, you didn’t put your arms around me, you made some sort of unpleasant choking noise, and basically, you just stood there as if you were a tree. Is that of any help to you?”
Pippin swallowed hard and looked over at her. “It’s something to work with.”
“Look, a lass likes to feel as if the lad kissing her wants to kiss her,” Amethyst sighed. “She wants him to think that it’s his idea even if she’s the one that starts it all.”
“That’s rather tricky and not at all honest,” Pippin said.
“Not everything about this sort of business is honest,” Amethyst smiled. “The point is that when you kiss a lass she should enjoy it and so should you. Now, did you enjoy what we just did?”
“Not really,” Pippin said. He rubbed the back of his head a bit. “You pulled my hair slightly and it felt as if you were trying to bruise my lips. In fact, you may have.”
“I was trying to get you to kiss me back only you didn’t.”
“I thought I was kissing you back,” Pippin confessed. “When you started pushing, I pushed back.”
“It’s not a shoving match, you silly Took!”
“What then?”
She walked over to him and smiled. “When your lips meet mine, I want you to part them slightly, not much, just a bit.”
“You mean instead of shoving?”
“You will put your hands on my waist and I will lean in, put my hand behind your head,” she stopped when she noticed that he was rubbing his hand through his hair again. “I won’t pull your hair this time.”
“Good,” Pippin said taking a step toward her.
“Now, I will pull you forward and don’t fight me because you are supposed to want to kiss me,” she instructed. “I will put my lips against yours and press slightly and then you will part your lips a bit and press back but don’t shove. Just press against me, all right?”
He nodded and stepped into position planting his feet slightly apart as if for balance and putting one hand on either side of her waist. He looked at her with wide, slightly fearful, eyes and waited.
“When I start to move forward, close your eyes,” she said.
“Why?”
“It’s better that way,” she said.
“It is?”
“Yes, it’s far better than staring at the other hobbit while that close up,” Amethyst said.
“It did rather make my eyes cross before,” Pippin said.
Amethyst ignored this remark and placed her hand on his head gently, being careful not to pull his hair. She felt his hands tighten on her waist slightly. She pulled him forward tilting his head as she did so and then placed her lips on his. She felt him push back against her slightly and then felt his lips part. Startled, she pulled back and glared at him. “What was that?”
“What?”
“You opened your mouth!”
“You told me to open it!”
“I told you to part your lips slightly, not open your mouth wide enough to put an entire apple in there!”
“I was nervous. I was only trying to do what you said to do,” Pippin objected.
“Just part your lips a bit like this,” Amethyst said. She leaned forward and parted her lips ever so slightly and allowed him to study her intently. “Do you think you can manage that?”
“I think so,” Pippin said and he cracked his knuckles loudly and then put his hands back on her hips.
She moved toward him again and put her hand on his head and then pressed her lips against his and this time she felt his lips part gently and ever so slightly and then…..
Pippin pulled back, nearly shoving her to the barn floor. “You put your tongue in my mouth!”
“I know that!”
“You didn’t say anything about that!”
“We were kissing and it was going well so I just did what I usually do next,” she said with a slight shrug of her shoulders. “Didn’t you like it?”
“I never had anyone’s tongue in my mouth except my own!” Pippin objected.
“Well I can tell that by the way you reacted to it all,” she sighed.
“I wasn’t expecting it,” Pippin explained. “It’s like taking a drink of tea and getting some of the tea grounds in your mouth and then you have to spit them out because you weren’t expecting them.”
“Tea grounds!”
“Well I didn’t spit or anything,” Pippin said.
“If you had, you’d be dead now,” Amethyst said in a low, menacing tone. She folded her arms over her chest and glared at him. “I can’t teach you this. You’re hopeless.”
“I am not,” Pippin objected. “I was starting to get it and then you surprised me by putting your tongue in my mouth.”
“That’s part of kissing you ninny hammer,” she hissed at him.
“It is?”
“Not every time but most of the time.”
“Let’s do it again then,” Pippin said determinedly.
“One more time,” Amethyst said. “But if you don’t improve then I am not continuing.”
“I’ll improve,” Pippin said. “Oh, one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Do I put my tongue in your mouth too?”
Amethyst nodded. “At some point during the kiss you can if you feel like it.”
“And if I don’t feel like it?”
“Then don’t do it,” she said a bit too sharply. “Lads who kiss me properly usually want to but you don’t have to since you are just a beginner at this and not very good at it.”
Pippin frowned at her and then moved forward with alarming speed, placed his hand smoothly against the back of her head and deliberately tilted it to the right instead of the left. He put his other arm around her waist and pulled her forward so that she came up onto her toes. He put his lips against hers and parted them slightly and then instantly slid his tongue into her mouth.
Startled, Amethyst pressed her lips against his and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. As his tongue moved out of her mouth, she slid hers into his and moved her lips slightly. They continued this for some time until Pippin finally pulled back and lessened his grip on her waist so that she came to rest on her heels again. He looked at her and waited.
“That was much better,” Amethyst smiled still slightly surprised. “I think you’re improving.”
“I think,” Pippin said and then paused.
“What?”
“I think I need more practice,” Pippin said hopefully and he pulled her toward him again enthusiastically. She didn’t resist.
After nearly two hours of serious practice, Amethyst pulled back and smiled at Pippin. “You are now an accomplished kisser. Congratulations.”
Pippin grinned back at her, his lips still warm and a bit numb from all of the practice. “So if I decide to kiss a lass you think she’ll enjoy it?” he asked.
“You’ve had an expert teacher so she’d be a fool not to enjoy it,” Amethyst said firmly. “In fact, if you have any complaints then the lass is most likely not worth kissing.”
“Once more, just to make sure?” Pippin asked. He hadn’t enjoyed kissing when the lesson had first begun but now he could see why everyone was so keen on it.
Feeling a bit breathless but having actually begun to enjoy kissing her eager student, Amethyst allowed him to embrace her once more. They had just begun to kiss when applause erupted and cheers were sounded. Startled, Amethyst and Pippin pulled apart and looked around. Standing near the barn door and leaning on some of the stalls were a great many of the Brandybuck’s stable workers, several small hobbit children, at least three members of the kitchen staff, a couple of hobbits from a neighboring farm, and Berilac, Merry and Frodo. All of them were applauding and cheering except one small hobbit lad who wrinkled up his nose and said loudly, “That’s yucky!”
Amethysts eyes widened and she blushed slightly as Pippin, hair mussed, lips cherry red and shirt pulled out of his trousers on one side, quickly stepped in front of her to shield her from view. She giggled, seeing the humor in it all and stepped out from behind her now accomplished pupil and the defender of her honor. She took one of his hands in hers. “Bow,” she whispered.
Pippin, who looked terribly embarrassed, stared at her as though she were mad. “Are you daft? We’re surrounded,” he hissed weakly.
“Trust me,” she whispered. “I’ve had more experience with this sort of thing.”
Not seeing any other option, Pippin held onto her hand and bowed as she curtsied. There were more applause and a few whistles as Amethyst led Pippin from the barn and back toward the Hall. The two of them walked arm in arm giggling.
Years later, when Diamond North-Took of Long Cleeve had become Pippin’s wife, Amethyst Brandybuck overheard the new Mrs. Took telling a friend what a wonderful kisser Pippin was. Grinning a bit wickedly, Amethyst had walked past Diamond and said in a very low voice, “He started out dreadfully but he improved with alarming speed.” Diamond had looked after her curiously and Amethyst had always wondered exactly how Pippin had explained the remark or if Diamond had even bothered to ask. Some days, Amethyst regretted not pursuing Pippin Took. Most days in fact.
The End
GW 03/12/2006
Dreamflower’s challenge made me think of a story that I promised Pippinfan some time back about a certain incident that involved Pippin, Merry’s cousin Amethyst, and the barn all of which are mentioned in my story, “Home Again” and so, here it is, Pippinfan. Hope you enjoy it.
The original story is very long but the part that inspired this little story is a conversation between Merry and Amethyst at the little house in Crickhollow before Merry and Pippin have moved in.
***
From Chapter nine of “Home Again”
Merry nodded. “I’ll make a try at talking you out of travel in this, though I am sure that I’m wasting my breath." Merry put on his best pleading look and began in a very worried tone, "That weather looks like a storm will soon be upon us, Amee. Are you sure you wouldn’t stay here and wait it out?” He grinned at her, knowing the answer.
Amee shook her honey-colored curls and laughed at him. Her hair was only slightly darker than Merry’s and she resembled him a bit around the eyes. One could see that they were family. “No, I’m a big lass now and I’ll find my way. A bit of a storm won’t stop me from making it to town. A few of us are meeting for dinner at a friend's smial and then some good gossip. A lass can’t miss out on good gossip.” She winked at him and started for the door. She paused and then turned and asked, “What do you hear from Pippin?”
Merry smiled, “Why do you ask?”
“I was thinking about him the other day and what a shy, silly, lad he was back when we were children,” Amee said.
“Shy?” Merry laughed. “I think you must be talking about a different Pippin.”
“I meant shy with the lasses,” Amee smiled. “No, he never held back with friends and family, but I seem to remember he was not too clever at first with the lasses.”
Merry sighed, “I seem to remember that you attempted to help him sort out that problem. I think it was in one of the barns near the Hall when Pip was twenty-two and you were twenty-four. I suspect that he remembers it also. In fact, I imagine more than a few folks might remember it.”
“He’d better remember it and as to who all else remembers it, I could care less,” Amee said, trying to look offended. She stood up on her toes and pulled Merry into a quick hug, giving him a kiss on the cheek as she did so. “I’m glad you’re home. I missed you, cousin” With that, she hurried out the door to her waiting pony and left.
***
March 17 2006, 09:56:08 UTC 6 years ago
March 17 2006, 15:00:35 UTC 6 years ago
March 17 2006, 11:00:12 UTC 6 years ago
I also loved that no one had to teach him to defend a lady's honor--even if she knew it didn't need defending.
And if they had that large an audience for the end of the lesson, I'm sure Diamond did not need to look far for an explanation of that cryptic remark--I'm sure that if no one else enlightened her, Berilac would have been glad to.
March 17 2006, 15:04:04 UTC 6 years ago
I got a laugh thinking about Tobias Tunnelly teaching kissing! At least there wouldn't have been a hammer involved. (I don't think.)
I figured with older sisters, Pippin knew all about defending a lady's honor even if he wasn't too sure about kissing. I do tend to write Amee is a bit of a bold lass so I suspect that Pippin was far more embarrassed for her than she was herself.
March 17 2006, 14:37:44 UTC 6 years ago
March 17 2006, 15:04:30 UTC 6 years ago
March 17 2006, 16:20:18 UTC 6 years ago
March 18 2006, 07:04:33 UTC 6 years ago
Glad you liked this one. I have meant to write this for quite some time now and I finally managed it.
March 17 2006, 18:38:51 UTC 6 years ago
I do remember that snippet from "Home Again" now that you cite it, and am glad to have the explanation. I do wonder just how long that crowd had been gathering, though... Seems like quite good entertainment for the Brandy Hall crowd (and for us readers)!
March 18 2006, 07:06:38 UTC 6 years ago
Glad you enjoyed this. I have always meant to write more with Amethyst in it because I got attached to her while writing "Home Again". I don't usually do that with my OC's.
March 18 2006, 15:09:54 UTC 6 years ago
March 18 2006, 19:14:01 UTC 6 years ago
March 19 2006, 03:47:54 UTC 6 years ago
March 20 2006, 04:35:39 UTC 6 years ago
April 3 2007, 10:56:31 UTC 5 years ago
April 3 2007, 19:27:54 UTC 5 years ago