Written for the last of the There and Back Again community's Four Loves Challenge: Romantic/Erotic Love. For Iorhael's birthday.
It took some doing for Frodo and Pearl to slip free of the prying eyes of friends and relatives, of which both had far too many, Frodo thought at times. They were hiding behind a booth where were sold apple tarts, Frodo peering around one edge to watch an anxious young Pippin go by in search of them. “When I think,” he whispered to Pearl, “how many times I helped your aunt and Uncle Saradoc find some privacy to talk together and maybe snatch a kiss or two--to see Pippin doing all he can to make certain we aren’t alone together--it’s too bad, really!”
She glared after her little brother’s retreating form. “He’s an interfering little busybody!” she agreed.
Once the young Took had disappeared down toward the ring where the ponies were shown, the Baggins lad and Took lass took off at a run toward the Grove, a stand of trees along one side of the grounds for the Michel Delving Free Fair long used by the tweens of the Shire as a place where they might kiss and cuddle some, although there was an unspoken edict that clothing remained--mostly--in place, and hands stayed outside that clothing. Once safely screened by the trees they sought out a place where they might speak--or not--privately, finding that most of the more sheltered places had already been claimed by other young couples. Both blushing slightly, they averted their attention from the others, finally spotting the perfect place in a small bay bounded by currant bushes. “There!” Pearl breathed, and with stifled giggles the two slid into the brushy hollow.
He looked down into her eyes, noting the mixture of relief and uncertainty she showed, and felt touched. “I think that we are alone now,” he murmured. He reached out to twist a lock of her hair about one of his fingers, reveling at the warmth and softness, breathing in the sweet scent of the soap she’d used last. She reached up to trail one of her slender index fingers along the line of his jaw, and he felt his mouth open in delight. Tentatively he leaned down to kiss her, something he’d so wished to do for some time. She appeared first surprised and then delighted. It was a bit awkward for a second as they found they had to turn their faces slightly in order to kiss, but suddenly they found the proper angle, and made that first contact of lip to lip....
“Oh!” she said as they parted to breathe, looking up into his eyes, her own wider, the pupils darker.
He felt himself warming to her presence the more. “Oh, yes!” he responded, and leaned down to kiss her yet again. “Oh, yes!” he repeated, his mouth to hers, before resuming that so delightful a pastime. “My heavens, yes!” he exulted some time later when, both of them far more experienced in the art of kissing, they again came back to themselves. He held her to him, feeling her heart beating against his midriff, her breathing against his chest, the warmth of her body pressed to his.
And there was more to love than this--this warmth and comfort? If mere kissing could do this to both of them, what would the rest of lovemaking be like? As he thought on some of the dreams he’d had in the past few years and felt the softness of her breasts against her bodice and felt himself responding in kind, he found his smile broadening as he stroked her upper back tenderly. He was thirty-one now, and she’d be twenty-five in a couple of weeks. Could he bear to wait a full two years more to claim her as his bride? And there would be Paladin and Eglantine to convince to let her go early--he doubted Bilbo would object.
She was as eager as he was to kiss again, he found to his further delight. Oh, but he’d never dreamed love could be this--enjoyable! As for kissing Pearl Took.... Well, he reckoned (while he could still think enough to reckon anything), there were few things he’d ever done he’d liked even half so well! But then even that thought fled as the kiss deepened....