Hey Febobe! Lookee!

[rabidsamfan]

Pippin climbed into the tub and started to wash, humming softly to himself. Bergil fetched another bucket of water from the copper and balanced it on the edge of the tub to cool a little before it was needed. "What are you humming?" he asked.

"Sing hey, for the bath at the close of day that washes the weary mud away," Pippin sang amenably. He paused in his ablutions to cock an eye at Bergil's grin. "Don't you sing in the bath?"

"Sometimes," Bergil allowed. "But I don’t know any special songs just for baths. And that one's wrong. It's morning, now."

"We'll just make up new words then. Let's see," Pippin lathered up his hands and made himself a soap bubble beard to stroke thoughtfully. "Sing hey for the bath at the break of day, that washes the heavy sleep away…" He shook his head. "No, that's not quite right."

Bergil nibbled at a rough place on his lower lip until he had an idea, and then dipped his fingers in the waiting bucket. Perfect. "Sing ho for a bath at the end of night," he sang, shifting his hands into position, "when you wake up and your hair's a fright!" He upended the bucket over Pippin, flattening the offending curls and leaving Pippin spluttering with giggles.

"Go on then!" the soaked Halfling said. "What's the rest of it?"

"I don't know," Bergil said. "I don't know how the rest of the song goes."

"Well I'd best make up the next line then," Pippin said. "How about 'A loon it is who water fears, and forgets to wash behind his ears!" He reached out an arm and caught Bergil by the neck long enough to apply his washrag to the offending spots, and Bergil was trying to hard to giggle quietly to wriggle. He was let go soon enough, and splatted at his soaking tunic with flat hands.

"I did wash behind my ears," he protested gleefully.

Pippin displayed the sullied rag, which had taken on a definitely grey tinge, "I see," he said, doubtfully. But the laughter was bubbling in his eyes. "Now that you're wet anyway, make yourself useful and scrub my back, will you?"

Pippin knew all kinds of neat things to do with soap and water besides washing. He could make water fountain up between his hands like someone spitting, and knew more ways of making a froth of soap bubbles interesting than Bergil had imagined, like building a chain of bubbles by blowing through his fist. He could even make bubbles that floated away from his hand and out of the tub, and he showed Bergil how to do it too.

They were trying to be quiet, but it wasn't easy, because the water would escape the tub in spite of all their care and it splashed just as loudly as it wonted to. Then the soap popped up out of Bergil's hands and Pippin missed catching it by a whisker, so it bounced of the end of his fingertips and skidded across the damp floor to slide out of sight under the Ringbearer's bed.

"I'll get it," Bergil volunteered, and shinnied quickly under the bedcurtains along the glistening trail of soapy water. It was under here somewhere… There wasn't too much dust, since the house had been cleaned so recently. There weren't even any shoes to move aside, although there was a small stack of books beside the far edge of the bed and a bag of mysterious shapes near the foot. He didn't see the soap, though. It must have gone right on through.

He wriggled the rest of the way, bumping his head only once on the slats, and pushed up the curtain to look out. Aha. There it was. Bergil reached for the soap and only belatedly realized that the curtain that had been resting on his head was being moved from above. He turned his head to look up, and froze when he realized that the Ringbearer was leaning on the edge of the bed, holding the curtain aside with one arm. The bright blue eyes glittered in the half-shadow of the bed; Bergil was at too awkward an angle to see anything more, at least not clearly, but he didn't dare move, at least not until the soft voice released him.

"Good morning, lad," the Ringbearer said with gentle amusement. "I see that you've rescued the soap. Now all I must hope is that Pippin has saved enough water for the rest of us."

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