Disclaimer: i don't own the characters, or the actors playing the characters, or anything like that. i'm not making money from it either.

A/N: Hello, i'm back with another lovely slash fic, this time with Merry/Pip. Mostly movie world, though the timelines are book world cos it's just easier. My first ever Merry and Pippin fanfic, so please be kind and review! also, get ready for muchos angst! enjoy...

Never Forget

A small, lone figure picks his way through the water at Isengard. He's been searching for hours now, and it's getting dark.

Waist deep, he cries out a name desperately:

"Merry! Merry!"

*****

"Hold on tight!" The Ent shouted, as he braced himself against the water. Merry grinned at Pippin, and Pippin grinned back.

"Good view, eh, Pip?" Merry said.

"I suppose so, but I can't wait to get down from here so I can have something to eat. I'm famished!"

*****

"Merry, where are you?!" The tiny figure makes his way over to an area where the water isn't quite so deep, where you can see what's underneath. Pippin can see horrible orc bodies, bloated with the rush of water, but nothing else.

He goes to turn away, almost despairing. Until...

*****

"Do you ever think about anything but food?" Merry asked exasperatedly.

"No, do you?" replied Pippin cheekily. They both laughed, then stopped when, in a heart stopping moment, Merry slipped off the branch he was sitting on.

"Merry!" Pippin cried in terror.

"Pip!" Merry made a grab for the branch, but it was too spray-slippery, and all Pippin could do was look on in agonising horror while his best friend was thrown into the rushing waters of the sea.

*****

Pippin lays Merry down on the driest bank he can find. Terrible, frightening thoughts run through his mind: What if it's been too long? What if it's too late?

He'd pulled him from under a heavy orc body, and now Merry is still unconscious, and air-starved, and so cold! Why doesn't he warm up?

Merry starts to cough and shiver violently. Pippin sits with his head on his lap, cradling, comforting. He's waking up.

"...Pip?" Eyelids flutter open to reveal pain-filled, stormy grey eyes.

"I'm here, Merry. I'm with you. It's going to be alright."

"Pippin, it hurts... hurts to breathe..." That orc he got trapped under could have crushed a lung... or both lungs.

Merry begins to close his eyes again but Pippin frantically tries to keep him awake.

"Merry, stay with me! Please, don't leave me behind!" He's sobbing with fear by now, fear for Merry, for himself, for the world to which he was so naive until now.

"Pippin,", Merry mumbles through blue lips, "My chest feels so heavy... got to sleep... I love you, Pip. Don't ever forget." He closes his eyes, and Pippin knows he is lost. He leans down so that they are touching foreheads.

"I love you too, Merry," He chokes out through a rising wave of grief. "I'll never forget, ever."

As Merry sighs out one last rattling, gurgling breath, then stills, Pippin lets out a cry that would rend the hearts of even the coldest of men.

*****

6 Days later:

"Come," says Denethor commandingly, "I would hear you sing."

So Pippin sings:

"Home is behind, The world ahead,

And there are many paths to tread,

Through shadow, to the edge of night,

Until the stars are all alight,

Mist and shadow, cloud and shade,

All shall fade, all shall...

I'll never forget, Merry... This is for you.

...Fade."

A/N: Well, i hope y'all liked that! :) i'm sorry if i shocked anyone with the deathfic-ness, but i needed the element of surprise in this one, it would have ruined it if i'd given a warning :P Also, i do suppose that Treebeard would probably have done something about it, but this is my fanfiction and he's just not hasty enough :P Reviews make me a very happy slashwriter! ^-^