"So here is the thief!" Gandalf cried. "But you, Pippin! This is a grievous turn to things!" He snatched the Palantír out of the Hobbit's hands, carefully covering it with a cloth.

"Gandalf!" Pippin cried as he focused again on the world around him. "He was about to answer!"

"Who?" the Wizard demanded. "Answer what? What did you see?"

"I saw…I saw a tower, and battlements, and things with wings that cut off the stars. Then he came. I was so frightened…I'm sorry Gandalf, but I couldn't help it."

"Help what? What did you say to him?" Gandalf demanded, even more urgently. Merry and Aragorn leaned in worriedly.

"I asked him what it was I was looking into," Pippin confessed. "He seemed rather surprised that I asked…He told me it was a Palantír. Of course, that meant nothing to me, so I asked what that was. He told me it was a Seeing Stone, made by Fëanor, and that they could see the other Seeing Stones and could be used to speak with those that held them over long distances. I thought that would be very useful, so I asked who this Fëanor was. He told me that Fëanor was an Elf that had lived a very long time ago, and who had made the Silmarils.

"Now, I had heard of the Silmarils, as we had heard the tale in Rivendell of Beren the One-handed and the Great Jewel, and I told him so. He seemed to be annoyed by that, and then I remembered that he was a part of that tale… so I did the first thing I could think of."

"And what was that?" Gandalf asked, concern beginning to fade into amusement.

"I asked him if he liked mushrooms," Pippin said. He turned to his cousin. "He said he'd never tried them. Can you believe it Merry? He's never had mushrooms! Well, I quickly assured him they were very delicious, and told him about some of my favorite recipes for them. He told me that he was too busy at the moment to try to find some and cook them, but that perhaps someday he would. Of course, I found it a shame that he was too busy for mushrooms, so I asked him why he was trying to take over the world." He turned reproachfully to Gandalf.

"He was just about to answer when you pulled the Palantír out of my hands!" he said indignantly. Gandalf's mouth twitched.

"My apologies, Pippin," he said with a conciliatory air. "I was worried for you, and what you might say about the Quest; something that would be disastrous for your cousin."

"I would never betray Frodo," Pippin said firmly.

"No, I don't think you would," Gandalf said fondly. "Rest now."

He withdrew and stared at the Orthanc Stone, his shoulders beginning to shake with laughter.

"Well," Aragorn said to break the silence. "It seems that even the Dark Lord is no match for a Took's inquisitiveness."

At that, Gandalf began to chuckle out loud. He could only imagine his brother's bemused expression at the sudden torrent of questions from the young Hobbit.

"Tookishness is certainly not a force to be underestimated, my friend," he finally said, when he could speak again. "Not in the least."

The mushrooms were my little sister's idea: when I told her about this idea I had, she instantly told me Pippin should ask Sauron if he liked mushrooms. My Sauron-muse instantly went, 'They're fungus. Why would I eat fungus?' So when I sat down to actually write it, mushrooms had to be there. :)