Part 1 of the Elfwine Chronicles. The Elfwine Chronicles are a series of one-shots, of which there will definitely be three, but MIGHT be more if I come up with more ideas.

A/N: This is just a fluffy little one-shot, brought on, oddly enough, by attending a funeral and seeing a father with his son. It has no real connection to any of my other stories, other than the fact that it has Eomer and Lothiriel in it, of course. Something nice to read on a Sunday.

In case you are interested, the backstory of how Eomer/Lothiriel got together prior to the beginning of the Elfwine Chronicles is set forth in these stories (probably best read in this order, the order in which they were written): No Mistake; By the Book; No Mistake, Redux: The Other Side of the Coin; and Secrets. While I have written numerous E/L scenarios, this series is only based on those prior tales.

Recess

(June, 1 IV)

I entered the Golden Hall and glanced around. Still no sign of them. I had been searching for my husband and child for some time now. My son, Elfwine, was not in the nursery when I had returned from the marketplace, and I found his nurse in the kitchen having a mug of tea. She indicated my husband, Eomer, had taken our son from her some quarter of an hour before, and told her he would find her if he needed her.

So far I had searched his study, our room, the nursery, the garden and the stable. They were in none of these places, and no one had seen them or knew where they were. I stared around me, lost in thought, considering the matter. There had to be some place I wasn't thinking of, someplace Eomer would go.

It took a moment, but it finally dawned on me where they might be. I returned to our chambers and moved quickly to the door to the adjoining room. It had been intended as a sitting room or spare bedchamber, if my husband and I wished to sleep apart, but it had sat unused since our marriage. We had determined, after we discovered I was with child, to save it as a bedroom for our child when it was old enough to move into such.

As I pushed open the door, the bed came into view and brought me to a halt. There, stretched out on his back, was Eomer, with our son laid face down on his chest. Even in sleep, his hands carefully held the baby in place. I watched the two of them in slumber, unable to hold back a smile as I rested my head against the door frame.

After a few minutes of enjoying this tranquil scene, I moved quietly into the room and closed the door behind me. I sat gently on the side of the bed and reached out to softly stroke my son's wisps of golden hair. At my touch, he twitched in his sleep and, in response, his father's hands involuntarily tightened their hold to keep him securely in place, though neither awakened.

I studied my husband's face in his repose. Most of his day was spent as King, the leader of all Rohan. Before that, and even sometimes still, he had been a warrior. He was rugged, battle-hardened and rarely did he ever display anything even remotely resembling a soft side – except when he was with me...and now our son. I could not help a tear escaping as I witnessed this tenderness, which I had long known he possessed but that few had ever observed.

With a contented sigh, I slipped onto the bed next to him, and let my hand come to rest upon my son. And then I joined my family in their peaceful afternoon nap.

THE END

End note: It is not essential that you read the Elfwine Chronicles in the order they were written, but there is an advantage to doing so. The more of them that I wrote, the more likely I was to make reference to one of the previous ones and something that happened there. If you want to read them in order, go to the top of this page and click on my name (Deandra). That will take you to my profile page. Scroll down and you will find all the stories I have written. The Elfwine Chronicles are in order from bottom to top since ffn shows them in the order they were posted. A few were posted out of number order (#15 came after #17, I think), but you can read them in posting order or number order since those few won't be affected in the story content.