A/N: Another fluffy Den/Fin drabble written for 50lyricsfanfic on LJ. Specifically, the prompt: "a place between sleep and awake; end of innocence, unending masquerade." The characters aren't mine.
The babe kicks again, and she gives up on sleeping comfortably tonght. She, at least, can afford to drowse off tomorrow. She lies quiet, despite the child's movement, and studies the man next to her.
She could never tell him that he snores. One so dignified as her husband could never snore. Yet he does, and the sound of his breathing calms her, when the nightmares come and the baby figits restlessly against his mother's fears. She puts a hand to her belly, trying to pacify the little warrior within her. Already, she is sure she's going to have a boy. While she admits that she and her sister were not the easiest children to deal with, she doubts that any girl of her line could be quite so tireless in her assault upon her mother's womb.
He is proud of her, of course, and looks forward to having a son, an heir. Still, she knows that he secretly hopes for a girl-child, this time. He is still too nervous, too afraid that he'll end up just the same as his father and unable to love his own brood in the urge to shape them into the warrior-diplomats that Gondor needs. A daughter, at least, would not need to learn to fight. Finduilas tells him that this son won't need to learn, either. This one already knows.