Morning sun shimmers, intermingled with fluffs of dust as my muscles come back to life. For every day as long as I can remember I've woken with an ache under my skin, and I stretch from fingertip to toe to unravel the stiffness in my fascia.

Beside me, you stir. Some mornings I still forget you're here. Realizing you haven't left in the night fills me with unspeakable delight every time.

I've pulled the sheet off you to reveal your bare skin, jagged with scars across your chest and stomach. I've run my fingers across those marks innumerable times. Some of them I inflicted, years ago, and some remain from secret battles you refuse to relive. I love each and every one.

I love the body you've crafted through decades of ferocity and vengeance and hatred and commitment, each of these a battle that you fought til death or victory. Each muscle is the physical manifestation of your pride, the one remnant of our dead race that you've carried stubbornly since you found that I was the only other one left.

Even in sleep your lips turn down, eyebrows crinkled. Every time I watch you sleep I wonder if you ever find peace in unconsciousness. Did you even find peace in death? Then again, my death and yours were profoundly unalike. I was given gifts of new strengths, new powers, new friends; you were left in darkness only to be torn from the void because the universe needed you, not because it wanted you.

Of course, you may never know how much I wanted you. I still hesitate to say with words. Sometimes when we spar I wonder if the intensity of my violence is enough to show you that I care, enough to keep pushing your mind and body toward what we both need. Sometimes when we fuck I catch you looking into my eyes and I have to look away. Even though I know every jagged edge of your body so well, the curves and colors in your eyes overwhelm me.

I can't resist anymore, and after all, it's time to bring you back to the waking world. I lean forward and lay kisses across your chest. You mutter in your sleep, and playfully now I nip my teeth on your skin. Little red marks blossom and you utter a growl, fully awake.

With a grin I reach down, under the sheet, and find you growing hard.

"I love how you have morning wood every day," I murmur, holding you in my fist.

"I've told you before, it's just because I have to pee." Your voice has a low, gruff tone every time you wake up. You've tossed an arm over your eyes and let out a gentle sigh.

I fling back the sheet and wrap my mouth around you like I'm going to devour you.

"Kakarot." You arch up and nest a hand into my hair as I draw my lips up and down your thickening shaft.

I've been wanting you since I woke up and saw you laying next to me. I adjust my position and hook your legs over my shoulders, continuing to stroke you as I bring your hips up and spread your cheeks. I never get tired of tasting you like this. You're groaning and your fist in my hair pulls even harder now.

"Now, Kakarot," you moan. "I don't want to wait."

I'm happy to oblige. I move up and push myself into you, slowly-to tease you.

"Stop smiling," you hiss through gritted teeth as you adjust to having me inside you. I shut you up with a kiss, then begin quietly moving in and out of you.

Your arms tangle up and around my shoulders, fingers digging and teeth biting into my shoulder. The sharp pain of it finally makes me utter aloud. "Vegeta…"

Like every morning, neither of us lasts very long. Quickly we succumb to each other into a sticky, panting mess. I'm not sure what it is about fucking you right after your eyes open. Maybe you're sweeter and more pliable in the morning. Or maybe it's knowing that after all this time, you're mine, and having you in my bed every day is just proof of that.

I collapse next to you and stare back up at the sun filtering through the window.

"Do you think you'll ever get sick of waking up like this, next to me?"

"We've only been living together for months now."

"...So…?"

You turn onto your side to look at me. "I don't think I will, Kakarot." You're smirking. "Especially not if you keep waking me up like that."

I kiss you on the forehead, hard enough to send you falling back on your pillow. For a moment I think you'll be mad, but you just reach your hand over and intertwine your fingers in mine.

It's still strange, some mornings, to start the day with you. To watch you as you open your eyes, to see you smiling at me, to kiss you and make love to you. Every morning is a variation on the same theme. But I would never wish for anything else.