This all started bc i wanted them to make out under the shade of a tree and, 4k words later, here we are *sigh*

Hope you like it!

Everything you are

There was a certain sort of innocence in him, something that didn't let him fake laughs or pretend he was okay with things he didn't like. A certain kind of innocence that made him sincere, about his desires and his dreams, about what he wanted and about what he didn't.

He was naïve, but not naïve like a child that may believe anyone at face value, that will not question someone if they talk with the appropriate level of confidence, nor naïve like he could be tricked by those of evil intent. He was naïve because he still assumed that there could be good in anyone's heart, because he could believe in the potential of someone, because he had faith and didn't doubt about handing second chances if he was asked for one.

He was innocent and naïve and, yes, he could be kind of stupid too, dense and even insufferable when he had trouble understanding things, but that was more reason to believe his words, because when he talked, when he said something, he meant it. There were no hidden meanings behind his words, not elaborate schemes in his smiles and his carefree eyes, he was innocent and naïve and stupid enough to bare his heart without regards, if he deemed someone worthy of it.

So, when Goku came, looks him in the eye, got serious as he never got when he wasn't fighting and said this, Hit knew he was saying the true.

It was still kind of incredible, however. Hit had trouble believing him, at least, because it has been forever since the last time someone approached him with such an intent, more importantly it has been forever since someone approached him with an actual, sincere intent.

But Goku was not good at lying, at hiding his thoughts and his feelings, and even though he may seemed careless he never spoke carelessly.

Hit has learned this about him almost against his will. After Goku used his divine connections to hired Hit on himself, in the most intricate way someone had ever use to contact him, they formed some kind of friendship. Inter-universe travel is not easy, but Hit still found himself coming from time to time to Universe 7's Earth.

Goku was delighted with his more or less frequent visits, of course, because they were done with the excuse of Hit finishing the job, so they fought almost every time he came…that's the keyword here though, almost, because with time it became alarmingly obvious that Hit's excuse for coming here was, indeed, an excuse.

He started enjoying Goku's company as much as he enjoyed their fights, which at this point held less semblance to a battle to the death and more with rough sparring sessions, and found himself coming for the mare joy of passing time with him. His excuse for this was that it turned out that Goku had actual responsibilities and just couldn't drop everything every time Hit came (even if he wanted to).

Goku's responsibilities were, to Hit's surprise, doing the very humble job of a farmer, working the field and selling his goods at the market. Hit wasn't sure what kind of job he had expected Goku to had, but it was rather disconcerting that the strongest mortal in Universe 7, a person that was friends with a number of deities, had such a simple, modest job.

It suited him, anyway, because everything about Goku was law-defying and unexpected.

When Hit came and Goku was too busy working, Hit would simply hang around him and they would talk. It was actually more like Goku talking and Hit offering some hums or grunts in answer, but it suited fine both of them.

Hit never helped with his work, because he didn't know the first thing about farming and wasn't in desire to learn, and because Goku, despite how much he lamented having to do this instead of training, seemed to find some joy in working with his hands.

Goku told him, one of these times Hit came and they couldn't fight, that his grandpa Gohan had thought him how to grow certain plants when he was a child, how to take care of them and how to make sure the soil stayed rich in nutrient for the plants. He said, with a sheepish smile, that his grandpa had taught him many things, but most of them just couldn't stuck to his head; the knowledge about plants stayed, though, because he found kind of fascinating how they could grow so big from such a small seed.

He hadn't said it like that and he had trouble putting the thought in words, but he had managed to get his meaning across and Hit had agreed, it was kind of fascinating. Goku had beamed at him when he did so and Hit had felt something move in his chest, but ignored it that one time.

Goku had a lot of trouble putting his thoughts in words, Hit noticed with time. He sometimes would say things that sounded outright stupid and put himself in awkward situations and, with some observation, Hit realized that it wasn't that he was, indeed, an idiot, but rather that he lacked the vocabulary and eloquence to properly express his meaning. Hit asked him, after realizing this, if he had ever gotten some kind of education. Goku said that his grandpa had taught him to read and to count, but aside from that, nothing, and he admitted, quite embarrassed, that even now he had trouble with reading certain words or doing basic arithmetic.

"Would you like to learn more?" Hit had asked him that time.

It was Goku's lunch break and they were sitting under the shade of tree near the field. Goku had shared with him one of the multiple bento his wife sent for him and both of them were eating with easy conversation flowing in the afternoon air.

Goku had taken his time thinking about his answer.

"I don't know," he said after a while, looking weirdly dejected "I mean, I guess it could be useful and, it would be nice to understand what Gohan talks about sometimes but…I don't know, I'm not very smart."

Hit hadn't pressed the subject but that day he left feeling dejected himself because it was easy to guess that people had never had much faith in Goku in any other thing that wasn't fighting, and though it was right to assume he wasn't going to get to the level of his older son or his friend Bulma, it still felt kind of unfair that he thought that about himself.

Days later, Hit visited again and this time they actually fought. They ended up tired, battered and a little bloody but very satisfied with their sparring, and were resting at the top of some rocky mountain. Goku was laying on his back, watching the sky change colors as the sun sunk at their backs, and Hit was sitting at the edge of the mountain.

"Why did you ask me that?" Goku questioned him "About learning." He clarified.

Hit took his sweet time in answering, but at this point Goku didn't seemed to mind that he always took so long to answer direct questions.

"I thought you might want," Hit said, as if the conversation they were referring to hadn't had happened days ago and it were still fresh on their minds. It was fresh enough.

"Why?" Goku asked again, sitting up and looking at him.

Hit turned to see him and was surprised by the severity of his expression. It took him a while to think of a reason for Goku to look like that.

"I meant no offense," he said after a while, and by the way Goku's eyes scooted to the side for a moment he knew he was on the right track "I just wondered if you would like to learn more because…I don't see a reason for you to don't, besides you don't wanting to."

Goku turned to look at the horizon instead of him and said, quietly:

"I'm not very smart."

Hit wanted to punch him.

"I disagree," he said instead.

Goku didn't say anything more on the matter after that, but Hit saw his discreet smile and once again had to shut out whatever was stirring in his chest at the sight: he didn't want to entertain what the feeling was…

He was kind of forced to face it, however, the next time he came to Earth.

All his visits were unannounced because there wasn't a way to communicate with each other, and until this point that had never been a problem, but this time when Hit came and sought Goku, he found out he wasn't alone. He had entertained the thought of just coming back another day, but if he had noticed Goku's ki, Goku had surely noticed his and he didn't want to explain that he just would rather not interact with anyone but him in this Universe if it was possible.

Goku had a lot of friends but Hit was a solitary man in nature, and didn't wish to socialize.

He had gone to the point where Goku's ki was flaring, some deserted island in the middle of nowhere, and found him sparring with the other saiyan, Vegeta.

After how Hit had utterly destroyed him when they fought and how not happy Vegeta had been about it, he didn't expect things to go smoothly but Vegeta didn't make a fuss about this presence so Hit didn't either. In the other hand, Goku was thrilled for having them both together and urged them to spar at the same time. Vegeta seemed reluctant at first, but he was a saiyan warrior and the opportunity of fighting Hit again was just too tempting.

It was decided that both saiyans would go against Hit at the same time, which was only appropriate considering he was stronger than both. The sparring in itself was good, fun, exciting, but Hit was constantly getting distracted by the wrong things.

He noticed that they didn't actively fight together, they didn't used combined attacks or planned a strategy, but it was obvious that, if they wanted, they could very easily do it. They communicated with each other through glances and body language alone, and thought most of the time it was to say 'out of the way!' Hit still felt like he was intruding in something.

It was even more obvious after their spar. The way they talked to each other wasn't gentle but there was intimacy in the way Vegeta would throw insults and Goku would laughed them off, in the way Goku would pass an arm around Vegeta's shoulder and the other would allow him, in the way Vegeta would stop and actually listen if Goku wanted to say something, would actually answer and explain things to him if Goku didn't get it.

Hit felt a terrible, unnamed feeling chewing at the mouth of his stomach at the sight of the two and the ritual of their relationship. He felt so much like he was out of place here, like he wasn't supposed to be seeing this, like he was intruding in something he didn't quite understand.

Vegeta called Goku a name no one else called him, and Hit felt he wanted to die.

The terrible feeling stayed with him even after Vegeta took his leaving, bothering him and making his crude conversation even cruder. Goku even asked him if he was feeling okay.

"Why does he call you that?" Hit decided to ask instead of answering because no, he wasn't okay and he didn't want to dwell on that, thank you very much.

"Huh?" Goku said, taken off-guard by the sudden question "Call me what?"

"Kakarot," Hit said, very slowly. He wasn't sure if he was allowed to say it, it felt like he wasn't.

"Oh," Goku said in understanding, and smiled "that's my saiyan name."

And that made sense, because Vegeta was a saiyan and Goku was a saiyan and their whole race was extinct in this universe and it made sense that they would share this small piece of their culture. Still, Hit asked:

"Do you prefer that name?"

Goku laughed a little.

"Only Vegeta calls me that…" and that made sense, Hit thought, ready to drop the subject, but then Goku added "actually, I only let Vegeta call me that."

The terrible feeling chewed at him with more fervor and it made Hit clenched his fists. With this new information it became obvious that they were, definitely, intimate with each other, to what extent he didn't know. In any case it made him feel angry and disappointed and…

"I see," Hit said after a while.

"Why do you ask? It's too weird of a name?" he said with a good natured smile.

"Just curious."

Hit went back home feeling rightfully stupid and spent way too much time thinking about what it meant that Vegeta had a special name for Goku.

That train of thought only leaded him to question, almost dreadfully, why in the world he cared so much for the possible meaning of such thing. He didn't have it in him to answer his own inquiries about his unreasonable reaction, so he decided to store the thought in his mind for later inspection, preferably never.

But Goku brought out a part of Hit that wasn't as calm and calculated as he usually was, so the next time he went to Earth, he couldn't help but ask Goku about his relationship with Vegeta.

"We're friends!" Goku said way too happy for Hit's taste.

It turned out that Goku was totally onboard with sharing his history with Vegeta, and Hit discovered that their relationship went way back. Also Goku seemed very happy with talking about how great Vegeta was as a fighter, how much he respected him and all, how happy he was that now, he could really called him his friend. Hit wanted to bury himself in the field while he heard him talk, that or just go and punch Vegeta in the face.

It was also interesting to note how much the nature of their relationship had changed over the years, and maybe they were friends now, as Goku so cheerfully declared, but with the way Goku talked about him and with how they interacted with each other (and how much time they spent alone together because Goku told him of all the training they did), Hit felt that another shift of their relationship was very possible: they could become lovers.

The observation left him feeling cold and disappointed and angry. And very stupid. He didn't even know if Goku would see Vegeta like that or if Vegeta would be interested, but the possibility existed and that was enough to make him feel so damn jealous.

And there it was, the sentiment he hadn't want to entertain, the thing that chewed at him from the inside. He was jealous and he was jealous because he liked Goku he realized, he didn't humor him with spars and amiable conversation just for the sake of friendship. He had already noticed that being with Goku made him feel things, but it had been so long since someone sparked his interest, as a fighter or just as a person, that it was easy to assume he was simply forming bonds of friendship with the saiyan.

Still there was absolutely nothing he could do about his new found feelings, he told himself. Goku was a married man, though he talked about his wife like she was a more a friend than a lover, and there was Vegeta in the equation too and Hit…well, he had met Goku just recently and it was only now that they were forming a friendship, if he thought about it he had zero opportunities of interesting the other man in some romantic manner, specially so because he was up against the mother of his children and the torrid story that was his relationship with Vegeta.

So no, there was absolutely nothing to do about his feelings, nothing more than hiding them in the back of his mind and leave them to rot in some obscure chamber of his heart.

It wasn't that simple. Hit just couldn't help it, every time he went to see Goku he fell more deeply in love with him. Goku was an easy man to love, in all his sincere, innocent, naïve nature, with his playfulness and his simple, but accurate understanding of things. Hit hadn't met someone quite like him before, which said a lot considering for how long he had lived and how many people he had met.

All in all, Hit was screwed, because he just couldn't ignore the relationship he had formed with Goku and stop being his friend, nor he could simply drown his emotions and pretend nothing was happening, and even less tell the other man what he felt for him.

Fortunately, it turned out that Hit didn't really had to do anything to solve the mess he had fell into. Goku, being the exceptional being that he was, solved it for him.

It was on another one of Hit's escapades to see Goku when the issue came about, inevitably. That day Goku had been working on the field and after some idle chatter, the sat under the shade of a nearby tree for lunch, as they usually did.

The meal was mostly silent, since Goku didn't seem interested in anything that wasn't his food. At first Hit had found his way of eating unsettling, but after spending more time with him and with Cabba and the others back at Universe 6, he realized it was just a saiyan thing, so he accepted it. Now he barely noticed the way Goku stuffed himself.

After a while Goku slowed his pace and though Hit knew now it was appropriate to say something, he preferred to wait for Goku to do so, since it was him who usually stirred their conversations.

In retrospective that had been a mistake…kind of.

"Hey, Hit," Goku had called, with his eyes in the horizon and leaving the half ate bento in his hands rest over his crossed legs "there's…something I'd like to ask you."

"What is it?" Hit asked, oblivious at what was to come.

"Well…" Goku left his words hanging, his furrowed brow showing he was deep in thought "it's just, I've been thinking, we're friends right?"

Taken back by such words, Hit left his own bento, the one Goku always saved for him, to the side and turn slightly to better face the other.

"Yes of course," he said a little too quickly, a little too desperate to assure Goku.

He didn't know why the man would question the nature of their bond, Hit knew he wasn't the best at interpersonal relationships but he had thought that, by now, it must had been obvious that he came here every so often precisely because they were friends, why would he come if that weren't the case?

Goku laughed then, putting a hand behind his head looking sheepish and awkward. His laughter wasn't the usual cheerful, crystalline sound and rather it sounded forced and empty.

"Yeah, of course we are," Goku said, still looking to some point in the horizon.

Hit knew something was up but he couldn't grasp what it could be. He wondered if he had been perhaps too cold, or if he had appeared too uninterested when talking to Goku; that wasn't the case of course, it was just that 'unamused' was his natural state of being.

So, because they were indeed friends and because Hit was concerned about him, he decided to say:

"Why do you ask?"

Goku fidgeted in his place, like he wanted to do anything else but being quietly sat here. He turned his head away from Hit and then back to him, this time facing him. Goku seemed troubled and appeared to consider his next actions carefully, like he was wondering if it was okay to say what he wanted, if telling Hit was okay.

"It's just, I don't know, sometimes I get this feeling like…" he started vaguely gesturing with his hands over his chest as if to point where those feelings were "like there could be…I don't know, I— forget it, I, I don't wanna say something stupid."

Hit frowned and, still blissfully ignorant of what Goku was getting about, insisted.

"Tell me," Hit asked, looking at Goku with a serious but kind expression "please."

Goku looked at Hit hypnotized by the sight, and after some long seconds he sighed heavily in defeat.

"Okay," he said, grave "Okay, just promise me something?"

"What?" Hit asked, eager to comply and failing to notice his own readiness to agree to whatever Goku wanted.

"We stay friends, after whatever I say, we stay friends."

Hit thought it was a strange thing to ask, to make him promise, and it made him wary of what Goku was hiding but, at the end, he couldn't think of anything that would make him want to sever the bond they now had, so he nodded.

"We stay friends," he assured.

Goku smiled, smaller than usual but sincere.

"Okay," Goku repeated and sighed again "it's just, sometimes I get this feeling, you know, like, like there could be something…else between…between us."

As he talked, Goku's voice became quieter and his gaze fell from Hit's face to the grass between them.

Hit as intelligent as he was, didn't get it, because inside his head it was an impossibility that Goku harbored any kind of not-friendship-but-not-bad feelings for him.

"Something else?" he asked for clarification.

Goku groaned, frustrated but didn't rise his eyes.

"I mean!" Goku exclaimed gesturing widely again and started talking fast, like he was running away from what he was saying: "It's just sometimes you look at me a certain way, and I feel like, I don't know, warm? when you do it and, sometimes we just kind of stare at each other for too long and I feel really good when I'm with you, and you're so nice with me, like my friends are nice to me too but your niceness is different and it makes me really happy when you come see me, and I mean, you come see me, and that's just, I don't know I just…really…really…"

Goku was starting to run out of air so he stopped his rambling slowly and then, carefully, lift his eyes to look at Hit.

Hit found himself suddenly out of breath too, because Goku was looking at him with a very obvious blush across his face and shiny eyes and a furrowed brow, embarrassed and frustrated with the situation, and afraid saying this would blow on his face and ruin everything.

Hit didn't know what to say, he just stayed there looking at Goku with his mouth slightly ajar, baffled at what he had heard, wondering if he had heard correctly because it didn't make sense, it just couldn't be that Goku would feel like this.

"I just…" Goku said again, short of breath and with a solemnity weird in him outside of battle "I just really, really like you."

Hit listened him say that and couldn't bring himself to believe him, at first, because even if he liked Goku he wasn't feeding any ideas of ever getting in a relationship with him, of his feelings ever getting requited, but he also knew Goku didn't lie, that if he said this is because he meant it.

"You like me?" He said, quiet.

Goku groaned again.

"Yes! I like you!" he exclaimed, almost desperate "I like you! A lot! And I think, maybe, you like me too? It's just that—"

Hit didn't allow Goku to finish whatever he was going to say. He was so glad at hearing Goku's declaration, so relieved that his feelings, still unspoken, were requited. He didn't remember when was the last time he felt so excited about something, so elated, so, just plain and simple, happy.

It was still pretty unbelievable that Goku liked him, but Goku wouldn't be so cruel as to lie of something like this, and if he was lying he wouldn't look so flustered. So Hit did the only thing he could do at this point: he stopped thinking and acted.

He leaned forward and kissed him. Goku let out a sharp yelp of surprise that quickly got swallowed by Hit's mouth, and after a moment of stunned stillness, Goku relaxed into the touch and kissed back.

They pretty much melted into each other the longer the kiss last, they got progressively closer and, at some point, Goku ended up sitting on Hit's lap. They kissed and cling to each other for a long time under the shade of the tree, the wind rustling around them softly and carrying the sounds of nature to them, though they couldn't pay them any mind.

It took them a while to finally get away from each other, if only a little. Both of them were breathing heavily and were sporting blushes across their cheeks.

"I guess, that means you like me too," Goku said happily, the biggest smile adorning his face.

Hit chuckled quietly, feeling lighter now that his secret was out.

"I thought I wasn't being obvious," he admitted.

Goku laughed again and hid his face in Hit's chest.

"It took me a while to notice," Goku explained silently "I mean, that I liked you, that took me a while, after that…" He chuckled at himself "after that I guess you were a little obvious."

Hit couldn't find in himself to be worried about how badly he had hidden his feelings, it didn't matter anymore.

Nothing else really mattered anymore, none of the reasons he had been telling himself about why Goku wouldn't want him, why it couldn't work.

There was still questions in the air, clarifications to be made about what they were and what followed and what all of this changed between them, if it did. However, for the time being, Hit was content with this quiet moment, with relishing the feeling of being together, of holding the strongest man of Universe 7 in his arms, of loving him and feeling loved.

Goku was just as happy with that too and, soon enough, they were kissing again.

This ship is...really good. I dont know why i get such corny, fluffy ideas for them! It's hard to reconcile Hit's stoic nature and Goku...being Goku with that kind of scenarios, therefore I feel like i ended up writing them too OoC but! anyway, that's what we have.

I hope you liked it! Thanks for reading, every comment will be appreciate!