Fandom: Star Trek
Pairing: Jim Kirk x Female
Words: 729

Prompt/summary:
Lazy morning with Jim. A day off, and she contemplates how much she admires him.

The light in the room was not too dark, not too bright. Just right for a pleasant awakening. It was quiet, only the hum of the warp core could be heard. I reached over to the bedside table and tapped gently on the PADD that laid there. 0645 hours. For a split second I felt panic rush through me, until I remembered I had the day off. I melted into the mattress with relief. Then I turned around and snuggled closer to Jim, and closed my eyes trying to get back to sleep.

But, my body was so used to getting up at this hour, that it was impossible to get anymore rest. I huffed a bit, and opened my eyes again. Jim was sleeping soundly.

He had never been, and would never be, a morning person. But he always pulled himself out of bed every morning long before me, to be the captain of Starfleet's flagship. So, on the odd chance he had the luxury of sleeping in, I always woke before him.

My pointer finger reached up to follow the curve of his nose, barely touching. Two fingers danced in the air above his lightly parted lips, feeling his deep, slow breaths. My hand shook a little, my body still weak from sleeping, and I accidentally touched his lips. He let out a breathy sigh and I pulled my hand back and froze, eyes snapping up to his. But, thankfully, he didn't wake.

The past month had been rough. We had travelled through a treacherous part of space and it had put a real strain on my captain and my ship.

I glanced at the well healing cut above his eyebrow. We had lost gravity while navigating through an asteroid belt, and before Scotty could find out what went wrong, gravity came back, and Jim had fallen straight down onto Hikaru's console, banging his head. He'd been unconscious for a few hours, and seeing as I was already stressed from being overworked in Engineering, I had fussed over him even more than Bones.

Jim refused to let Bones use the dermal regenerator on his cut. So, this was going to join the other battle scars he had. As if knowing what I was thinking about, Jim fidgeted a bit and turned a bit more towards me, allowing me to see all his scars. One below his lip, that I knew was from that barfight that Admiral Pike saved him from. Another on his cheek from the whole ordeal with Khan. And on his other cheek, from his fight with Krall.

I understood why Jim didn't let Bones regenerate his skin. He wanted to be reminded of what had happened, what could have happened, what had been lost, and what had been saved. He needed the reminder every morning when he looked in the mirror. I had seen it a few times, on particularly hard days, his eyes moving from scar to scar.

My heart swelled. Jim was a good man. He took the job as captain very seriously, always performed above and beyond what was expected of him, and I was so proud. So incredibly proud of everything he had achieved at such a young age. So incredibly proud of everything that he was, his morals, his skills, and his intelligence. I moved to kiss his hand, which was resting just next to my face.

"Done staring, sweetheart?"

I started, and glanced up to see Jim's bright blue eyes dancing in front of me. "Never," I quipped back.

"It's our day off. Why aren't you sleeping?" His voice was gravelly, and it did things to me.

"I'm so used to waking up early, you know how my internal clock hates me."

"I need to get you a new clock," Jim mumbled, and wrapped his arms around me to pull me close to him.

"Yes, please."

"If you can't sleep, at least let me snuggle you, so I can sleep a bit more."

I wound my arm around him and let my cheek rest just below his clavicle, breathing him in. "Have I told you lately that I love you, James Tiberius Kirk?"

"Not for a few hours." He kissed the top of my head, one of his hands starting to draw lazy circles on my back.

"Well, I do. I love you."

"I love you too, Supernova."