It was already late morning when I awoke. I could hear blurred sounds of a lawnmower murmuring outside and I felt the warmth of the sunlight rippling across my skin. I lazily parted my eyelashes and saw the unfocused outline of our bedroom phasing into view. I shut my eyes tightly and furrowed my brows for reasons I couldn’t even figure. I breathed in quickly and held the air in my tense lungs, feeling the tight volume inside my chest with my first breath of the day. It sent shockwaves of life back into my muscles and I could almost feel the blood rushing up my shoulders, and bursting through my fingertips as I stretched my hands as far away from my body as possible. I listened for the familiar cracks from my elbows, shoulders and neck as everything was shifting back into position. Then that delicious explosion of consciousness receded back into a sleepy dizziness as quickly as it had come and I sunk into a motionless enjoyment of our bed. I let my eyes close by the sheer weight of the lids and slid my arm up towards my face, letting my finger tips roam the small canyons and wrinkles my pillow and sheets had carved into my face during the night. I quickly glanced over at him as I heard him take that first reviving breath. It looked as though he was the one filtering light through his skin back at the sun. The golden shades of his tan reflected bright amber back into the room. I carefully watched the tendons and muscles in his neck rise and tighten as he slightly and absentmindedly turned his bothered face away from the morning. It was like for a moment his corpse had come back to life only to slip away again. He clenched himself tightly among the blankets, and relaxed back into sleep. I crawled under the sheets towards his side of the bed, feeling myself lean into the impression his body made in the bed. I skillfully held myself far enough away not to wake him, but close enough to reach his face with mine. I placed a soft but firm kiss on his open mouth, cupping his slack, unshaven jaw. He smiled against my lips and gave an appreciative and low chuckle. I collapsed back into the comforter and watched my lion arch and unfurl, coming back to life.