#this is me manifesting for amelink to be touchy and cute in s17 lmao

[hurricanery]

every other freckle

A/N: I got this prompt requesting something from Link’s POV and I struggggggled with that concept but here it is. Something very random and fluffy bc next week’s promo is scaring me and I wanted to write something cute to distract myself. This is also basically my love letter to season 15 amelink bc I miss them so very much. Hope you enjoy & as always feedback and prompts are welcome <3

_______

Sometimes she snores.

And it makes Link smile.

Like right now. She’s snoring, but just barely. It’s faint. And it’s rare.

She’s a quiet sleeper. Sometimes she sleeps so soundlessly, that Link almost finds himself questioning whether she’s actually breathing, eyes scanning for the rise and fall of her chest. Just to make sure.

This morning though, there’s no question about it. The light snore only ever occurs when she’s in a deep sleep. And this is one of those occurrences.

It’s a Sunday morning. Which means they don’t have anywhere to be. But Link is wide awake anyway. Amelia faces him, curled into herself slightly, her faint snores fluttering against the stray pieces of dark hair that rest over her cheek. She sleeps on her side, and Link mirrors her position. She has her free arm draped between them, the arm that’s not currently trapped underneath her. And her hand loosely grasps his t-shirt, even in sleep.

This is when Link is most content, he thinks. On Sunday mornings. When they have no obligations other than to be exactly where they are. Sometimes he thinks he wants to live in Sunday mornings forever.

Amelia sighs. And her hand twitches slightly against him. But she doesn’t wake. Link's smile widens, and he reaches his own hand forward to begin gently tracing a pattern over her bare arm. She has a freckle on her shoulder, just to the right of her tank top strap, and another freckle on the outside of her wrist. Link traces a route, lightly with his finger, from one freckle all the way down to the other. Up and down. Back and forth.

Amelia shivers and Link halts his finger. Her eyes don’t open, but the absence of her snores is his first indication.

“What are you doing?” she mumbles, voice hoarse.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”

Her eyes blink open, adjusting to his stare.

“Were you watching me sleep?”

Link ignores her question. A question she likely already knows the answer to. He resumes his finger’s pattern against her arm, and a moment later, he speaks again.

“You have a lot of freckles.”

Amelia frowns.

“I do not.”

“Why do you say that so defensively?” He chuckles, and his finger continues it’s zig zag from one mark on her arm, onto the next.

It causes her to shiver again and Link grins, shifting his eyes to hers.

“Cold?” He sounds smug.

“No,” and she sounds pointed. “You know that tickles.”

He stops his movement, fingers coming to rest against her wrist. Her eyes slip shut again and Link watches her face.

Another of his favorite things about Sunday mornings, when they have nowhere to be, is that they get to experience the morning sun from bed. The way it shines through the translucent material of the curtains and gives the room a warm glow. It highlights their bare faces and makes everything feel revitalizing.  

“You have freckles on your face, too.”

“Shh,” she mutters, frowning as she buries the side of her face deeper into her pillow. “I’m trying to go back to sleep.”

Link exhales on a smile, but nods to himself. He relaxes into his own pillow, too. In an attempt to incite a little more sleep.

Moments later, he feels cold feet press between his shins, attempting to bury their way into his warmth. His eyes jolt open. It’s a common occurrence, something Amelia’s made a habit of. But every time she does it, it still gives him that initial shock. He looks at her, and her eyes are still closed, like she’s on the brink of sleep again. And it makes Link want to laugh, her ability to always be touching him in some capacity, especially so absentmindedly. It makes him think about how far they’ve come.

It had started physically for them. Their entire relationship. It was based on physical touch. It had very recently grown into something more, but it had surely started that way.

‘Alternative pain relief,’ Amelia had called it.

Link lays in bed now, feeling her feet tangle with his, and he thinks all the way back to the beginning. How they even got here, to this particular Sunday morning.

It had been a false start. The first time they really spoke. An ill-advised proposal for a dinner date had unfortunately led to some animosity on her part.

“Are you asking me out?” she’d question his intentions incredulously.

“I heard you like Italian food…”

Her face fell. And Link recoiled.

A false start.

And then the next time they interacted, it was the same but different. An almost change of heart.

But horrible timing.

A mass overdose in the park had led to an overcrowded ER, and major stress on everyone involved.

He remembers the way her face had twisted at the news. One second, they’d been discussing escape hatches and trips to Barbados. And then the next, they’d been discussing the outcome of a teenage boy that Link couldn’t successfully revive.

But it wasn’t just any teenage boy.

“I knew him.” Amelia’s expression had haunted him in the moment, and it still haunts him now. “That kid...he was….”

He’d stepped forward.

“He was a good kid. He wasn’t a bad kid.” She shook her head, battling with the idea that the argument even had to be made.

And Link had nodded slowly.

“I’m gonna have to call his parents.”

“I could take care of that.” He’d offered. Desperate for anything to combat the distress that invaded her face and voice.

“No. No I’m-” She’d cut herself off, and Link felt panic rise in his chest. He barely knew her. But he’d felt strangely protective of her. He’d battled with the decision of how to help her.

“Thank you.”

She’d turned away from him, but Link had caught a glimpse of it. Her expression as she fought off a full-body sob.

“I’m so sorry.” And it had been evident in her voice too.

“It’s okay.” It’s all he could come up with, as he stepped around her, towards her. In a protective way. Like he’d been trying to cover her from the people that surrounded them in the hallway.

“I’m sorry.”

He’d felt so inclined to comfort her. To reach a hand up and rest it against her back as she keeled over on top of the cot in the hallway.

She’d let out a broken sob. And it’s still one of the most devastating sounds Link can ever recall hearing.

And he wholeheartedly regrets the way his hand had dropped to his side, and not gently against her back, like he’d intended.

Because he’d battled with it. Hesitated. Stuck on the predicament of how to comfort her.

He regrets it currently. As he lays in bed and watches her sleep. And he can’t help but reach forward and touch her now. Like he’s overcompensating for the way he’d reacted then. Because he was so close in the moment, to acting on his instinct. But it just wasn’t enough.

So he does it now. His fingers find their way back to her arm, in a similar pattern to before, and the action reminds him of New York. Again of the early stages.

It started as purely physical. Just sex. No sleepovers. And that’s the way Amelia had labeled it.

But, in a hotel room in New York, Link had done it almost absentmindedly.

He’d run his fingers up and down her arm in an intimate way. He’d never done it before, but it felt right. And he swore he saw a wave of emotions cross Amelia’s face at his actions. Like she’d actually quite liked the feeling. Or maybe she was scared to like the feeling. And so she’d climbed out of his bed, removed herself completely from that revelation.

Link chuckles to himself at the memory, as he re-creates that same motion against her arm. Because now they're in her bed. And it is intimate. Yet there’s no revelation on Amelia’s part, because the light touch is such habit by now.

“Why are you laughing?”

Link startles at the sound of her voice, once again surprised to learn that she’s awake.  

“I’m just thinking about you.” He answers honestly.

She groans. Because she’s not a conversationalist in the morning. And especially not a romanticist.

“Well, you’re thinking really loud,” she huffs out a sigh, turning over in bed.

“I’m sorry,” he stifles a laugh, reaching forward to tap his finger against her shoulder blade. “I’ll be quiet now.”

When she turns back over to face him, she’s grinning.

“Can we just….stay in bed all day?” She whispers.

“Of course,” Link mirrors her grin. “I already thought that was the plan.”

She looks him up and down, in the same way she always does when she’s deciding her next move. Deciding how she’s going to eliminate the space between them.

Link knows the face, and in response he opens his arms to her. She bites down on a smile as she shifts forward, burying her face in his chest and sighing in content. He wraps his arms around her and gives a gentle squeeze as they settle into the position.

And they both quickly drift towards sleep again.

_______

When Link eventually blinks awake, he has no idea how much time has passed. He registers one thing, though, as his eyes adjust.

And that’s Amelia’s stare.

She faces him, eyes wide like she’s just been caught.

Link clears his throat.

“Are you the one watching me sleep, now?”

“Maybe.”

Link laughs a bit, under his breath. Still slowly waking up.

“Have I ever made you my waffle recipe?” Amelia sounds eager, her tone far more awake and alert than Link feels. He thinks he has some catching up to do.

“I don’t think you have.”

She rolls over, swinging her legs over the bed and setting her feet on the floor.

“Amelia?”

She stands, tossing a robe on as she moves towards the door.

“Stay here,” she says simply.

“Where are you going?”

She pauses, looking once more in his direction before leaving the room.

“Just stay here,” she grins hugely. “We’ll eat in bed.”

A warmth fills Link’s chest, one that matches the morning glow of the room. He rolls onto his back with a gratified exhale, as his thoughts from earlier echo into his mind.

He thinks he wants to live in Sunday mornings forever.

//

#amelink #amelink fanfic #amelinkfic #amelia shepherd #atticus lincoln #this is me manifesting for amelink to be touchy and cute in s17 lmao #i mean i'll take the hugs BUT #amelia x link #amelinkfanfiction #grey's anatomy fanfic #grey's anatomy fic #greys anatomy fanfic #greys anatomy fic #my writing