Work Text:
There are one hundred and seventy-four freckles on Amy Santiago’s back. They cluster around the curves of her shoulders and cascade, becoming sparser and fainter the lower they reach. Most of them are hard to see from a distance, only a shade or two darker than Amy’s tan skin, and the first time Jake got close enough to notice he promised himself he’d learn every single one. He wanted to give them all names, but Amy threatened to permanently cover her shoulders if he did so Jake settled for counting them. He presses feather-light kisses against them, traces constellations with his fingertips, sometimes wondering why he’s so enamored by scattered flecks of melanin.
He’s enamored by every part of Amy, so it shouldn’t be a surprise.
There’s often a moment in the afterglow, when everything is soft and bright and calm, when Amy turns onto her front and begins to doze on top of the sheets, one cheek against the mattress with her hair flipped up, spreading out above her head in long, dark, messy tendrils. And Jake settles in beside her, pulls a spare blanket over their legs, and trails his hand along her back, slowly mapping the soft bump of each vertebra until he reaches the top of her spine and drops his arm to curl around her waist. He kisses her neck, suckling the skin enough to make her giggle and turn her head to face his but not enough to leave a mark, because they’re not thirteen.
Sometimes – most of the time – Jake wants to crack a joke, because it’s intimate and close and overwhelming in a way that makes his stomach tingle and churn because how is this real ? But Amy knows, she can read the way his eyes flit at the closeness of it all, and as she kisses the very tip of Jake’s nose her eyes close wordlessly and she’s asleep, or at least doing her best impression. Smiling, Jake pulls the blanket up to cover them both properly because he won’t get cold but Amy will, and neither of them have their heads on pillows so they’ll have sore necks in the morning but they’ll drink coffee and take Advil and go to work.
There are one hundred and seventy-four freckles on Amy Santiago’s back.
It has been one hundred and seventy-five days since Jake saw her, and he’s run out of freckles to miss.