Work Text:
Jake’s phone buzzes as he waits in his car for Amy to pick up the Chinese food from their favorite take out place. He normally would go in with her to get the food, but there were no available spots and now he’s parked just slightly illegally.
Super packed and busy. It’s gonna be a while. Sorry. the message reads.
He frowns slightly as he realizes the meaning behind her message. She hates crowds and everything involving them. In them, she just feels overwhelmed and her anxiety, already high as is, rises to even higher levels.
don’t worry about it! hang in there xx He responds.
She smiles as she reads his text, taking her mind off her fear of crowds momentarily.
The car behind Jake leaves and he takes that opportunity to back up, quickly securing a real parking spot, which is a complete luxury. Now that he’s actually parked legally, he jumps out of his car and hustles into the restaurant. From the minute he walks in, he realizes why she’s probably so nervous. The lobby of the place is completely packed and people run here and there, carrying bags of takeout.
He carefully pushes past people with polite excuse me’s and sorry’s until he sees her, nervously playing with her hands. A lower level of the Amy Santiago stress scale: cracking her knuckles without cracking them. She can’t actually crack her knuckles, and the sound freaks her out, so she just makes the motion of squeezing her hands together, repeating the motion over and over again. It’s a nervous habit that he’s trying to get her to break, with no success so far.
He finally makes his way to her and gently touches her elbow, causing her to jump.
“Hey! It’s just me!” He grabs her hand and interlocks their fingers as she glances up at him, grinning.
“Did you just leave the car? You can’t get another ticket.” Amy’s constantly slightly worried about Jake, a fact that he finds slightly endearing. Scratch that, he finds it super endearing.
“It’s fine! The guy behind me left. It was a miracle.”
“You could have just stayed in the car, you know. I can pick up food by myself.” Amy’s voice is mildly annoyed and Jake quickly panics. Is she mad that he’s here? He’s trying to do something nice.
“Yeah, but you know, I know how much you hate crowds and all that...” Jake trails off as he sees the giant smile Amy has on her face.
“I’m joking, Peralta. Thanks for being here. I was kinda freaking out a little a moment ago.” She can see him visibly relax at this as he wraps an arm around her back, pulling her into him. She gently leans her head on his shoulder and looks up at him, wondering how she got so lucky.
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”