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He knew it the first time he saw her: walking into the precinct, her first day on the job, tight ponytail, super straight posture, unnaturally perfect clothing (how did her clothes have no wrinkles?), and an exorbitant amount of confidence.
"Amy Santiago, Jake's new partner," Captain McGinley introduced dryly.
Amy stiffened with sudden nervousness at The World's Worst Introduction and in that moment Jake felt his world crash down, if the world's crash could be brought on by an overwhelming sense of giddiness. Jake couldn't have been more sure in his entire life that this was the woman he wanted--needed--to make miserable. They were, undoubtedly, meant to be partners.
"Peralta!" Amy shrieked, enunciating every syllable of his name and he smiled as if she was a siren singing his favorite song.
It'd only been 2 months since Amy started working at the 99 and she already felt like family. Or, well, like a step cousin you thought was cool so you acted buddy-buddy with to feign a certain level of comfort.
Amy was cool. She was serious, hardworking, and the best detective Jake had met in a long time. In just 2 months he saw her solve cases faster than he ever expected and when they worked together it was like the best, most lubricated functioning machine in the galaxy. Sometimes Jake thought it was almost like she came out of a superhero movie: she looked lame but was suddenly super cool and badass when she was in her kicking-bad-guy-butt element. Her focus was like a forcefield around her... a penetrable forcefield.
She was so focused she didn't even notice when Jake put a whoopee cushion on her seat.
The effects were one startled Amy, one confused precinct, and one satisfied Jake. Juvenile, yes, but so classic.
5 months into Amy's career at the 99, Jake noticed her competitive side.
5 months into Amy's career at the 99, Jake decided to take advantage of Amy's competitive side.
"This coffee is disgusting," Jake practically shouted at the precinct, "no one--literally no one--could drink this."
Amy chugged the rest of the coffee in the pot and the next day she used her first sick day.
When she came back to work, Jake smiled at her and she glared in response and his heart fluttered because taking a sick day from chugging coffee was probably the cutest thing a wildly cool cop could do.
She didn't smile much because she was always working too hard. So, naturally, Jake wanted to make her smile.
It was Amy's 1 year anniversary at the 99 so, as a present, Jake let her take over a case he was struggling with.
"Because I know if anyone is gonna catch a serial-sock-stealer-recently-gone-rogue-and-now-illegally-selling-drugs-in-said-socks, it's Amy Santiago."
She smiled and he felt a strange mix of satisfaction and startled-ness because he didn't expect her to smile and wasn't that a lame present? but maybe not since she genuinely liked it and he knew she'd like it but he really liked that reaction.
Amy pinned the sock-snatcher against the wall, aggressively cuffing him when he tried to struggle at the last second.
Jake high-fived Amy for her victory and she beamed, her smile looking goofier the longer Jake smiled back at her.
She was awesome and dorky and Jake thought that was really cool.
2 years and 6 months since Amy graced Jake with her presence, he decided she was his favorite detective (aside from himself and his fictional heroes, of course).
"God, no, Peralta, you can't eat a whole jar of Nutella for lunch!" Amy's face scrunched as she groaned. She looked like a retail worker who just walked into their store's gross public bathroom (which is, like, really, really gross).
"Uhm, what else am I supposed to eat?" Jake asked like the obvious answer was "duh, Nutella," but at that moment Amy grabbed the jar, chucked it into a steady roll at the ground, and shoved the blanket they were using to camouflage themselves during this stakeout out of the way.
Jake whipped his head around only to see the perp they were staking out trip gracefully over the rolling jar of Nutella.
"You're under arrest!" Amy enunciated with the perfect amount of authority, seriousness, and general coolness as she handcuffed the fallen criminal.
Jake's jaw dropped as the situation clicked in his head: Amy Santiago just singlehandedly apprehended a perp with a jar of Nutella.
Bad. Ass.
After about 3 years and 5 months since Amy joined the 99 was when she formed a habit of playfully hitting Jake when he annoyed her (or made her laugh) (or made her smile) and Jake decided, the first moment it happened, it was a sign of friendship.
"Cut it out, Peralta," Amy laughed as she smacked his arm and tried not to smile.
Tried not to smile.
Jake wasn't sure if he was becoming more amusing or if Amy was just getting used to him. Either way, he was pleased he could entertain her.
He blinked, wondering when he decided he wanted to entertain her instead of annoy her.
It had to have been a 'new friend' kind of feeling.
Jake consciously decided he should annoy Amy.
"Hard To Swallow Because It's Way Too Weirdly Wet and I Hate That, name of your sex tape," Jake chimed following Amy's disgust over his 50% off Slurpee, 3 years and 11 months after Amy had joined the 99 as Jake's partner.
Amy's eyes widened and her mouth created a perfect "o," until she quickly pursed her lips and rolled her eyes.
1 Hit KO, perfect combo. Jake loved those faces and that was the moment he remembered the first day Amy walked into the precinct and why he needed to make her miserable. Miserable, with the underlying intent of entertaining her, of course.
4 years and 4 months into their partnership, they had a perfect rhythm going. She was a serious, badass detective and he was the goofball that brought her down to earth and kept her spirits up in an otherwise pretty dark job. He knew how to bother her without offending her and his petty teasing reminded her that the world sucked but it didn't have to be that bad if she didn't let it be that bad.
4 years and 10 months was the first time Jake felt a weird twinge when he saw Amy's strangely forced smile while out on a date. It was so easy to make her smile (he learned how to make her smile in like 2 hours or maybe a year, well, whatever, semantics, right?) so obviously this date was going to be a dud.
So he crashed it. He knocked on the cafe window until her face dropped and he joined their date and told the Date Guy how Amy organized her bills in a complex 10-tiered system as her weekend hobby.
Amy's date left in a tizzy (who leaves in a tizzy over organization-related hobbies? Definitely a dud) and she rolled her eyes at Jake but for some reason her anger seemed fake, and the playful smack to his shoulder didn't make her anger any more believable.
When they drank coffee at the precinct together later and she laughed freely at his McGinley impersonation, he knew she deserved a better date than Dud McOrganizationphobic.
Amy had taken vacations before, but when she took a vacation 5 years and 6 months into her career at the 99, Jake felt an overwhelming sense of boredom. He put a post-it note on Rosa's computer that said "To Do List: buy Jake 5 Pizzas For Dinner" and he watched her rip it up while maintaining eye contact with him the whole time. He smiled piteously in reply but her blank stare was confirmation enough that he did not, in fact, entertain her at all.
"Good one, Jakey!" Charles high-fived Jake in response to the sickest-burn-Jake-has-ever-burned-Charles-with-ever. Well, at least Charles was entertained, right? (It wasn't the same as teasing Amy, though.)
When Amy came back, Jake treated everyone to drinks under the ruse of a successfully clipped hangnail so he could hang out with Amy. When she surprised him with a souvenir of a stuffed animal frog that said inappropriate things when squeezed, he knew that this was exactly the reason he missed her.
During Amy's 5th year and 11th month working at the 99, Jake met her family. There was a huge charity party all NY police officers and detectives were encouraged to attend, and families were welcome. It was around Christmas time so the whole Santiago family decided to attend. Watching Amy with her family made him realize why she was definitely the only person who could successfully be his partner: she was patient, stood her ground, knew how to fight all 7 of her brothers, while simultaneously laughing and playing along with their stupid (and occasionally immature) jokes. She handled her family with ease, grounding them when they got too wild, but still enjoyed their imperfections and encouraged their self-expressions while remaining 100% herself.
Amy Santiago, Jake decided, was amazing: hardworking, playful, and definitely the perfect partner for him.
At the 6 years and 7th month mark, Jake wondered if he liked Amy's smile more than her playfully annoyed face, but ultimately decided not to think about it.
7 years and 2 months came and went like it was nothing. Bickering, making bets, competing, and playing was second nature with the underlying bonuses of being entertained and having fun at work. Even on days where the job sucked, Jake always had a good day as long as he got to work with Amy.
A year and 2 months ago, Jake realized he liked Amy. It didn't necessarily hit him like a ton of bricks because he kind of knew it, maybe, if he disregarded his constant failure to successfully assess his feelings.
If he was asked to 100% honestly describe Amy, he'd do it as so: she's badass, awesome, his favorite detective, fun, dorky, hot, and adorable. So when Charles finally prodded Jake to realize his feelings, he felt a wave of embarrassment. Duh, he liked her; why wouldn't someone like her?
Jake was immature and made a lot of mistakes. He constantly screwed up and although he admitted it and although he was (self-proclaimed) totally hot, bangable, and kind of funny, sometimes that just wasn't enough. So 8 months ago when Amy rejected his feelings for her, he wasn't surprised. He wasn't surprised that she was still doing well with her boyfriend (because, like stated earlier, why wouldn't anyone like her?) who was obviously more stable than him and definitely had more money, money that could be used to take Amy out and buy nice things with, and probably had a sweet TV (which was important), which definitely could even make a hermit crab look like the perfect boyfriend in comparison to Jake. It made a ton of sense that Amazing Amy would have a Beautiful (?) Boyfriend and made even more sense that getting over Amy would be the toughest thing Jake had to deal with ever in his entire life (ok, not really, but still).
So when Jake decided to be genuinely happy for Amy and did everything in his power to make her feel comfortable with him despite his past (not past) feelings for her, he kicked himself for still worrying if Teddy was making her smile or not.
8 and a half years into Amy's career at the 99 and Jake was completely, head-over-heels in-love with her and trying (and failing) not to be.
Jake knew it the first time he saw her: they were, undoubtedly, meant to be partners. And only partners.