Chapter Text
Amy Santiago inhaled the scent of her coffee with relish, the bitter twang sending a jolt through her system as the haze cleared from her brain. She loved these quiet moments in the morning. It was just her, in her kitchen, holding her mug, about to read her paper. No big brothers to flick oatmeal at her, or snatch the last of the granola, or tease her for reading the business section. She still had two hours before her first class of the day, and her roommate, Sophia Perez, wouldn’t disturb Amy’s peace for at least another thirty minutes.
Of course, that was just the moment Sophia’s door chose to open, and Jake Peralta stumbled out, pulling a shirt over his head and blinking dubiously in the unwelcome light. Amy chewed the inside of her cheek in exasperation at the intrusion. Jake Peralta was not supposed to be in the apartment this morning, hell, he wasn’t supposed to be in her life at all. Period. It was all just a fluke.
When Amy had started her second year at college, she had been at a loss to find anywhere to live. New York city was crowded and big and expensive, and Amy wasn’t exactly well connected. Luckily, at almost the last moment, Amy’s best friend Kylie had pulled through. She had set Amy up with a family friend, a third year pre-law student in search of a roommate. Amy had been intimidated by Sophia Perez from the start; the way she dressed, the way she talked, the way she looked you in the eye when you spoke to her, all screamed ‘I could do a power pose while riding a wild horse through a hurricane, and look good doing it’. At the same time though, Sophia was smart, caring and funny, basically everything Amy dreamed of being. She welcomed Amy into her life with a wide smile and a wicked sense of humour.
Things had been going well with Sophia, Amy was even starting to consider them friends, when Jake Peralta dropped into their lives. More accurately, he was pushed. By Rosa Diaz.
Rosa was one of Amy’s few friends at college, and when Amy had agreed to meet her at a bar one night with Sophia, little did she know that Jake was tagging along.
Amy and Sophia had been chatting at a table not far from the bar quite happily. Sophia was on her third drink, Amy was sipping on tonic water, and the conversation was flowing easily and casually, just how friends were supposed to talk. Then Rosa had entered the bar, dragging a scruffy-haired boy with a huge grin behind her. The guy was cute, Amy supposed; his face was handsome and he wasn’t unfit, but he dressed like he worked in a second-hand record store and hadn’t done his laundry in a month.
Rosa had spotted Amy and Sophia and had shoved the boy ahead of her, elbowing innocent bar-goers out of her way as she went. The boy only just managed to stop himself from crashing into their table, laughing loudly at Amy and Sophia’s startled expressions as their glasses rattled.
“Amy, Sophia, this is Jake. Sorry, he had a couple at the last bar we were at, and he can’t hold his drink.”
“I can too” Jake objected, shooting Rosa the expression an argumentative puppy would have “but I invented this game where we had to take a shot every time someone said a word longer than three syllables. It was surprisingly difficult since there are only, like, fifty words that long anyway...”
Rosa just grunted in response, and Jake turned his attention back to the occupants of the table.
“Soooo, who’s who again?” he shot them a boyish smirk, which was totally not charming.
“I’m Sophia” Sophia shook Jake’s hand, giving him a smile Amy recognised as being 10% sly scrutiny, 20% friendly, 30% amused, and 40% sultry confidence.
“Sweet, that must make you Amy” Jake turned his attention to Amy, who did her best to wipe off her bemused expression.
“Pleased to meet you.”
“What’re you guys drinking?”
“Beer.”
“Tonic water.”
“No alcohol?” Jake questioned.
“Not tonight.”
“Bad drunk?”
“Early class.”
“Wild” Jake snorted. Amy narrowed her eyes, bristling.
“Anyway,” he continued “can I get you guys another round?”
“Actually, I was just going to get some hot wings, you want in?” Sophia offered, a playful challenge behind her words. Jake beamed.
“You like beer and hot wings? You may be the perfect woman. What are your thoughts on Die Hard?”
“Best movie on the planet.”
“I take it back, you are definitely the perfect woman.”
The two of them set off towards the bar, and that was it. Amy was forgotten. It had happened before, guys usually breezed past Amy in their eagerness to get to the beautiful and charismatic Sophia, but it didn’t mean that Amy enjoyed it. She swirled her glass silently, Rosa sitting with her arms folded next to her. She couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but Jake irked her. He seemed to be the epitome of childish energy and confidence, swanning through life like it was a video game on easy. He just let his good looks and charm get him through everything, meeting the world with an affectionate grin and warm eyes.
Amy shook her head angrily, trying to dispel such thoughts from her mind. She’d only talked the guy for thirty seconds, it was a bit premature to start throwing darts at his picture. Still, Amy glared at her drink. She really hoped this encounter would be a one-time thing.
It wasn’t. Apparently, Jake and Sophia had a lot in common, and soon they were dropping words like ‘boyfriend’ and ‘girlfriend’ all over the place, meaning that the guy spent a copious amount of time at Amy’s apartment. It was…an experience.
She wasn’t sure how exactly it happened, whether she was unfriendly to him so he made fun of her, or if he teased her so she started being moody around him, but their relationship became one of quick jabs and retorts. They could barely get through a conversation without a darting insult or quip, each trying to throw the other off. In a strange way, Amy almost enjoyed having him around. She liked the feeling of competition, as if they were in a race only they knew about, and only they could tell who was winning.
He still exasperated her though, leading to stupid arguments that made Sophia think that maybe she should keep her roommate and boyfriend apart if she wanted to keep the peace. But even she couldn’t stop morning encounters like these.
Amy glanced up at Jake and nodded in greeting, trying to be civil. But, when he responded with a cheeky smile and a wink, she could feel her blood boil.
“Is it ok if I have breakfast, or do you want to be left alone to make bedroom eyes at that coffee?”
“Depends, what are you having for breakfast?”
“Cocoa pops with ice cream.”
“No way, that’s terrible!” Amy gaped, unendingly horrified by his eating habits.
“What if it’s mango ice cream? That’s basically a fruit salad” Jake offered.
“No it’s not! And that would taste disgusting-”
A smile had spread over Jake's face; different to the smirk he’d warn before. This smile was wider, making his eyes shine as he wound her up.
“Don’t knock it until you try it.”
“The only thing that’s going to get a knock is your head if you don’t stop bugging me.”
“Kinky” Jake laughed, before moving past Amy and into the kitchen. Amy rolled her eyes and turned to swipe her newspaper off the counter, but found herself face to face with Jake.
He had reached up to get a mug from behind her head, and her turning had put her right between Jake and the cupboard, with Jake’s face inches from her own. He was leaning into her space, a hand on the counter to one side of her, his body solid and strong, a handbreadth from her own pyjama-clad torso. For a fleeting second, she sensed the heat radiating off him, felt his breath on her cheek, smelt his aftershave. Amy could feel his gaze burning through her, searing the image of Jake being this close onto her brain.
They both seemed to freeze for a beat, before Jake awkwardly stumbled back, apologising with a half-hearted smile. Amy scurried out of the kitchen, cheeks burning.
Stop being so awkward! She berated herself, trying to stomp down the butterflies in her stomach.
At that moment Sophia emerged, poised as ever, even in her pyjamas. She smiled at Amy and wandered over to the kitchen counter, where she plucked the coffee mug out of her boyfriend’s hand.
“About to make me a cup, were you?” she asked with a mixture of sarcasm and affection.
“No way, coffee is for non-blanket hogs. You lost the right to have coffee last night, I think I lost a toe to frostbite.”
“That’s funny, because I always thought that the person who paid for the coffee got to drink it, while lazy freeloaders got kicked out in their underwear…”
“Of course I was making you coffee, all the coffee!” Jake enthusiastically wrapped his arms around Sophia and grinned.
“Look away Amy, there’s about to be some improper behaviour over here!” he called to Amy. She met Jake’s gaze with a snort, but looked away. Her gaze bored into her paper, trying to wipe the memory of dark brown eyes staring into her own.