Jake fell back and pulled Amy into him as his head hit the floor with a soft thump and he let out a moan.
Really it was his fault. He was the one who started the whole chase thing around his apartment where she tried to catch him amidst their bouts of laughter. He was also the one who chose to start the chase that time in his apartment with tiled floors while wearing socks. That was all on him. So when Amy finally caught the ends of his shirt and he started slipping, he had no one to blame but himself. And she wouldn't have even landed on him if he didn't pull her down too. His slightly pained expression as he rubbed the back of his hand only had Amy laughing harder, and even he joined in after that.

They had become quite acquainted with what they called laugh attacks with each other. It was usually from some nonsense that Jake initiated, and soon enough neither of them could stop laughing. They were still kinda new, and sometimes it just didn't seem real (to her at least). It was times like these were Amy was left reeling and scatter brained, and happy beyond belief. It was times like these where she just couldn't help but laugh.

When they had both more or less gotten the giggles out, she leaned down and kissed him.

She still wasn't used to that either. Kissing Jake. So much was new lately, new with him, but the kissing was probably her favorite. That and the laughing. The kissing, the laughing, and the happiness were in the top 3, in no particular order.

When she pulled back a few inches to see his stupid silly smile she told him the one thing she had been dying to tell him for so long.

"I love you."

And she absolutely loved the smile that bloomed across his face at her words. And they grinned at each other like a couple of idiots before his grin turned into a smirk.

"Aw, you broke the rule!" He complained in a total attempt to tease her, and it probably would have worked if she had any idea what he was talking about.

"What? What rule?"

"The rule of our first date."

"What are you talking about?" Amy asked, somehow managing to be even more confused than before.

"I think it was the third one. The most important one. You weren't supposed to fall in love with me."

When she realized what he was referencing she sighed.

"The bet was not our first date, and you can't be serious-"

"You're a rule breaker, Amy," he interjected, and before she could say anything against it he softened the blow "but that's okay, cause I broke that rule too."

"Say it."

He hummed his confusion, and so she clarified that she wanted him to explicitly say it, in no uncertain terms.

"I want you to say it. Three words."

When Jake developed a serious expression as he caught the meaning of her words she realized that asking that of him was a huge mistake.

This was Jake she was dealing with. Who first expressed interest in her using the term 'romantic stylez'. She shouldn't have pressured him at all, and he had told her how much she meant to him, even if it was in not so many words. It was really all semantics and Amy was already aware of how uncomfortable he always was around big emotional leaps so she was really stupid for saying anything because it didn't even matter.

Even though she was dying to hear those words fall from his lips directed at her, it wasn't necessary, because she knew it was true. He didn't need to say it. She didn't need some external validation or a dying declaration of love from Jake because she knew without a doubt that he loved her, and that was all she needed from him.

"Never mind. I know what you meant. Just forget-" Amy started to pull away and brush off the serious moment she had just needlessly created but stopped when she realized he was holding tight on her wrists, keeping her to him.

"I love you, Amy."

"What?" She barely breathed the question, but he heard it well enough. She really shouldn't have been so surprised since he was just doing what she asked, but she had accepted that she was going to go without those words that night.

"I love you," he repeated clear as day. He was slow and deliberate the second time around to make sure she heard it this time (though she had heard it just fine the first time).

"You know, you really don't have to say it just because I told you to," she informed him even though the smart thing to do would have been to just smile and shut up. But she never did the smart thing when it came to important matters, especially if they involved Jake.

"You are impossible," he told her with an incredulous chuckle before sitting up straight and holding her in his lap. "I love you, Amy Santiago."

He tucked the hair behind her ears with an unbelievable softness to him, but it was his tone that got her. He said it with an affectionate disbelief and a little bit of exasperation mixed in. He sounded like he had to explain for the thousandth time that we'll get there when we get there to a child who would not stop pestering 'Are we there yet?'. He said it like he was amazed, though not entirely surprised, that she needed his confirmation because (to him) it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"So much that sometimes I don't know what to do with myself other than think about you laughing for hours and your smile and your hands and you because I am so disgustingly in love with you that I'm probably contagious. And I'm almost positive it's terminal. If I told you even half of the sappy thoughts I think about you everyday even you would get sick. And it's awful and horrible because I still get butterflies in my stomach every time we kiss, and it's absolutely terrifying because I've never loved anyone this much before in my life, but it's the best feeling in the world. And I love the awfulness and the butterflies and the terror, and I love you, Ames. So much. I love you."

And that was about the moment her eyes started watering so much they were about to spill over.

"You're gonna make me cry," she said as if that fact wasn't abundantly clear while she was rubbing at her eyes to stop the tears, but they came anyway. And when the tears really started flowing she could see how alarmed he was even through her blurry vision.

"Crap, I'm sorry," Jake apologized as his hands replaced hers to wipe the tears from her eyes because he thought he had upset her.

"Shut up, you idiot," she laughed before hiccuping. "Even if you used the worst possible choice of words I think that's the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me in my life."

He still looked a little unsure, and she couldn't blame him. Amy Santiago was not the kind of person who cried when she was happy. She barely even cried when she was sad. And he of all people knew that.

"So you're okay?" He asked cautiously, still not fully trusting the overjoyed look on her face when paired with the tears.

"I love you so much that that absolute train wreck of a speech you just gave made me so happy that I'm crying. I don't do this everyday. It's a testament to how much I love you."

And apparently that was enough to convince him because he started smiling with her. That was just what they had devolved into lately, a couple of idiots who got into laugh attacks for no reason and broke out into smiling fits just because they looked at each other for a moment too long.

"We're just going to say the word love over and over again tonight until it doesn't even sound like a word anymore, aren't we?" Jake's question was clearly rhetorical even though he followed it up by doing exactly that, saying love over and over again.

Even though that was probably her favorite word to hear him say she kissed him around his 15th rendition, effectively ending his declaration for the moment.

"I love you," he said the moment she broke away, and was of course immediately followed by her response.

"I love you."

"I love you," he repeated, before adding a bit on with a grimace. "I told you it was sickening. This is what I have to think about every day, all day. And eventually I'm going to say it so many times that you're going to want to throw up, but I can say it a thousand more times cause I'm never gonna get tired of saying it."

"I'm a couple thousand times short of getting sick, so looks like you've fallen a bit behind," Amy taunted before capturing his lips again. Despite all of the jokes, and even if he actually thought it was true, she was never going to get sick of it. He would never be able to tell her too much, because every single time he said it it was more than enough. Everything extra was more than she deserved, but she was beyond happy to accept it all.

She was never going to get tired of him saying I love you.

And she was never going to get tired of saying it back.


The fact that he loved Amy Santiago was the only thing he knew.

And the fact that she now knew it too made him happier than she would ever believe. But that didn't mean he was going to stop. He was never going to stop trying to convince her how truly happy it made him. And he was never going to stop telling Amy how happy she made him.

He was never going to stop telling her how much he loved her


AN: Hey buddy buddies! How's it going?

I'm working on the next chapter of the Boy Next Door currently and a frustrating amount of one shots that I just click back and forth and inbetween to work on them before I finish a single one.

It's been forever since I've updated Marco Polo and I apologize for that. I was pretty stuck on it for a bit since I knew where I wanted it to go but I needed it to somehow progress to a certain point to put my plan into action and that's where I got stuck. But I've gotten some lovely suggestions so I'm figuring out a way to work all of that in, so sorry for the wait!

Fair warning I did put this all together last night/this morning on no sleep, so hopefully they're aren't too many mistakes I didn't catch.

Do leave your thoughts on this if you feel so inclined!

:)