I needed some Peraltiago fluff tonight so here you go, it's a very off-canon fic of a Christmas Eve impromptu date. I hope you'll enjoy it, and happy holiday!
The night is cold when Amy comes out of the precinct, Jake right behind her. It's been cold all week, and she's been secretly hoping it would snow tonight. After all, what's more cliché than a Christmas Eve in New York City with snow?
As they arrive to the car who's been assigned to them for the stake out, she's painfully reminded that even if it were to snow, she wouldn't have a very 'cliché' night. Crime never stops, and Jake and her are on stakeout duty until 11 that night, surveilling a warehouse where a dropout is supposed to happen some time before tomorrow. She sighs. Of course, this had to happen tonight. They have been tracking down these people for more than a month, and it had to be Christmas Eve for them to finally receive their first worthy piece of information. Just the evening she was supposed to take a plane to Tony's place and spend two days with her family.
They get into the car and Jake drives them to the alley they're going to stay for the next four hours. Once they're there, he turns off the car and they fall silent. Not for long, though. Jake never knows how to stay quiet for long, and stakeouts are no different.
"So, did you get a chance to give the Captain his gift?"
"Yes."
"What did he think?"
"I don't know. He was pissed that I got him something, I guess."
"Yeah, but you're still going to get him something next year, right?" She barely registers his teasing tone, and keeps her eyes fixated on the warehouse.
"Probably."
She sees him turning to her, and staring at her, but she doesn't look at him. So he turns back to look ahead.
"Okay, Santiago, I get it, you're not in the mood to talk. Sorry."
She finally turns to him.
"No, I'm sorry, Jake. It's not your fault, it's just… I'm supposed to be on a plane to meet my family right now, and instead I'm sitting in a freezing car, in the middle of a crappy neighborhood, to try and catch drug dealers. It's not how I imagined my Christmas going, that's all."
He smiles at her and says "I'm sorry this ruined your plans. But hey, at least the company is good, right?" he adds with a wink, and she snorts. "What? Would you rather be here with Charles, and hear him ramble for four hours about the History of the eggnog?"
She actually laughs at the idea. "No, you're right, you're the lesser of two evils."
"Thank you," he laughs in return, and then they're silent again. But after a minute, Jake moves towards the ignition, and turns on the heat. She must have frowned, because he shrugs and says:
"I can't do much about the neighborhood or the drug dealers, but I can at least make sure you're not freezing."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
The next hour passes slowly, quietly. But Amy is not uncomfortable. She's never uncomfortable around Jake, It's always easy being with him, whether they're in a car at night, or sitting together in the break room, or drinking a beer at Shaw's. It's strange really. One would think that after the whole mess about him liking her, her liking him, them dating different people for so long, it would be weird hanging out together. But it's not, it's always easy and… nice. Sometimes, when he has a day off and she's at work, she finds herself craving his presence at the desk in front of hers. And she won't admit it to anyone, not even to Kylie, but sometimes, she finds herself craving his presence in other places. Like in her apartment. Late at night.
She feels herself starting to blush at her own thoughts, and decides to distract herself with some small talk.
"So what about you?" She sees Jake jump just a little at the sound of her voice after so long without talking. "Any big plans for tonight?"
He smiles, but not in the sweet way that she likes, more in the dark, sarcastic way he does when he feels defeated about something.
"Not even a little bit. My mom is working tonight, so I was going to spend the night at home watching Die Hard and drinking beer. So," he continues before she has time to answer, "spending the evening in a car with you, it's really more of an improvement of my initial plan."
Before she can stop herself, Amy moves, and then her hand is squeezing Jake's in a gesture she hopes he'll understand as support. He looks at her and she smiles.
"I know I was cranky before, but I'm glad I'm here with you, too." And before he gets to say something that will embarrass her, she adds "Even though I'm not surprised you find my company an improvement. I'm a really great person." And then she releases his hand and goes back to watching the warehouse. He laughs at her, mumbles something about 'someone's ego' and settles in his own seat. Amy watches him from the corner of her eye, and she can see he has a small smile on his face, one she is not sure she has seen before. Or maybe once, many months ago, the day before he went undercover. She doesn't know what to do with this smile, so she stops looking at him, hoping it will help calming her racing heartbeat.
It's eleven o'clock, the relief team is here, and Jake and Amy let them to the warehouse where nothing went down so far, heading to the precinct before they both go home. If he's being honest, he doesn't really want to go home to his small apartment with nothing more than a movie waiting for him. Amy and him were on the clock, but still, it was more fun than sitting around on his own on Christmas Eve. He doesn't know where he gets all this fascination with Christmas from. He used to not care at all about this kind of holiday, but the last few years with the crew of the nine-nine made him appreciate bonding moments more, and now he resents going home alone.
And then, there's the entire "Amy" situation. He tried to get over her, he really did. But then she goes and pulls stuff like laughing at his joke at work, or wearing a nice dress for a beer at the bar, or holding his hand to comfort him, and he's all confused again. Because most of the time, he's fine with knowing that nothing is going to happen between them. But then he looks at her, and he only wants to take her in his arms and kiss her.
As he pulls over onto the precinct parking lot to let her to her car, he realizes he's been thinking about his partner's lips for way too long than he'd care to admit. He looks over to her, and she's watching him, and smiling, that cute small smile he likes so much. He needs to stop looking at her mouth.
"Well, that's where I leave you. See you on the 28th?"
"Actually Jake, I was thinking… Do you want to come over to my place tonight?"
He must have heard her wrong.
"What?"
"I was thinking, it's kind of stupid for the both of us to stay alone and be miserable on our own. So you could come over to my place, we could watch a movie, and we'll at least be miserable together."
She's blushing slightly, and he can't help but wonder how she can be so pretty after so long sitting in a car without moving. He grins and answers:
"That would be great. But I'm warning you, we're watching 'Die Hard.'"
She groans, but he sees her lips twitch up.
The movie is nearly over, and Amy doesn't know what to do. It started quite normally. They turned off the light to enjoy the action on screen better. Then she got a bit cold, so she grabbed her wool blanket and curled up under it. Then he got cold, so she got closer to him and shared her blanket. Then he slipped his arm around her shoulder to get in a more comfortable position, and she leaned into his side.
And now the movie is ending, and she doesn't know what to do. Because she doesn't want to move, but she doesn't know what will happen once the credits are over. Is she supposed to move now, and try to recreate a normal, non-ambiguous situation before the screen goes dark? Is she supposed to stay against him and maybe act like she fell asleep to justify what happened? This last one is definitely not a good choice, seeing that it's Jake's favorite movie.
She's still thinking about her options when she feels him move. But he doesn't get away from her. Instead, Jake's hand comes to her face and gently turns her chin to make her look at him. He has a look that she has never seen before, but somehow still understands, as he looks down to her mouth and back to her eyes. And as he leans down to capture her lips with his, Amy closes her eyes, thinking that kissing a man under a blanket on Christmas Eve is a pretty big cliché, too. And she doesn't realize it, but outside, snow begins to fall.