The Good Place AU, in which Jake isn't supposed to be there and Amy pretends to be his soulmate to help him out… until her true soulmate comes into the picture.

Rewrite the Stars (You'd Be the One I Was Meant to Find)

This is supposed to be the Good Place – so why does Jake feel like his heart is being crushed into pieces inside his chest right now?

He knows he shouldn't complain – knowns he shouldn't even be there in the first place – but still, it hurts. Watching the woman he foolishly started to have feelings for, the woman that was presented to him as his soulmate upon his arrival, get ready for a date with someone that isn't him hurts.

Knowing that her real soulmate, the one she's been waiting for the whole time – the one they thought he'd deprived her of by entering her life when he shouldn't have –, is going to arrive any minute now to take her out to that fancy restaurant Raymond booked for the two of them to make up for his mistake, hurts.

She's wearing lipstick, his personal favourite shade of mauve, the one she usually wears on important occasions and that goes so well on her – the one he's dreamed so many times of removing with a kiss of his own, or leaving marks on his face caused by the soft brush of her mouth against his skin. Her so-often tied-in-a-bun-or-ponytail dark hair has been gotten loose, curling a little at the tips on her shoulders and framing her glowing, beaming features as she walks around the house in search of a jacket in an excited pace.

He's never seen her so radiant than she looks right now, in the few months they've learned to know each other.

And he should be happy for her – happy that his friend seems happy – but the truth is he's completely devastated.

His whole life he was sure he would die alone, which he did, but then his case got mistaken and he arrived in this Good Place instead of where he truly belonged – the Bad Place, if he was to believe the rules of this world, though he doesn't exactly know why, since he thought he always lead a pretty decent and honest life – and got paired up with this brilliant, beautiful, somewhat nerdy woman they called his soulmate and he thought this was it. His second chance.

Having to wait for the afterlife to get what he so wished for didn't bother him too much then if it meant getting it with her and having all of eternity to make up for lost times, but then once again, it was taken away from him.

"There… seem to have bee a problem with our algorithm," Raymond, the Architect who built this place came to their house in the morning, with another man Jake had never seen in the neighbourhood before standing by his side. "Teddy just arrived in the Good Place," he pointed at the stranger, before looking back at his friend. "And it would seem that he is your true soulmate, Amy."

And just like that, the former detective felt like dying again, his chest pressing hard – so hard – too hard – against the cool metal of that window before his rope suddenly broke and he fell to the ground in a loud thump as he had been trying (and obviously failed beautifully) to make an exit Die-Hard stylez.

It was the same kind of crushing pain all over again, though there was no death to deliver him from it this time, no big, bright light nor waking up in some waiting room facing a wall with its huge writing on it – "Everything is fine."

No, everything wasn't.

Raymond talked more, explaining what happened in further details, apologising again for the mistake, and Amy seemed to carefully listen to each word he let out, while Jake, him, couldn't concentrate on what this immortal being had to tell them. His eyes were fixed on that other man, the true love of the woman he himself loved.

"Nice to meet you, soulmate," her voice brought him back to the reality of the moment when she approached Teddy and offered him her hand.

Not nice at all, he thought – especially when, only a few minutes later, dinner was already being planned between the two for the same night, and he saw the woman blush and chuckle from the corner of his eye when Teddy started talking about 'looking forward to it.'

(It took him days to make her only smile at one of his brilliant jokes.)

(But then again – he's not her soulmate.)

At that particular moment, Jake could have sworn he never took someone else's place and that he had been, in fact, in the Bad Place all along because there was no way torture like this existed in a place called the Good Place. Nothing's worse than breaking someone's heart – his own, in that case.

"Is this too much?" Amy takes him out of his reminiscence of the events of the morning by suddenly appearing in front of him, now completely ready and waiting for her date to arrive, watching him with an unsure, worried glint in her shining brown eyes.

He studies her for a second, taking in her beauty, and manages a small smile, which doesn't really reach his own eyes. "You look great," he tells her to reassure her – and because she truly does – and that makes her smile too, his words alone able to calm her nervousness down immediately.

You always do, Jake wants to add, but keeps it to himself. There's a pause after that then; none of them really knows what to say next, staring at the other in an awkward silence. "What happens next?" Amy finally breaks it, and when her friend looks up at her, there's now some kind of sadness in her eyes.

It takes him a few more quiet seconds to understand what she means – what happens next to them – to him – to his secret?

"I don't know."

And it's true. He doesn't know. He didn't even think about it once before, to be honest, about what would be the consequences of the woman's true soulmate coming into her life on him, too distraught by his own hurt. It's probably a matter of days – maybe even hours – before they discover he's not who (and where) he's supposed to be now that he's not known as Amy's soulmate anymore.

Now that he doesn't have anyone he belongs to.

He's not so sure he cares about all of this – his secret, the possibility of being sent to the Bad Place – anymore either. He has no reason to stay, without the woman by his side. And nothing they will make him go through down there will ever be as painful as seeing her happy with someone else either.

(Though they've never been a real thing, together.)

"Maybe they won't connect the problem to you. Maybe this is all for the better, as you'll be free of me, and able to find your own, true soulmate too." Amy tries to be supportive, try to make him show the bright side of the situation as she talks with a reassuring smile (which he can tell she's forcing a little, though, not believing her own words too much) and her hand on his arm, squeezing gently at it, but she doesn't know.

She doesn't know he doesn't want to be 'free of her.'

She doesn't know he doesn't care that some superior beings and their dumb algorithms decided they aren't meant to be, and there's someone better for each of them somewhere else. No one will ever be better than Amy Santiago for him.

"Maybe…" Jake trails off, lowering his gaze, because there's nothing else to say and he can't stand watching her straight in the eye.

Or maybe when you come back, I won't be there anymore, taken back where I truly belong, it hits him suddenly that this might be the last time he sees her.

He bursts his look back up at her then, studying her carefully, wanting to print every feature of her lovely face in his head. She frowns, startled by his sudden change of behaviour and in that particular moment, he finally feels the urge to tell her how he feels.

Because he might never get another chance, he realises. And he'd hate himself forever if he doesn't take it now.

"Can I tell you something before you go?" His voice is low, serious.

"Of course. What's up?" In front of him Amy's expression switches from surprised to curious, her brown eyes piercing through his core as she waits for him to go on, watching him with an inviting small smile.

"You're right. Maybe nothing will happen to me, and I'll be able to stay. But maybe something will – they'll discover who I really am, and take me to the Bad Place. And if that happens, I can't leave without telling you something," Jake begins his confession.

"Tell me what?" The woman is getting scared by his grave tone.

The former detective takes a deep breath before he goes on. "I–… I know we're not meant to be, that the world has other plans for us and that Teddy's your true soulmate – I'm not questioning that, or trying to change it – but I just… I wish we wouldn't have had to pretend. I wish you were my soulmate – like, for realz."

Amy's mouth drops open in shock when he eventually closes his, done with everything he wanted to say. She's about to reply, but before she has the chance to let out even just a word, there's a knock on the door that interrupts them.

On instinct, she turns around to look at it. She can make Teddy's figure through the thin square of glass, and her heart clenches in her chest. When she focuses back on Jake, though, it's too late for her to answer.

"Anyways, you gotta go." He doesn't leave her time to react, nodding in direction of the man waiting for her on the other side of the house. "Have a good date."

And just like that, he disappears into his room, leaving her alone with his words still lingering in the air. I wish you were my soulmate.

This is supposed to be the Good Place – so why does Amy feel like her heart is being crushed into pieces inside her chest right now?

She knows she shouldn't complain – knows that she's right where she's supposed to be – but still, it hurts. It hurts because ever since she learned her soulmate wasn't really her soulmate and him taking someone else's place meant she would never meet her real one, she wished for that impossible moment to happen – the moment when she would meet the person she's truly meant to be with – and now that she has him in front of her, she can't seem to appreciate it.

Because things have changed, since that day Jake sat her on their couch, only a few hours after meeting him, and blurred it all out. "I'm not supposed to be here."

Ensued months of lies, months of wondering what an afterlife with her true love would have been like and more importantly… months of getting acquainted with this goofy, childish, though caring man that pleaded her not to share his secret and help him stay in this place. Enough time to care for him, too.

I wish you were my soulmate – like, for realz.

Her friend's words are repeating themselves in her mind while she tries and concentrates (but fails) on what Teddy has to tell her, confusing, burning her skin even harder than this fire that killed her all those months ago.

Maybe they'll discover who I really am, and take me to the Bad Place.

She can't seem to imagine a life – no, eternal death, even – without him, and this should tell something – something a lot more relevant than any algorithm will ever reveal.

Usually, Amy would never question a choice made by science – especially science coming from higher identities – but following her friend's confession, and with what it does to her heart, she's lost and doesn't know what she should believe in anymore. Because true, Teddy's great and they do seem to have a lot in common – she can definitely see why he'd be considered as her soulmate.

But there are those feelings, that she tried to bury deep inside the minute she started feeling them and resurfaced when Jake told her about how he saw her, that tell another story. A story they wrote by themselves, without anyone telling them who they're supposed to be. And she might be liking that story – a lot.

She's not so sure she wants to let go of it just now then, and see where it goes if only she'd give it a chance – screw fate and what it has in store for her.

It's not like she believed in soulmates during her time on Earth, and it never prevented her from living her life well until now.

Though maybe, this is what the universe wanted all along too. Maybe it's no coincidence that Jake was sent to the Good Place instead of someone else, and ended up being paired with her, of all people.

But in any case, she can't help but think, who cares what fate, superior beings, the universe or whatever those people in charge of these kind of afterlife places are called want? What truly matters is what she wants deep inside.

And right now, she knows she wants him. Soulmate or not.

"Are you alright?" Teddy gently puts his hand on hers, softly stroking it with his thumb in an intimate move when he sees she's lost in her thoughts to make her look back at him. When she eventually does, she sees him watching her with a big, bright smile, and suddenly she feels like she's suffocating.

It's the last straw for her to come to the realisation: she can't do it. His touch doesn't feel right – doesn't feel like soulmates should. Doesn't feel like that one time Jake's knuckles accidentally brushed with hers over one last slice of pizza during one of Charles's parties and her heart literally exploded in her chest.

"I'm sorry, but this can't work. I already have a soulmate," she apologises, quickly removing her hand from his grasp then stands up and rushes out of the restaurant, leaving a confused Teddy behind as she heads towards Jake's – her – their home without looking back at the other man once.

When she finally enters the house, her breathing short and loud for having run too fast, she finds the man she seeks spread on the sofa in front of some boring documentary (the kind the person he took the place of apparently loved) with a pot of 'completed crossword'-flavoured frozen yogurt on his lap (her personal favourite she asked Gina to fill their fridge with). At hearing the door open, he looks away from the screen and back, and when his eyes fall on Amy's dishevelled figure, he frowns, taken aback by her sight.

"Ames? What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be with your soulmate?" he asks, straightening up on the couch as he studies her carefully.

"Screw soulmates," she says as she approaches him, a new determination and boldness in her shining eyes he's never seen in her before. "You're the only one that matters."

And just like that, the next second she's sitting next to him, and all he can recall is her mouth claiming his. It takes him some time to properly respond, and he's still in shock when they part, not sure he understands what just happens, but then Amy's hand comes to softly brush his lip with her thumb and a contented smile, removing part of her mauve lipstick that she left there as they kissed, and his heart is instantly full again.

When she's done and he brings her back to him, hooking his arms around her waist to pull her closer and kiss her again, Jake can't help but think that this is the Good Place indeed, finally – because he's never felt happier than in this moment, with the woman he loves loving him in return.