Written for ohpineapple on Tumblr – part of The Good Place's frozen yogurts flavours prompt list. Young!Peraltiago AU.

"Your laces are undone." Amy suddenly stops in what she was doing and points at Jake's right foot, showing him what she's talking about. The young boy follows her gaze, then shrugs when he looks back up at her, not seeming bothered by it.

"That's okay," he replies before he concentrates right back on the game they're playing, but his friend doesn't seem pleased with his laid-back attitude and answer.

"You should redo them, otherwise you might step on it and fall." She glares at him. Her voice sounds more serious this time, almost bossy even, her little arms crossed over her chest. Jake knows the girl enough to know she's stubborn and won't let him get away with this without an explanation. He sighs, defeated.

"I don't… I can't," he stutters in a low voice, almost inaudible, unable to meet Amy's eyes as he loses all self-confidence and feels ashamed of the situation, starting to nervously play with his hands. She frowns, staring at him – she doesn't quite understand what's going on with him.

"Why…" She wants to ask, but suddenly realisation hits her. "You don't know how to tie your shoes, do you?" she wonders instead. There's no hint of mockery in her voice – it's just a plain, curious question. The boy tries and looks back up at her then, and finds himself face to face with a smiling Amy – not a teasing grin, though; it's something genuine, which invites him to be honest with his answer.

"No," he acknowledges with a shake of his head. He waits for a second, holding his breath as he studies the girl's face, so sure that if she didn't react at first, she will now burst into laughter at his confession – he's almost 8, after all, and all of the children his age have known how to tie their shoes for a while already; even younger ones, just like Amy –, but nothing happens. She remains silent. Despite this, he still feels the urge to explain himself. "It's my first pair of laced shoes. Dad offered them to me last time he came home, but he left again before he taught me how to lace them. And mom's too busy."

The girl's heart tightens in her chest hearing this, feeling bad for her friend, but she doesn't make any comment. Instead, she thinks for a second before her face suddenly lits up and she starts smiling. Jake watches her in confusion when she squats right next to him without a warning, then looks back up at him.

"Do you want me to teach you?"

There's an excited spark in her eyes as she speaks about helping her friend that makes all the shame the boy may have felt vanish at once, and a beam of his own is brightening his features when he agrees to her request with a nod. She doesn't wait any longer to show him the way then, all the while describing each step out loud for him to better understand what she's actually doing.

Jake watches in complete silence while she moves her hands over his shoes, more concentrated than he's ever been in his entire life as he listens to her words, even participating in the process by asking some questions – he wants to do good; he wants to make her proud. Amy is thrilled to answer to any one of them with the more details possible and, after a few times tying and untying her friend's shoes, she finally draws herself from him, leaving them untied.

"Your turn," she kindly invites him to try and do the same as she just showed him so that he can put her lesson into actual practice.

He's hesitant at first, not sure he'll manage to do half as good a job as she did, but a quick glance at the reassuring smile she's shooting at him is all it takes for the boy to lean over and do his best to imitate her friend's gesture. Obviously, it takes him several times trying and failing, but after a while, he finally gets it.

"I did it!" Jake shouts and grins as he happily looks back up at Amy, proudly showing her his now tied shoes and, though it's far from being a perfect tie, she beams in return – she has to admit it's a good start, after all. Plus she wouldn't dare to crush her friend's joy; seeing him like this actually warms her heart. She feels like a proud teacher. "Thank you," he kisses her cheek in a sudden rush of boldness, and when he draws himself from her only a second later, he can see she's blushing, caught off guard by this sudden sweet gesture.

(He's very much blushing too.)

"Mommy's the one who taught you how to do it?" Sarah asks as she watches her father showing her how to tie her shoes while sharing his anecdote with her.

"Yes. The best teacher I could have ever asked for," Jake heartedly replies.

This answer intrigues the little girl, curious about her parents' story. "How long have you known each other?" The man looks up at her then, stopping in his movements for a minute. He turns to shoot a quick, loving glance at his wife, who's watching her two loves from afar with a warm smile, sitting on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate in one hand, the other tenderly rubbing her huge 8-month pregnant belly.

"She's been my best friend since we were five."

Amy's beam only grows wider at his words, bliss taking over her whole core when her husband puts his attention back on their daughter after a last knowing share of gaze and goes on teaching her how to tie her shoes with the same precision she did with him all those years ago. It's kind of mindblowing, thinking about this moment again, and how this goofy friend from school, as time went by, turned into the absolute most important person in her life.

The father of her child – soon-to-be children.