Happy Halloween/Peraltiago's engageversary!

As she passes by yet another couple making out in the yard (this time, it seems to be an apparently revisited version of Captain Hook – younger, more attractive – and what looks like a princess coming straight from a fairytale with her ample red ball gown) and, not so far from them, the Devil himself having beers with a Detective, Amy can't retain the sigh that escapes her throat any longer.

She hates Halloween and its stupid traditions. In fact, it's her least favorite holiday, far behind the others.

What is she doing here then, in the middle of a big costume party on the 31st of October?

Good question.

To be honest, even she doesn't quite know what went through her mind when she agreed to come to her neighbor's Halloween party. Charles Boyle came by her apartment around two weeks ago with an invite and a bright smile lighting up his face – he seemed so desperately eager for her to be there that she didn't feel like turning it down.

She likes her neighbor and thus didn't want to disappoint him.

No need to say she regretted her act of kindness the minute she entered his house and was welcomed by two zombies pretending they were going to eat her brain.

She's been in there for only a little more than an hour. She forced herself to stay this long despite her best instincts to run fast and far away from this jungle of crazy drunk people as soon as she passed the main door. She could feel her anxiety already build up in her core at the sight of all these strangers pretending to be somebody else for a night. Now though, she just can't handle any of it any longer.

She's leaving. She's going back to her own apartment across the street. She's rejoining the quietness of her room, where she'll finally be able to continue the book she's started reading in the morning. It's patiently waiting for her to come back to it on her bedside table, comfortably curled up under her warm covers in her pajamas. That is the perfect way to spend the night, according to her standards. Not this – to stand in her Harry Potter cosplay in the middle of a crowd full of people who don't even seem to acknowledge her presence anyway. They're too busy dancing and drinking or hitting on someone else.

For sure, Charles won't notice she's missing.

Going from the yard, where she escaped some time ago to take some fresh air when she began to feel a little too overwhelmed by the number of persons surrounding her, and back inside the house to reach the exit door appears to be more challenging than she first imagined. So many people are getting in her way – it definitely makes her wonder how many invites Charles actually sent.

Eventually though, she succeeds. She finds a rather quiet and, most importantly (though quite shockingly), empty corridor.

She stops to catch up her breath and enjoy this new calmness when a voice in her back startles her.

"Hey, hey!" It seems to be calling her. She turns around. She quickly scans the place with her eyes. A curious frown forms on her face, in search of the origin of the sound. She doesn't see anything – nor anyone – so, after a few more seconds, the room having fallen silent again, she decides her brain must have tricked her and starts to walk away to leave.

But, as soon as she takes a first step, the voice calls again, louder this time.

"Please, right here!" The person seems concerned – she can tell from their tone. "Don't go, I need help!" They plead her.

She takes a deeper look around then, and that's when she finally spots him – a man about her age, she guesses from the little she can see of him. He's wearing a seemingly dirty grey tank top and brown pants and is watching her with praying eyes through a slightly open door. His left hand is cuffed to the handle of a drawer behind him and put in evidence for her to understand why he needs her right now.

She lets out a sigh and pauses for a beat before moving again – in his direction, this time.

You free him out, then you're out of this crazy house, Amy promises herself.

(Foolish of her to think it's gonna be that easy.)

When she enters the room, the man wants to thank her for coming to his rescue. He's truly relieved that someone finally came by here and managed to find him after spending the past fifteen minutes alone trying to find a way to get rid of these handcuffs by himself. But then she's suddenly facing him, their eyes meeting, and it hits him.

"Hey!" he exclaims instead of his gratitude. A new smile spreads across his features. "I know you. You're Charles's neighbor, right?!"

The confusion on Amy's features that she, on the other hand, doesn't seem to recognize him must be easily readable because he's quick to add, "I'm Jake. Jake Peralta. His colleague and best friend."

"Oh yeah." She remembers, now. "I see. You're the Jake. The one Charles always talks to me about – the best person that has ever existed on this planet, if you listen to him."

She lets out a small chuckle at this, shaking her head while she recalls all of her conversations about the man with her neighbor. Jake laughs along with her.

"I swear everything he might have said about me is true. I'm awesome," he jokes in return. It makes Amy roll her eyes – though laugh a little more as well.

"Anyways, I remember seeing you around a few times, yeah. It's nice to finally meet you, Jake. I'm Amy. Santiago."

Jake offers her a smile. He doesn't tell her he knows that already. In fact, just like for him with her, Charles told him a great deal about the woman in the past – he swore she'd be a perfect match for him. He amusedly wonders how his colleague would react if he'd see them interact together for the first time like they are.

He can't let his mind linger into that thought for too long because he's quickly taken out of his reverie by Amy's hand held in front of him for him to shake.

He simply shows her his still cuffed arm in return and looks back at her apologetically.

"Not that I want to be rude but could you take me out of these first, please?" He points to the keys lying on a table a few meters away from him and just next to her.

"Sure." She lets her own arm fall back alongside her body. She feels foolish for forgetting about this (important) detail and hastens to grab the keys and free him.

While he watches her move, Jake notices how her ears turn a new shade of pink before reaching her cheeks in a faint blush. For some reason, it makes him smile.

"How did you end up stuck here in the first place?" Amy breaks the silence and interrupts his study of her with her curious question. Her eyes are still stuck on his handcuffed arm. "Unless it's some weird sexual game you were playing that turned out badly – I don't wanna hear about this!" She quickly adds, reconsidering what she just said. She finally looks up; her face is even redder than before.

The remark makes Jake laugh, a light, hearted sound. "I wish, but no," he replies. The woman's reaction to his words amuses him deeply – she seems to relax, but not so much at the same time.

She's cute, he can't help but think.

"My boss was just afraid I was going to win our annual heist game again this year so he cuffed me to be sure I can't beat him this time," he explains.

Amy frowns. "Your boss is here, at the party?!" It's all she seems to have gathered from Jake's words. "And you're… playing a game with him? That doesn't seem really professional."

She looks startled by this piece of information. In front of her, Charles's friend just shrugs as he touches his now free wrist. He doesn't quite understand what the issue is here.

"Well, we're not on duty right now. And Charles invited all of our squad tonight. It kind of became a habit of ours to do this."

She doesn't seem more convinced, but Jake doesn't have the time to further explain himself either – he has a heist to win, after all. That's why he goes on, already taking a step outside, "Anyways, it was really nice to meet you for realz but I have to go now – I need to catch up with everything, y'know. Thanks for freeing me. See you later tonight to celebrate my victory? I won't forget to quote your name in my speech, promise."

"Actually… I was going back home," Amy sheepishly confesses. She lowers her head down towards the floor for a second before she brings her gaze back on her new encounter. He's surprised to hear her say that, she can tell from the way his eyebrows are raised now as he watches her and how he stopped in his tracks when she opened her mouth to talk.

His piercing eyes on her make her feel a little uncomfortable – she has to look away again. "See you another time, maybe?"

"Why are you leaving so early? It's not even 10 yet."

Amy sighs before letting it all out. "I… hate Halloween."

She immediately regrets being honest, wishing she would have come up with some lame excuse. This way, it would have prevented her from having to deal with Jake's reaction.

"What? No way!" he exclaims, genuinely puzzled. "Can I ask why?" His voice is softer now.

She sighs again, resigned, before enumerating all the things that make Halloween her #1 nightmare holiday. "Because people get drunk, dress up as stupid characters, and pretend it's okay to do whatever stupid things they want because y'know, they're not really themselves on this day. I suppose I'm not teaching you anything by saying it's the day with the highest crime levels of the whole year?!"

"I do know that, yeah," he says but doesn't linger on this fact for too long as he continues, pointing to her costume with a small teasing smile. "And you did dress up for the occasion as well. Even though I have to admit, I have absolutely no idea what you're supposed to be here?" He acknowledges.

"Are you serious?!" Amy is startled. She looks down at her cosplay uniform in shock. "I'm clearly a Ravenclaw student. You, on the other hand, are dressed as some dirty, unknown character!" she snaps back – she doesn't even take the time to defend herself about the reason why she's wearing a costume.

That is, telling him that yes, she might have dressed up for the occasion, but only to please a friend and not to feel too out of place around the others. Also, it allows her to put on again her Hogwarts uniform – something she's very proud of. She made it all by herself for a Harry Potter convention she attended some months ago; it looks almost as real as the real one.

"Excuse me?!" Jake's the offended one this time. His lips are shaking a little as he speaks; his voice hits a higher note too. He can't quite believe what he's hearing right now. "I'm obviously John McClane! You really never watched Die Hard, the best cop movie ever made?! And what's a Raven… I-don't-know-what student anyways, huh?"

"A Ravenclaw student," Amy repeats in a slower voice. "You know, the best house in Hogwarts?"

Jake tries to understand what she's saying – he truly does, but he can't quite get it. He's completely lost.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he surrenders as he breaks the silence that started to linger between the two of them.

"Oh. My. God. You really don't know Harry Potter?" The woman watches him with wide eyes. "Unbelievable. I should cuff you again and leave you here for being such an uncultivated person."

"Hey!" He pretends she hurt him with her words. "I could reproach you the same. You've never watched Die Hard either!"

"Anyways, it doesn't matter," Amy finally puts an end to their silly argument – not that they were fighting for real, just messing with each other. Which was quite amusing, she has to admit. The man is a lot more entertaining than all the other people she tried to engage in a conversation with during the time she's been there. She almost feels disappointed she's only meeting him now.

"I'm leaving," she reminds him when she sees Jake's confused look. "Enjoy your night, and good luck with your heist, or whatever."

Oh damn. The heist, he's suddenly struck by the memory. He almost forgot about it – all of this because he got caught up in his conversation with Amy. He can't really say he regrets it, though. It definitely was no loss of time.

He's out of his trance just before she disappears behind the door. He quickly hails at her. "Wait!" he exclaims and that makes her stop. She turns around to look back at him with a curious glint in her gaze. He doesn't really know why he did that, but he knows that for some reason he doesn't want for her to leave just yet.

"What?" She seems in a hurry, a little upset that he called her only to remain dead silent now that he has her whole attention again. He has to come up with an excuse now, he tells himself, before it's too late and she just gets tired of waiting and leaves without a warning. Thankfully, an idea suddenly pops into his mind and a grin comes curling the sides of his mouth, his competitive side waking up inside of him.

"I bet I can make you change your mind about Halloween."

Amy raises an eyebrow, doubtful. "Really? Can you magically make everyone here kind, sober and fully dressed?" she skeptically, ironically asks.

"Kind, Sober and Fully-Dressed," Jake teasingly repeats. There's an amused expression shining anew in his gaze while the thought comes to his mind. "That's a good name for a sex tape," he jokes.

She simply rolls her eyes in return, exasperated. She doesn't have the time for these absurdities – her book awaits her.

"No, but really." The man falls serious again all of a sudden. He realizes she's going to leave if he goes on like this instead of coming straight to the point – and he surely doesn't want that. He enjoys her company, it seems, even though they only spent a short amount of time together and did nothing else than criticizing each other's costumes and lack of good taste in movies.

(More in a funny banter than anything else, but still.)

"Stay with me tonight and I'll show you how fun Halloween can actually be."

Amy seems to consider the offer for a beat, until a new light comes shining inside her eyes. She stares deep into Jake's gaze. A challenging grin is covering her face. "Okay," she agrees. "But let's talk about what's at stakes here. What do I get if – or rather when, because there's no way I'll enjoy tonight in any way – I win?"

"First, I'll try not to be too offended that you're so sure you won't enjoy your night with me, but let's not take this personally. And second, you can get whatever you want, I don't care, because I will win. And when I do, what I win…" He pauses to create some suspense, watching Amy with a mysterious smirk. For a moment, she regrets accepting his deal before knowing what he wants from her. She's afraid of what he's gonna ask for. But then he tells her and his words actually startle her more than scare her.

"What I win," he repeats. "Is that you let me take you on a date."

He's just as surprised as she is when he says that. He's not really thinking when he speaks but he doesn't fight it – it's what his heart wants, apparently.

He quickly starts regretting it as he watches Amy's expression change and she remains silent with her mouth half-open, though. But, after some (long) awkward seconds, she eventually seems back to her senses – her competitive grin is back while she hands her hand for him to shake.

"Deal," she seals their bet.

"Okay, so here's the plan," Jake repeats in a whisper for the umpteenth time as he and Amy are hiding in a room. He sneaks a peek at what's going on in the main room of the house to try and get a glimpse at his adversary. "My Captain doesn't know that I'm back, and he doesn't know you. We have to take that to our advantage and beat him at his own game."

He goes on with some further explanation, telling Amy (again) about what they're seeking. The prize to grab a hold on before midnight, he already explained to her the whole point of the heist right after she agreed on helping him, is a plate upon which the words Amazing Detective/Genius are written. Captain Holt, Jake's boss, has it – the detective is absolutely certain of that.

"There's too many people. I can't see him from here. We'll have to go inside the room so that I can show him to you, and then you're on your own. Remember everything I told you?"

"Yes, Jake," Amy lets out a slightly annoyed sigh. "You've already told me like three times. Plus, I took notes," she proudly shows him her notebook on which she scribbled a lot of words.

"Wow." He's impressed as he looks at the neatly scribbled words – part of him can't help but find her nerdiness quite adorable too. "You're really taking this seriously. Does this mean I'm winning? Does this mean you're enjoying this?" He grins as he points out between the two of them.

"You wish," she answers but she has to retain herself not to smile. She then doesn't wait for him and simply enters the room. He watches her with a dreamy smile of his own before quickly following.

"Okay," he whispers once he's back next to her, carefully watching around him to be sure his boss isn't spying on them at the moment. "Just act natural. We can't be caught."

They stand in the middle of the dancing and drinking crowd for a while. Amy watches as Jake scrutinizes the room – he looks very serious, as if working on an undercover mission. As she studies his profile, knowing he's not paying her any attention, she finally allows herself to smile – she won't admit it out loud but she is starting to get into the atmosphere of the evening.

It's not her fault she's competitive and wants to win.

(Plus it seems that Charles wasn't exaggerating too much when speaking about his best friend to her – he is quite the agreeable company indeed. But this she won't admit either.)

She's suddenly startled out of her reverie by a hand wrapping around hers and leading her in the middle of the crowd without a warning. Before she can say anything, she finds herself pulled against Jake's chest. She watches him with big, shocked eyes. "Just follow my lead," he explains, his voice covered by some new slow music resonating through the walls. "People were looking at us," he nods towards the other couples already moving around to the rhythm of the song.

Amy tries to relax inside his embrace, in vain. She hates dancing. Especially with someone she's only met the same night. No matter how pleasant she might think he is.

"Outch," Jake lets out in pain in the middle of their dance. "How can you manage to step on both my feet at the same time?" he teases her.

"I'm terrible at this, when can we stop?" is her only answer as an excuse. After all, he's the one who dragged her into this. (She's the one who agreed on taking his bet in the first place.)

"I'm Terrible at This, When Can We Stop – also a good title for a sex tape," he proudly jokes again, which provokes the same reaction it did the first time on Amy – she rolls her eyes at him.

"Hey," he goes on more seriously this time. His voice is softer too. "Do you want me to actually show you how it's done, while we're at it?"

"Yeah… why not."

His grip on her waist tightens then, and a shiver runs down her spine at the touch, but she doesn't think too much about it. She simply concentrates on the moves Jake is slowly taking as he leads her through the dancefloor and she tries to follow him. After a while she manages to adjust her steps to his, and she relaxes, even taking some pleasure in the thing.

If there's one thing Amy didn't imagine herself doing on this Halloween night, it's to be dancing with a half-stranger in the middle of a crowded living-room… and to like it.

Though there she is, wearing a broad smile on her face despite herself when she looks back up at Jake. "It's kind of fun," she acknowledges.

"Yeah," he answers as he smiles back at her. He's so caught up in the moment, his eyes never leaving hers, he doesn't even think about their bet and how he could count her calling their dance fun as his victory. He simply takes advantage of having this woman whose company he seems to really enjoy between his arms right now.

That is, until he suddenly spots the person he's been looking for. He stops in his tracks and loosens his hold on Amy's body, already back in the game.

"Here he is!" He catches her attention by pointing towards a man a few meters away from them.

It takes a few seconds for Amy to come back to reality and remember what she's doing here in the first place, but when she does, and realizes that Jake isn't moving anymore and she can't feel him against her, she kind of feels a little empty and disappointed. Especially when she sees how he's now fully concentrated on his main purpose of the night again: to win his heist against his boss.

All of this was just a distraction, she tries to remind herself.

"Have you seen him?" Jake asks as she doesn't seem to react to his exclamation.

"Yeah…" She forces herself to focus back on the game. "You can go now." She offers him a small smile, then adds, "I've got it from here. I'll meet you in the room as soon as I have the plate with me."

He thanks her, then watches her leave. He can't keep his eyes away from her, a dreamy beam forming on his face as his gaze follows her until she disappears in the middle of the crowd.

"Uh-oh," Charles suddenly appears from nowhere next to him. It startles Jake out of his stare. "I told you. You guys are made for each other!" He excitedly exclaims as he looks in the same direction.

"Back off, Charles," his friend annoyingly answers before going back to his hiding place not to be spotted by his Captain.

He can't really refute his colleague's words, though. Because he does like her company.

(And he wishes she does too, so that he can win their bet and actually take her on a real date to learn to know her more.)

Waiting rather impatiently for his new friend to come back where they first met, Jake starts to get afraid Amy finally chose to leave – and, more importantly, to leave him. Indeed, the clock on the wall shows it's getting closer to midnight and he still hasn't heard from her in a while. But, as he's starting to think about new plans if it turns out he is all on his own after all, he hears footsteps coming his way.

He hurries back up to his initial spot as a prisoner just in case it's his boss coming back to check on him and see if he didn't break free. He releases a sigh he didn't know he was holding when he recognizes Amy passing through the door – it soon turns into a quiet exclamation of victory when she shows him what's in her hand: the plate.

"Oh my God, you're amazing!" he exclaims, truly impressed; it makes her smile shyly. "But seriously, what took you so long? I thought you betrayed me and were now working for the enemy," he falls serious again as he dramatically shares his previous worries, unable to contain himself.

"Sorry," she apologizes. As she approaches him, she carefully hides the prize away while explaining herself. "I met with Charles, who introduced me to your boss and colleagues and I couldn't get him to stop talking until I told him I had to work tomorrow so I needed to go home."

She avoids his gaze as she takes a seat next to him. She can sense her ears and cheeks starting to burn in a blush as she remembers her conversation with her neighbor – how he made it clear numerous times that Jake was single all the while praising his amazing personality and work as a detective – not subtly at all trying to set them up. It didn't take to be a cop to understand that.

Jake can feel there's something going on with her but he doesn't make any comment about it. He simply sits on the table laying there.

"Smort." He smiles. "This way, if they notice the plate is missing, they'll never think it was you. So now we can wait for the grand finale at midnight."

They still have about half an hour to go before the end of the day, so Jake and Amy take that time to better learn about each other sharing some details about their lives and funny anecdotes. That's how they find it's really easy to talk with one another about everything and anything – they tease each other and argue on different subjects just like they did during their encounter.

"Admit it. You are having fun." Jake suddenly exclaims as he watches Amy laugh at one of his jokes. He's grinning in victory.

She sighs, defeated, though still smiling despite herself. "Okay. Maybe it was more bearable than what I thought it would be," she confesses. Jake opens his mouth to answer something but she stops him before he can even let out a single word. She knows from the proud look on his face what he's about to say. He's been at it the whole night, repeating the same joke every chance he got.

It Was More Bearable Than What I Thought It Would Be – a good title for a sex tape.

"Don't." She warns him with a glare. He obeys, shutting his mouth.

Silence fills the room for a few seconds until he breaks it again, his grin back on his face. "Make sure you have next weekend free. Because I'm not available before that. I'm a very busy man." He amusedly says.

Amy frowns. "What?"

"For our date. Remember our bet? You just admitted you had fun tonight. Which means, I won. And, speaking of winning, it's almost midnight. Time to be crowned best detective again!" He suddenly stands up, excited and not leaving her time to react in any way to his first mention of a date. Especially when, after going to look for the plate where she carefully hid it half an hour before, he's met with emptiness.

"Where is it?" He asks, confused.

"What?"

"The plate! It's not there anymore!"

As if on cue, his Captain, surrounded by all of his squad, enters the room with a vicious grin. "Are you looking for this?" He shows off the prize in his hands.

"HOW?!" Jake exclaims, turning around to meet Amy's eyes. She seems just as shocked as he is about this unexpected turn of events.

"Captain Holt, you're an amazing police captain/genius."

He doesn't show it, but Raymond Holt is grinning inside when he hears his detective pronounce the precious words in defeat. Everyone's back in the living room to celebrate the man's victory after midnight stroke and he explained to his adversary how he managed to take back the plate. The both of them exchange a few threats about their following Halloween heist then everyone clicks glasses together to properly end the night.

While his friends and colleagues quickly fall into different conversations, Jake distances himself a little away from the crowd. He watches them from afar, sipping on his beer and lets his thoughts wander towards what happened during the night – how he let himself get distracted to the point that he managed to lose the heist he could have so easily won.

It's not his fault Amy is a such an interesting woman that made him forget about his priorities and let his guard down with her tales of the weirdest arrests she's had to make or what it's like to be the only girl growing up with seven siblings.

"Hey," the woman suddenly appears beside him as if thinking about her invoked her. He turns to look at her and a fond smile immediately brightens his face despite himself.

She shyly smiles back. "I'm sorry you lost your heist." She pauses for a beat before going on, her smile shining brighter this time. "But at least you won a bet…?" she trails off.

"It's oka– wait, does this mean…?" It takes a few seconds for Jake to get the last part of her little speech. Amy lets out a small chuckle.

"I'm free next weekend," she confirms, going back to the conversation they were having before Jake's captain interrupted it. She definitely enjoyed her night and would love to see him again after the moment they had. Jake tries to remain casual despite the excitement building up in his core and the new glint forming in his eyes.

"Cool. Noice. That's great."

Amy watches him, a little amused, before turning her head back towards the crowd. Silence takes over them for a little while until she speaks again.

"Thank you for tonight. I'm really glad I met you and you forced me to stay."

She looks back at him – the lights behind her make her skin glow and her dark eyes shine. Jake can tell from the way she's watching him, beaming, that she's sincere. He stares at her in silence with a dreamy look inside his lingering gaze.

She's so beautiful, smiling at him like this. He wants to kiss her now and there.

"I'm really glad I met you too," he answers – and he means it. With every fiber of his heart, he means it. She made his night better – he doesn't even care if he lost his heist because instead, he met her. "It was much more entertaining to spend the night with you than alone and cuffed in that room." He has to add in a joke not to sound too serious, though. It makes Amy laugh, and he laughs along with her.

After that, they fall silent again until Amy breaks it. "Listen, I'm going home now, but I'll see you next weekend?"

Jake is quick to react – he downs the rest of his beer in one gulp. "Actually I was leaving too. I can take you back to your place?" he offers. Even though he knows he's going to see her in a few days, he somehow doesn't want this night to end so soon.

Surprisingly, his suggestion makes the woman laugh. "You know I'm Charles's neighbor, right?"

"Oh, yeah…" He actually didn't think about that and now feels stupid – and disappointed as well, that he doesn't have any more excuse to spend more time with her.

Amy seems to read the disappointment on his face though, because she eventually adds, "But you can still accompany me if you want."

At that, Jake's face instantly brightens. It makes Amy chuckle with amusement. They say goodbye to everyone and grab their stuff before leaving the house together under the host's excited eyes. He's glad his plan of making them meet tonight worked perfectly.

It only takes two minutes for Jake and Amy to reach the door of the woman's building.

"So… we're here." She points to it. "I guess this is where we split up." But none of them seem to make a move to leave, each on their own way. Instead, after a short contemplation, Jake takes a step forward. He breaks the short distance between their two bodies and kisses her, his hands on her back while hers instinctively come wrapping around his neck in answer.

They're both fully grinning when they part.

"See you next weekend." Jake eventually starts to leave – though never leaving her sight.

"See you next weekend," Amy says in a same voice, a dreamy smile covering her features with joy.

Maybe Halloween isn't her #1 nightmare holiday anymore, she thinks as she enters her apartment once Jake is out of sight, already impatient for their date to come.