Halcyon (Adj):
Idyllically calm and peaceful, happy tranquility, serene and untroubled

Amy kinda loved the look on Jake's face when she told him screw light and breezy.

She loved the slight smile of relief and the sigh when he agreed.

Everything always hit him so hard. Full force of emotions. He didn't get happy, he got ecstatic. He didn't get sad, he got despondent. He didn't get excited, he got thrilled.

He was always one side of the scale. That's one of the many things she loves about him. That he's just childish delight and doesn't do anything in halves- he experiences the world in vivid brilliance and responds in kind. And even though he's uncomfortable with expressing emotions she loves how he just feels.

She loves how everything he feels is so powerful and full.

She loves how his smile is always full blown.

She was hoping his reaction was going to be good- and if it went like she hoped she thought she would see a grin or some of that puppy dog joy that was practically his default state.

He had a good reaction, the best reaction- but it wasn't a grin. It wasn't a beam or even a smirk.

But the moment she saw it she knew it was her favorite smile of his yet.

She loved how soft everything about him was when he said yes.

She definitely wasn't expecting Charles to be there, and his cheerleaderness completely interrupted the softness of the moment.

It took Boyle a few minutes of awkwardness before he suggested that he see himself out (he kept his hands on their shoulders the whole time until he left).

"I was really hoping to just kiss you as soon as you said yes because we're really good at that, but Charles ruined that plan and now I'm feeling really weird and awkward right now. Like not get drunk weirdness cause of the whole light and breezy and I'm glad you said yes, but I'm still feeling super weird right now," Amy said as she sat on his couch and motioned with her head for him to fall in next to her (she was afraid if she didn't he would stay standing).

To his credit he did sit down and looked a bit more at ease than she felt, and considerably more at ease than they both were the night before

"To be fair I don't think anyone's ever died of awkwardness before. Or weirdness. Curiosity killed the cat, but the only thing awkwardness ever killed was the conversation."

Amy laughed a bit at that and turned so she mirrored his cross legged position.

It wasn't exactly the normal criss cross applesauce that he was doing- he had his right foot crossed and bouncing on his left knee while his left foot was crossed and buried under his right knee (did he actually find that comfortable?). Even though she wasn't exactly used to sitting on a couch sideways so the backboard was to her shoulder, he had a goofy smile that was still slight and lovely. She could get used to weird positions with Jake -get used to anything with Jake- as long as he was smiling at her like that.

"So how did you know I was at the door?" Amy asked the question that was burning at the front of her mind since she got there, but she finally asked now that it was just her and Jake.

"I didn't. I opened the door cause I was leaving and you just had really good timing," he answered simply, and she realized that he actually had somewhere else to be. He didn't mention that he was going anywhere, didn't say that he needed to cancel something else, so she just assumed he wasn't busy- but that was her mistake.

"Oh- oh god, you have somewhere else to be. I didn't even realize," she stuttered and froze up- she couldn't keep him there. It took at least 15 minutes for Charles to even leave so god knows how late he actually was to wherever he was going. This was going better than she hoped but he obviously had something more important to do and she needed to leave without making him feel guilty because they weren't half assing this anymore and it wasn't a big deal if they picked it up later. "I'm making you late. Um - we can pick this back up tomorrow."

She stood up in a rush and attempted to make a graceful exit that she never really had a chance of. She hadn't even taken a single step away before Jake's hand caught her wrist.

"I don't have anywhere else to be but with you," the expression on his face was so serious and earnest that it knocked the breath out of her lungs.

And god, what a line that was. He was gonna have to write that down cause it was without a doubt the most romantic thing she had ever heard.

She didn't want to leave, especially when he was looking so deep and meaningful at her and saying stuff like that, but they were good now so even if she left tonight she'd be back tomorrow. So it really wasn't a problem. She didn't want to leave at all, but it wasn't that big of a deal.

"Okay, that was a really sweet thing to say, but we're good now and it's not a big deal for me to leave. Not light and breezy anymore and you can say sweet stuff tomorrow or tonight after you go wherever you were going to go, and it's really all okay."

"I was going to you."

"What? You- you were?"

"Yeah," he said with something like incredulousness and affection on his breath as she allowed herself to sit back down. Even though she wasn't thinking of going anywhere anytime soon and was sitting much closer than she was before she stood up he still kept his hand encircling her wrist. "And if your timing was just a little bit off we probably would've passed each other in transit and I would've been knocking on your door when you would've been knocking on mine. Don't know how long it would have taken us to figure that out if it actually happened. So you really had perfect timing."

"Why were you coming to get me?" Amy asked softly and Jake scrunched up his face like he couldn't comprehend how that was a real question on her part.

"What do you mean why? Same reason you came to get me," he answered without an ounce of hesitation. He said it like the fact that he was coming to get her was a given. That he didn't understand how she even had a question of why because it just was .

That why wasn't even a word that meant anything when used in context.

How convinced he was that the action of going to her was always absolute made her heart flutter, but she was sure that he was wrong about their reasoning being one and the same.

"It couldn't have been the same reason because you didn't do anything wrong like I did. I came here because I screwed things up because I was scared. I came here to ask you to forgive me and to give me a second chance and do it the right way with you because I couldn't let it end that way. So you couldn't have the same reason because you didn't screw up like I did."

"I was going to you for the exact same reason. I couldn't let it end that way either."

Jake was completely engrossed with the task of smoothing out the creases in his jeans and playing with the frayed hems with his chin tucked low, but he didn't look embarrassed. He didn't look uncomfortable, didn't look nervous, he didn't even look self conscious.

He just looked vulnerable.

She knew it was more than a little bit her fault. It was all her fault. She was the one who ran away because she was scared and left him standing there. It was pretty clear from the beginning that she wasn't running away because she didn't feel anything for him. When she suggested rules, and hitting the brakes- it wasn't because she didn't like him. Her caution wasn't because she didn't like him.

Because she really liked Jake, and told him as much.

Even when she was scared silly and suggested going back to colleagues she didn't hide the fact that she was still romantic-stylez about him the whole time.

She didn't hide that from him. She just hid everything else.

From all that happened tonight though she was pretty sure he knew she wasn't going to run away again.

It wasn't that Jake didn't trust people- that wasn't why he didn't talk about emotional stuff. It was that he thought if he opened up to someone that would make them leave. It wasn't that he didn't trust people. He didn't trust that he was someone people could love- the real Jake Peralta.

And he was so very wrong about that. Amy made a mistake by running away, but she was going to spend every second from that moment on showing him that the real Jake Peralta was someone she loved very much.

Sitting before her now he looked so fragile.

"Good thing we caught each other then. Me and my impeccable timing."

He looked up and smiled at her slight and sweet, and she knew everything was okay.

She had the undeniable urge to kiss him right then, but she had no clue how to go about it. Just straight out go for it, or a slow lean in- but she was kinda just staring at him instead of making a decision, so in typical Santiago style she took a deep breath and began rambling.

"I don't really know how to transition into kissing you right now without doing it really weirdly but I guess I'm just embracing the weirdness and announcing right now that I'm gonna kiss you in about five seconds because I want to. I mean I want to kiss you, I'm neither here nor there on the weirdness but the weirdness is worth it and we can just keep kissing weirdly until kissing feels normal and still kiss all the time after that because that's-"

She saw Jake mouth something under his breath as his grin grew wider and wider and god he was going to tease her about this exact moment for years to come, but it wasn't until he got to the second word and increased his volume with each subsequent one that she realized what he was doing.

"two… three… four… five," he had that cocky smirk of his on with a predatory tinge to his usual confidence that sent a rush of heat between her legs. He ended on five and waited like he was expecting something, but she didn't know what. At least it stopped her rambling.

"What are you doing?" She asked completely dumbfounded, confusion replacing any sense of awkwardness she had left.

"Counting. Your time's up."

"What time?"

"You said you were gonna kiss me in five seconds. And now we've gone a good 30 seconds past your limit so it looks like we're gonna have to make up for lost time," he finished before kissing her. Kissing her long, deep, and hot. Nothing awkward about it. She couldn't feel weird because it was impossible to feel anything other than turned on when he was kissing her like that. Not a slow build of arousal- a quick flip of the switch to tingly and electric and so, so ready for this.

Her stomach dropped as she she laid back against the couch and pulled him over into covering her and grinded her hips into his, eliciting a delicious groan from the back of his throat.

He pulled back a moment to look her in the eyes and there was such a burning heat, but still the steady and stable warmth that he always had when his eyes were on her. And he smiled. Not a cocky grin, or an unsure and hesitant upturning of his lips.

Just a genuine Jake Peralta smile, and she gave a genuine Amy Santiago smile right back.

"You have pretty good timing too," she said before pulling his eager lips back to hers.

Completely committed dating sex was so much better than light and breezy intoxicated sex. Stupid good at sex didn't even begin to describe it. Fucking fantastic at fucking was more accurate.

Probably the best part of it all was the happy and comfortable rightness afterward. Light and breezy she didn't get to stroke his hair like she was now. Just running her fingers through it as he laid his head on the pillow next to her looking the most peaceful she had ever seen him.

That night was the first time she had been introduced to many of her now favorite Jake Peralta facial expressions. The softness, the tranquility- just utter serenity and satisfaction.

The only time she'd ever seen him look so untroubled was if he was asleep, and even then it was only on occasion. If he passed out on a stake out there was a good chance that he'd sleep like a mess with his jaw hanging open and limbs sprawled every which way. But then there were times when he'd fall asleep curled up in the passenger seat and he always looked so young and small. People usually guessed that Jake was a few years younger than he actually was just from his looks and childish exuberance, but it was different when he was asleep. When he was awake his immaturity made everyone either smile or roll their eyes (sometimes both at the same time).

When he was asleep his innocence made him look like he was someone you needed to protect.

Next to her that night he was just a hazy and gentle peace with soft smiles and easy breathing.

And he was awake. He didn't need to be unconscious to be completely worried free that night. He just needed her.

She didn't get all his lovely faces the night before- all the new looks. She didn't get his peacefulness.

Light and breezy didn't give her his fingertips lightly tracing looping patterns into her hip like he was now.

Screwing light and breezy was the best decision she had ever made.

She didn't exactly decide to fall in love with Jake Peralta, but she was glad she did- because she wouldn't give this up for the world.

She wouldn't give him up for the world.

He smiled when she kissed him on the forehead and she was sure then that she wouldn't give Jake up for anything.

She was never going to let go of him ever again.

AN:

If you follow me on tumblr this fic was the reason I went through all the trouble to find a gif of Jake's smile from that scene, and when I couldn't find one I just made it myself. That particular smile is really my favorite part of the whole episode, out of all the quotes and scenes and everything. That particular expression.

Goodness, I just love that smile.

And I was listening to the Paper Kites to get me in the mood for this and they have a song called Halcyon, and I only looked up what the word meant yesterday, and it perfectly describes their style.
It wasn't exactly a coincidence because while I didn't know there was an exact word for it I was trying to write a Halcyon-ic fic while listening to some Halcyon-ic music, and a Halcyon-ic band has a song called Halcyon because they're well aware of the mood they set.
So I didn't know that Halcyon was a real word that meant what it meant, but now I do and so it was the perfect title.

Thank you for all the feedback, I really appreciate it and love hearing from you guys