A Sonny-centric kidfic with a layer of Barisi for your perusal, if you feel so inclined.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
One constant refrain that Sonny Carisi had heard throughout his life was that he was built to be a dad, and he was hardly one to disagree. He just didn’t expect fatherhood to come to him on a seemingly normal day, in the shape of an abandoned five-year-old boy looking up at him with the very same wide blue eyes that stared back at Sonny in the mirror every morning.
Hmm how about Rafael's dad (if he's alive) reacting to enzo?
Oooo, that could be fun. Kinda like with the previous asks with Iggy and Barba's dad.
In this isntance, I'm thinking of a scenario in Enzo main verse, so Iggy doesn't enter the equation. It snowballed into a ficlet, so there's more under the cut!
Rafael, who is estranged from his father since university, is floored when his mother tells him that his dad is in New York. Rafael could have sworn he left for Flordia and never looked back. Lucia tells him not to worry, that Ramon just moved back for work. But there's a look in her eyes that drops a heavy stone of fear into her son's stomach.
He's in his office when it happens. It's summer and Sonny has the day off, happily bringing six-year-old Enzo along for a long lunch. Food is eaten and crumbs are brushed into the wastebasket. Sonny's stepped out to take a call and Enzo manages to convince Rafael into giving him a piggy-back ride. Daddy was taller, so Enzo could see higher, but Papi had stronger arms, so he could carry him longer.
Enzo's squealing in delight as Rafael hefts the boy up onto his back, shirt wrinkles be damned, when the door swings open. Assuming it's Sonny, back from his phone call, Rafael looks over with a beaming grin.
A grin that's almost immediately wiped from his face when he sees the broad shape of Ramon Barba stepping over the threshold.
Rafael's arms falter and Enzo slides back down to his feet. His pout is almost audible.
"What are you doing here?" Barba's voice was stronger than he thought he'd be able to muster. He shifts to shield Enzo from Ramon's path, his hands reaching behind him to hold one of his son's little shoulders.
"So it's true then," Ramon says, walking further into the room, his eyes darting over every detail. "My spineless son, raising some useless bastard's brat like it's something to be proud of."
"You need to leave," Rafael says. Enzo is wiggling behind him, trying to push to the front to see who this new person is. "I will call security if you don't."
"Sin carácter. Maricón sin carácter." Ramon spits at Rafael's feet.
"HEY!" Enzo's little voice, his broad New York accent stronger than ever, shouts from behind Rafael.
He finally manages to pull free from Rafael's grip and runs headlong into Ramon's legs, headbutting them before looking up at the large man with the most defiant face a first-grader could manage.
"Stop bein' my t'my papi!"
"He's no one's papi, you little shit. He's barely even a man."
Rafael scrambles to get Enzo and hikes him up into his arms. Not too big a feat, as the boy was small for his age.
Ramon steps forward, one hand reaching out to grab a fistfull of Rafael's shirt, taking the tie with him, and yanks.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
The trio all turn their gazes to the door, where Sonny stands with a murderous look on his face, jaw clenched, his hand hovering by his belt.
"And here's the bastard," Ramon sneers at his would-be son-in-law.
Sonny surges forward and twists the larger man's arm into a lock faster than any of them have time to register it happening. Ramon has heft, but Sonny has skill.
"Out. Now," he growls in the man's ear and bullies him to the door, pushing him out into the hallway.
Ramon stumbles but manages to catch himself before he fully goes down. Turning slowly, a dark look flashes over his prematurely lined face.
"I'll let Lucia know you said hello."
Haloed by the light coming from inside Rafael's office, Sonny stares the man down, a snarl of his own finding a home on the detective's lips.
"If I ever even hear about you coming near my family again, I will have you slammed into Rikers for the rest of your pathetic life. If you so much as even think about them, you'll pray to whatever god will have you that I don't take my badge off."
Sonny turns on his heel and slams the office door shut behind him, pointedly turning the lock. He shoves a nearby chair under the doorknob for good measure. He waits to hear retreating footsteps before letting his shoudlers drop.
"Daddyyyyy," Enzo whines from Rafael's arms. "Papi's squishin' me too hard."
"Sorry, buddy," Rafael says as he sets the boy down to go back to playing with his Hot Wheels. "You've still got some crackers left to finish, yeah? Daddy and I will be with you a second."
Enzo nods happily and plops down to run his toy cars over the aforementioned crackers, cracking and crumbling them before stuffing them into his mouth. Well, Sonny thinks as he watches on fondly, as long as they get into his stomach somehow.
"Call your mother and grandmother, let them know he was here." Sonny slides one of his long arms around his boyfriend's shoulders to hold him close as Rafael fumbled with his phone.
"When we get home, we're changing all the locks. Doors and windows," Rafael says, phone to his ear, and only turns his attention to the call after he gets a firm nod from the other man.
Sonny, once Rafael is spouting off rapid-fire Spanish to his mother on the other end of the phone, sits down next to his son and passes his hand over the boy's white-blond hair. He sometimes doubted it would ever darken.
"Is the mean man gonna come back, Daddy?" Enzo asks through mouthful of cracker. "I don't like him."
"I don't like him either, Leoncino. He won't be back, I promise."
The little boy clambers into Rafael's lap once the man finishes on the phone and lowers himself to join his family on the floor.
"I'm sorry you had to see that, Enzo," Rafael says softly, giving him a smile. "I won't let him come here again, okay?"
"That's okay, Papi, 's'not your fault." Little fingers fiddle with Rafael's suspenders. "But if he does, I'll prote't you." He smushes his face into Rafael's chest and burrows in for a cuddle.
Rafael, caring not a whit for the stray cracker crumbs, wraps his arms around the boy and presses a kiss to his crown. He chuckles and runs a hand down Enzo's back.
"Thank you, mijo. I know you would. With all your heart."
For the season... 👻 Enzo and Iggy's goto Halloween costumes? 🎃
Margo, omg! This is so adorable!!
Okay, so for Little Iggy, I'm thinking that he wants to be Spiderman (I'm not backing down on Spidey Ig, lmao, I'm in too deep), but also wants to be a policeman like his daddy and an important lawyer man like his papi. So, he ends up as a tiny Spiderman who's also wearing Sonny's uniform hat and one of Rafael's ties. With t(w)een Iggy, I can see him still being Spiderman if he needs a quick costume, but for the main event, I'm imagining a lovingly peiced together Inigo Montoya from the Princess Bride. And he wears it well.
Little Enzo is a lion, without a doubt. There's waffling around giraffe possibility, but lions eventually make the cut. It's one of thos fleece-y onesies with a hood that's the mane. He does love his jungle animals, after all. For t(w)een Enzo, he's going full werewolf. Like a traditional, 1935 Werewolf in London-esque type of humanoid werewolf. And he's very much enjoying it. He worked on his growl just for the night, and the fake canines are endlessly fun to flash when he grins.
Couldn't Enzos animal be a Little ducky or some other cute farm animal besides a sheep?
Totally possible. I was actually toying with duck/ducking, just cos I thought it was funny cos I have Enzo following Sonny around constantly as a child, like a baby duck. And the nickname opportunities abound!
Enzo seems like a messy spaghetti eater when he was younger. Red sauce all over his face, yknow?
Oh, definitely!! He's a messy eater in general, I think. And is deffo the kind of kid who eats his favourite part of a meal last, so he takes his time sorting through whatever he's eating.
Well, in the fic I do have a little nod/joke to a saint with Enzo's eventual middle name. But seperate from that, I think his saint would be St. Anthony, the patron saint of lost things. That'd be his chosen confirmation name, too. Sonny gets pretty emotional about it when Enzo tells him his decision.
I also think that, in general, Enzo stays with the church beyond just being confirmed for his dad's sake, unlike Iggy's slow drift away from it. He finds comfort in the ritual and also in the further connection with Sonny that he has through it.
2. How loosely or strictly do they use the word ‘friend’?
He plays fast and loose with it as a kid, but once he solidifies his circle of friends it slows down. Once he's a teen, he keeps the title safe for a select few. That doesn’t mean he doesn't make new friends, though, just a bit more specific about who can cross the barrier.
4. What’s a hobby they used to have that they miss?
I think cycling. Manhattan is hardly condusive to a young child on a bike, so he doesn't go out very often despite Sonny insisting that he learn how.
Enzo:
27. What’s the worst gift they ever received? How did they respond?
Pre-Sonny, it'd be the old dog toy that his mother gave him on his fourth birthday. He didn't see it for what it was, though, and loved it all the same.
I'd have to think a bit more on one that might be given once he's with Sonny, tbh.
