RAFE IS GOOD WITH KIDSS and babies !!! Please hear me out!!! he’d be grumbling and grumpy and shit (all an act) but he’s good with them
Feel free to request more !! <3
It wasn’t like Rafe had a problem with kids. Not really. He just… didn’t get them. They were loud, sticky little people, they had endless energy, and frankly, they seemed to enjoy annoying him for reasons he couldn’t quite understand. But, like, the way his your niece had latched onto him the second you’d walked into the family BBQ? That made him want to hurl.
“Rafe, meet Emily,” you said, an amused smile tugging at your lips as you watched your niece waddle over, her chubby little hands reaching up toward him with an excited giggle.
Rafe shot you a look that screamed ‘you’ve got to be kidding me’. His arms were crossed, and the usual cool and collected demeanor that he wore like armor was slipping as Emily approached.
“She’s what, three? I’m not exactly a fan of toddlers,” he muttered, but it was clear he didn’t have it in him to say no. His eyes flicked to Emily, and you could almost see him sizing her up like he did everyone else.
Emily giggled again, her little hands pushing against his legs, her wide eyes sparkling with excitement. “Hi, Wafe!” she said in that squeaky little voice that kids somehow always knew how to do.
Rafe shifted awkwardly on his feet. He glanced over at you for some help, but you just grinned and gave him a small shrug. The next thing you knew, Emily had wrapped her tiny arms around Rafe’s legs in a tight hug. His body went rigid, and his eyes widened like he’d been hit with a surprise bolt of lightning. He looked down at her like he had no idea what to do, but after a moment, his natural instinct kicked in, and he awkwardly patted her little head.
“Alright, kid,” he muttered under his breath, still stiff as a board, “what do you want from me?”
Emily just beamed up at him and started jabbering about her toy dinosaur—something that apparently was her best friend. Rafe, to his credit, didn’t look like he wanted to escape, though you could tell he was still confused.
“You’re… into dinosaurs?” he asked, a furrow in his brow, still not sure if this was some kind of joke.
Emily nodded enthusiastically. “Uh-huh! Big ones, little ones, all!”
The surprising thing? Rafe listened. He crouched down, grumbling the whole time, but he crouched nonetheless. “Yeah, well, you’ve got good taste. Dinosaurs are a hell of a lot cooler than some other stuff.” He said, almost defensively.
He awkwardly took the dinosaur she handed him, his big hands dwarfing the small toy. “What’s this one’s name?” he asked, trying to get into it.
“T-Dex!” she shouted, her little face lighting up.
Rafe, who usually looked like he was about to snap at anything that crossed him, softened just slightly. “Alright, T-Rex. You’re in good hands.”
For a moment, you swore you saw something different in Rafe—something warm. He was gently holding the toy and pretending to know what he was talking about, just to make Emily happy. And she was eating it up. She giggled when he made a roar sound, making a big show of it like an exaggerated T-Rex that could barely stand on its own two feet.
“Hey, kid,” he muttered, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. “You gotta teach me how to make a real T-Rex roar, ‘cause mine sucked.”
Emily giggled again and clapped her little hands, thrilled that Rafe was actually engaging with her, even if it was through a fake T-Rex battle. She handed him another toy, one that was a little more fragile, but Rafe held it without complaint, his hands surprisingly careful.
You could tell, though, that Rafe had no idea what he was doing. He’d act like he didn’t care, but you could see the little things—the way he adjusted his grip so she wouldn’t drop the toy, the way he laughed when she pointed out a silly feature of the dinosaur.
It was like this whole ‘tough-guy’ thing was just that—an act. And underneath it, there was something else. Something that didn’t mind getting a little messy for a kid who wanted to play.
You finally decided to step in when you saw Rafe looking like he might melt into a puddle from sheer secondhand cuteness. “Okay, kiddo, how about you go show your uncle how you play with T-Rex?”
Emily let out a delighted squeal and dragged Rafe over to the toy pile. Rafe grumbled something about being dragged into this, but you could see him leaning down to pick up more toys, talking with Emily like they were actually getting along.
You stood back for a second, watching Rafe with that look on his face—a mixture of pure annoyance and reluctant affection. You saw the way he softened around Emily, the way he acted like this was no big deal. Rafe may have pretended he didn’t know why kids liked him, but the truth was, he was good with them, even if he didn’t fully get it himself.
