Rafe's spent all spring with the girl of his dreams and he wouldn't want to be anywhere else
A/n: soft!rafe, boyfriend!rafe
Warnings: none
Word count: 1.1k
The spring sun once warming her face was blocked out by something. Something that happened to be Rafe Cameron holding two cans of peach ice tea. The condensation dripped down his hands and she wondered if it was too early in the year to press the cool can to her face to get a little relief from the heat.
“Since when do you like peach?”
He sat down beside her on the white blanket thrown on the freshly cut grass. There wasn’t much point doing anything today, life was going to pick up once the summer started and they would both be busy with mid-July trips and their friends and their family so laying around in her garden seemed like a perfect way to waste the day.
Rafe had disappeared into the kitchen just minutes ago. He had been kissing her neck as he muttered something about needing a drink. Whenever he left to get something, he always brought her something too. The first time was out at some event when he had gone up to the bar and walked back with two drinks in his hand, handing there the lightly coloured orange one because, in his words he ‘just thought she might want something’.
She quickly realised that night that Rafe was a lot cuter then he let on. She told him that too, over and over until he threatened to make her walk home (which was never going to happen).
So, when he came back with a drink for her she wasn’t shocked, she just got that warm twisty feeling in her chest again. The slightly confused tilt of her head came from her not expecting him to pick that for himself. She had plenty of diet coke and sparkling water, which was what he normally drank. She made a point to have it just in case he ever came over, which he had been doing a lot lately.
“Reminds me of you.” He shrugged like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Rafe opened the can and brought it to his mouth, he'd probably taste like peaches now. He scrunched his browns together, he didn't like it. He placed the can down on the concrete behind them and laid down, his white sneakers were still on the grass, but she didn’t own a blanket quite long enough for the boy beside her so this would have to do for now.
His hair was messy today, falling however it wanted and looking the kind of soft that meant he had just had a shower that morning. That’s probably why he smelt like a mix of fresh soap and cologne too. She just watched him for a moment, legs crossed and denim shorts tightly hugging her thighs. He looked good, he always looked good and she kind of hated it.
“Stop.” He turned his head towards her, hand slipping over her knee and squeezing. As arrogant and egotistical as Rafe was, he didn’t like being looked at for too long. “Read your book or something.”
Her book had been long abbadon in her lap for a while, it was hard not to read the same word over and over as Rafe talked on the phone beside her or he tried kissing her, or he asked her about her Summer plans… Come to think of it, he was her main distraction from most of her hobbies.
“I can’t. It’s a perfect day and we have iced tea and-” Rafe rolled his eyes. Yeah, he really hated that drink. “-the whole island is basically free of tourists and I’m dating the Rafe Cameron but you want me to sit around and read?” Normally she would read, today was a good day for it. Something light and romantic with minimal plot and a happy ending would be the perfect book for today. But it was hard to spend time getting caught up in anything when she had an itch to do something.
“Wanna go for a walk or something. We could get something to drink.” He sat up and leaned back on his hands. “Not iced tea but maybe an iced coffee and something to eat?” She thought about it for a second. Iced coffee would be nice and breakfast was hours ago. But if Rafe was happy doing this, she didn’t want to disturb that.
She shook her head. “No. You stay here and I’ll go out and bring something back-” She went to stand up but she was quickly tugged back down onto the grass by a hand around her wrist, she partly fell onto Rafe but that seemed like part of the plan.
“No. I’ll come with you. I know you want to go, I saw that glimmer in your eye you get when you're excited, like a puppy,” She ignored that he was kind of comparing her to a dog because he was fixing the strap of her top and then straightening out her necklace like he was the sweetest man alive. ”-and there’s no way I’m not spending every second of my free time with my girlfriend.”
He shifted her off his lap and stood up. Girlfriend. They were dating, and they weren’t seeing anyone else, but he had never called her that before. She pictured him calling her that around other people and couldn’t help smiling. Rafe blocked the sun again and stared down at her with his hands in his pockets. “What?”
“Nothing.” She stood up, brushing her hands against her shorts. “You just called me your girlfriend, that’s all.” She felt all dizzy like she was suddenly sixteen again, looking at him like he had just admitted to having a crush on her in the school parking lot.
Rafe stared at her and furrowed his brows together like he was thinking something. She didn’t get to ask what because seconds later he was relaxing into an easy smile and throwing his arm around her and leading her back to the house. “Well you are, aren't you?” He asked, sounding slightly confused.
She leaned her head back to look up at him. “I am.”
“Good.” He nodded his head like they had just made some kind of deal and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “Now before we go do you want me to set fire to all the peach ice tea or do you want to do it?”
“Rafe-” She tried to untangle herself from his hold as laughter echoed through the kitchen. She just wanted to defend her choice of drink and let him know that no one was forcing him to like peaches anyway but it was useless. It wasn’t just that Rafe was stronger then her (which he obviously was), it was also because there was no chance he was going to let her go that easily.
Where’s the fic of Stratt sitting Carl down to give it to him straight what was about to go down? We know in the end, he backed her up and helped detain Grace. Do you think he fought it at first and she had to remind him what his job was? What ALL their jobs were? Or do you think his focus never drifted from the bigger picture? Either way, I cannot imagine the weight he must have carried after.
