For Your Love // Rafe Cameron X Reader

𝐎𝐍𝐄

From the moment you stepped off that plane into the overwhelming humidity of the place you'd once called home, you wanted to get right back on it and get out of there. It wasn't just the fact every hair on your head immediately turned frizzy with the moisture in the air, or how much it annoyed you how often your dad assured you 'this is a good thing'. It wasn't necessarily even the fact that you had to leave all your friends behind to come back to this husk of a place that hadn't been home to you for a very long time.

It was the fact that you had no interest in being here at all. That despite no matter how much you protested it, your dad still insisted on coming back here.

There wasn't anything inherently wrong with Kildare Island - Figure Eight was a charming place full of folk like you and your dad. Growing up here hadn't been the worst, it's just that nothing was going to be the same. You liked your life exactly as it had been back in New York. You didn't want to be here.

Your dad was a surgeon, one of the top in his field in fact, and the job offer he'd received for the hospital here had been undeniably too good to pass up. You were proud of him. He deserved it. You just wish that you could have stayed right where you were.

"Come on, we don't have all day." He tells you now as your bags are put into the rental car. There was no malice to it and a humor in his eyes accompanied the words leaving his lips. You nod wordlessly, smoothing out your hands over your pale yellow sundress to maintain some semblance of control as you slip into the back of the car, your dad getting in the other side.

While the driver takes you to your destination, you glance out of the window, watching the world pass by. Both familiar and not. Your fingertips toy with the silver chain dangling from your neck, a crescent-moon shaped pendant rolling between your digits. It was your moms. She died a few years ago and in moments of deep contemplation you found yourself wishing she was still around to offer that maternal advice you know you needed every so often.

Your dad did his best. But you were an only child, and a girl at that. It was unchartered territory that he simply didn't have the time to delve fully into. 

You were an adult now. His wealth meant you didn't need to work but you did anyway, organising events for the upper class and fundraisers in your spare time. It kept you busy, which kept you from thinking too much about things you kept locked up tight in your mind. 

The car passes a house you recognise instantly though it takes a moment to figure out where from. The wrought iron gates flash across your mind and from what must have been expensive upkeep, you note that they hadn't changed much through the years.

"Rafe, come down!" Your tiny body held much voice to it as it fires up at an eight year old Rafe Cameron doing his best to climb up the bars of the gate to his fathers estate. "You're going to fall!"

"Nuh-uh!" He calls back, a mischievous grin on his doughy features. He gets to the top and straddles it, holding himself steady. "See? I'm the king of Outer Banks!" He grins down at you, pale blond hair falling free of its perfect styling. He had dirt on his white polo from where he'd been climbing but he looked to be having the best time of his life.

The gate wasn't very big. Just over about 8 foot tall, but it seemed endlessly large to kids of your size and age. 

Still, his words have you giggling, hands finding purchase around the cold bars and giving it a little shake. "Earthquake!" You call and he squeals as he clutches the bars, shouting for you to stop between laughs.

"I'll come down! Just stop that!" He swings his leg over and begins his descent to rejoin you, hands moving expertly for one so young. Rafe was impulsive but he was your best friend in the whole world. Your dads were close so you hung out a lot with him since his little sister Sarah was too young to play with. You weren't sure you'd like him at first. You were quiet and reserved where he was loud and boyish.