Work Text:
Rafael poured himself another glass of juice and frowned at the glass, carefully picking it up off of the counter, sipping it when all of the sudden his Dad shouted in fear. He dropped his glass and raced for the weapons rack by the front door. He grabbed the small Seraph dagger that Papa didn’t know Dad had been teaching him to use and ran for the balcony.
“Dad!”
Alec scrambled behind Max, his whole body shuddering as he brushed frantically at his clothes. “Max! Come on, don’t play!”
Rafael blinked in confusion, the dagger held tight in his fist as he looked around for whatever had made his Dad shout.
“I need to see it to disappear it like Papa!” Max said with a pout, huffing at his Dad. “It wasn’t even that big!”
“What…what’s going on?” he asked, dropping the dagger down to his side.
Max huffed and put his hands on his hips. “I don’t see it Daddy.”
“It was on me!” Alec said, shuddering again, huddling behind Max, his eyes narrowed on the couch across from him.
Max turned to give his Dad an exasperated look. “And if you hadn’t done your best “Uncle Jace around Ducks” impression, I would have disappeared it already!”
Rafe cleared his throat, glad when both his Dad and Max looked at him. He flushed when Alec looked at the knife, then him in confusion. “You sounded scared, Dad, I thought something was…you know. Wrong.”
Alec melted, relaxing and coming out from behind Max. “Oh, Rafe, everything is fine, we’re both okay, I prom-FUCK! MAX!” Alec shouted, leaping behind Max as soon as he saw the spider crawling out from the chair. “There!”
“Got him!” Max said with a quick wave of his fingers, the spider disappearing to a nearby park. He smiled. “There!”
Alec sagged in relief, exhaling hard. “Thank god.”
“Wait a second,” Rafe said, looking between where the spider had been and his Dad. “Are you…”
Alec’s eyes widened. “No! Definitely not!”
Max snickered. “Dad is terrified of spiders. Papa and I have to disappear them for him.”
“They’re evil and they come after me! They sense my fear, I swear!” Alec protested, glaring at Max.
“So let me get this straight,” Rafe said, the rest of the tension draining from his shoulders. “My Dad, one of the most badass-”
“Don’t swear,” Alec muttered, even though Rafe ignored him with a roll of his eyes.
“-Shadowhunters to ever exist…is scared of spiders?”
Alec sighed. “Uncle Jace is scared of ducks, and I’m scared of spiders. Everyone has a thing. Spiders are mine.”
Rafe stared at him, unimpressed. “You know you’re so much bigger than they are, right?”
“You know,” Alec said with a sigh, rubbing his hand through his hair. “If that level of logic worked, I would have stopped being scared of them a long time ago.”
Rafael couldn’t help grinning. “So I shouldn’t tell you about the spider that just landed in your hair?”
Alec shrieked and immediately ruffled his hair violently, making him look like he had been through a hurricane.
Rafael laughed so hard he couldn’t stay on his feet, even after he managed to tell his Dad he’d been joking. He was spending all of his allowance money on fake spiders this halloween. Every single cent.