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Raphael normally doesn’t leave the hotel that often. Of course he goes hunting every once in a while and Simon drags him on the occasional date, but other than that he’s perfectly fine staying in the Dumort. He’s usually too busy to go out anyway.
But tonight he needed some fresh air. It’s not like he and Simon got in a fight, exactly. They don’t fight. It’s just that, despite how much he loves Simon, Raphael sometimes just needs a break from him. He’s so energetic, a trait even death couldn’t take away, and though Raphael usually loves it, tonight it all just was a little much for him.
Thankfully he learned that just walking out of a conversation is considered rude. Simon makes sure Raphael is comfortable expressing himself and allows him to show emotions, so it isn’t as hard for him anymore to just tell Simon he needs some space. Simon is still working on not taking it personally, but they’re both improving.
He doesn’t expect anything eventful to happen. It’s winter in Brooklyn, which means it’s too cold for Mundanes to roam the streets at night and they all prefer their warm apartments. He’s expecting a peaceful night, allowing him to take a breath and enjoy the silence for a while.
But before he can even exhale and let his muscles relax, there’s a high pitched scream coming from not too far away.
Contrary to popular belief (mostly from the Shadowhunters), Raphael is actually a pretty good man. Of course he isn’t perfect, but he will help where he can, sometimes to annoyance of his clan members. He’s often the one who steps in when a public argument between two Mundanes is getting out of hand, he’s the one watching the drinks of girls at clubs to make sure nobody drugs them, he defends girls being bothered by drunk bastards. The other vampires often make fun of him about it, because Mundane lives to them are exposable and short lived. But if there’s one thing Raphael is proud of, it’s how he was raised. And he’ll be damned if he doesn’t honor his mother in everything he does.
That’s why, instead of continuing his nice evening walk, he runs towards the scream.
It leads him to a small alley, packed with Dumpsters and smelling of trash. There are three men standing in the back of it, crowding someone. They’re too tall for Raphael to see who they’re cornering, but it doesn’t matter.
“Hey,” he says, voice steady, “leave them alone.”
One of the men looks over his shoulder and grins.
“Walk on, boy,” he says.
“Excuse me if I don’t,” Raphael replies, stepping closer to the men. His two friends turn around now too to glare at Raphael, who remains as unintimidated as ever.
The men are distracted by Raphael’s seemingly brave interference long enough for their victim to dart around them and run towards Raphael. He’s surprised to see it’s a small child, probably not older than six, but the surprise is quickly replaced by anger once he realizes what these men were probably going to do if he hadn’t shown up.
“You better run,” he tells them as he sinks down to his knees to check the child for bruises or other injuries. He seems fine, besides his tear stroked face and scraped knee.
“You better stay out of our business, boy,” one of the men counters. He takes a step closer to Raphael, hands balled into fists.
Raphael stands and gently pushes the boy behind him, making sure he’s shielded from the men. Then he cocks a bow.
“Are you threatening me?” He asks.
One of the men pulls out a knife and smirks.
“Oh, I definitely am.”
Honestly, it’s an unfair fight. The man holding the knife lunges forward, but he looks slow and graceless to Raphael. He has all the time in the world to await his attack and then easily blocks it, working the man to the ground and breaking his wrist in one swift moment.
The other two come for him next, but are on the ground just as quickly. Raphael doesn’t even spare them a second glance as he turns around to the young boy, who stands frozen on the spot.
“Hey,” he says softly as he gets on eye level with the kid, “are you okay? Did they hurt you?”
The boy looks between him and the men on the ground. His eyes are big and blue, reflecting the street lights.
“They didn’t hurt me,” he eventually says.
“Good. Are you lost? Where are your parents?”
The eyes of the boy immediately start tearing up.
“I – I don’t know,” he stutters.
“We were at the ice rink – and then I – I wanted some hot chocolate and – then they were just gone,” he cries. Raphael reaches out to wipe a tear from his face.
“It’s okay, little man. We’ll find your parents. What’s your name?”
“Mason,” the boy breathes.
“Hi, Mason. My name is Raphael. Come on, let’s go find your parents.”
He rises back to his feet and offers Mason his hand, who quickly grabs it. Raphael leads him away from the three men and into the direction of the city.
***
Mason all but collapses from exhaustion around 2am, and Raphael has to carry him back to the hotel. He can’t really start looking for the boy’s parents if he isn’t awake to tell him if anything looks familiar, so he figured it would be best to take him back to the Dumort and continue looking as soon as the sun sets tomorrow night.
He gets strange looks when he walks into the hotel with a child in his arms, but he doesn’t bother explaining the situation before making his way to his bedroom. He expects Simon to be there, but when he arrives, the room is empty.
Raphael shrugs and figures Simon took the ‘needing space’ thing a bit too literally, like usual. He’ll show up eventually, but maybe it’s for the best he isn’t here as Raphael carries Mason inside. He really doesn’t need Simon freaking out over this.
He gently puts Mason down in his bed and moves to tuck him in, but right before he can pull the sheets over his small body, Mason opens his eyes.
He rubs his eyes with the palm of his hands before sitting up to take in his surroundings. A small frown tugs at his eyebrows.
“Where am I?” He asks confused.
Raphael smiles at him, hoping it’s reassuring and kind.
“You’re in a hotel room. You fell asleep and I thought we could look for your parents tomorrow, after you had some rest.”
“I’m in a hotel?” Mason echoes.
“I’ve never been in a hotel before!” He throws his legs over the edge of the bed and wants to make move for the door, but Raphael holds him back.
“Not so fast, little man. It’s very late at night and you’ll disturb the other guests if you go out now. How about we just stay here and I’ll read you a story?”
Mason’s bright eyes light up.
“A story?”
“Yes, any story. Your pick.”
“Peter Pan?” Mason asks breathlessly. Raphael’s smile falters and he turns away from the boy to hide it. Peter Pan had always been one of his favorites, but after being Turned there was just something too painful in the story of a boy who would never grow up. He hadn’t read it in decades, and he isn’t planning on reading it now.
“Ah, you’re out of luck, pal,” Raphael apologizes, “Peter Pan didn’t make it into my story book collection. Any other suggestions?”
Mason chews his bottom lip as he scans Raphael’s book shelves on the far wall of the room, squinting as if then he’ll be able to read the covers.
“Spiderman?” He offers.
Raphael is close to telling him that’s not really a story, but Mason is looking up at him with big, hopeful eyes so he just sighs and stands, walking around the bed to Simon’s side to rumble through his stuff until he finds a battered comic.
“Okay,” Raphael says once he sat down on the edge of his side of the bed again, “this story is called The Amazing Spiderman.”
***
Simon walks into their room somewhere in the middle of the comic and freezes in the doorway when he sees the small boy lying in bed, staring up at Raphael with a slightly open mouth.
“Raphael,” he says calmly, though Raphael hears the panic in his voice, “do we have a vampire child? Is the Volturi coming to rip our heads off? Do I need to pack our bags so we can flee the country?”
Raphael glares at him.
“Do you even know what leaves your mouth sometimes?” He wonders. Simon glares back and then approaches him and Mason, cautious as if he genuinely believes they’re dealing with a vampire child.
“Uh, mind explaining me what exactly is going on here?” He asks when he picked up Mason’s heartbeat.
“Well, this is Mason,” Raphael says.
“I found him on the streets and helped him look for his parents, but unfortunately we didn’t find them yet. Mason was very tired, so I brought him here and now I’m reading him a nice story.”
Simon glances at the comic book.
“Spiderman isn’t a st – ”
“And now I’m reading him a nice story,” Raphael repeats, looking at Mason.
“Oh, right,” Simon says. He walks around the bed and plops down on his side, extending his hand to Mason.
“Hi there, fella. My name is Simon,” he says as he shakes Mason’s hand, who giggles softly when Simon tells him he has a very strong grip.
“Well, Raph, don’t let me stop you from reading! I love stories.”
Raphael makes a face at Simon, who just grins in return. So he sighs and focuses back on the comic.
He doesn’t make it through one page before Simon is interrupting him.
“What! That’s not what Gwen Stacy sounds like.”
“Oh? You wanna give it a try?” Raphael wonders.
“As a matter of fact, I do,” Simon replies, already snatching the comic book out of Raphael’s hands. He clears his throat and puts on a high pitched voice that makes Mason giggle. Raphael tries to pretend to be mad at Simon for taking over his reading roll, but he’s so adorable as he mimics different voices his fake anger doesn’t last very long.
By the end of the comic, Mason is fast asleep. The sun is about to rise, which means Raphael can feel his own eyes starting to droop.
He gets in bed behind Simon, not wanting to crowd Mason by lying down next to him. Simon turns around in his arms to face him.
“Had enough space?” He asks.
“Yeah,” Raphael breathes as he brushes his nose against Simon’s, “sorry.”
“Don’t apologize, babe. I understand. Just maybe don’t bring a child home next time you need some space.”
Raphael smiles.
“I can’t promise anything.”
***
Mason wakes him up in the middle of the day, standing his bedside and looking at him expectantly.
“Are we gonna look for my parents today?”
Raphael huffs and opens one eye. It only takes him a second to register that the sun is still high in the sky.
“Not yet, buddy,” he grumbles.
“Then when?”
“Tonight.”
“Why not now?”
“Because,” Raphael yawns, “Simon and I are vampires and can’t go out during the day because of the sun.”
Mason gasps and Raphael is suddenly wide awake, having realized what he just said. But when he looks at Mason, the boy looks… impressed.
“That’s so cool,” Mason whispers. He reaches for Raphael’s face as if to see if he’ll feel like a vampire, but seems to change his mind last second.
“Okay, sorry for waking you up! Go back to sleep. Goodnight. Good day! This is so cool,” Mason says, and then he walks around the bed again to get back in. Raphael is honestly too tired to think much of it and is already back asleep five seconds later.
***
Mason is full of questions the next night. They’re back on the streets of Brooklyn after buying Mason a hotdog, which he ate too fast because he was too eager to start asking questions.
“So do you have fangs?” He asks. He’s walking in the middle, holding Raphael’s and Simon’s hand and occasionally jumping up so the older boys can swing him between the two of them.
“Oh yeah, totally,” Simon grins.
“We also have really disgusting nails, but thankfully we can retract those too.”
“Can I see?”
“Oh, I don’t think that’s a good idea, buddy,” Raphael says.
“What? Why not?”
“Because we have to keep this a secret of course! We can’t just go around revealing ourselves to anyone! Who says you’re not an anti-vampire spy, mhh? You certainly look smart enough for it!”
Mason laughs.
“I’m not a spy!”
“Are you sure about that? Because I don’t trust you!”
Mason sticks out his tongue and Raphael does the same, which makes the small boy laugh again.
He wants to ask something else, Raphael can tell by the thoughtful frown on his face, but then his face lights up as he looks around him.
“Hey, I recognize this neighborhood!” He exclaims, and then he’s freed himself from their hands and is running, Simon and Raphael in tow.
They round a corner and cross the street and then Mason points at a house on the corner.
“I live there!” He says excitedly.
“Are you sure?” Raphael asks.
“Yes! Come on!” Mason urges, pulling them with him to his house. He runs up the stairs to his front door and tries to ring the doorbell, but he’s too small to reach it. Raphael chuckles and follows him upstairs to do it for him.
A woman around her thirties opens the door. She looks like she hasn’t slept in a few days and her eyes are red from crying, but her pained expression immediately disappears when she sees Mason.
“Mason!” She exclaims, and then she’s hugging the boy to her chest, peppering his jaw with kisses.
“We found him last night,” Raphael says.
“Mason had trouble remembering where he lived, but here he is. I hope you weren’t too worried, ma’am.”
“I was worried sick! But thank you for bringing him home, I don’t know how to thank you.”
Raphael shrugs sheepishly.
“It was nothing, really.”
He ruffles Mason’s hair and turns around to leave, but Mason frees himself from his mother’s grip to grab Raphael’s wrist.
Raphael looks down at the boy, who lunges forward and wraps his arms around Raphael’s waist.
“Thank you,” he says softly.
“You’re very welcome,” Raphael smiles.
“I’m gonna come visit you in the hotel! I swear I’m not a spy, I swear, I swear, I swear! So now you can tell me everything about being a vampire!”
Raphael laughs as he carefully pulls Mason’s arms away.
“Okay, you’re not a spy! But I’ll need some proof of that. Take care, little man.”
Then he pushes him in the direction of his mother and walks down the stairs to Simon, who’s patiently waiting on the curb.
“Raph, are you crying?” He asks in shock when Raphael reaches him.
“No,” Raphael says firmly, wiping away the tears, “it’s just a nice kid. That’s all.”
“You’re adorable, you know that?”
Raphael gives him a shove.
“Let’s go before I change my mind and kidnap Mason and possibly also adopt him.”
“And turn him into a vampire child?”
“We seriously need to do something about your vampire child obsession.”
“Hey, man. Watch Twilight and you’ll understand.”