Rafe Cameron/Kiara "Kie" Carrera

Pairing
Pairing:	Rafe Cameron/Kiara "Kie" Carrera
Alternative name(s):	Riara
Gender category:	M/F
Fandom:	Outer Banks
Canonical?:	No
Prevalence:	Rarepair
Archives:
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Rafe Cameron/Kiara "Kie" Carrera, also known as riara is a rarepair in the Outer Banks fandom.

Rafe Cameron and Kiara "Kie" Carrera's canon relationship is that of enemies, but it is a complicated and complex because they have also been allies forced to work together. The layers to their relationship is what has drawn fans to this ship, along with their parallels, differing/opposing aesthetics, and the opportunity for the development of an enemies to lovers romance. In fandom, people like to explore Rafe and Kiara's relationship as enemies, before they became enemies, if they were no longer enemies, and scenarios where they were never enemies at all. These ideas are explored in many ways in the fandom, but short video edits (fanvids) are the most popular form of fanwork for this ship, particularly on the app TikTok. The two main ship tags "rafeandkiara" and "riara" surpass over hundreds of millions of views; making riara the third most popular Outer Banks pairing on the app.

Canon

Books

Outer Banks: Dead Break by Jay Coles

Outer Banks: Dead Break by Jay Coles

Outer Banks: Dead Break by Jay Coles is a companion novel to the Outer Banks show released on November 14th, 2023. It is from the point of view of Kiara and Pope and takes place during the summer after Kiara’s freshman year of high school at the Kook Academy. She has reconnected with the Pogues and works at The Wreck, her parents' restaurant. She agrees to work there to get to go to Kildare High School, the public school, for her sophomore year.

The story starts with Kiara entering into a surfing competition taking place in the OBX alongside Rafe. They are the two characters we know from OBX that both want to become professional surfboarders in this story. Kiara first comments on Rafe when he arrives at the beach where she is surfing. She shakes her head as he pulls up in an expensive Jeep and is blasting heavy metal music. They don’t say anything to each other, and Rafe immediately goes into the water to surf. Kiara thinks to herself that Ward probably has bought Rafe lessons with the best surf instructors that money can buy since he was little. According to her, he is a decent surfer but is nothing compared to the professional surfers. She hopes she won’t look like him in front of the professionals because unlike Rafe, she is entirely self-taught (page 32).

On page 43, Rafe and Kiara cross paths again. Rafe and Ward come into The Wreck where Kiara is waitressing to join Alan, a bigshot manager for professional surfers, and his number one client, Darren for food. As Kiara serves them, she listens in and says that Ward is deep in a pitch for Alan to take Rafe as a client. Kiara is jealous of Rafe because it must be nice to have a parent who supports your dreams since her parents didn't want her to join the competition.

Once the big surf competition is in full swing, Kiara ends up falling off her board when she tries to hit a big wave and gets a concussion. She calls herself a failure and embarrassed herself in front of everyone, but name drops Rafe as one of the specific people. She then says that she is no better than Rafe because she is another Kook wannabe who’s never going to travel the world surfing professionally (page 86). One page 92, in Pope’s POV, JJ tells him that Rafe fell almost as soon as he got on his board and he drove off so fast he left his fancy surfboard behind, making him and Kiara have the same outcome with the surfing competition.

After the competition, one of the professional surfers, Cole, has been found dead and the Pogues (plus Cole’s best friend Gabriel, another professional surfer) think he was murdered. Pope relays to everyone that he heard Rafe talking to the police. Rafe told the police that he was at the beach where Cole was found washed up, but the last he'd seen of him, he'd been alive. The Pogues think Rafe is hiding something. Kiara says that Rafe may have been lying to the police because Ward was trying to get Alan to represent Rafe. So, Ward would never let Rafe say anything that might turn Alan against him. She goes on to say that Rafe may be protecting Alan by lying about having been at the beach that morning (page 154).

The Pogues then devise a plan to speak to Rafe and get more information from him. They drive up to a Kook party and when they are trying to figure out how to get him into the Twinkie to interrogate, Kiara says: “We’re not going to get him,” I correct. “I am” (page 174).

Kiara then puts on makeup in the Twinkie and leaves the van to head into the party to find Rafe. She says the party is the same as the ones she went to months ago and that means she knows exactly where to find Rafe. She notes that he doesn't go for plastic cups and cheap beer. Rafe will be upstairs in Ryan’s dad’s study. She remembers how Ryan invited her and Sarah up there during her Kook year and called it the “inner sanctum” (page 176).

Kiara comments on how the Kook guys see women as objects but tonight, she is using that to get what she wants. She states: “And what I want is for Rafe to leave with me. Just the thought—I want Rafe to leave with me—is enough to make me gag…” (page 179).

Kiara gets into the study and spots Rafe. She walks over to him and smells alcohol on him, so she knows he has been drinking for a while. She states: “It’s not unusual for Rafe; I’ve known him long enough to know that this is how he forgets he is Ward’s son” (page 179).

They say hi to each other and Kiara sits next to him on a couch. She asks for his drink, and he hands it to her. Kiara pretends to not like the drink: “Rafe laughs as I pretend to have trouble swallowing. ‘We can get you something more your speed, little girl,’ he promises” (pages 179-180).

Rafe gets another girl to give her drink to Kiara and then she watches as he plays poker. Kiara tells him to fold and after she explains why he should, she states: “Rafe looks at me like he’s seeing me for the first time. I can feel his gaze taking in my tank top and short shorts” (page 180).

Rafe then plays the fold: “Whatever the lady says,” he promises, playing his cards facedown on the table. When Ryan reveals a full house, Rafe gives me a high five. And then a moment later: “Looks like I found my lucky charm,” he says. “Kiara Carrera, the half-Kook wonder.” Kiara dislikes that Rafe called her a half-Kook because it reminds her of her year at the Kook Academy and the struggles of not quite being a Pogue or a Kook. Kiara helps Rafe further with the game and he says: “Whatever my lucky charm says.” And Kiara dislikes that he referred to her as his anything (page 181).

Rafe ends up messing up in the game and Kiara uses this moment to get him out of the study. Rafe smiles as catches her meaning and Kiara says he grabs her hand and pulls her up to stand like she is a prize instead of an actual person (page 181-182).

Rafe wants to bring her to a bedroom in the house, saying there are a lot of them but since Kiara wants to get him outside, she pretends to be horrified at the idea that Sarah could see them together. Rafe tells Kiara he doesn’t care what Sarah says but she insists on going somewhere else, so she leads him down the stairs and out the front door. Kiara rolls her eyes and thinks to herself that boys like him are so easy (page 182).

Rafe asks where they are going and calls Kiara gorgeous. Rafe holds her hand, and his fingers play on her inner wrist. Kiara responds that he will see, and he grins at her. This is when the Pogues jump out and grab Rafe. JJ stuffs a rag in his mouth to keep him quiet and Kiara thinks to herself that she almost feels bad for him (pages 182-183).

They get Rafe into the Twinkie and hold him down to interrogate him. Kiara tells the Pogues to not be so stupid to leave a party with a girl who’s inexplicably interested in you after never having given them the time of day and Rafe’s eyes go wide as it dawns on him that Kiara’s flirting was all an act (page 184). This is the last moment they are together in person.

The Pogues get their answers from Rafe before he passes out and they drop him off on his driveway at Tannyhill. Later, Kiara realizes that Pope didn’t want to hurt Rafe and she says that makes her realize she loves Pope more than she already does (page 195).

The last mention of Rafe in the book is from Kiara’s POV. It’s after they kidnapped him, and she thinks to herself that she needs to de-Rafe her clothes (pages 209-210).

With the new information from Rafe, they are able to figure out who murdered Cole and get them to jail.

• For a different viewing format with all of the direct quotes can be found on Tumblr: Analyzing the Kiara and Rafe Moments in "Outer Banks: Dead Break" by Jay Coles

Fandom

Common Tropes/Themes/Tags in Fanworks

• Enemies to Lovers: In canon, Rafe and Kiara are on opposing sides, so this is their most popular tagged trope on AO3.
• Angst: In canon, Rafe and Kiara's scenes together are during intense situations that are dramatic and tend to be life-threatening, so this is expanded on in fanworks of them.
• Hurt/Comfort: In canon, Rafe and Kiara are often in dangerous scenarios where they are getting hurt emotionally and physically (sometimes because of the actions of the other), so there are fanworks expanding on this where they comfort each other after/during the hurt.
• Rafe Cameron Redemption: Since Rafe is an antagonist in canon, many write him to have a redemption arc whilst having/building a relationship with Kiara.
• Kiara "Kie" Carrera's Kook Year: In canon, for Kiara's freshman year of high school, she attended a private school called the Kook Academy, which is where teenagers from Figure 8, the rich part of Kildare Island (a large fictional island that is a part of the Outer Banks in the show) go to high school. Her time at the Kook Academy would be considered pre-canon. In the canon era of the show, she attends public school called Kildare County High School for her sophomore year (season 1-2) and junior year (season 3) of school. Kildare County High School is located in The Cut, the poor part of Kildare Island. There aren't any details of Rafe and Kiara's relationship during her freshman year at the Kook Academy in the show canon, but since Kiara became friends with Rafe's younger sister Sarah Cameron because of attending the Kook Academy, we know they were around each other. In the book "Outer Banks: Dead Break", she states that they would party together and she knows him well enough to know why he drinks so heavily. So, there are fanworks exploring Rafe and Kiara's relationship during this time.

Example Fanworks

Fanfic

AO3

Archive of Our Own is the most popular site to find Rafe and Kiara fanfiction with 77 works tagged as Rafe Cameron/Kiara "Kie" Carrera.

The first (currently viewable) riara fanfiction where they are the main focus and not a past relationship, was posted on May 5th, 2021.

The most popular riara fanfiction is you got yourself a bad habit for it by partyhardy.

Wattpad

Wattpad is not a popular site for Rafe and Kiara stories.

FanFiction.Net

Fanfiction.Net is not a popular site for Rafe and Kiara stories.

Fanart

Fanart is not a common type of fanwork for the Rafe and Kiara relationship.

Fanvids

TikTok

As stated above in the introduction, TikTok is the place where you will find the most Rafe and Kiara content. The two main ship tags "rafeandkiara" and "riara" surpass over 300 million views total; making riara the third most popular Outer Banks pairing on the app. A notable editor that has been posting Rafe and Kiara content on TikTok since 2021 is riaranation. Their page is dedicated to the riara relationship and the friendship between Drew Starkey and Madison Bailey, who play Rafe and Kiara. They have gained popularity with tens of thousands of followers and likes.

Youtube

There are a decent amount of Rafe and Kiara video edits on YouTube, but it is still not a popular place for fanworks about them.

Instagram

There are a decent amount of Rafe and Kiara edits on Instagram, but it is still not a popular place for fanworks about them.

Other Fanworks

Playlists

There are a number of playlists based on Rafe and Kiara on the Spotify app.

Meta

Analyzing the Kiara and Rafe Moments in "Outer Banks: Dead Break" by Jay Coles by riaraa on Tumblr.