Conversely it's also really nice and novel to see that Simon was willing to take care of Nicola from the start.
Like instead of the usual fictional dynamic of him starting out all mean and jaded and begrudgingly letting Nicola follow him it's more that dynamic where someone who is already nice and responsible starts taking care of a kid and sorta adjusts their attitude as the kid starts to trust them more.
Like instead of going from mean -> mild amounts of snark because Nicola won him over he went from super gentle (because Nicola was scared and insecure) -> mild amounts of snark/discipline (because Nicola trusts him enough to be rambunctious).