Work Text:
“I love you,” John said quietly, holding the phone tightly against his ear as though it could ease the distance between him and his son.
“I love you too, John,” Stiles voice was off, distorted by their phones and it made John’s heart ache with how badly he missed his boy.
It had been too long, fuck, far too long since they had gotten a chance to say those words to each other in person. John’s client was close to insane, beyond paranoid - and all without reason - and the hours he had been having John work were crazy. Between John’s hours and Stiles’ own school schedule and part-time job, they hadn’t seen each other in more than a week.
John missed his boy. His heart hurt with it, with the knowledge that most days they missed each other by only a few short hours. John was hardly sleeping as it was and his exhaustion made him sensitive. All he wanted was to be close to Stiles, to be able to curl up around him and hold his boy close.
“I’ll see you soon, okay,” he said into the phone, desperate in his hope that he was telling the truth.
He heard Stiles sniff over the phone, heard it again followed by a cough and he could just picture his son rubbing the heel of his hand into his eye in a desperate attempt not to cry. It made John’s heart hurt ever more. The distance was hard on both of them - this was the longest they had gone without seeing each other since they moved here - and John was almost surprised at how sharp it hurt.
They’d been together for so long now, a few years, and John had never thought going a few days without seeing each other would be so hard. John was sure it made them too codependent but he couldn’t bring himself to care, not when all he wanted to do right now was hug Stiles close.
“Hey, hey, baby, don’t cry,” John soothed, felt his own eyes stinging as Stiles continued to sniffle.
“I’m okay,” Stiles said though he sounded miserable and John didn’t believe him for a second.
Still, he wasn’t going to argue, just stayed on the line and listened to Stiles breathe - just a little unevenly - and tried to calm himself down. He was just on break and he hardly had another ten minutes before he he had to be back inside. He took a deep breath, then another as he tried to calm his mind. He would see Stiles soon - he knew he wouldn’t be working like this forever - and it would be so much sweeter when he finally did.
“I love you,” he said again, would say for the rest of his life, and he let himself smile when Stiles echoed the statement.