Work Text:
“… Ten-chan, when are you coming home again?”
Said Ten-chan sighs, passing a hand through his hair. “Isn’t it at least the tenth time you asked that today, Taichi?”
On the other side of the call, Taichi whines loudly. Tenma allows himself to smile fondly. He’s secretly glad they’re not on a video call so he doesn’t have to keep a poker face (even if he always fails to do so).
“But I miss youuu, Ten-chan!”
A warm feeling grows in Tenma’s chest, and he snuggles a bit more comfortably on the bed.
“… I told you I’m going home in another five days.”
Taichi’s loud cry almost makes him chuckle.
“Eeeh?! That’s in so long!”
Tenma looks at the hotel room he’s staying in for the time of the shooting. It is more luxurious than his room in Mankai, and doesn’t have Yuki insulting him 24/7, but… he misses the noise from the sewing machine running, all his fellow members talking around him, the meals together…
And of course…
“Can’t you really come home sooner? I’m gonna die waiting for you at this point!”
His loud and clingy boyfriend.
“Taichi, I’ve been gone for only three days.”
There’s a grunt on the line, and Tenma can almost hear the pouty face Taichi’s doing. “That’s already too many days.”
This time, he can’t help but laugh at Taichi’s despair.
“Ten-chan that’s not fair! How dare you laugh at me!”
Tenma tries to explain himself, but Taichi keeps on rambling.
“You don’t get it! It’s weird going to school without you, or not hugging you every morning and just not… being together y’know.”
Tenma stays speechless, tightening his grip on the phone.
Taichi’s next words are spoken so shyly he almost doesn’t hear them.
“… Don’t you miss me too?”
There’s silence now, and Tenma hesitates a few seconds before opening his mouth, trying to keep his voice steady – and failing at it.
“T-Taichi… can we try a video call?”
Almost immediately, there’s a notification on his phone telling him his interlocutor wishes to start a video call. He takes a deep breath, and accepts it.
After half a minute of loading time, -- he knows data isn’t really good in his room--, Taichi’s face appears on his screen. The boy is snuggled in his pillows; a sad puppy look on his face makes Tenma’s heart ache.
“Ten-chan…?”
Trying to ignore how red his cheeks are, Tenma musters all his courage.
“… Of course I miss you too.”
He looks away, feeling the heat on his face grow stronger. That’s so embarrassing—
“TEN-CHAAAAN!!”
Glancing back at the screen, the sad puppy look has been replaced by a large smile that makes his heart jump in his chest.
“Taichi! You’re way too close to the camera!”
Taichi only giggles in answer.
Tenma thinks that, seriously, he’s overdoing it, and expresses it in his usual grumpy way.
But, if that’s his reward for being honest… Guess he has to do it more often.