Work Text:
John was home late for the 5th night in a row. Alex knew it wasn’t entirely his fault, they needed a larger income to support the kid which meant him having to work overtime. But having to put Philip to bed on his own five nights in a row was tiring, and not seeing his husband between 10 in the morning and 10 at night hurt more than he would like to admit.
Tonight was even worse than the past 4 nights had been. Philip was refusing to go down, mumbling ‘daaaa’ and pointing to the door and clinging to Alex like an octopus whenever he tried to lay him in his crib. To say he was exasperated when John walked through the door was an understatement.
“Hey love.” John chirped out as he walked in, slipping his shoes off by the door and dropping his briefcase. It made a loud sound as it hit the floor, which made, an almost asleep, Philip cry out. Alex rolled his eyes and tried to calm Philip down, walking around the room and patting his back, pretending that John wasn’t there. Unsure of what to do with himself, he sat on the couch and watched. Philip eventually wore himself out from crying and Alex went to put him down, coming back out of his room a few minutes later and sitting down across from John.
“How was y-”
“Can I say something?” Alex spoke with a nervous edge in his voice, John picking up on his mood and softening his face. “Go ahead.”
“You not being here all the time is stressful, and tiring. Philip is pointing at the door and yelling ‘daaaa’ all day long, he misses seeing you for more than a few hours in the morning. And I do to.”
The last sentence was mumbled, but John heard it loud and clear. It hurt being away from his family, it did, but did Alex want them to go broke?
“I know it sucks, but I don’t know what else to do. You get me on weekends, and the government gets me during the week. We have to make sacrifices if you want to keep a roof over our heads.”
Alex didn’t know what he was expecting John to respond with, maybe an apology, but it certainly wasn’t that.
“Parenting isn’t a weekend job John.”
He came off a lot snarkier than he intended to, but he didn’t feel as bad as he felt like he should. What he said wasn’t wrong, if John got mad that was his own problem.
“Do you think I like being at work Alex? Do you think I do so much overtime because I’d rather be there than here?”
Honesty was the best policy, that’s what Alex was taught.
“Sometimes it seems that way.” He dropped his agitated tone and looked down, nervous to meet Johns eyes and see his reaction. It would strike a chord with him, he knew it would. But he didn’t want to lie,
Alex was so zoned out in his what did you just do thought process that he didn’t notice John getting on the floor in front of him, pulling his wallet out of his back pocket and flipping through it until he found a small photo. It was taken the day Philip was born. Alex was still laying in the hospital bed, holding Philip in his arms with John at his side.
“I hate being away from you two. I look at this photo all the time when I’m at work. Probably more than I should because then I get all teary and I can’t see to type. But it reminds me why I’m stressing myself out, I’m doing it for you. For Philip.”
He set the photo in Alex's lap, and he sighed as he picked it up, cracking a smile when he really looked at it.
“You should have told me to brush my hair out before this.”
John chuckled and shook his head, such an Alex-ism a sign that things were calming down.
“If you want, I can move stuff around and try to go in earlier instead of coming home late. And maybe do it for 2 or 3 days a week?”
Alex looked up at that, biting his lip and nodding.
“Yeah, that would be nice.”
John joined him on the couch and sat back, pulling Alex against his chest and kissing his forehead. He blushed like a teenager, John giggling and repeating the action.
“This is much more comfortable than my office, trust me.”