I found this as I was trying to find school stuff. Decided to post this (I'll see if I have more!)
Summary: He never heard those words from his parents. Until a certain day...
Word Count: 621
Disclaimer: I don't own The Big Bang Theory or the characters.

Those were words never once uttered by his parents. Words he never once heard from their mouths, directed to him, his siblings or to each other.

But he heard those words a lot in movies, parents saying that to his kids, he saw parents do that in real life, like his roommate and his mom. It made no sense to him, as to why his parents never told him that. Why didn't they ever told that to their own children, they were just like kids that deserved everything, right? What did they do wrong, it wasn't their fault they were born, it was their choices that lead to their birth.

But he still didn't hear those words by any of his parents.

Not until that disheartening day, the day that not everything changed, but they were definitely different.

Because hearing that your father might not be there the next year is a whole lot hard to take. But you suck it up because he wonders if it'll ever feel different, because they're barely together, barely speak to each other. They both blame it on the divorce, but he blames it on everything. The fact is, his father just wasn't there. Always away on work, away from his mother as much time as he could.

Because it was normal for him not to see his father for a month, maybe even two.

But still, it's his father. He should miss him, he should be crying, or at least shed a tear.

Then why is it that he just stands in the middle of the apartment staring at his father's eyes, with all of his friends around looking at him, their eyes glued to his face, trying to decipher his next move. Why is it that he doesn't feel the tears coming, not even one in the corner of his eye, he doesn't feel like leaving or leaving, but he doesn't feel like showing any emotions. He just stands there.

He doesn't move.

His father is shifting in his spot, uncomfortable by the emotionless man in front of him, the most passionate and sentimental of his children. He thinks back to a time where the man in front of him was only a sweet innocent five-year-old child that used to go to his room telling him he had a nightmare. He thinks back to them sitting in the tiny bed, the child with his head rested in his chest, a tear slipping through his eye as an animal gets hurt in the book it was being read to him.

But he also remembers that same year his sweet nine-year-old daughter reading the same book to his son because he wasn't around and their mother was clearly not reading it.

That was probably what he did wrong. He wasn't around.

He looked at his son, trying to read his face. His eyes weren't twitching as if he was about to cry, he wasn't sniffling, his breath wasn't irregular. He was almost...indifferent to the news.

Tentatively, he throws his arms around his son, knowing very well the hug won't solve all the years of abandoment and rejection that child had suffered, but it was a start.

He feels his son holding him tight, almost as if he was drowning and his father was his salvation. He feels his shirt getting damp, he feels his son's breath becoming unneven.

He smiles, feeling his own tears in the corners of his eyes.

"I love you, Leonard." He whispers, thinking of how his five-year-old would've thought of those words.

He knows his now-grown son would cry because that is exactly what he was doing.

It wasn't going to solve anything, but it was a start.

The End

You guys were lucky! I was going through my hard drive and found this story in there, it had a date, it was almost a year ago. With a five minute look at it, I decided to post it, because why not?

Anyway, simple story, short and a bit sweet. And, by the way, when is Alfred Hofstadter going to be added to the characters list?