"Papa, when's Daddy comin' home?"
Stephen resisted the urge to groan at the question… he hated that question, despised it even. Every single night, for the seven days that Everett had been away, Lancelot had asked the exact same question. And every night, his answer was the same.
"Soon my little wizard, soon." The words were usually accompanied by a fond ruffle of the hair.
Every night, he would carry the almost three-year-old to his room, setting off the night-lights that were set up all around the room. Once he was sure that the toddler was going to stay in bed, he made his way to his own room…. Before giving up on sleeping in the large bed alone and heading back to his study.
Usually it was him who left for long periods of time, dealing with intruders from another dimension and other such things. Looking back, he understood Everett's frustration about it all.
He used to always sleep alone, but now he could barely sleep for more than a few hours at a time.
It wasn't as though he needed help with Lancelot. He knew what foods his son liked and didn't like, he always made time to take him to the local nursery. Despite the problem with his hands, his magic helped him cook so that neither of them were starving (Everett didn't need to know about the take-away menus).
But Lancelot missed Everett, almost as much as Stephen did. The home seemed empty without him. There was nobody tapping a pen to an unheard beat, there was nobody to sit with Lancelot and build a collapsible tower for him.
Everett had to come home soon, but until then, Stephen had the perfect idea on how to help Lancelot cope.
With the radio on in the background, he got back to work, which meant that he was prepared for when the door opened up a little over three hours later and tiny feet shuffled across the floor.
"I want Daddy"
"I know." Stephen gently encouraged his son to come closer, gesturing at the strange device that he'd been working on, "I think this will help."
Lancelot didn't look too sure, one tiny hand reaching out and touching the device. "What does it do?"
"Just turn that dial."
The toddler did as he was told, watching as the circular gap in the middle of the mechanism shimmered for a moment, before clearing up to reveal a familiar figure sitting at a desk.
"Daddy!" Lancelot reached out, only for his wrist to be gently grabbed.
"No, no, no, no!" Stephen winced, "Sorry my little wizard, but you can't touch. But you can watch him, check on him if you're missing him."
"Oh." Lancelot didn't look very impressed, but sat down and kept his eyes on the working figure anyway, listening to the gentle scratching of the pen and the occasional tapping on the keyboard.
Needless to say, when the toddler curled up on the ground a little under a half hour later, soothed by the sound, Stephen wasn't surprised. He gently carried the child back to bed, before heading to his own room.
He didn't remember drifting off, but he definitely remembered waking up a few hours later to the sound of the bedroom door shutting. Groaning, he mumbled something and shuffled further off to the edge of the bed so that Lancelot could climb in, however, instead of having a small body snuggle up next to him, he heard a familiar, hushed voice.
"It's okay, go back to sleep Stephen."
Stephen turned and opened his eyes slowly, blinking a few times as he adjusted to the darkness. Eventually though, he spotted a figure near the wardrobe, shrugging off a jacket and removing a tie. His feet moved before his brain could fully catch up, and soon he was swinging his legs off the bed and stumbling over to Everett.
Everett made a low noise of surprise when Stephen wrapped his arms around him, leaning over to bury his face in the shorter man's neck.
"Everett." Stephen sighed happily in relief.
Everett was silent, simply twisting around in the grip in order to hug Stephen back.
"I've missed you too."