Sulu winced, realizing that no matter how hard he'd tried to change how his words had sounded, it was too late. Running a hand through his hair, he sighed and moved to sit next to Ianto, instead of crouching behind him. It was cold - way too cold, and Sulu was going to have to make Ianto go inside soon enough, but he seemed... not calm, not really, but at least he wasn't sobbing or volatile. He wanted to keep that for as long as he could.

"There's no way you could have known. We don't even really know the time difference. And it's not babysitting you," he said firmly, "I'm not trying to make you do your homework or go to bed at a reasonable hour or anything like that. I want to be here for you. I'm sorry that I couldn't this time. It was bad timing for both of us, but I promised you that if I couldn't be there right away, I'd come down as soon as I could, and that's exactly what I did here." He looked out at the darkness, away from Ianto, and wrapped his arms loosely over his knees. This whole thing was a lot harder than he'd thought it would be.