Page 8 of Bad Daddy

When he finished with his closing statement, he was met with silence. Instead of trying to deal with Haru’s obvious disappointment, Danny ducked his head, taking a gulp of his cooling cocoa.

“Um,” Haru said after a long moment. “Wow. Okay, uh…”

Danny winced. He must have really sucked. “It’s just a rough draft,” he offered feebly. “I, you know, I haven’t written the paper yet.”

“Uh, no,” Haru said, still looking a little stunned. “You definitely did. That’s—I’m a little surprised? Because you wrote the whole paper.”

Danny waited for the ‘but.’

“Danny...” Haru said slowly. “You… cited all those cases and quotes from memory. You didn’t reference your textbook or workbook at all.”

Danny bit his lip. He probably hadn’t cited something correctly then. Fuck. It was just so hard sometimes to keep it all straight. There was so much material to go through. “I’m sorry if I messed up.”

“Messed up?” Haru’s expression was a mix of bemusement and disbelief. “Danny, you just presented a whole paper, sources cited, orally from memory.”

Danny wished he understood what the problem was. “I’m sorry. I didn’t have time to type it up yet.”

“I’m sorry you didn’t,” Haru said, making Danny wince again. Then he continued. “Because that was excellent. If you had typed it up, you’d be done. It was well thought-out, well organized, you had a good delivery…” he tapped the textbook. “You clearly have a fantastic understanding of the subject matter, and it was obvious you did a lot of research into how the laws were being applied in the case. It’s going to be an excellent paper.”

“Oh,” Danny said, cheeks reddening. Haru had liked it then? He’d thought Danny had done well? “Thank you.”

Haru gave him a wry smile. “No wonder you were surprised when I showed up. You don’t need help at all, do you?”

“Lily meant well,” Danny said, shifting awkwardly. “I mean, I guess I maybe mentioned that studying took up a lot of my time. And she knows how much I’m struggling with statistics. She probably extrapolated from there.”

“Your studying really shows,” Haru said. “I can’t even imagine. I’ve been studying law for over a decade and I don’t think I could present something like you just did without at least referencing my notes.”

It hit Danny then that Haru not only thought Danny had done an okay job on the paper, but that he was actually impressed for some reason. It was a foreign feeling, and something like pleasure curled inside him as his cheeks grew hotter. “Thanks,” he managed, reaching for another cookie to give himself something else to concentrate on. He’d eaten the first cookie too fast between nerves and hunger, so this one he tried to savor. Skipping breakfast had been the right decision, but it had been near painful to do between all his activity last night, on top of not eating all that much for dinner.

Clint wasn't very generous with Danny’s ‘allowance’ sometimes. He bought Danny fancy things—which Danny couldn't sell, because Clint remembered each and every stupid watch and suit he had given Danny and insisted Danny wear certain ones whenever the mood struck him. He took Danny out to dinner, and paid for rent and tuition. It was just that Danny wasn't given a lot of spending money.

One of Clint’s terms of their arrangement was that Danny wasn't allowed to get a job. It was so that he could concentrate on school. Danny knew that was bullshit—Clint just wanted Danny more available to be at his beck and call. But that meant most of Danny’s allowance went to groceries and stuff. The bills Clint didn't cover.

There were things Danny wasn’t able to compromise on. Electricity, internet—he needed those things to do his schoolwork. But he tried to be as frugal as he could with food so that he was able to put a little into savings each week. It wasn’t a lot, but in the six months since meeting Clint, he had been able to save up almost five hundred dollars. And yeah, it meant going hungry sometimes, or waiting too eagerly for dinner with Clint, but having nearly half a grand for just in case was a huge deal. It was the most money he had ever had, all at once.

It was an important accomplishment. He was as good as out on the street as soon as Clint got bored of him, so the more Danny could squirrel away to prepare for that, the better.

A silence descended as Danny slowly ate his cookie and sipped his cocoa. Haru had a frown on his face, but it looked more like he was thinking about something, not that was upset with Danny, so Danny stayed quiet.

“Danny,” Haru said carefully after a couple of minutes. “Do you… mind if I ask why you’ve memorized your textbook?” He used a fingertip to flick through a few of the red sticky notes poking out from the pages.

Danny’s face burned anew and he hunched his shoulders.

“I’m not criticizing your study method,” Haru said hurriedly, before Danny could reply. “I’m extremely impressed. It just seems like a lot of work, especially since you so obviously understand what you’re doing. Do you do this for all your classes?”

“Yeah,” Danny admitted.

“How many classes are you taking?” Haru asked, still sounding careful.

“Just four,” Danny said. He’d tried to sign up for a fifth class, but the head of the paralegal department had said he wasn’t allowed to.

“Just–?” Haru blinked. “So uh, what, that’s twelve credits?”

“Fourteen,” Danny said, not sure why this mattered.

Haru mouthed ‘fourteen’ like he didn't believe it. Danny fought the urge to cross his arms defensively, angry that he felt hurt by the fact that Haru didn't think he was capable enough for four classes.

“Business law is three credits, my math class is three credits, I’m taking astronomy, which is a four-credit lab, and my language class is four credits.”

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