Page 30 of Bad Daddy

He didn’t want to say goodbye to Haru already.

It had been so nice to spend time with someone who was kind to him, who was maybe kind of into him, and not feel like there was anything required.

He wanted to hold onto this one small thing as long as he could, even if he knew it was selfish. Even if he knew it wouldn't last.

It was late, but Danny dictated a message anyway. “I’d love to. What time?”

Chapter 8

For the first time in his life, Danny discovered that time did actually fly when you were having fun. Classes were so easy now, and he was keeping up with the work no problem while getting full marks on everything. He did all the extra credit he could too, which helped bump his grades even more, and even that was kind of a breeze?

On top of everything, Manuel had turned out to be… pretty great. He was kind of a talker, so during lulls in statistics class, Danny found out that Manuel was in the culinary program but was also taking classes on business administration and restaurant management. There was some crossover with Danny’s business law class which led to even more conversation, and next thing Danny knew, he and Manuel were friends.

Which certainly made Professor Edison’s class a little more bearable.

School suddenly going so well gave Danny plenty of opportunity to take shifts at Grand Azteca. In just a few weeks, he had more money coming in than he even knew what to do with, on top of always having leftovers to take home. All the money he could spare got put into his savings, and watching that balance grow was…

It felt good. It felt really good.

It made Danny think about actually being able to break away from Clint sooner over later.

Because with everything else going well, Clint was the one dark cloud that still hung over his head–and it was a big one. Clint had caught onto the fact that Danny was somehow less miserable and stressed out, so he had been doing his level best to demand more and more.

Danny refused to let Clint burst his bubble though. He had put up with a lot of shit in his life. He hadn’t made it this far just to buckle when some rich asshole pushed his boundaries.

It sucked, but Danny bent over when Clint wanted him to, bit his tongue when new bruises appeared, and got through it.

***

“A sugar art exhibit?” Haru asked, taking the flier that Danny handed him and looking down at it with apparent interest. They were meeting at the cafe again after Danny was done with Lily, and Danny couldn’t help but start to feel like the cafe was their cafe. Haru had asked Danny out to meet him so often that Danny just…

Kind of thought of it as special.

“Yeah,” Danny said, trying not to feel shy. “It’s kinda like glass sculpture but with sugar? Sort of the same principle of working with molten hot material that could burn your skin off. My friend Manuel’s a part of the show, and he invited me. I thought, maybe uh, you’d be interested?”

“Of course I am.” Haru smiled at him, looking so pleased. “I’d love to go.”

“Okay,” Danny said, smiling back. It was nice to have done something right. To have offered an activity Haru would enjoy. “Great. And uh…”

“Yeah?”

“Manuel recommended this documentary on sugar art,” Danny said in a burst. “If you maybe wanted to learn more about it? It’s pretty interesting–I only watched a little before I thought, um, that… maybe you’d want to watch it together?”

“Oh,” Haru said, eyes bright. “Yeah. Yeah, I’d love that.”

Danny couldn't do anything about the warmth that flowed through him. “Okay.”

“Do you uh…would you want to watch it at my place?” Haru asked. “Maybe an evening you don’t have class? Then we’d get it in before the exhibit next Saturday.”

“Yeah,” Danny stumbled to say. “Y-yeah, that’d be great. Um. Tuesday or Thursday?” He’d just ask to not be scheduled at work whichever day Haru picked.

“I could do Tuesday,” Haru said with a grin. “Get to see you a little sooner.”

Danny’s cheeks heated so fast he was almost surprised Haru didn’t comment on it. “Um,” he said. “You too. I-I mean it’ll be…nice. To see you Tuesday.”

“Yeah?” Haru asked, expression pleased.

“A-and to watch the sugar art documentary,” Danny added in a rush. “With you.”

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