Page 39 of Bad Daddy

“I did choose though,” Danny admitted in a tiny voice. “I chose to… be with him.”

“Okay.” Haru looked at Danny like he could see right through him. “Why?”

Because I was desperate. Danny didn't say.

Because I couldn’t get anywhere, no matter how hard I tried.

Because I wanted just a chance at something better, someday.

Something inside him cracked and Danny opened his mouth.

“I couldn’t afford school and also pay for food and rent. He… he offered to comp my classes in exchange for…me.” Danny had to break eye contact again as he said it out loud. “He had all these rules he wanted me to follow, and he didn’t want me to work because it’d ‘take away from my studies’ so I couldn’t even get a job to try to save up to pay my own way and…” Danny trailed off miserably. Haru didn't need to hear a sob story. Danny had made his own bed.

Haru nodded. He had smoothed out his expression so that no anger or disgust showed through, but his hands were clenched in his lap. “Does he hurt you?”

It was the last question Danny expected, but he opened his mouth to say no. It wasn’t like Clint smacked him around. Not like other people had. He just made Danny uncomfortable and humiliated him. Pushed his boundaries and dug his fingers in too hard and sunk his teeth too deep.

At Danny’s silence, Haru’s lips thinned. “How can I help?”

“W-what?”

“How can I help?” Haru asked again. “Danny, please… please let me help you. Can you stop contacting him? Do you have a safe place to go?”

Another bitter laugh bubbled out of him. “Haru, I can’t—he pays for my classes. I can’t just disappear. Besides,” Danny added quietly, “he knows where I live.” He couldn't quite bring himself to say, he pays for that too.

Haru scooted a little closer to Danny on the couch, and held out his hand, an offering. It was the first time Haru had ever initiated a touch and Danny took his hand with shaking fingers.

Haru wasted no time linking their fingers together, and Danny had to bite down the pathetic little sound that threatened to escape at just that simple, gentle touch without motivation. Meant only for comfort. “I understand,” Haru said. “I do. You had something you needed and you figured out a way to get it. There’s no shame in that.”

Danny ducked his head, hunching away from the kindness. The understanding. “I wish I could have just done it on my own. My grades in high school were shit, not enough for any scholarships, and I couldn’t… I couldn’t apply for them anyway, or even loans, because I couldn’t figure out how to access them. Those I could find… I couldn’t write the essays they wanted.”

“No one was there to help you,” Haru said, and he sounded pained.

Danny said nothing, because it was true. When some days he’d wanted to cry from the unfairness of it all, from how stupid he’d felt, he’d had no one.

Then Haru had changed everything for him. And now Danny had Lily and Manuel and Grand Azteca too, and he didn’t want to lose any of it. He didn’t want to lose the new, fragile hope that had bloomed inside of him.

“Okay,” Haru said, giving Danny’s hand a squeeze. “Okay, one thing at a time. When do you have to see him next?”

“This Saturday,” Danny said, chest constricting. “He wants… he wants me to spend spring break week with him. But I don’t–I don’t think I–” he cut himself off, holding back the sob, and folded into Haru’s chest when Haru gently tugged him forward.

Haru was so big and warm and comforting, and it was so nice to just be held that the sobs really threatened to escape. It took Danny several long moments to compose himself.

“I don’t think I could make it through a week,” Danny was finally able to force out, fingers clinging to Haru’s soft sweater. It was somehow easier to talk when his cheek was pressed against Haru’s chest. “He’s… mean. He likes it when I–when I’m unhappy.”

It cut differently, saying it out loud. He hadn’t really let himself come to terms with the fact that Clint was actively, purposefully cruel to him.

Haru’s fingers started to pet through Danny’s hair, a comfort touch that Danny couldn't even remember the last time he’d had. It felt so good that Danny melted a little further against Haru, for all that his insides were twisting with misery. He wished so desperately that he could have Haru’s soothing touch for any other reason. That he could fully enjoy the delicious feeling of fingers sliding through his hair as Haru held him, safe and warm and comforting.

“Can you get out of it?” Haru asked.

Danny shook his head.

Haru’s chest rose and fell as he breathed. “Okay,” he said, sounding determined. “Then we have tonight and tomorrow. We can make it work.”

“Make what work?” Danny asked hesitantly. He made himself pull out of the embrace to search Haru’s face.

Haru looked like he was ready to take on the world as he slid his phone out of his pocket. “Everything.” And then he suddenly looked uncertain. “If… if you want my help. If you’ll trust me to help you. And please just—just know that nothing, nothing I want to give you is because I’m expecting something back. I just—” Haru’s expression then was halfway to distraught. “Please let me help you. Please, I just want you to be safe.”

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