Page 40 of Bad Daddy

Danny wet his lips, that fragile bud of hope inside him unfurling just the slightest bit. He didn’t know what Haru could even do, but Danny trusted that Haru would do his best to take care of him. “What, um, what did you have in mind?”

***

Danny bit his lip and played the group audio message he had dictated into his phone for what he told himself would be the last time. Hi. Uh, it’s Danny. Um, feel free to say no but I’m trying to, um, get out of a bad situation and need to move out of my apartment. Um, tomorrow. No big deal if you’re busy, but any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

He grimaced down at his phone, totally without the brainspace to try to re-record the message without all the um’s and uh’s. He took a deep breath, and pressed send.

There. That was… that was done. Now he just needed to not think about it—

His phone buzzed in his hand.

Bewildered, Danny checked it. It was Antonio, responding to the group text. Oh, that made sense, Danny guessed. Antonio seemed like the type to always have his phone in his hand.

The message was: Time??? ADDRESS??

Oh.

Yeah, right.

Nerves made him clumsy as Danny dictated I’ll probably get started around 7am, then he added his address.

Moments later, Antonio texted, got it!, and nothing else.

Okay. Danny determinedly shoved his phone into his pocket. He had asked for help, given the time and place, and now he needed to not think about it anymore. Even just dictating the initial plea had been so difficult he could barely do it. Asking for help was such a foreign feeling to him. Until just recently Danny had known it to be a waste of breath to try.

But he had friends now. And maybe… maybe that meant something.

Either way, now it was done.

He left the kitchen to rejoin Haru in the living room again.

Haru looked up from the laptop he had open and smiled. “Hey, there. How’d it go?”

“I did it,” Danny mumbled, crawling back onto the couch. “I don’t know if anyone will show up but… but I asked.”

“I know that was really hard,” Haru said quietly, reaching over to touch Danny’s shoulder. Haru had been giving Danny gentle little touches all evening, including another hug that Danny had sunk into with a bitten-off whimper. He didn’t know what he’d suddenly done to deserve the gift, but Danny was drinking in every moment of contact. “I’m really proud of you.”

“Thanks,” Danny said, curling his arms around himself.

“And I just finished pulling up all the forms you’re going to need to fill out,” Haru said. “We could work on them now, if you’d like. Unless you’d like to head back to your place and start packing.”

“No,” Danny said in a rush. “I’ll–I’ll feel better if those are done. And it, um, it’d be easier if you helped me. If that’s okay.”

“Of course it’s okay,” Haru said. “Why don’t we start with the application for your school’s honor student scholarship, since that’s the easiest? We’ll get it out of the way and then we could work on the others.”

“Okay,” Danny said, scooting closer to Haru so that he could get a better view of the laptop screen.

Haru had looked into it, and it turned out that Danny’s college actually provided a whole variety of scholarships to “qualified students in good standing” and Danny qualified for nearly all of them. He was within the income threshold and had the required 3.5 minimum GPA most wanted, and it didn't take long at all for Haru to help him submit for the honor student scholarship. From there they moved on to working their way through the foundation scholarship list, and got most of their way through Danny’s FAFSA application before Danny noticed Haru trying to cover his yawns.

Danny was feeling pretty tired himself in all honesty, and he checked the time on his phone, eyes widening in horror as he realized it was almost midnight. “Shit! Shit, I’m so sorry, it’s so late–”

“It’s okay,” Haru said. “Seriously, it’s no big deal. I’m a lawyer. You think I’m a stranger to working late?”

Not for Danny. Danny wasn't worth losing sleep. Especially since he did know exactly how hard Haru worked. “Still–”

“I want to do this,” Haru said firmly. “I want to help you however I can. But you’re right–it’s late. Let me drive you home?”

“That’s okay,” Danny said quickly, not wanting to put Haru out even more. “Seriously, that’s—I can just get a ride.”

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