Chapter 6

Danny dragged himself out of bed when his alarm went off, glaring when he saw the fresh bruises on his wrists and on his neck. He was once again grateful it was winter and that he had the excuse for long sleeves and high collars. He wasn't sure what he'd do once the weather got nice again.

Just thinking about three or four more months with Clint had bile rising in his throat, and he shoved those thoughts away. He had to take things day by day, just keep putting one foot in front of the other. That was how he'd always survived.

He grabbed his backpack and a granola bar for the road, then headed out to the library. It was even colder today, and Clint's coat was practically useless, so Danny was glad that he had opted to layer heavily. He was looking forward to getting his warm coat back from Haru.

Even if he wasn't looking forward to seeing Haru, exactly.

It wasn't that he didn't want to see Haru again, because he did. He owed the man a lot, and aside from Danny wanting to apologize again, he…liked Haru. It wasn't just that Haru was nice to him, it was the way he was nice. How he continually thought of Danny's preferences when treating Danny to food, or how bright his smile got whenever Danny went along with Haru's slightly quirky sense of humor. It was the way he asked questions about Danny that made it seem like Haru was genuinely interested, like Danny was a person worth his interest. Danny just liked—he liked spending time with him.

But Danny had also been a supreme mess yesterday. He wasn't sure he wanted to face Haru down, the man must be thinking the worst of Danny's poor behavior.

Lily provided a welcome distraction. She was already there when Danny showed up, even though he was definitely on time this week, and she was vibrating with some kind of energy.

Danny asked if everything was okay, and got a deluge of resources for dyslexic-friendly learning.

"This too," Lily said twenty minutes into the onslaught, while Danny blearily tried to keep up. She held up what looked like a large phone.

"What is it?" Danny asked, tentatively taking it.

"It's a note-taker," Lily said brightly. "Jacob invented it. There's a little stylus that pops out the side–see? And you write down your notes like you would write on paper, and it detects your handwriting to convert it into text. It also integrates with an online database that tracks common misspellings and letter flipping and has machine learning capability so it can auto correct typos as it learns your handwriting. It also can run all your notes through a text-to-speech function, which lets it recite everything out loud."

Danny stared down at the little rectangle. "So you just… you just have to write the notes down once?"

"Yeah! And then it'll organize it all for you. It takes dictation too, so you can just speak to it and it'll take the notes for you, and it responds to vocal commands and will search or cross-reference if you ask it to, so it's easier to find the information. And it can wirelessly connect to printers. Jacob finds it way more intuitive than trying to use a keyboard. But I guess that depends on how you take notes and stuff."

"Wow." Danny didn't have to pretend to be impressed. "That's really amazing."

"Right? I'm mad I didn't come up with it myself."

Danny tried to smile, since he knew Lily meant well. "Thanks for showing me," he said, and offered it back.

Lily frowned at him, holding up her hands. "Uh, no? That's for you."

Danny blanched. "What? I can't take this."

"Yeah you can," Lily said matter-of-factly. "My brother literally invented it. I can give ‘em to anyone I want."

"But…" Danny couldn't even imagine how much this thing had to cost.

Lily stuck out her lip. "Do you know how badly Jacob wants to meet you? Haru raved all about how smart you are, and Haru doesn't impress easily. Jacob's dying to shove tech into your hands and make all your teachers suck it."

"I–" Danny didn't have a response to that. Haru had told other people that he thought Danny was smart? "Thank you?"

Lily grinned at him. "You're welcome!" She rubbed her hands together. "You can practice using it while we work on your statistics homework."

Between Danny's text-to-speech reader and Lily's present, the math was a breeze. Danny didn't have to struggle through trying to read the word problems, because the text-to-speech gadget scanned them and then said them out loud for him. Instead of having to squint and sweat to try to write down his work, he just said the steps out loud to the note-taker thing, and the formulas appeared on the screen.

"I could do this stuff with my eyes shut," Danny said astonished, as the last problem set finished writing itself out from his dictation and Lily gave him a thumbs up for a correct answer.

"I know," Lily huffed. "That's the whole point."

Danny couldn't help but beam as he looked down at his work, and Haru's words suddenly came back to him.

"If you didn't have to memorize your textbooks, what else do you think you could do with your mind?"

Danny… kind of wanted to find out.

***

"I'm sorry for yesterday," was the first thing Danny could think to blurt out when he dropped into the chair across from Haru at the cafe's little table.

"Danny! Hey there." Haru shook his head. "I told you, it's fine. Did you walk here? It's freezing out! And you didn't…"

Danny realized, belatedly, that Haru was holding up his coat like an offering. Danny took it, blushing furiously.

"It's okay," he said, hanging his warm coat off the back of his chair for something to do. "It's not too far. And I walk fast." Though now that he was inside, after the cold outside and all the moving, he was overheating with all his layers. "Don't worry about me."

Haru opened his mouth, then closed it again. He cleared his throat. "Why don't I go order? Here–" he held up his phone. "I took a picture of the menu. I can read it out loud for you, and you can tell me what you want?"

"Oh, I…" Danny darted a look at him. "Really?"

"Yeah, of course." Haru smiled. "I do it for Jacob all the time."

"Oh, okay." That made sense. And if Haru was used to it, there was no harm in Danny taking the offer. "Then… sure, yeah. That'd be really, um, helpful."

"Sure thing," Haru said warmly, and started to read. He was good at reading out loud. His voice was smooth and easy to listen to, and he didn't pause in weird places.

Danny listened as he de-layered, pulling off his hat and gloves and stuffing them in the pockets of Clint's coat, then unzipping said coat and draping it over the coat already on the back of his chair. The caramel mocha sounded really good, so he went with that one. At Haru's prodding, he also admitted that he wouldn't say no to a slice of the lemon loaf. Haru gave him a salute and set off.

Danny watched him go, wondering what he had done to deserve someone like Haru giving him the time of day like this. Multiple times, even.

He didn't get less uncomfortably warm as the minutes passed. The area Haru had picked was right near a vent, which would normally be great, except that Danny was wearing a million layers.

He unzipped his hoodie, and eventually just took it off, then unbuttoned the flannel he was wearing over his T-shirt to get some air circulation. That helped a lot, but by the time Haru returned with a tray, Danny had also rolled up the sleeves of his flannel and was seriously considering taking it off and just looking like an idiot in a T-shirt, in the face of ten degree weather.

Haru blinked at the pile of clothing now draped over the back of Danny's chair, setting the tray down on the table. "I see you're a pro at layering," was all he said, as he slid over the plate of lemon loaf and a mug.

"Gotta be, in this weather," Danny said, reaching to take the mug. He had finally removed enough that he wasn't too hot anymore, and the sip of caramel-coffee-mocha was delicious. He sighed into it, closing his eyes to enjoy. "Thank you."

"Yeah," Haru said, sounding kind of odd. "Of course."

Danny opened his eyes, about to ask if everything was okay, if Haru's order had maybe got messed up… and realized that Haru was staring at his wrists.

His bruised wrists. That Danny had just exposed like an absolute idiot.

He took a shallow breath. He couldn't do anything about it now. Trying to hide them would just call more attention to the fact that he had fingerprints pressed into his skin, and—it wasn't anything, not really. Danny didn't exactly want Clint to mark him up, but Danny was the one who had agreed to the relationship and Danny was the one taking Clint's money. If getting bruised up once in a while was part of the gig, that was fine.

It was fine.

"I, um, I appreciate you giving me back my coat," Danny said, feebly trying to get Haru's attention onto something else. "I mean, like you said, I'm a pro at layering, but, you know. Having a nice coat helps."

Haru nodded. He looked like he was thinking something through. "Is your gray one not as nice?"

"It's just not as warm," Danny said. Admitted. "It was a present though, so I-I feel bad if I don't wear it." More like Clint's remarks were always extra cutting whenever Danny didn't wear his gift. Danny hated the way Clint's expression would go cold and cruel, how he'd say things like, "Do you even deserve the nice things I give you, if you don't want to use them?"

But it amounted to the same thing.

Haru was quiet for a moment. Then he asked, "Is the person who gave you the gray coat the same guy who doesn't like your brown one?"

Danny felt himself seize up before he remembered that it was okay, it was okay, it was just a question. It didn't matter. Haru didn't know anything. He didn't know about Clint, or that Danny was doing what he was doing just to get through school.

Even if he did find out and never wanted to even look at Danny again, that would be—that would be fine. Haru had already done so much to help, and he certainly didn't owe Danny his time or attention. If Danny lost Haru's respect because of what Danny was doing to make things better for himself, that was just how life went.

It wouldn't be a big deal.

"He just…" Danny curled his fingers around the sides of his mug, shifting in his seat. He was okay at lying to get by, but he didn't want to lie to Haru. Haru had only been good to him so far. Danny owed him more than dishonesty. "He just thinks the brown one isn't as nice."

"But it keeps you warmer," Haru said, looking…sad. It wasn't a question.

Danny shrugged and took another sip of his drink.

The silence that fell was awkward. Danny struggled to come up with something to do or say to lift the mood, but his mind had blanked out, unable to stop the anxiety from rising up. If Haru found out about Clint, Danny didn't just stand to lose Haru's respect. Haru could easily ruin Danny's career before it even happened, if he talked about the sex work to other people. Word like that would spread like wildfire in professional circles. And that was if Clint himself didn't try to drag Danny through the dirt.

Danny didn't think that Haru was the type of man to air someone else's dirty laundry, but Danny didn't really know him. What was a couple of meetings and an afternoon spent looking up disability services? Danny didn't mean anything to Haru, not really.

"I, uh…" Haru leaned down to pick a little reusable tote up off the floor, setting it on the table. "I actually… I brought you something."

It was an odd non-sequitur, and surprising on top of that. "You did?" Danny asked, staring at the tote. "What–uh—why?"

Instead of answering, Haru pushed the tote forward, into Danny's hands. Their fingers didn't brush.

Uncertain, Danny reached into the tote and pulled out a scarf. It was light brown, with stripes of black and gray and little slivers of red running through it, with fringe on the ends. It looked thick and warm and soft.

His breath caught as he glanced up at Haru.

"I noticed you didn't have a scarf," Haru said. "And I just thought, you know, it might be nice to have an extra something to help keep you warm."

"Oh," Danny said, not even having to feign his surprise and pleasure. It was such an incredibly thoughtful gift. Haru had noticed Danny didn't have a scarf and had gotten him one. "Um, wow, I… thank you." He ran his fingers along the fringe. It was incredibly soft. "But Haru you… you didn't have to…" Haru barely knew him. Why was he giving Danny anything at all, much less something so nice?

"I know," Haru said, lifting one shoulder. "But I wanted to."

"Oh," Danny said again. "But…why? You've already done so much for me."

"Sometimes it's nice to do things for other people just because," Haru said gently. "I thought you might like a scarf. I was hoping it might help keep you warm. That's all."

Danny studied him, trying to figure out if there was a motive.

Haru's kindness was still a foreign unknown, but he never made Danny feel stupid or unworthy because he had trouble with letters and numbers. He asked Danny silly questions about food or class and seemed to do so for the sole purpose of finding out more about Danny's likes and interests. He invited Danny out and always ended with my treat, never expecting anything of Danny except perhaps some of his time.

He hadn't tried to touch Danny even once.

He looked back down at the scarf in his hands and swallowed. There were something like butterflies in his belly. "It's really nice, Haru. Thank you. Really."

Haru smiled at him. "Wear it in good health, okay? And hey, it uh…it matches both of your coats. So you could wear it with whichever one you wanted."

Danny would, he thought, curling his fingers into the soft scarf. He absolutely would, and screw Clint if he wanted to make a fuss.