Page 4 of Damian & Jun, Episodes 9-12 (The Residency Boys #8)

Friday passed in a blur. The best parts of it were helping Kimbo and Rue with their homework, getting Habibi to smile at him, and feeling the slight ache in his ass where Damian had taken him.

Howser had decided to hate him and tore up his homework pages the instant Jun asked him to finish them.

For just an instant, the idea of tearing into the preteen the way his own instructors had berated him as a trainee had crossed his mind.

Instead, he’d turned on his heel and left the boy to his own devices.

It wasn’t good or even right. A kid like Howser couldn’t be expected to thrive going back and forth from school to a hotel room and back again, even with breaks in the pool downstairs. He texted Damian about it.

I’m waiting for anything from Welwick. Damian texted back. We need a break in Dalia’s case. I can’t take him out of state. I have to keep him in school. He’s already tried to run away and go home. If he does that again, Welwick is going to put him in a group home.

Jun left him alone after that. He made sure to put food on the desk in the room Howser pretty much had to himself and stuck to looking after the younger kids. Damian made it over by eight in the evening and took a turn with Habibi.

“I smell like a baby and not in the good way,” Jun said, pulling his shirt away from his skin.

Damian shook his head. “Go shower. I’ll make sure no one bangs on the door.”

Of course, Habibi chose to have a massive diaper blowout while Jun was getting clean. Damian’s outfit was a loss.

Jun came out, surveyed the damage, and shook his head. “Trade places.”

Damian looked up, eyes red. “Please.”

They really couldn’t keep doing this. Something had to give soon. He didn’t know who was going to crack first, the kids or him and Damian.

Once Damian was clean and in a pair of sweats, he and Jun ate a microwaved meal in the third hotel room with Habibi asleep on the bed between them.

Damian caught Jun up on his day. Thaddeus Kramer had not complied with the DNA order.

The judge had issued a warrant. Thaddeus had not been at his house the two times officers had dropped by to serve it.

Dalia had been home and yelled at the cops, telling them it was all Damian’s fault that Thaddeus had to leave.

They assumed he was on the run. Dalia had a criminal court date set three weeks out for assault and battery against Armada.

Damian had met with a family court lawyer, and it looked like they were going to be able to get a court date five weeks out for custody orders.

Jun stared at Damian over that piece of information. “Five weeks? The kids can’t do this for five more weeks.”

“It’s the first opening, and the court wants to do everything at once. If Dalia goes to jail, then it’s a different custody hearing than if she’s free to be the custodial parent.”

Jun hung his head. “Da, you can’t do this for five more weeks. We can’t do this for five more weeks.”

“I know. I’m looking into options. Welwick is pushing me to rent a house near their schools and move in there with them.”

Jun shook his head. The very idea of Damian giving up The Residency, what he had of it after his job, to live in the neighborhood he’d sacrificed so much to escape, sat wrong.

“There had to be another way.”

“I can tell Welwick I’m out. He could put them into foster care. Statistically, the outcomes for kids who are placed with non-family members are much worse.”

“Who’s to say Dalia won’t have more kids? When does this end? You can’t just absorb your family’s shit.”

Damian cracked a tiny smile that didn’t make it to his eyes. “You sound like Richard, just less elegant.”

“You don’t need elegance to hear me.”

“I know.”

“Seriously, DaSu. Tell me that going back isn’t the plan.”

“Armada is eighteen in four weeks. She’s told Hypatia she means to petition the judge to give her Habibi. But she won’t have her high-school diploma yet, or a job, or a place to live.”

“We could give her a job and a place to live.”

“How?”

“The parsonage or whatever it’s called. The place the priest or pastor used to live, next to the sanctuary.”

“It needs repairs.”

Jun rubbed his face. “How bad is it?”

“Better than the sanctuary. The roof is fine, last I had it checked. If I remember right, the stairs needed repair, and the water heater is broken. The entire place is outdated and trashed.”

“Tomorrow, let Collin and I go look at it.”

“It might not be safe.”

“We’ll have security with us. I’ll see if émeric can get one of those building inspectors to go look at it with us.”

“That’s not going to give Armada a job.”

“It’s big, right?”

“Yes, way more than she needs.”

“What if 5N rented it? We’ll need a housekeeper. Room and board in return for some amount of hours a week. Maybe ten? If we’re not picky about decor, then you could cover her salary with the rent. She won’t be alone. We can keep an eye on her and not let her get isolated.”

Jun shut up. He might have gone too far. He couldn’t even guarantee 5N could pay rent yet.

Damian chewed slowly, eyes unfocused. “You should ask for a contract that stipulates updates to the property while you’re there. And she’s going to need to get her GED or have childcare for the rest of the school year. I don’t think we have a high school for parents with children here.”

“That’s a thing?”

“In some places.” Damian nodded. “I’ll go out to the building tomorrow and ask émeric about you and Collin looking at it.

Armada will be back tomorrow with Betti.

Betti is asking to stay with her friend and her friend’s mother, so I have to go down there tomorrow to meet them.

Welwick and I don’t think she should go back to school again until Thaddeus is arrested.

And he knows where her friend’s family lives, so…

even if she wants to go there, it might not be a good idea. ”

Where was a long, white-haired Russian operative with gray morals when you needed one?

They fell asleep with Habibi between them on the bed again. Fortunately, the little one didn’t poop again that night.

Mi Hi called early Friday morning as Jun and Damian were getting the kids dressed for school. Damian got them down to the cars while Jun took the call.

“I’m on my way down.” Mi Hi let him know. “The realtor can meet at eleven.”

While warming Habibi’s bottle, Jun filled her in about his idea from the night before.

“I’ll stay in town after, then, look at it with you and Collin when you’re free next,” she said.

“Where do you plan to stay?”

“With Alice. We’re watching chick flicks and doing nails tonight with Dana and Ash.”

Jun tried to imagine the emo tech guy who’d helped them out with their website painting his nails and failed entirely. But to each their own. The guy didn’t seem that in touch with his fashion side. Nor did Alice, for that matter.

Maybe it was code for something else.

“Send me the address. I’ll meet you.”

“No, I have your outfit. I’ll come to you. Did you forget?”

Jun slapped his forehead, making Habibi’s eyes get big and startled. “Yeah, I forgot.”

“You sound tired.”

“Kids. It’s all day, every day.”

“And this is why I’m not married. See you soon.”

Mi Hi was a breath of fresh air he didn’t know he’d been starving for. She breezed in, Korean bubbling out of her mouth and no one the wiser except for him of what she was saying. She had a variation on the outfit he’d worn before in a bag. Different shirt and tights but the same skirt and coat.

“You kept it all.”

“There wasn’t that much else to pack when we left Seoul.

” Mi Hi frowned, adjusting Jun’s hat and teasing out a tendril of hair onto his forehead.

“Okay, that’s going to look great. Now take off the hat and sit.

I brought makeup, and this time, we have fingerless gloves.

Your hands are the biggest giveaway, and we’re going to be inside sometimes. ”

She gave him a full face in fifteen minutes, even covering up the last of the bruises around and under his eye.

It was odd looking at himself without those fading remnants.

The contour took her the longest, but in the end, she stepped back, satisfied, and had him try on a pair of decorative gloves.

They were thin and partially made of lace but only covered half of each of his fingers.

They did wonders to cover his large knuckles and knobby wrists.

“Hat.” She gave the article back to him. “And sunglasses.”

“You’re magic, you know that?” Jun said. He slid the sunglasses onto his nose. They were large and stylish, a chocolate brown, not harsh and edgy but girlish and ignorable.

Mi Hi smirked. “You’re my favorite doll. But don’t tell anyone.”

Cedric stuck his head in the door. “You said we needed to leave by ten thirty, ma’am?”

Mi Hi jumped up and clapped her hands, switching to English “Yep. Jun, show him.”

Jun groaned. He stepped around the wall so Cedric could see him from the doorway.

Cedric blinked twice. “Well. I, um…fuck me sideways.”

“That phrase never made sense to me,” Jun complained.

Cedric shook his head, still taking in Jun’s transformation. “It’s just hard to believe it’s you.”

Jun held out his hand toward Mi Hi, giving her all the credit. “We better get going. Let me get Habibi.”

“Oh, I got him an outfit, too.”

Mi Hi dove into her bag and pulled out a winter onesie. It fit well over Habibi’s other clothes, and it was warm. And it made him look like a little bunny with long floppy ears on the hood.

They got down to the car and buckled in, including Habibi in his baby seat. The first stop with the realtor was a good twenty minutes away. They were late but not by much.