But It's Better If You Do

-2-

Draco knew those new platforms would give him a blister and now his bloody heel was paying the price. A plaster and an aspirin tablet would have to do because the tips he just raked off the stage from his first dance in them was making it very hard to think the pain wasn't worth it. Sitting backstage in the dressing area, lazily smoking a cigarette in just those platforms and a silk dressing gown, he counts his sweaty notes and grins. 

The Bulge Inn Lace was not the type of place Draco Malfoy ever thought he would be, ever dreamed he would even be allowed to be. It wasn't a place high class even whispered about in shame, if they knew of it's existence at all. A place where people take their clothes off for money is horrible enough, but men? It was a stain of embarrassment on even the lowest of society and Draco got a secret shiver of rebellion and joy each time he took the stage in all of his pureblooded legacy, since that's usually what he stripped down to anyway. 

He could only imagine what his father would have to say and he hoped his work made him roll in his grave. He wonders if his father ever had the time to be a raunchy, loud, sex brained, carefree boy or if he was always a stiff, insane, asshole obsessed with the purity of the wizarding world.

Dancing doesn't suit his father, doing or watching, but it suits Draco just fine. His long, lean body was muscled in just the right way, his skin so pale and milky it looked to sparkle on it's own - yes Draco looked nearly made to dance up on that stage. And the money rained on to him from hungry strangers proved it. 

Losing the manor had meant nothing to him, if anything he was happy to shed the tainted walls, physically and metaphorically. The childhood home turned Death Eater headquarters could rot, just like all the men who had ruined it. But a boy had to eat and stolen from him along with everything else was not only his fortune, but his job security. Washing dishes in a dinky little pub Draco had overheard how one of the waitresses quit this dump to take her clothes off for dumb men who would throw pounds at her to do so. Well Draco had a body and he had no problem showing it. 

The Bulge was the third place he ever danced at, and it was the only stage to feel like magic. He made more money there than he had doing anything else, but that's not the only reason he stayed. Draco was a star there, and damn if he didn't love commanding that level of attention. 

Maybe it wasn't his true purpose, but it was better than the purpose his father set up (and burned) for him and it would do for now.