Favoring The Brave {Drarry}

~ š ~

The show is almost a complete disaster.

Once Draco is on stage and preparing to play, the audience is in an uproar. They're screaming and shouting and holding up signs and when he finally calms them down enough to ask what the bloody hell the problem is, he realizes they're concerned. For James. He doesn't know how to describe the feeling in his chest or the tears in his eyes, but he says thank you and lets them know that his son is fine before singing a song softly over the softly cheering crowd.

His voice cracks on the first verse but no one calls him on it. No one cares because he's okay and so os James and Teddy and Harry and even Val is getting by alright and that feeling is expanding in his chest. He knows that it's love but he doesn't know how to explain that without crying, though he can feel the tears on his face as he sings, and he knows it's too late to hide it.

Draco knows that backstage, Harry and the boys are cheering him on, but he doesn't know how he managed to have all of this when he knows for certain he doesn't deserve it. Has never deserved it. And he had to stop the set because he's crying harder.

"I'm so sorry, everyone," he says to a crowd of people that have given him support through tough times, almost exclusively when he doesn't deserve it. Before he can think about that too hard, there's a hand on his arm and when he looks over Harry is standing there with an understanding smile and goddamn Potter for knowing him so well. Their rings are hard to miss and as Harry rubs a comforting hand up and down his back he leans back into the microphone with a sniffle and a smile. "You know my fiancé, Harry."

Harry leans closer, his soft yet wild hair brushing against Draco's nose, but Draco only basks in the feel of it.

"'ello," Harry says shy into the mic, sending the audience into a cheering frenzy. His laughter bubbles out of him. His smile is awed and proud when he pulls away and turns to look at Draco again. His voice is a murmur against the blond's ear. "Y'alright, love?"

"Yeah, just got a bit overwhelmed." His voice is nonchalant but his eyes are still red and puffy from crying and his cheeks are still blotchy.

"Want me to stay?"

"Always," Draco says without a thought. "Never want you to leave my side."

Harry's cheeks darken under the stage lights and Draco has never noticed how Harry's brown skin seems to glisten. Now that he has, he wants to kiss him and never stop. He sucks in a breath but get closer to the mic anyway, looking past Harry and offstage.

"Teddy, could you bring your Dad a chair."

There's shuffling and stomping and loud mumbling from backstage before Teddy walks over holding a folding chair. The crowd cheers when Teddy walks back off, his blue and pink hair shining in the reflecting lights.

Draco clears his throat.

"Alright! That's enough excitement for one night, I think." He laughs a little. "That was our oldest son, Teddy. And this is Harry; he's my emotional support fiancé." He gets the audience to laugh then and it puts him back in the mindset of DL Black. Of controlling a crowd with his music and his stage presence. "I think I'd like to sing a song, if that's alright with you all?"

The crowd cheers and he starts to sing.

--:--

Valeria Cross is an adult, okay? She's hungry, and cranky, and probably just in need of a good nap, but she's an adult who can handle all of that. What she isn't quite sure she can handle is watching as a video of Harry and Draco quickly goes viral.

They've known each other for ages, she knows, but it doesn't stop it from hurting to see the man you love wrapped around someone else who loves him just as much. She thinks that in her heart of hearts she's forgiven Draco because Harry was always full of enough forgiveness to last lifetimes and he'd done so for her when they had first gotten together and her ex had shown up at Harry's place and thrown rocks and smoke bombs through his window.

Draco had never been as outwardly malicious to her. As a matter of fact, he'd always been nice. Overly formal and polite, but nice. He'd left so that she could have Harry and apologized even though he'd done nothing wrong to her in her life and she still couldn't help but want to hate him. She wanted him to be mean or spiteful or anything that could make her hate him.

Val blew out a breath as she sat in her friend's office waiting for her so they could go for lunch.

The door opens in front of her as her friend, Rachel bounds into the room excited.

"Have you seen this? It's one of the cutest things I've ever—"

"Is it the DL Black thing?" she asks, not looking up from her own phone where she's staring at the price of a plane ticket because she hates flying but something in her wants to be there where they are. Wants to see why the hell Harry loves this guy so much after all he's done to him. She doesn't even want to think about what he's done before she met Harry, but she remembers him saying they were on opposite sides. That Harry saved him. Saved everyone.

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"'Cause ever since you and Steph found out he's dating my— well Harry, that's all you both want to talk about."

"You said you were fine with it."

"No, I said I want to hate his guts but Harry won't let me."

"Stop being so dramatic, Val. I'm sure he's a good guy. Harry wouldn't be with him if he wasn't, right?"

She doesn't want to tell Rachel that she's right, even though she is. She doesn't want to say how Draco's a good guy and a good dad but is so full of his own issues he can't see past his nose, because it isn't her place. Then she thinks of Harry who is a great guy and a great father and an amazing friend and she thinks that maybe if she had grown up with him being so perfect all the time the same way that Draco had to, she might understand where he's coming from.

"He's a selfish prat," Val says instead. "And a bloody coward. Harry loving him won't change that."

Rachel doesn't say anything else about it, but she gives her this weird look as they walk down to a small café for a couple of sandwiches.

-&-

hey futher muckers

it's been a while, huh

i know ive said ive fallen out of love with this, but i think its because i was only thinking of the original idea but that ended in book one and i never gave myself time to understand what i wanted for the rest of this 
after i figured out where i wanted to go with this, everything else came a bit easier.

i wrote a whole thread about how i feel about not updating recently so if you wanna check it out you can hmu on twitter:  https://twitter.com/drarry_rebelle

or if ya just want chaos you can follow me on tumblr: https://xxdrarryrebellexx.tumblr.com

i want to thank you all for reading & sticking with me even though im inconsistent or nonexistent when it comes to updating sometimes. it means a lot that you're all still here

thanks
love y'all💕

-- angel janeé xoxo  💋