Chapter Text
The sharp smell of alcohol and cigarettes wafted through the air, interspersed with a thousand different body sprays and sweat. The strobe lights flashed multicolor, aiming to confound the senses, and the booming music was much louder than it had any business being. It should be an unpleasant, overwhelming place to work, but to Santa Pongsapak, it felt like home.
Club Wabi Sabi was the closest club to his off campus apartment and Santa had gotten a job there as a bartender as soon as he moved in. His parents owned a bar and he’d grown up among inebriation and debauchery. Even though he was only 19, he’d long ago mastered the ratio of mixers to liquor. He’d made P’New, the owner of the club, a lavender martini during his interview and was hired on the spot.
The club was filled with muted pink and blue lighting, enough to see by for the sober person, but beguiling to the intoxicated. Santa stood behind the bar trying to field customers, his arms a whir as he mixed ten different drinks at once, but he had to confess, he was off his game. Usually, he could mix drinks, flirt, and get mad tips with his eyes closed, but today, his attention was split.
Diagonal to the bar, a boy, small, slight, and leggy as fuck, danced to the beat of the pulsing music. He rocked a blue crop top emblazoned with the Wabi Sabi logo and short shorts, he smiled suggestively at the crowd gathered at his feet. Like the other go-go dancers working in the club, he was atop a platform, securely lifted away from the wild crowd, but he was different. More enticing, more beautiful, and for the life of Santa, he couldn’t look away.
He was one of the most feminine guys Santa had ever seen and before this very second, he didn’t know that he was really fucking into that. He undulated in a body roll, showing off the glow-stick jewelry ringing his neck and his waist. He had his audience gripped in a death choke, and Santa found that he was one of the many that couldn’t look away.
The boy splayed his legs suggestively and moved his hips in sinuous circular motions, perfectly synced to the beat of the song. Santa found his mouth going dry. He should be concentrating on the drink orders pouring in from bottle service and from the customers who were belly up to the bar. He should care about his tips, he should care about his new job, but even though people were waving their cash and cards in his face, he couldn’t focus on anything besides that boy’s skin. It looked so smooth and creamy to the touch. It was impossible to pay attention to anything else when he stuck his hips out to the side, flashing one long leg in the classic K-Pop girl group move. He was sexy and he knew it. The rest of the club knew it too. People gathered around to dance around him and reach high up to put money in the waistband of the Calvin Klein underwear sticking up over his shorts.
“Dude!” Teepor elbowed him. He was holding a gigantic bottle of Tequila and was mixing margs for the bachelorette party that had just rolled in. “Quit looking at Earth and help me out! It’s crazy right now!”
Even though it was a Thursday, the club was a sweaty mess of college students, new adults, and a couple of older adults. Santa really should be giving his all to the bar, especially considering it was just him and Teepor staffed that night. He was going to have to tell P’New that they would need some more help, especially if it would give him some downtime to watch his favorite dancer.
The boy on the go-go platform, Earth apparently, threw on a wicked smirk and cat-walked to the edge of the platform. He put his hands on his knees, spread his legs, and dropped it.
His fans went wild.
Earth cast a seductive look over his shoulder into the crowd and stuck out his behind so that people could put bills there if they wanted. Santa’s jaw dropped. He almost pulled out his wallet. He had some cash left over from blowing his paycheck on way too many earrings the other day, how fired would he be if he just went over there real quick?
“Snap out of it!” Teepor said jostling into him again. “P’New just sent you an order for bottle service for himself and his buddies. Hurry up and make the drinks!”
“Oh shit.” Santa said, finally dropping his gaze, he should probably keep this job. Even though there was nothing he wanted to do more than clock out early and join the boy on the dance floor, he needed to pay rent. “So his name’s Earth?” he called to Teepor as nonchalantly as possible as he mixed P’New’s drinks.
“Yeah.” Teepor said, whirling around to put the bride’s card in their tab binder.
Santa knew for sure that she would forget her card when she left and a bridesmaid would show up tomorrow morning with last night’s makeup smeared across her face to pick it up.
“The guy your eyes have been falling out of your head for is named Earth.”
Santa stuck his tongue out at Teepor’s teasing between mixing a mojito and a whiskey amaretto. He had already been working at Wabi Sabi for two weeks and hadn’t seen Earth yet. Today must be his lucky day. He reminded himself to ask P’New to add him to Thursdays permanently if it meant he’d get to see him dance his entire shift.
“Don’t even think about it.” Teepor said following Santa’s gaze as it once again strayed to Earth’s platform. “P’New is really protective of his dancers. Mess with them and you’re out.”
Santa shook his head, “I would never mess with anyone, but there’s something about him. Don’t you see it? Actually, don’t answer that, it doesn’t matter, he’s mine now.”
Teepor laughed at that as Santa threw a six pack of beer into a bucket of ice, completing the bottle service order. “Did you seriously just call dibs? I would pay good money for Earth to hear you say that.”
Santa snorted, “Save your dough, I’m going to tell him after work today.”
Teepor raised his eyebrows at Santa, “Man, it’s supposed to be Thirsty Thursday for the patrons, not for the employees!”
Santa threw his head back and laughed, Teepor had him on that one.