Swan Lake - Larry Stylinson Ballet AU

Act XIX - Finale

Hello! This is the final chapter, I hope that you'll like it. Please leave your thoughts while you read, thank you.
- Lucy. xx

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The Ballet Studio was full of tension, mainly between Harry and the rest of the crew. The music-for the first time in ages-had not been turned on, and the airman buzzed, and everyone just looked towards each other, back to Harry, and down at their feet.

It was almost Christmas. In five weeks was the show. Louis had been gone for almost a month and not once had Harry visited the graveyard. Maybe he should have, for the only bouquet there was from Niall, and it was withering such as the body within the grave.

Harry didn't dare to venture into a place that brought out death in a boy who'd had so much life. He didn't want to see the hearts around the two names on the headstone, didn't want to hear the silence when he was standing right beside a boy who could chatter on for hours on end about the things he'd loved. Harry had not been to Louis' grave, and he never would.

Instead, he payed his love to Louis by sitting for hours on end in his tiny back garden where he'd planted a little apple tree. Around the tree he'd planted wildflower seeds, and was waiting for spring so that they'd grow. He'd taken a knife and engraved Louis' name in the tree's trunk, and around the bare branches, he'd entwined the yellow ribbon. The whole garden was for Louis; a garden for a boy who'd never had the chance to dance barefoot on the grass or plant flowers or run his fingers through the pond water or just live.

That secret garden-the prettiest Harry could make of it-was Louis' heart.

In it were butterflies, birds full of song, sunlight that shone and warmed everything eternally. It was Louis' heart Harry was looking after, and still he was the only one who listened to its beating.

"So will you?" Lilly-Ann pleaded, just as she'd spent the last hour doing, "You can't let him down, not after everything he'd done. You must dance with someone else who'll Odette or forget about the show altoget-"

"No!" Harry snapped at her, "No. That show meant everything to him. I'll dance for him, even if it kills me, I will." He paused for a moment, vicious green eyes falling away from the faces who watched. "But.. I can't dance with anyone but him. With anyone but her. They're the only people in the world who have my heart, and I can barely stand without it."

Angela stepped up, her voice far too harsh when she said, "Of course you can, foolish boy. You're from a family of world famous Ballerinas. There is no one better than you. You can dance, Harry Styles. You can dance."

Harry looked at her, seething at the sight of them all, "You don't understand! I'm not like all of you, I can't do what you do. I can't dance without love. Love is the only thing I dance for and the only thing that guides me. To dance without a heart is like breathing with no air. It isn't possible for someone like me."

No one replied for a long while where Harry calmed himself. His head was spinning for some reason, and he had a headache. Perhaps his blurred thoughts were what made him finally say, "I'll dance with you, Lil'. I don't have a choice. I either dance with you or the show is cancelled. Again."

Lilly-Ann bent down to him to catch his eye; he looked at her. He'd always been like an older brother to her, ever since she could remember. He'd helped her get rid of bullies, helped her balance her school life with Ballet, had gone out of his way in giving her extra lessons to calm her nerves.. He'd changed her world and given her the life she dreamed of having, and it was finally her turn to give everything back.
"I won't let you down." she said, "As for Rosaline and Louis; I'll dance better than I ever did before. I'll dance until I fall if I must, I'll make this show my very being. We'll give them the best tribute you could ever imagine so all I need is for you to trust me."