**

"Oh my, Louis, you look as if you haven't eaten in a week!" Niall's granny said, oven tray in hands, as she watched Louis sitting at the table, devouring the meal that she'd given to him. He looked up, mouth full of baked potato, and said, "It's been longer than that." and then he returned to his food. Granny turned around to take the hot and plump blueberry muffins off of the tray and onto a plate to cool down. "I heard that you were doing ballet, now." she said over her shoulder. Niall-sat beside Louis at the kitchen table-nodded his head enthusiastically.

"He's well amazing, he is! He wears pointe shoes and they tried to make him change and give him normal ones but he didn't want to so now he's the prima ballerina! He's well cool!"

Louis grinned and hid his face in his hands. Granny turned around to smile at him, "Well," she said, "It seems as if you have a fan, already. I would also love to see you dance, Louis, if you're willing to show old Granny, that is."

Louis looked up at her. His nose and cheeks were pink, but he had the sweetest smile on his face. Granny's heart always ached for him. His mother didn't deserve a son, let alone one with a heart like his. He loved the world too much for his own good. He loved everything and everyone that came into his life, and perhaps that was wrong of him, because the world didn't usually love him in return. In any case, whenever Louis smiled, every trace of his mother's features seemed to fade away, and Granny was wise enough to guess that that was the reason why he never stopped grinning.

"I'm really.. not that good." Louis said, "But I can try! I can show you what Harry does! He's better than me and more flexible and taller and has more muscle.. but I can try!"

Granny gave Louis a muffin and he took it from her and stuffed in into his mouth. She chuckled, "If it is you, Louis, I'm sure that you can do anything that you want to do. You'll be the best ballerina in the world. Do you know why I think that?"

Louis shook his head, and Granny smiled, "I know that you will be the best ballerina because you keep your heart in the right place. As difficult as life may be for you, you're unstoppable, and I think that that is rather amazing."

*

The living room was so quiet that Louis could hear the flies buzz around in it. Only a small strip of light seeped in between the curtains to lay on the wall with the peeling wallpaper and alcohol stained into it. There was a large photo of Mother and Louis there, from when Louis was a child. It was summer, and he was five at the time. They were outside, in a carpark, and mother had taken the photo herself with an old phone. Her face was contorted into some kind of grin but her eyes were wide, hollow, and staring. She wore a dress, one that she'd worn for two weeks in a row, and her collarbones showed beneath it. Her hand was on Louis' shoulder, chipped acrylic nails digging into the smooth flesh and making red marks there. Louis was smiling, by force, through pain, with the fear of being hurt if he didn't cooperate correctly, yet he wasn't old enough to even know what 'correctly' was.

Mother sat beneath the photograph, now, lounging on the sofa with a lit cigarette between her bony fingers. Her acrylic nails were pink, Louis liked the colour, but he didn't like how they felt when she'd caress his cheek or claw his arms with them. He put the scrubbing brush in the bucket of murky water, shook it out, and began to rub vigorously at the floorboards again. His back ached, his stomach growled, and his hands and knees had marks from being on the floor for so long.

"Louis, darling?"

Louis jumped at the sudden sound and bolted up to stand by the broken fireplace, "Yes, mother?"

Mother looked at him through the dark and stuffy room. A fly landed on her shoulder and she moved so fast to squish it with her palm that Louis winced back in fear. She flicked it onto the floor that her son had spent hours cleaning, "Bring me another cigarette, would you?"

Louis bowed his head, "Yes, mother."

"Wait. Darling." Mother said when Louis began to walk away, "Come here." She put a hand out invitingly and Louis took it. Shivers ran up his arm and down his spine. She looked at the marks on his hands, then those on his knees. "You are hurt." she said, brushing her finger over them carefully. "Which monster hurt my son? Was it that teacher of yours? The one with the scary voice? Who hurt you, Louis?"

Louis tried to pull out of her grasp, gently, without letting her know that he was attempting to do so, "No, Mother. It is just imprint of the floorboards. I have the marks, see?" he said, pointing to the parallel lines that the floorboards had marked on his right knee.

Louis' mother looked at them, took her son's hands, and tears stood in her eyes when she looked at him. "You should be more careful." she said. "You're letting yourself get hurt."

She slapped him across the face.

"Don't get hurt! Do you not love yourself? I love you, Louis!" she said, standing up and hugging him. She was crying, holding the cigarette away from her son so that it wouldn't burn him, and then she slapped him again in the same place as before-across his left cheek. "Love yourself, you foolish boy. You're beautiful, too beautiful to get hurt. Love yourself."

She kissed Louis' bleeding cheek, and Louis was too terrified to even scream.

He just stood there, as tense as a statue in her suffocating grip, counting down the days until she'd beat him to death.

*

"-and I think that he wanted to give me more of them but he didn't because, well, if he had, then there wouldn't have been any left for next time, which is good because-do you understand what I'm talking about? You look out of it." Louis said, finally raising his head to see Harry sitting across from him in the dance studio, a sloppy smile on his face to show that he really was out of it.

"You're a real chatterbox once that you're comfortable." Harry said, "I have no idea what you're talking about, but continue. I'll listen."

Louis looked down at his ballet shoes and tucked in one of the ribbons. He sighed but he was a happy sigh-a peaceful one, "No, never-mind. I'll tell you another time." He put his legs out if front of him and did 'good toes, naughty toes' with himself until Lilly-Ann-who'd been sitting across the room, by the mirrors-said, "You know what would be nice? I wish that we could do the Ballet show at Christmas.. Swan Lake. We had trained so much for it, it's a shame that it has been cancelled."

"A shame?" Harry glowered at her, and she looked down, embarrassed, "Rosaline died, and you call it a 'shame' that the show has been cancelled?"

"I'm sorry." Lilly-Ann said to him, feeling truly awful for her words, "I didn't mean for it come come out like that, but it would be nice to dance again. She would have wanted us to, I'm sure."

"Bullshit. You can't find another person to play Odette. Rosaline isn't something to be replaced like that." Harry said angrily. "If you think that the show is back on then you're dead wrong. I won't dance that show with anyone but her." His prosthetic clicked when he stood, and Louis, along with everyone else, watched him storm out of the room.

Lilly-Ann sighed, watching the ripples in her water bottle until Louis said, "I know that it's got nothing to do with me, because after all, I'm not a great dancer like any of you, but I think that the show would be a good idea. I think that if Harry were to dance the ballet then he'd be able to move on from Rosaline. This could be his apology to her."

"That is good thinking," Angela said, drumming her fingers on her arm, "but Harry is stern, and the love that he shared with Rosaline was unconditional. He has not danced ballet with anyone since, and he never will. Without him, we could not pull off a good performance, but we do not have him, so we do not have Swan Lake."

"But what if.. What if we could find someone that Harry would dance with? Surely, there must be someone that he trusts enough? What about you, Lilly-Ann?" Louis asked.

Lilly-Ann shook her head. "He's like an older brother to me, certainly, but we could never dance together. We lack too many things. The world would end before we could dance together properly."

"Is there no one else?" Louis asked, "What about the other dancers?"

Maria shook her head this time, "Don't even think about it. He's made it clear that he'll dance with no one but Rosaline."

"What about with me?" Louis asked, almost regretting it as soon as the words slipped his tongue. As if he-a beginner, and a very bad one, at that-could dance with the King of Ballet. Everyone seemed to be thinking the same thing as they stared judgementally at him, and then Lilly-Ann scoffed rudely.

"Don't be silly, that's a-" she paused. A crease formed between her eyebrows and she frowned, reflecting on the wild suggestion, "Actually, that is not such a terrible idea. Of course, you would need to put in a huge amount of effort to even reach the most basic flexibility and skills of a ballerina, and for obvious reasons, you would have to take extra lessons to play the part of Odette and Odile, but... you have had worse ideas before." Lilly-Ann watched Louis while others rested their gazes on her. "It may be an impossible demand to ask Harry, but as far as I can see, if there were one person left in the world that he would be willing to dance with-it's Louis."

Angela's fingers continued to drum against her arm as she stared judgementally down at Louis as she always did. "Louis," she said in that foreign accent of hers. She stopped then, as if she had too many things to say so she said none of them. Finally, she nodded her head, "I will fetch the King.", she said, before walking to the changing rooms where running water could be heard.

*

A while later, she returned with Harry tagging along behind her. He wore his jogging trousers, trainers, but no shirt. A white towel was over his shoulders and his hair was wet. He looked as angry as he'd been when he'd left. Lilly-Ann turned away from him when he glared at her.

Everyone turned expectantly to Louis who hadn't prepared any kind of grand speech in his head, and quite frankly, had no idea what was expected of him. Harry-upon seeing that everyone was waiting for Louis-shifted his gaze to him as well and raised and eyebrow as if to say 'well?'

"Do uh-" Louis said, making a fool of himself as usual. He began to stand up, hesitated by almost sitting back down again, but he finally got to his feet and walked over to Harry. His curls had been straightened by the water, and Harry tucked his hair behind his ear, looking down at Louis expectantly. "I uh-"

"Do you need to write it down? If so, I have a pen." Harry said, surprising Louis when the faintest hint of a smile passed over the angered expression that he had.

"No, I uh-" Louis had no idea what to say, and he'd leave a long list of exclamation marks if he were to write his thoughts down. Finally, when Harry had put a hand on his hip and everyone had began to glance at everyone else, Louis found what he wanted to say, "I know that I lack in everything compared to you, that I'm just me, and that's nothing too grand, but I was wondering if.." He paused, suddenly remembering something that Harry had told him about lacking confidence. He looked back, glared, and he said, "I want you to dance with me. I want to be your Swan Princess."

Angela gasped, Lilly-Ann and Maria had wide eyes, Robin muttered a brief 'oh my,', and Harry seemed completely baffled by how much confidence the little boy in plasters had.

He did not reply for a moment. A moment of which Louis ought to have been losing his pride like he'd always lost it in long situations like this one, but his heart was racing, and he watched Harry. The King of Ballet did something strange then, in the eyes of people who knew him well, at least. He stood as if he were about to bow, and then he did. The proud and arrogant King bowed down to Louis, taking his hand, and when he stood, there was a soft smile on his face. "You may lack in skills but you learn fast and you learn to perfection. There was not a trace of confidence in you when we first met, and yet you are here, ordering me to dance with you."

"But that doesn't mean no." Louis said, and Harry knew that he wouldn't take anything but 'yes' for an answer.

"You are not Rosaline, but you have what she had, possibly even more. Rosaline danced with passion, but you.. You dance with love. The Swan Princess and her Prince need love." He looked at Louis, unaware of the other people in the room, "In other words, I find it an honour to dance with you."

Louis, despite what he had portrayed himself as previously, hadn't actually expected Harry to agree, and he appeared confused for a moment, "Really?" he asked, "With me?"

Harry shook his hair and sprayed Louis with water. It made him giggle. Harry then put a hand on Louis' shoulder and squeezed it. "You'll come to my penthouse, right? To practice? Would you like that, Louis?"

Louis' eyes widened and he grinned so much that the sun came out from behind the cloud that had been hiding it all day. "Can I?" he asked, skipping on his point shoes. "Your house is my favourite. If I could, I'd live there, too!"

Louis laughed jokingly, and only Lilly-Ann saw the expression on Harry's face, then.

The Prince, she thought, was already in love with the Swan, and he had just realised it.

**

Hello everyone! How are you finding the book?

In case you're thinking 'Odette is a girl, Louis is a boy' then I just have something to say:
This is the world that I want to live in. In this world, gender doesn't justify your actions, sexuality is not even thought about, disability doesn't stop you from being outstanding, and race does not make a person more or less important.
If you think about it, not a single person has commented 'ballet is for girls', not a single one has told Louis that he 'can't wear pointe shoes' because he is a boy. In fact, not even his mother had assumed that a man would hurt her son when she saw the floorboard prints on his knees. She just referred to them as a 'monster'.
As for sexuality, Love is Love, and no one thinks anything different to that.

I just want one story where every person is equal. Just one story where people are loved for being people and not labels.

*

If you ever have free time or get bored, read into the characters and the story, you'll find a lot more things there that you hadn't noticed before.

Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed this! Please share on social media and follow me on instagram (LHNameless) for art and updates, and I'll see you soon!

All of my love, Lucy.