We're better than we've ever dreamed, and I'm in love with being queen. Life is great without a care. We aren't caught up in your love affair.

("Royals" – Lorde)

Abigail had always had this idea of how the future was supposed to go. She would work hard at the Academy, get offered a contract with the Company, fall in love with a fellow dancer and marry him in a small ceremony at a Parisian courthouse between shows. They'd stay together until she was ready for retirement, only to settle down somewhere near Sydney so that he could choreograph and she could teach. They'd have a pair of perfect little ballerinas to follow in their footsteps, and the Armstrong legacy would live on long after she had drawn her last breath. That had always been the plan, but then again, life never went according to plan.

What happened instead was that Abigail fell in love with her dance partner her first year at the Academy and she realized that her legs weren't quite long enough and there wasn't enough natural talent to get her over that suddenly very big hurdle. She danced around it for the next year, throwing herself into silly things like Ethan's choreography and the musical. It was enough to distract her until it wasn't anymore. Then life handed her a new distraction that sent her whole world off kilter, and she'd spend the next six months trying to get over Sammy's death. Barcelona ended up a mess and things ended badly with Wes. The only thing left to do was to go home and force herself to get through Third Year.

Christian wasn't waiting for her on the first day of classes like she expected. To be perfectly honest, Abigail was surprised that her partner hadn't self-destructed before then. She knew that he'd eventually show back up and she didn't have the strength to fix anyone else right now. She was too far gone in her own wallowing to be bothered. It was even worse by the time he turned back up, finding her unkempt and eating carbs on the couch when she should have been deep into her stretching routine in the studio. It's then that their bonding really happened, culminating in an energetic salsa dance that reminded her that the thing she loved most could actually still be fun.

And that's how they end up spending all of Third Year together, the two of them against the world. She had started out the term paired with Ollie but quickly passed him off to Grace so she could go back to the familiar arms of her best friend. They're inseparable during the tour, even when he's dancing the romantic pas de deux of Romeo and Juliet with Tara. When that crashes in flames for the millionth time, Abigail is right there to listen to him whine for fifteen minutes before telling him to get over it. They kiss on a dare a few days later and he knows that he's done for.

"You know we're going home in two days," he told her softly afterward, when they're sitting alone on the steps outside the hostel. She's wearing his oversized hoodie but refusing to look at him. He can't tear his eyes away from her. "What happens when we get back to Sydney?"

"Classes, rehearsals, auditions – what always happens," she murmured without looking up from her feet. "We go back to working and pretending that nothing is going on because I don't want to hurt Tara or lose whatever this is because you're the only thing I can count on anymore."

Her voice sounds so strong, so confident, but he can hear the underlying fear loud and clear. He reaches out and cups her shoulder, allowing his thumb to rub small circles through the thick fabric. "It's over with her, Ab," he promised gently before moving down to sit on the same step as her. Her shoulder is pressed against his, his knee lying against hers. "Whatever it was – whatever it is – it'll always be there. Like it was with you and… First love is like that. It doesn't mean that it should stay like that forever. We all have to grow up some time. The future is suddenly so near, and I know that I'm not meant to leap into the next phase of my life with Tara. She's not the one, it's not her."

"And I am?"

"Maybe, I don't know," he told her honestly. "But more than anyone else right now, I know that it's you. Tara keeps telling me all these things that I should be doing and I hate her a little more with every single one. You don't treat me with kid gloves. You tell me like it is."

Abigail turned and looked up at him then. "Can I tell you a secret?"

'You can tell me anything."

"I'm not even sure I want a contract anymore," she confessed. "I know that's what I'm supposed to want. I see people like Ben and Tara, and they're fighting so hard for it. But when it's my turn to think about why I want it, I don't really have a good reason other than what else would be the point of the past three years? It doesn't seem like enough."

Christian couldn't help but laugh. "That's how I've always felt. I started dancing for my mom. It's why I auditioned to the Academy in the first place. I came here because it was that or juvie."

"And you stayed because of us," she smiled genuinely. "But it's not enough to build a life on, is it?"

"I've been thinking that I want to teach," he revealed. It was the first time he had said it out loud to anyone. "Give kids like me the opportunity to fall in love. I could work with Sammy's dad on the center. I think I'd be really good at it."

"They'd be lucky to have you," she replied. He had always been really good at breaking things down.

"They'd be lucky to have us," he pointed out. "You could stay too, teach with me. We'd make a great team. The Liebermans thinks highly of you. We could do it together. I think Sammy would really like that."

She though briefly of her beautiful dancing boy, the one she swore she sometimes felt and tried to think of as her guardian angel because it was the only comfort she could find, this fleeting thought that maybe he was still there with her. "I miss him on nights like these," she chuckled humorlessly. "I miss him all the time. Do you really think I'd be good at it, Christian? I've never really been good with kids. I'm rigid and cold and technical…"

"And dedicated," he reminded her. "We'll balance each other out. Just say you'll think about it, okay?"

They don't talk about it again for a few months until after their auditions are over and they both leave the room with a pair of matching tan contracts. Christian gives his to Zach almost immediately, unsigned with a promise to come teach at the Center. It takes Abigail a few more days before she turns up, sliding it across the lunch table to Christian with the biggest smile he'd ever seen on her face. There are no interviews when they're hired by the Academy. They celebrate with a spaghetti dinner on the street corner where Sammy had last gotten the chance to live.

And so, Abigail realized that she had to let go of all these things about how things were supposed to happen. She had conquered the Academy and gotten the contract offer, but they weren't were destiny in the end. Instead, she fell in love with a fellow teacher and married him on the waterfront with their former teacher as his best man and a tanned Kat fresh from California as the maid of honor. They ran the Center in tandem, not interested in anything more or anything less. They ended up with a soccer player of a son and a daughter who absolutely hated everything about a stage. It might not have been the plan in the beginning and Abigail knew why. She could have never counted on Christian Reed.