A/N: Even though I already have 2 other stories I want to finish, I really want to write this one anyway. This story takes place in kind of a fairy tale land, except no dragons, fairies, magic, and all that jazz. Obviously, Zuko is the prince. (He wasn't banished, and his mom didn't disappear. It would make this story very difficult…) Everything else is the same.

I hope you guys like it!

Katara's POV

I was being called over to the Grand Palace by Mr. Prince himself. Yeah, exciting right? Not really. The only reason he would need me is because I am a professional pianist, and he wants me to play at his royal ball. Any other girl would be jumping for joy, but I'm not one of those giddy idiots. I see the prince for what he really is. A snobby, stuck up, unappreciative brat, just like every prince, king, princess, or queen. I've played for them all. The nice thing they had going on, that was all an act. Once they're away from their people, and you get to talk to them one-on-one, they start to show their true colors. I learned that you wouldn't get anywhere with being polite. I've had it with pretending that royalty was actually pleasant to be around. Anyway, I am supposed to play for the prince at the ball, and I was not happy about it. Sure, piano playing was my profession, and I earn a lot of money, and I love playing the piano, but… I just can't stand the rich guys that I play for. They're just downright infuriating.

Right now, I'm in a carriage, sent by Prince Zuko. Very thoughtful. I also have my stuff with me; some clothes, my music, some books, the necessities. I'll be staying for a week or two at the palace. Two weeks of royal pain-in-the-butts. Yay. My dad isn't here because he's in another one of his business meetings. He has a ton of those. My mom…well, my mom died from arthritis. It's really cold where I'm from. My older brother Sokka is still in his all-boys academy because he doesn't have a job yet.

Currently, I was reviewing all my music in my head, and playing on my imaginary piano in front of me. After a few more hours of sleeping, "practicing", and twiddling my thumbs, we finally arrived. It's a good thing, too, because my butt and my thighs were starting to numb. I stood up, but the carriage suddenly hit a bump, and my head slammed into the ceiling.

Normal POV

"Ow…" Katara moaned, rubbing her head, and trying to keep down the headache that was threatening to surface.

"You all right?" The carriage driver called, chuckling.

"Yeah, fine," She responded, still rubbing her head.

He laughed. "Sorry about that!"

"It's all right," she replied.

The carriage came to a halt, and the carriage driver yelled, "You may stand now!"

"Haha, funny," She said sarcastically, climbing out of the carriage.

As soon as she stepped out, a loud voice announced, "SHE HAS ARRIVED!"

Katara brushed off her skirt, and stood, her arms cramping with the luggage she carried. A servant immediately rushed to get her stuff, and she started to protest.

"I can handle it, really, it's fine."

The boy smiled at her and said, "Then I suppose you know where to carry it then."

She blushed at her foolishness. "Fine, take my stuff to my room." She quickly added, "If it's not too much of a burden, of course…"

The servant laughed. "I'm pretty sure it's not too heavy. You don't have to worry about me."

Katara smiled doubtfully, but let him go with all of her luggage. She watched him rush into the palace with ease, even with all her heavy things.

"Katara, welcome to our castle," A warm voice called.

She turned to the door, and there stood a woman who held herself with poise.

Katara's POV

The woman who seemed to be the queen welcomed me graciously into the castle, which surprised me. What surprised me more, however, was the fact that she called me by my name, not "you" or "peasant". It was a nice change. However, I will not let my guard down to soon. Once we're inside the castle, she'll probably drop the act.

"If you would follow me…" the queen said. I did as I was instructed, going through the door, and into the torch-lit hallway. The torches made eerie shadows along the wall, and didn't really help to light the way. I waited for her to introduce herself, but she said nothing. Ah, so this is where the rudeness begins.

Deciding to force her into introducing herself, I said, "Excuse me, what's your name?"

The queen turned to me, shocked. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I forgot to introduce myself! My name is Ursa. Queen Ursa."

Did she just apologize? To me? Okay, so maybe for her it wasn't an act. Maybe.

I smiled. I wasn't used to royalty like her, but she was nice, so I decided to return the favor. "It's an honor to meet you, Your Highness," I said, curtsying. I haven't curtsied in quite some time, my respect for royalty gone and all that, but I hope I remembered how to do it correctly.

"Oh there's no need for that, my dear," She said, putting her hand on my shoulder. "I'm just really glad you could make it. I heard you were the best pianist in the world, and we wanted the best for our son's ball. And you came, even though we called at the last minute! To squeeze us into your tight schedule like that…"

Whoa. She just called me good. No, she called me the best. And she was glad I was here! I was starting to like her.

"No, it was no trouble at all," I heard myself say.

Ursa smiled and nodded at me. She continued to walk down the hall, and turned to the left. I followed her. She took a few more turns, and then stopped at a door. It was kind of hard to keep up with her, there were so many turns, and she walked quite quickly.

"Here we are," She said, opening the door.

Light poured in from the room into the dark hallway. I stepped inside the huge room, and I must say, it was magnificent. A huge diamond chandelier hung from the ceiling, the tables were decorated with golden flowers and had white table cloths, the stage was made of marble and there were black curtains that cascaded to the floor so elegantly. Candles lit up every square foot of the huge room. In the center of the stage, there was a huge black piano. I was absolutely amazed. The light from the candles bounced off of the huge chandelier, causing it to sparkle and gleam. I walked toward the piano, my footsteps echoing in the huge empty room.

"This is where the first ball will take place. The second ball will take place in another room," Ursa's voice bounced off of the walls.

"There's another room like this?" I said incredulously.

She chuckled. "No, actually, it's very different."

I walked toward the piano, in some sort of weird trance. I ran my fingers along the keys. It was so new, so grand…so…wonderful. I loved it. I wanted to play it. I wanted it.

"Go ahead, play a song."

I looked up at her, smiling. "May I?"

"I insist."

I sat down on the bench, which was padded and very comfortable. I inhaled deeply, positioning my hands and readying myself for the song. I usually wouldn't just dive straight into a song like this, but I wanted to show off my talents to her. It was strange, I kind of felt some sort of connection to her, like a mother-daughter thing. It felt nice having that sort of connection, for I hadn't had something like that in a while. A pang of sorrow and guilt hit me as I thought of my own mother. I shrugged the thought off, and began to play.

I started out slow, but as I got more into the song, I started to play faster, louder, and getting softer when necessary. All the notes, all the rhythms, all the dynamics were clearly etched in my mind. I was halfway through the song when the door flew open. A man stepped in, clearly fuming.

"And what do you think you're doing, peasant?" He bellowed. He sounded five times louder because of the echo effect. Oh, so this is where reality catches up with me. Aha! And he even addressed me as "peasant". Did I know royalty or what?

"Playing my music," I answered nonchalantly. I was used to the likes of him. "After all, that's what you called me here for, isn't it?" I took my hands off of the piano and set them defiantly on my hips.

He growled, eyes narrowing and nostrils flaring. "If you think that you can-"

"Enough."

We both turned to the queen. "Ozai darling, I asked her to play." He was the king? Well, I kind of suspected that, but why would such a nice woman marry such a rude man? I hated how sweet she sounded.

Steam was pouring out of his nostrils. He turned to her. "Ursa, honey, we have very important issues to attend to. Your son, an eighteen-year-old, refuses to attend his dancing lessons. Really, his own ball and he won't even know how to dance? Truly ridiculous."

"Relax dear. I'll talk to him." And with that, she left, giving me an apologetic look. I smiled back as if to tell her that it was alright.

Ozai gave me one last glare, and followed his wife out the door.

As soon as the door shut, I started to play furiously, an angry march song. That JERK! How could he talk to me like that? How can he talk to his wife like that? I continued to vigorously play the piano as if it was the one who killed my mother, as if it was the one who yelled at me a few moments ago. I tried to play a calming song, but I ended up stomping on the pedal at the base of the piano, and gave up. I slammed my hands down on the piano, making a clash of notes, and shattering my eardrums.

"My father getting to you, too?" A young man dressed in a tuxedo stepped in from the back door. He was really handsome, with piercing golden eyes and raven black hair.

"You're the prince?" I asked. I turned away from him, knowing he was stuck up, like all the other princes. They all pretend to be nice and charming, and they'll steal your heart with kind words and sweet promises, then shatter it with not a care in the world when they find someone new, just like Prince Jet had. I know I was being a little prejudice, but I haven't met one prince to prove me wrong.

"Yeah, why?"

"No reason," I said stiffly. I started to play the piano with ferocity again. Just thinking about that jerk Jet got me angry. I could feel the prince's eyes on me, but I could care less. My piano playing was more than satisfactory at the least. And that's a fact.

"Ozai is trying to make me take dance lessons," Zuko spoke again, trying to keep a conversation going. I don't know why he even bothered, because I'm probably just another peasant girl to him. And plus, I was still practicing! Who does he think he is, trying to disturb me? However, I noticed he didn't address his father as "father" or "dad" or "daddy" or "the king" or whatever other stupid name you could think of. He called him by the his first name, which was a sign of…could it be? Disrespect. That did surprise me a little.

"Yeah, I heard," I replied curtly. I didn't want to give him much to talk about.

"I didn't even want this stupid ball in the first place," He stated.

My eyebrows raised, but my back was to him, so he couldn't have noticed. I thought he had organized this ball himself. Whatever, he was still ungrateful to whomever arranged this ball, and that just proves that all princes are unappreciative. He stayed silent for a while, to my relief, I did not want to talk to him anymore.

"Well it was nice meeting you…"

"Katara." I finished.

"Katara," He repeated.

"Hm…" I murmured in response. I wasn't sure I felt the same way. However, I continued to play my song, and he turned to leave. But before he walked out…

"By the way, you're really good." Then he left.

It was just above a whisper, but I heard it. I was about to smile, but I caught myself, and forced it down. I don't need him to tell me that I'm good. I knew it already. But still…the compliment was nice…

Zuko's POV

I walked out of the door. That girl wasn't as easily charmed as the rest. But when I closed the door, she started to play a slightly more calming song. I smiled. Maybe she was. Then suddenly she charged into another angry march song. I frowned. Or maybe not. I smiled to myself. Still…I do appreciate a challenge…

"There you are!" My mother's voice called. Shit.

"Now young man, we talked about this. No aggravating your father while the guest is around, got that?"

"But mother…" He whined, hating how childish he sounded at the moment.

"Zuko, this is your dance, and you have four of them, which gives you more chances. You cannot mess up any of them. This may be the only way you can find a wife!"

"I really don't give a-"

"Now Zuko…""But this is so cliché! You want me to find a 'perfect match' at the ball, like Cinderella, and do you want me to fight a dragon and rescue Sleeping Beauty as well? This isn't a fairy tale, mom! I want to find my wife my way, and I don't need a stupid ball to do that!" I stormed off, leaving my mom in shock. I hated fighting with her, but there is no way I'm learning how to dance, and I don't want to attend one of those formal balls where I have to hold my poise, talk sophisticated, and charm every woman in sight. The last thought disgusted me. I threw open my door and collapsed on my bed, laying on my back and staring at the ceiling. My eyes wandered over to the mirror. Mirror, mirror on the wall; Won't you save me from this ball?

A/N: Hope you liked it! Now time for me to have some lunch. And update some more chapters for my other stories as well.