Disclaimer: I do not own A: TLA

Chapter 1

It is a month or so after the war ended. Prince Zuko is now Fire Lord Zuko. Avatar Aang has succeeded in his mission and killed Fire Lord Ozai. He and his fiancée, Katara, and her brother, Sokka, visit occasionally. I have only ever seen them once, but they seem nice. These are the few facts that I know about the war. I am Lady Mizoku, eldest daughter of Lord Zanna and Lady Tatsomuto, and I am shut away from the world, forever trapped inside the palace. I hate living this way, but I have no choice. I am to sit still, look pretty, and be the perfect lady. Unfortunately for my parents, I don't make a very good lady. I practice fire bending in secret, I speak out against my superiors, and I am determined not to be married off to some snob. And so it is quite fitting that this story begins with an argument with my father.

"No! I am not going to degrade myself like that!" I screamed at my father, who was scarlet with rage.

"I don't care! It is not your choice! You will be shown to the Fire Lord with the other girls, and you will be honoured if he so much as glances at you!"

"I am not an ornament! I refuse to be paraded around in front of some guy so he can choose one of us to marry! It may shock you to learn this, but I have feelings, a mind, and happen to care about more interesting things than if the Fire Lord considers me 'suitable'!"

"You insolent little girl! You should be grateful! Do you think it's every day that a girl is introduced to a King as a prospective bride?"

"I want to recognised for who I am, not who my husband is!" I yelled. My father cracked and hit me hard across the face. I refused to cry out, but the force with which he hit me was enough to send me flying into the wall. I got up and ran for the door, trying to ignore the blood beginning to drip down my face, well aware that my father was following me. As soon as I turned into the corridor, I ran into someone. I looked up to see who it was, and gasped. The man I had just ran into, the man who was holding my arms, was the Fire Lord. "My Lord!" I gasped, stepping back and bowing. My father ran up behind me.

"Mizoku, How dare-," He began, then stopped and bowed deeply to Zuko. He surveyed my father for a moment, then turned to me.

"What happened to your head?" He asked.

"My lord, she-,"

"I did not ask you," Zuko snapped. He turned back to me. "Well?"

"It got cut when I hit the wall," I said, looking down as I had been taught to when addressing royalty. Looking at their face was completely unacceptable.

"How did you hit the wall?"

"I- I-," I bit my lip, unsure whether to tell him the truth or not.

"I heard the argument. Do not lie to me," He said warningly.

"My father hit me sir," I said, more to my shoes than to him.

"Very well. You will need that cleaned," I looked up in surprise, forgetting my place for a moment. Before I realised what I was doing, I did the most dishonourable thing possible. I looked straight into his eyes. He looked at me strangely, and I quickly diverted my gaze to the floor again, bracing myself for another hit. It never came. "Girl, what is your name?"

"Lady Mizoku, my lord,"

"Why did you look at me like that?"

"Please forgive her my lord, she forgets her place sometimes," My father said, bowing low.

"Yet again, I did not ask you," He glared at my father. "And you should know better than to hit your daughter," He turned back to me. "Why did you look at me in that way?"

"Forgive me, I-,"

"Answer my question,"

"I was surprised,"

"Surprised?"

"I expected you to be angry with me,"

"Why?"

"Because I did something to make my father angry,"

"Go to the infirmary," He ordered. I bowed and left as quickly as I could without running. I was relieved to be out of his sight. I didn't understand what just happened. If the man I had walked into was Lord Ozai, I would be dead. And that I had looked straight into his eyes! I entered the infirmary and was greeted by my best friend, Kika. She was a healer's apprentice, so according to tradition, we shouldn't have ever talked to each other. But we were the best of friends, no matter what tradition said. I smiled andwe kissed each other on the cheek as soon as I entered. "What happened to your head?" She asked incredulously.

"You won't believe it,"

"Come sit down, and you can explain it while I clean it. It looks real nasty," I sat down and she handed me a mirror. "Check it out," I gasped at my reflection. There was a large gash on my forehead, just below my hairline, and it had dripped dark red blood all the way down my pale face. Some of my hair was stuck in it and had clumped together. The bun I wore had come loose and most of my hair was hanging messily around my face. The only thing in my reflection that I was pleased with, as usual, were my eyes. They were a pleasing red colour, quite common for my nation, but I loved them nonetheless. "I can't believe the Fire Lord saw me looking like this!" I groaned. True, I didn't want him for a husband, but that didn't mean I didn't care about my appearance. Kika gasped. "You saw the Fire Lord? With this injury?"

"Yeah, listen, this is a long story,"

"Well, I'm not going anywhere, and you're certainly not,"

"Okay. Well, you know I'm sixteen?"

"Duh,"

"Well, now that Lord Zuko is seventeen, he has to look for a bride. And I'm one of the nobles that's of marrying age, so I have to go be paraded around in front of him as a prospective wife. I told my father there was no way I would ever degrade myself like that, and he sent me flying,"

"And that's how you got this?"

"That's how I got this,"

"But don't you want to be Fire Lady?"

"No," I said firmly. "That would mean no more late night training, no more freedom, and having kids,"

"But getting married to any man would mean that,"

"Precisely why I'm never getting married," Kika gasped at this.

"Mizoku! You have to get married! Tradition-,"

"Demands it, I know. But since when have you cared about tradition? Look at us!"

"Mizoku, think about it. We can hide the fact we're friends. You can't hide the fact you're not married!"

"Do you want to hear what happened next or not?" Kika silenced herself. "Okay. So I ran out of the room, and straight into Lord Zuko,"

"And lived?"

"I thought he was going to kebab me. So then my father comes along, and the Fire Lord asks me how I got this," I gestured to the cut Kika was cleaning. "And when my father answered him, he said that he'd asked me, so I had to answer. Then when I told him, he told me to get it cleaned. Then, oh Kika, I- I looked into his eyes!" Kika nearly knocked over the bowl of water in her lap.

"You did what? Are you crazy?"

"It gets worse. He asked me why I did it, and I told him, and he just said go to the infirmary. What does that mean, Kika?"

"No idea," I suddenly realised that Zuko had said he had overheard the argument, and almost jumped up.

"Oh Agni!" I gasped. "He overheard me shouting at my father! And I insulted him!" I bit my lip. I was going to die for sure.

"I'm still amazed your not a pile of ashes," We discussed what I was going to do for a while longer, then Kika finished cleaning my cut and I was free to go. I said goodbye to her, then slowly made my way back to my family's portion of the palace. I managed to slip into my room unnoticed, and stayed there until night fell.

I sat up and looked out of my window at the position of the moon. From what little astrology I know, I figured out that it was around 2 o'clock in the morning. I got up and dressed in training clothes. I snuck out, well aware that if my father found out what I was doing, I would not survive to see my seventeenth birthday. He forbid me to use my fire bending ever, as he decided it was not a ladylike thing to do. In fact, women fire bending in general is frowned upon. That would never stop me though. There was one guard, an old man named Ji, who was always on the nightshift guarding the training arena. He always pretends not to notice me when I come to train. I walked past him now, smiling as he looked determinedly in the other direction. I walked out into the sandy arena, lit up only by the moon and stars above. I took up the first stance and breathing deeply, began some of the sequences I had learned from spying on the soldiers training. I jumped up and kicked the air, the fire from my foot reaching the sand metres away. It took me a long time to master the basics, but now I was managing to do some of the more complicated moves I had seen the soldiers practising. I punched and blocked an invisible opponent, and as I performed a spinning jump kick, I heard the arena doors swing open.

Yay! New story! I seem to be obsessed with Zukoxoc at the moment! I just read a post-war fic by someone about Zuko choosing a wife, and I just HAD to write one!

Review! Let me know if you hate it, and it shall be deleted. Well, if alot of people hate it...

Well, actaully, if you don't like it, don't read it.

Miss SJB