Cinderella kept her eyes on the book currently held in her hands and continued to ignore the knocking on the tower door below. There was another ball being held at the castle that night, which was already underway. She could faintly hear the music and voices of the characters from her tower, despite being nowhere near the Great Hall. It was muted and distant, but still somewhat audible. She'd borrowed a novel from Belle and had long since intended to stay in for the evening. Aurora, however, seemed to have other plans.

"You can't stay up in that tower forever, Cinderella!" she shouted up, her voice muffled by the closed door.

"Oh, yes I can," Cinderella called back, turning the page. It was usually one of the other girls – most often Snow – who tried to get her to come with them if she wasn't in the mood. She'd stood her ground against them well enough in the past: there was a point when she hadn't set foot in a party for a good five years straight.

"You're already an hour late."

With a sigh, she set the book down on her bed and got up. Crossing the room, she walked down the stairs and opened the door at the bottom of the tower. Aurora was waiting there on the other side of the doorway, looking at her expectantly.

Frowning, Cinderella said, "I already told you that I'm not going."

"Cinderella's going to miss the ball? What would the guests say?" the other Princess teased.

"I've skipped plenty of them before. You know that."

"Not tonight."

"Any reason you'd like to share as to why I can't just stay home during this particular one?" Cinderella asked in a voice tinged with frustration.

Aurora shook her head and her blonde curls swung. "Oh, no. I just have a feeling that you'll regret not being there."

Cinderella pursed her lips. The other girl was infamous for "just having feelings" about things, most of which seemed to end up having some degree of truth to them. It was unsettling, to say the least. Maybe she was onto something… though Disney only knew what.

"Miss the next ball – miss the next six if you want – but you're going to this one. You have five minutes to get ready."

When Cinderella tried to protest, Aurora just gave her a look. Her defenses wilted a little under her pointed, lavender stare. Looking down, she mumbled, "All right. Just wait here."

Heading back up to her room, she changed from her peasant dress into her ballgown and magicked her hair into its signature updo. She waved away the excess pixie dust that floated in the air around her and tried not to sneeze. Quickly checking her reflection in the mirror, she saw that she looked acceptably princess-like for the ball.

When she finally came back down the stairs again, Aurora instantly looped an arm around one of hers and gave her a serene smile. Cinderella just sighed and let the other blonde Princess pull her along toward the castle proper.

As Aurora said, the ball was long since underway by the time they reached the Great Hall. Couples whirled each other around the dance floor to the tune of the current song while other characters hung around the edges, looking on.

"There," Aurora said, sounding a little pleased with herself. "It's not too late for you to still enjoy the party."

Cinderella shot the other girl a look. "If I'm late, what does that make you?"

"It's my castle. It doesn't matter if I'm late or not."

At that moment, Philip appeared out of the crowd. There was a look of relief of his face as he strode over to them, making a beeline straight for Aurora.

"I was just wondering where you'd gotten to." Holding out a hand to her, he said, "Shall we?"

"Yes, please," she replied and took it with a smile. After a quick wave, she walked away with him, arm in arm, leaving Cinderella to stand alone in the doorway.

Unsure of what to do with herself, she wrung her gloved hands and scanned the crowd around her. She felt like she was searching for something, or someone, but even she wasn't certain for whom or what.

Another dance began, and she noticed that Aurora and Philip had joined them that time. Much to Cinderella's surprise, Mickey was out there as well. He waltzed with Minnie, who was dressed as a Princess herself at the moment. Her gauzy pink skirt floated around her as the two mice danced. Overhead, Peter sat on the central chandelier, swinging his legs as he watched the crowd. Cinderella could only assume the several tiny lights hovering around him were the pixies. Dumbo flew around the ceiling, ears flapping. Timothy Q. Mouse sat perched on his hat.

"Excuse me, Your Highness," a voice said from somewhere below. "Can I get through?"

Glancing down, she saw Jiminy Cricket standing there, staring up at her.

"Oh, pardon me," she said, sweeping her skirts aside so that he could pass by. He tipped his top hat to her and hopped out into the hallway.

Realizing that she was definitely in the way of anyone trying to get in or out of the Great Hall, she started to weave through the crowd of characters standing around the fringes of the room. Just speaking to Aurora before had left her with an odd sense of anticipation. The feeling only grew with every step she took. It was like she was standing on the edge of a very high place looking down, but she couldn't fathom why. Then she caught sight of a familiar face.

"Hello, Charming," she said with a sigh of relief as the sensation dissipated.

"Hello, Cinderella." Bowing low, he asked her, "May I have this next dance?"

"Of course," she replied with a curtsey and a small smile.

He led her out onto the floor and they quickly fell into their old rhythm. Despite barely dancing together in years outside of performances, she barely had to think about what she was doing. The familiarity of it almost seemed imprinted into her very essence and she was fairly sure she could do it with her eyes closed. Out on the dance floor as they were, she could almost forget that the last half a century had even happened. It was just as it had been on that fateful night a lifetime ago. The lights, the music, the feeling of flying as she spun across the floor. And maybe it was better to forget, even if just for a moment. To just pretend.

As the music and the dancers began to wind down once more, Cinderella felt a quick tap against her shoulder.

"May I cut in?"

She whirled around only to find herself face-to-face with Jack Sparrow. Her breath caught in her throat and she felt like she was frozen to the spot. Just like that, her mind went completely blank.

Charming quickly seemed to realize that something was amiss. Taking a step forward, he touched her arm and began, "I'm not sure that–"

"Yes."

Cinderella's voice sounded strangely far away, even to her own ears. Both men were watching her: Jack with interest, Charming with concern. Coming back to herself, she shot a quick look back at the latter before taking a deep breath and adding, "Yes, you may."

The Prince's expression told her that he thought she'd lost her mind. But he bowed to her all the same before turning on his heel and walking away, vanishing back into the crowd.

"What are you doing here?" she hissed once he was gone.

There was a crooked sort of smile on Jack's face as he replied with, "What sort of pirate would I be if I didn't show up and crash a party every now and then, eh?"

"Everyone's invited, so I'd hardly call this 'crashing'."

"Trifles. It's the thought that counts." He held out his ring-covered hand to her and said, "Shall we dance?"

Cinderella started to reach for it, only to hesitate just as quickly. She'd said yes, but the knowledge that they were currently surrounded by just about everyone she'd ever known hit her hard. Still, she wasn't about to go back on her word so easily. Tentatively, she took his hand with her own gloved one. He put the other on her back, pulling her flush against him. In that moment, she knew with absolute certainty that every pair of eyes in the room had turned on them.

As the music started up again, she quickly realized that this wasn't like it was with Charming at all. No, this was something else entirely. Gone was the soft grace of that first waltz and every one since. This was too close, too fast. She felt her heart hammering in her chest as they whirled across the floor. At first, she could barely keep up with him and had to repeatedly look down to avoid tripping over her own feet. Before long, however, she realized that this was just as much a duel as the one on Isla Tesoro's beach had been. The instant she came to that conclusion, everything changed. This time she rode with the rhythm instead of being carried along in the tune. If she was being honest with herself, it wasn't bad. Just different. So very different.

As he dipped her she said with a breathless, disbelieving laugh, "I didn't know you could dance."

"I'm sure there's plenty you don't know about me," Jack whispered in her ear as he pulled her back to her feet.

"I'm sure," she echoed, suddenly feeling very strange. Her head was spinning faster than she was and all she could see was his dark eyes. For a moment, she thought she might just drown in them.

She'd figured that she wouldn't ever truly fall for those infamous charms of his. That it was just frustration, fascination, or curiosity that kept driving her in his direction. That she was walking into whatever was happening with her eyes wide open, and that she could hold her own. Now she wasn't so sure.

A tiny voice in her head seemed to say that she had fallen for him, and fallen hard. She immediately tried to shove the thought aside. The idea was absurd. What she felt wasn't love. She'd been in love with Charming once, and it couldn't be the same thing. It certainly didn't feel the same, not at all. If her love for her Prince had been starlight, this was fire. It was a tempest. It was a raw ache inside her chest. It was far too much for her to comprehend. And yet…

Was this love?

Cinderella realized that they'd stopped moving. She hadn't been able to tell at first; the world still seemed to be spinning. The music was playing, the other couples waltzed like a whirlwind around them, but both of them stood still in the eye of the storm. Jack's gaze was on her, and her alone. Looking back at him, she felt like someone had reached inside her and was slowly, but surely, squeezing her heart in their grip. The truth came crashing down on her with the force of an avalanche: the Princess had actually fallen in love with a pirate.

She pulled away from him just as quickly as if she'd been burned. Even though she took several shaking, gulping breaths, she didn't seem to be able to get enough air.

"I have… I have to…"

She couldn't think straight. Gripping her skirts, she turned and ran, pushing her way through the other dancers and the surrounding crowd as she did. The other characters voiced their indignation, but she ignored them as she hurried out of the Great Hall. Not even the worried calling of her name from several people made her stop.

Cinderella kept running until she found herself back outside the castle's entrance. She stumbled to an abrupt stop and doubled over, gasping for breath. Putting her face in her hands, she struggled to get herself back under control. Her shaking fingertips dug into her temples. What was wrong with her? It was hard enough just figuring out who she was anymore. After all, she'd just run away from yet another ball, but both shoes were still firmly on her feet. She didn't need to be dealing with… this as well.

Aurora was wrong. She should've just stayed home.