*Elizabeth's POV*

After the kiss, Zuko and I had been kind of avoiding each other, since it was super awkward to be around each other. Toph had been acting strange, too, towards both me and Zuko. 

Each day, the meeting seemed to get shorter and shorter. It really seemed hopeless, and the tension thickened the longer we were stuck here.

Speaking of where we were, something felt weird. I couldn't pinpoint what exactly, but the place we were in felt more active. More alive. I wanted to ask Armelle about it, but I wasn't sure if I should.

As I was walking back to my room from another unproductive meeting, the ground shifted under me, under my feet.

"What...?" I looked down, but snapped my head up when I heard Zuko's voice. He was running towards me from the meeting room, and he stopped in front of me.

"Elizabeth, I have to tell you something I found out-" he was cut off by the ground shaking again. "Why is the floor-" he was interrupted again as the floor moved.

After a few moments, it stopped, leaving us standing there in silence. What was happening?

Suddenly, there was a large crash from beneath us, and the floor caved in! Zuko's hand gripped mine as we fell into darkness. Somewhere while falling, I lost consciousness. 

My mind drifted back into awareness, and half of my body felt very cold and wet, and there were goosebumps all over me. Why was I so cold? 

I groaned, opening my eyes. I could see Zuko laying a few feet away from me, most of his body up to his neck in water. Water? Sitting up, I saw that from the waist down, I was also in water. The water was lapping gently up on the sand, and I blinked in confusion. 

After pulling my legs out of the water, I waterbended the wetness out of my clothes, and then pulled Zuko out of the water. He was still knocked out, making it easier for me to get the water out of his clothes. 

Sighing, I sat down, looking at Zuko. The memories of him kissing me made heat come to my face. Did that mean he felt the same way about me? I couldn't stop thinking about it...

I leaned closer to him. His face was peaceful, his breathing even. My gaze traveled down to his lips, which were slightly opened. I went closer, my face almost touching his. I wanted to kiss him...

Before I could get closer, he shifted, and made a mumbling sound. He was awake?! I quickly moved away from him, sitting back where I was and trying to look inconspicuous. His eyes fluttered open, and he turned his head to me. He blinked a few times. furrowing his eyebrow. (A/N- His eyebrow. One eyebrow, right? The scar? Hahah... No. Sorry) 

"Elizabeth?" He muttered, then suddenly widened his eyes. (A/N- one eye? How wide could his other eye even go? Oh, it's happened in some episodes. But I've been contemplating this...) He shot up, standing to his feet. I quickly arose, and he stopped for a moment, looking woozy. "Where... where are we?"

I put my arms on him to steady him. "Slow down. You stood up too fast. Wait a sec and pull yourself together. Breathe." He took deep breaths, and I removed my hands when he looked more steady. "That's better."

"How are you so calm?!" he suddenly stomped his foot. I almost rolled my eyes. After being around him so much, I had gotten used to him getting randomly angry at little things. Well, this wasn't so little...

"I'm taking one thing at a time. Now that we are both conscious and well, I shall now proceed onto freaking out. Wait a moment." I spun around, observing our surroundings. We were on the shore of who-knows-where, and there was a large forest some ways off the beach. The body of water we had been in was a very large lake, and there were mountains on the other side of it. The water in the lake looked quite strange, though- it was very light colored, almost white, and had a metallic tinge to it. I could see a sort of rock in the center of the lake, and it looked like metal. How did we get on the shore in the first place? 

When I looked up to the sky, my mouth hung open. What. The. Heck. 

There was... Well, space. It looked like a picture from  a deep-space telescope, or a sci-fi TV show. It looked like a big nebula or something, with bright stars and clouds of colorful gases. It was breathtaking and beautiful, but frightening at the same time. We were in space. On some sort of different planet. Where was the house we were just in, then? 

After a few minutes of both Zuko and I gazing at our surroundings, he crossed his arms. "Are you freaking out yet?"

"Yes," I croaked, my eyes still wide. "How did we get here? Why did this happen? Where the heck are we?!" 

"Calm down." 

"Calm down my butt! Well, you're the one who was waiting for me to freak out, and now you're telling me to calm down!"

Zuko chuckled. "'Calm down my butt'? What does that even mean?" He shook his head, a small smile on his face. "I won't question it."

Sighing, I plopped down in the sand. This place felt weird. In the house, the place felt alive, but out here, it felt even more alive. I could sense something...

"I need to think some. Let's take a walk." I stood up, and started walking towards the woods. 

"Why? Where are you going? Wait!" I ignored Zuko's protests, and moments later, he was walking beside me. I could feel him looking at me, and I kept my gaze forward. He sighed in defeat.

I didn't know where exactly I was going, but I just kept walking. After trudging up a hill, we came to a small clearing. There was some ground with an interesting pattern on it that looked kind of familiar.

"Huh." I muttered, stepping onto the rock. Was it rock? I didn't feel a connection to it.... I stepped back onto the normal ground, and earthbended some rock out of the ground, then let it drop. I went back to the other ground, and tried to earthbend the rock. It didn't bend!

"No. No, it can't be." I shook my head, remembering the episode of Avatar. 

"What? What can't be?" Zuko stepped onto the rock, coming up towards me.

"This place... This stone! I know where we are! And why it felt alive! And why we ended up here!" I was almost yelling with excitement from the realization.

"Okay, then tell me!" 

"We are on a Lion Turtle." I stated. Zuko looked at me in disbelief.

"And how do you know that?"

"This rock that isn't rock. The pattern. Okay, in one of the episodes of the show Avatar: The Last Airbender...." I stopped. "No, you wouldn't know... You guys didn't get that far." I groaned, rubbing my face. "Well, I guess you guys will never get that far now. You guys were hiding on Ember Island, and stuff happened, but let's get to the point. You were going to leave since you had to get to stop some airships, and Aang disappeared. You looked everywhere for him, and even got June with her shearshoe. Blah blah blah, more stuff happened. But Aang had ended up on a Lion Turtle, the last in existence, and he found rock that wasn't earth just like this. Ta-da. And I kept feeling like this place in general was alive."

"And why are we here, then?"

"The Lion Turtle wants to talk to us. Or wants us to be up here for a reason, at least."

"Are you sure of this? How do you know that you're right?" He had a skeptical look, but I could see in his eyes that he knew it was true.

"The stuff I just explained. And I can feel it." I let out a laugh. "A Lion Turtle! In space! This is epic."

"Well, what do we do now, then?" 

"I guess we could just wait until something happens. Set up camp. If the Lion Turtle wanted us up here for a reason, that reason ought to show itself eventually." I nodded. "Okay, we can set up camp near the beach. I'll go see if the water is salt water, and you can start a fire. I'll attempt to make a rock tent." I started walking back towards the beach, and Zuko silently followed. Every now and then, he would pick up some sticks that he saw for the fire. Hmm, I thought. He's being strangely quiet. I wonder what's wrong. My mind went to the kiss, and my face flushed. Maybe that's what was on his mind. 

It took a little while for camp to be set up. I had some trouble getting the tents done, but I got it eventually. The water from the lake was fresh, thankfully, but I was still wary of drinking it. Didn't these people boil it or something to get the bad bacteria out? Did they even know what bacteria was? What could I boil it with? 

Oh I earthbended some rock into a ball, and then made it into a bowl. After washing it out in the lake, I filled it with water and brought it to the fire Zuko had made. How was I supposed to heat it. Sighing, I sat down in defeat. 

I had made two rock chairs around the fire for both of us. I had never know that bending was so useful for almost everything! How didn't I know I was a bender?

"Well, it's starting to get dark." I broke the silence. "I wonder where this place is getting the light? There isn't a sun up there, and it's still getting dark as if a sun is setting. This Lion Turtle must have a weird way of lighting day and night," I said thoughtfully, looking at the sky.

"Space will probably look better without the light," Zuko added. 

"Yeah. That nebula will look brilliant." And we were right. The whole sky seemed was lit up with the spectacular display of space. 

After a little while, I got tired, so i retreated to my tent. Even though I was tired, I couldn't fall asleep. I just had too much on my mind. Sighing, I left the tent, and found Zuko standing on the beach alone.

"Hey," I said, standing next to him. "What's on your mind?" 

He turned to me, with that look in his amber eyes that he had before he kissed me before. I turned to face him, looking him in the eyes.

His hand went up to my face, and his fingers brushed my cheek. I could feel a blush creeping up as our faces came closer and closer. Was this happening again? 

Our lips came in contact with each other, but it was softer than the first time. He wrapped his arms around my waist, and I put my arms around his neck.

I like this, I thought, it feels right.

When we broke the kiss, our foreheads against each other, he spoke softly. "I love you."

"I love you, too..." I muttered, butterflies multiplying in my stomach.

We were now laying on the sand, our bodies close to each other, my hand on his chest. His body was nice and warm against the coolness of the night. It didn't  take long for me to drift into a peaceful sleep, with Zuko's words echoing through my head.

"I love you."

________________________________________

Mwahahahahahaha! Yes! 

Oh, I love Zukabeth. 

That was one of the most satisfying things to write.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

~Nat