Authors Note: So this has gotten the most votes so far, so this is what I have started working on. If there is anything in my profile that you might want to see posted, vote for it. It's a new poll, so if you voted before, you can vote again.

Also, because this is a oneshot/drabble series, if there are any requests out there, feel free to send them in. It's summer vacation right now, so I certainly have lots of free time!

Don't Tell Me You Love Me If You Don't

She is glad. Not only for the darkness that hides her bruised and bleeding body, but also for the quiet that keeps her sane. She can not imagine talking to him right now; not after what he did to her—to them. She closes her eyes, and tries to imagine being in a place other than the place she's at right now; anywhere but here. She tries to tune out the emotions that hold her to the place she's trapped. She tries to go into her mind to a place where she isn't in a horrible pain. She can't stay here like this much longer, she'll die, and she knows it. She also knows she could heal herself if she really wanted to. It wouldn't be hard to get some water. She just doesn't want to heal herself, she wants to suffer—it's a self-inflicted torture for her reckless behavior.

She thinks about her friend and how she put him here. They took him away to a high security prison cell. She knew why—logically it made sense—she just wished it didn't sound so hopeless. She doesn't like to think about her friend tied up, and only being kept alive so the Fire Nation doesn't have to do the whole search again. She is absolutely sure that they're torturing him—punishing him—for all the pain it caused them all to search for him. She can't believe that she did this to her best friend in the whole entire world. What kind of a friend does this to a person they consider to be a friend? What was she thinking?

The thing was, she wasn't thinking.

She waits for the right moment. She waits until they're both fast asleep. When they are, she quietly gets out of her sleeping bag. She walks through the forest robotically. She has been doing this for so many nights, now, that it has become robotic. She goes to the beach and finds the small rowboat that she uses to get to his ship. It's always hidden, and always in the same place. She smiles when she sees the bouquet of daises in the small boat. She's used to his gifts, and isn't necessarily surprised, but she always likes to see what he got her this time, because it's always different.

She waterbends herself to the ship, then waterbends herself up the some number of feet it takes to reach the deck of the ship.

As she looks around, she is surprised for the second time that night. Well, she did start to notice before, but she never thought anything of it. Now it would be hard to not notice it. When she first started coming, she would always be defensive, sneaky, and cautious. She was quiet and shy, and it took her a long time to trust him.

She remembers having to sneak past many guards and as she began to trust him, the number of guards dwindled. Now, there were no guards. She remembers bring a small knife in the beginning. She had only actually used it on him once, and that was the first night. After that she only used it in a teasing manner. She doesn't carry the knife anymore because she doesn't need to. She trusts him.

She makes her way through the corridors and to his bedroom. She opens the door like always; quietly and carefully. He isn't there when she enters, but this is normal. She walks over to his bed and pulls the silk sheets away. She lies down and waits for him to return. She always falls asleep, every single time, but it doesn't seem to bother either of the two teenagers.

She always wakes up when he enters the room. She always seems to sense his presence, that's how connected they are. She never lets on that she's awake; she likes it when he thinks he's waking her up. She likes how she can hear him sigh from happiness when he sees her. She likes how he'll walk over to the bed, sit on a chair that is by the bed, and watch her sleep. She likes how he'll reach over by her face and wipe away any lose strands of hair. She likes how he takes his right index finger and traces around her face. Then she smiles sleepily up at him, and pretends to awaken.

"Hey," she murmurs. She wipes her eyes, even though she's only been sleeping for a few hours at the most.

"Hey," he says back. He extends his hand to her and she looks at him questioningly. "We're doing something a little different this time." He tells her.

"I trust you." She states and puts her hand in his. She gets out of his bed and follows him out back to the deck.

"Where are all the guards and soldiers?" she questions.

"I told them that they couldn't come out here tonight. I said I had some important things to do and no one was to interfere."

"So I'm important?"

"Very," he whispers in her ear.

His voice makes a shiver run up and down her spine. His single word implied so much that it was hard for her to comprehend. He leads her to the edge and holds her in front of him. She giggles. "Why are we out here?" she wonders. He takes one of his hands away from her waist and moves away a lose strand of hair.

"We're looking at the stars." He answers her. She squirms around in his grip until she is facing him.

"The stars?"

He blushes slightly, but she can't see it in the dark of the night. He turns her around again and rests his head on hers. "Yes," he whispers, "The stars."

She relaxes in his grip and lets him hold her. She tilted her head back so she could see him. "When I was little," she says, "I always watched the stars. I would lie awake at night and look at them and dream. I would dream about what my life would be like, and who I was going to marry, and I dreamed about the kids I wanted to have. I dreamed about everything that I couldn't have, but wanted anyway."

"You don't have to dream anymore." He whispers, "You can have all of that. I'll give you anything you want."

"All I want is you." She tells him. She sighs of happiness and closes her eyes. She doesn't want this moment to ever end.

She starts to think about her brother, who was badly wounded during battle. She wonderers what happened to him. Did they capture him too? Is he still alive? Is he in some cell, slowly dying, or was their captor nice enough to get him some medical help? She wondered where he was if he was in a cell. She figures their captor was smart enough to not put them close enough to communicate, but how far apart was he? She hoped—wherever he was—he was alright. She wouldn't be able to take it if she found out later that he was dead. She wonders what her brother would say to her if he knew why this all happened in the first place. Her brother has warned her against him for so long now. Not really against having a romance with him, she figures he thought that was so far out of the realm of possibilities that he didn't even have to get into it.

Apparently, he was wrong, for she did see him romantically—well she thought it was a romantic relationship, he obviously didn't—and she got them into this mess.

Lastly she thought about their earthbending companion. Yes, they weren't the best of friends, but they were friends. And yes, they didn't always get along but the earthbender was still her friend, and she honestly cared about her. When they were all led onto the ship, she had been carried. She—along with all of those that had been captured—wondered how they knew that the earthbender was blind, but could 'see' through her earthbending.

The young waterbender wonders if maybe, just maybe, she had told him when she snuck off to meet him. No, she concludes, I wouldn't do that. She knows better.

The young girl sits on a cot against the cold and slimy metal cell wall and wonders. "How could I have been so stupid?" she asks herself, trying to figure out where she made her mistake, what she did wrong, when she let her guard down. She realizes that there wasn't just one time. It just became when it started and when it started, it just escalated into what it had become…up until his betrayal. She sighs in frustration. "How could I possibly have been so stupid?" she repeats.

"You're not stupid," comes a voice from the prison hallway. No, not him, she pleads, anyone but him…I can't deal with him right now…I can't…. She suppresses a whimper. He can't know what she's feeling. She won't let him. "You did nothing wrong."

"I trusted you." She replies coldly, hiding, successfully, the emotions that keep trying to be let out; to be explained and explored.

"Were you wrong to do so?" was his cool, calm, and collected reply. How could he be so calm, she wonders, how does he stay so calm with me always?

"You lied to me," she responds. The teenager winces as she pushes herself up and off the uncomfortable cot. She walks up to the bars that separate her from him, and she strains to see him. There is no light in the prison of this ship—a form of torture, she concludes—and she can't see him. She knows he can make fire instantly, he just doesn't. She lets her words sink in his mind for a moment before she speaks again.

"I…I…I can't," she stutters. "I can't do this, we can't do this." She pushes herself away from him and takes a few steps away in an effort to keep herself from giving in. She wants to. She always has, but she can't. She can't do exactly the thing she knows she shouldn't do. It goes against everything she has ever been told. It contradicts everything she has ever believed. It's wrong…but so incredibly right.

"Why not?" He asks patiently. It's like he knows she'll give in. It's like he knows she can't resist him. The thing neither of them can figure out is: does he really like her? Is she really important to him, or is she just a game? He moves toward her again, because he knows it gets to her when he does that.

"Why not?" She repeats. "Why not?" She's starting to become hysterical, but she couldn't care less. "It's wrong. My friends…if they knew…" There was no need to finish the sentence. They both knew what would happen. It was inevitable at the very least.

Neither one talks for a long time. She finally turns to him. "You have to promise me something." She insists.

"What?" he wants to know.

"I'm telling you right now, this is going to be a hard choice for you. I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't promise. This will tell me how much you're willing to sacrifice to be with me…" she stops and waits for a reaction.

"Just tell me, I'll do anything." He's begging now, but he doesn't care. He wants to prove to her that he is serious. That she's not just a game to him.

"Anything?" she repeats. She sighs sadly. "You have to promise me that you won't try to capture me or my friends. You have to promise to leave us alone…if—" The look on his face was easy to read. "No, that doesn't mean you can't see me, we would continue on as we have been if you promise. If you don't promise, I'm leaving, and I'll probably never come back of my own free will."

She can see him weigh his options. He looks as if he's caught between a rock and a hard place. Did she just make a mistake? Does she really think he'd give up his search on the Avatar for her? She wishes she could take the ultimatum back. She wishes she could say that she didn't mean it, but she can't.

"I promise." He says after a long silence. "I promise you that I won't try to capture you or any of your friends, or your brother. I promise to leave them all alone."

She looks up at him. Her bright sapphire eyes are sparkling. She really didn't think he would do it. "Really? Do you mean it?"

Now it's his turn to laugh. "Yes, I mean it."

She wants him to really understand where she's coming from. She wants him to feel what she feels. She wants him to suffer as she is suffering. She wants him to question everyone and everything. She wants him to doubt everything and everyone until he's at the brink of insanity. She wants him to know exactly what he feels for her—whether it's good or bad for her. Most of all, she wants him to understand why she wants to hate him right now—even if she can't go through with it—she wants him to think that she's at least going to try to go through with it.

She forces herself to stop thinking about what was, and think about what is now. She pushes away all of the feelings that come to her when she thinks of the Prince, and focuses on the one thing that she can't immediately get over. "You lied to me," she says, "I trusted you with everything I had. I trusted you with my heart, and you lied to me." She looks forward, where she's sure he is. "I was ready to tell my friends about us, and risk my brother's reaction, for YOU, and you lie to me!" It's the truth, she was about to tell everyone that she was seeing him romantically, she was trying to think of what she was going to say right before she fell asleep.

She's angry, that much they both know. "Everything we shared, every little moment, every little touch, was a lie—a ploy to get the Avatar…and I trusted you." In her mind she goes over every moment she ever spent with him—romantic or otherwise. She tries to justify her actions—her betrayal—so she can explain them to her brother and friends. Try as she might, she can't seem to justify her actions. There is no way to do so. She betrayed them, plain and simple, and there was no way to take it back now…no possible way.

"It wasn't a lie." He mutters. His voice is low and he almost sounds…regretful? Could it be…was it possible…was there more to their relationship then what he showed?

"Then what, exactly, was it?" she screams. "You said you wouldn't do this. You said you wouldn't do this to me…You promised me you wouldn't do this, and you turn around and do it anyway. You promised!" She knows she's yelling, but she can't care less right now. She hates him for doing this to her, but she hates herself for believing in him when she knows not to trust him. "Did you think about me at all? Did you think about me at all when you had us dragged to your ship? Did you think about me at all when you placed me in this disgusting prison cell?"

A tear falls down her face and she hurriedly wipes it away. "I believed you. Against my better judgment, and against everything I've ever been told, I trusted you and you lied to me. Did you ever consider keeping your promise? From the start were you planning on breaking it—breaking any shred of trust we had. Why did you even bother? Why did you try so hard to get me to trust you, if you were going to lie to me? What was the need?"

"I didn't plan on it. I didn't plan on any of it." He shuffles his feet uncomfortably. It seems as if he, too, would rather be anywhere but where he is.

"So what? You didn't plan on getting me to trust you, and when I did, you didn't plan on attacking us in our sleep! Do you really expect me to believe that it was all on a whim? That it was all a part of some plan and that no one was supposed to get hurt?"

"Yes!" he hisses loudly. "That's exactly what I expect you to believe." He shakes the bars that separate the two, causing a loud noise to ring through the part of the prison.

She laughs at this. A mental picture of a certain boy runs through her mind, someone else she trusted who betrayed her in the end as well. "It's funny, really, I actually loved you." She walks slowly away from him and backs up all the way to the wall. Tears start to cascade down her face like a waterfall. "The only problem now is that I can't stop. After everything you've done to me and the people I care about and love, I can't stop loving you." She sniffles, then forces out a short laugh. "I know better, I really do, you've just proved that I can't trust you, and yet, I still love you." She pauses for a moment to catch her breath and to collect herself. This was really hard on her. "What have you done to me?" she asks desperately. The silence that follows is deafening.

"Come here." He demands.

There is a moment of silence of which she is hesitant, and then she gets up from the ground slowly, and walks to where she thinks he is. She doesn't say anything, she has nothing to say. She wipes the tears away, and then waits.

"I lov—" he starts, but she interrupts. She can't let him finish that sentence. He has no idea what he'd be getting himself into if he said it.

"Don't…please," she pleads, "Don't torture me like that. I can't…I can't handle it. Don't say you love me if you don't. I can't deal with it…not now anyway. Not after what you did…" She's desperate and she hopes that he'll say it. If he does she'll believed that it's true. If he says that he loves her, everything will be alright.

"I did this because I wanted you with me," he says. "I wanted you with me forever, and I found a way. The Avatar needs to learn firebending, and Uncle and I can teach him. We weren't planning on attacking, but your friends, they didn't know about us, so they assumed…and what could I do? I couldn't tell them the truth. I thought that was something you needed to do. So yes, I suppose I did break the promise."

He looks down at the ground, his hands in his pockets, and fumbles around for something. He grasps the metal tightly in his hands as he pulls it out. Then he unlocks her cell door. "Yes, I broke the promise, and for that I am very sorry, but I promise you now that I'll spend every moment of the rest of my life making up for it. And this, I suppose, is as good a start as any." He hands her the set of keys—the keys holding her friends—and tells her where they are. "I didn't plan on fighting, you have to believe me. I want to help you destroy my father."

She can't see him, can't see the pleading look on his face. "But why?" she asks. "You once told me you'd never turn against your people. What changed your mind?"

"You," he says, "I did this because of you. I love you."

She doesn't want to believe him. She doesn't want him to let her down again. She doesn't want to have to explain to everyone what they've been doing for so long now. She wants to just forget it ever happened. But she just can't. For the first time in her life, her heart overrides her brain. "I love you too," she replies, smiling through her tears.

Author's Note: Isn't that a happy ending? Review and tell me what you think.