I was asked last time I posted this what was going on at Sean's apartment during this chapter, since the narrative focuses on Liz.

I came up with this (you may have to remove some spaces): http: / / img. photobucket. com/albums/v214/Weyrgirl/sleepover. jpg

Still don't own Avatar and probably never will. Also don't own NYC, but I'm working on that one...

~Taidine

Chapter Eleven : Of Perceptions and Parents

Sean, apparently, lived in my building. As I was getting closer to home I began to suspect this, and when he stopped outside the tall brick apartment, I just kind of goggled. This was stretching credibility to the limits. Unless the portal deliberately gave people identities that put them close together, so they would find each other… If it hadn't been for me, though, how would Sokka and Ty Lee have been tied to the rest of them?

Maybe it was all my own delusion. That, although I had chosen to ignore it, was the most logical explanation, but if I decided to act on that assumption, I would have to betray the Gaang and go back to my humdrum, moderately-wealthy-urban-honors-student life, which was just boring. So I promised myself when this was all over, I would take a break from Avatar and spend some time examining my sanity, then buzzed us in to the building.

"I'll get the elevator," said Toph, walking quickly across the lobby and hitting the 'up' button.

"I'll stay with Liz," Zuko volunteered.

Huh? Didn't he hate me?

"Okay," said Sokka. "I can fit everyone else. Sorry, Katara, you might have to sleep on the floor."

"Figures."

The elevator came, and Sokka, Toph, Katara, and Aang piled in. "Meet you down here tomorrow morning," said Aang to Zuko and me. "As early as possible."

At the last moment, Ty Lee took a look at Zuko and jumped into the elevator as well. "Meet you upstairs," she told me, waving. The elevator doors closed.

I waited a moment, then hit the 'up' button again and turned to Zuko. His expression was carefully neutral, his golden eyes narrow. "What's this about?" I asked him.

The doors binged open, and we stepped inside. "Fifth floor," I added, but he hit the button for the fourteenth, the highest floor in the building.

"We need to talk," he said hoarsely.

"Are you going to explain why you have a problem with me?" My inner fangirl was screaming something about being alone in an elevator with Zuko, but my voice was steady.

"I… don't have a problem with you," he said. Well, that was nice; I waited in silence for him to continue. "I was wondering – at the kangaroo place. On the boat."

He stopped, gathering his thoughts again. I tried to figure out where he was going with this.

"You just remind me so much of-" he tried again hurriedly, as if to get it out before he thought better of it.

The elevator hit the top floor, and the doors went 'bing' again and opened; he hit the 'doors close' button, then the 'five' on the panel above it, and took a deep breath.

"This had better work," he told the elevator doors as they closed. Then he turned to me (still rather baffled), and took my face in his hands, and kissed me.

Confession – I have never been kissed before. I have never had a boyfriend. I have never particularly wanted one, either boyfriend or kiss. I mean, tongue wrestling. Ew. But this was somehow different. Zuko just touched his lips to mine, gentle, almost as though he were trying to give me something precious – a breath, a piece of soul, a fragment of warmth that lodged itself deep inside me – through the contact. Flower petal light, like cobwebs, like…

He released me. I opened my eyes, expecting to see the ceiling of my room; it was that much like a dream. But he was still there, his golden eyes wide and vulnerable, with a kind of hopeful longing that made my heart ache. My brain kicked into gear, trying to figure out what it was he was expecting. But there was only one person he looked at with that kind of expression.

Mai, I thought.

Of course. A kiss had jolted Sokka; Zuko must have thought the same might be effective in bringing out his girlfriend. Was I really that much like Mai? It was at once rewarding and a little disturbing – and infinitely tempting. I was sure if I wanted to, I could do a passable imitation of Mai; I knew her voice and mannerisms well enough from the show. Right now, I could say his name with just the right inflection of mingled exasperation and affection, and I knew he would believe me. He might even kiss me again.

But how long could I keep it up? As soon as there was a battle, I'd be found out. I wasn't Mai – if that hadn't jolted me, nothing would – and for Zuko's sake, I wouldn't lie.

"I'm sorry," I said earnestly. The doors of the elevator opened, and I turned quickly so I didn't have to see his expression crumple.

Ty Lee was standing in front of the door to my apartment. "What took you so long?" she asked slyly.

"Someone jerk's moving in on the second floor. Decided to take the passenger elevator," I lied adeptly. "Why are you out here?" I felt Zuko come up behind me, but didn't acknowledge him

"I'm scared of your parents," she admitted, putting a finger to her lips. "There's a bad feeling coming from in there. Shh. What time is it?"

I reached into my pocket for my cell phone. Two pieces of crumpled plastic casing met my fingers; with a surge of dread, I pulled them free. The phone was snapped clean in half, the display quite dead; I must have fallen on it when I jumped off the ferry and hit Katara's ice. Lovely. So my parents had probably been calling me to check in for hours. "Stay out here," I told Zuko, still unwilling to look at him. "I'll let you in when it's safe."

I opened the door. "Hello?"

My mother came flying at me like a Fury. "Do you know what time it is?!" she screeched.

"No…" I admitted, but that had apparently been a rhetorical question.

"Eight o'clock!" There had been subway traffic on the way back. "I've been calling you since four! Why didn't you pick up? What were you thinking, Elizabeth Rever?"

My father appeared behind her, cradling the house phone to his chest; when he saw me, he lifted it up and murmured something into the earpiece. He didn't join Mom in shouting at me, but did look disappointed.

"My cell phone broke," I said. Ty Lee cowered behind me.

"Don't tell me your friends don't have cell phones you could have used!" Mom shouted. "And your cousin! And! I can't even talk to you right now!" She headed for her room.

My dad hung up the phone and looked at me very seriously. "She's been like that for hours," he said gravely. "You do understand why, right?"

Well, there was nothing for it. Father sat me down and gave me a long lecture on why I shouldn't do irresponsible things like this. I nodded penitently. He told me I was essentially on house arrest tomorrow. I bit my lip and nodded penitently again. He told me dinner was on the stove, and he had an early meeting, so he was going to bed now, but if Mom found out I had stayed up late, she would probably impound me until I was eighteen and it became illegal. I nodded penitently. He finally left.

I assumed that by now, Zuko had probably gone upstairs to join the rest of the Gaang at Sokka's apartment; after all, now that he knew I wasn't Mai, he couldn't possibly want anything with me. So when Dad left, I walked into the kitchen to heat up dinner for me and Ty Lee.

"Aren't you going to let Zuzu in?" she asked innocently.

"He's not there," I muttered. If I was grounded, how was I going to help the Avatar crew find the right place in the Bronx? I had been thinking about it on the train, and I was pretty sure that by 'the second train,' the Kraken meant the two train, but I hadn't had a chance to mention it. Oh well; they had Sokka now, he could Google it.

"Yes he is," she said, peering through the peephole, one eye squinted shut.

I dropped the plate of chicken, rice and peas I had been holding, all but ran across the living room, and jerked open the door. "Ow," said Ty Lee, not quite pulling her head back fast enough to avoid the swinging portal.

Zuko was standing outside, looking as though he didn't know quite what to do with himself. "Um..." he looked over his shoulder at the wall behind him, sheepish. "I don't know what apartment the rest of them are in."

"Do you want to stay here?" I asked bluntly.

"Yeah… I'm not used to big slumber parties."

I stepped aside, inviting him in with a slightly extended hand.

We ate dinner silently, my dad's cooking – he's quite good when he puts his mind to it. Ty Lee went up to the guest room where she's been staying, and Zuko crashed on one of the couches in the living room. I cleaned up the kitchen, unpacked my bag, then repacked it, brushed out my hair; I was reluctant to pass the door to my parent's room. More than that, I was afraid to leave Zuko. I was worried… okay, I don't know exactly what I was worried about, but he looked so peaceful and helpless sleeping. I felt strangely protective.

So I kind of fell asleep on the other living room couch.

I woke to an inarticulate scream from my mother.

Groggily, I lifted my head off the cushion of the couch, thinking in a dull, sleep fogged way: why am I in the living room? Who's that on the other couch? Why is my mom so upset?

"What is going on here! Elizabeth! … Explain yourself!" she demanded.

Zuko shot bolt upright, a flame springing into being above his open palm. Okay, my mom was inconvenient at the moment and vexingly overprotective, but I didn't want her to get toasted; I lurched to my feet and got between them. "Mom, it's just Zuko."

Not brilliant, but keep in mind I had just woken up. Some part of my brain that was still dreaming thought somehow this would be okay.

"I'll… just leave then…" said Zuko, flushing red, and made for the door.

"No, you…" My mom sounded strangled. Zuko broke into a run and managed to make it out the apartment door, so after she took two furious steps after him, she realized that wasn't going to work and rounded on me. "Is that who you spent the day with? I can't believe you would do this, Elizabeth. I just… just can't. How long have you been seeing him? What else haven't you told me?"

Ah. My parents have a pretty strict 'no boyfriends until you're eighteen' policy, which seems downright ridiculous to me and any of my peers I've ever told it to, but that did explain why she was foaming at the mouth. It was one thing to come home late; it was another to bring a stranger into the house; but the idea that he might be a boyfriend must have magnified the offense a hundredfold. At least we weren't on the same couch, I thought with a streak of malevolence.

"He's not my boyfriend, Mom," I said. I wondered if she picked up the faint trace of regret in my voice. Probably not.

"That's a moot point. How did you think it was okay to invite someone over without asking me, without me even knowing the person? He could have…"

I looked away from her withering stare; Ty Lee was padding down the hallway. "Where's Zuzu?" she asked innocently.

"Elizabeth!" my mother called. I looked back at her. "Did you say Zuko?"

Oh dear. Me talking about Avatar to the family was about to come back and bite me, hard. "No," I said, straightfaced. "It's Zen. From school."

My mother looked worried. "Sometimes I worry about you, Liz. You just live in this… fantasy world." She cupped my chin with her hand. "Is there something you need to talk to me about?"

"No," I said flatly.

"Would you like to explain why you invited someone from school to spend the night without asking?"

"No."

Mom's expression hardened. "You're grounded, Liz. You'll go to your room and stay there until Monday. No phone, no computer. Until you come up with a very good explanation."

I stood, turned, and walked down the hall to my room. Ty Lee and my mother watched me go; the latter took advantage of the former's distraction, and slipped out the door.

I slammed the door to my bedroom shut behind me, petty revenge, and took a seat at the edge of my bed. Looked like that was the end of my adventures with the Gaang.

Well, it had been fun while it lasted.

I closed my eyes.

Tap. Tap.

That was an annoying sound.

Taptap. Tap.

Like rain.

Tap. Tap.

Or rocks being thrown against my window.

Crash!

"Oops," said a small voice from without.