Disclaimer: I do not, and will never, own the characters or world of AtLA.

A/N: An answer to a request from someone who asked me to retell a certain scene from Serpent's Pass from Suki's point of view.

Confused

Everything seemed very clear in that moment.

She could see the way the moonlight traced the edges of his shoulders, reflected smoothly off the back of his blue tunic. The soft scratchy sounds of his footsteps sliding heavily across the stone. The limp, bowed way he walked, as if something was pressing down on him with the weight of tons.

There were two warring parts of her; the one that kept her feet rooted to the ground, seething with confusion and hurt and sorrow, and the stubborn, instinctive part that wanted to run flat out after him, to seize him by his shoulders and wrench him around and demand another response.

But the memory of his eyes stopped her.

The most incredible shade of blue, smooth and cool as polished stones, but warm enough to make her feel unbalanced whenever she looked right at him. And tonight…

Full of the moon's reflection, and moonlight itself. Gentle with care as he explained his over-protectiveness to her. Mirrors of the same uncertain, hopeful, racing feelings in her. Full of indignation at the idea that there was someone else, and then soft at the sudden realization of whom she really meant. For a second, hopeful longing. And then…

Closed, like a slowly shut door. Pained, sorrowful, full of a sudden piercing grief that shocked her with the intensity and suddenness with which it appeared. His eyes, so close a moment ago, withdrew as though something had burned him.

"I can't."

Those two words could mean anything. For a second, she was inclined to be angry, but something about his eyes, his face, cooled that anger in a second. He looked so weary all of a sudden.

"I'm sorry."

With anyone else, she wouldn't have used those words. She didn't quite know what she was apologizing for, even. But his eyes were so pained, as if something really was hurting him. And however else he might annoy her sometimes, the last thing she ever wanted to do was cause him pain, just because she had made a stupid assumption based on what she thought they had.

"No, you shouldn't be."

That surprised her. So he wasn't rejecting her? Or did he just not want to hurt her feelings? She leaned back, feeling more confused than she had ever felt in her life, which unnerved her further. She was a warrior…warriors were supposed to have cool heads and collected emotions. Warriors were supposed to be in control of their minds over their hearts at all times. She wasn't being a very good warrior just now.

But she caught one more look at his eyes as he turned slowly to walk away. The moonlight flared in his brilliant blue eyes, and she saw a new emotion written there…wistfulness. As though he was leaving something behind that he didn't want to. And that something was her.

So he was divided just as much as she was. It made her feel a little better, knowing that there was a part of him that wanted to come running back to her as surely as she wanted to run to him.

But she had to wonder something, with a little ripple of pain somewhere in her chest.

It was the memory of his pleading blue eyes that kept her standing there, looking after his retreating back.

But what memory was strong enough to make him keep walking away?