Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or any of its magnificent characters.
A/N: I just randomly came up with this and had to write it down. This is just a quick one-shot about Zuko and Aang's one moment of eye contact during "The Storm", and everything that they could have been thinking. Please read and review.
If Aang had held the gaze a moment longer, he would have seen something other than anger in those golden eyes: hopelessness. He would have seen a scar far deeper than the mark upon the prince's face. Defeat. Once again, Zuko had been so terribly close- yet still, not close enough. Never close enough to capture the avatar, and to once and for all end his three years of searching and suffering. In that one moment, Zuko's gaze held a thousand words he could never say. A thousand cries he could never utter. In that one moment, his future- a hope that was the only thing keeping his flickering inner flame alive- passed him by. If Aang had looked harder, he would have seen much more than a raging firebender. In that moment, he would have seen the weak Zuko, ready beyond doubt to give up but unable to do it. He would have seen the old Zuko, too aged by the trials of his still young life. He would have seen the broken Zuko, he would have fallen to his knees if not for clinging to all he had left: a shred of dignity in the face of failure. But Aang turned away, towards escape, leaving behind those tortured eyes.