#game plan

Ursa tapped her fingers thoughtfully against the table. This script looked fantastic, and the role she was proposed was definitely something she would enjoy exploring. With Zuko already in university and Azula off to that next summer, it was a good time as any to get back into acting full-time. She's been getting a bunch of scripts, directors and producers were trampling all over each other to try to get their movies to be her big screen comeback. Yet so far, only this script truly caught her eye. She will need to sleep on it and give it another read tomorrow though.

She closed the stack of papers and glanced up. Across the table, Ozai was frowning down at his tablet. Must be something about the acquisition of that airline that has been keeping him busy and grumpy. Ursa tilted her head and lifted her foot, nudging his leg under the table.

He did not look up,but she could see the smile on his face. Well, she could convince him to…

"Mother, father, I am home!"

… okay, maybe later.

"In the sitting room, Azula!" Ursa called, turning around in her chair. "The cooking staff plated your dinner and put it in the fridge, you just need to heat it up."

Azula appeared on the threshold, still wearing her cheer uniform, and her sports bag slung over her shoulder. "I ate with the girls already." she said, not entirely apologetically. "We went to the build-your-own ramen bowl place. To celebrate the… routine. It flows more than satisfactory at this point, but we will keep working on it, of course."

Ursa decided not to point out the quick interruption in Azula's words. That was interesting. "And the game, how did that go?"

Her daughter's face scrunched up, as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "The school's team lost."

Azula was not about to say 'we lost'. She hasn't lost a single damn thing and she will not take the lacrosse team's failure upon herself. As far as she was concerned, she hit jackpot.

Ursa sighed when hearing that, looking inquisitively at her. "How is Chan taking it? Were you also with him?"

Azula snorted, a very un-Azula like sound, prompting Ursa to raise an eyebrow. "He was crying over it. However, that is no concern of mine anymore. He cheated on me so I broke up with him.

"Oh my," Ursa stood up, beginning to walk across the room. "Do you need to talk? It's not easy, your first break up."

Azula simply raised a hand to signal her to stop. "Not at all. I feel no emotional impact whatsoever from this." she shrugged. "I'll just take a bath and go to bed. Goodnight to both of you."

Ursa watched thoughtfully as her daughter disappeared in the hallway. There was something there, that she couldn't quite put her finger on. She didn't get the feeling Azula was lying about the heartbreak part but…

"Do I need to spell it out for you?!"

She turned around, looking questioningly at Ozai. He was on his feet too, walking from the end of the table to the edge of the couch, one hand to his ear speaker.

"Yes, that many zeros and what part of 'I am authorizing it without an immediate signature' is unclear? Send the godforsaken payment already, and have the paperwork on my table tomorrow morning, and I'll sign it. Yes. Fine. Good evening."

Ursa raised an eyebrow. "What was that about?"

Her husband took out his earpiece and set it aside, his back still turned to her. "I just made a one million ban donation to the Fire Temple."

She was aware she was gaping, but that seemed like a proportionate reaction. Ozai wasn't even religious. At all.

"Whatever for?" Ursa asked, instead of inquiring if he accidentally got food poisoning or a concussion.

"Because," Ozai whirled around with a huge grin. "All my prayers have been answered!"

He threw his tablet on the couch before pumping a fist into the air and laughing enthusiastically. It reminded Ursa of the times when he would win one of his multi-player video game tournaments. "Finally, she got rid of that good-for-nothing, ambitionless, meathead!"

Ozai was overjoyed. Not because his daughter was going through heartbreak — though judging by her reaction, there was not much, if any, heartbreak to speak of — but because she will <i>finally</i> stop wasting her precious time with that useless boy. And to think that waste of oxygen cheated on her. If this was feudal times, Ozai would have had his head on a spike, and stick it on the Palace's outer walls.

"I know what you're going to say. I shouldn't rejoice because Azula broke up with her boyfriend. But darling, you surely understand my point. That Chan boy was not good enough for her." Not that any boy was, if Ozai had to be honest. "He was excelling at nothing, and even the one thing he was supposed to be good at, he still failed. Our daughter is too good for such low effort ball and chain to bring her excellency down."

Ozai sighed dramatically, hoping his little speech was enough to mellow Ursa out. To his surprise, when he turned around, instead of a disappointed scowl, he saw his wife holding two glasses and a bottle of vintage Chindonnay.

He blinked in surprise. Not that he was going to complain about his lovely wife smiling so brightly, despite his confusion.

"I thought you liked him."

She rolled her eyes. "Now, like is a pretty strong word, dear. I didn't really."

"But," Ozai frowned, as she approached, setting the glasses on the table."You were so welcoming to him all the time. And encouraging Azula to go out."

Ursa snorted. "You were already playing bad cop and terrifying the poor kid with that permanent scowl… yes, just like that."

Ozai's eyes crossed as he watched Ursa's finger press in between his eyebrows.

"She needed some encouragement to be more social. It's not bad for her to have a teenage relationship to see what she wants."

Despite her prodding, he was still frowning. "What if she stuck with him?"

That earned him an eye roll. "I don't know about their school dynamics, but in the real world, he's nowhere near what Azula needs. It's a high school relationship. She wouldn't have kept him."

Ozai huffed. He had certainly hoped as much. Which is why he told himself that if the Spirits were kind enough to rid Azula of her idiot boyfriend, he'd give a generous donation to the Temple. Hmph, who said divine favour couldn't be incentivised by money? Fools.

"So," Ursa finished, raising the bottle between them. "Shall we?"