Author's note : Hey, here's a quick one shot while I'm still working on the next chapter of 'The Two Way Puppet String', I have a tumblr by the way, it's called 'dragomer', should be easy enough to find.

Azula had a problem: Her brother beat at her at Pai Sho, it shouldn't have been an issue, she didn't even like the game and she'd probably have dismissed it as a fluke if not for one itty, bitty little thing.

He. Kept. Doing. It.

Rematch after rematch, he always won, easily at that. He didn't even have the decency to look like he was struggling against her offensive or even had to think about it to break through her defense, he'd just do it as soon as she finished her own move and she'd be left with the same dumbfounded expression that she often saw on Zuzu's face whenever they sparred and he suddenly found himself on the ground without understanding how.

It shouldn't matter, it couldn't matter! Azula could just walk away, ignore the game, and simply dismiss it as a simple quirk of a simple game when played by someone with a simple mind. Yes, she should do exactly that...

'No, no, no... I can't just let it go.' Azula muttered to herself, biting her nails while pacing back and forth in front of a Pai Sho board in her room 'I can't just let him win, Zuko can't better than me, he just can't!'

But she wouldn't, she couldn't, her and her brother had gone a long way toward becoming a family again, and even through her frustration, thinking about the efforts Zuko's made in that regard brought a pleasant feeling to her chest, but some things just never change... Azula would always be a perfectionist and for all the progress he had made in firebending, he was still her naive little Zuzu and she could still run circles around him when it came to mind games, which is exactly why each loss was such a blow to her perfect record.

Despite her own feeling on the game, Pai Sho was seen as a game for great generals and masterminds, and yet Zuko was beating her. Zuko, who couldn't even notice a spy operation on his own ship while isolated in the middle of the ocean for 3 years, was beating her at the one game recognized as the most dignified way for great minds to show their trickery and tactical acumen.

She just couldn't take it, not the first time, not the 100th time, and especially not that one particular time that she noticed Zuko started throwing the match before changing his mind and beating her at the last minute.

The fact that she'd probably have gratefully taken his pity win at this point almost hurt her ego more than the fact that Zuko felt he could decide on his own to just let her win because he just saw her as too weak to ever win on her own.

"Urk, and now I'm thinking about it as if he had just beaten me in an Agni Kai!" Azula stopped abruptly as the sudden realization hit her. "Calm down, Azula, remember what the therapist said, 'Not every competition has to be won'."

Perhaps a deeper reason why this situation stung so bad for Azula was related to her perfectionism and her more than slight residual disdain for Zuzu's abilities in that field, and the fact that she still wasn't used to unconditional love. For all her progress, she still had a little voice in the back of her head telling her that she could only keep her reunited family as long as she was useful, everything would be fine as long as she could pull her weight, as long as she had a trick up her sleeve or well chosen advice to help her brother, 'the new firelord', but the moment she couldn't? It would be all over, and being sent back to the 'Therapy Center' would be the best she could look forward to.

And losing at Pai Sho just made the voice louder because as much as she didn't buy into that whole 'game of the distinguished strategist' nonsense, everyone else did and ...what if? What if they were right? What if Zuko was simply trickier and cleverer than her now? What if the game made him realize that? What would become of her then?

As much as Azula wouldn't let herself be overwhelmed by such whispers wearing her father's voice anymore, it did nothing to help her mood and frustration.

No matter how she sliced it, Azula always came back to the same conclusion: Zuko was too good at Pai Sho ...and that was a problem.

(X)

Iroh had a problem: His nephew, the new firelord, kept beating him at Pai Sho, it had started as a fairly joyous occasion as he had finally convinced Zuko to sit down and play Pai Sho with him after years of unsuccessful efforts, and it was admittedly a very pleasant time for the old man, playing his favorite game with his family while drinking tea.

Until Zuko won. Iroh didn't even understand how, he had just finished setting up his trap for Zuko to fall in a few turns later when Zuko just moved his piece and ...just won.

Of course Iroh quickly shrugged off his shock as a proof of Zuko's growth, beginner's luck and the just result of him underestimating his nephew but then Zuko did it again...and again...

Then Azula showed up, and while Iroh wasn't fond of her mocking taunts, he would admit with a bit of shame that he was looking forward to her beating Zuko, she had taken Ba Sing Se when he failed after all, and after 10 consecutive loses to an increasingly bored looking Zuko, he was feeing a bit petty that day.

Zuko proceeded to wipe the floor with Azula, not looking anymore strained than when he did so with Iroh, who somewhat regretted missing Azula's stunned look at her defeat due to his own shock.

He couldn't even say it was because Azula was a worse player than him, he was sure that she'd be one of the hardest opponents he had ever faced if he had been the one playing against her, and yet Zuko stopped all her offensives dead in their tracks and pierced her defense like one of his swords going through paper, just like he had trampled over Iroh's traps and sleight of hand before he could even set them up.

Iroh had to admit that he kind of started losing his cool at this point and even though he clearly noticed his nephew's growing discomfort, he just couldn't stop himself until Zuko retired for the day and even then it did not improve the next day.

After a few days, it had gotten so bad that he and Azula had ended up teaming up against their common foe in hopes of finally beating him, only to be soundly defeated once again. Zuko's look of pity as he completed his winning move, had honestly angered and frustrated Iroh a lot more than it should have.

"Why can't I let it go?" A frustrated Iroh was barely managing to meditate in the courtyard though it did him little good. "I guess old habits aren't going to be easily shaken off just because of a trip to the spirit realm."

Iroh would be very reluctant to admit it out loud to anyone, but despite everything that happened, despite all the good he did and how much he had changed, there was still a part of the Dragon of the West in him. A lifetime of war and military prowess couldn't just disappear, no matter how much the revelation of the spirit worlds and efforts of his own part to stamp it out, he still had a bit of the man who had sent merry letters about burning Ba Sing Se to the ground to his young Nephew and Niece.

And that part of him, no matter how ashamed Iroh was of it and tried to shove it down, was very much galled by being beaten by a rookie who couldn't even plot his way out of a paperback.

Sure, even the Dragon in him had to admit that Zuko was a charismatic and benevolent leader, seemingly out of a spirit tale, but it didn't change anything when it came to being beaten by a kid who had never even led troops! Hell, Zuko would have probably died from a mutiny if it wasn't for him, and while Iroh knew perfectly well that it was completely unfair to hold that against a wounded thirteen year old, but the Dragon of the West didn't care, which was exactly why Iroh kept a tight grip on it.

Iroh had led a secret society for 3 years out of a boat in the middle of the ocean, he had a led a campaign that almost made Ba Sing Se kneel in terror and he had brought back his nephew and the entire nation on the path toward harmony and yet he was being defeated by someone who was still thought of by half the nation as his puppet. Zuko didn't even like tea for Agni's sake! How could someone who is foolish enough not to recognize the greatness of tea, have ever defeated him!?

Both Iroh and the dragon had to chuckle about the silliness of treating a mere game, pleasant as it was, as if he had suffered a terrible defeat on the battle field.

Still, Iroh had to agree with the Dragon of the West on one thing: Zuko was too good at Pai Sho...and that was a problem.

(X)

Ozai had many problems, his fire bending was gone, his crown gone, both his titles were gone, his jail cell was ugly, and they had just replaced the guard he had managed to win over to his side so no extra food and escape tools until he could 'befriend' his new guard, who seemed to be deaf, given his complete lack of reaction to everything Ozai tried until now.

Oh, and he heard Iroh and Azula, those two disappointments, were driving themselves up the walls over losing to his son, the one he never had hope for to begin with.

"Might as well think about that for a while..." Ozai shrugged, not sure if he was talking or just thinking... It was not like he could tell based the lack of reaction from his guard. "I'm getting tired of talking to a wall anyway..."

For the most part, he just wondered how either of them could actually care about something so trivial, especially against Zuko, being good when it didn't matter was what he did, for every useless thing he did correctly, he failed two important ones!

Just look at his combat training, he excelled with weapons and sneaking around, to the point that even Piandao, the coward, was impressed. He was extremely good at it, which didn't matter, because he wasn't some non-bending pseudo noble and he wasn't an assassin, he was the crown prince of the fire nation, so then what mattered most? His firebending, and he failed at that, because he was Zuko, and that was what he did.

And Pai Sho is just that: a game that doesn't matter, it doesn't make you stronger, it doesn't help leading the country, and it doesn't help winning wars, so obviously Zuko would be the best goddamn player in the world.

Ozai had to admit, Zuko would have been very good at being the biggest disappointment of them all, if Ozai had fallen into the trap of hoping he could do anything right because all those useless talents easily created the illusion that he could actually do something right to those around him, and that just made the disappointment that much worst.

Still there was a part of him that wondered what if Pai Sho actually mattered? What if it truly did require trickery and strategy to win? What could it mean about Zuko?

Could he have been mistaken about Zuko? Was he truly superior to both his sister and Uncle? Did he bet on the wrong ostrich-horse?

At this point, Ozai's mind swirled with every memory of Zuko he had, every moment of weakness and every faux-pas, and he started to think that could be just as likely as not, you could just as easily see it as Zuko seeing right through him the whole time.

After all, while he had dismissed Zuko hiding behind Ursa as weakness, if Zuko was truly smarter than Azula, it could have just been Zuko seeing Ozai's trap of constantly holding his conditional love over his head to control him like he did Azula and in the end, while Azula had been running herself ragged to get the crumbs of affection he could be bothered to give her, Zuko was sitting by the pond being drowned in affection by his mother.

And the war council, while he had dismissed Zuko's objection as a foolish, weak child crying over a few worthless pawns being used to protect more worthwhile ones, maybe he was actually dismissing wise military advice from a young genius, something he thought he had learned to not to do with Azula. The loss of so many young men in the forty-first division did end up costing us dearly after the fact, leaving us at a loss when so many of those veterans managed to retire thanks to their sacrifice, without the additional manpower and financial contribution of the younger generation.

Even their confrontation during the day of the black sun, when his son had the occasion to kill him with his own lightning, he had taken it as the ultimate confirmation of his victory and of Zuko's weakness and yet...here he was, powerless in jail, and at Zuko's mercy. If he had known, he'd have chosen death by lightning on that forsaken day and maybe Zuko did knew that as well, which is why he spared him, not out of weakness but out of spite, probably to get back at him for the scar.

And where was Zuko? On the throne, his hands clean, with Azula and Iroh at ready to make sure they stayed that way and a story right out of a spirit tale of a prince saving his nation and the world from itself; he even had the Avatar as his best friend for spirits' sake!

"Maybe, just maybe, I got it all wrong." Ozai continued to ponder to himself, he was clearly not expecting that the rabbit-fox hole thinking about Zuko winning a game of Pai Sho would lead him to "'Maybe ...I was wrong' and 'I lost'."

Ozai lingered on those thoughts for a while before dismissing them with a mere shrug and deciding he'd rather talk to a wall than entertain such nonsense any longer.

(X)

Zuko had a problem: Uncle and Azula would not leave him alone, not since he beat them at that stupid game and it was really getting out of hand.

In the beginning, he did not much care, he was even kind of happy that he finally had something to hold over Azula and Uncle from time to time and passing a few afternoon just playing with his family was a welcome break from his duty as the firelord and a clear change from how things had been with them before the war.

But as times went on, neither of them could just let it go and they kept going farther and farther everyday to get more rematches and try to beat him, it just kept escalating. Losing to him just drove them mad for some reason.

Zuko didn't even know how he kept winning and he couldn't understand how Iroh and Azula just didn't see the flaws in their moves and strategies every time. Uncle just kept thinking 6 turns ahead while completely forgetting the turn he was in, resulting in Zuko simply not walking into the obvious move Iroh had planned for him and forcing him to course correct his whole trap, which when it is made while precisely accounting for 6 whole turn of setup is pretty much impossible.

As for Azula, she just kept building a giant offensive that could easily be sidestepped and her defenses were so easy to turn on her, Zuko really couldn't understand how they couldn't see their own mistakes and seemed stumped by his every move when it was just so obvious to him.

Obviously, he had thought of throwing the match to spare their egos and get them to back off, he even tried a few time but...he just couldn't. He just couldn't stand to sit there and do the obviously wrong move when he saw the gaping holes in Azula's defense and the obvious weak point that would send Uncle's trap crumbling down on its creator.

So the young Firelord was left at a loss on what to do, he couldn't just let it continue, after all the situation got so bad that Azula and Uncle had gotten into the habit of barging into his room in the middle of the night with a crazed looks, asking for rematches and declaring that they finally had came up with the one strategy that would defeat him.

While Azula barging into his room was much less undesirable than he'd ever admit, he wouldn't wish waking up in the middle of the night just to see Uncle Iroh's unhinged expression as he brandished a pai sho set like a weapon, to his worst enemy.

And here he was, more than a month after all this started, once again being faced by Iroh and Azula who had decided that teaming up for the fourth time might just be what will break their losing streak.

A notion that Zuko quickly crushed with his last move, giving him the win, judging by their expression, they hadn't noticed how close he had been to victory all this time and were expecting the game to go on much longer, Azula even looked like she might be about to cry.

"I should do something nice for her later today." Zuko made a mental note, calmly waiting for Iroh and Azula to get a hold of themselves. "Maybe some new clothes? Normaly I'd spar with her since she always liked that but she might just be at the point where she could think that an 'accident' would be a good idea."

This scene honestly happened like clockwork, once every week, and he was starting to suspect they are about ready to break Ozai out of jail in hopes that he could help them win, back before the war it would have been a national event to have any of them team up for anything, but now? It could only spell headache for him.

Zuko needed a solution and he needed one fast before either of them really did get the bright idea of a prison break, drugging his drink, or even outright poisoning him to get an edge in the next rematch.

Though Zuko had to admit, he still enjoyed lording his victories over their heads from time to time, he was starting to understand why Azula did it so often when it come to their firebending lessons when they were younger and the awed faces of the spectators every time he soundly defeated them made the whole situation a lot more pleasant to deal with, even if said awe often only followed after a clear look of surprise or even shock, given he still had to fully shake off his reputation as an unfit royal. It was already more than Zuko was used to even if he still had trouble understanding why everyone made such a big deal about such a simple game.

The conclusion of all of this? For Zuko it was quite simple: He was just too good at Pai Sho ...and that was their problem.