4.21.13
Diamond
Furious, he launches a blast of flame across the room, shattering the glass covering the family portrait and sending it cascading to the floor. He places his hands on the table, nails digging into the wood, breathing hard. Seized by another surge of rage, he sweeps his hand across the table and sends the jewelry scattering to the floor, leaving the table where his hands where charred and blackened. Diamonds skitter across the thick red carpet, glinting in the glow of the lamps, winking and mocking him.
It had all been a lie. He doesn't know where Ursa is; doesn't know where she is or if she is even still alive. And he is ashamed of not knowing.
He realizes how little he does know. There is a question that plagues his mind constantly: Had Ursa found out about Azulon's command?
Ozai clenches his fists, nails digging into his palms. He cannot think how she could have found out; he had never told anyone, and he is certain that his father never had. But her timing - it had been too sudden to be coincidental… and for her to take such drastic measures, she must have believed that he would have killed Zuko…
But he wouldn't have. Not back then, anyway - not back then, when he'd still had something like a family. Not when he'd still had something to lose.
He has nothing but the throne now. Ursa is gone. Zuko has proven himself worthless - joining the Avatar, becoming a hero! Ozai snorts, scornful, still furious with his son's act of insubordination.
He bends and picks up a glittering diamond necklace. Ursa had never cared much for jewelry, but she had kept a box of it anyway. And Ozai had let it sit there, untouched for years until now.
He closes his fist around the strand of diamonds, then tosses them away. The necklace lands in the corner of the room, the gold twisted and warped from the heat; but the diamonds still glitter at him, mocking.