Chapter Text
At age seventeen, Asami Sato had her life all planned out. In less than a year she’d go to university for a dual degree in mechanical engineering and business here in Republic City (her father’s choice) or at Caldera University in the Fire Nation (hers). Either way she’d graduate at the top of her class just like she was going to at Granite Pointe Academy in a few short months. Asami was smart, and she worked her ass off, too; qualities she knew would serve her well at even the world’s most competitive universities. The focus on her studies wouldn’t leave much time for a social life, but once she found her footing she’d date around anyway and make sure to have plenty of fun. No serious relationships though—nothing that would slow her steady march to the top of her field. After enough time spent distinguishing herself as an industrial designer post-graduation Asami would finally earn her slot as a VP at her father’s company. No one could call it nepotism then. She’d be too accomplished. Only after that milestone would Asami finally consider a more serious partner. Marriage and children would probably follow in one form or another. She wouldn’t let that hinder her career though. A woman of Asami’s background and talent could truly have it all. In due time Hiroshi Sato would step aside, leaving Future Industries in her capable hands. He’d be so proud of her. In her imaginings of that day Asami always pictured her father in tears the first time she sat at his desk.
At age eighteen, Asami Sato had no plans at all. Her father had indeed stepped aside as CEO of Future Industries after he’d been carted off to prison in handcuffs. There’d been plenty of tears, too, but none of them joy. He’d tried to kill her in the end when Asami had refused to join his horrible anti-bender insurrection, wielding her dead mother’s name and imagined disappointment like a bludgeon before giving Asami up for lost. His last words to her at the trial had been curses. Now the Sato name was mud, as was Future Industries’—a company so deeply in the red it would take a miracle to keep the doors open another six months. The fines and lawsuits alone had cost nearly the entire Sato fortune. With no choice but to sink or swim Asami had abandoned her plans for university to gamely take the helm of the company’s sinking ship but every week the picture was bleaker. She quickly shuttered the estate and moved into the city to cut down on expenses, all while fending off offers of buyouts from competitors, glowers on the factory floor, and snide, unimpressed remarks from the Board. The message was clear. If Asami couldn’t turn things around soon she’d be an all-too-convenient scapegoat.
All of this might have been bearable if she’d had someone, anyone, on her side, but she didn’t. To top off the world’s shittiest year Asami’s boyfriend had left her for the Avatar, a girl she’d considered a friend, the same day her father had tried to kill her and been taken into custody instead. Now none of them were speaking. Her Granite Pointe friends had quickly shunned her as social suicide as well. Asami had no living family besides her father, no one to fall back on. There wasn’t even anyone left to watch her cry. Then she checked the calendar.
Asami stared down at the test in her hand, then over at the three on the bathroom counter. They were all different brands. A false positive was a statistical impossibility. She was also out of pee.
Alone in the bathroom of the townhouse she’d only partly unpacked, Asami Sato began to sob.