A lively night has fallen over Ba Sing Se with Zuko and Sora making their way toward a restaurant near the outskirts of the city. Zuko wasn't entirely sure where he was being taken, but Sora insisted that the restaurant they were going to was small but surely the best around.
"We're almost there, I think."
"You think?"
"I've never actually been to their restaurant."
"How do you know if it's good then?"
"I just do!" Sora retorted, before stopping to think for a moment. "...Can you keep a secret though?"
"Who would I even have to tell?"
She smiled weakly at his sarcasm before taking a more mellow expression, "Well, I wanted to take you there because I know the couple that owns it. I met them a long time ago on the road."
"That's the secret?"
"No, no. It's that the chef is a fire bender; that's the secret."
Zuko and Sora soon arrived in front of a small restaurant in the corner of the street. They were dining alone if not for an old couple opposite their table near the window. It wasn't too soon until a woman, the waiter, stopped by Zuko and Sora's table to give them a menu. The woman's outstretched hand revealed a long, burn scar. She smiled, then left.
"She didn't recognize me." Sora sighed, slightly embarrassed, "It's fine though. I met them a long time ago."
"If they aren't so significant to you than why are we eating here?" Zuko crossed his arms.
"Well! You see!..." Sora quickly interjected, afraid he would step out and leave, "I guess it was also because I wanted to tell you their story; it meant a lot to me when I first heard it."
Zuko looked at her silently; Sora's actions were reticent, but her eyes stared out toward the window as if remembering better times. Everything that she had said about the chef and his wife seemed to be tainted with a touch of bittersweetness—like she was remembering a happy memory that was long gone. And Zuko knew exactly how that felt, which is why he recognized it in an instant and decided to listen.
"They were caught in this terrible forbidden love." Sora chuckled, then lowered her voice to something barely above a whisper, "The husband, he's the chef, grew up in the colonies and fell in love with his wife there, but he was Fire Nation and she was from the Earth Kingdom. When I met them on the road a long time ago, he told me he eventually became forced to do something he never wanted as a soldier."
