Ray made an attempt at a laugh but failed miserably.

"No, she was Italian." Asher was right about the aneurysm part though. When his Ma had found out her teenage son, the light of her life, was having a dalliance with a Zuko, she had been less than supportive. For his own sake, she'd said, but it hadn't felt like it to Ray back then.

"She just wasn't your typically loud, in-your-face, hot-tempered prima donna." He caught a wrinkle in the sheets and rubbed the material between his fingers. "That's not to say she wasn't passionate, she was, just...I dunno, in a gentle, understated way."