I walked back to the palace alone, Zuko wanting alone time with Mai. I could understand why; she was a good-looking girl. As soon as my hand touched the door, Katara opened the door.
'Something's up.' I thought.
"Thanks," I said, walking into the room.
"Shinji, could you do us a teensy, weensy little favor?" Katara asked.
'Knew it.' I thought.
"Sure." I said.
"Could you, um..." Katara began.
"Get Hana out of our hair for a day." Sokka said nonchalantly.
"What Sokka meant to say is-" Katara began, angry at her brother.
"No problem." I said with a small smile. "Why?"
"We want her to calm down a bit. She barely talks, and we're worried she's in a really dark place, even if she doesn't want to kill you." Katara said.
I nodded, and went to Hana's room. I knocked on the door, and Hana immediately said "Whatever you want, I don't care."
"Do you want to go somewhere today?" I asked.
"Didn't you hear me?" Hana asked.
I sighed. "Please go somewhere with me today?"
"Will you keep talking if I don't?"
"I've been known to wait outside of earthbender's doors."
Hana sighed and opened the door with her bending.
"What do you have in mind?" Hana asked.
I shrugged. "Whatever you want."
Hana sighed. "I'm already regretting not killing you with the door."
"Why don't you use rocks that much?" I asked. "Shouldn't metal be harder to bend?"
"Not for me." Hana said. "I'm a freak. I suck at bending rocks. I can only toss them, not any of the cool things Toph does. I can only bend metal."
"That doesn't make you a freak." I said.
"Yes it does! My parents always said so! They'd train me for hours and hours and I just couldn't learn!" Hana started crying, and I put my hands on her shoulders.
"You're not a freak, Hana." I said. "You're an extremely talented bender. I mean, you can control metal, right? That already makes you able to destroy whole fleets of firebenders." I realized that made me sound like Azula, but I kept going. "Do you isolate yourself because you think you're a freak?"
Much like the child she was, she nodded while looking at my boots.
"None of us think you're a freak." I said. "In fact, we want to get to know you better. We're your friends, Hana."
"I-I have f-friends?" Hana asked, sounding a lot like Sakura.
"Yep." I smiled. "Even though I'm a freak of nature, I'm your friend."
"You're not a freak." Hana said.
"I had a plant inside of me and half of my face doesn't work well." I said.
"Okay, maybe you are a bit freaky." Hana giggled.
I stood and offered my hand. "After you, Ma'am."
Hana took my hand. "Thank you, sir."
We both laughed, and walked over to Sokka and Katara.
"Done." I said.
"Hey, look at this." Hana said, grabbing a doorknob. She ripped it form the metal door and changed it into the perfect likeness of a flower.
"That's amazing." I smiled, and Hana offered it to me. I put it on my wrist, and was surprised when a metal stem- complete with flowers -grew, surrounding my wrist.
"Why don't I get one?" Katara asked.
"Because Shinji's the one that talked to me." Hana said. "Do you like it?"
"Yeah." I admitted.
"It looks kind of girly." Sokka said.
"It does." Toph said, walking in.
"But you can't see it." Hana said.
"She's messing with you." I said. "Ignore her."
I shot up a flame wall, burning the rock that had flown at my head to ash.