It's raining outside. The wind beats against the walls of my den, begging to be let in. A stray breeze tousles my hair and several streams of water threaten to flood my drainage canals.

  I don't feel good today. There isn't a particular reason why. I've just been thinking too much, and I've finally reached the point where all my anger fizzles out into something else. So, I sit on my bed, listening to the rain and wallowing. My normally vibrant green hair and skin have wilted to a sickly shade.

  My life is such a mess. The only thing I look forward to anymore is seeing that dumb human stumble into my woods to talk about his stupid little plant book. But even that just makes me anxious anymore.

  Images of Jade being discovered crowd my mind. Of my family coming for an unexpected visit, taking him for a stranger, and tearing him to shreds. Of cradling his fragile, broken body as it drains of life-sustaining blood, all while the other nymphs just click their tongues and tell me I should have known better than to get involved with a human.

  I push the thought away and burrow under my fiber blankets. I need to stop thinking. So, I tune into the plants, listening to their faint gossip.

  Trees blown over by the wind. Lightning striking. Floods gushing down the human roads. Animals hiding to escape the storm. Jade's here again.

  Wait. What? Jade is in my forest?

  I sit up straight and look out into the storm. What is he doing here at a time like this? He's going to get himself killed!

  Alarm pushes me into action. I run out of my den, sensing his location from the plants. Please be okay. Please don't be hurt. I count the fallen branches as I leap through trees, wondering how much damage each one would do. Stupid, stupid, stupid human.

  In the darkness of the storm, I nearly miss him, but a flash of lightning illuminates his shape pressed up against a tree for meager shelter. I march up to him. "What are you doing out here?!"

  He looks surprised, and soaking wet. The only thing he has to shield himself from the weather is his thin brown cloak. He doesn't respond to my question, just shrinking under my gaze.

  Although nymphs don't mind the rain, I know animals aren't usually fond of it, and Jade looks absolutely miserable. "You're going to get yourself hurt," I bark. "Come on." I grab his wrist and start dragging him toward my den.

  He makes a noise in protest, but doesn't fight back. I adjust my claws so they don't dig into his delicate skin. It's even softer than I expected. How do humans live like this?

  "S-sorry," he mumbles as we briskly travel. "I-I-I just needed to get out f-for a while. I th-thought you'd be asleep."

  "Why do you sound like that?" We reach my den, and I lead him out of the rain. Some water still seeps in through the ceiling, though. "What's wrong with you?" I face him, looking him up and down, not letting go of his wrist yet. He's shaking so much.

  "I'm c-cold."

  "Cold?" I suppose an animal would get that way from being so wet. The only time temperature ever bothers me is during the winter. "How do you get un-cold?"

  "Do—do you h-have a fire?"

  I recoil at his words. "Fire? Are you crazy?" Still holding onto him, I manhandle him toward my bedroom, the only place where water doesn't leak in. "Forest nymphs don't do fire."

  "R-right. Sorry."

  I sit him down on my bed and finally let go of him. The warmth from his hand, however faint, lingers as I do. "Here." I bundle my blankets all together and throw them at him. "Get out of those soaking clothes. I don't like water on my bed." Wet fur makes animals cold, right? Is it the same for human clothes?

  "O-okay." He doesn't object, immediately starting to take off his cloak. Then his shirt.

  Wait, wait, wait. This is a bad idea. "Slow down!" I scuttle away from him and climb up to the balcony above my room where we can't see each other. "I'll give you some privacy."

  "Th-thanks."

  I wait patiently for him to finish, though can't help but wonder how he looks under his clothes. Hrm. It's weird that he wouldn't have any nymph features. Just skin, probably. Huh...

  I need to stop thinking about this. "So, why were you out in the middle of a storm again? Needing to 'get out for a while' barely seems like an excuse to me."

  "My roommate," he begins. He's already stuttering less. I can hear him shuffling around with his clothes and the blankets. "He's throwing another party."

  "So?"

  "I hate his parties." The conviction in Jade's voice surprises me. He sounds mad—well, as mad as he could sound, which still turns out more sad and pathetic—which is not something I've heard from him before. "They're so loud, and there's so many people, and they're all drinking, and I always feel like I'm doing something wrong."

  Hm. This roommate of his...I do believe I have a new enemy. But I still don't quite understand. "What do you mean, you feel like you're doing something wrong?" My voice comes out softer than usual. I don't have the energy to toughen it up.

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  "I don't know. I just..." Jade goes quiet for a long moment. "I just feel like...like everyone else has an encyclopedia on how to interact, and I don't."

  I'm not sure what to say.

  He keeps talking. "I feel so stupid when I embarrass myself. And it's so easy, too. I speak at the wrong time, I don't understand their jokes, I say something and everyone looks at me like I'm crazy." His shuffling has stopped. "And I feel like they all have an opinion of me, and there's nothing I can do about it."

  In his silence, I try to console him. "Well, it's the other humans that are stupid. Stupid and overly judgmental. Do you need someone to knock sense into them? A vicious nymph to crash their party?"

  "No..."

  Rats. That could have been my opportunity to finally draw blood. I steadily crawl down the balcony and back into the bedroom.

  Jade has wrapped himself in my blankets like they're his own little cocoon. I see his soaked cloak, shirt, and mud-stained pants on the floor. "Thanks for the blankets," he mumbles.

  I find a stray towel among my things and walk up to him. Then, I attack his hair with it, rubbing the top of his head fiercely. He squints and lowers in the blanket.

  "Your hair was wet."

  "I know."

  I slow down my aggressive drying, allowing my hand to rest on his head. "I'm really sorry about your dumb roommate." I avert my eyes from his face. It's too easy to stare at him. "It's not fair that he can scare you out like that. I would be mad, too."

  "A lot of things seem to make you mad."

  "Yeah, well, that's just girl things." I tousle his hair again. Though there's a separation with the fabric, I still chase that sensation of touching him—as if I could really be running my claws through his hair right now. "It's hard not to be angry at the world all the time when you're a girl." My mind is halfway in the conversation, halfway convincing myself that drying his hair isn't really that intimate, that it's something I can do in good conscience while still keeping my distance.

  He furrows his brow. "I think boys feel that way, too. Well, except for..."

  I hang onto every word he says, clinging to the sound of his voice. Taking my claw away from his hair, I slowly walk around the bed and climb up the other side. Only because I'm sick of standing, though. It's a normal thing to do, right? The bed is big enough. "Except for what?"

  "When you're—um—" He turns red. "Do nymphs have periods?"

  "Whuh?" I study his face. The way humans blush is almost reminiscent of how nymphs bloom flowers, now that I really look at him. "I don't know what that means."

  Jade tells me about human periods. It's not the weirdest bodily function I've heard of animals having.

  "Well, we don't do that, but our bodies do plenty of other gross stuff." I count them mentally and wonder which ones I should scar him with. All the while, my flower covered tail twitches behind me, inching closer and closer to him. "We also have a whole host of seasonal issues to work through. Don't even get me started on pollination."

  Jade looks at me, bewildered. "Pollination? Like with your flowers?"

  This again. But rather than mustering a snarky remark, I can only swallow and look at him sideways.

  "So they do propagate..."

  "Okay, that's enough of that." My voice hitches unexpectedly. I shove him lightly on the shoulder through the mountain of blankets. "I've had my fill of biology talk, thank you very much." Sweet flora, I wish I could move closer to him.

  What is wrong with me? Touch isn't something forest nymphs are meant to desire. It's just a weird thing animals do to exchange warmth and stimulate fauna hormones. So why is the idea so fascinating to me?

  Being around Jade makes me feel like such a freak. I should stop this, but I don't want to.

  He looks at me, and I can almost feel his gaze traveling up, down, and up again. "But I'm really curious about your body."

  A host of flowers bloom. With those words, any edge left in my voice erodes. "What?"

  Jade blushes profusely. "I-I mean your biology! In a scientific sense. Since nymphs are plants, not animals." He shrinks under the blanket. "See, this is what I mean. I say the stupidest things."

  "No, it's not stupid." His words still have me reeling. But I don't pluck out the excess flowers. Just this once. "You're just...um...direct."

  "I've heard that before."

  Neither of us say anything for a second. Jade's words repeat in my head over and over and over again, as if I'm a smitten sapling.

  Right as I think I've gotten over it, Jade asks, "So, how do forest nymphs have...babies?"

  I just stare at him.

  "Really, I'm curious!" he continues. "But you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I mean, I wouldn't want to explain to somebody how humans—but you probably already know that, if you know about animals—because we're similar—"

  "It's not exactly like animals or plants," I rush.

  Jade adjusts the blanket around him. "What do you mean?"

  "So, forest nymph flowers can cross pollinate with other flowers, either from wild plants or other nymphs," I explain. "Those flowers produce seeds. And on their own, the seeds that fall won't do much. But if a nymph enchants the seed not long after it falls, it will grow into a bulb, which will hatch into a baby nymph." I take a breath after the quick explanation. "Happy now? Does that answer all your questions?"

  He stares at me, perplexed. "I think it gave me even more..."

  For a short while, I tell him more about what I know. He wants all the details, of course, so I spare no expense. It isn't so much the process of creating a nymph child that's embarrassing, so I have an easy time. It's only when he gets closer to asking things like, "but when do your flowers bloom?" and "do you feel an urge to pollinate?" that I shut him down. But, as thorough as his questions are, they never feel invasive. Just curious.

  "Wow, nymphs are amazing," Jade says in awe. "Human reproduction is a lot less cool. And definitely less magical."

  My mind wanders. Of course, of course, of course it wanders. And I wonder for a moment what it would look like to try to have a child with a human like Jade. Although we couldn't have one physically, I could get the pollen from another plant, and then we could raise the kid together. But then...would we ever...try to do the human way...? If only for fun?

  I banish the thought to the deepest recesses of my mind and immediately change the subject. "Are you still cold?" I ask.

  "I feel a little better." His gaze wanders to the windows. "I wonder if they're done partying by now..."

  "Oh, you are not going back out there," I declare. The thought of him leaving brings me back down to Earth. "The storm is still going."

  "But where am I supposed to sleep?"

  "You're already in a bed, stupid." I push him backwards, and he makes a startled noise. The action surprises even me, and I don't know how to feel right now.

  He lays his head on my leafy pillow. "What about you?"

  "If it makes you more comfortable, I can sleep on the floor." Gah, what am I saying? Giving up my bed for a human? Mom would skewer me. If she knew even half the thoughts I've been having tonight...

  Jade looks sad at my words. "I'm only comfortable when you're comfortable."

  His words melt me. "Fine, then." I flop down on the bed next to him. "Comfy?"

  He stares into my eyes. "M-hm."

  Sharing a bed with a human. That's even worse.

  I push the worries aside, trying to enjoy this one good thing while it's here. Being around him comes as naturally as breathing. In fact, it's like the first gasp of fresh air after a smoky wildfire. I can't help but want more.

  I close my eyes, Jade's face the last thing in my mind as I prepare to sleep, loose verdant hair and all.