“You stay here,” he said, “and I’ll go inside and open the window.”
“Oh, fuck.” He seriously just let me go to stand there on a tiny ledge. “Hydris, I swear to god…” But he was already gone, the little shit. I clung to the window frame, such as it was, and locked my shaking knees. “Fucking fairies,” I whispered as a breeze ruffled the hair at my collar.
All of a sudden, the window opened inward, and I didn’t even care what was in there, I lunged forward. Turned out that there was a window seat with some cushions that I sent flying and, well, Hydris was right there, too. I crashed to the floor with him underneath me.
I was nose-to-nose with him as he gasped a tiny breath. Quickly, I got up on my hands and knees to stop crushing him. He took a deep breath and a blush bloomed on his cheeks.
He cleared his throat. “Uh, n-next time, I’ll make sure the window’s open first.”
I snorted a laugh and stood up. “If there’s a next time, I’ll take the damn stairs.”
“Oh. Yes, of course.”
I found two cushions that I’d kicked in opposite directions and put them back on the window seat only to realize the third was down in the garden. “Sorry about that. I’ll get it and see if someone can bring it up to you.”
Hydris peered out the window before he fell headfirst out of it! I exclaimed and tried to grab him, only remembering he was fine because he could fly when he swooped down and got the pillow. He flew back up, and now I was the one blushing.
“Maybe we should sit,” he suggested.
“Yeah, that sounds safe.”
The table was small and round with covered dishes and two place settings. Everything was crisp and clean, which was a pretty big contrast to the state I was in.
“Um, could I wash up?”
“Oh! Yes, of course.” He gestured toward a closed door opposite the table.
As I walked past his enormous bed to open the door into the bathroom, I told myself that Hydris might blush every time he looked at me, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. Why would he flirt with me? He wouldn’t. I concentrated on getting the crap out from under my fingernails and then wiping a smudge of who knew what off my cheek.
I came out of the bathroom to find him sitting at the table, all prim and proper. His wings fluttered a couple times, and I wondered if he was nervous. I wasn’t sure why, but that made me feel calmer.
I took my seat, he blushed, and I said, “I hope I don’t smell too much like a horse.”
“You smell rather…hard-working.”
I chuckled since that was about the most polite way of saying I needed a bath.
And suddenly, as I watched, three little pink daisy-like flowers bloomed in Hydris’s hair. They were the sweetest little things, and he looked so pretty with them in the blue of his hair. I reached over to touch one before I thought better of that when he blinked up at me.
“Um, do you know that there are flowers growing out of your hair?”
He gasped and felt around on his head. Every time he found a flower, he ripped it out and tossed it on the floor.
I felt bad for bringing them to his attention. “Is growing flowers a bad thing?”
“I’m not supposed to,” he whispered.
“What do you mean?”
He couldn’t seem to look at me now. “It’s bad enough that I can’t keep my wings away, or that I can’t dye my hair a normal color, but to allow the flowers is a failure of character.”
That sounded suspiciously like he was quoting someone else.
“Who told you that?”
“No one.” He fidgeted in his seat.
“Hydris…”
