90- What´s wrong?

I pulled my shirt off and balled it up, setting it on the chair. Suddenly, I was self-conscious. I had already seen him naked several times, but this was the first time he would see me. We had stayed mostly dressed when we fooled around.

‘What's the matter?’ he asked, noting my hesitation.

I bit my lip nervously. What could I say? You're young and sexy, and I'm old and flabby? It wasn't that far off. His human hair was as brown and healthy as his feline coat, without a speck of gray. Mine was more gray than brown these days. Eron’s youthful face didn't have a trace of age lines on it. And his body was nothing but smooth, rippling muscles under tight skin. As far as I was concerned, he was perfect. Me, well, I hadn't been eating very great. Not that I could afford to, even if I wanted to eat healthier. I basically lived off of coffee and pastries now, if not ramen.

I supposed I wasn't old. But I certainly was compared to Eron. I hadn’t even thought to ask his age, but I was confident I had a decade or so on him. For the first time it occurred to me that there was a little bit of an age problem here. Hell, it was too late for that now; I was already a cat. What had I been thinking?! How could I have let myself get into this situation? He'd been talking about how

I was going to have our children, and yet, I was almost too old for that by human standards. Did I really want to be a dad at my age? My mother had been near forty when she had me and always lamented that she wished she was younger. I always told myself, I’d start young. And here I was…

“Can I take a second?” I asked him. He looked concerned. ‘Are you okay?’

“Yeah. I just want to use the bathroom before I change,” I lied.

‘Go ahead.’

He jumped onto the chair I had vacated and started kneading the cushion before settling in to wait, mostly on my discarded shirt.

I went into the bathroom, for the first time full of doubt. I really had just jumped into this without thinking. I mean, I guess the fact I was obviously older than him didn't bother Eron, or he would have said something. Right?

I flicked on the light and dropped my elbows onto the sink. “What have you done?” I groaned to my reflection. I froze.

The person staring back at me from the mirror was not the face I expected to see. “What the…” I murmured.

No more salt and pepper hair. It was as dark brown as it had ever been, and fuller and thicker than I had seen in years. I ran a hand through it, brushing it off the side of my face, and noticed that the crow's feet by my eyes were gone too. I leaned back to take in more of my reflection.

Was I younger? Was that possible?!

Of course, I reminded myself, I had just been turned into a were-cat and met a dragon. And here I was, asking if it was possible I had gotten younger. I looked at the bite mark on my arm and saw that it was already scarred over. How had it healed so quickly? I stared. Even my arm looked younger. My hands which were normally chapped this time of year, were as smooth as could be. My one finger, perpetually crooked from when I had broken it years ago, was perfectly straight. The knobby knuckle was gone too.

I looked back at myself in the mirror and realized that even my body had changed. I wasn't flabby anymore. Everything had tightened up. My skin was smooth, healthy. Even the scattered white hairs on my chest were black again.

I was younger. I was younger!

“Eron?!” I called, hearing an edge of panic in my voice.

‘What's wrong?’ I heard a thud as he jumped off the chair,

I flung open the door and, momentarily forgetting he was a cat, nearly tripped over him.

‘Sorry,’ he cried, darting out of the way. He pivoted neatly and sat back on his haunches.

‘What's the matter?’

“I'm…” I gestured to myself. “Look at me!”

He tilted his head, studying me. ‘You look great.’

“I look twenty!”

‘Oh!’ Eron flattened his ears. ‘I thought I had mentioned that we return to our peak physical appearance after being changed. Which, usually makes us appear younger.’

“No,” I said, laughing in disbelief. “You hadn't mentioned that.” I looked down at my body. “Peak.”

He sat up and nodded. ‘Yes.’

“No wonder you didn't care that I'm older than you,” I said. “How long do we stay like this?” His eyes grew impossibly wide, even for a cat, and he rocked back on his feet, tail lashing. ‘Did

I not tell you?’ he gasped, sounding stunned. ‘Oh, god. You agreed so quickly. I didn't tell you!’ He bounded in a panicked looking circle.

“Tell me what?” I asked in concern. “Is it good at least?”

‘Oh, it's good,’ he said. ‘At least I hope you think it's good. I can't believe I forgot. Couldn't Elara tell you didn’t know?! Couldn't she have said something?!’

“Know what?” I prompted.

He turned and looked at me. ‘You're going to stay like that. At your peak.’ I looked down at myself, and then back to him. “For how long?” I repeated. ‘Forever?’ he offered.

I laughed.