He is wearing gray sweats though, slung indecently low on his hips and I can tell by the way things move, he's going commando.
So, the shirt is a bummer but I will take the sweatpants all day long.
It took a little while for things to totally sink in and Kai was very patient, just sat on the couch next to me, not too close, giving me a little space but he watched intently as I put a hurting on the wine and ate about half my weight in chocolate. I had to build my courage though. Despite my new reality, the knowledge that dragons are in fact real has altered life as I know it and that is a hard pill to swallow.
I watch Kai fidget mindlessly with his hair, twirl the damp strands nervously between his long fingers. It's sweet that he's so nervous, it shows how much he cares and I can't say that I blame him because honestly, I'm still not totally sure what to make of all this.
I clear my throat, smile when Kai jumps a bit, then dive right in. "Three hundred and thirty seven, huh?"
He nods slowly. "I will be three hundred and thirty eight December third."
"You look fantastic for your age."
He snorts but visibly relaxes. Which is more than I can say because even with all the wine I'm still wound pretty fucking tight.
"Are you immortal?"
"Not quite."
"I know it might be a stretch, but your less than ten syllable responses aren't really going to cut it right now, Kai."
"I suppose you're right." He slumps against the back of the couch and sighs. "Dragon shifters, by nature, stop aging around the same time we transition or shift for the first time."
"Which is when?"
"Anywhere between ages twenty four and thirty five."
"How old were you?"
Kai smirks. "Twenty two."
"Ooo, advanced."
"Good genetics."
"So you stop aging when you first shift and you're not entirely immortal. Which means you, what? You can only die certain ways? Start to age naturally at a certain point?"
He takes a sip of his wine. "If a shifter does not find its true mate they can go hundreds of years without showing signs of aging. If they do it can be thousands of years, possibly longer but our chronicles only go back a few thousand years."
"Ah. Only a few thousand."
He grins. "Henrich is trying to decipher what we believe to be records dating back further so I'll keep you posted on the beginning of our kind."
"Thank you." I smile and nod like this isn't totally Twilight Zone material. "And the immortal thing?"
"We can be damaged with man-made weapons in human or dragon form, though the injury is minor and repairs almost instantly due to our ability to heal. Human disease does not have any effect on us, though shifters have a few diseases of our own. Weapons made by other shifters, ones where their power or magic have been fused into them or the direct power of a shifter can do more severe damage but does not generally prove to be fatal."
"What kind of powers? Are there lots of shifters? Not just dragons?"
"There are." He nods, "Mammal, reptile, amphibian, bird. There are mostly apex predators left though, and the others are hard to find because they do not tend to group together the way we do."
"And they all have powers? Like what? You can't just tell me you're basically a mythical superhero and leave it at that." I arch a brow and refill my wine. "Obviously you can fly or else you're really overcompensating."
Kai laughs but maintains eye contact. "I can assure you, I fly quite well and very fast. And I have nothing to compensate for." He arches a brow and grins. "Third leg and all."
I blush down to my toes but power through. "So you fly and have built in armor and weapons. What else? Do you breathe fire?"
"All dragons do. It is only harmful to those outside of our bloodline though."
