[A gritty, cyberpunk, melodramatic mess: an AI with a soft core and iron shell x a reckless, flirtatious red fox]
Yangxi foresaw his future: he would spend the rest of his life entangled with his childhood friend. As a heartless love interest, he would pay for his cruelty, chase his lover through hell and back, give up everything he owned and even his life, all for a little true love.
Yangxi woke up in a cold sweat and quickly pulled back the paw he liked to use for flirting.
What a load of nonsense! he thought. He could give up his face, but he wasn't about to give his money to someone else!
So Yangxi stamped out the feelings stirring in his heart for his childhood friend's face, packed up his valuables, and fled in the middle of the night to work as a low-level cybernetic prosthesis repairman in the chaotic Lower City.
In the first year, he thought breezily, The outside world is so exciting. I'll get over him soon.
In the second year, watching his childhood friend on the screen, he thought, He's still exactly my type.
In the third year, while tinkering with a battered terminal, the familiar navigation AI he'd used for years suddenly spoke. "I could do that, too."
Yangxi: "?"
AI: "I could take on a face you like and stay by your side as a human."
When they met again, his childhood friend saw the man walking beside Yangxi, whose face was identical to his own, and rushed over, no longer content with their usual verbal sparring, demanding an explanation.
Yangxi put an arm around the innocent-looking humanoid machine beside him. "I couldn't help it. He's more obedient than you."
Potential content warnings:
The love interest is an Alpha, not a virgin, and only takes the bottom role. He has had a physical relationship with an ex, is morally bankrupt, warm on the outside and cold within, and undergoes extensive mechanical modification later on.
The love interest is bald.
Theme: For the sake of freedom, I'd give up either of the other two.
