Breathing You In

Content warnings

· Core premise: A nontraditional succubus setting, with science fiction elements such as energy dependence and chip surveillance

· Romance: Early on, there is one-sided energy extraction and concealment; this is not a conventional mutual-salvation story

· Plot: Includes depictions of school bullying and family trauma, with flight and combat scenes later on

· Ending: HE, but at a cost; not a perfect fairy-tale ending

· Main warnings: Deception about identity and exploitation from the start, mild depictions of self-destructive tendencies, and ethical dilemmas involving nonhumans

I fed on your aura, yet forgot your name.

Before we met again, I had gone hungry among the crowds for seven years.

Xiang Xunhe is an unusual succubus.

He needs no lust or seduction, yearning only for the luminous dust radiating from the soul of the one destined for him.

When he catches the familiar, pale-golden scent amid the crowd at the opening ceremony...

The hot-tempered boy dozing with his head on his desk becomes his only reason to stay alive.

Qing Fuyu hates perfect things.

Especially someone like Xiang Xunhe: neat shirt, top grades, and even a smile measured to the exact degree.

But when the other boy repeatedly blocks his way out of class, teaches him math with playing cards,

and gazes at him with those deep-set eyes...

Some images buried by time begin to stir.

"Have we met before?"

"Maybe," he says with a smile, his fingertips brushing the old scar at the boy's brow.

"In a summer you've forgotten."

Memory is a broken puzzle, and I am the piece you lost.

Is this symbiosis in the name of love an unbreakable bond,

or another carefully woven lie?

"You are the air I need to survive,

and the gentlest cage that holds me captive."

Theme: This is not one-sided taking or giving, but a symbiosis in which both need and choose each other. The thread that binds a pair of wings can also become a bond between two people, as long as the one holding it knows when to pull tight and when to let go.