TL;DR»

• 1967 | Corbin is born in Lyon, France.
• 1976 | His father, a businessman, is laid off, and his mother takes on the role of provider as a nurse.
• 1980 | Corbin sees Auguste for the first time at collège.
• 1982 | Corbin speaks to Auguste for the first time, at a gay club. They have sex, and begin dating a few days later.
• 1984 | Auguste's parents discover their relationship and threaten to send him away to 'help him;' Corbin tells his parents, who kick him out. The two run away together, settling for a while in Paris and aiming for Holland.
• 1987 | Fergus attempts to turn both Corbin and Auguste to vampires; only Corbin survives the transition. He is forced to join Fergus' coven.
• 2010 | Corbin tries to kill Fergus and fails; the vampire abandons him to die.
• 2011 | Jacques finds Corbin starving and takes him to live with Nicchia.

  ---

History»

Corbin was born in Lyon, France in 1967. When he was young, his father had a well-paid job as a business in a large company, and his mother was a stay-at-home mother until Corbin began primary school--at which point she took a morning shift as a nurse to ease her boredom. For a few years, Corbin's childhood was mostly easy -- there was a disconnect between himself and many of his classmates, distanced by his different race and culture, but Corbin found a way to make friends most of the time despite that.

When he was about 9, his father was laid off by his company, along with hundreds of other staff. It was embarrassing for his parents, both strong believers in gender roles, to have his father jobless, but jobs were not so easy to find for a Chinese man in France who never seemed qualified enough to any job he applied to. To make up for the lack of funds, Corbin's mother took more shifts, stepping into the role of primary caregiver. Though he still sought out work, his father took on the role of the homemaker while he has free time. This was a cause of tension between his parents, with his mother often complaining that his father wasn't acting like a man.

Meanwhile, Corbin was less concerned with his home life and more concerned with his social life by the time he was 14. With everyone his age hitting puberty, Corbin's eyes started to wander--and they wandered to men, rather than women. And he seemed to catch the eyes of an older boy in return: 16 years old, Auguste seemed fearless. He was athletic, popular, gorgeous, and somehow, he seemed to be looking at Corbin as often as Corbin was looking at him.

It wasn't until Corbin braved his first gay bar at 16 that he actually managed to speak to Auguste; needless to say, he hadn't expected to see him there. Liquid courage made it easier to approach him, but once he did, talking was easy. Sex was easy as well, despite it was his first time, drunk. Auguste stayed through the night, and walked him as close back to home as Corbin would allow. Things at college were a little different, because Auguste sought him out now. Suddenly, they were friends. Outside of high school, they were boyfriends.

Despite being closeted at school, Auguste was outgoing about being homosexual and homosexual rights at night. Corbin fed into his energy, happy to spend nights by his side, whether they were at a rally, at a club, or in a hotel room. It wasn't long before he was in love with the man, and Auguste with him in turn.

Eventually, sneaking around in Lyon got them caught--Auguste was shunned by his friends, while Corbin was physically bullied. The two became closer for it, now out at school, even if not by choice. Corbin felt guilty for costing Auguste his popularity, but his boyfriend assured him it was a small price to pay.

However, word spread to Auguste's parents, who had been questioning their son's sudden disinterest in sport. They were not the least bit understanding, insisting Auguste had lost his way and needed help. In the meantime, Corbin decided to confess to his own parents--his mother immediately blamed his father for being such a weak role model, and his father blamed Corbin's behavior on bad influences and drugs. They kicked Corbin out of his home all together--and Auguste, rather than going away for help, decided to run away with Corbin. Though they didn't have much money, they decided to try to save up go to Holland, well known for being accepting and liberal. Lyon to Holland wasn't exactly an easy task. The two stopped in towns for quick, odd jobs, usually squatting to save money. It was scary, but Corbin felt safe beside Auguste, protected by the stronger man. When they reached Paris, they seemed to settle there--the big city offered a lot of job opportunities as well as a lot of abandoned buildings for spending the nights.

Being homeless in their twenties wasn't really ideal, but the couple made it work. Although it wasn't legal anywhere, they talked about the future, Auguste promised to marry Corbin as soon as it was legal. It was hard, but they were in love, and they were happy. While Corbin spent most nights working as a bartender in gay clubs, Auguste used his physical strength to get work as a day laborer; and it was coming home in the twilight after a shift where he'd caught someone's eye. Fergus, a vampire always trying to expand his coven with strong men, followed Auguste back to where he and Corbin were staying.

Squatting meant that Corbin and Auguste had no claim to their abandoned building, and Fergus needed no one's permission to enter. The attack was terrifying--Corbin can still remember the screaming, and is still unable to distinguish between his own screams and Auguste's. Though Fergus' goal had been to change both of them, only Corbin had survived, sobbing beside his boyfriend's body until he was literally dragged away from him. Well known in Paris as a couple, the city and their friends assumed they two had been victim of a hate crime, and though Corbin's body was missing, both were presumed to be murdered.

more eventually