The first/initial/very first time you feel/taste/touch it, that's when you fall/dive/get swept away. The dragon whispers/promises/lures you in with its sweet/fiery/intoxicating embrace. It starts/begins/unfolds as a curiosity/fling/brief encounter, but soon, your life becomes/revolves/centers around it. You're drowning/consumed/lost in the illusion

He clutchs that steel weapon, a cold comfort in this warped world. Love pulsed through him, a drug all its own, but it was the hard stuff that really threw him into another dimension. A world where dreams danced in his head read more and pain disappeared away. They'd do anything for that next hit. Anything to feel alive But love was the onl