A great question, thank you!

A list of some of my favorites (in no particular order)

• enemies to lovers
  You really can’t go wrong with this one. Plenty of room for angst, toxicity, and emotional repression (and maybe some snarky dialogue as well ☺️). I love this both when the “lovers” stage is genuine love and when it’s “they’re dating and/or sleeping together but want each other dead… but are also wildly attracted to each other and hate it”. Goood stuff, probably my favorite ship dynamic! It’s a classic for a reason.

• age gap
  Could not care less that it’s controversial and “problematic”. It’s hot as hell.

• toxic relationship
  I love when pairings are awful to each other. I love when they corrupt one another and make each other miserable. I love when they both suffer but for whatever reason still can’t let the other go 😈

• teacher-student/mentor-student
  Goes along with my appreciation for age gap pairings but adds in another layer of power imbalance. The obvious choice here is to give the one in a position of authority the power, but I like when the younger/student one has some sort of power over their superior. Kinda took this idea for my uni AU Shuadashu fic I started writing last summer, with Yu having power over Adachi through his love, empathy, and attention (in typical Shuada fashion). Someday I’ll finish that fic 😅

• too smart for their own (and each other’s) good
  When both are insufferably intelligent and scheme together, analyze the weaknesses in one another that the other thinks no one else can see, and overall get on each others’ nerves because they’re both brilliant but also arrogant… I love it. This is a big aspect of how I write the dynamic of my long fic’s pairing actually

• protagonist-antagonist
  Often overlaps with enemies to lovers, but has that added aspect of conflicting interests/goals 👌🏻

• mutual pining but they’re both idiots
  They both love each other but are too emotionally constipated to express that, so they just suffer with their feelings. Prime angst material 🔥

• unrequited love
  Even more prime angst material. A fun way to write characters suffering!

Thanks for the ask!