i'm really early into the wip but imagine this for the setting: fine x valkyrie fusion live, and they have to rehearse together. no, shu obviously did NOT consent to this. but no one cares about his opinion so the live's happening and since he's a perfectionist he does want it to go as smoothly as possible. meanwhile eichi is determined to enjoy this as much as possible and tries to rile shu up. due to circumstances i'm not willing to go into for now, it works better than planned... or does it? because eichi just wants to have fun driving shu insane with anger. but shu thinks he's going insane for real, because there's no way he could ever see tenshouin in a positive light -right? ....right?

SORRY ANON i thought long and hard about this i swear but in the end my mind is always EMPTY when it comes to AU premises... something as simple as a good ol' angel x demon AU will break me because i am simply unable to enjoy dynamics that aren't canon or canon-adjacent and i'd have to create like, a whole AU that needs to fit every character into this and recreate canon-adjacent dynamics to be able to enjoy this. i think fanart of this is terribly cool though, and i'm sure smarter people than i could come up with amazing ideas about them.... my brain really stops at "angel eichi and demon leo who is actually a fallen angel (bc of eichi)" and i took so long to answer bc i tried to dig deeper but my mind went CRICKETS on this. </3
the aesthetic is flawless, groundbreaking etc. though!!

i am sooooo glad to hear that anon!!! GFKLeo means so much to me and i find it wild that it's not talked about more in the fandom! like did everyone read the same stories as we did or....? like idk, i understand it's a touchy subject for many and most fans simply would not want to go there but the set-up we got in canon is crazy and to me it's a shame not to make use of it. i do understand that it's difficult to strike the delicate balance between whats canon and whats hc/daydreaming about how much more fucked up we could make it. there is also the fact that handling everything is hard if we take into account leo's pov, because he has such a peculiar, nuanced and precious view of things... he KNOWS he was used by GFK and doesn't care, and while we know the lewd jokes and innuendos made him uncomfortable we also know from his convo with aira that he STILL respects GFK as a person and a producer bc he associated with Leo and appreciated him... it makes everything so much more tragic than if leo was the innocent victim madara (for ex) wishes he were.

working on my fic on them is tough but i'm really enjoying so far and while it's a very niche premise i really hope you'll be able to enjoy my portrayal of them and their relationship! :>

oh wow, that's such a humbling compliment, thank you! I'm forever amazed and amused that what started as a little convo with a friend became such a well-liked fic, despite its baffling premise! Truly the magic of fandom <3

And yes, i do have plans for that! I can't promise "true" 3some/(4some? but that might be too much for me, it was difficult to write) because if Leo's involved you just know i'm gonna focus on him as a priority and the other characters might not touch much or at all. That detail being said, the pairs I have in mind for now are ritsu/eichi/leo and eichi/izumi/leo! (+ secret eimadaleo fic but that one is soooo far in the future that i don't want to make any promises lol). I'd also be interested in writing Leo with Keito and Eichi all at once....

ah and i have a wip that's rinneleo + kohaku (?) and mayhaps nikkileo??! all at once again but I'm unsure of how that wip will go yet... (once again a little reminder, i'm down to chat with anyone even if we aren't mutuals, and i am open to sharing some of my wips as well, so please feel free to DM me or ask for my discord whenever if you're curious or just wanna chat :>)

oh yeah it's perfectly fine to ask! i'm glad you like the way i write them even though i have mixed feelings about them. the thing is, i do like their relationship, but i guess partly because of what my fav leo ship is (eileo) and partly because i sometimes struggle to follow along the izlo dynamic i tend to get a little petty at the way they're written in canon, esp in !! era. The whole "Leo as Izumi's pet" thing is only funny for so long and i wish Izumi was less emotionally constipated in regards to that (delusional, i know) and stopped making a joke out of it in basically every story. this might be impopular, but i'm also of the opinion that Leo should just come back live in Japan already: izumi and him don't have the same goals and while, i guess, living with izumi helped leo out of the slump after Next Door, and alleviated Izumi's guilt at the fact Leo got taken advantage of by GFK, i think long-term it's just counterproductive. Their fight in Sudden Death really embodied that: Leo wanted to stay by Tsukasa's side and fight for him and the sake of Knights, while Izumi puts emphasis on his modeling career and not just his work as an idol. I haven't read the climax event safe for a few spoilery lines including the one that inspired my fic "is your heart thawing yet?" so i'm really hoping this event and future ones allow me to appreciate their relationship a little more. (don't get me wrong i'm not against Leo making random animal noises at Izumi, I just wish it wouldn't be brought up every time and become a core element of their relationship... like come on lol)

And also it might come off as hypocritical since I've definitely shipped pairings like this in the past, but since they're each other main relationship I just.... want them to live outside of each other too, and the surest way to achieve that is just to ensure they're not a couple on top of that lol.

I do like writing them and I'm not forcing myself to like the ship either, but idk, to me their relationship isn't ideal as is and so I want to work it into my ideas (the serious ones at least, I do write silly smut fics where I throw canon out the window as you surely know lol). I will admit I also get a bit defensive when I see the fics I write about them get so popular compared to my, frankly put, more thought-out and better written fics. I know it's just how fandom works and it's not a reflection either of my skills or lack thereof, but it does saddens me a bit when I think too long about it, and it makes me feel more conflicted about writing izuleo as opposed to other Leo ships.

I have a fairly long izlo fic in the works right now (still on planning stage but i've made decent progress recently) and I think writing that one will help me settle the score with the ship. They have some amazing moments in canon together so I do want to do them justice; I just can't squeal over them the way I do with other ships!

i'm not gonna lie anon i didn't even understand your ask at first and had to ask a native eng speaker friend for help </3

but yeah, i'm fine with it! i only wrote leo topping once for now (in the second chapter of this introspective izuleo fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/55378165/chapters/140571859) but i have plans to write it again in the future! i know i write a lot of smut but i just write what comes to my mind, so a lot of my fics don't even focus/involve anal sex at all, and i'm not picky about dynamics. It does happen that the ship i write most is eileo and i think within this particular ship leo bottoming makes more sense insofar as eichi has clear masculinity issues to me and their struggle to take the lead would come with eichi's initial refusal to let leo top (since leo doesn't mind taking on either role), but down the road... let's just say i want to write the reversal~

so yeah, tl;dr would be that I think Leo is a verse? but personally for various reasons i've mostly written him bottoming so far, and even if i plan on writing him topping in the future it will likely remain a minority of my fics :>

oh wow! thanks so much for the unexpected and very kind message! Honestly, i hadn't planned much for this fic so i just made a lot of things on the spot. I had advice from two friends as i worked on it (they read the wip and so could give me their thoughts!) but as for deciding how to write each character... my thought process was really just to have fun and stay true that what i perceived would be "likely" reactions? Like obviously the premise is very crack-ish and it would NOT happen in canon, but if you remove the inhibitions then i wanted it to read fairly genuine. I knew the focus would be on Leo bc he's my bias + the fav of the friend i was writing this for (it was supposed to be her birthday gift) and given the premise Mika pov naturally imposed itself to me, as he is the only one who could make it make sense, if you follow me? Mika was the MVP of this fic because without him the premise would not have worked, and Shu and Izumi would have had limited/veeeery self-conscious and awkward pov. As for Leo, I love writing him but his pov is tricky and the truth is that it's usually funnier to write him from another character's pov, not to mention it also allows me to go wilder with the descriptions of how cute and ero he is.

As for Izumi, he was definitely the trickier character to write in this fic! A friend helped me fix a few early lines of his, and for a good part of the fic i took the easy way out which was: stick him in a chair and leave him there until it was convenient to bring him back into action. Managing 4 characters at once is NOT fun and so relegating him to the background was simply the best way to let the story happen. I'm very happy if his inner turmoil showed even though Mika's pov was obviously limiting! Izumi's insecurities are probably my favorite things about him so i love to write him in vulnerable situations <3 (and the same can be said about Shu, i love when he's having mental meltdowns over tiny things)

But yeah I don't have much to say except that I just tried thinking of the way I could have the most fun possible + how to make it fun for the characters in spite of the rocky premise. Mika's pov helped lighten up the fic, it was my first time writing him so i went full out on what i perceive as core traits for him: his adoration of Shu, his blatant and unashamed unhingedness, his horny side and also his self-consciousness/insecure side morphing into easy jealousy.

I hope this answer isn't disappointing! I plan some of my fics seriously (in regards to plot/characterization) but for many of the light-hearted ones I just go with the flow. I keep reading enstars stories to have a decent grasp on characterization, as I don't enjoy writing things I perceive as OOC (I'm totally fine with a certain level of suspension of disbelief though), but I obviously have my limitations + my bias in how I perceive characters, so in the end I just do my best to have fun while hoping this will also read as well-written and entertaining to readers who stumble upon my fics :)

Leo canonically self-harms (bite marks on his hands; it's easy to imagine him doing other things like scratching himself) during his shut-in days so we know he's definitely the type to cope through unhealthy ways... (well, if self-harming can be called coping)

but yeah to me leo has become so thoroughly linked to sex i couldn't imagine it any other way. He loves people, he loves feeling close to people, he's casually affectionate and a lot of his character design relies on him being seen as small and cute (and even girly). So it makes sense in my mind that Leo soon realizes the attraction power he holds over others and uses that as an outlet! To me, his healthy way of coping would be like.... sex with loved ones, aka other enstars characters, esp ones he's close to? (izumi, eichi, knights in general etc.) and unhealthy coping mechanism is of course him letting himself be touched by randos </3 (this is about GFK) We've seen time and time again in canon that Leo has a shaky sense of value, and that factors in SO MUCH in him getting into sexual situations. Sex is a way to feel appreciated and useful: with friends and people he loves, it's a way to feel loved; with others, it's a fucked up way to find value beyond his artistic talent. Some part of him DOES realize he's being used, but Next Door has him basically saying straight that he doesn't think he can prevent that from happening again because he simply doesn't see it as a big enough deal. His way of viewing the world is genuinely fascinating and I really hope enstars canon will keep on giving us more of that.

Slightly related, but I've got several fics planned that will closely explore Leo's relationship to sex. One more canon based (a GFK/Leo fic) and the other which is my mobleo aftermath series, in which a traumatic event changes, in small and big ways than how I usually write him, how he views sex and makes it a true coping mechanism with him.

i can never make my thoughts about leo not unhinged but i hope what i have in mind is clear!

If Eichi's arranged engagment goes through with Hime-chan then yes, I believe he would behind-the-scenes make it a platonic scheme so both of them can privately act as they wish. I admit I don't really see Leo and Eichi ever fully committing solely to one another, but the thought of Eichi being Leo's artistic patron is soooo tempting <3 He's definitely a kind philantropist nothing to see here <3333 So mostly I agree with you tbh! I don't have more specific thoughts on it because it's mostly a scenario that's "too far into the future" for me to enjoy. I like to stick close to canon, it's where I feel happiest to explore different possibilities. (I DEFINITELY hope enstars doesn't get rid off the Eichi's arranged engagment subplot anytime soon because it makes his dynamics sooo tasty.)

Oh! Actually that reminds me i /did/ entertain the delusional thought of "what if eileo had a secret wedding" once but it was more in a "skip the wedding and go straight to secret honeymoon" way xD I just wanted to imagine Eichi finding various ways of justifying a fancy trip throughout several European countries with Leo and them having the time of their life during it (before coming back to "real life"). I think I just really want them to travel through France together bc I'm a biased Frenchie and it makes me giggle to imagine them both in my country.

but so yeah, if Eichi does marry Hime-chan I see him having a true relationship on the side. the ONE caveat I have is that if he makes gay wedding legal and marries Tori instead he WILL be forever faithful to Tori and that dooms all his other potential relationshipq <3 which i don't feel sorry for bc Tori deserves a faithful husband who grows to adore him.

my favorite non-leo ship has got to be wata/tomo!!!! (for information i say ship names in whatever order comes to my mind but i'm not usually one for fixed dynamics so you can apply a reverse arrow in all ships i'll name :>)

I adore wataru and tomoya for many reasons, the main one being that after binging most (all?) stories related to them i've come to the conclusion that i basically think of them as a kind of soulmates. not necessarily romantic ones though, and it's a ship i don't think of in sexual terms much at all (though i believe in tomoya getting an accidental boner over wataru at least once (1) and embarrassing wet dreams or stuff lmao). Their relationship doesn't need to be explicitedly romantic to me; i adore their dynamic and they make me extremely emotional in their canon stories. Any twist on that is a good bonus, but just the thought of canon makes me feel lovey-dovey <3

Speaking of soulmates, I also really like Nagisa/Hiyori! DEFINITELY soulmates to me. Once again, whether it's romantic or platonic doesn't factor in my enjoyment of the ship, I just like everything that focuses on them as a "do not separate" duo. I don't think of them much outside of canon but i LOVE canon for them.

Other than eileo and watatomo though, my biggest ship has to be eitori? Tori is a character i've really grown to adore, and his love for eichi feels me with so much bittersweetness. Eichi can be awful to Tori, and I really hope Yuzuru punches him for that someday, but if he was less of an idiot he has the potential to make Tori the happiest boy ever, and there is just something so special and dear about their dynamic to me. Tori maturing and questioning his love for Eichi but never outgrowing it is a tender spot for me. Also, in terms of canon, I think that if Eichi managed to make gay marriage legal (you know he would), I TRULY believe he still wouldn't break off the engagment to the Himemiya family, because he's too business-focused for his own good + wouldn't pull a dirty move on Tori's family, BUT he would definitely ask to marry Tori instead. I don't know how I can explain it but in my mind Eitori is therefore the closest to canon ship we can ever get. Yes i'm delusional. no regrets. Eichi can slut around all he wants but when he marries Tori he'll be a good husband I can make it work (<even more delusional)

Other than these, I like Yuzuru/Ibara bc Ibara is secretly one of my faves and I want them to have too much unresolved sexual tension in Niki's kitchen circle activities (+ I want to see more of Yuzuru's unhinged side); Yuzutori is really cute; Rinne/Hiiro is unironically the first ship I loved in enstars bc i'm a brocon freak (but my thoughts on them are more "wow! imagine all the fucked up potential of their childhood and how rinne leaving fucked up hiiro!" without them being necessarily a ship as in romantic+sexual combo) and hmmmmmmmmmmm gotta admit a strange soft spot for shunazu as i almost was an exvalk-p before i read checkmate and leo took over my entire brain. i think shunazu are the WORST match in enstars, they are NOT compatible. but i want to see the trainwreck. oh i'm been rotating the thought of nazutomo in my brain lately and i like it a lot more than i thought so i should mention them too.

As for ships I dislike, I can't say I have any that comes to mind? There are characters I don't care much about and therefore don't ship much, and some ships I like more than others, but dislike isn't a word I'd employ easily. The two ships I have the most ambivalent and contradictory feelings about are izuleo and wataei and that's in part bc they "impede" on my otp (but i've got a thesis in my head on how Actually eileo can still happen even in that context) and because... idk. I just have many mixed feelings! for izuleo it's probably also partly because I've actually written fics about them too and seeing them get waayyy more kudos/hits than my other fics makes me mildly annoyed since I don't consider them half-as-good as most of my other leo-ships fics. For wataei i have zero desire and ambition to write them someday I just Do Not Perceive Them outside of canon.

I hope this long answer satisfies your question! I'm def down to elaborate if you wanna. I can also explain my extremely correct and good leo-ships opinions someday if you ever wanna ask ;3

Hi! Please never be sorry about anything you dump in my retrospring, it's here for that reason~

Hmm, yeah Leo is hard to embarrass, he's pretty shameless in some aspects, which is especially fun to contrast with easily-flustered characters (in canon, it's sooo adorable with Tsukasa, the "Leo showing his tummy in submission bit" in Requiem never fails to make me squee).

I don't know if there's someone in particular who can makes him flustered more easily, at least not that i've thought of.... my biased shipper self wants to answer Eichi in the specific context of sex and Eichi being intentionally embarrassing and cringe and Leo not being able NOT to react to that, but embarrassed in a shy way? My best guess is, same as you, both during and outside of sex, during a moment that truly shows the other character's feelings and the depth of their intensity. There's definitely some people he would be LESS shy around I think (in my mind, Madara, or characters like Tsumugi) but I do struggle to see him too easily flustered around people! At least in canon; fic-wise i obviously enjoy making him flustered in various ways~

With Izumi in particular i think Leo isn't easily flustered, because he has shown time and time again he's able to profess his love for Izumi in front of others and in very clear ways; there's a chance he could become flustered if Izumi responded to that in a vulnerable, genuine fashion, but even then I feel like Leo wouldn't be flustered because he would just accept it? Since he understands these feelings and shares them. Meanwhile with someone like Eichi, they're obviously fond of each other but tenderness/vulnerability is definitely not a thing they expect to share. So lots of potential here <3

I hope my answer makes sense!