• canon-compliant and divergent
• one of them clearly has issues (repression, complexes)
• bleak boyband tropes
• contract/fake dating
• in that vein, undercover couples
• assassins/spies/espionage au
• mafia/syndicate au (bonus if it's in the untraditional sense)
• heist aus (bonus if they cannot pull it off at all)
• mistrust/mindfuck/manipulation
• soulmates, but only if it's spicy
• actor/idol/model aus
• pacrim au
• dystopian/post-apocalyptic aus
• anything dealing with the self (inner conflict), relationship perception (how much of it is real)
• crude but weirdly specific humor
• specialization/sports/instrument trauma
• relationship status: It's Complicated
• i hate you (but hate is love too)

all roads lead to lovers (kinda):

• exes to lovers!!!
• estranged friends to lovers
• fwb to lovers, fwb to enemies (to lovers), ewb to lovers
• enemies to friends to lovers, friends to enemies to lovers, friendly rivals to enemies (to lovers)
• uneasy/unresolved tension in any sense to lovers
• (misunderstandings crucial to) undefined r/s to lovers trajectory