Dear five-figure fanworker,

Thank you for coming to check out my letter! I hope you have fun with this exchange. I've repeated my general preferences from my signup here, and then added some rambling-slash-prompt suggestions for each ship—please don't take any of those as demands, and please feel free to improvise with them as much as you'd like. I've tried to come up with some meaty ideas that could make for longer works, but if none of my specifics are working for you, please know I'm absolutely here for your own ideas what to do with these characters! They have great potential and I have faith that you're going to do something awesome with it. Also, if you're making a comic and I've suggested an idea that seems like too much narrative for 40 panels, feel free to do a single scene/encounter from the longer arc.

Also I profusely apologize for the varying lengths of these sections and promise you I want every ship in this letter passionately. ;3;

Happy creating!
laylah

General Preferences
Modao Zushi
Original Work
Final Fantasy XV
Granblue Fantasy
Shin Megami Tensei IV
Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse
Onmyoji
Naruto

General Preferences

I opted into both fic and comics, both 1x10k/p and 2x5k/p, for all fandoms.

Fic Likes: sex, both kinky and vanilla; attention to power dynamics; canon-typical levels & types of violence; xeno; incorporating game mechanics; emotional connections and reconnections; hurt/comfort that focuses on the comfort; happy/hopeful endings unless otherwise specified, even for villains

Art Likes: kisses; hands; significant touches like cradling someone's face in one hand; scars, bruises, post-battle bandaging up; attractively bloodied noses; alternate costumes or trading outfits, including "what they'd wear in x AU"; candlelight/firelight/other distinct light sources; characters cuddling or leaning on each other; characters visibly enjoying sex

DNW: gen of requested ships; death of requested characters; pregnancy/birth/children; gender dysphoria; unrequested noncon, past rape or rape recovery plotlines; scat/vomit/force-feeding; issuefic; medical kink; completely mundane AUs; soulmate/soulmark, "mate for life," or similar predestined relationship tropes
Art DNW: comics completely without words (any style of dialogue/narration/caption is fine, I just get lost trying to follow wordless progression)


Also, a few tropes that lend themselves to longer stories that I'd love in any of these fandoms:

Accidental soulbond forces characters into close proximity (and possibly Makes Them Do It), and they have to cope with all the feelings that come up with that closeness while searching for a way to undo it. (I like both "undoing the bond, then realizing they want it back/restoring it" and "undoing the bond but still having the feelings" resolutions.)

Characters on a mission or in dangerous situation are somehow stranded with no backup and one of them injured, oh no, they must make it back to safety while caring for the hurt one. Good with multiple flavors: pining characters, established relationships, and reluctantly cooperating rivals or enemies.

And some things you could do with comics in a variety of places:

Intimate conversations while the characters are doing something mundane—cooking a meal, cleaning their weapons, that sort of thing—and the visuals focusing in on the task/their hands.

Proximity tropes like only one bed, snowed in/stranded/trapped for x time, stuck in an elevator, huddling for warmth, focusing on them having less space between them than they're used to (and then even less than that).

Moments of intimacy conveyed by hand close-ups—the classic is the panel of interlaced fingers during a sex scene but I'm weak to zeroing in on that kind of gesture anywhere.

Last page as a gag 4koma? I'm here for it.

Modao Zushi

Lan Sizhui/Wen Ning
Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian/Wen Ning

I'm fond of attractive dead boys and super fond of loyalty dynamics, so obvs Wen Ning had me at [possessed silent destruction of WWX's enemies in place of hello]. I love his sweetness and dedication to WWX both before and after his death, and I loved the reunion/recognition when he and Sizhui discovered that they shared a clan & history, and generally he's a combination of well-meaning and deeply awkward that melts my heart. If you want to make it a plot point to figure out how to make his body function intimately, I'm here for that; if you want to handwave whatever physical needs come up in your work, that's also cool; if you want to address it through what kinds of intimacy and/or sex they engage in, I'm also totally into that possibility. Just please let someone at least smooch a zombie ;)
NB I haven't seen most of The Untamed, so please don't lean hard on adaptation-only content.

Lan Sizhui/Wen Ning: Send them on adventures after the book together! Sizhui coming into his own as a cultivator, WN protecting his precious A-Yuan, both of them getting to know each other on their travels and fondness deepening into romance. Night hunting or visiting some distant sect to learn from them or uncovering some other mystery, maybe...? And realizing there's nobody else they'd rather have at their side when things get dangerous.

Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian/Wen Ning: I'm interested in this as a complete triad but also as a V centered on WWX, where LWJ and WN are either sides of the predator handshake with "protect our idiot genius beloved at all costs" underneath. In either dynamic, how does WN get folded into the romantic/sexual relationship there? He's obviously had a crush on WWX since before either of them died, but LWJ has also been so intensely focused on WWX despite everything; is there an awkward adjustment period before they work things out? I'm fine with emotional growing pains but I don't want a conclusion where anyone feels left out or like the polyship is something they have to settle for/something that doesn't make them happy.

Alternately if relationship drama isn't your jam, I'd be into them tackling a supernatural mystery a la canon, or founding a new cultivation sect based on WWX's unorthodox methods, or a pornier focus with WWX presenting WN's corpse state as a practical challenge that he and LWJ can figure out how to overcome (heh) with clever improvised cultivation techniques.

Original Work

Cricket-Playing Bugboy Who Is a Cricket/His Biggest Fan Turned Boyfriend
Pretty Crown Prince/Loyal and Infatuated Eunuch
Runaway Male Drow/Male Surface-Dweller Who Finds Him
Touch-Starved Male Heir/Haunted House He Inherits

Take your inspiration and run! These ships all sound fascinating to me and I'd love to see what you do with them. I've tossed out some ideas but I would also be interested to see other things you had in mind—with OW even more than with fandoms, there are so many directions a ship could go. I'm not looking for trope subversions but otherwise please feel free to explore what these ships could do!

Cricketer Cricket/Boyfriend: This was a goofy conversation in EAD that turned into a ship that sounded honestly fun. Also the first version of the tag called him Cricket-Playing Cricket Boy, which was way cuter but apparently confusing. :x
Anyway, I just want to see where this could go! The blend of insect/human features is up to you, as is whether the boyfriend is human or also a bugboy (and if a bugboy, what kind). I don't know a damn thing about how cricket is played among humans, so however you want it played among bug people is fine by me (potential worldbuilding questions: where does the name of the sport come from in a bug-people society? do people expect a cricket-playing cricket to be exceptionally good, or is he taking the easy way to sports stardom by playing a sport made for him?).
- Is this story part of a tournament arc in the style of sports manga, with boyfriend's support giving cricket the strength to lead the team to victory?
- Is cricket a pro & a celebrity, so that he and boyfriend have to navigate having a semi-public relationship with photos in the gossip mags and people having bad takes about them on social media?
- Do they get stranded in the wilderness somewhere and somehow, improbably, cricket-playing skills let our star player save the day?
- If you go sexy with this, please indulge in all the xeno that sounds fun! I picked up a fandom with a katydid boy in it recently and gosh, such nice thighs. As always, do exactly as much research as sounds enjoyable; I will be happy with whatever balance of entomology vs. fantasy you want to strike.
- Really, just take the idea anywhere that sounds fun.

Prince/Eunuch: First off, handsome crown princes are just a tasty as pretty ones, so go where your heart desires there. Second: what is the eunuch's role? Is he a personal servant? An entertainer? A government official whose loyalty to the regime was demonstrated by castration? A mage who accesses power by being made physically unlike most of his gender? A soldier? The answer there shapes what I think is clearly a pining get-together story, as the eunuch finds a way to get the prince to notice his loyalty and his crush, with the circumstances varying depending on his position in life. Whatever kind of adventures or intrigue come up on the way are awesome. If you enjoy historical research and want to roll around in details about one of the many civilizations that had eunuchs, please go for it. If trying for historical accuracy seems like a daunting chore, feel free to handwave your history or go with a secondary world or any degree of fantasy.
Extra notes:
- If there's explicit sex in your work (or it comes up for some other reason), I vastly prefer castration that only removes the testicles and leaves the penis intact.
- Please don't use contemporary language for gender identity, but if you want to do any worldbuilding that treats "eunuch" as a category distinct from both "man" and "woman," I'm here for it.

Runaway Drow/Surface-Dweller: "cypher, isn't this just Drizzt Do'urden's backstory with a daddy instead of a kindly grandpa?" shut up, don't judge me.
The iddy core of this ship for me: a character from a "twisted" and "evil" culture, who has suffered in his own society and has always believed that people anywhere else would treat him even worse because of what he is, discovers kindness and blossoms.
Once you get that part, the rest is gravy. The surface-dweller can be any D&D/fantasy race that appeals, and you're welcome to go with a high fantasy setting like the Forgotten Realms or shake it up and make it steampunky or cyberpunk a la Shadowrun, with the drow living in some network of tunnels deep under a gleaming but dangerous city. Maybe he's sick or wounded when he's found, and has to be nursed back to health before he can even appreciate where he is. Maybe his rescuer is a warrior—or seems like he should be one—to make this gentleness even more confusing. ...Maybe one of the freedoms he lacked underground was the freedom to act on his sexual desires, for one reason or another, and that makes their developing relationship even more unbelievable for him (and id candy for me).

Touch-Starved Heir/Haunted House: Okay this also is one where the hurt/comfort angle sings to me really hard, in a setup that's odd antagonists to lovers—the house is full of resentment and spookiness, whether that's a specific ghost-of-an-individual way or a more generalized resentful-energy-awakened-the-place way, and the heir to it was already alone and now expects to be even more so, trapped by the unwelcome gift of this terrible house. But something in them calls to each other, or they recognize a similarity in each other, and a connection develops? My language is vague here because I really don't want to dictate what it looks like for this to happen. I am super excited by the prospect of seeing how the touch starvation gets resolved, though. If it gets sexy please feel free to get weird, whether that's random house bits animating, dreamy encounters with ectoplasmic entities, or some other option entirely.

Final Fantasy XV

Ravus Nox Fleuret/Ardyn Izunia

This is definitely one of the darker ships I'm requesting! Ravus is a grieving fallen prince, placing blame on the ally who didn't save his family instead of the enemy who destroyed it, and Ardyn is a charming hedonist villain costume stretched over 2,000 years of bitterness and anger. I don't need a happier ending than canon for this ship, though I wouldn't say no to one if you have some idea what it would look like.

I'm hugely interested in the development of a "relationship" that neither of them mistakes for romance, where Ravus knows he's being manipulated but needs some kind of leverage, and Ardyn honestly will never form another human connection that isn't at least partly about his revenge on the gods. But if Ravus—especially younger, shortly-after-conquest Ravus—gets a little unclear on boundaries in a Stockholmy way, and/or if Ardyn's carefully maintained distance erodes thanks to old, old feelings for someone else of the Nox Fleuret bloodline, well. Yes please.

I think what I'm picturing is Ardyn in some kind of guide/mentor role early in Ravus' stay in Niflheim—and maybe explore what that was about, mm? Was this like a warring kingdoms' hostage situation where members of the royal/noble families are expected to go live at the court of the conqueror? Was it a more explicit attempt to reeducate, to turn Tenebrae's prince into a soldier of Niflheim to prevent him being a rallying point for resistance? Was Ardyn involved in the plan, whatever the reasoning?

Ravus just seems to me like a character who made incredibly bad decisions for incredibly bad reasons, probably because he'd been encouraged to lean into the worst possible take on the worst crisis of his life. Why not make that terrible process intensely personal? This creep offering him power clearly wants something. But nobody else is offering him power, or a sympathetic ear, or an encouraging touch....

Granblue Fantasy

Belial/Lucilius
Sandalphon/Sariel
Helel ben Shalem

Danchou doesn't feature in any of my requests, but if you want to bring them into your work, I'm happy to see Gran, Djeeta, or both of them together.

Belial/Lucilius: "Morning Light Hymnus" destroyed me and I will never recover. The difference between the way Belial feels about everything else in creation and the way he feels about Lucilius, rude. It's such a mess and he's so devoted, help. I'm entirely open to the possibility that he can't help it, that adoration for Cilius was programmed into him from the start (and then it got contaminated with his carnal tendencies and he expressed it in a way Cilius didn't expect?), possibly then evolving in unplanned directions. His sex bomb everything also being a deliberate creation choice, to make him useful in seducing people that Lucilius needed cooperation from and didn't want to interface with? Also neat. (Also the possibility that I've seen floated around recently that Belial embodies a lot of things Lucilius finds attractive but doesn't respect himself for.) Really just. Any amount of playing with the creator/creation intelligent design angle is cool.

I would love to see some post-000 fallout for them, after Belial could have walked (flown) away from consequences and instead chose dimensional exile to stay with the one man who matters. What if they go into that dimensional rift and come out somewhere else? Or somewhen else, transported to some other point in sky realm history? (canon events or making shit up are both totally fine.) Somewhere else could be a world of your choosing or a sneaky crossover that they don't recognize (but I might). The crucial part here would be that it's just the two of them without Astral society for backup, without the means to work toward Cilius' grand finale—needing to rely on each other in close quarters and vulnerable enough that maybe, MAYBE Cilius will finally confront some of the emotional mess going on here.

If you'd be more comfortable doing something set back in Canaan, though, please do; there's so much to flesh out there, including how Belial first came into being and learned his role (and fell for his beautiful, prickly creator); how the labs were run and what tasks each of them would attend to regularly (maybe you could track the progress of an experiment or the creation of a new primal?); how Lucilius started plotting against the Council and made Belial his most useful (and double-edged) tool for the purpose; and of course in all cases, how Belial carried a torch for Cilius with fanatic, unrequited devotion (even if he bangs other people to accomplish their goals—Belial bribing, bargaining, and obfuscating with sex is always good stuff).


Sandalphon/Sariel: Please, post-000 content, something following from Maydays. Sandalphon clearly sees an echo of his own longing for Lucifer in Sariel's attempt to find Belial, and he's obviously sure that's a terrible idea, and I want to see everything that follows. Maybe Sandalphon decides to travel with Sariel, trying to talk him out of his obsession and if that's not possible at least trying to be there when things go wrong so he can mitigate the damage. In the process, they get more of a chance to really get to know each other; Sandalphon has grown so much since they were in Canaan and Sariel by contrast has had so little chance to have new experiences and take in the variety that the sky realm contains. I want to see them curious about each other, learning from and about each other—Sandalphon has learned to handle his emotions and Sariel has never shown any animosity even when he's at odds with someone or actively fighting, and it seems like they should be able to not fight despite having opposed goals here.

And then what happens? Well. Good question! Maybe Sandalphon suggests they go visit some of the other primarchs "for information" (read: to have help convincing Sariel this is a bad idea); Sariel seeing Uriel again would be nice, I think. ;3; Or maybe they find their way to an island that's having a festival or under attack by strange monsters and get swept up in local customs, in the vein of a story event—fixing problems while getting distracted from their own. Leaning into Sariel's brand of "how does I human" would be great, and letting him finally experience some things that are neither fighting nor retreating into a dissociative shell to avoid thinking about fighting. It would slay me in the best way for kindness and wholesome connections to start breaking up his fixation with Belial, as he realizes that he can get gentle treatment and also answers from someone much closer.

Fffff, pick and choose what works for you, I'm afraid of this sounding railroady when I really don't mean it to be. tl;dr please let them grow to understand and care for each other after Maydays one way or another.

The Lucifer Question: I'm absolutely not looking for something that dismisses Lucifer's importance to Sandalphon, though I'm flexible on how you handle that—you can not bring it up, or have Sandalphon working through his grief over his first love and learning to let someone else in, or maintain Lucifer and Sandalphon's connection in the garden/dreams while he finds himself developing a new connection in the waking world, or even bring Lucifer home and have them figure out polyamory (Lucifer has so much love for the entire sky realm, I have to believe he'd be excellent at this). Basically as long as the narrative doesn't claim Lucisan never happened/mattered, and as long as Sandalphon isn't a jerk to Lucifer (which would be pretty OOC for post-trilogy Sandalphon), engage with him as much or as little as you want.


Shalem: Shalem is beautiful and brash and a mystery and makes me very stupid. I would love to see pretty much any what-if that does more with her character, and I encourage you to make up as much backstory/lore as necessary to get a story going. Some pre-Astral-era history where she was traveling with her singularity adventurer? (Past life of either Gran or Djeeta is great there.) What her duties for Bahamut entailed, and how she carried them out? Astrals-in-Canaan era where she's around the labs for the early days of the primal project, either as a separate character or playing the role of Bubs? She could strike a lot of sparks off that crew. Or some alternate version of her coming out of her cradle, where she didn't meet danchou right off and had different adventures instead. Or something else in the modern skies—maybe something in the style of a low-stakes story event where she's giving advice to some of the crew about, idk, starting a host club or something. I just desperately want content for her and the game does not seem likely to give it to me.
Ship-wise, you obviously don't have to do any shipping since she's nominated solo, but if you want to pair her up with basically any adult character I'd be happy to give it a spin (mutual attempts at seduction-for-reasons with Belial? riding the dragon with Siegfried? decadent fabrics and new outfits with Korwa? really the sky's the limit). I'm thirsty and she seems to be too. Teenagers I'm not so sure she'd be interested in, with the exception of danchou, who has that main character Singularity thing going on to make them compelling.

Shin Megami Tensei IV

Isabeau/Kaga
Isabeau/Kaga/Yuriko

Sexy goddess cult Ring of Gaea is my biggest thirst for this game. I'm hoping for some kind of canon divergence, obvs, where Kaga gets to be around longer and her beautiful deadly firebrand nature makes Isabeau have a lot of feelings. And then, being a teenager with probably her first raging lesbian crush, Isabeau makes bad decisions based on her feelings and lets herself get seduced both physically and ideologically into the Ring. Maybe you want to look at how canon goes differently with Isabeau as the Chaos Hero or as one of two Chaos Heroes. Maybe you want to explore the philosophy of the Ring and the worship of the old goddesses they encourage (that was Mem Aleph in their sanctuary; if you've played Strange Journey and want to pay any tribute to the demon mothers from that, *awesome*). Maybe there's some kind of sidequest to a shrine to restore a spooky lady who's resting there, whether a canon demon or otherwise. Maybe you want to mess with sexy psychodrama in the "initiation" rituals they have in store for Isabeau, whether with Kaga, Kaga+Yuriko, other female members of the Ring, Chaos-aligned demons... I'd rather not see this end in tragedy but something ambiguous/ominous would be totally fine.
This prompt is intensely "ladies ladies ladies," and that's deliberate; I don't see Isabeau being at all interested in sex with men.

Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse

Gaston/Hallelujah

I am really just thirsty for their get-together arc, whether that happens in the latter part of the Bonds route or in some postgame developments. They start out so at odds, both with important growing to do, and then they spark some of that in each other—Gaston pushing Hallelujah to stand up for himself, Hallelujah shaking Gaston out of his selfishness enough to get him to show some compassion. And by the end of the story they seem honestly fond of each other, in a bickering and teasing sort of way. So I'd really like to see how the antagonists-to-friends-to-lovers path plays out, and if it's tropey as all get out, that's a bonus. Also, this is one of the rare cases where I would be into some internalized homophobia struggles; Mikado's Church seems to partake of all the most repressive, Thou Shalt Not strains of Abrahamic faiths irl, and I could easily see Gaston struggling with what he's been taught in contrast to what he's now realizing he desires.

During the game: Scenes between them following plot events would be welcome, getting closer and having simmering UST that Hal at first thinks can't possibly be requited, that jerk would never. Unless,,,? But also feel free to split up the party in ways we didn't see happen: send them on a supply mission or get them stuck in a demon's domain, something to force them to interact with each other more closely and depend on each other when nobody else is around to tease them for it. Maybe the gang is all staying the night at the same underground district and the local Association doesn't have quite enough beds to go around! oh no.

After the game: Still plenty to take care of in Tokyo! Maybe put one of them in danger for the other to help out, or maybe they decide—together or independently and then running into each other—to take on some unusual request from the Association to investigate a shrine or abandoned building where strange things are happening. Adventures together! And they're glad for the chance to see each other again even if they still bicker and please will you boys kiss goddamn.

Also I'm not super into human matchmakers but if Chiro wants to meddle, or Navarre tries to be the world's least competent wingman, that's totally welcome.

Onmyoji

Kujira/Otakemaru
Ibaraki Douji/Shuten Douji
Minamoto no Yorimitsu/Onikiri
This is such a fascinating canon with wonderful characters and a beautiful world, and all the stories are quick sketches that leave a lot unspoken, so really I'm dying to see a lot of canon incidents fleshed out in thoughtful detail.
Fandom-specific DNW: the Ibaraki/Shuten/Momiji love triangle. Please just pick any other point in their history to work with.

Kujira/Otakemaru: I love how permeable the divide between human and youkai is in this game. From his Talisman Pass story, it sounds like Kujira didn't even notice crossing over as he lived on Mt. Suzuka, until one day he's a whale man and the Young Master is handing him a flail made of spine to take into battle. I want his adjustment period, learning to live on the mountain and falling for the brash fighty youth who inspires everyone there. Lean on the contrast between humans enslaving him and youkai giving him freedom (when he expected death). Show me bits of daily life on the island; cameos from any of the other Mt. Suzuka characters are very welcome. ...I just want a story about why the monsters of this canon are so good, honestly. With a side of quiet, chill h/c for a man whose life and heart were saved by falling in with them. Bonus for an informal dom/sub flavor to the ship, because big butch Kujira being deferent and almost shy around lanky little Otakemaru gives me life.


Ibaraki Douji/Shuten Douji: Where do I even start? Ibaraki's adoration for Shuten is so good, and I love that the game has moved toward having their relationship be more mutual rather than the hopeless pining of Ch. 10-11. Also using "good friend" or "best friend" as a term of endearment just charms me so much. We know from the Celestial Realm dream fragments that they've known each other for hundreds of years, since Ibaraki was a smol oni child and Shuten was the "divine child" of a human monastery; I would love to see any of their adventures together rendered in loving detail. Some suggestions:

- Ibaraki running into Shuten again for the first time after that monastery meeting. How much later is it? Does he recognize this man? Do they fight? (I bet they fight) Does he decide to follow Shuten around from then on?

- Staking a claim on Mt. Oe, establishing the hierarchy there. Supporting cast including Hoshiguma, Onikiri's precursor demon, any other oni subordinates of folklore Shuten Douji, all a plus. How Shuten and his right-hand man conquer the mountain, or how they defend it from some other human or youkai threat.

- Exploring in Zenken, discovering things in the celestials' city, maybe being shown around by Asura/Taisha—enjoying the food, the liquor, the baths, and keeping an eye out for trouble.

- Some other event story they participated in, exploring their role in it more thoroughly? I haven't read them all (I missed a good year or so of the game) but will happily go wiki dive to acquaint myself with any.

- Or you know the sequence of sparring matches and drinking parties with escalating sexual tension that eventually boiled over into their first time fucking, featuring Ibaraki "no chill" Douji declaring his intent by wearing that goddamn bell on his ankle.

- I am also all-in for the two of them being sex friends with Hoshiguma, Onikiri, or both, if you're feeling up to tackling a three/foursome!


Yorimitsu/Onikiri: Yorimitsu is terrible and Onikiri is entirely my type and the story events don't dig into their extremely messy history in nearly enough detail. Essentially what I want is to get the messy emotionally complicated details of any bits of their history—this might be a good request for a "5 times..." format tbh, looking at some of the key turning points for them. Or one straightforward (as if Yorimitsu is ever straightforward) adventure together, possibly after Onikiri's reforging when he's aware of all the bullshit Yorimitsu has pulled but clear-headed about it and they can be cooperating adversaries in the best way.

Adventures and battles are also really good, though I'd rather not see Yorimitsu successfully deploy Onikiri to assault any of the youkai lords/strongholds that we have positive interactions with in game (Arakawa, Tamamo, Mt. Suzuka, Mt. Oe)—battles against nameless foes at home or in the Demon Domain/Celestial Realm story, maybe? Or some fuckery from Orochi or a power play by cranky elders who don't like how this arrogant young onmyoji has taken over the noble Minamoto clan, those are good too! I'm just very easily sympathetic to monsters and don't want to watch them get massacred :x

Sex thoughts: is it kinky and/or perverse for Yorimitsu to fuck someone who is a) an object made for violent purposes x b) a member of the species he's declared war on? I bet he finds that completely filthy, whether he's congratulating himself for it or angry at his "weakness." Onikiri thinks like a weapon; before he gets his memories back he's probably doing his best to perform acceptably for his master, but afterward I bet he's looking for ways to use intimacy against That Man even if what they're doing still looks like seme/uke power imbalance. Honestly any excuse you can come up with

Naruto

Zabuza/Haku & or / Kimimaro

Surprise late addition because I'm not current on Naruto but I sure did love these guys, and the idea of Kimimaro bouncing off the Zabuza/Haku pair just got its claws instantly into my brain and wouldn't let go. Please forgive any inaccuracies in the prompts—it's been ages—and tweak them however you need to make them more functional. Timeline, what timeline, heck the timeline.
Fandom-specific DNW: sex when Haku or Kimimaro is significantly younger than in canon (please feel free to just never mention their ages and I will assume they're old enough for my comfort).

- The two of them pick up Kimimaro when he flees his village, or they wind up cooperating on an assignment from Orochimaru for handwave reasons, and Kimimaro has to try to figure them out, and his inexperience with how humans have relationships probably makes this rather a puzzle! If he's been with Orochimaru for a while especially, comparing and contrasting his relationship with his lord & the way Zabuza and Haku interact. ...And you know if that means he winds up watching them bang, or following them to bed out of curiosity, I am a gremlin who'd go for that.

- Ninja pederasty (or probably shudo, more accurately) is a jam I can definitely groove to and works well already for Zabuza/Haku what with the powerful adult warrior/talented beautiful youth thing going on. Can Zabuza handle taking on two boys at once? How does Haku feel about that if they were already in this sort of relationship before Kimimaro showed up? (Spoilers: I will be completely thrilled if he's fond of/reaching out to Kimimaro instead of reacting with jealousy.)

- Or handwave the part where they meet/get together and put them on a mission! Let their various unique talents shine, and also get them into trouble that they can only get out of by working together/trusting each other. Is it time for someone to realize there are Feelings? It just might be!

- Can you give them a happier ending than canon? I bet you can. Take a hard left turn anywhere you'd like to get them out of the way of canon's body count. Dubiously principled magic ninjas all deserve happy endings! (...Probably not all. Almost all, though.)

- But if you have a better and/or more fun idea, please do that instead! I am just thrilled by the possibilities of getting some of my favorite minor characters to do stuff together.