College AUs are cool, but you know what we’re missing? Art major AUs:

• "I cut myself really badly in Printmaking and I’m trying not to bleed everywhere, turns out you carry a bunch of first aid supplies in your bag" AU
  
• "I let you have a few sheets of darkroom photo paper, to pay me back you offered to model privately for my Studio Photography assignment" AU
• "I’m a traditional painter who has to take a basic Photoshop class, you’re a graphic design major sitting next to me and getting sucked into helping me out because I’m so terrible at this" AU
  
• "My pottery bowl exploded in the kiln and I feel like a failure, you found me crying about it in the hallway" AU
  
• "Our Figure Drawing teacher is an asshole, you stuck up for me when he started railing on my portraits" AU
  
• "You saw me struggling to carry a giant cardboard sculpture for my installation and helped me get it to class" AU
  
• "I’m zoning out working on this painting and you just stopped me from drinking out of my dirty water cup" AU
  
• "A mutual friend of ours has this whole vision for their Black and White Photography final and we volunteered to be their models without knowing how sexual this shoot would turn out" AU
  

• We both attend a boarding school and we aren’t supposed to be out this late. I thought I heard a teacher. Quick hide in this small space with me!
• I tried to sneak out using my window and now I’m hanging from it can you help me?
• I was skipping class to sleep in an empty class room and you caught me but the door closed behind you and now we’re trapped inside cause the inside lock is broken.
• Teacher left us alone in detention wanna make out??
• I may have brought my pet to school by accident and it may have escaped you have to help me.
• You just caught me stealing my phone back from the teachers desk and it turns out you were here to steal the lesson plans. Wow you’re a thief….
• I just accidentally kicked a rock too hard and it broke that window and you saw it happen
• I run a (technically illegal) snack shop in school and you’re the student council president who caught me
• You accidentally broke the clay figure the boss keeps on their desk and some how I’m helping you fix it??? 
• I accidentally stumbled upon your makeshift hideout on school grounds let me nap here and I won’t say a word.
• I may or may not be the one who set off those fireworks but on the off chance that I was what would I have to do to get out of trouble???
• You know that I’m the one who set the teachers ringtone to boys moaning and called them during class now you’re using this against me.
• Someone has been leaving post it notes with hyper realistic dicks drawn on them around the school and as Student Council President I have to find out who it is

• “your country’s trying to take over/annex my country and you’re making it difficult to hate you because you’re so nice and attractive stop it” au
  
• “we’ve been engaged to be married since we were three but this is the first time we’ve met and your portraits really don’t do you justice” au
• “i’m a prince/ss and you’re a servant and we’re not supposed to hang out but we’re gonna fall in love anyways” au
  
• “i’m a prince/ss and you’re my bodyguard and we’re so not supposed to bang but we kind of did anyways” au (bonus: limo sex is great sex)
  
• princess diaries style “i grew up not knowing i was royal and suddenly my royal grandparent showed up out of nowhere and told me i was so now i guess i’m the heir to the throne and you’re my crush from my pre-royal days but i still have a crush on you” au
  
• alternately, “i grew up not knowing i was royal and now i guess i’m heir to a throne and you’re the guy who’s supposed to be teaching me how to be royal bc i suck at it and oops we made out” au
• "i’m a prince/ss from a small country nobody’s heard of and i’m in college pretending not to be royal and you’re another student who’s always calling me out on my bs” au
  
• “my country’s going through some issues so i’m here in hiding and you’re a civilian who lives in the same apartment complex as me” au

People should do more “meet ugly” and less “meet cute”. For example.

• "I broke your nose at a mosh pit" AU
• “I hit you with my car and was the only one to visit you in the hospital” AU
• “You were chased by the cops, got in my car and just yelled ‘Drive!’” AU
• “You punched me in the face while gesticulating wildly to a friend” AU
• “You laughed in a restaurant but you have an ugly laugh and I thought you were choking, so I spent the last three minutes awkwardly humping you while performing the Heimlich maneuver” AU
• “We met each other on a Sunday morning, both doing our walk of shame” AU
• “I get really sick on roller-coasters and you had the misfortune of sitting in front of me so, uh… sorry…” AU
• “You’re the bastard who keeps parking right in front of my house so I retaliated by keying your car and you caught me” AU
• “I work at a department store and if you take out and unfold a shirt and then leave it one more time I’m going to stuff it down your throat” AU
• “You broke into my apartment drunk thinking it was your friend’s house and I should call the cops but my cat kinda likes you so we’re good” AU
• “My new dealer has friended me on Facebook and I’m unsure of how to react to that” AU
• “You saw me reading the same book you did and we got into a heated discussion on how much it sucks” AU
• “This is a five-hour-long plane ride, we’re sitting together and you’re deathly afraid of flying” AU

Yes you could be sad about your pairings but:

• Inappropriately timed confessions
• At a ski lodge and somehow got stuck outside in the middle of the storm but hey look there’s a conveniently abandoned cabin I guess the logical thing to do is go in there and snuggle for warmth for the night
• Seeing love interest in formal wear for the first time whaaat
• Everyone thinks they’re dating and then they start wondering if they’re dating
• Oops friend looks like the only place to sleep in this house is this small, twin-sized bed, guess we’ll have to share
• Thunderstorm cuddles
• Crashed the wrong wedding and now the best man/maid of honor is on my ass, but hey they’re kinda hot so???
• Run into each other in a hospital while there for really stupid reasons
• Both have same obscure taste in music and meet in a dark corner of a music store
• Neighbors in a shitty apartment building that share a sense of solidarity for each other (also a mutual attraction because hotawhat)
• Sleepy kisses
• Inappropriately timed confessions
• INAPPROPRIATELY TIMED PROPOSALS

that is all

u know i’ve expressed my love for fake married/fake dating many, many times but like. is anything better. is anything better on this earth. does any trope or genre truly care for us quite like this one. let us reflect on a few of the gifts that fake married/dating consistently gives us:

• character a asks “hey, will you pretend to be my date for a week for [convoluted excuse that could easily be solved without a fake relationship]?” character b, fully convinced of the futility of their DEEP AND UNREQUITED LOVE, figures this’ll be a chance to spend time with them and possibly put their feelings to rest. character b is always wrong & it is always amazing.
• having to SHARE A LIVING SPACE FOR ARBITRARY FIC REASONS. having to see eachother in their pajamas first thing in the morning, messy haired, drowsy eyed and soft faced. going from “you can have the bathroom first” to brushing their teeth beside eachother and feeling like this closeness has always existed (at the same time, painfully aware that it won’t always). 
• related to the last one — “”practicing”” their casual touching so that it’s easier when they’re in public. feeling SWOOPS OF ARDOR AND AGONY when they feel the brush of a hand on their neck, or an arm loop around their waist. don’t you love how fake marrieds/dates are always method actors who must FULLY INHABIT their roles. i love it. i live for it. 
• bed sharing. :^) we all pretend we’re bigger than this but we are not. 
• "kiss me while everyone’s looking."
• the character who wasn’t aware they were in love (maybe always had been) until the fake relationship is in full swing, realizing they have to sort their feelings out before their time together is up. sometimes they succeed and angst is minimal. most of the time they don’t, really.
• telling eachother “i love you” in public and meaning it, heart aching over it, but bELIEVING THE OTHER 2 BE ACTING. my soul is still 15, this garbage still gets me. u don’t get pining better than this.
• the days leading up to the end of the arrangement where one of them, still confused and muddy about their Feelings and unsure how to break things off, stiffens to the casual, reflexive touching and puts their walls back up. the other one accepts and respects this as the end of their agreement and squashes back down all the hope they ever had, stuffs it next to the heartbreak they’re ignoring deep in their chest. 
• when they realize they’re actually fully and enthusiastically mutual about the way they feel and it’s, like, two parts euphoria and one part agony because they just cannOT BELIEVE, the happiness tears them in two. maybe there are weepy or laughing kisses. i don’t know but i’m usually invested like 2000%. i love fake dating/marrieds. 
• I LOVE EM.

disgustingly cute domestic scenes to imagine your otp in:

• getting slightly too drunk in the middle of the afternoon and slow dancing to dumb cheesy old music and kissing in a way that’s more laughter than actual kissing, mouths clumsy and hands gripping tight and sunlight slanting over them as they move lazily together 
• curling up on the sofa together, feet tucked under thighs and arms around shoulders, watch the kind of crap tv that only airs at 3am because they don’t want to go to untangle themselves to go to bed
• hectic mornings when they each need to be somewhere and they’re rushing around each other, ducking into bathrooms and bedrooms and kitchen cupboards, pausing to straighten tops and press kisses to cheeks
• going through old photos together and collapsing into laughter every three pictures, and zooming in on ones where they’re pulling awful faces or ones that were taken at just the wrong moment
• getting ready for nights out together, standing shoulder to shoulder as they brush their teeth or get their faces ready or style their hair, knocking elbows and hips as they try and hog more space
• standing quietly together in the kitchen after long, exhausting days, leaning into each other for support, breathing in the smell of home, fingers carding through hair and stroking down spines, until they feel like they can relax and smile properly again

more otp hot mess aus:

• 'you're lying on the floor of the movie theater crying and i'm the employee who has to tell you another movie starts in five minutes so you have to leave and i'm really sorry but im also confused as to why a documentary on lightbugs affected you so much' au
• 'i found you sleeping on my balcony when i went out to water my plants why are you here and more importantly how did you get here we're eighteen floors up' au
• 'i'm having a minor breakdown in the middle of bed bath and beyond and you're a bewildered shopper who wants to buy plates but also to make sure i'm okay bc im wailing a little bit in the kitchenware section' au
• 'i asked a staff member and they said you've been coming to the pound every day to play with the dog i'm taking home today and that's why you're getting weirdly emotional' au
• 'why are you dancing in your underwear to kelly clarkson in a public bathroom while brushing your teeth' au

okay but instead of coffeeshop aus

• angry biologists au
• historians au
• librarians au
• crazy cat horder and frustrated-allergic-to-cats neighbor au
• jocks and nerds au
• competing musicians au
• unwilling dance partners au
• marriage of convenience au
• zoologists au
• modern royalty au
• drift compatible au
• soulmate-tattoo au
• werewolves au
• afterlife au
• last two people on earth after the zombie apocalypse au
• cute clerk and regular customer au
• young ta and hot older student au
• time traveller au
• hot disgruntled fire fighter and rambunctious college student au