Chocolate Box Letter

[slumber]

{{ Dear Chocolatier }}

Thank you so much for signing up this year, and I’m so excited to have you assigned to me! I'm Slumber on AO3 as well, and I hope you're as excited about this exchange as I am!

For what it’s worth I’m incredibly easy to please, so feel free to run away with whatever ideas you may already have! But if you wanted some prompts, I hope this letter helps inspire you.

{{ General Likes and Dislikes }}

Likes. It depends on the ship and the dynamics that attracted me to them in the first place, but I quite love canon-centric studies of relationships and dynamics and seeing the different nuances other people have on a character.

Tonally I gravitate to lighter fare, and I'm always up for those tried-and-true romcom tropes of idiots in love, mutual pining, friends to lovers, fake dating, didn't know they were dating, practically married, fwb to more, etc. 5+1 fics are great too! I love domesticity but not established relationship, so anything in that vein would be amazing too! I love ships where each person stands on their own as well as can stand together, so any kind of power couple type portrayal is perfect for me.

I'm game for all ratings under the sun, not particular about who is doing what, so feel free to write what moves you in that regard as well.

DNWs. There isn’t a lot that I don’t like — name a trope and I’d probably be able to come up with at least one work I’ve read in it that has stayed with me. That said, I don’t always seek out fic with first-person POV, BDSM elements, noncon (dubcon and dubcon-adjacent situations are fine — as long as everyone's having a good time by the end works for me), pregnancy, dark themes for darkness’ sake, and kink-centered PWPs. I've got to be in a specific mood for Major Character Death, terminal illness, wedding fic and kidfic (I know, I know), so I'd rather not have any of them. To stay in the spirit of the holiday, please no unhappy endings, either!

The Prompts. Here’s a blanket disclaimer on the prompts here — feel free to absolutely ignore them and run away with your own ideas! If something I’ve said sparks an offshoot kind of idea, please pursue it! All I’d be truly happy for is another round at reliving these characters in their worlds, and I am SO looking forward to what you come up with whether it’s from one of these prompts or not! So please consider them starting points, if anything, or some way to get a sense of what drew me to these characters/fandoms to start. Thank you so much! <3

And with that, feel free to navigate to the fandom that makes sense to you!

{{ Chihayafuru }} {{ Daiya no Ace }} {{ Given }} {{ Haikyuu }}
{{ HypMic }} {{ Ookiku Furikabutte }} {{ Wotakoi }}

{{ Chihayafuru }}

Ayase Chihaya/Mashima Taichi, Ayase Chihaya/Mashima Taichi/Wataya Arata, Mashima Taichi/Suou Hisashi

General: In general I love the way karuta is a sport for everyone, and I LOVE the way their relationships and friendships have developed over the course of the series. I'm caught up in the manga, so don't worry about spoilers!

Possible prompts:
+ OT3? Or gen! PLEASE let Taichi show up for Chihaya and Arata. I want to know your take on that resolution, if you're so inclined?

+ Some years into the future, a retrospective of this time in all their lives. Where are they now? What did they learn from karuta? Friendships? Who they were?

+ Anything dealing with the developing of relationships between either Chihaya/Taichi/Arata, Chihaya/Taichi, or Taichi/Hisashi.

+ Hisashi is really only good at karuta. Taichi helps him out with everything.

+ Alternatively, any kind of slice of life episode: school festival, matsuri, Arata goes to college, etc.

+ Possible AUs: sports swap, historical fantasy, royalty, superpowers

{{ Daiya no Ace }}

Kominato Haruichi/Kuramochi Youichi, Kuramochi Youichi/Miyuki Kazuya, Miyuki Kazuya/Narumiya Mei, Okumura Koushuu/Sawamura Eijun, Matsubara Nao/Umemiya Seiichi

General: I'm caught up in the manga, so don't worry about spoilers! I don't have strong future fic headcanons so I'm game for any in that vein too.

Possible prompts:
+ Haruichi is nothing like Ryousuke. Kuramochi knows this. He does. (I don't mind if Kuramochi held a torch for Ryousuke before, or if they are exes, etc.)

+ Kuramochi can tell Miyuki's struggling with an injury again.

+ Kazuya and Mei at the Olympics.

+ Five times Kazuya turned Mei down. One time he didn't.

+ Okumura and Eijun have been working together for a while now, so they can have a strong battery when Miyuki leaves. But why... is it suddenly off??

+ Anything domestic, established relationship, or getting together between Matsubara and Umemiya pls. Maybe future fic where they're both in college?

+ Possible AUs: College AU, sports swap au, fantasy au, royalty au, superpowers

{{ Given }}

Kaji Akihiko/Nakayama Haruki

General: There’s a lot to love about Given in general, and I want to sink myself in the way that the mess of emotions that past relationships, hard relationships, heartbreaking relationships have of affecting how we move forward. I'm also caught up in the manga here, so feel free to go take what's there!

Possible prompts:
+ I'd love to know a little bit about what Kaji think of Haruki? I feel like we’re deep in the way his relationship with Ugetsu affects him, but was there ever a progression in the way he views Haruki from the moment they met?

+ It sounded like Kaji just sometimes crashes at Haruki’s when he’s too drunk or something — maybe a five times sort of fic for these moments?

+ Any kind of established-relationship, domestic cuteness between these two would be amazing as well!

+ Or how about during the early days of their band when there were just the three of them? I’d love to see what else we may not have as far as their relationship and friendship from these moments. Didn’t Haruki have an ex? Did they break up during? How was Kaji with him then? What about the years they have over Uenoyama, maybe a few moments when they were “parenting” him would be cute too!

+ I’m also a huge sucker for outsider POV fic, so if there are any you’d like to write from that focuses on how they view Kaji and Haruki, please go for it!

+ Possible AUs: sports au??, college au, florist + tattooist au

{{ Haikyuu }}

Haiba Lev/Yaku Morisuke, Bokuto Koutarou/Kuroo Tetsurou, Hinata Shouyou/Hyakuzawa Yuudai, Kyoutani Kentarou/Yahaba Shigeru, Oikawa Tooru/Ushijima Wakatoshi

General: I'm caught up in the manga, so don't worry about spoilers! And in fact I would prefer post-timeskip setup for all of these, or maybe the missing years between.

Past relationships, almost-relationships, or years-long unrealized pining for any of these ships would be nice to have, but not needed!

Possible prompts:
+ Lev visits Yaku in Russia (may or may not feature Yaku speaking Russian, Lev knowing absolutely none of it, the two of them going out and waiters keep deferring to Lev to make the order so he has to point to his tiny Asian companion and go "actually...")
+ Yaku and Lev run into each other in a formal event? Just put them in suits, they both look so good in them!
+ Bokuto calling Kuroo a lot in his first year playing for MSBY, bc he misses Tokyo.
+ Bokuto and Kuroo working together on some official VLeague + JVA stuff?
+ Hyakuzawa and Hinata have stayed in touch through all these years. One of them is extra excited about finally playing on the same team.
+ IDK what a sports instructor is but what if it means Yahaba is one of those shout-y spin instructors and Kyoutani shows up in his class one day.
+ Ushijima joins CA San Juan. Oikawa moves countries again.
+ Possible AUs: sports swap, fantasy au, different careers, etc

{{ Hypnosis Mic }}

Izanami Hifumi/Kannonzaka Doppo

General: After many years of seeing HypMic on my timeline but finding the albums/drama CDs too intimidating to get into, I binged the anime in two days and I am head over heels for these two right now. I'm planning on catching up to the manga to find out more but don't really mind any spoilers, so don't worry about them!

Possible prompts:
+ Strongly prefer anything in the getting together + domesticity, didn't realize they were dating vein for these two. If it takes you in a different route from the suggested prompts below please go ahead!

+ Food as Hifumi's love language and/or acts of service as Doppo's

+ The last people to realize Doppo and Hifumi are dating: Doppo and Hifumi

+ Jealousy triggering feelings realization/action (Hifumi getting jealous preferred, but either would be great!)

+ There is only one bed (maybe with some kind of unexpected reaction/twist?)

+ They go on a date, maybe some kind of practice/experience for Doppo, but it becomes real at the end UwU

+ Possible AUs: mangaka + editor AU, jock/nerd AU, sports AU

{{ Ookiku Furikabutte }}

Hanai Azusa/Momoe Maria, Hanai Azusa/Tajima Yuuichirou

General: Ummmm, I love Hanai with all of my heart. I think it's so cute what kind of captain he is, and the way his rivalry with Tajima influences his approach to baseball is so interesting. And Tajima is HYSTERICAL. And HORNY. He's just got such a confident approach to things and I just love the disparity between the two of them. I have only seen all (?) two seasons of the anime, but I've heard we're still in their first year so a lot of this can be speculative anyway!

Possible prompts:
+ Some kind of training camp/tournament road trip where Hanai and Tajima are stuck together and get to square away their differences?

+ Future fic/developing relationship. I am not sure when, you can pick! Perhaps Hanai and Tajima are third years, perhaps college and they are reuniting/running into each other, perhaps even further after that! When they're older and have a better sense of who they are on their own and around each other.

+ Specific future fic where Hanai is the coach for the high school team (or is helping coach the team) and Tajima's a pro player come to chat with the kiddos. Maybe they had something in the past that never got anywhere, or was broken off suddenly, or was just left unresolved? Or maybe there hadn't been anything before that had developed yet.

+ Hanai confesses to Momoe in his third year and is rejected. They run into each other again years later.

+ Possible AUs: sports swap, coworkers AU

{{ Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku }}

Kabakura Tarou/Koyanagi Hanako

General: I love absolutely everyone in Wotakoi — it’s the strongest call-out manga/anime I’ve ever had the pleasure to see — but Hanako and Tarou own my heart. I’m just drawn to couples like them, who bicker constantly but still have moments where you see they obviously care for each other. I am VERY caught up in the manga volumes including the fourth one that is rife with spoilers for Hanako/Tarou.

Possible prompts:
+ Something about their volleyball backstory? I know we already got a peek at this in some volumes but I don't think I can get enough of how these otaku used to live a sports anime life. More into their very own rivals-to-lovers origins?

+ Both volleyball clubs team up to put something together for the school festival. (You can go with that, or: due to a bet, or other circumstances, the boys' team is talked into doing a maid cafe while the girls' team does a butler cafe.)

+ Something domestic and cute in the present time would be absolutely great too! We usually see them from the perspective of Narumi, but I thought that scene where Hanako had fallen asleep on Tarou’s shoulder and he shushed Narumi and Hirotaka so as not to wake her was the absolute cutest! He can be so tender with her, I would love to see the times that happens! I don't know if you're caught up in the latest volume either, but!!! If you are!!! I would love something around that too >.>

+ I’d also love a bit more of a look into how Tarou sees Hanako’s crossplay infamy~ Surely she’s got a few fans as she seems quite popular — does that bother him? How much does he help her with putting costumes together?