Top 20 Short Pining Fanfics
Ranked by AO3 kudos. Each fic is tagged with pining and falls in the 10,000–50,000 words range.
I'm Reading Your Lips (You're Speaking My Language)
by some1_around
Rozanov cocked his head. “You speak Russian? Or just the curse words?” “Yes, I speak Russian,” he snapped, defensive and angry. He knew that it had been a mistake to even try to be friendly with Rozanov. “Why? Do I not look Russian to you?” He scoffed. “No, not really,” Rozanov said. Some of his tea
Lumos
by birdsofshore
Harry never expected to spend eighth year listening to Draco Malfoy wanking.
As the Romans Do
by kooksie
As a straight man, Ilya Rozanov has never had a gay roommate before, but it’s going pretty well. Shane Hollander is kind, silly, and an even bigger hockey nut than Ilya. So when Shane starts bringing men over, and Ilya begins to want to bash their fucking heads in, Ilya comes to a startling conclusi
Electricity In the Contact
by ladyblahblah
In which Derek has been invited to the Greater Pacific Northwest Alpha Symposium (that's not what it's called, Stiles, stop saying that), and showing up unattached would mean an arranged marriage. When the rest of the pack objects, he agrees to let Stiles come along to pose as his mate. Derek is r
Don't Worry Baby
by kalpurna
"You know you're allowed to ask for vanilla sex, right?" he says, afterwards. "We can do whatever you want. That's kind of the point."Derek doesn't respond.
Patterns of Intention
by drunktuesdays
Derek looked like the stuff of his deepest fantasies. His shirt was rumpled where Stiles had his hands in it, and he was breathing hard as well, chest heaving. His eyes—his eyes were glazed over and he looked stunned, like he’d been—like Stiles had—“No,” Stiles said, blood draining from his face.
your heartbeat, across the grass
by fakeplasticlily
To his unbridled horror, Wei Wuxian sees his face up on the giant screen in real time for the entire stadium to see. Still laughing as his face takes a moment to catch up with the sheer mortification he’s feeling, A-Yuan perched on his shoulders as the Lan Wangji cape drapes over them.There’s also c
A Convenient Impracticality
by firethesound_HP_archive
Somehow Harry ends up agreeing to a fake relationship with his ex-nemesis-turned-friendly-acquaintance-with-benefits, except for some reason it involves an awful lot of actual dating and, sadly, not much sex. Confused? Harry is too, but when has anything with Draco Malfoy ever been as straightforwar
there's no pretending
by moonsock
The term, he’s told, is temporary retrograde amnesia. Ilya doesn’t need the direct translation to understand: he forgot things. Ten years of things.
Matchmaker, Matchmaker
by prosodiical
or: five times Theseus set Newt and Percival up in some strange matchmaking scheme and one time Newt actually appreciated it.Newt immediately knows the Graves at MACUSA isn't the real one, because Theseus has been setting them up for years.
slow it down (go easy on me)
by newamsterdam
It’s at that moment that Bakugou realizes something is very, very wrong. He glances down at himself and sees scars he’s never had before along his arms, little nicks and scratches he’d never have been oblivious to. When he reaches up, his limbs feel longer, and as he staggers to his feet he stands s
time out of mind
by aknightley
Keith and Lance wake up married. In the future. He lays there a moment, processing the faint throbbing in his head, a strange bitter taste like lemons in his mouth. When he opens his eyes, the room spins wildly into a kaleidoscope of colors, so he closes them again, breathing in and out until he
Scent Like Home
by Destielshipper4Cas
‘Alpha Needed: Looking for an alpha with a calming scent, preferably mated, for scenting purposes. Twice a week, one hour. Pay: $20 per hour plus expenses.’ In order to get his anxiety attacks under control, Cas is supposed to regularly scent an alpha whose scent makes him feel safe.Dean could reall
Roses are red and they taste like shit
by Unbreakable_Red_Riot
Katsuki was really fucking sick of the smell of flowers. Español / Türk
The Burden of Blondes
by SweetyGreeny
Sanji discovers Zoro has a type, he's incredibly unhappy to also discover that he falls into it.
we shine like diamonds
by whitemiists
Oikawa is nine when he first hears the word. The boys on the playground whisper it like it's dirty, like the way they daringly mutter the word fuck and then look over their shoulders to check their parents hadn't heard."You know Abe-kun from class?" they snicker, hands cupped around their mouths lik
scramble
by IHadHimOnTheRopes (CarterReid)
The words on his skin were his everything. After everything he'd seen, done and been through, they were a reminder that Bruce Wayne still existed. That somewhere there was a person who would love him despite the coldness in his chest and the scars that roped their way across his skin. A reminder tha
The Bond
by WhatIfImaMermaid
He slips in love with Spock inconspicuously, during an uneventful afternoon, on an unnamed planet destined to become little more than a Greek letter and a Roman numeral on Starfleet’s chart of the Beta Cygni system. In which: -Spock gets amnesia.-Spock is convinced that he and Jim are a thing.-Jim
When You Wish Upon a Star
by emerald1963
Hajime has no idea how this situation is even possible, but he’s one hundred percent certain that it’s all Oikawa’s fault.Oikawa blames the aliens.The Iwaoi body swap fic that this fandom needs, if not the one it deserves.
Retrograde
by Hazel_Athena
“What the fuck happened?”“You forgot how to duck, dumbass.”
More Short Pining Fics on AO3
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About Pining
Unrequited or unspoken longing for someone, often with lots of internal anguish.
The exquisite torture of loving someone from afar, especially when it's mutual but unspoken.
Common scenarios: Secret crushes, assuming feelings aren't returned, watching from across the room.
About This List
This list of 20short Pining fanfics spans 567,584 total words. Kudos range from 12,510 on the newest entries to 52,890 on the most established. Nearly all (100%) are complete, so you can start any of them without WIP anxiety. The most common rating is Explicit (11 of 20 fics).
Recurring tags across this list: Pining · Fake/Pretend Relationship · Fix-It · Mutual Pining · Temporary Amnesia.
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