What are your shipping kinks? What is almost guaranteed to make you go OOH SHINY about a pairing and ship them like there's no tomorrow? Because I've definitely noticed a pattern in my ships...and I'm talking about pairings that I'm either actively producing/reading fic for, or at least screaming "MAKE OUT ALREADY" every time they're on screen.


Friendship
Okay, this one isn't 100% guaranteed to make me ship a pairing, but a strong friendship is the basis of nearly all of my non-warped, non-irrational pairings.
- House/Wilson (House): hits this hardcore.
- Martha/Jack (Doctor Who/Torchwood)
- Doctor/Donna (Doctor Who): the only companion I really liked the idea of the Doctor being with...
- Doctor/Amy (Doctor Who): ...until now.
- Nana/Yasu (Nana): seriously, I've had it bad for these two since page one. Ditch Ren, please.
- Alanna/George (Song of the Lioness, Trickster): oh, here's one from childhood. He thought she was a guy for the longest time, too.

Partnership
A couple running being all competent at their job and/or kick-ass in battles together? Hot.
- Alanna/George (Song of the Lioness, Trickster)
- Haruka/Michiru (Sailor Moon): yeah, two from childhood. I caught onto this pattern early on.
- Rei/Minako (Sailor Moon): mostly in the live action series. I swear the writers grafted aspects of Haruka/Michiru onto them, since they weren't going to be in the series.
- Martha/Jack (Doctor Who/Torchwood)
- Martha/Mickey (Doctor Who): I feel so alone, I LOVED this pairing right away, because it makes so much since and hit this kink SO. HARD. in all of two minutes.
- Mal/Zoe (Firefly): Serenity just encouraged me (I'M SORRY WASH, I LOVE YOU, BUT ZOE NEEDS SOME LOVE).

Because It's Just Wrong
I love them for their wrongness. No fluffy happy stories, please. (Gosh, I have a lot here...)
- Dexter/Deb (Dexter): they're siblings. He's a serial killer. And yet I can't stop shipping it.
- Caroline/Bennett (Dollhouse): Bennett worshipping Caroline, Caroline using Bennett, Bennett trying to kill Caroline…hell yeah.
- Light/Misa (Death Note): Light’s using her. She knows. But she doesn’t care.
- Jack/John (Torchwood): Kiss each other, then beat the shit out of each other. Push Jack off a building, then touch his lips tenderly. Try to destroy Jack’s entire team, tongue him one last time. It’s a big ball of whut.
- Warren/Andrew (Buffy): misogynistic sociopath taking advantage of a deeply-closeted gay guy in order to further his plans to DESTROY BUFFY? So there.
- Doctor/Master (Doctor Who): see, even if I didn't want to ship it, the show keeps encouraging it on purpose. Ooh, I love it when you say my name *jizz*
- Kunzite/Dark Mercury (Sailor Moon)—Hottttt. Ahem.

For the Challenge
Like a watered-down version of hate!sex, with the actual possibility of a functional relationship. They don’t let each other get away with shit. They’re equally matched in one area or another.
- House/Wilson/Amber (House): I was just going to put House/Amber, but all three of them challenge each other.
- House/Stacy (House)
- Doctor/River (Doctor Who): Spoilers!
- Doctor/Donna (Doctor Who)
- Doctor/Amy (Doctor Who)

Similar, But Not the Same
Wilson/Cameron (House): Always in the back of my mind. Always. Almost from the start.
Barney/Robin (How I Met Your Mother): there's actually an episode where Barney lists their similarities. It's amazing.
Willow/Tara (Buffy)
Willow/Fred (Buffy/Angel)

Miscellaneous
I'm not sure if these fit any of the patterns above, or if there's one I'm missing, or maybe they're just anomalies!
- Amber/13 (House): ...they brought femmeslash to House?
- Amber/Cuddy (House): even though I didn't like Cuddy seasons 4-5, I still feel overwhelmingly compelled to ship this. And I'm not sure why.
- Wilson/Kutner (House): I could totally make it work in a fic, but I don’t know why I love it in the first place. I've chalked it up to pure shallowness.
- DeWitt/Dominic (Dollhouse): they never touch. They always call each other "Mr. Dominic" and "Ms. DeWitt," and somehow that makes it hotter. One of my favorite pairings of ALL TIME.
- Spock/Uhura (Star Trek TOS & reboot)
- Doctor/TARDIS (Doctor Who): ...Series 5 is making me ship it, wtf.