What I'd like to read
Well. Most of them wouldn't probably interest anyone else, but hey, if you want to explore the possibilities, the 'bunnies/... are all yours:)) Please do not take offence; I tried my best to sound aggressive and categorical for the sole purpose of making myself clear. Lastly, though everything below is my humblest opinion, I would be glad to stir a (polite and) fruitful discussion.
1. When people write something about Hurt, they usually adjust it with Comfort. We came to expect a generous helping of the latter; but what if the "hurt" part was followed by revelation / true forgiveness without comfort / a new man is born, and he is no worse than he had been? Sometimes, when I read H/C, I feel the author's unwillingness to change the hero, while in fact, both parts are only a means to evolve into something deeper. Something more than the genre itself.
Be brave; there are only so many kinds of hurt, and a world more kinds of comfort.
1.1. Pairings like Snape/Potter (gen), etc. Guys! Shakespeare is all good and well, but hey, tragedies are not necessarily about Death, Betrayal, Child Abuse, and so on. If you feel like confronting these issues, go outside and fight. Really, I like gen, but sometimes slash is so much more humane because slashers aren't afraid to include the "baser impulses". Just - be kind.
1.2. Holmes and Watson. The more talented things I've read so far were about understanding. Sometimes the line between hurt and comfort is so fine, you can cut a finger on it, but you cut a heart instead, and this is [what I call] literature. In the original stories, both of them strove to understand things - motives, ways of reasoning, each other (which is probably why I sometimes find them too accepting of a situation as a whole, but that is not to the point); and a good H&W story should always include a new understanding, otherwise it is pretty much useless to the reader.
I shall write more when I have the time to think.