- pretty (as in pretty girl/boy, but without the gender word attached)
- starlight/my star, sunshine
- honestly if you put "my" before anything it could probably work as an endearment
- animals: firefly (got the idea from sufjan stevens), bunny, dove, mouse, hamster, hummingbird, penguin, monkey 😭, kitten (this one's kinda popular)
- flowers: tulip, rose, sunflower, a flower that's special between your characters
- fruits/vegetables: pumpkin, bean, mango, lychee, kiwi, peach, nectarine, apricot, berry(!!), blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, cherry, etc
- sweets! a special weakness of mine is sweets from the person saying the endearment's culture. like if someone who was also indian called me their kaju katli i'd melt (but probably not laddu unless it's clear they're teasing and i get back at them 💀). maybe runs the risk of being cringey tho? honestly as long as it's from the sayer's culture and suits their personality it's fine
- examples of sweets that don't belong to a certain culture: cookie, brownie
- nature: snowflake, raindrop?? (i guess it works if your character has something to do with water), sprout, sapling
and here's some classic gn terms of endearment if your character's more into that:
- darling (i see this as a perfect alternative to princess/prince)
- love/my love
- lovely/beautiful
- baby/babe (can be used in both cute and teasing/suggestive moods)
- angel (personal favorite of mine!)
- dear (it's so "grown old together" vibes, i'm in love with this one for this purpose)
- honey, honey pie, sugar, sweet(ie). honestly if they're used for s/os, it feels kinda old-fashioned. but for parent figures saying it to someone much younger that they care about, children or otherwise? (i'm imagining a southern (from america) beekeeper with no children or spouse of her own who sells her famous honey to buy food for the small army of orphaned children that shows up on her front porch every morning for breakfast. and these are the kinds of things she'd call them. perfection.)
