I feel the interactions get a little forced

It's possible this is one of the things that deters me from the 'mundane' (not liking that word, but can't think of a better one off the top of my head) AUs - I like events in my fics beyond the character interactions, especially if it's a long fic. And if all the events relate just to the characters interactions without any other stimulus, I lose interest. Basically, gimme some thrilling heroics to hang the character interactions around :D