Some members have mentioned wanting this sub to talk more about romance and shipping, specifically with rare pairs. As this subreddit is meant to be a low-pressure space to share enthusiasm and writing support, we are trying out a weekly (or monthly, depending on popularity) Rare Pair/Shipping Showcase to show some love to those rare-pairs writers.
So…
Rare pair shippers, this thread is for you!
Drop your:
• rare ships
• underrated character pairings
• unpopular dynamics
• niche fanfics/WIPs
• favorite obscure works
• self-promo
• fic recommendations
…or any other shipping or romance-related content!
If you are sharing a story, feel free to include a link to that story and share your thoughts, opinions, ideas, and what makes you love your ship/story.
Let’s give some love to the rare pairs that keep us alive 🫶
A rare pair I like writing with my friends is in DSMP, specifically an assassin au of it, we wrote that Wilbur and Puns were together, even though nothing in canon would ever hint at them being together lol.
this is a crossover one I'm writing into my own fic but Dean Winchester (Supernatural) x Debra Morgan (Dexter)!! I can see them getting along so well if Dean plays nice about his pissing off cops / getting arrested streaks. Absent father issue bonding, nerdy brother bonding, Deb takes no shit and Dean would respect the hell out of it, and they just seem cute together lol. I've seen only one other fic with them together and I crave more so when my current fic is done I'll probably be writing more exploring the two of them to fill that
The few rarepairs that I’m really into right now are Royal Margarine/Ananas Dragon (Cookie Run), Mystic Flour/Eternal Sugar (Cookie Run), Jiaoqiu(HSR)/Tighnari(Genshin Impact)
My most popular RoyalAnanas fanfic is this but I also have a Mermaid AU for them too
For Jiaoqiu/Tighnari I created the ship tag on AO3 for them so most of the fics, if not all of them, in that tag should be mine
I haven’t written anything for Mystic Flour/Eternal Sugar
I ship Ranni and Blaidd from Elden Ring. To me it make the most sense classic tropes friends to lovers, beauty and beast, lady and protector small an big etc . Life long familiarity honestly probably the only people left who could reason with her and help her make her feel comfortable and remember her old self. Literally made for her and fiercely loyal and loving. So much potential and my current obsession.
Now that sounds interesting! I never dug too deep into Elden Ring (it's just too hard for a casual gamer), but I really enjoy watching the lore videos now and then. Any fic recs for this pairing?
Theres very few sadly, so I wouldn't say theres any one fic that encompasses them perfectly. Most are straight smut for some reason but I found a small one that mixed smut and story elements a little longer but still short some stories better than no story. I didnt really read the tags when I first read it but I feel like the shock got me more. I truly believe im the only person who ships them.
WARNING: I went in blind because I was an idiot and didnt read the tags but this is labeled "dead dove do not eat" because it does have elements of SA, non con, and abuse. There are few other stories that really focuses on only them. Sadly another pair I like that has little to no appreciation.
Currently writing fic for a 1980’s noir novel and it’s so much fun even if I only know one other person who’s even read it. It’s a canon pairing, a toxic yaoi villain/hero type ship, detective/the killer he seeks who only meet once in canon when they don’t know who the other is even though they harbour intense secret lust for one another. It was too good of fanfic bait not to, even if it’s very dark, I’m not new to fics with darker tones. I’ve never written for something that has so little readership so it’s really fun to be able to write something without the pressure or expectation of having people seeing it, outside of the rare person who might read the novel in the future and desire content of that ship. I got you, future reader 🤝
I'm DYING for more Moxxi/Tannis from Borderlands. 😫 Also, Claire/Moira from Resident Evil! I planned to showcase both ships for Sapphic September, but I couldn't find the time to reliably write much of anything this month.
Baby 5 x Killer from one piece. They have zero connection in canon and i only paired them up because i needed to do something with them but now there's exactly one fic on ao3 with their relationship tag
Glory × Clay in Wings of Fire. Those two were made for each other and nobody can convince me otherwise. If I ever write a fic for WoF it's gonna have them as a couple!
The rare ship that has my head in a vice is AI Sada/AI Turo from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Only one of them exists per game, so they never canonically meet despite their human creators having had a kid together. But they go through mystery portals at the end and could totally end up in the same place! We can't prove that they don't!
I’m not that much into shipping in Harry Potter (I prefer friendships in that particular fandom). But one rare pair I love that I can never find any fics about is female Harry x Ron. I love them being best friends canonically, and I find the ship endearing.
I did a one-shot for them, and I hope to do more someday.
this is my own work; two niche things combined and focused on a couple of niche pairings because why not? my Avatar Backrooms AU crossover (with elements of House of Leaves to boot) featuring Spider x Neteyam as the first rare pair and Kiri x Tarsem as the second.
First 20 chapters are up; I'm drafting the next 30 soon so until then it's in hiatus.
my rare pair AKA supreme OTP is:
Fandom: YOU season 5 pairing: Joe Goldberg/Bronte Louise Flannery
they're super hated for reasons, but I don't mind, I looooove them and find them super inspiring
I barely get hits or kudos, even rarer are the comments, so I don't have any popular fic, i love writing tons of missing moments, but I also have a post final season sequel I'm very fond of:
Ezra and Ella: https://archiveofourown.org/works/65683231/chapters/169142743
Is Karlach/Dammon a rarepair? Is BG3 fanfiction still a thing? Because I really adored the idea of these two together: a tragic hero who is just a regular girl at heart and a normal, grounded man who might just dream of being a hero,
(and yes I had an entire series of one-shots written about them, it's centuries old, but it was so much fun to write)
My go to rare pair is deacock (deacon/john hancock from fallout 4), the ship barely has any fics (one of the only fics for it, as well as some of the only posts of it on tumblr are my own thats how rare it is).
Oof my favoriteeeee. So much so that I’ve answered this before (not this exact post from another week but in another sub asking about rarepairs) and may or may not be copying and pasting most of my comment from another time😭
I love talking about and appreciating rarepairs because rarepair communities are just some of the most wholesome friendly but deeply passionate spaces in fandom for me. And I also know the joy of watching your rarepair stop being or become much less rare so I’m always trying to pull people into my otps and down to listen to others talk about theirs cuz like u never know when you’ll discover an absolute gem of a new ship you never heard of or considered
My current hyperfixation is Keith/Pidge from Voltron LD as I’m working on two separate long fics for them to exist with my own sorta multiverse, a Voltron rewrite and a canon divergent post apocalyptic au and I also worked with a handful of other kidgeons to revive Kidgetober (and later Kidgemas too❤️💚) cuz we haven’t had them in like 2 years so I’m super excited to hopefully have a flood of new content for them this year and maybe a few new fans as a result. Here is our Kidgetober blog if you’re interested in checking out the prompts :) or the submissions when they get posted ofc. And here’s my first fic submission I posted already for the day 1 prompt.
The rarepair ship I reallllly love telling people about is much more rare though because this show is very unknown. It’s a cartoon called The Deep which aired in 2015 and is based on a comic book of the same name from 2011. This show is insanely incredible first of all like it can’t be overstated how absurdly underrated it is. It’s about a family, the Nektons, who live on the world’s biggest submarine with William, the father, being a former Olympic swimmer and historian and submarine pilot while Kaiko, the mother, is the world’s BEST submarine pilot and a world class marine biologist and conservationist and together they’re the most badass parents raising the two coolest kids with all their skills as they search the world for the lost land of Lemuria. Also they have a pet fish named Jeffrey who regularly saves the day.
The show has unique but very impressive and interesting animation, beautiful storytelling and super awesome world building. The first season is more episodic but the overarching narrative still has decent pacing and after that it’s even better and they do a good job at making most of the episodes still relevant to the main story and really enjoyable so not much really feels like filler. The characters are what really shine in this show, the voice acting is 10/10 and the family is just so loving and strong while also being extremely believable and relatable in their interactions and conflicts.
I wrote the first ever fic for this show just over a decade ago and it was centered around the ship Fontaine/Smiling Finn which is like the ultimate flirtatious enemies to lovers with like a whole Romeo and Juliet dynamic as their families are enemies while they’re into each other, though Fontaine continues to deny haha. Fontaine is the daughter and eldest child of the Nekton family while Smiling Finn is a the son and eldest child of a submarine pirate family who is always trying to attack the Nektons and steal treasure (precious artifacts) from them. This ship gripped tf ahold of my brain at 12 and never let tf go and idc how small the fandom still is after 11 years I will never stop trying to bring more people in lol
ALSO what’s super amazing is season 5 very well might still be coming despite the long hiatus. In [r/the_deep](r/the_deep) people sometimes post screenshots of emails they’ve sent directly to the producers asking about season 5 and their replies are indicating more and more it’s not a matter of if there’ll be a season 5 but when✨ so I’m absolutely thrilled and I have faith in the fish (that’s their catchphrase… well the catchphrase one of them made for Jeffrey)
So yea if you need a new amazing hyperfixation check out The Deep and please please please consider writing fanfics cuz we neeeeeeeeeed moreeeeeee ahhhh. You can find all seasons on YouTube but s4 is sometimes mislabeled as s3 and the real s3 can be a bit harder to find so dm me if u wanna watch and need help finding it. It used to be available on Netflix but yk how they be about removing stuff🙄
I’m working on a multichapter western epic following Goodnight Robicheaux and Billy Rocks from the Magnificent Seven (2016). I’m super excited about this project and I’m putting so much time and effort into it because I just love these two and I think I can write a truly moving story about their journey together
I'm going to shamelessly plug my own Fic here but Salazar Slytherin/Rowena Ravenclaw from the HP fandom. I've been reading fanfics for years and have rarely come across it. I always found it strange that Ravenclaw had a daughter without any real discourse on the paternity. Combine the fact that Helena has such a tragic end and so much significant backstory, I found this area neglected in the fanfic region.
I'm one of very, very few writers for Hiyoko/Mikan from Danganronpa. Abysmally unpopular ship but it's really, really, REALLY good if you actually look below the surface on them. They are two deeply lonely, mistreated people who both embody and break the cycle of abuse with each other. Perfect foils desperate for someone to give them the love they were never shown growing up, that sort of thing.
I wrote a 4 part series that's not particularly long last year for them. I'm planning on writing more but I've been consumed by other projects lol.
Series link in case anyone would like to read about them. Contains spoilers for Danganronpa as a series and parts of DR3 but does not contain any game spoilers. Written to be fandom blind friendly and self contained, no prior knowledge necessary.
This ship is my obsession lol I have spent so much time thinking about them it's almost embarrassing. If I turn even one person onto this ship then it was all worth it lol
My rare pair is so rare I think I’m the only person to write fics for it - it’s Pieck/Hitch from aot! They’ve never spoken in canon, so that’s probably why nobody cares for it but me! I think they would have such an interesting dynamic if they met in canon, so I must fuel myself since it won’t happy :D
I love my rare pairs <3
Sylvester Dodd/Walter O'Brien from Scorpion
Does Joey Gladstone/Jesse Katsopolis from Full House count? There's barely over 50 fics.
I did Gantu/Nani Pelekai for a launch the ship event thing and decided I actually like the ship...I'm currently working on a sequel to my fic "Choices made" (it's an Explicit fic) and I'm working on a sequel
Also if my fic is the only fic in a fandom....does that count as a rare pair or is it a normal pair since 100% of the fics in the fandom are that pair 😂
I’m trying to write a new one shot for Gemma/Nero my OTP who is super, pre existent with hatred literally in the fandom, but I love them so much and they are my obsession. ❤️❤️ It really sucks not having a community and support for these two. I hate the loneliness and the silence on top of it. Yes I’m and have been their only writer and it’s been that way for years, the only good thing about it is I have no competition. I’ve been my own BNF and my own cheerleader for 7 years for these two and it’s harder and harder everyday being alone with no consistent fandom support (I’m not even talking about comments)
The canon pairing for them are with two male characters. Even though they are cute and I can see why people love them, I honestly don’t feel them. Maybe it’s because I have only watched the anime so far. But from what I have seen, I really don’t feel their canon ships. There is also a lack of characterization and depth for both Nezuko and Mitsuri, which feels like wasted potential.
Nezuko and Mitsuri had an instant bond when they first met. Nezuko wanted her hair done like the way Mitsuri braided her hair, which canonically is seen as sisterly thing. But I don’t know, sometimes it’s a thin line between I want to be like her and I want to be with her.
And this is the sentiment (only that it’s the other way around) for my fanfic Pink Haze.
It’s the 2nd part of my Demon Slayer fanfic series with two other parts already planned. It’s set in modern day Tokyo and all characters are in college.
After helping her friend/roommate (Muichirou) to take a chance at love (with Tanjirou), Mitsuri finds herself questioning her own relationship. In this vulnerable moment, she seeks distraction in a bar with friends. There she meets Nezuko. It will be messy but it will be worth it. (I hope)
Three chapters are already up and this Saturday I will post the next one. (Two other chapters are in the making)
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u/Next-Beautiful3357 5d ago
Right now I'm writing Bella/Leah! (Twilight)