Roommates AU

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Tropes and genres
Synonym(s)Housemates AU, Flatmates AU, Apartment AU, New Girl AU, Friends AU, Living Together
Related tropes/genresAlternate Universe, Canon Divergence AU
See alsoOh My God, They Were Roommates
Related articles on Fanlore.
I Met You On LJ featured the Roommate AU with the Vine Meme text "And they were roommates" for Fic Trope Friday.

Roommates AU is a fanfic trope fairly common in various fandoms, where the stories are in a universe where a group of characters or at least two characters are roommates in an apartment or a house. This was probably influenced by the television shows Friends and New Girl. It's often mixed with another alternate universe tropes such as Modern AU and College AU. Roommates AU is often used as a way to get a pairing together.

Vine Meme

Oh my God, they were roommates is a meme inspired by a popular 2014 Vine in which a woman walking by the camera is saying into her cell phone, "...and they were roommates!" The man holding the camera then says, sotto voce, "Oh my god, they were roommates!"[1][2] Know Your Meme has a writeup here. This became a popular tumblr/meme format for spin-offs such as vampires in the same coffin (oh my god they were tombmates), etc. It is possible that the spread of the meme in fandom contributed to the popularity of Roommate AUs. A title search on AO3 shows that references to the meme have become popular fic titles.

This trope was especially popular in 2014-2015 One Direction and Larry Stylinson fandom, because Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson were indeed roommates in 2012-2013.

Fannish Examples

Example Fanworks

The 100:

  • She by thefooliam, Clarke/Lexa, Her roommate looks at her sometimes and Clarke is never sure if they’re going to kill or kiss each other. When Clarke Griffin forgets to complete her sophomore year residency application, she returns to college to find that they’ve paired her with the last roommate she ever expected to get. (2016)
  • to build a home by manycoloureddays, Bellamy/Clarke, Clarke was here doing these three boys a favour; the only person to answer their ad online asking for “someone with no criminal record, a steady paycheck, and some goddamn common sense”. She didn’t need to be judged by Bellamy Blake. New Girl/Roommates AU, Witch!Clarke. (2014-11-01)

Agents of SHIELD:

Hanson:

  • You Irritate Me by Nat. The band's female best friend shares an apartment with them; things get sexual. (2008-2009)

Teen Wolf:

One Direction

Various combinations of the 1D boys often live together in fics:

Links

References

  1. ^ ig @mattsukkar , Oct 25, 2014
  2. ^ 2016 youtube copy
  3. ^ 104,851 notes as of 3 December 2018
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  7. ^ 32,707 notes as of 3 December 2018