Rarepair

Synonyms:	rare pairing, uncommon pairing
See also:	ibara, crossover pairing
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A rarepair is a term for a pairing or ship that is rare in a fandom. It is not featured in many fanworks, or may be numerous in size but make up a only small proportion of the overall total. A rare pair may be canon but is often not. Some pairings may be shipped by a lot of fans but be uncommon in fanworks. A rarepair may be a fan's OTP or just shipped on the side.

Reasons for a pairing being uncommon include lack of screentime or interaction in canon, one or both characters being unpopular in fandom, being a crossover ship or featuring an unpopular relationship dynamic (for example age difference or incest), or the fandom base itself being made up of people who prefer a different kind of ship - for example a rare het pairing in a m/m slash-heavy fandom.

Examples of rarepairs

• Scully/Krycek in The X-Files
• Rodney/Ronon in Stargate Atlantis
• Inui/Ryouma in Prince of Tennis
• Starsky/Huggy Bear or Hutch/Huggy Bear in Starsky & Hutch

Rarepair-focused ...things

• HP Rarities Exchange - Harry Potter rarepairs fic exchange.
• Small fandom and rare pairing drabblethon
• Transformers Rare Pairing community on Livejournal
• Works tagged Rare Pairing on Archive of Our Own
• Small Fandom and Rare Pairing/Rarely-Written Character Promote-a-thon