100 days of enemy recs: 6. Vimes/Vetinari

Wow, finally one that I have actually written for! (And have an active WIP for. shh I will finish it someday.)

A lot of enemyships take the form of "we are nominally on opposing sides, but the more we are forced to interact, the more we understand we like each other have a lot in common, even if we would loudly deny this if asked". Vimes/Vetinari is the inverse on - "We are nominally on the same side, but the more we are forced to interact, the more we will loudly declare, in the face of all evidence, that we hate each other and have nothing in common."

... at least that's what Vimes would say if you asked him. (What Vetinari would say depends entirely on the asker.)

I can't do what I usually do and just go rec the top fic on AO3 by kudos, but if you want an illustraion of my preferred dynamic for this pairing, you should read that one!

Here are three more longtime favorites:

• Treason (975 words) by halotolerant
  Fandom: Discworld - Terry Pratchett
  Rating: General Audiences
  Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
  Relationships: Havelock Vetinari/Samuel Vimes
  Additional Tags: Pre-Slash
  
  I like the canon tension where despite clearly respecting and trusting each other deeply, Vimes and Vetinari both have to believe very hard for their own reasons that Vimes wants to see him overthrown and cast down, and that Vimes will help do so if ever given enough rope to hang him with. But I also like to see that tension finally snapped once and for all and what come after, and this fic is the best version of what happens when they can't hold the balance anymore that I have found.


• A Shot In The Dark Aimed Right At My Throat (5541 words) by gyzym
  Fandom: Discworld - Terry Pratchett
  Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
  Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
  Relationships: Sybil Ramkin/Samuel Vimes, Havelock Vetinari/Samuel Vimes, Sybil Ramkin/Havelock Vetinari/Samuel Vimes
  
  So the problem with this ship is that Vimes is married to Sybil and Vimes should be married to Sybil, because Sybil is great and they are great for each other. Which is why the best versions of this ship are either a) UST where Vimes stays faithful, or b) Sybil ships it. And it's canon Sybil and Vetinari knew and respected each other long before Sybil met Vimes (and that Vimes knew and disrespected Vetinari long before he met Sybil.) This fic did such a good job drawing out Sybil and Vetinari's relationship that I no longer remember how much of it is detailed in canon, because the fic overwrote it.


• First not on AO3 recs! A 2003 LJ fic series, and as far as I can tell it's never been posted to AO3, though the author is there. Luckily I did actually bookmark things on del.icio.us sometimes. It was was probably the first fic in this pairing I ever read (probably one of the first few hundred online fics I ever read at all?) and I still love it a lot.
  By wikdsushi, pg-13 rated
  
  Twilight
  
  The Oddest Couple
  
  Grumpy Old Gentlemen
  
  Dusk
  A few years after Sybil dies, Vetinari and Vimes retire. To Genua. Inexplicably, together. They settle in to each other. (There may be a fair number of "People retire together" recs coming. Just. So you know.)
  
  It is interesting how much this one shows its age - both in terms of just the general low-level background radiation in the story that everybody will think two men being together is strange and slightly gross because that's just what normal people think, which has pretty much entirely disappeared in the last twenty years thank goodness; and in the way that it treats the canon het. (There are also two prequels in this series that feature Sybil but I am not reccing them, even though there is a lot of good in them, because the subtle underlayer of "het is icky" just feels so very off-kilter compared to what I'm used to now, even though it was par for the course in slash in the late 90s.)