Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen — Tag Meaning
Arms the characters and gives them contracts: rival killers assigned the same target, an assassin who can't pull the trigger on this one mark, retirement plans interrupted by one last job. Mr. & Mrs. Smith and John Wick supply the templates, and the genre treats lethal competence as both spectacle and love language.
What to Expect From "Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen" Fics
Stylish violence and worse decisions; falling for your target or your competition is practically mandatory.
How to find Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen fics on AO3
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Browse "Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen" works on AO3Popular Fics Tagged "Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen"
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Related Tags
Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents
Issues the cast codenames and cover identities: rival operatives assigned to seduce each other, handler/agent codependency, double agents lying to everyone including themselves. The genre inherits Bond's glamour and le Carré's paranoia in whatever ratio the author prefers, and trust — who has it, who's faking it — is always the real mission.
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Alternate Universe - Mob
Reorganizes the cast into organized crime: dons and capos, enforcers and accountants, loyalty oaths and territory wars. The canonical tag covers mafia AUs broadly, and the genre splits between glamorous danger-romance — falling for the boss — and grimmer studies of violence, debt, and the impossibility of getting out.
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Alternate Universe - Criminals
The general-purpose crime AU for thieves, con artists, getaway drivers, and heist crews who don't fit the mob or assassin molds. Found-family heist teams are the genre's sweetheart configuration — Leverage proved a crew pulling jobs together is just an ensemble romance with lockpicks — though grittier takes exist alongside the capers.
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Enemies to Lovers
Perhaps the most famous relationship arc in fanfiction: two characters who genuinely oppose each other — rivals, adversaries, people on opposite sides of a war — fall in love. The appeal is the transformation itself: hostility's intensity rerouted into intimacy, with all that built-up attention finally changing valence.
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