"The prophecies may say that we have to work together, sister. But nowhere is it written that we must enjoy it."
— Tahu Nuva, BIONICLE Chronicles #4: Tales of the Masks
- In The Alice Network, Captain Cameron and Major Allenton work together badly and disagree on many things. Allenton even spitefully tells Eve about Cameron’s wife to try to turn her against him (it doesn’t work). However, Cameron still behaves professionally toward his superior officer (most of the time).
- In All for the Game, the Palmetto State Foxes do not get along off the court — and before the series begins, they don't do very well on the court, either. However, as the series goes on, the players learn to understand each other a bit and get some Team Spirit.
- In Aria of the Sea, Alpha Bitch Elliana Nautilus startles her detested rival, protagonist Cerinthe Gale, by demanding that Cerinthe finish the choreography Cerinthe was working on as a religious tribute/class assignment and let Elliana dance it. While Cerinthe and Elliana hate each other and Elliana has bullied and harassed Cerinthe since Cerinthe's entrance exam, Cerinthe relents because she realises that Elliana is truly passionate about dancing and that Elliana is more fit to dance the tribute than she is. However, the shaky collaboration comes to an end when Cerinthe scores a starring ballet role Elliana wanted, leading Elliana to make veiled threats against Cerinthe's life, and later to perform Cerinthe's choreography in public and pass it off as her own.
- In the Aristillus series, the CEO leaders of the lunar revolution forces have differing political ideas about how Lunar society should operate, particularly anarcho-capitalist Mike Martin and devout Mormom Mark Soldner. They manage to see past their differences in order to prepare the colony for the invasion of the bigger threat: Earth.
- Par for the course in The Bartimaeus Trilogy, where magicians are the ruling class, summoning spirits of various levels and forcing them into service. Spirits experience increasing discomfort and pain the longer they spend in the human world; they hate being summoned and will take any opportunity to break their bonds, kill their masters and return to the spirit world. The titular Bartimaeus (a mid-ranking djinn) and deuteragonist Nathaniel (a teen magician) detest each other but are forced to work together to uncover government conspiracies and various threats, although Bartimaeus is still very much trapped and wants nothing more than to be left in peace and never summoned again. Nathaniel's treatment of Bartimaeus worsens between the second and third books, but they eventually reconcile and come to a respectful understanding near the end, to the point where Bartimaeus is ready to die with Nathaniel while hitching a ride in his body as they sacrifice themselves to save the world from a powerful spirit. However, Nathaniel banishes Bartimaeus back to the spirit world at the last moment and dies alone, effectively putting an end to their partnership for good.
- Bazil Broketail: Thrembode is usually at odds with people he's assigned to work with, but special mention goes to General Lukash, who repeatedly makes him mad by openly disregarding his guidance (even though Thrembode is supposed to be his advisor). They absolutely hate each other's guts. As an advisor to the general, assigned personally by the Masters themselves, the wizard is livid that Lukash constantly laughs off his guidance and effectively sabotages the war effort with his antics. The general, in turn, is furious that Thrembode tells him how to do his job and just won't let him have fun wantonly slaughtering people. This culminates in Lukash and Thrembode entering an open fight, in which the general is killed.
- This has been the consistent dynamic in Stephen Booth's Ben Cooper/Diane Fry police procedurals. Over the course of thirteen novels, the two have occasionally managed to reach a brief accord, but their personalities are so different that they are always misreading each other, even when it looks like they're about to become Fire-Forged Friends. It's typical that at the beginning of the series, Fry directs a Do You Think I Can't Feel outburst at Cooper when he's asleep.
- The Camp Half-Blood Series:
- In the third book of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Titan's Curse a prophecy forces the campers of Camp Half-Blood and the Hunters of Artemis to work together, despite their strong, long-living feud.
- In The Heroes of Olympus, there is quite a bit of animosity between Hera and more than a few demigods, particularly Annabeth and Thalia, but as Piper points out, they will have to work together to beat the Giants and Gaia.
- The Dresden Files: Harry occasionally finds himself working with Gentleman John Marcone. The strain, due to Marcone's position in the organized crime world, is mutual.
- Harry Potter:
- Snape and Sirius despise each other despite being on the same side; Snape has never forgiven Sirius for encouraging him to go look for a fully-transformed werewolf while they were at school, while Sirius trusts anyone who worked for Voldemort as far as he can throw them. Dumbledore has to cajole them into shaking hands at the end of book four, and they continue to trade insults through every scene they have in the following book.
- In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore delegates Snape to teach Harry Occlumency, which does not go well, because of the severe animosity between them.Snape: It is a headmaster's privilege to delegate less enjoyable tasks. I assure you I did not beg for the job.
- The Hunger Games: In Catching Fire Katniss and Peeta have to forge an alliance with previous victors during the Quarter Quell, even though they can't trust them. And, you know, only one person can come out of the Quell alive.
- Even on top of that, Katniss and Johanna really take the cake. At one point, Johanna slaps Katniss, and at another, Katniss considers the possibility of shooting Johanna "just to shut her up." They become more like Fire-Forged Friends in Mockingjay though.
- In Julian, Libanius and Priscus are trying to write a biography of the titular character to combat the rising tide of Christianity. If they can only agree on the costs of copying the manuscript, that is.
- Katt vs. Dogg: Oscar and Molly start out as this after deciding to work together to get back to civilization. It changes over time.
- Laszlo Hadron and the Wargod's Tomb: The eponymous Space Pirate and Captain Elgar Humboldt used to be best friends until the former became a criminal, nearly implicating the latter in his escape in the process. Naturally, Humboldt is very unhappy with the necessity of hiring Laszlo and his partner Isis.
- In Marcelo in the Real World, Arturo Sandoval and his law partner Stephen Holmes can't stand each other. Stephen's son Wendell thinks it's partly due to jealousy over Arturo's success, especially since Stephen sees him as a minority hire. They work together anyway because Stephen needs Arturo's money from helping clients in Central and South America get their inventions patented in the US, and Arturo needs Stephen's connections and skill as a litigator.
- In The Mouse Watch, this is how Bernie Skampersky reacts when she's paired up with another rookie, Jarvis Slinktail. The reason? Bernie is a mouse, Jarvis is a rat, and Bernie is a Tragic Bigot because a rat killed her brother. However, Bernie eventually has a Jerkass Realization and accepts Bernie as a friend and partner.
- In the Nomes Trilogy book Truckers, the tiny Nomes must form a team to drive a lorry. If they can't, they will die when the store they live in is demolished. They bicker and fight, but in the end, they face the fact they have to work together. They harness the power of the engine to save themselves. Due to the uneven teamwork, steering control comes a poor second.
- In The Pillars of Reality, members of the Mages' and Mechanics' guilds have been taught to hold each other in contempt, so after Mari and Alain become the sole survivors of an attack, their initial interactions are full of suspicion and tension. They improve.
- In The Red Vixen Adventures, Salli loathes Melanie for enslaving Ali, and Melanie thinks Salli is a stuck-up prig, but both of them put their feelings of animosity aside whenever Ali is in trouble.
- Safehold has some examples:
- Sir Raynos Ahlverez and his artillery commander have quite a strained relationship at first, as the latter is a great supporter of Admiral Thirsk, while the former blames Thirsk for the death of his cousin. However, over time, they come to an understanding, as the Desnairans they're supposed to work with force them into a sort of Enemy Mine situation. In addition, Ahlverez comes to realize that the position he's in regarding the Army of Justice's incompetent commander is similar to what Thirsk must have felt like regarding his cousin Duke Malikai.
- Dohlarans and Desnairans as a whole are forced to work together as the "Army of Justice", but neither side has much love for one another. Both have been at war multiple times in the past and Dohlarans consider Desnairans moronic snobs, while Desnairans think that Dohlarans are uncultured and poor.
- Vicars Rhobair and Zhaspahr. They hate each others' guts and would love to get rid of each other as soon as possible, but are forced to work together as their departments (Finance and Inquisition, respectively) are the two only things keeping the Church of God working.
- Semiosis: Tatiana and Stevland constantly butt heads and argue all the time as co-leaders, but are a stronger team because of it. Stevland admits that they have never been friends but that Tatiana makes him a better person and he thinks very highly of her.
- In the Star Trek Novel 'Verse, any threat to the entirety of known space results in this, as the Federation tries, with varying degrees of success, to gather all the local powers into a coalition. It sort of works during the Gateways and Genesis Wave crises, and in the desperate days of the Borg Invasion, but there's always a lot of complaining. Now the Typhon Pact has been formed, motivating in turn an expansion of the Khitomer Accords, meaning there's a lot more teamwork going on in the Star Trek galaxy — and with it, more teeth clenching...
- Tower of Somnus: None of the heroes like Belle Donnst, but since she's the highest level person they can find who isn't trying to sell the entire species into slavery, they know they have to work with her.
- In The Underland Chronicles, if two or more Underlander species have to work together, it most likely involves this.
- Villains by Necessity: The party at the beginning. At one point they nearly end up coming to blows, before Kaylana gets the others to realize that none of them can complete the quest — or even survive in the long run — without the abilities of the others.
- In The War of M, Von Rached — the Big Bad of The Curse of M who turned (to his annoyance) into an Anti-Villain in The Storm of M — is forced to work with the protagonists. Considering that he's an Insufferable Genius who performed a number of experiments on a few of them, this is almost impossible.
- Warhammer 40,000 Expanded Universe:
- Black Legion has Khayon and Telemachon. Both hate each other and at first, Telemachon only works with Khayon because otherwise, he loses the ability to feel any emotions. Later he joins the Black Legion's case wholeheartedly, but Khayon mentions that since then, they've tried to kill each other multiple times.
- In Andy Hoare's White Scars novel Hunt for Voldorius, the White Scars and the Raven Guard manage to overcome Divided We Fall and do this. They find it difficult enough that the Raven Guard, attacking first, has brothers wondering if the White Scars will really support them.
- In the second Warrior Cats series, one cat from each of the four Clans is chosen by their ancestors for a mission. Two more cats end up coming along on the journey. Since they are from different Clans, some of them are quite a bit tense around each other, even hostile at times, but after helping each other through numerous dangers, they become Fire-Forged Friends.
- Happens quite a bit in Wars of the Realm:
- When Validus is reassigned from his command position to help Tren bodyguard Drew Carter, neither angel is happy. Their personalities clash almost from the very outset, and it doesn't help that Validus would rather be back in his command headquarters while Tren would rather not be burdened by a warrior angel who is unused to guardian work. Over time, however, they come to respect each other's skills and trust each other as comrades and teammates.
- In the human world, neither Drew Carter nor Ethan Elsing, Sydney's new boyfriend, are particularly happy to be forced to survive together when the UN sends hit squads after them—but they do it anyway out of necessity.
- In The Witch of Knightcharm, the Scholomance elite team clearly doesn't get along, with Lauren in particular conflicting with the others. The rookies initially clash with each other as well.
- In The Witchlands, Iseult's and Aeduan's journey starts off this way, as they're both antisocial, both unwilling to speak to one another unless they really have to, and expecting Inevitable Mutual Betrayal from each other. They warm up to one another as time goes on, though.
