The Not Love Interest is an interesting phenomenon in which the character who fulfills a typical "Love Interest" role doesn't actually have a romantic relationship with the hero. This trope often represents aSubversion of one or moreLove Interest tropes, or tropes that normally lead to a character becoming aLove Interest, such asRescue Romance.

This trope points out that certain roles and dynamics are frequently shared between the hero(ine) and the Love Interest, or that characters in these dynamics frequently evolve into a romantic pair. This is so common that when that isAverted orSubverted, viewers are surprised by a non-romantic relationship.

The Hero may have an actual love interest, but they will usually be less significant than this character.

It's a common source ofShipping fuel, often spawningFan Preferred Couples. Frequently happens withHeterosexual Life Partners andPlatonic Life Partners. It appears prone to being pointed out in interviews, DVD commentaries/special features, and other thingsin the manual.

CompareHeterosexual Life Partners,Platonic Life Partners,Like Brother and Sister,Just Friends andTragic Bromance.Has nothing to do withShe Is Not My Girlfriend, though somebody might say this (with actual sincerity). This trope is toUST as oil is to watervapor.In Space.Romantic Two-Girl Friendship is a subtrope.Relationship Writing Fumble is what happens when the writers try to do this and it doesn't work.

Anime and Manga

• InBlack Cat,Saya isTrain's Not Love Interest. Her function in the plot is similar to that of a traditional dead lover / love interest; in fact, Train's affection for her is enough to causeCreed to "take drastic measures". But it's later revealed, perfectly and seriously, that Train never contemplated any romantic involvement with her.
• Before the Eclipse, Guts and Griffith ofBerserk were very much like this. Griffith in particular took things to ratherYandere levels, particularly as he started falling further and further toward theDespair Event Horizon. Before Guts, Griffith was also the most important man in Casca's life as well. He tends to have that kind of effect on people.
• InBleach, Ichigo rushes into the unknown to save Rukia from Soul Society, and later does the same for Orihime, rushing into Hueco Mundo to save her. Neither girl was his officialLove Interest.He eventually ended with Orihime, but after the main plot of the manga finished, without anyRescue Romance implied.
• InNaruto, Naruto is somewhat attached to Sasuke, even afterhe leaves Konoha to join Orochimaru, then goes rogue and basically becomes an international criminal. Before then, the show devotes not insignificant amounts of time to the two rivaling each other at becoming better ninja; both is (partly) the other's inspiration. However, Sasuke is not as much Naruto's friend as Naruto would like him to be.
• Tenchi and Kiyone ofTenchi Muyo! often drift into this kind of relationship, notable because she's one of the few regular female charactersnot infatuated with him.
• An interesting case inEyeshield 21: at the beginning of the seriesAnezakiMamori initially joined the football club for the sake of Sena, her childhood friend, arguably most important person at the time, andNot Love Interest. More specifically, she joined to protect him from the bullying of the football club’s captain,HirumaYoichi. Initially, Sena is all Mamori cared about, getting worried over his injuries and yelling at Hiruma for picking on him and etc. However, as the series progressed, Mamori startedspending more time with andgetting closer to...the aforementionedHiruma Yoichi. It got to such a point that at the end of the manga, although Sena is still a dear friend to her, Mamori completely intends for her and Hiruma to play seriously and defeat him, since he's on a rival team now. So while Sena remains theNot Love Interest and important to Mamori, it'shinted thatat the end of the day, sticking by Hiruma is higher on her priority list.
• In the TV series ofRecord of Lodoss War, Spark becomes highly commited to his mission to save Neese, as he's the leader of the group. It's even made fun of by Leaf and Raina, who put quite an effort intogetting them together. In the end it seems he only manages to rescue her withThe Power of Love, but once she is freed from the dark magic and awakens in his arms, she just hugs him in thank and there's never any indication that Spark wasn't just trying to protect a good friend.
  • Rune Soldier, which is based on a work by the same author asRecord of Lodoss War, does it again with Louie and Melissa. At first Melissa is devestated by being ordered by her god to supportunlikely hero Louie as a "Valliant Champion", as he is the complete opposite of what she always hoped for. Over the course of the show, she helps Louie to overcome some of his worst traits and comes to appreciate his genuinely good nature and desire to help people in need. Over time, she stops being constantly embarrased by having him as her valliant champion and even stands up to others to defend him against being called a useless idiot. While there are certainly some scenes with heavy romantic overtones between them, they never show any actual romantic interest for each other, and it's heavily implied that Ila is actually Louies girlfriend and has been so for quite some time before he met Melissa.
• Despite several characters making jokes and comments about it, Setsuna and Marina ofGundam 00 genuinely seem to not have any romantic interest in each other. Their connection comes more from the fact that they are from neighboring countries and are both searching (in very different ways) for answers to the same questions. When outright asked if they were dating, they both deadpanned "We are not a couple" in unison, without any of the embarrassment or blushingthis kind of situation usually entails. If anything, their relationship is more akin to that between a mother and child.
• Despite theShip Tease thatcertain fans are all too eager to point out, this isRiff andCain's relationship inGodchild. Cain has a number ofLove Interests over the course of the series—and they all have a noticeable impact on him—but Riff is the person with whom all his trust and strongest feelings lie. And Cain is the only significant person in Riff'sentire life.It's played around with quite a bit towards series end, though arguably TheGrand Finale managed to play the trope straight once more.
• DespiteTea being his actualLove Interest,Yugi seems to care more aboutYami andJoey than her a lot of the time, and both of them are hisheterosexual life partners. Also, Joey will lovehis sister andhis best friend more than any girl who enters his life, andKaiba will never actuallylike anyone aside from hislittle brother.
• Tiger and Bunny has aHo Yay example. Barnaby shows up in Kotetsu's life at a critical point in the latter's career and fits into so many "love interest stereotypes"^[1] Ice King|Defrosting]]Sugar and IceIce King whobears some suspicious parallelsto the widower hero'slate wife and wasmentored by the show'sBig Bad that the writer/artist for the manga adaptation has even joked about him being the show's 'heroine'. The creators' fondness forteasing their "wonderful relationship" doesn't help.
• InDeath Note, L is this for Light.L evokes feelings in Light that he feels for no one else. L is the most important person in Light's lifeeven after he is dead. And in the anime L is the only person on Light's mindwhen he's dying. Light has two canon love interests Misa and Takadawhich he cares nothing forand both have little in the way of personality, and neither are as important to Lightor to the plot as Light'srivalry with L.
• Played straight inMahou Sensei Negima in the case ofChisame, who is pestered relentlessly byChachamaru to confess her feelings toNegi, to which Chisame replies that close friendships don't always have to be romantic.

Comic Books

• Lenore, fromLenore the Cute Little Dead Girl, becomes this forRagamuffin, who is portrayed as aComplete Monster before he meets her.

Film

• Withnail and I. As Paul McGann, who played,uh, the latter, said, it's like a "marriage gone wrong", and their relationship drives the more serious part of the plot. There's no love interest for either of them; there's not even any any significant female characters.
• Danny is this to Nicholas inHot Fuzz.Word of God says that in the original script Nicholas had an actual love interest, but she was cut and some of her storyline and actual lines weregiven to Danny.
• The previouspage picture is from theDoom movie, which took a certain pleasure in subverting the typical hero/heroine love interest angle, as well as other tropes. Samantha and John Grimm are estranged but loving fraternal twins.
• In the 2005 remake ofHouse of Wax, the characters played by Elisha Cuthbert and Chad Michael Murray seem very much like ex-loverswho will reconcile at the end, since everyone else is dead. But they're brother and sister, so no.
• Barney and Sandra inThe Expendables. He ultimately decides to return to Vilena with his crew and rescue her, but it's because he respects her courage in standing up to theBig Bad, not because he's fallen in love with her.
• InMegamindIntrepid Reporter Roxie Ritchie is always being saved by superhero Metro Man and is quite emotional when he's no longer there to protect the city. However, it turns out they were never actually involved, to the surprise of Megamind (Roxie'srealLove Interest).
• Ariadne and Dom inInception. The latter is still a little hung up on his deceased wife and the former gets someShip Tease with Arthur.
• Calvin and Spooner's relationship inI Robot shows all the classic signs of them becoming love interests — even aScar Survey — but by the end, there's nothing to suggest they're going to be more than friends.

Literature

• Even afterHarry Potter fell in love with Ginny Weasley, their romance always took a backseat to his friendship with Ron. Hermione also takes this role sometimes—notably when the trio were separated inThe Deathly Hallows.
• Edmund andLucy, from theChronicles of Narnia, become this inVoyage of the Dawn Treader, due to the fact that they always look for one another and desperatelycall each other's name when they are separated.
• The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, Henry and Vlad. The two are extremely close and often act more like love interests than any of the girls (many girls, in Henry's case) that they are interested in. Vlad seems to be Henry's only serious relationship.
• InThe Dresden Files, Harry's relationship like Thomas is like this sometimes. Thomas Raith theincubus is Harry's friendand half-brother and they never have any doubts about the relationship, but when Harry is between girlfriends, Thomas takes on that role in the story a little bit: He's closer to earth in some ways andhas needed to be rescued more than once.
• BecauseSherlock Holmes isn't that close to his brother Mycroft and eschews the possibility of friendships and romantic interests as things that might get in his way, Dr. Watson is literally the only important person in his life. It's shown most clearly inThe Three Garridebs when Watson is wounded, but it's apparent in subtler ways throughout the series. For his part, Watson, despite being a more emotional and social person than Holmes, has few friends,no surviving family, and is unmarried ora widower for most of the series, so that Holmes is the most important person to him.

Live Action TV

• Justin and Alex fromWizards of Waverly Place.The Movie implied that they are meant to be by each other's side forever, when Justin has declared in the end:I'd never leave you, after Alexhas confessed her true feelings. (No, no those kind of feelings, but close to it. )
• Joey and Phoebe inFriends. Also aFan-Preferred Couple and often hinting about potentially being together in a future. Besides some isolated kisses, they never actually dated, never had sex and in fact Joey ends up introducing Phoebe to her husband to-be. Also Joey and Chandler (referenced in theJoey spin-off). Lisa Kudrow and Matt Le Blanc even wanted tothrow in a line during Phoebe's wedding episode that implied the two had been having casual sex throughout the show's run. But the producers denied them.
• NCIS: Tony and Ziva have drinks, dinner, spend time together... but it'sNot a Date. Ditto for McGee and Abby (who are exes), Gibbs and Jenny/Ducky... the show seems to run on this trope. The team's become soco-dependent andattached to one another they seem to function as each other'slove interests.
• InBuffy the Vampire Slayer season 5, Buffy'snewly-created little sister Dawn fulfills this role, to the point where Buffy says, given a choice between killing Dawn, and letting the apocalypse happen -well, goodbye world, it's been fun. Joss Whedon said on the season 5 DVD "[Buffy's] love interest for the season was her sister."
  • It sometimes seems like any woman Xander dates is doomed to play second fiddle to the two very important women in his life, Buffy and Willow. Cordelia senses it ("When you're not babbling about poor, defenseless Willow, you areraving about the all-powerful Buffy"), and Anya seems to as well ("When things get tough, he/ Just hides behind his Buffy"), hence her fight with Willow in "Triangle" (An imperfect example because both womenwere in fact love interests for him, but in Willow's case it was only briefly.)
  • For that matter Buffy serves as The Not Love Interest for Willow. After Tara's death, before she embarks on her quest for vengeance, Willow visits Buffy; who was shot, and saves her life.
• Elsewhere in the Buffyverse, when Spike appears inAngel season 5, he quickly takes on a role like this, as their complicated history and relationship drives a lot of drama, far more than anything to do with Angel's actual love interest for the season. Again it's noted by Joss on the DVDs. "We finally found the right girl for Angel - Spike." Hilariously, the in-universe movie adaptation ofAfter the Fall, called "Last Angel in Hell", gender-flips Spike into Angel's love interest.
  • In season four Angel's son Connor filled this role.
• The Winchester brothers ofSupernatural. Though some fans will alwaysinsist differently.
• Kaylee seems to play this role for most of the crew ofFirefly (the writers even admitting thatthe easiest way to create drama for everyone was to threaten her), with the exception of her actualLove Interest Simon.
  • Mal and Zoe. One episode centers around Wash's complaints that there'sUST between them. However, at the end of the episode Mal and Zoe's attempted kiss (to "defuse" this so-called tension) ispainfully awkward. Even the residentBadassJayne, normally the most lecherous member of the crew, is unnerved.

Zoe:[dead monotone] Take me, sir. Take me hard. Jayne: Now somethin' about that is just downright unsettlin'.

• Kirk and Spock fromStar Trek: The Original Series are each other's Not Love Interests.
  • It's worth noting that they inspired the firstSlash Fic.
  • Roddenberry himself declared about a romantic relationship: "...we certainly believe that the affection was sufficient for that, if that were the particular style of the 23rd century." Draw your own conclusions.
    • Played morestraight in thenew movie, with Kirk and Spock re-enacting the basic pride and prejudice hate-turns-into-love story...only platonically. Damion Lindelof (producer) even commented on the DVD that the heart of the story was Kirk and Spock "falling in love with each other, in a way, but not in a romantic way, in aButch and Sundance way."
• Monk's closest relationship is with his nurse Sharona and later on her replacement Natalie. They arenot romantically involved. Given that they were inspired by Holmes and Watson, it's a given.
• House and Wilson inHouse, given that they're based on Holmes and Watson. Wilson is, if not the most important person in House's life, damn close.
• The US version ofQueer as Folk has Michael Novotny and Brian Kinney. While they don't get the explicit romantic pairing of their British counterparts, it's clear that they're it for each other. Twinks come and go, husbands and children and family are important, but when it comes down to it, the comic-book addicted geek and the slutboi-with-issues are the love story of the show.
• Criminal Minds:DerekMorgan andPenelopeGarcia.
  • This conversation from the season three episode "Penelope" that takes place afterGarcia got shot says it all:

Morgan: I'm not going anywhere. Garcia: I'm fine, I've got my goon squad parked out front. Morgan: Goon squad or no goon squad, until we catch this guy, that couch is gonna be my new best friend. Now leave it alone. Garcia: Okay, but if you plan on using this to take advantage of me, let me call my doctor so he can come and revive me. Morgan: Hey, silly girl - I love you. You know that, right? Garcia: I love you too.

• While midgets, their mothers, foxy judges and prostitutes aplenty will come and go,Denny Crane and Alan Shore will always find themselves back on thebalcony sipping Scotch and smoking a cigar at the end of every day. And thenthey got married. Denny and Alan... well, they are to The Not Love Interest what The Not Love Interest is toUST.
• Tim and Daisy inSpaced. One of the series's main subplots is the slow-but-steady erosion of the "not" from the phrase.The last scene in the "Skip to the End" documentary demonstrates this, showing them as a couple with a child.
• Chuck and Ellie (his sister) seem to do a lot more hugging than Chuck and Sarah inChuck.
• No matter theirdifferences, theinsults flung between them, or theabuse heaped upon one another,Merlin and Arthur are destined to be together. Just nottogether together.
• The Inspector Lynley Mysteries: No one willever be as important to Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers as they are to each other, to the point where they have explicitly called each other their reason to get up in the morning. Lynley's relationship withHelen consistently takes a backseat to his relationship with Barbara. If they're not in love with each other, they're this trope.
• Wire in The Blood hadDr. Tony Hill and his Most Important PersonDCI Carol Jordan. Seeing as Tony has difficulty being a real boy on the best of days, Carol kept him grounded and reminded him there was life outside work and serial killers.
• Dr. Cal Lightman and Dr. Gillian Foster onLie to Me, partners who own the Lightman Group and have seriousWill They or Won't They? going on. Made explicit in "The Whole Truth", when Cal talks to the fiance of a man who engineered his own assisted suicide with the help of his best friend (named Leo):

Clara: What about Dr. Foster? What is she to you? Cal: She's my Leo.

• Psych: Girlfriends may come and go, but Shawn and Gus will always be the most important people in each others lives. Though the hit slash pairing is Lassiter and Shawn.
• President Jed Bartlet and Leo McGarry onThe West Wing. They act and bicker exactly like an old married couple, spend all the time possible together, tease and flirt (in a joking way), and play a blatantly spousal/parental role in the staff's nuclear family-modeledTrue Companions. While Jed may have an excellent wife and family outside of the west wing of the White House, Leo is for all purposes the love interest in Jed's "other" family inside the west wing, with the thrill of politics in place of sex and romance.
• Jack and Liz Lemon are this onThirty Rock.They even get married, accidentallyfor one episode and still don't see each other as anything but best friends.
• OnDexter the titularvigilante has hissister Debra. He even notes in one episode that if he could have feelings for anyone, they would be for her.
• Mulder and Scully ofThe X-Files were this for each other from the get-go, and they were supposed to stay that way; the original idea was that they would never be more than platonic work partners. However, the chemistry between the actors caused their platonic relationship to look pretty non-platonic in the eyes of the fans, and by season five, the writers started playing with the idea that they could be more than friends. By season seven, they were.
• Tori and Andre fromVictorious. Made more interesting that they've donetwo love duets but they're best friends, and don't see each other as anything more, so far.
• Eureka has Sheriff Carter and his Deputy Jo Lupo, but instead of a romance developing with those two, Carter ends up being involved with Doctor Blake.
• Kurt Hummel fromGlee has a perfectly good boyfriend to whom he is devoted, in the form of Blaine, buthis father Burt will always,always be more important than anybody else in his life, especially afterBurt's heart attack.
  • Kurt also has another one in his "BrassyHag" Mercedes. They're always there for each other, they do basically everything together, they're incredibly close...but Kurt just happens to be gay and not interested. Early in the first season, though, Mercedes was none the wiser and actually thought they were going out, until Kurt turned her down and later came out to her.
• Sherlock: As based on theoriginal source material,John Watson for Sherlock Holmes. Watson's proved to be willing to kill and risk his life for Sherlock, and thenhe was the final hostage inMoriarity's game with Sherlock. This actually led to Sherlocklosing his cool and gettingfurious at Moriarity for involving him.
• The Doctor has this kind of dynamic with the majority of his companions. Especially notable are Sarah Jane Smith from the classic show, Donna Noble and the Tenth Doctor in New Series 4, and (once the ship was sunk) the Eleventh Doctor withAmy Pond & Rory Williams. He even went so far as to call them "the peopleI LOVE!!!" in one episode.
  • InThe Sarah Jane Adventures, the above-mentioned Sarah Jane Smith findsherNot Love Interest: her adopted son, Luke. Their relationship is the heart and foundation of the show.
• Up until around early season 8,Clark Kent and Chloe Sullivan, to the point where real-world journalists whohadn't kept up with the series assumed they were a couple in Season 6.
• Skins had this with Emily and JJ in the latter's S3 episode. They helped each other overcome their problems and became close friends and, at the end of the episode, they even slept together. However, Emily made it clear from the beginning that it was a pity screw, simply a response to JJ's earlier statement that if he got to be normal for a day, the first thing he'd do was lose his virginity. The viewers know it's not going anywhere since, like the Kurt/Mercedes example above, Emilyjust isn't into boysthat way.
• Wallace toVeronica Mars. Of courseExecutive Meddling said it would never happen. Weevil and Dick could also qualify as the same. Actually anybody but Troy, Duncan, Logan, and Piz could qualify
• InThe Sentinel, Blair Sandburg serves as this for Jim Ellison, serving as a support to deal with Jim's physical and emotional problems as a Sentinel and alsoneeding Jim to rescue him every other episode.
• Starsky and Hutch are often this towards each other, especially when in danger.
• InWarehouse 13 You have Pete and Myka, in a show like this normally the two main characters haveUST, but Pete and Myka have purely platonic feelings for each other and don't think of each other in a sexual way, which Myka states in one episode after they think they had sex.

Theatre

• Mark and Roger fromRent. Exemplified by the fact that the big reconciliation after Rogerleaves New York for Santa Fe, and then comes back isnot between Roger and his girlfriend, Mimi - it's Roger and Mark, who get an entire song ("What You Own") dueting about how similarly-miserable and yet still devoted to each other they are.

Toys

• Several inBionicle, in part due to most characters being asexual and aromantic. For example, Gali tends to fill this role for Tahu, asshe often argues with him and he is more protective of her than the other Toa. The two address each other as "brother" and "sister", although, this doesn't stop the shippers since they'reNot Blood Siblings.

Video Games

• Otacon is Solid Snake's Not Love Interest inMetal Gear Solid. In the firstMGS, they have what could be described as aMeet Cute in a warped sort of way, exchange some emotionally loaded dialogue, and, if Meryl (the actual love interest) dies, Snake leaves with Otacon instead. And then they wind upraising a kid together inMetal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
  • The voice actors have some fun with how "Not" Otacon actually is (see the lengthyMGS entry underHo Yay). InCanon, though, MGS4 tried tosink the Snake/Otacon ship and make it clear he was the Not Love Interest and Snake's Platonic Most Important Person.Itdidn't work.
  • And Meryl counts, too. Even though she canonically survives, she never does become Snake's love interest. Hell, she actually hooks up with the series' dedicatedButt Monkey!
• Rui to Wes inPokémon Colosseum. Their initial meeting certainly seems like it's working up to aRescue Romance, as Wes saves Rui from a band of kidnappers. The two team up, and Rui follows Wes everywhere. Without Rui's ability to see Shadow Pokemon, there isn't much Wes can do, so they depend heavily on each other. However, after that, there's not much evidence that their relationship is anything but platonic. Even the end of the game (which theGenre Savvy viewer might expect to hold some kind ofLove Confession) has... not much, really. Maybe Rui's justnot into bad boys. Though it's hard to establish any kind of a relationship whenWes never says anything.
• Similarly, in the "This is not aMeet Cute" department, there's Double H to Jade inBeyond Good and Evil. AfterDouble H's rescue, he becomes Jade's loyal sidekick, following her everywhere. His single-sided devotion to her slowly deepens to a real friendship between the two of them. However, there's no overtromance between them, though they are frequentlyshipped.
• Kumatora to Duster (or maybe it's the other way around) inMother 3. WhenDuster getsEasy Amnesia for three years), it's Kumatora who stays with him throughout it, even if only on the sidelines. And while shehides herself behind harsh words, she genuinely seems to care for him. But as forlove? There's no real evidence of that.
• Yosuke to the Protagonist inPersona 4, along with considerable amounts of accompanyingHo Yay.
• A lot of people play Neeshka like this, inNeverwinter Nights 2, as she's a genuinely likable character, but the developers never finished herRomance Sidequest
• It's very possible to have one of these inDragon Age Origins. Alistair and Morrigan are the most obvious ones, provided you're outside of their preferred gender, but pretty much anyone in your party can become this.
  • Dragon Age 2 follows suit with Aveline and Varric, who both cannot be romanced. Although the game actually does go out of the way toShip Tease Aveline and Hawke (if the player chooses) beforesinking that ship.
• InKingdom Hearts, Sora's devotion to his friend Riku and determination to find him is one that you would normally expect to see an RPG hero express towards aDamsel in DistressLove Interest.

Sora: Riku... It's Riku. Riku's here! I looked for you. I looked everywhere for you!!

• Super Mario Bros.: According to Luigi, Princess Peach is Mario'sNot Love Interest.
• Final Fantasy XIII-2 has this with Noel and Serah. They have basically the same dynamic as any other male and female lead of a JRPG, but Serah is engaged to Snow, and Noel hasShip Tease with Yeul.
• Miles Edgeworth to Phoenix Wright inAce Attorney. Old childhood friend, troubled past, Edgeworth's frozen prosecutor heart melted by Phoenix's honest passion...it's no surprise they're the most common ship in the fandom.
  • At the same time, Maya Fey, the second most popular shipping option. She and Phoenix go everywhere together, they clearly care deeply about each other, and he often has torescue her from some danger. But whensomeone suggests they're acouple, they respond with confusion.

Web Comics

• Davan and PeeJee ofSomething*Positive. PeeJee even described herself as his"platonic life-partner".

Davan: Am I going to have carve "Davan loves you very much" backwards into your forehead? PeeJee: No, I think I got it this time.

• InRed String, Ayu has been Makoto's best friend since they were little. She's easily the closest person to him since his beloved grandmother's death. There are absolutely no romantic feelings between them, despite what the fandom who wants him out of the way for Kazuo and Miharu might suggest.

Western Animation

• Questionable example: In the episode ofDanger Mouse where DangerMouse fights a dragon, theGenre Savvy dragon insists on doing things right, and since DM doesn't have a love interest, the dragon makesCowardly Sidekick Penfold the designated "Damsel in Distress".
• InThe Road to El Dorado, Miguel and Tulio are each other's Not Love Interests—not only do they hide their friendship by fighting, confess how much they mean to one another as they think that they're slowly dying, but they even have a painful break-up! According to some, the original script had them more explicitly be lovers—no wonder theirHo Yay factor is so high.
• Gwen to Ben inBen 10. Theyare of opposite genders, but they're alsocousins (not that that stops some people). Their relationship hovers somewhere between siblings, best friends,best frenemies, and everything else, all at once. While Gwen does get a love interest in the sequel series, Ben and Gwen are still #1 Best Teammates.
  • It's much more apparent inAlien Force since both characters have matured greatly, rarely fight, and openly hug each other
• Terry and hisGirl Friday Max inBatman Beyond, mostly because other than Bruce she's the only person he can trust with hisSecret Identity.
• Despite having a history together (As well as being the primaryTransformers Animated turn-on)Blackarachnia always came second toOptimus in terms of importance when compared to Sentinel. He leaves the fembot behind behind to save Sentinel and himself which results in her transformation to technorganic, gets more episodes devoted to their rivalry, and in BA's last appearance he seemed more concerned about Sentinel than her. The ironic thing about this? The she-spider was the reason for their antagonist rivalry in the first place!
• OnMy Life as a Teenage Robot, Brad. He's protagonist Jenny's best friend and usual foil, butWord of God says that if the show had continued, she would likely have wound up with her geeky admirer, borderlineStalker with a CrushSheldon. Brad/Jenny is still theFan-Preferred Couple, however.
• OnTeen Titans, whileTerra isBeast Boy's officialLove Interest in season two, his teammateRaven fits this trope for the rest of the show, with the two sharing several close moments in relation to both of their character arcs. They're aFan-Preferred Couple and became canon in the DCU right around the time the show ended.
  • Some fans see this with Raven and Robin, who also share a few unusually close moments.
• This is mostly whatRen and Stimpy's relationship in the original series is about. In the adult spinoff calledAdult Party Cartoon, however, they are quite explictly portrayed as a homosexual couple.
• OnDaria, Daria and Jane have this sort of relationship. The final episode (not counting the finalemovie) has Daria note this while Jane helps her through an emotional crisis:

"It would have been good to seeTom, but this way,I got to talk to the person I trust most."

Real Life

• The other wiki has a page devoted to thisphenomenon

• Trope
• This Index Is Not My Girlfriend
• Love Interests
• The Not Love Interest