History Main / TheJailbaitWait

* Appears in modified form in the Franchise/HarryPotter fanfic ''Fanfic/Backward With Purpose'', an AU in which Harry, Ron, and Ginny travel back in time to prevent the gruesome deaths of their friends and family. Only their minds travel back in time so that they wake up as 11-year-olds with adult minds. Harry and Ginny are married and the fact that they have the minds of sexually-active married adults but the bodies of prepubescent children is a source of great tension (and is a recurring issue throughout the story).

* ''Webcomic/TreadingGround'' [[http://www.treadingground.com/?p=788 makes it explicit]]. In fact, it supplies the image for this trope. It also deconstructs the trope. Nate later discovers that the legal age of consent in South Carolina (where the story is taking place) would have made Rose at the age of consent from the moment he met her. [[http://www.treadingground.com/?p=1550 Much later]], they [[ConversationalTroping discuss]] the effects of being raised by popular media, complete with a name drop for [[HollywoodProvincialism socalization]].

%% * In the ''Lobo'' - ''The Authority Jingle Hell'' crossover, Lobo starts one of these. [[{{Squick}} For a toddler]].

* Common trope in ''Film/StarTrek2009'' fanfiction regarding [[FanNickname Ensign Jailbait]] Pavel Chekov. Who is, as he loves to remind us, only seventeen. Which actually means that he's completely legal at home in Russia, where the age of consent is 16.

* In the ''VideoGame/MegamanStarforce'' series there is a FanNickname for Queentia, one of the antagonist [[spoiler:for good amount till near the end]] called "Jailbait". Why? Cause her age is 17 and well, various reasons.

* ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'': [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1143#comic "Well, I have sort of a boss's daughter fetish, but little Marcy won't be legal for another 7 3/4 years."]]

* A consistent Ticking Clock[[note]][[NotAllowedToGrowUp that's never going to go off]][[/note]] in ''Webcomic/{{Unreality}}''.

* In ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' Battler several times makes passes at Maria and promises to make good on them when she's old enough. How serious he was is a subject to debate, but Maria gladly and without hesitation takes his offers as sincere.

* In Myth/GreekMythology, Theseus kidnapped Helen when she was a young girl, intending to marry her when she grew old enough. However, she was rescued by Castor and Pollux.

* In ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'' an ArrangedMarriage between Cayleb's brother Zhan and Nahrmahn's daughter Mahrya is part of the treaty where Emerald joins the Empire of Charis. However, because Zhan is still a child the actual wedding is put off until he comes of age.

** a rather non-squicky example between Princess Kristina of Sweden (9) and Prince Ulrik of Denmark (28), who are betrothed by their parents, to be married when she grows up. Ulrik has no romantic interest in her and accepts the betrothal out of duty and political necessity. As it happened, Kristina turned out to be WiseBeyondHerYears, and Ulrik grows fond enough of her to look forward to their marriage. (His greatest fear had been being married off to a boring, unintelligent noblewoman -- fortunately for him, Kristina is neither boring nor unintelligent).

* Subverted in the Creator/DanielleSteel novel ''Family Album'' which had a 15-year old girl falling in love with her best friend's father. They actually do consummate the relationship while she's still underage. The "wait" is regarding them marrying, which they can't do until she's 18. Her family is outraged when they discover the relationship and vows to press charges for statutory rape, but when she makes it clear that she won't testify against him, nor will she ever forgive them, they are forced to resign to this.

* In Creator/MegCabot's ''Literature/OneEightHundredWhereRYou'' series, teen psychic Jess falls for older bad boy Rob... who turns her down. He later explains that he turned her down because he had a criminal record and was on probation until he turned 21 [[spoiler:for trespassing in a swimming pool]]. He didn't want to get in further trouble for dating a minor. However [[spoiler:it is later revealed that Rob was planning to propose to Jess pretty soon after she turned 18. Except she joined a war instead]].

* Done by the main characters in ''Literature/TheTimeTravelersWife''. The female lead is a bit impatient about it, but the {{time travel}}er wants to avoid any {{Squick}}.

* Creator/RobertAHeinlein:
** ''Literature/TheDoorIntoSummer'' uses cryogenic suspension to skip the wait.
** ''Literature/TimeForTheStars'' uses relativity to accomplish both this ''and'' dilute enough genes to avoid incest charges.

* In the ''Lobo'' - ''The Authority Jingle Hell'' crossover, Lobo starts one of these. [[{{Squick}} For a toddler]].

* Colossus and Kitty Pryde were technically like this for ''years''. In fact, when they first started to show feelings for each other, editor-in-chief of Marvel (at the time) Creator/JimShooter was a little concerned about it, seeing as Kitty was only fourteen and he was five years older. Kitty had even suggested breaking the taboo and ''not'' waiting in one story where they were both implanted with Brood spawn and expected to die, but he refused, instead simply granting her a passionate kiss. The wait eventually ended in the pages of ''Astonishing X-Men''; as ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} mentioned offhand [[DidYouJustHaveSex when he noticed the two of them afterwards]], "Bout time..."

* FYI; the law in Great Britain has since changed; it is now illegal to photograph anyone naked under the age of 18.

** Subverted by Umibozu: upon learning of Miki, Ryo accused him of both this and Wife Husbandry, but he didn't do it. At least not on purpose.

** Inverted: Ryo doesn't have the patience for it (he admitted it the one time he tried to raise a girl to fall in love for him), but there are a few little girls waiting for their eighteenth birthday before trying and jumping him...

* From ''VisualNovel/{{Shuffle}}'', "Would you go out with me in about 5 years?"

* Sort of alluded to in ''Manga/HunterXHunter'', where Hisoka's impatient waiting for Gon and Killua is made out to be a parallel to a hebephile waiting for his target to become legal. His wording of how he can't wait to "pluck the fruit that hasn't ripened yet" doesn't help his case. At first, he was very definitely just looking for good fights and they had potential, but after Greed Island where he unabashedly got a (speech-bubble-covered) erection after they found him bathing and ogled their butts, he's apparently equal-op. Especially remarkable in that Gon was probably aware of this (and Killua definitely was) when Gon produced a plan to win at [[MundaneMadeAwesome extreme dodgeball]] that involved Killua being driven face-first into Hisoka's crotch. (By Gon and a super-sonic dodgeball, so mostly it's just a matter of ''owch'', but still.)[[RefugeInAudacity Hisoka cackled about it.]]

The reason could be based on local laws, or because the elder of the two wants to stick to a [[ChivalrousPervert personal moral code]]. Because even if the age of consent is lower than the age of adulthood, it is such a moral gray area that most people in this position prefer to wait until their crush is 100% considered an adult before pursuing them, to eliminate most ethical concerns. We say "most" because some might still question the inequality of such a pairing, but at least the older partner won't go to jail for it.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'': PlayedForLaughs and most likely not seriously.

* A common theme in Laurence/Emily Roland fan-fics for Naomi Novik's ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'' series. Especially emphasized since Laurence is 31 as of 1805, while Emily is, consequently, only 10 years old as of the same year. Even with aging both characters, that's a massive 21 year age difference...not to mention that Laurence [[spoiler: slept with, and even proposed to, Emily's mother, Jane Roland]], the fact that Laurence [[OedipusComplex is old enough to be Emily's father]], and [[ParentalIncest and other squick factors]].

* In ''Literature/TheHost '' Jared refused to sleep with Melanie until she turned eighteen. [[spoiler:Wanderer took note of this, and lied about her age so that Ian wouldn't have the same scruple]].

An older character holds back from romantically/sexually pursuing someone younger until the latter reaches a specific age at which point they're considered an adult. 18 is the most common, but it can be older or younger depending on the jurisdiction and time period.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', the precocious young Relm briefly flirts with Edgar, who seems visibly disturbed... until he tells her to come see him in a couple of years.

** Also played with in the series, with Lt. Eddie Cantrell. He's all of twenty when he falls head over heels in love with the sixteen-year-old Anne Cathrine, daughter of King Christian of Denmark[[note]]but ''not'' [[InsistentTerminology a princess]], as her father's marriage to her mother was morganatic[[/note]]. He specifically ruminates on the different age-of-consent laws he's used to but acknowledges that none of that applies in the 17th century[[note]]at sixteen, Anne Cathrine in her time is very much considered a grown woman of an age to get married[[/note]]; it's her royal bloodline that makes her off-limits. In the end, it turns out her family had been plotting to manipulate him into marrying her, knowing that he'd be a useful political and technical resource. [[PerfectlyArrangedMarriage Eddie has no problem with this.]]