Childhood Friend Romance / Literature

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• Zhou/Wicked from ½ Prince spent eight years in love with Lan/Prince, but he lived far away and she never recognized him when he played online with her. When she starts on a new game at the beginning of the story she develops thanks to a bet made with her brother, and ends up a much more self-sufficient person than he's used to. Her new personality makes his attempts to coddle and look after her like he always has only offend her, and she ends up choosing his love rival Gui.
• In Addicted, Loren Hale and Lily Calloway were best friends since childhood and began a fake relationship as teenagers. In college, they began dating for real and ended up married a few years later.
• The Anderssons:
  • Elin and Gusten meet as pre-teens, end up dating each other as teenagers, breaking up, but re-uniting decades later and becoming engaged (but not married for some reason).
  • Rebecka and Samuel has a similar but less complicated story: they meet as pre-teens, and end up getting married and having two children. What makes it a bit peculiar though is that Rebecka is Elin's daughter, and Samuel is Gusten's son. So technically, they were almost made step-siblings years after they got married and after their children were born!
• Orrec and Gry in Annals of the Western Shore. Their families are allies, and they always considered themselves obligated to each other even if their parents were discussing marriage prospects. In the second and third book, they're Happily Married.
• There are several examples in the Anne of Green Gables series.
  • Miss Lavendar and Stephen Irving from Anne of Avonlea: they met when Lavendar was 6 and Stephen was 9, and soon after made a Childhood Marriage Promise. They were formally engaged when Lavendar was 20... and then had a fight and broke up. Stephen then moves to America, marries, and fathers a son, Paul. Paul's mother dies, and Paul moves back to Avonlea to live with his grandmother, befriends Lavendar (who remained single for 25 years, having regretted their break-up and not wanting to marry anyone who wasn't Stephen), and writes to his father about it. Stephen returns to Avonlea and reconciles with Lavendar, and the two are married... 25 years after they were engaged and almost 40 years after they had met.
  • Anne and Gilbert themselves, who were friends after she stopped hating him.
  • Most of Anne and Gilbert's children, as well, marry childhood friends. The most notable is their youngest daughter, Rilla, who marries her childhood friend/crush Ken Ford. In Rilla of Ingleside, Ken gives Rilla her first kiss before heading off to war and begs her not kiss anyone else while he is gone. The book ends with his return and a sweet proposal using her childhood nickname.
  • Defied with Rilla and Carl. They were great childhood friends because they were close to the same age, but they mutually agreed to never get together.
    They used to talk together of almost everything and were teased about each other at school; but one evening when they were about 10 years of age they had solemnly promised, by the old spring in Rainbow Valley, that they would never marry each other. Alice Clow had "crossed out" their names on her slate in school that day, and it came out that "both married." They did not like the idea at all, hence the mutual vow in Rainbow Valley. There was nothing like an ounce of prevention.
• Jane Austen:
  • Fanny Price and Edmund Bertram of Mansfield Park (even though Mrs. Norris tries to invoke the Westermarck Effect). They are also first cousins but in a time and setting where that was commonplace—Mrs. Norris and Sir Thomas Bertram were more concerned that Fanny's branch of the family wasn't rich enough to be a respectable prospect.
  • Has tragic results in Sense and Sensibility: Colonel Brandon was in love with his childhood friend Eliza, but they were forced apart due to an Arranged Marriage.
• Baccano!: Jacuzzi Splot and Nice Holystone have known each other since they were young, and in the present day they're very happy together despite being polar opposites in personality. It's later revealed that after Nice permanently scarred her face and lost an eye as the result of playing with explosives when she was little, Jacuzzi got a large jagged sword tattoo on his face so she wouldn't be the only one with a distinctive face. They've been together ever since (although Nice still hasn't given up her love of explosives yet).
• Yuuji Sakamoto and Shouko Kirishima from Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts. Although Yuuji is in denial due to Shouko's Yandere tendencies, while Shouko keeps chasing after him because he was her Only Friend and later rescued her.
• In Beautiful Losers, F. and the narrator grew up together and have a sexual and deep emotional relationship that lasts for their entire lives.
• Bhowani Junction: Victoria and Patrick grew up together as mixed-race kids at Bhowani. The plot starts with them engaged in a hesitant relationship that cannot solidify because of their social resentment and insecurities. After much tribulation and love squares, Victoria chooses him because of the familiarity he represents.
• In A Boy Made of Blocks, Dan has been in love with Alex's sister Emma for decades, and they eventually get together.
• Brennus: According to flashbacks, before Lady Light and The Dark became the leaders of the superhero and supervillain communities, they were this, having been born in the same room on the same night (through sheer coincidence mind you), and spending their childhoods doing everything from catching serial killers to fighting in World War I together, to the point where it's acknowledged that getting married would be simply a formality. Doesn't stop him from being unbelievably nervous about asking. Of course then Point Zero happened and they got their powers. Their relationship since then has been...complicated, to say the least.
• Chrestomanci series by Diana Wynne Jones. Christopher and Millie first appear in Charmed Life as a married couple. Two prequels, The Lives of Christopher Chant and Conrad's Fate, show them meeting and becoming friends as children and then part of the awkward transition when their relationship starts developing in a romantic direction.
• The Chronicles of Prydain: Taran and Eilonwy. When Taran finally asks her to marry him after years of silent pining, Eilonwy replies, "Of course I will, and if you'd ever given any thought to the question you'd have already known the answer."
• The Cold Moons: Beaufort has been in love with his wife Corntop since he was a yearling cub.
• In Corsair, when Aura was young she found Canale lying on the streets and took him in. She's more or less had been planning to marry him ever since, but since this is a Boys' Love series, she ended up on the wrong side of the triangle. She's upset about it, but doesn't push the issue when she finds out.
• The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein is a dark deconstruction. Elizabeth perfects herself to become Victor’s ideal person, and Victor’s love for her is more akin to obsession. It's also what Henry hoped for with Elizabeth, but he didn't succeed.
• Daughter of the Sun: Orsina was friends with Perlita when they were girls, before growing attracted to each other and having a romance as the two grew up.
• Agnes and David in Charles Dickens' David Copperfield. They met when Agnes's dad took David in as he went to school, and in their Love Confession she specifically says she's loved him all her life.
• Dawn by V. C. Andrews: Dawn and Jimmy were raised as brother and sister, but after the truth is revealed, Jimmy admits that he used to wish Dawn wasn't his sister because she's the only girl he's ever wanted. She eventually gets over this revelation and they get married.
• Discworld: Referenced but ultimately averted with Tiffany and Roland. In The Wee Free Men, aged 9, she just thinks he's an idiot. In A Hat Full of Sky, she acknowledges that he's less of one, but is still offended by Miss Level's blatant Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone. In Wintersmith, she's surprised to find she's jealous of him spending time with other girls, but by I Shall Wear Midnight, she's decided she cares about him, but not that way, and they both get new love interests.
• In the Dragonlance novels, Laurana and Tanis are childhood sweethearts, complete with a Childhood Marriage Promise. Tanis then leaves Laurana after being confronted by her family who do not believe a bastard half-human like him is good enough for an elven princess. Many years later Tanis is reunited with Laurana who is still very much in love with him and has become an incredibly beautiful woman. Tanis soon realizes he still has feelings for her as well, but the situation is complicated because he is now also in love with another woman, Dark Action Girl Kitiara Uth Matar, setting up a three-book-long Betty and Veronica triangle. It is only after Tanis sees Laurana's beauty and courage while she is a prisoner of Kitiara that he realizes she is the one he truly loves. Tanis then saves Laurana from a Fate Worse than Death and the two are married.
• Dragonvarld: Melisande and Bellona first knew each other as girls both growing up in the monastery. They fell in love together as teenagers and have become lovers since then.
• The Family Tree Series:
  • Orrin Umhay with Abby, who Abby falls in love with in second grade. Granted, it's Abby's second marriage after her first husband Zander dies and her bigoted father Luther never approves since Orrin is half Irish Catholic, but the two of them stay Happily Married until his own passing sometime after her great-granddaughter Georgie's high school graduation.
  • Abby's mother Eleanor Durbin (later Nichols) intended to marry her childhood sweetheart Ralph Saunders, who she'd known since they were in third grade. He proposed right before he left to fight in the Great War—and didn't come back. Or so she was led to believe. He'd been disfigured and suffered a brain injury and when he recovered enough to let anyone know, he'd told his parents not to tell Nell out of shame for his disfigurement. Over a decade later he contacted her again, and they conducted a secret affair for several years after she was married. She even introduced him to Abby and Rose, and one of the memories Abby has in Georgie's book is a memory of that day she hadn't thought about since she was a little girl.
• Art and Celestine of Flawed were close friends all throughout their childhood, and started dating in high school.
• Adrianne from Forbidden Sea has long been in love with her childhood friend Denn Young, but he sees her only as a friend, instead pursuing Alpha Bitch Cora Lynn Dunst. By the end of the book, Denn realizes that he loves Adrianne too, and in the sequel they're married with kids.
• In Frankenstein, Victor and Elizabeth were raised together because of her father's tragic fate and his mother decided to invoke this trope. Tragically, their marriage was short-lived.
• In Patricia C. Wrede's Frontier Magic trilogy, William and Eff at the very end of the third book.
• Mason to Rose in Frostbite. He was her friend since childhood, was crazy about her, and was boyfriend material. Emphasis on the unlucky. He was both a Hopeless Suitor and an early Strigoi casualty.
• The Girl Who Drank the Moon has Antain and Ethyne, who knew each other as children before he became an elder-in-training and she joined the Sisters of the Star. Unbeknownst to each they both have fond memories of the other; after each quits their training they reconnect as adults and marry.
• Good Luck! Ninomiya-kun: Both Reika and Mayu are childhood friends to Ninomiya and both are still fighting over him years later. Complicated by the fact that he forgot them both because Mayu wiped his memories with a kiss.
• Gun-Ota ga Mahou Sekai ni Tensei Shitara...: Lute's first, and primary, love interest (Snow) has been with him since they were both infants.
• Deconstructed in Haganai. Perhaps due to her clear social cluelessness, throughout most of the series Yozora simply assumes that being Kodaka's childhood friend means that him loving her is inevitable regardless of anything else that happens. When she realizes that, in real life, this isn't an instant romance button, she has a very bad freak out. All the more so because the entire time, she's only been able to control her envy of Sena's various merits by constantly telling herself that none of it matters, because she is the childhood friend and thus no amount of beauty, talent, wealth or even genuine love on Sena's part would win her Kodaka. When she discovers that he's actually known and was friends with Sena since long before he ever knew her, she falls into utter despair once again.
• In Harry Potter this trope is fairly common in the Wizarding World, as not only do wizarding children go to the same school as others in their region/country from age 11 on, but also share a "house" for seven years. It's a dorm room atmosphere with the same faces from adolescence through puberty to of-age young adults.
  • Harry eventually marries Ginny Weasley whom he became friends with in his fifth year of Hogwarts.
  • Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, High School Sweet Hearts, marry afterwards.
  • Severus Snape was in love with his childhood friend Lily Evans, as revealed in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (and hinted at since Order of the Phoenix). In fact, his unrequited love for Lily, and guilt over her death, was a major factor in Voldemort's downfall — not bad for the maladjusted kid who fucked up so badly with the girl he liked that he got thrown over for an ex-Jerk Jock. Snape's case also provides an interesting look at the implications of this trope in regards to the "one-sided —> care for child or sibling" idea. Namely, Snape cared for Harry because he was Lily's son, but was also cold and cruel to Harry because he was James's son. Funny how things change when I Want My Beloved to Be Happy isn't in play.
• Hetty Feather: Jem, Hetty's foster brother, never forgets the promise of marriage they had before Hetty returned to the Foundling Hospital age 6, and instead spends around nine years pining for her and falling madly in love, which unfortunately is unrequited and refused by Hetty who rejects his offer to run away with him before he's married to Janet. Tragic, really.
• High School Dx D: Irina was Issei's Childhood Friend (although he thought she was a boy at the time) and was even his First Kiss, but is now a member of his harem.
• Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere: Toori Aoi and Horizon Ariadust. They were really close friends when they were children, until Horizon died in an unfortunate accident. Years later, Toori meets and falls in love with an automated doll named P-01s who looks just like Horizon. He later finds out P-01s is Horizon reborn in a robotic body. Despite now being an automated doll without emotions and memories, Horizon does reciprocate his feelings.
• The Hunger Games has Gale Hawthorne, who has been in love with Katniss Everdeen since they first met as children. Then there's Peeta Mellark, who also fell in love with Katniss when they first met at school, even if, unlike Gale, he doesn't become close to her until they are Reaped in the Hunger Games. Gale ultimately loses to Peeta.
• Nancy Werlin's Impossible. Lucy and Zach are kind of complicated by a prophecy that Lucy, like her mother, will go insane when she gives birth to a child if she doesn't complete three impossible tasks, but they work it out in the end.
• Infinite Stratos: Ichika's harem includes a few childhood friends.
• Into the Bloodred Woods:
  • Ursula and Sabine. They meet in the woods in their youth, remain close friends for years afterwards, and end up falling in love in adulthood.
  • Capella meets Hans in his wolf form, with him becoming her only regular companion outside of her mother. Their friendship is cut short when Hans is taken by Albrecht, only for them to reunite years later as begin a romance.
• In P. G. Wodehouse's Jill The Reckless, Wally. He confesses that his bad behavior stemmed from a crush in childhood.
• Deconstructed in Keeping You a Secret, where Holland got together with and started a sexual relationship with her childhood best friend Seth becuase "that was what boys and girls our age did" only for her later realize two things: Them getting together had ruined their friendship and that she was gay, her having fallen in love with a girl named Cece and her noting that what she felt for Seth had nothing in common with what she felt for her. She tried to explain this to him when she broke up with him, but her inability to properly explain herself made it sound like a trite "It's Not You, It's Me"-speech, and he left starting to resent her.
• Cryl Durav from the Kharkanas Trilogy is of the unlucky sort. He and Enesdia grew up together, and Cryl is very much aware of his feelings towards her. Enesdia, on the other hand, thinks of him as just a second brother, although what her behaviour says is at odds with this. It ends tragically with both of them dead at Enesdia's wedding.
• Sylvie, the heroine of Kiss (2007) by Jacqueline Wilson, believes she is in love with her friend Carl and has always imagined they would get married one day — only for him to come out as gay. It's left somewhat ambiguous at the end of the book when Carl kisses her and tells her he will always love her; but she appears to take this in the platonic sense.
• Little Women:
  • Young Amy ultimately marries Theodore "Laurie" Laurence who she's known since childhood. When she was afraid she would die without being kissed, he promised to kiss her before she died. She surely considered herself victorious when he started expressing interest in her.
  • Nat Blake and Daisy Brooke (Laurie's niece), who had been good friends since Little Women's sequel Little Men, got married in the final sequel Jo's Boys.
  • In the last sequel, Jo's Boys, Tommy misses out on Annie aka Nan since she just wants to be a single doctor, taking care of people. He's not too broken up, though; he marries Dora, a girl he at first only got with to make Nan jealous when she's his perfect match and Nan couldn't care less. In fact, Nan was all "... the Hell?" when Tommy reminded her of their Childhood Marriage Promise...
• May the Best Man Win: Lukas and Jeremy have been best friends since fifth grade. They dated for the first three years of high school. Late in junior year, Jeremy dumped Lukas, then came out as trans. They get back together after Lukas realizes he's gay.
• The Mermaid of Black Conch: Arcadia Rain and her former lover Life became best friends when she was eight and he was nine, after he cut off one of her pigtails in class. When Arcadia was eleven, she was sent to boarding school in a convent in Barbados, but she always planned to elope with Life. Unfortunately, Arcadia is one of the few white people on Black Conch and by far the wealthiest. She lives on land that was once worked by slaves, and after her parents died she inherited most of the town of St. Constance. It wasn't much of a problem when she and Life were children, but as an adult Life never fully trusted her or felt like they could be equals. It's part of the reason he became a Disappeared Dad after Arcadia became pregnant with his child.
• The Mermaid's Daughter: Kathleen's parents, Robin and Moira, grew up in the same small Irish fishing village, fell in love at fifteen, and married at eighteen.
• Mermaids of Eriana Kwai: When Meela was nine, she befriended the mermaid girl Lysi, even though humans and mermaids are at war. Both their families put a stop to the friendship, but when they meet again adults, the memory of their childhood friendship stops them from killing each other and allows Lysi to act as a Closet Key for Meela.
• Tanda from Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit has been in love with Balsa since they were children, and they're now in their thirties. She obviously has feelings for him but is apparently too badass to settle down.
• Due to an accidental Hostile Show Takeover, Katarina from My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! ends up becoming close friends with most of the cast during her childhood, and all six of them are in love with her (yes, that includes the two girls, and her adoptive brother). She remains completely oblivious to all of this despite none of them making any effort to hide it. And some of them trying rather hard to make it obvious.
• Safu from No. 6 is in love with her childhood friend Shion. She very straightforwardly confesses her love, he says he thinks of her as a friend but tells her to ask him again in two years, she promises to wait for him... then he runs off with Nezumi, and the series is drowned in Ho Yay.
• In Seanan McGuire's October Daye novels, Connor and Toby had this — and both face the tragic unhappy inability to marry.
• Manami from Oreimo has an obvious crush on her childhood friend Kyosuke, but he doesn't have any strong feelings for her other than close friendship.
• Osamake: Taken to the extreme where all 3 of Kuroha's primary love interests are all his childhood friends. It's even in the title; Romcom Where The Childhood Friend Won't Lose.
• Deconstructed in The Pact. Chris and Emily, who have known each other since they were infants, are pretty much expected to get married by their respective families. Emily, though, simply doesn't see Chris as anything but her best friend, and in fact finds making out with him almost incestuous. She stays with Chris partly because she wants to live up to everyone else's expectations of her and partly because she loves Chris enough that she doesn't want to break his heart by leaving him. When she gets pregnant with Chris's child, she can no longer avoid her own feelings on the matter and ends up manipulating Chris into the titular suicide pact.
• In the story "Palace Hotel" in Halo: Evolutions, it's revealed that John-117, when he was a child, had a female friend with whom he made a "silly Childhood Marriage Promise". A month later, John was drafted for the SPARTAN-II project. During the beginning of the Battle of New Mombasa, John found her again, still holding a photo of him, and realized that she had missed him... but knowing well that she could die in the next 15 minutes in the coming skirmish, and that revealing his identity to her would compromise the secret of the origins of the SPARTAN-II soldiers, he chose to stay silent, leaving the poor woman to think he had died when he had been a kid, when the Spartan in front of her was him.
• Jin and Misaki in The Pet Girl of Sakurasou, but with a twist — while Jin remained loyal to Misaki, he felt unworthy of her, so he became The Casanova. In spite of this, as of the fifth light novel volume, after they graduate, both become a couple.
• The Phantom of the Opera: Raoul de Chagne and Christine Daae, they met when as children Christine's scarf was blown into the ocean and Raoul dived in to retrieve it for her leading to their First Kiss and close friendship. Years later Raoul tries to remind Christine of their bond but she seemly just laughs at him, in truth this was to protect him as the Phantom was close by. It can be also said despite both being 20 years old Raoul and Christine still act like children and are even described as such in their love scenes, which is why they're also impulsive and emotional with their love blinding them to the present danger. In the epilogue Christine and Raoul get married off-page and elope to Sweden taking Christine’s beloved stepmother Mamma Valérius with them.
• Will and Alyss in Ranger's Apprentice. It was obvious there were some feelings between them even as early as the start of the first book.
• Red Queen: Kilorn is in love with Mare, his childhood friend. It is implied that Mare reciprocates some of his feelings in the very beginning (she once fantasizes ending up with Kilorn and having children who share his green eyes), but these are swiftly forgotten upon meeting Cal, her true love interest.
• The Riftwar Cycle: Mara's son Justin, and the Emperor's oldest daughter Jehilia, have been playmates for years. Then the Emperor is assassinated, leaving Jehilia as the key to resolving the Succession Crisis. Since Mara has been adopted into the imperial family, Justin has a claim on the throne, but that will make him a target for any other pretenders who might be able to force Jehilia to marry them. So Mara organizes for Justin and Jehilia to marry, making their combined claim beyond challenge. Jehilia is not thrilled, but when it's pointed out that her likely alternative would be to get captured and forced to marry someone old enough to have grey hair and a pot belly, she acquiesces. Despite the rushed circumstances and their youth, Mara suspects they will be happy together.
• Riordanverse:
  • Percy Jackson and the Olympians:
    • Annabeth Chase fell in love with Luke Castellan ever since he rescued her in the streets when she was only 7, and she has difficulty moving on after he ends up defecting to the Titans' side.
    • Percy Jackson's relationship with Annabeth may count, since they meet and become friends at age 12, although they don't truly fall in love until they are around 15.
  • Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: Samirah is betrothed to a family friend, Amir, but she is obviously smitten with him, and becomes insulted whenever people comment that she may have been forced into the arrangement.
• The Saga of Hrolf Kraki: Bjorn and Bera, parents of Elk-Frodi, Thorir Dogfoot, and Bodvar Bjarki:
  "Bjorn, the king’s son, and Bera, the Farmer's Daughter, played together as children and they got on well. (...) Bera and Bjorn loved each other a lot and were always meeting."
• Lusa from Seeker Bears befriends a male black bear named Miki in Great Bear Lake. He appears again later and as adults they become mates.
• The Shadowhunter Chronicles:
  • Simon has been in love with Clary since they were children, but she is oblivious to it, seeing him as nothing more than a friend. Then Jace appears, and it's game over for Simon's pursuit of her. Clary does try dating Simon after she and Jace are revealed to be siblings, but he realizes that, siblings or not, Clary will never waver in her love for Jace, and he decides to break up the relationship for their own good.
  • Robert and Maryse have been together since their Academy years, though their relationship is now unraveling. Luke also fell in love with Jocelyn at the Academy, but she fell for Valentine, and he ended up backing out since he was their mutual superior in the Circle. After Luke got expelled from the Circle, and Jocelyn and Valentine had a falling out, she gravitated towards Luke, and they are currently planning to get married. Finally, Luke's older sister, Amatis, was the childhood love of Jace's biological father, Stephen, but Valentine separated them after Luke became a werewolf, and forced Stephen to pair up with Celine Montclaire.
  • Emma and Julian are a straighter example, since they fell in love as children, and continue to love each other as teens. A half of The Dark Artifices is spent on them figuring out how to continue this arrangement despite them being parabatai (which forbade pairs from loving each other romantically).
  • Cordelia and James from The Last Hours. As children, she fell in love with him when he once came to stay at the Carstairs residence. James himself gives mixed signals whether he loves Cordelia or not. It is revealed that the feelings are mutual, but James is prevented from confessing it because he has been mind controlled by Grace's demonic bracelet.
• Shine Shine Shine: Maxon and Sunny first met when he was 7 and she was about 6, when Maxon tried to hide out from his abusive father in an abandoned farm, only to find that Sunny and her mother had moved in. They were best friends throughout their childhood, realized their attraction to each other in their teens, and eventually married.
• In J. R. R. Tolkien's Smith of Wootton Major, Smith gave Nell a silver coin from the cake even when they were children, at the Feast of Good Children.
• A Song of Ice and Fire:
  • Littlefinger fell in love with the High-born daughter of his foster family and he suffers for it. He doesn't seem to have taken it very well, and gets even by starting an awe-inspiringly violent civil war that begins with the death of the man his love married.
  • Littlefinger and Lysa Arryn. Whom he marries — and then kills. She was batshit insane and fond of throwing people off tall mountains, so it's not like she didn't have it coming... though most of his other actions have less legitimate excuses.
  • Arya and Gendry showed signs of becoming this before being separated. Gendry isn't patient or particularly friendly to any character other than Arya, and is jealous when Ned approaches her. Arya seems upset when he mentions he might go and seek a prostitute for the night.
  • Trystane Martell and Myrcella Baratheon are betrothed as children, but they seem to genuinely like each other, which has been commented by a few characters.
• In Sorcerer Stabber Orphen, a fairly strong case can be made for Hartia holding an Unrequited Love for his male best friend Krylancelo, aka the titular Orphen. The strongest hint would be how, in the first series, he bonds with Cleao (the girl who loves Orphen and is the closest to be his Love Interest) over their mutual thoughts on him.
• The Sorrows of Young Werther: Although the length of their relationship is not specified, Lotte and Albert have been close friends long enough that he was in the room with her when her mother died. They remain an established couple throughout the novel, much to the despair of her admirer , Werther, who blows his brains out.
• Gabe from Social Queue is the twin brother of Zoe's best friend Ari. They've known each other since primary school, and Gabe admits he used to have a crush on her when they were about 12. Zoe starts dating Jake Jones, but eventually she realizes that although he's nice, she doesn't really have feelings for him. She does have feelings for Gabe, who it turns out never got over his crush, and the two start dating.
• Zigzagged in Miranda July's Something That Needs Nothing. The main character is in love with her best friend, Pip, and has been in love since they were children. The two have had very sporadic sexual encounters, but the main character is resigned to the fact that Pip will never love her romantically. Once she starts working as a peep show artist, and devises a new persona for herself, that's when she gets Pip to fall for her.
• So This is Ever After: Arek has been friends with Matt since they were both young boys, and secretly loves him. It turns out Matt does too, and they marry at the end.
• Speaker for the Dead: Miro and Ouanda with a twist: After he and Ouanda turn out to be half-siblings, he gets sent out to space, and because of relativity, everyone else ages a few decades. So while Ouanda has aged 30 years, long since forgotten Miro, and married someone else, Miro still misses her and feels abandoned. Doesn't help that he's handicapped either.
• In The Story of Valentine and His Brother, Valentine Ross and Violet Pringle have been friends since he was 8 and she was 6. In their early 20s, they realize they're in love.
• Tre and Nora become this in Stuck after reuniting for the first time in five years. Then they broke up. And then they stick together permanently.
• The Summer I Turned Pretty:
  • Belly has been smitten with her childhood friend, Conrad, for as long as she can remember. The feelings are mutual, but Conrad never acts on it because he doesn't think a bad boy like him is worthy enough for Belly.
  • It is later revealed that Conrad's younger brother, Jeremiah, has feelings for Belly. She is shocked, because she has honestly never thought about the possibility.
• The Sunne in Splendour: The future Richard III meets Anne Neville when they are both sensitive children dealing with the consequences of a civil war. Initially betrothed, they are separated when her father switches sides in the war but find their way back to each other.
• Tailchaser and Hushpad are this way in Tailchaser's Song. They meet as kittens in their first summer and quickly become friends. Unfortunately, Hushpad mysteriously disappears one day, sending Tailchaser on a quest to find her. Hushpad's relationship with Tailchaser is more vague, but considering they did their first Dance of Acceptance (a courtship dance) it's implied that Hushpad liked Tailchaser too. It never goes anywhere because Tailchaser finds Hushpad living a comfortable life as a spayed inside cat. She has no interest in kittens anymore and prefers to sleep than play. As a result, Tailchaser ends up leaving her behind.
• Tempest (2011): Tempest and Mark have been close friends since kindergarten and have been dating on and off for the last few years. Mark becomes the Betty in a love triangle with Tempest and Kona. Tempest chooses Mark in the end.
• The Testament of Sister New Devil: Yuki was Basara's childhood friend who fell even harder for him after he rescued her eventually even leaving the Hero Clan to be with Basara. Her younger sister Kurumi also counts as she was Basara's friend too before joining the harem.
• The main plot of To All the Boys I've Loved Before is Lara Jean keeping love letters to five boys whom she fell in love with as children. The first suitor never appears, the third moved away, while the fourth is gay, leaving only the second and fifth suitors, Peter and Josh, to form the Love Triangle. The bachelor who moved away, John Ambrose, later returns in the second book to complicate the dynamic.
• In the Alternate History novel Triumph of a Tsar, Tsar Alexei II Romanov falls in love with and marries his childhood friend Princess Ileana of Romania.
• The Twilight Saga:
  • Jacob Black spent some time with Bella when they were kids and tried to re-connect with her when she moves to Forks, but loses out to Edward.
  • Due to Applied Phlebotinum, the "care for child or sibling" aspect is played squickily straight as it turns out that Jacob's tribe is destined to "imprint" on their fated mates upon meeting them, even if they have to undergo a ridiculously long stretch of Wife Husbandry before they can marry them, and it turns out that Bella and Edward's daughter was Jacob's all along — but don't worry, because she's half-vampire, she ages ridiculously quickly until reaching adulthood (biologically 17-ish when chronologically 7), at which point she stops aging like a normal vampire. And Jacob "imprinted" on her while she was still an unborn fetus, though he didn't realize it until she was born and mistook it for his feelings for Bella (which may or may not have actually been caused by the fact that she was fated to be his mother-in-law.)
• "Under the Willow Tree" by Hans Christian Andersen: Knud is an extremely unlucky example. He falls in love with the girl next door, Johanna, after she moves away. Although he asks her to marry him the next time he sees her, they've chosen incompatible careers, as he's a shoemaker and she's a touring singer. They meet again years later in Italy, by which time she's engaged to another man. Knud becomes homesick and tries to walk back to Denmark alone in winter, and freezes to death, comforted by dreams of marrying Johanna.
• Raoul to Louise in The Vicomte de Bragelonne. Then she falls in love with Louis XIV...
• War and Peace: Sonya, who was given the Childhood Marriage Promise by Nikolai Rostov.
• Cinderpelt and Firestar Warrior Cats (verified by Word of God). She was originally Firestar's apprentice, meaning it started out as a case of Hot For Teacher, but by the end of the first series, she was one of his closest friends. Firestar however is mates with another she-cat.
• Rand and Egwene in The Wheel of Time series are more of a subversion. The decision to break up is mutual, they remain friends, and they both get happily involved with other people later in the series.
• In Wings of Fire, there are several examples, but perhaps the most obvious is Sundew and Willow. The two of them met when they were 2 years old (around 8 to 10 in human terms) and have been together ever since.
• Wuthering Heights: Heathcliff and Catherine have a passionate, enduring love, were raised as brother and sister, and may be half-siblings (though this last element remains ambiguous).
• A Little Bush Maid: Wally Meadows and Norah Linton fall in love and get married after growing up together.

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