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For examples in fanfics based on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, go here.
Adventure Time
- Half Past Adventure: Despite a bit of Gene Hunting in the first chapter, Macy overall seems extremely happy with her adopted family.
- The Mother We Share
is an Aliens AU where Amanda Ripley was still alive and Ripley, Hicks and Newt are able to find her after they survive their return from LV-426. When the group go to look for Amanda, Newt runs into her by chance, and once Hicks meets Amanda and reveals that her mother is alive, after established where Newt fits into the picture, Amanda has no problem referring to Newt as her little sister despite Amanda now being older than her own mother.
- Medicated: Anne has always known that she's not biologically related to the Plantars, but she isn't completely upset over it and is mainly content with the fact, and is only curious about the circumstances behind it and is weirded over the fact that she is the only one who has to take a special medicine every day.
Avatar: The Last Airbender / The Legend of Korra
- Better Off Not Knowing: the implied biological daughter of Zaheer and P'Li is occasionally curious about her unusual height and her distant memories of being unseasonably cold, but nonetheless draws a distinction between "her parents" and the (unknown to her) "people who'd brought her into the world."
- The Blood of the Covenant: Bato and his wife Kyra adore their firebender son Kallik, calling him a miracle since they believed they wouldn't get a chance to be parents when he dropped in their life.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Angel
- All Through the Night depicts Wesley succeeding in his plan to abduct the infant Connor and then takes him to Sunnydale for safety. Wesley even provides paperwork so that Buffy can register herself as Connor's mother, with Dawn later happily describing herself as Connor's aunt and Connor's first words being "Momma cry?" (after Buffy walks into his room crying after Spike tried to rape her).
- Tacos and Tea Parties reinvents Winifred Burkle as a six-year-old girl whose parents died while she was in Pylea for two years rather than a college student in her early twenties who was trapped for five years. As a result, when she returns to Earth and has no other family, Angel ends up adopting her as the person she trusts most. After Fred saves Darla's life, she soon starts referring to Angel and Darla as 'Daddy' and 'Mommy', with Connor being her adopted brother (although she's a bit put out when he returns from Quor'toth and she's no longer the older sibling).
- "Afterparty" features Carrie surviving her rampage and leaving town with Sue, where she ends up essentially helping Sue raise Sue's daughter Eve. Despite her caring for Eve, Carrie is nevertheless shocked when Eve's first word is to call Carrie "Mama", but Sue (who was just outside the door at the time) assures Carrie that as far as she's concerned, Carrie is just as much Eve's mother as she is.
Comic Strips
- The New Retcons: Claire Thompson, Elly Patterson's illegitimate daughter, is this trope, having led a good life with her adoptive parents. Having found out how dysfunctional her biological mother and half-siblings are, she planned on telling her mother just how much she appreciated being raised by her, but her mother sadly died before she got the chance. Elly ruefully notes that she turned out the best of her children, probably because she wasn't raised by Elly.
Crossover
- In Avenger Goddess, Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow) has basically been raised by Diana Prince (Wonder Woman) since they met in 1992 when Natasha tried to assassinate Diana on the orders of the Red Room. Diana was able to save Natasha's life and work on 'deprogramming' her to become a better person as well as a skilled warrior. While it's never been clearly stated that the relationship is legally binding, even in 2010 when the two look as though they're the same age, Natasha has referred to Hades and Apollo as her uncles and Diana introduces Natasha to Tony and Pepper as her daughter.
- Avengers: Infinite Wars (Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars): When the Avengers express their discomfort about the Jedi Order basically taking infants from their families to train them as Jedi, after a mission leads to the Avengers rescuing Force-sensitive infants from Seperatist bounty hunters, Obi-Wan in particular recommends that the Council allow the Avengers to retain custody of the orphans to give them a better understanding of the Order. As a result, the Avengers become the guardians of the Force-sensitive infants Mara Jade and 'Baby Yoda'. By Chapter 69, Mara is explicitly introduced as Natasha's daughter, although Grogu is just generally attached to the rest of the team.
- As well as the above, during Wanda Maximoff's time on Dathomir, she ends up essentially adopting Merrin and Ilyana, two young girls whose mothers were killed in an attempted coup that Wanda prevented.
- BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant (BlazBlue & RWBY):
- Penny Polendina was more or less adopted by Pietro when they went on the run, and it's made clear that she loves her adoptive father more than anything.
- Noel Vermillion was adopted by the Vermillion family as a child, but she loves and considers them to be her true parents, even after learning the truth of her origins as a Murakumo Unit. They're also among the people she tries to hold onto the most when she's captured by Relius and subjected to Laser-Guided Amnesia.
- Child of the Storm:
- The canonical example of Clark Kent is present, as usual, and revealed to have been engineered, as it was all but stated to have been on Smallville - not that the Kents would love him, but that he would end up with them because they would love him. As with Smallville canon, Jor-El met Hiram Kent (Jonathan's father) and got a favourable impression, before he and Lara decided on observation that Jonathan and Martha were "cut from the same cloth." However, he also considers other ideas, such as Alison Carter (who he brings it up to - she rules herself out on the grounds that she's too visible and her parenting record is mixed) and Charles Xavier (who Alison rules out as he's busy with eviscerating the Weapon X program). Instead, she goes some way to ensuring Clark's adoption is smoothed from behind the scenes, which becomes much more difficult when Clark's rocket brings along an unexpected meteor shower's worth of debris, and acts as his most powerful Secret-Keeper and de facto godmother.
- Hermione Granger, with the twist that for the vast majority of the first two books, she doesn't know she's adopted, and that her biological parents are Wanda Maximoff and John Constantine. She also finds out in the worst possible way, at the worst possible time. Given that her mother's legacy already endowed her with chaos magic that she was mixed towards at best, it was probably never going to go totally well, but...
- Remy LeBeau is complicated, being a street kid and, unknowingly, an altered child-clone of Scott Summers who escaped from one of Sinister's labs adopted by crime lord Jean-Luc LeBeau. It's suggested that there's some genuine affection there, but when Remy stays away from the crime family, he's left to fend for himself. He doesn't seem to mind too much, and he's not initially eager to connect with his biological family - though that's more down to feelings of shame regarding what he had to do to survive and low self-esteem than anything else. Once he comes to terms with those, he is very happily absorbed into the Xavier Institute.
- "darkly, darkly, dawn glittered in the sky" features Sansa Stark (Game of Thrones) being reborn in 1960s Britain as the twin sister of Lily Evans (Harry Potter). As a result of her influence on the Evans family, not only is Petunia more accepting of her sisters' magic, but ultimately the Evans family take action to adopt Severus Snape after Sansa kills Tobias Snape in self-defence and Eileen Prince runs away.
- The Dragon and the Butterfly (How to Train Your Dragon & Encanto): After helping in rebuilding the Casita and forging a relationship with Maribel, Hiccup finds himself becoming part of the Madrigal family. In particular, he comes to view Julieta and Agustín as Parental Substitutes, given that they give him love and encouragement not found in Berk. They in turn absolutely love him, and treat him as one of their own.Lacking parents, Julieta and Augustin sort of slipped into those roles. And it seemed they were quite pleased about it. Always ready to be a shoulder he could cry on, or a listening ear. Augustin started dispensing awkward, fatherly advice to him. Julieta would pick at his hair, trying to smooth it out in that way only mothers could. And she was always making sure he was fed.
- Dragon Ball Fantastic Tales (Fantastic Four & Dragon Ball): Goku was taken in by the Fantastic Four and was raised by Reed and Susan like their own child. Goku adores his adopted parents and sees Johnny and Ben as his uncles.
- Dungeon Keeper Ami (Dungeon Keeper & Sailor Moon): Due to possession shenanigans, the youma Tiger gets Keeper Mercury's memories and appearance. Feeling pity about her Loss of Identity, Dr. Mizuno happily adopts her as her own, and Tiger becomes Ami's new twin step-sister.
- God of War - Not All Gods (God of War (PS4) & Kid Icarus: Uprising): After winding up Skyworld due to the erasure of Elysium after Kratos killed Hades, Calliope finds herself in Skyworld, and Palutena swiftly takes her in as her daughter. The two love each other dearly, with Calliope playing her song to Palutena so she can see her smile again as the Goddess Of Light sheds Tears of Fear at the idea of encountering the Ghost of Sparta.
- Harry and the Shipgirls sees Harry Potter get adopted by none other than Nagato of the Big Seven. They are later joined by Hoppou the Northern Ocean Princess and Seiko the Northern Little Sister.
- In Harry Potter in the City of Angels, Harry is abandoned in Los Angeles and is taken in by Mazikeen (Lucifer (2016)), who assumes that he is some kind of demon as his bite was able to hurt her. Since Mazikeen shows genuine interest in Harry's well-being and doesn't care about his 'freakishness', Harry swiftly accepts her as his new mother.
- In Harry Potter and the Ice Princess, while Harry isn't officially adopted by Elsa's parents, they make him a ward of Arendelle when he comes to visit the summer before third year, granting him similar protection to the spells that kept him safe at the Dursleys so long as the trolls perform appropriate rituals.
- Harry Tano: Ahsoka Tano, fresh from escaping Order 66, is sent via a mysterious device to Earth. Specifically, she lands in the Dursley house, where she sees a terrified and clearly abused four-year-old Harry. She mistakes him for an enslaved child, and immediately takes him under her wing. With Lily's permission, Ahsoka becomes Harry's adoptive mother, and spends the rest of the fic being a parental figure to him, as well as training him in the ways of the Force and protecting him in every way she can. He even takes her last name, and corrects anyone who assumes he's referring to Lily whenever he says "mum".
- Hell is a Martial Artist: In an interesting twist on this trope, Ranma isn't just adopted by Hild in; they rewrite reality to make Hild his/her biological mother. Furthermore, so far as Ranma was concerned, Hild was his mother even before then.
- Helluva Wizard: After taking a contract to murder the Dursleys, Blitzo and Moxxie find Harry Potter, and Moxxie and Millie, upon bringing him home, adopt Harry as their own. Despite being imps, the two are as Good Parents as possible in Hell, willing to kill Overlords if they hurt Harry and generally being several times more loving to Harry than the Dursleys ever were. In return, Harry loves his adoptive parents dearly, even rejecting his birth parents in exchange for his adoptive ones.
- If Wishes Were Ponies: While Twilight doesn't officially adopt Harry until about halfway through the fic, it was clear that Harry was this long before it was official. Twilight had been his primary caretaker, tutor, and parental figure for over two years by Hogwarts' winter break, and she was the first adult that he decided was worthy of trust. He even changes his name; he becomes Prince Harry James Sparkle-Potter (or Potter-Sparkle, depending on which side of the portal he's on), although he insists on calling himself Harry Sparkle.
- The Infinite Loops:
- Happens on occasion, both on a temporary basis (variant loops with adoption) or on a permanent basis (one looper adopting another). Some of the permanent ones include:
- Danny getting his family to adopt Dani after she becomes a looper. Both of the Fenton parents are not looping, but love her anyways.
- Meta Knight adopting both Duncan and Vivian following both of them Awakening. Both of them highly regard him and Meta Knight is highly proud of both of them.
- The MLP Loops: Considering Equestria is built on The Power of Friendship, it shouldn't be surprising that this happens pretty often:
- When Fluttershy first looped into Warhammer 40,000, she found an infant in a stasis pod and raised him as her son. This turned out to be Leman Russ, Primarch of the Space Wolves. He proudly refers to Fluttershy as "Little Mother", and it was her influence that kept him sane enough that he became an Anchor and started his entire universe looping. Because of the quasi-logic of variant loops, it's not uncommon for them to find themselves in a loop where they are biological mother and son. But even when they're not, he still treats her as his mother.
- Twilight was the only one Awake in a Past Sins variant loop, where, long story short, Twilight becomes the adoptive mother of a young and amnesiac version of Luna's dark side. When the loop ends she has a breakdown because she knows she's never going to see her daughter again... and then it turns out that Nyx managed to slip through a loophole in the "no children" rule and begin looping as a separate entity to Luna. Like Fluttershy and Leman, there will often be variants where Twilight is Nyx's biological mother.
- Due to Multiple-Choice Past, Scootaloo often Awakens to find herself in a terrible home life with Abusive Parents. She generally walks off and gets herself quickly adopted by whoever else is Awake, top of the list being Rainbow Dash.
- The RWBY Loops has many as well. However, there are so many that it would impossible to list them all. Here◊ is the most updated list of the family tree(and some are still missing at the time of this writing)
- Happens on occasion, both on a temporary basis (variant loops with adoption) or on a permanent basis (one looper adopting another). Some of the permanent ones include:
- Is Your Great-Aunt an AI?! (Harry Potter & Portal): Harry Potter is taken in by GLaDOS, back when she was Caroline Evans, following Petunia rejecting him. Harry loves her and trusts her word on everything. In addition, Chell also considers Harry to be a younger brother, while Wheatley is his Honorary Uncle.
- "Joyeux Noelle" is essentially a Noelle/Pitch Perfect crossover where Noelle meets Chloe and her daughter while acting as Santa and returns to ask for an actual relationship as Beca Mitchell (Beca is basically the name she uses when out in the real world for the other eleven months of the year while acting as Santa in December). Chloe has been divorced from her ex-husband since shortly after the birth of their daughter Lucy, and after meeting Noelle as Santa Lucy is obviously fond of her. As Chloe and Beca's relationship becomes serious, Beca observes that since the title of Santa is meant to stay in the family, she would like to suggest that Lucy be trained to take over as Santa in the future after they marry, which Chloe is sure Lucy won't have a problem with.
- In Justice League of the Rebellion, Lelouch and Nunnally were adopted by the New Gods Scott Free and Big Barda following the invasion of Japan.
- In The Key to Marauding, when Dawn Summers finds herself in Hogwarts during the Marauders' era, once she decides to remain in her new world even after Buffy and the others find her, she is adopted by James's parents, to the extent that she is down on some Ministry paperwork as 'Dawn Summers-Potter' up to the time of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
- In Kir-Ben 10: Poyo Force: Ben and Julie take in Kirby as their son. They adore him and he loves them as well.
- In Know Thyself: the Prelude, Harry Potter is unplugged from The Matrix and is swiftly adopted by the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar, with Trinity and Neo as his parents while Tank and Morpheus are the fun uncle and strict grandfather respectively (although Harry is 'officially' down as Morpheus's apprentice for the purpose of justifying his presence on the crew).
- Megorama (Family Guy & Futurama) sees Meg Griffin being accidentally sent into the year 3000, where she meets the Planet Express staff and is essentially adopted by Leela.
- Metal Gear: Green: After being rescued from an HPSC experiment lab, Izuku becomes the ward of Snake when it becomes clear his entire family is killed off and the MSF realize putting him in foster care or an orphanage will result in the HPSC finding him and re-abducting him for experimentation again.
- Mike Pines: Stan has documents forged to make Mike an offical member of the family. Mike is very pleased about this.
- My Simpsons Guy Story (Family Guy & The Simpsons) features the ten-year-old Meg Griffin being essentially adopted by the Simpsons after she spends a summer in Springfield as a child as part of a student exchange program. Although Meg is forcibly returned to Quahog during the events of The Simpsons Movie, when the Simpsons reunite with Meg in her teens, Meg falls in love with Bart, with Homer and Marge being far more supportive parents to her than Peter and Lois.
- The Project Motherhood series by Gamer95 on Fanfiction.Net runs almost entirely on this trope, having female or sometimes genderswapped versions of fictional characters rescuing Harry Potter [Sometimes Crona from Soul Eater or Isaac from The Binding of Isaac] from an intensely abusive living condition and raising them as their own child.
- In the Peter Parker Needs A Hug series, MCU Peter Parker (fresh off of No Way Home) ends up in Gotham. Once the Bat family realizes that Gotham's newest vigilante is a teenager who's alone in the world, Batman takes him in (surprising no one note but Peter). It takes a lot of time and patience, but eventually Peter comes to accept Bruce as his new boss/mentor/parental figure and the Bats as his new team/family.The biggest problem he had adjusting was his fear that he was replacing one rich mentor/father-figure for another one.
- "The Savior Fables" sees a chain of events which culminate in Emma Swan (Once Upon a Time) becoming the guardian and adopted mother of Harry Potter, to the extent that she takes part in a goblin ritual to make him her son through blood adoption. Harry also has an extended family in the form of the Scamander brothers and Goldstein sisters (still alive in the present through a gift of Elixir from Nicholas Flamel), who help Emma in her role as regent of the three Noble Houses Harry is heir to until he's old enough to take on the role himself.
- "Scattered Hearts" (Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Stargate SG-1) features an unconventional inversion of this, where Daniel Jackson only learns that he has a daughter conceived during a brief relationship when he was in foster care after his daughter has died, his daughter being Buffy Summers. As a result of the circumstances of her creation, Dawn Summers is technically Daniel's daughter as well, considering that the Monks created her from Buffy's blood even though Daniel wasn't in a position to conceive her naturally, Dawn and Spike realising the truth when Daniel visits Buffy's grave and explains the circumstances of the conception to Dawn. While the Scoobies are struggling to cope after Buffy's resurrection, Dawn runs away to Colorado to get away from their troubles and spend time with her father even if he doesn't know about their true relationship, with the rest of SG-1 accepting her in their lives even when none of them know that Dawn is Daniel's actual daughter and assume she's just the sister of his dead daughter.
- The Spectacular Spider-Man: Lost in Gotham: This fic crosses over Batman: Wayne Family Adventures with The Spectacular Spider-Man. Spectacular's Spider-Man sacrifices himself to save Gwen Stacy and accidentally ends up in Gotham. After he's injured while stopping a runaway monorail, the Bats take him back to the Bat Cave. He's forced to tell them about his being from another dimension, as well as how he became Spider-Man (and lost Uncle Ben). Batman immediately offers to take him in (which surprises no one but Peter). While it takes a small period of adjustment, Peter quickly adapts to being a member of the Bats and slowly but surely views them as his family.
- He also acknowledges to himself that he'd been this trope once before, when his birth parents died and left him to be raised by Ben and May.
- Spider-Ninja: Four-year-old Petra Parker, after losing her Aunt May and Uncle Ben in a traumatic event, is taken in by Master Splinter and raised alongside his four turtle sons (who were also adopted). She grows up with the group, accepting them as her family and doing all she can to help and protect them. She even refers to herself as Petra Parker-Hamato.
- Star Trek: Phoenix: After becoming stranded on Earth, Twilight and Sunset are adopted by a human/Vulcan couple with whom they develop a very strong and loving relationship.
- Slightly Altered has Buwaro adopted by Azurai and Iratu, and living a MUCH happier life than in canon at first.
- Super RWBY Sisters (RWBY & Super Mario Bros.) contains several examples. They include:
- Esdeath's backstory here is that she's General Ironwood's adopted daughter after losing her parents in a Grimm attack. She highly adores, respects and looks up to him and Ironwood feels the same way about her, with her being the only person that can keep him from slipping into his darker impulses.
- The Rose/Xiao Long parents (Taiyang, Summer and later on, Rosalina) end up adopting several more children on top of their two biological daughters. These include Byleth and Bereto , Oran, Kala, and Gonta.
- Following the release of the Warriors of Hope, Kyoko and Aoi arrange for them to get adopted into newer and much more loving families, with all of them being very happy with the arrangement.
- By the time Jon Snow returns to Winterfell in A Thank You Gift From Madness, he has figured out that Ned is his uncle, not his father. While he got a few details wrong, believing himself to be a Child Of Rape for example, he is beyond grateful for everything his uncle did for him and happily sees him as his true father. Ned for his part is beyond touched by this and is happy to keep up that very same relationship even after Jon was missing for years.
- Tales of My Lantera Academia: Emerald Dawn (My Hero Academia & Green Lantern): After Eri is rescued by Izuku from Overhaul, Inko and Izuku take her in as Eri knows Izuku is the one who can protect her with absolute certainty, and Inko managed to get a foster parent licence in time to adopt her.
- Time Anomaly (Doctor Who & Marvel Cinematic Universe): Rory and Amy Williams have adopted three children since they arrived in 1930s New York; Ben, who reminded them of Rory at that age, Ben’s best friend Timothy, and an older girl named Bethany, Bethany being adopted for the dual reason that she can help keep the other two in line and the fact that she was unlikely to be adopted by another family due to her age and tomboyish attitude.
- In Voyages of the Wild Sea Horse, Penelope laFloo notes that she was raised by a Frauce merchant captain who discovered her as a newborn baby, the Sole Survivor of a slave ship that was picked up by a Grand Line hyper-hurricane and flung clean over the Calm Belt into the East Blue. She speaks very fondly of her adoptive parents and makes it clear she loves them both. That said, she does still secretly hope to find the minks as she explores the Grand Line.
- In What Makes a Slayer, when a fifteen-year-old Dean Winchester finds a ten-year-old Faith after a salt-and-burn for the ghost of an old woman reveals that Faith was being sexually abused by her mother’s boyfriends, Dean swiftly starts thinking of her as a little sister, and John and Sam don’t take long to accept Faith as part of their family.
- In When It Changes, Max (Dark Angel) is rescued by the Winchesters (Supernatural) when she ran away from Manticore (the EMP just being a more local event rather than the global catastrophe of the series), and swiftly becomes part of their family, with John and Sam easily accepting Max as a new daughter/sister (although her relationship with Dean is more complicated given a potential romantic relationship).
- In Ask The New Hope's Peak, the Warriors of Hope are adopted by Komaru and Toko. They adore both girls and Komaru is overjoyed when Jataro asks if he can call her mom.
- In Everyday Life with Ultimate Girls after Makoto saves Monaca and the rest of the Warriors of Hope from committing suicide, Monaca is adopted into his family, taking his last name and becoming Monaca Naegi. The other Warriors of Hope are adopted into much better families afterwards, with Masaru living with his second cousin (Himiko Yumeno) and her father, Jataro is adopted by Chihiro Fujisaki's family (his mother was the sister of Taichi Fujisaki, Chihiro's father), Kotoko lives with her aunt, and Nagisa lives with his grandparents.
- In A More Realistic Hope, Monaca is adopted by Makoto's family after she is genuinely crippled by Haiji, having met Makoto earlier.
- A Student Out of Time: After the Quantum Crew expose their parents, Kotoko is adopted by Mikan, Jataro is taken in by Iroha, Emma (herself an example of this) gets her parents to adopt Masaru, Nagisa is taken in by Umeko and Setsuka, and Monaca is taken in by Kyoji.
- According to rumors, if the original cartoon had been allowed to continue, Danielle would've been adopted into the Fenton family. Facing the Future Series, Resurrected Memories and The Return Of Dani Phantom all feature this taking place.
- Part of the Night: The Wayne Legacy- the sequel to an AU take on The Dark Knight Rises- sees Bruce and Selina adopt Stephanie Brown after they establish that Stephanie’s parents died during Bane’s control of the city.
- In The Five Earths Project, Superboy-Prime has been adopted by the Golden Age Superman of Earth-2 and his wife Lois Lane Kent after the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths.
- In the later installments of Skyhold Academy Yearbook, Cassandra Pentaghast and her husband are the parents of an adopted baby boy. Cole, meanwhile, is adopted at the end of the first installment by Cullen and his wife.
- Sephiroth has this with Elmyra in Seventh Endmost Vision. Due to Ifalna rescuing him from Lucrecia's experimentations, he was raised by Elmyra in Sector 5. He turned out well; he's a Farm Boy and the closest thing the slums has to a doctor, along with being The Champion of Sector 5. It's also mentioned that such adoptions are common with the Gainsborough family in general; they even hold that the name and the land was what mattered, not blood.
- The Tainted Grimoire: Adelle a Hume is the adopted daughter of Sir Loin, a Seeq.
- Us and Them: Sephiroth manages to have a fairly happy and normal childhood being raised by Gast and Ifalna.
- Mike's New Ghostly Family:
- The main premise of the fic is Mike Schmidt adopting the ghost children who possessed Freddy Fazbear's Pizza animatronics as his own kids, with Elizabeth Afton joining shortly after. All of them became very happy with their new life as a family, with Mike doing his best to be a good parent to his new ghostly children.
- Mike himself, after he ran away from his abusive father and was forced to live on the streets, was adopted by Oskar Schmidt as a teenager, changing his last name in his honor. Though they spent only two years together before Oskar passed away from an old age, these two years were considered by Mike to be the happiest through his entire Dark and Troubled Past.
Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
- More than My Friend: In the later stories of the series, Mac is adopted by Frankie due to being orphaned. He considers her his older sister.
- Becoming Family: Elsa and her wife Freya adopt a recently orphaned girl named "Katja". Katja loves her Mama and Mam, though she doesn't grasp their full relationship until she's nine.
- Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku! (The DCU & My Hero Academia): Izuku dearly loves his adoptive parents and wouldn't trade them for anyone else in the world. Even though his relationship with them was strained after learning that he is an alien, he still says with confidence that he considers Inko and Hisashi to be his real parents. This is after he meets a Virtual Ghost of his father, Jor-El and all the efforts put in to save him. In fact, the first thing he does when Hisashi returns home from working overseas is to fly into his arms.
- Glee Reprise: Beth Corcoran dearly loves her adoptive mother Shelby.
- Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): The infant Manda whose parents died centuries ago imprints on Vivienne Graham as his mother and San as his uncle, whilst receiving co-parenting from a couple other Titans. San himself, who has never had a maternal figure before, is eventually adopted by Vivienne's mother Susan Graham as a son.
- Wild Child AU sees Godzilla rescue an eight-year-old Madison Russell from the aftermath of San Francisco and essentially become her father figure, to the extent that Madison makes plans to stay with Godzilla while remaining in touch with Mark and Andrew once she learns they're still alive.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed
- In "Going Up the Mountain", the last installment of The Beast Of Gusu, we see that A-Yuan has been officially adopted by Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, and the three of them couldn’t be happier.
- In Best of My Love, Meng Yao has adopted his little brother Mo Xuanyu, with their sister Qin Su helping out as well. While Xuanyu's had some trauma due to his difficult life beforehand, he's happy with Meng Yao.
- In If I Had The Strength, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji have made Lan Jingyi their ward by the end.
- In The Same Moon Shines series, this happens in a couple of different continuities.
- In And Time is But a Paper Moon, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji both adopt a young Wen Yuan. Unlike canon, A-Yuan is still an infant when they find him.
- Xue Yang becomes a disciple at the Cloud Recesses.
- Meng Yao falls in love with Second Lady Mo and marries her. He adopts her child, his infant half-brother Mo Xuanyu, as his own son.
- Wei Wuxian. Due to Madame Yu's more relaxed attitude toward him, Wei Wuxian has a much easier time growing up this time around.
- In Sail Away Sweet Sister, Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen move with their mother to Lotus Pier at a young age. They quickly become part of Jiang Yanli's family.
- Xue Yang gets adopted by the Lotus Pier family at an early age, along with a baby Jiang Yuan and Lan Jingyi.
- In And Time is But a Paper Moon, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji both adopt a young Wen Yuan. Unlike canon, A-Yuan is still an infant when they find him.
- In the Twelve Moons and a Fortnight series, Wei Wuxian adopts Xiao-Yu, while Lan Xichen adopts A-Qing. Both children and adoptive fathers have their lives transformed for the better after the adoption, and A-Qing’s arrival in the Cloud Recesses saves Lan Xichen from his canon fate of spending his life in seclusion. Wen Qing also continued to raise Lang Xiyan's daughter after saving her in gratitude for her mother resurrecting her.
- The Adam Winters series doesn't make this explicit in terms of making the adoption legal, but after his first year at Hogwarts, Adam Winters is essentially adopted by the Weasleys, who offer him a place to live as he has nowhere to go in the muggle world and the Ministry’s attempts to find a place for him to stay go poorly. Even without knowing his 'true' identity of Harry Potter, during the final battle at Hogwarts, Ron admits to Adam/Harry that when he learned that Ginny was dead (she turns up alive later), he was worried that he'd lost Adam as a brother as well as his sister.
- Altered Destinies by DobbyElfLord : Harry Potter's attempt to Peggy Sue his present by time-travelling into the past results in him adopting an infant/toddler-aged Voldemort, who becomes this throughout the story proper.
- The Best Revenge: Harry is adopted by Severus Snape, who gradually Took a Level in Kindness, and Charity Burbage, whom Snape eventually marries. Not only is Harry spared from living with the Dursleys and gets a happy family, but almost everybody else gets Lighter and Softer endings.
- The Dangerverse has this happen to Harry and Hermione and Draco (though in Hermione's case one of the adoptive parents is her older sister).
- In The Dogfather, the Dursleys refuse to take baby Harry Potter and unload him onto muggle social services, with the result that he's adopted by a loving muggle couple, Tim and Caro MacIntyre. Although he's interested in learning about his birth parents once he starts meeting people who knew them, he regards Tim and Caro as his parents, and can get quite short with people who refer to them as not his real parents. When he starts attending Hogwarts, it becomes a running gag that any time someone addresses him as "Potter" he'll politely but firmly remind them that it's MacIntyre, actually.
- Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality: Harry's adoptive family is quite happy in contrast to the one from canon, and he makes a point of giving them equal billing or higher with his real parents, even though the rest of the world wants to put his birth parents on a pedestal. He initially reacts poorly to Professor McGonagall trying to tell him about his parents' sacrifice, since the people he considers his parents are alive and well, but after hearing about what James and Lily actually did, he decides there's no reason he can't have two sets of parents.
- Harry's New Home: Snape takes in Harry as his ward and eventually adopts him.
- When in Doubt, Obliviate (a parody fic): Harry Potter is kidnapped and adopted by Gilderoy Lockhart, of all people. In spite of Gilderoy's not at all altruistic motivation, it turns out to be this trope.
- Kimyōna, Komisch, Caldo, a Hetalia: Axis Powers fanfic and sequel to Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità: Kugelmugel is very happy to have been adopted by Germany, Italy, and Japan by the end of the story.
- The main premise of the story Snippets of Sirin Shariac's life. Sirin is adopted by the Kaslana-Shariac family following the events of Honkai Impact 3rd: Second Eruption. She loves Cecilia and even took her surname. Her new younger sister Kiana is equally adored by her. The relationship to Siegfried is very noticeably colder, though it’s pretty understandable why.
- Winter in Líf's Holt sees Hiccup and Astrid adopt Astrid’s niece, Ætta, after the deaths of Ætta's parents; her father (Astrid's older brother) was lost at sea and her mother died of an illness. The girl is soon freely invited to call Stoick 'Granpa Stoick' and even unofficially claims one of Toothless's hatchlings as her future dragon.
- Horseshoes and Hand Grenades: In the story A Month of Sundays: Quetzalcoatl was adopted by the gods of Aztec Mythology.
- The Twilight Man: The one-shot Oh Susanna shows that Lisa Lisa had adopted Suzie Q after the latter's parents died from an influenza outbreak and the former discovered the girl could absorb ripple.
- It's not the Raptor DNA: Rexy, the Tyrannosaurus rex from Jurassic Park takes Elise under her wing after saving her from a prion-infected Triceratops.
- In TorontoBatFan's Let Me In series, while the 'adoption' can’t be legally ratified, Owen's grandfather Oscar makes it clear more than once that he sees Abby as a granddaughter even knowing that she's a vampire who's been alive since before the American Civil War, with Abby freely referring to Oscar as ‘Grandpa’ in return.
- At the end of Sary, the titular character is adopted by Legolas and a monkey he married. Makes Just as Much Sense in Context.
- "Devilish Savior" opens with Trixie being abducted from Dan and Chloe when she's only two and sold to a man named Matthew Davis because his wife wanted children and they couldn't have any of their own. However, Davis was an abusive, neglectful parent, and after his wife died, he tried to make a deal with Lucifer to sell Trixie (now just known as Beatrice) because he wasn't interested in being her father on his own. Lucifer is so disgusted at this even before he sees Davis hit Beatrice that he adopts the girl himself, unaware for years that Beatrice wasn't Davis's biological child thanks to the fake paperwork drawn up. After he starts working with Chloe, they soon determine Beatrice's true identity, but Beatrice is so happy with Lucifer that Chloe immediately makes arrangements to keep Lucifer as Beatrice's guardian even as she wants to be a part of her daughter's life once her identity is established. By contrast, Chloe and Lucifer both agree that Dan doesn't deserve to be part of Beatrice's life after he was the reason she was abducted in the first place, and even Chloe and Dan's lieutenant agrees to bend the rules so that she ignores the legal difficulties of this situation by letting Beatrice stay with Lucifer.
- Unbeknownst even to Lucifer, Beatrice has even been visited by her "grandfather", although she doesn't directly know that he's God and accepts the situation that "Daddy" and "Grandpa" don't get along due to a past argument.
- Blood That Flows: Momoko Takamachi (aka, Lina Inverse) adopts Fate Testarossa instead of Lindy, making Fate and Nanoha sisters. Both are quite pleased by the arrangement. Years later, Yuuno and Arisa do this for Caro.
- In "The New Teacher", after Peter Parker takes a teaching role at Xavier's, an unusual chain of events leads to Peter and Mary Jane essentially adopting X-23 after Spider-Man finds her fighting off a group of potential rapists. Even after they identify her as Logan's clone, Logan concedes that he wouldn't be a good fit to be a parent to the girl when she has already genuinely bonded with the Parkers.
- In The (only/best/most wonderful) Family I (could ever) Have, Sharon's parents were killed alongside Howard and Maria Stark by the Winter Soldier, leading Tony to adopt her; Sharon uses his surname and refers to Tony as her father several times throughout the story.
- In We Are One, when Lila Barton rather than Clint is the only member of her family to survive the Snap, she is swiftly taken in by the remaining Avengers and officially adopted by Natasha, to the extent that she soon starts calling Natasha "Mama".
- Uplifted series: Joachim Hoch, in all but the legal sense by the Langers - so much so that he is willing to betray the Third Reich to the Quarians in order to secure their safety.
- Bringing Me To Life: The A.I. named Cole Anderson to Neo and Smith, after being abandoned in the Matrix by his machine parents.
- Many fan fics expand on Samus's relationship with the Baby. They're normally heartwarming but unless it's somehow had the Baby come Back from the Dead, the story will only end in tragedy. On the flip side, Samus's relationship to the Chozo are also quite popular.
- At the end of A Hug A Day Keeps The Akuma Away, Alya hands the Senti-Monster Ladybug her Amok, allowing the latter to become her own individual named Bridgette. Alya's parents later adopt Bridgette as their fifth daughter and had badgered the mayor into granting her French Citizenship.
- In the Mob Psycho 100 fanfic Permanency Teru's apartment is destroyed after the end of the second season so Reigen takes him in after realizing that Teru's parents are oceans and continents away. Teru is not adopted on paper but he still views Reigen as a father figure.
- #14 (MHA): Shinso, Bakugou and Todoroki are all adopted by Aizawa and Yamada.
- Lessons Learned Bakugo is adopted by Best Jeanist after Jeanist takes him home following Bakugo’s kidnapping and Mitsuki immediately starts berating him and hitting him. He’s still Bakugo but getting into a home where he no longer has to fear abuse helps him a lot. Jeanist is thrilled the first time Bakugo introduces him as “dad”.
- Aizawa and Yamada foster and adopt Hitoshi in The Aizawa-Yamada Family series. The poor kid has had so many abusive foster homes that it takes time to earn his trust, but even before the official adoption, he saves their lives from a villain attack at home. Eri arrives later as well.
- A Mix of Six series has Todoroki, Bakugo, Shinso and Eri adopted by Aizawa and Yamada
- Safety in Numbers is another “Aizawa and Yamada adopt Bakugo, Todoroki, Shinso and Eri” series.
- Son of the Sannin:
- Naruto ends up growing very happy with Jiraiya and Tsunade.
- Shizune actually expresses relief that she isn't Jiraya and Tsunade's biological child in chapter 58 after finding out what happens when the Senju and Uchiha bloodlines mix. Having to raise her and Shisui's kids is hard enough without worrying about the possibility that they might suddenly turn into demigods.
- Downplayed with Haku. He isn't very happy with being Hayate and Yugao's adopted son, but he eventually warms up to them.
- Vapors: A rare adult version. Hinata Hyuga decides to cast off her family name after being relegated to the Branch Family. She moves in with and is later adopted into the Uzumaki Clan.
- EVA Sessions: Someplace Vast and Dry: Gendo and Yui Ikari adopted Misato Katsuragi after her father's death in Antarctica, and as a result of having stable parent figures throughout her late childhood, Misato grows up to be more emotionally stable than her canon counterpart. However, she retained her original surname of Katsuragi.
- Played for Laughs in the Junior Officers chapter "The Lost Loon". Luz, one of the three loon chicks, was adopted by their mother Luisa, and she is very flippant about being separated from her birth family and absorbed into another one; she happily tells the Octonauts this in the same manner as one would describe moving cities.
- A Bat in Storybrooke: Fidget was adopted by a couple of Aldoradian noblemen, and lived a happy life with them.
- Crossed Lines: Luffy offhandedly reveals to Yamato that in his timeline, she was Oden's adoptive daughter and Luffy had to fight the man for her to join his crew. Once she recovers, Yamato remarks how awkward it is to be jealous of herself.
- Dragon Princess: After successfully defeating Kaido, Oden would adopt Yamato as one of his children, along with taking in Page One and Ulti as they have nowhere else to go with the Beast Pirates disbanded.
- Thanks To Her: Camilla treats Vee as her defacto second daughter, and Vee happily repays the favor of covering for her and her veterinarian job. On impulse, she refers to Luz as her sister.
- Bugsy's article in Gym Leader Wiki says that he was left at Kurt's at one month old. He admires Kurt and sees him as his second father.
- Zorua Trainer: Ash Ketchum in this continuity is a Zorua, and was abandoned as an Egg in an alleyway and lived alone for the first few months of his life. After he was caught, he was traded to Delia, who raised him like a son; though neither didn't really acknowledge it until Ash caller her his mom to her face. He's quite happy with this arrangement though, and hasn't ever really given a thought to his biological parents. As far as he's concerned, Delia is his mom.
- Even when he finds out that he was more-or-less kidnapped from his birth family, Rasha from Martyshka can't help but care about Milla and Sasha, having raised him in a fairly happy childhood in spite of the circumstances.
- In Ma Fille, several of the boxers' kids are adopted (ex. Bear Hugger's son Raine, and Mr. Sandman's two kids Callie and Trevor), and they are treated no differently than other boxers' biological kids (ex. Glass Joe's daughter Katrina, Flying Feather's daughter Emma).
- Guardian of Light: The main character Helen, Pitch's biological daughter, has been happily adopted by the Bennett family.
- Lullabies: The two Bennett children, Jamie and Sophie, are happily adopted by the Guardians after their mother dies in a fire.
- Marque and Reprisal: Itzak had been a child and the only survivor of a village destroyed by war. A soldier, Ebrahim Mlama, found him and adopted him, and they lived happily. Until their hometown is destroyed in an enemy attack.
- Averted with the Founding Father of the Purifiers. Like Itzak, he was found after his family was slaughtered in ethnic cleansing during the Global Civil War. However, the family that adopted him subjected him to horrific abuse. His ethnic cleansing campaign forty to fifty years later was as much revenge against those who shared the blood of his adoptive family as it was to obtain more Lebensbraum for his followers.
- White Sheep (RWBY): Despite Cinder constantly denying it, she was adopted into the Salem family in all but name. She considers Jaune her little brother, Salem has plenty of Embarrassing Old Photos of her to coo over, and Nicholas outright refers to her as his eighth daughter. Even Jaune's sisters, while catty about it, also see her as part of the family—even if that means shoving her into Nicholas' big hugs.
- The Crystal Tokyo series of Bill K have Neo Queen Serenity adopt orphans over the years she has rule.
- Anastasia Burns of The Simpsons: Team L.A.S.H. is the adoptive daughter of C. Montgomery Burns and his assistant-turned-lover Waylon Smithers. If her parents are to be believed, she was taken in after they saved her life. She's also the heir to Mr. Burns' vast fortune.
- Empath: The Luckiest Smurf: All the Smurfs within Empath's generation, including Smurfette, Baby Smurf, and the Smurflings, were adopted by Papa Smurf. It's Empath himself who is the only begotten son of Papa Smurf.
- The Stargate SG-1 fanfic Bless the Children has an interesting twist of this concept, as Daniel Jackson ends up adopting a clone of himself created by an alien culture who unintentionally gave the clone the memory of the traumatic death of Daniel's parents when he was eight years old. Even before he learned that Daniel was technically him, 'Danny' referred to Daniel as 'Daddy' after a violent nightmare and came to consider him and the rest of SG-1 family, with the 'Ship version of this story adding to this dynamic when Daniel and Samantha Carter develop feelings for each other. Having learned of his identity and connection to Daniel, Danny actually encouraged him and Sam to get together because he wants them to be happy, which culminates in Daniel and Sam getting married and Sam learning that she's pregnant, with Danny shown to be very excited at the idea of being a big brother.
- On a wider note, Danny explicitly refers to Jack O'Neill as 'Uncle Jack', and is told that he can consider General Hammond and Catherine Langford his new grandparents.
- Invoked in "To the Journey" in particular, as the author explores a world where Tasha Yar (Star Trek: The Next Generation) survived the confrontation with Armus. Subsequent storylines reveal that not only did Tasha later discover that she is a distant relative of Tom Paris, but she was essentially fostered during her time at Starfleet Academy by Tuvok and his family (Star Trek: Voyager). While T’Pel’s relationship with Tasha Yar could be difficult, Tuvok’s daughter in particular still considering Tasha a sister even after she joins Starfleet herself, to the extent that after Voyager returns Aris informs Tasha “Our father is not well” when discussing Tuvok’s medical condition.
- Safe and Sound (a Star Trek (2009) fic): At the end, Lucille Harewood is adopted by Khan. Despite the fact that he got her father killed, gave her the augment abilities which caused a lot of trouble, she sees good in him after spending time with him and his crew.
- In Queens of Mewni, Comet and Moon's relationship undergoes a Related Differently in the Adaptation change: Comet is actually Moon's biological aunt, and adopted Moon and served as her regent when her biological mother died in childbirth. Moon still clearly adores her adopted mother and was devastated when Comet was assassinated.
- Padme invoked this with her biological son in Precipice. To hide his identity as Anakin's and her son, she poses him as a war orphan that she took in to cope with the death of her miscarried daughter (which is actually a case of Death Faked for You). Regardless, Luke was immensely happy living with Padme and never once had any issues with not knowing who his "real" parents were, as he was perfectly content as Padme's son.
- A Gem, a Human, and a Baby: an inverted version takes place in Chapter 3 - Greg officially declares Pearl to be Steven's guardian, and a member of the Universe family.
- The Sea Shadow: Vivian adores Bobbery and it's implied she wanted to learn how to sail to be like him.
- Enlightenments: While it ultimately ends tragically, Wander adopted one of the horned boys and treated him as his own son. Less tragically, he takes Ico in alongside his daughter, though whether it's as his son or his future son-in-law is up to Yorda and Ico and isn't resolved by the end of the story since they haven't grown up yet.
- Once Upon a December Night: Unorthodox living situation aside, April is otherwise happy and healthy as an honorary member of the Hamato family.
- Total Drama Legacy: Tina, the adoptive daughter of Chris McLean. While she was originally adopted as a publicity stunt, Chris and Chef eventually grew genuinely fond of her.
- Adoption of the Weirdest Kind: Jazz and an initially reluctant Prowl become the adoptive parents of a baby giraffe named Patchy. Despite a rough start, they quickly settle into their new role, and Patchy doesn't seem to have any problems about being raised by giant alien robots.
- Shadows Of The Past: Will is this, though his 'parents' are still alive; he states he just likes his adoptive ones better.
- Suddenly (a Transformers: Prime fanfic): June Darby is adopted by the Shattered Glass versions of the Decepticons when she is a kindergartner, and considers them her family even into her adulthood.
- Things We Don't Tell Humans: the cast of Happily Adopted characters includes Prowl, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Faust, Hudson, Cobalt, Iris, Aether, and Alchemy.
- Bella Hale has an unconventional adoption by any standard, with a five-year-old Bella being found by the Cullens after Charlie and Renee die in a car accident; obviously Carlisle and Esme are her obvious parents, but Bella also regards Rosalie as her second mother until they reach a point where they're physically the same age, and Alice is always aware that Bella's relationship with Edward will change later (justifying Alice suggesting that she go by Hale rather than Cullen).
- Roses in Winter sees Angela Weber being swiftly taken in by the Cullens after her biological parents are presented as incompetent at best and explicitly abusive at worst. Not only does Emmett freely refer to himself as Angela's big brother, but shortly after Angela learns the truth about the Cullens, while she's falling asleep, she mentions that she'd give anything for Esme to be her mother. The bond becomes so deep that even the Volturi recognise that Angela's compassion makes her so much like Carlisle that she might as well be his biological daughter.
- In Strange Scales, Bella's mermaid friends Riana and Kali are invited to remain with the Cullens even before Kali is revealed to be Rosalie’s niece; after this, Rosalie basically adopts Kali and Riana is assured that she'll be a part of their family, Bella jokingly observing that she could be Esme's great-niece.
- The Roboutian Heresy: Konrad Curze is taken in by a Nostraman woman whose love and support makes him grow into a benevolent Terror Hero, rather than the deranged Knight Templar he ends up as in canon.
- Paradoxus: It's revealed by Galadwen's narration in chapter two that Sylvanas wished to create her own family before Arthas brutally killed her. So, when Sylvanas lays her eyes on the (Elven) Aspect of Fire's baby daughter, she immediately decides to adopt her—it helps that a bronze dragon just threatened to kill the (time) 'anomaly'. Little Iladris Windrunner is brought to the Undercity and lovingly raised by Sylvanas and her most trusted Dark Rangers. Bloom notes that Sylvanas' cold demeanor softens when she speaks with Iladris.
- Security!: Amy Dallon ends up being adopted by the Hebert family. It works out much better than her previous adoption.
