Crossovers
- In the Avengers/Hunger Games fic Fire and Lightning
, Peeta eventually does this by falsely telling Katniss he lied about being in love with her, so that she doesn't feel guilty pursuing a relationship with another boy. - I'm Nobody: During a discussion, Liara and Kaidan admit to each other that they're both in love with Shepard, but they know she doesn't see them that way at all, and that she and Axel are slowly developing feelings for each other. Kaidan and Liara agree not to get in the way if he makes her happy.
- Interference - The Hybrid Witch: Lily Potter began cheating on her husband James with Klaus Mikaelson, leading her daughter to wind up being Klaus'. James reveals that he knew the whole time and isn't upset in the least. Why? Because he was hoping Lily would leave him and be taken away from Britain, far away from the war. He'd rather Lily live a good, long life with someone else than stay with him and likely get killed by Voldemort.
- In the Harry Potter/Marvel Cinematic Universe crossover The Lightning Strike, Harry is initially brought into the Avengers by Natasha Romanoff, and even has a relationship with her. However, when Natasha learns that family is important to Harry as he never had one of his own, she discreetly breaks off their relationship as she can't have children herself and doesn't want to deprive Harry of that opportunity. Although Harry convinces her to give them another shot and even allows her to become pregnant, after their unborn daughter is a victim of the Snap along with their other lovers, Natasha tries to push Carol towards Harry as she feels she can't be what he needs when in reality the issue is that she herself doesn't feel she deserves happiness.
- Lost in Camelot;
- After Bo realises that Morgana is in love with Merlin only after he and Bo have started a relationship, followed by Kenzi admitting that she is aware that Merlin has feelings for Morgana, Bo contemplates breaking up with Merlin so that he can be with Morgana. However, Kenzi explicitly states that would be stupid as it would just leave all three of them varying degrees of miserable now that Merlin and Bo are in love, suggesting instead that Bo Take a Third Option and bring Morgana into the relationship.
- When Lancelot returns to Camelot, Arthur breaks off his potential relationship with Gwen as he believes that she would be happier with Lancelot, unaware that Gwen has moved beyond her old feelings for Lancelot. Their 'reunion' only lasts a few weeks before Lancelot realises Gwen's new feelings for Arthur and ends his own relationship with her as he recognises the depth of Gwen's affection for the prince.
- In the Danny Phantom/Sabrina the Teenage Witch fic The Phantom and the Witch, while Sam Mason is starting to develop feelings for Danny when the Spellmans move in next door to the Fentons, Sam accepts Danny and Sabrina coming together because she knows that Sabrina is interested in Danny for the right reasons, rather than just wanting to be with the hero.
- Pokémon: Equestrian Champions: Sonata Dusk previously fell in love with Flash Sentry due to him going out of his way to help her and giving her confidence in herself. When they reunite in "The Ocean Champion" though, she realizes that Twilight knows a lot more about Flash than she does, and is better for him than her. She still happily hugs both of them goodbye, and whispers to Twilight that Flash is all hers.
- The RWBY/The Hobbit Fusion Fic Rise of a Star Knight has an interesting version. Throughout the story, Jaune has been talking to a spirit version of Pyrrha, eventually said to be (partially) a manifestation of his guilt over her (apparent) death. It's revealed that Pyrrha is actually alive, and that spirit Pyrrha is actually a piece of her aura that was transferred during their kiss before Pyrrha's apparent death (part of his aura also ended up in her, which saved her from that death, and from torture). At the end, it's revealed that, while it is part of her, it's a copy, having a mind of its own, and it sacrifices itself to save Jaune so that he can be happy with the living Pyrrha.
- Shinji And Warhammer 40 K: Shinji did not make anything about Asuka seeing Kaworu because it made her happy and that the most important thing to him. Even after Kaworu had revealed his true self, when Asuka asked him if he was not going to try and convince her to not be tempted, Shinji still told her: "Decide what you want." Subverted when he said he was not afraid to lose Asuka because she was his.
- In The Tangled Princess Bride, Prince Walter to Rapunzel, especially since it's implied that this King Edward was the one from Enchanted and takes place after that film's events.
- Basically features in "we'll bury these old ghosts here", which looks at the characters of Brooklyn Nine-Nine in the aftermath of the Snap (Avengers: Infinity War). After Amy was one of the victims of the Snap, Jake spent the next five years forming a relationship with Rosa, but when the Avengers undo the Snap, while Amy is thrown to realise that (from her perspective) she was on her honeymoon a week ago and "now" her new husband has spent the last two years sleeping with one of her best friends, she is completely understanding of the situation, recognising that Jake had every right to move on as he obviously couldn't know she'd come back to life. She and Rosa ultimately decide to form a poly relationship with Jake as they recognise that the other woman genuinely loves him and feel it would be unfair to make him choose.
- Blackbird:
- There is a rare case where another suitor isn't involved. Oliver is still in love with Laurel, but recognizes that after all she's been through the past three years (namely, being betrayed by her mother and sold to the League of Assassins for her sister's freedom), Laurel is in no position to even consider romance while she's recovering from the trauma. Instead, he opts to be a better friend to her for now, figuring that's what she needs more.
- A minor example is Tommy, who also had feelings for Laurel and intended to ask her out after his trip to Hong Kong, before she disappeared. After she's saved and returned to Starling, however, he openly recognizes that he can never understand and empathize with everything she's gone through like Oliver can, and gives up on his crush on her, instead gently encouraging Oliver get back together with her.
- In The Cutting Edge, Laurel (having been sent back in time by Mar Novu from the moment of her death to about a year before Oliver returns) is still in love with Oliver and considers him the love of her life, but thinks that Felicity is his One True Love and intends to make sure they can finally have their happy ending. This is only reinforced by the images of the Bad Future she sees, where they got back together, just like she thought they would. Seeing as this is an Oliver/Laurel fic, she is clearly not going to get what she wants.
- Deconstructed in The Green Arrow Chronicles. Oliver notes Laurel's tendency to be supportive of his relationships, despite being in love with him herself, and worries about how little value she gives to her own feelings and desires. To the extent that he's afraid its basis is that she has very little self-worth.
- To Hell and Back: Barry Allen is in love with Iris West, but has yet to confess his feelings to her. He was aware she would most likely already be in a relationship by the time he returned to Central City — and she was, with Eddie Thawne. As a result, he encourages their relationship and resists any and all temptations of revealing how he really feels. Even learning that he and Iris will one day be married doesn't sway him from this stance.
- What It Takes:
- At the start of the story, Laurel holds no grudge against Oliver for leaving with Felicity, simply wanting her friends to be happy. She says as much to Oliver when they reunite and he starts putting himself down for leaving Starling again, saying that Felicity and him deserved their chance at a relationship, and only lets the matter go when he tells her that he wasn't happy in Bali with Felicity, having eventually gotten homesick and miserable.
- In the final chapter, Talia encourages Bruce to return to Gotham, recognizing that he doesn't belong with her League just because he killed the Joker and it was selfish of her to keep him away from his city and his true family for so long.
- The Lucky Ones: Joon-yeong believes that Woo-jin has feelings for his ex-girlfriend and close friend Ji-Min, which makes secretly being in love him much more difficult for him.
- This Is A Wild Game Of Survival: Woo-jin and Joon-yeong both believe the other is into I-sak, not realizing their feelings are mutual, and resolve to let the other be happy with her.
- The Redemption of Harley Quinn: Selina Kyle (now Selina Wayne) visits Poison Ivy and explains how she got married - her best friend Holly Robinson took the credit for her thefts as Catwoman so that the law would no longer stand between her and Bruce. To Selina's surprise, Bruce accepted Holly's sacrifice and proposed. This inspires Ivy to destroy her psychotic love of plants (which involves killing the ones in her cell) so that she can give all her affection to Harley.
- A good description of William Adama's motives in Did I Make the Most of Loving You?; when Laura Roslin is dying in the original timeline as he shows her their new planet, when Adama realises that she's passing on, he doesn't rage in bitterness about her loss, but quietly mourns her death so that she can pass on peacefully.
- Shattered opens with Buffy losing her memory of the last two years during Angel's visit to Sunnydale and his confrontation with Riley, so the last thing she remembers is sending Angel to Hell. While Angel initially enjoys the chance to resume his relationship with Buffy (particularly now that his soul is permanent), he soon accepts that it's unfair to leave Buffy feeling confused about her life and helps Giles prepare a spell to restore her memories. However, although Buffy starts kissing Riley once her memory is restored, when she registers that Angel's just left the room, she swiftly ends the kiss, realising that Angel's always acted in the name of her own happiness rather than his own.
- In both Never the Twain Shall Meet and its sequel Echo of a Lost World, Frenda Seivelun falls in love with Saten Ruiko and will do anything for the latter's happiness despite knowing that her feelings are one-sided. Frenda will go from protecting her, teaching her fighting techniques, covering all her mistakes, staying by her side even if it means going against the world, forming an underground group specifically to help her against the world and eventually dying in her arms.
- Tyrantly Ever After: After Valvatorez reveals that he and Fenrich have had a Friends with Benefits arrangement for centuries, Artina declares that she's happy for both of them. Fuka doesn't buy it, immediately accusing her of having ulterior motives — as far as she's concerned, the only way Artina could possibly be okay with her 'Mr. Vampire' being with somebody else is if she was never interested in him in the first place, and was faking it in order to hide her crush on another target.
- In The Eye of Harmony, after Amy kisses a newly-regenerated fan-created Twelfth Doctor (fancast as Tom Welling), the Twelfth Doctor claims that this was because he just accidentally activated a system that pumped pheromones into the TARDIS control room. However, when the Tenth Doctor confirms that no such system exists, Amy realizes that the future Doctor lied so that Amy could ‘blame’ him for what she did rather than realise that she herself chose to cheat on Rory.
- Suggested in Not Better, Just Different when an alternate take on "Turn Left" sees Rose make contact with Martha and arrange things so that she never leaves the Doctor, even though that means the Doctor will fall in love with Martha. Ultimately subverted when it turns out that Rose’s goal was to prevent the creation of the DoctorDonna and spare the Doctor from having to erase Donna’s memory, as she assumed he would choose her over Martha when he had a choice.
- Seen in Skyhold Academy, a Dragon Age: Inquisition AU, but the trope doesn't appear for a while because Varric does a masterful job of hiding his feelings. Not only is he fairly sure that his Love Interest wants someone else who (he thinks) would be better for her, but she's also extremely sick; he outright tells his confidante that as long as she's alive and happy, that's enough for him.
- Passing Days: A majority of the Servants under Vy's contract have been shown to feel a manner of this trope due to seeing firsthand how much of a toll saving humanity takes on a single person.
- The One Where Heckles Has An Existential Crisis reveals that the gang's downstairs neighbour, Mr Heckles, was actually Chandler's future self, somehow displaced so that he was living simultaneously in his present and past; more specifically, Heckles comes from a timeline where Chandler was never able to get over his commitment issues and Monica eventually broke up with him to marry Richard while Chandler cut himself off from the rest of the gang because he couldn't cope with seeing Monica move on because he was too afraid to give her what she wanted. While naturally tempted at the idea of trying to help his younger self have a better relationship with Monica, Heckles initially contemplated leaving history intact as he knew that Monica was happy with Richard. However, when he visits Richard's grave in the future and realises that Richard and Monica never had children, a subsequent talk with Ross and Joey confirms that Monica was happiest with Chandler, Ross also confirming that Richard and Monica just left it too late to have children, Monica forced to 'accept' just acting as an aunt to everyone else's even if she always clearly wanted her own.
- "The One Where Ross Tries to Fix Everything" sees Ross do a platonic version of this when he gains access to a time machine. After initially using the machine to try and fix his relationship with Rachel from the beginning, he realises that any timeline where he is happy with Rachel prevents Monica and Chandler getting together as they need the "push" of that drunken night in London to get past their long-standing friendship and start seeing each other differently, accepting the need to lose Rachel in order to let his sister and his best friend find true love.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed
- In By Any Other Name, right before the meeting at Koi Tower, Lan Wangji decides he can live with Wu Yingtai being married to another man, as long as he gets to see her safe and loved.
- In By Right of Conquest, Hermione, who's madly in love with Harry, refuses to even consider a relationship because she'd prefer a child-free marriage and not having a large family would devastate him.
- Harry Potter and the Four Founders:Ginny: I love Harry Potter. I love him so much, that all I want is for him to be happy. And if he's happy with [Hermione and Luna], then that's the best I can hope for.
- James Potter does this in the James Potter Chronicles series by Mean St. When Lily and Snape have a major fight in fourth year, it's James who convinces Lily to talk to Snape and give him another chance. When asked why he did this by Lily, James explains that her happiness is more important to him than his feud with Snape; as much as he hates Snape and would prefer it if Lily stopped being friends with him, he can tell that Lily is miserable and wants her to be happy again, even if that means helping her to make up with Snape.
- James has an easier time of things in The Peace Not Promised; he doesn't have to actively patch up the relationship between Lily and Severus, and finds happiness with Marlene McKinnon. Still, at a time when most of her friends can't tell what Lily sees in Severus, she appreciates James' genuine support and desire for her happiness.
- In The Power of Love and Magic Charlie Weasley is in love with Harry, but remains supportive of his relationship with Charlie's brother Bill... right up until Bill becomes engaged to Fleur Delacour, without telling Harry it's over. At this point, Charlie proceeds to kick Bill's ass.
- In Confessions of an Angel, Erebus - despite being trapped in a Sibling Triangle - resolves to destroy the darkness that has corrupted his brother and bring him back to Nyx's side. He also acknowledges that Nyx will never love him romantically.
- Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità has a slightly different take on this trope. Initially, Germany and Japan only agree to share Italy because that's what he wants, and they don't want to make him miserable again after their Cock Fight. In other words, they originally put up with each other just to make Italy happy. However, over time, Germany and Japan fall for each other too. This makes Italy really happy and their relationship evolves into a polyamorous one.
- At the end of the retelling of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Drakigo, Ron comes to accept that Kim is more in love with Shego then she is with him and allows her to be with Shego. But he only lets Kim go after making Shego swear that she'll look after Kim or else.
- "You Kissed a Synthodrone" puts a twist on the events of "So the Drama" where the Kim who was present since she and Ron were captured at Bueno Nacho headquarters was actually a synthodrone copy that experienced a glitch. When the real Kim escapes, during the later confrontation the snythodrone Kim attempts to convince Ron that they could still be a couple since the real Kim doesn't care about Ron that way, but Ron affirms that the real Kim will always be his best friend no matter what she does, even if that means he has to "spend the rest of [his] life a heart broken soul bitter at the world". Fortunately the real Kim ultimately decides to give a relationship a shot.
- The Vow: When Lord Shen is forcing Lady Lianne to marry him, he's suddenly hit with massive compunctions when she tells him that she'd have accepted him if he had simply proposed. Realizing that he'd rather see Lianne happy than chained to him on the dark road he doesn't believe he can step away from, Shen releases her when it's her turn to say the marriage vows. Lianne obliges when Shen tells her to leave, but not before she finalizes their marriage by her own will.
Logical Journey of the Zoombinis
- Saetwo's Story: In practically the same breath that Uloobu admits to Saetwo that he has a crush on her, he tells her that Echae cares far more about her than anyone else, and that she should make up with him after their earlier fight.
- An Alternate Keitaro Urashima has one in the Backstory that turned out to be a Senseless Sacrifice. When Keitaro confessed his feelings to Mutsumi, she turned him down, believing that he belonged with Naru instead due to their Childhood Marriage Promise. However, Naru's constant abuse and belittlement proves to be too much for Keitaro, and he breaks up with her, finding love with somebody else entirely. Mutsumi refuses to accept this, remaining a Shipper on Deck for the pair despite their falling-out.
- Invoked in born of hell('s kitchen), where Peter Parker is the son of Matt Murdock and Jessica Jones; they conceived him during a drunken encounter and Jessica was forced to give him up for adoption at birth due to Kilgrave's influence. Jessica tracked Peter down after she broke free of Kilgrave, but but she never did anything to make contact because she felt that she wouldn't be a good mother for him and recognised that the Parkers were genuinely good people (although she notes to Matt later on that she would have stepped in if she felt they were bad parents).
- In I'll die before I lose you again Sif, who's in unrequited love with Thor, uses a magic sword given to her by Amora to save the life of a mortally wounded Jane, sacrificing her own in the process.
- In A Little Red and Blue, Sharon is inadvertently sent to the year 1944 by Wanda and is later found by the past Steve and Bucky, introducing herself to them as "Kate". She is initially rather hostile to the past Steve because of the fact that in her time, he abandoned her after she had stolen his shield for him and for choosing to stay in the past with her aunt Peggy. She eventually warms up to him and the past Steve develops feelings for her, even trying to convince her to join him as part of the Howling Commandos. Sharon rejects him, believing that he's "supposed" to be with Peggy. When Sharon is sent back to the present, she comes across the present Steve who explains that he didn't actually stay in the past and the two enter an official relationship.
- Spider-Man: Finding Home features Peter Parker dealing with an unexpected example of this when he's confronted by Yelena Belova regarding his intentions towards Kate Bishop. While Peter is reluctant to pursue a new relationship after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Yelena informs him that she might want to be with Kate herself, but she also recognises that Kate wants to be with Peter, affirming that she would be happy to let Kate date Peter and herself if that's what Kate wants.
- A Different Point of View looks at how various parties reacted to Neo and Trinity's relationship after he was unplugged. Ghost in particular, despite his own love for Trinity, muses that he's known for years about her 'destiny' to love the One and reflects that only the One would ever be worthy of Trinity. Ghost goes so far as to reflect that he's actually content to never tell Trinity about his own feelings for her, reasoning that it would destroy their friendship if she knew how he felt and had to actively turn him down but he is able to keep her in his life by the omission.
- In Coeur Blanc, Adrien realizes that Marinette is crushing on him and gently lets her down. Assuming that he's in love with Kagami instead, Alya and the other girls start blaming her, but Marinette is having none of it:Marinette: She didn't steal Adrien, he was as interested in her as she was in him. She was always honest about her intentions towards him. I have no right to be mad at either of them. And that includes you too! I'm happy for them. I'm firmly on Team Adrigami and I won't hear an unkind word about either of them. At least I'm going to try to be. They deserve to be happy... and you know what? So do I.
- Fashion Upgrade: Not being in class with Adrien all day and having friends who don’t frequently push her to confess to him, as well as building her acquaintance with Kagami into a genuine friendship, helps Marinette gain some much-needed perspective regarding her crush. When Adrien eventually starts dating Kagami, Marinette is able to be genuinely happy for them rather than lashing out in jealousy. Kagami even admits that she wouldn't have handled it nearly as well if Adrien had chosen Marinette.
- the high road plays with this: Marinette tells Alya and the rest of the girl squad to stop trying to hook her up with Adrien, as Lila also likes him, and she's happy to step aside and let her 'dear friend' pursue him. In this case, her real goal is getting Alya and the others to recognize Lila's interest in Adrien, and eventually realize how she's been manipulating them all.
- Long Con, a Recursive Fanfiction of the above, also puts its own twist on this. While Marinette still convinces Alya and the other girls that she's stepping aside for Lila's sake, she also privately realized that she was Loving a Shadow and wasn't happy with how much she'd focused on pursuing him.
- Juleka vs. the Forces of the Universe: One of the obstacles Juleka faces in her efforts to help Marinette and Luka get together is that her brother sincerely wants her to be happy... even if it's not with him. To this end, he's willing to step aside if Adrien is involved, mistakenly believing that she'd be better off with her crush. This offers a sharp contrast with Adrien, who constantly flirts with Ladybug over her objections, smugly insisting that they're meant to be together regardless of how she feels about it.
- Miraculous: Marinette's baby: While being with Adrien would make her happy, Marinette breaks it off with him after she hears his argument with his father, believing that she would be taking away his future otherwise.
- Miraculous! Rewrite twists this about in its version of "Malediktator": in the wake of his vote-rigging scandal, Audrey intends to divorce Andre and take both of their daughters away with her. Not because she cares for the girls, but in order to hurt him. When he's akumatized and uses his power to make her agree to leave them behind, she viciously rants about how she doesn't need any of them because they're all failures. Heartbroken, Andre uses his powers again to brainwash her into believing that she's leaving them behind out of love rather than self-centered spite.
- The One to Make It Stay: Thanks to her closer relationship with Luka, Marinette has several pictures of him on her phone during the "Oblivio" incident; as a result, she doesn't assume that she and Adrien are dating. Adrien is hurt by this, but accepts it. While he confesses his feelings to her before she releases the Miraculous Cure, he makes clear that this is purely for his own sake, and that she's not obligated to return his feelings. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Chat Noir normally, and when Alya posts a heavily edited video of his confession to the Ladyblog, his refusal to accept no for an answer causes plenty of problems...
- Of Patience and Pettiness: After a visit to Andre yields some interesting flavor combinations, Marinette thinks that Luka, Kagami and Felix are meant to be together, and resolves to support their relationship... even though her heart is breaking at the thought of being left behind.
- In Penumbra, Chloé still doesn't like Marinette, but is willing to support her relationship with Adrien because she wants Adrien to be happy.
- Subverted in Rejection - Pettybug; while Marinette doesn't actually feel this way, she wants Adrien to believe she does. After figuring out her partner's Secret Identity, she decides to get some revenge for how he's enabled Lila Rossi's constant lying. She admits to Chat Noir that she had a crush on Adrien, but gave up on him after seeing how 'perfect' he was with Lila. Chat Noir's left sputtering, vainly trying to deny that there's any relationship, while Ladybug points out all of the 'evidence' he let Lila fake.
- In Unexpected Surprise, Chat Noir moves to America in order to give Ladybug a chance with the other guy she loves and broke up with him over. If only he knew who the other guy was...
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Paradox: The reason Flay Allster breaks up with Kira Yamato after the First Alliance-PLANT War and her death being undone is due to the fact that he and Lacus are already an item. This was done in good terms out of guilt of manipulating him back in the series, despite being Easily Forgiven and she has since never talked to him from that point on. The only silver lining is that she rediscovers love through the person who is responsible for undoing her death, Akiza.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- A Diplomatic Visit:
- In chapter 2 of the second sequel, Diplomacy Through Schooling, this is how Moondancer feels about Twilight, accepting that she needs time to figure out how she feels about Moondancer being in love with her and agreeing to give them time to reconnect, while also telling Twilight that she'll always love her, but since friendship is now a core concept of who Twilight is, if they're only ever friends, she'll accept that.
- In chapter 11, when Twilight finds out Moondancer's fallen for Trixie instead, she accepts it and encourages her to be with the other mare. Trixie later admits to Moondancer that she was a little jealous of Twilight and Moondancer's closeness, but seeing how Twilight reacted, she's decided that once the two of them have had time to themselves and are certain of their own feelings, she'd be willing to invite Twilight into their relationship if that's what Moondancer wants. In The Diplomat's Life, this is indeed what happens.
- A Growing Fire In My Heart: When Ember asks her father Torch to tell her about her Missing Mom, Torch explains that he loved her very much and she was the only dragon he would ever consider of making his life mate. He could have used his authority as Dragon Lord to order her to stay with him as his life mate, but he knew that she had a dream of seeing the world and having adventure in her life, and he couldn't bring himself to take it away from her.
- A Moon and World Apart: In chapter 28, when Moondancer and Sunset have their private talk, Moondancer affirms to Sunset that Twilight's happiness is what matters most to her, and if she's chosen Sunset as her love interest while seeing Moondancer as a sister, Moondancer will accept that. It helps her that Sunset feels the same way, recognizing how Moondancer is important to Twilight and not only accepting their closeness but wanting to be friends with Moondancer too.
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!
- Fortune_Lover_(TGS Beta)(SARU_rip)[T+Eng0.75_Sincere].zip: In the titular Game Mod of Fortune Lover, the original Alpha Bitch Katarina was switched to My Next Life as a Villainess's Class Princess Katarina, so the scene where Katarina attempts to stab Maria in Fortune Lover was modified into Katarina giving Maria a banquet of flowers, implying she's this regarding relationships between Maria and Geordo or Keith. Yet, since this mod is one where the rest of the cast goes on with the original script, not that it prevents Katarina from being murdered though...
- Escape From The Hokage's Hat: Subverted in that Sakura just sees Naruto as a friend. Naruto has a crush on Sakura. However, after seeing Naruto bleeding, broken, and dying from fulfilling his promise to bring Sasuke back, she practically BEGS him to find someone else. For all the times she says she "loves" Sasuke, he ends up committing treason and abandons her, while Naruto is always there for her due to his crush; it would be unfair to Naruto for him to do so much for her while all he gets is Unrequited Love in return.
- A Discussed Trope in A Growing Affection: Sakura asks Naruto to leave Hinata to be with her, claiming Hinata will be fine because she would want Naruto to happy. Naruto tells Sakura he knows she is not in love with him, because she did this with Sasuke, but she is not doing it with him now.
- Advice and Trust:
- Rei falls in love with both Shinji and Asuka, but she refuses to try to have a relationship with them because she does not want to interfere with their love bond:"I... love you both," the blunette said softly. She raised her eyes with a noticeable struggle. "Shinji, you showed me care and compassion when no one else ever had, not even the Commander. Asuka, you helped free me from the drugs that clouded my mind when you had no reason to do anything but dislike me. And you both came for me and saved me in this battle. I... I look at you and I know I love you both."
"Rei, we..." Shinji trailed off. What could he say? He looked over at Asuka. She shrugged too, at an equal loss.
Rei waved her hands defensively at their shocked expressions. "No! I do not want to intrude! I... I will never try to... intersplice myself in your bond! It is too beautiful to disrupt! But... I wanted you both to know. I understand what this feeling is now. It is love. I7 will protect that feeling, and you. I will not allow any harm to come to you or your bond if I can ever do anything about it." - Subverted with their female classmates. They have guessed what something is happening between them and Asuka has kind of claimed Shinji, but they will not stop trying to seduce him.
- Rei falls in love with both Shinji and Asuka, but she refuses to try to have a relationship with them because she does not want to interfere with their love bond:
- A Crown of Stars:
- Played straight with Kaworu. When he realized Shinji and Asuka had gotten together he was delighted because Shinji was finally happy, even if it was with another person.
- Subverted with Rei. She feels Shinji is happy now that he and Asuka are patching their relationship up; but due to strong jealousy, she refuses to realize Asuka cares for him and interferes as much as possible.
- Evangelion 303:
- Jessika liked Asuka, but she never told her because she knew that Asuka liked Shinji (presumably she did not want to cheat on her girlfriend, either).
- Shinji tried to talk Asuka into returning to Distler and getting together again, but he also intended to respect her choice if going away was what would her happy.
- Averted with Saburo. He knows that his relationship with Kaworu is over and that he should leave Kaworu alone, but he is unable to do it.
- HERZ:
- Averted with Kurumi, who for a long time is after Shinji, even though he makes it clear that he does not love her and marries someone else. After babysitting Akiko, though, she stops hitting on him.
- Played straight with Rei, who even encourages Asuka to open up and hook up with Shinji.
- Full Circle: Olympia wants Olive to be with Otto as her One True Pairing despite Olive being in love with Oscar. As Otis and Oona talk with Olympia about various ship pairings, Otis asks his partner if she wants Olive to be happy, or if she wants Olive to be with the person that she (Olympia) loves, and when Olympia sees The Big Damn Kiss between Olive and Oscar, she eventually decides to help for the sake of Olive's happiness.
- Near the end of the story, Olive and Oscar both realize that entering a more serious relationship with each other would mean that they would have to quit their jobs at Odd Squad, and neither one of them wish to do that for the sake of the other. They decide to compromise by being reserved for each other — not Just Friends, but not an Official Couple either.
- Ships Ahoy!: Olive is promoted to the Management department and becomes an Odd Squad Director, and Opal approaches her that evening after she completes her training. She suggests that Otto be promoted to the Management department as well and have him go with Olive, because their partner chemistry is the strongest that any agent of Precinct 13579 has ever seen and they shouldn't be separated from each other. Olive questions her suggestion, as she knows Opal loves Otto very much, but Opal assures her that she and Otto can work things out between each other and leaves. Fanfic/Opalescent, the story's sequel, has Opal breaking down and crying in the Medical Bay when she leaves Olive, and she and Otto eventually settle on trying out a Long-Distance Relationship.Olive: Wait! Why do you want him to leave?
Opal: (crying) He needs to be happy with you. He needs to work alongside you. And he won't admit it because he's happy you deserve this, but he's going to miss working with you in the days to come unless you invite him to be your co-Manager. And the same goes for you, too. Otto and I, we'd still see each other sometimes. We can work things out. (pause) But if anyone asks, I'm a doctor, not a therapist.
- Broken Souls Mend Hearts: When Killian doubts his possible skills as a father, he starts distancing himself because he doesn’t think he’s good enough for Emma, Henry, and the baby.
- Northern Lights and Ocean Dreams opens with Ash and Dawn forming a relationship when he starts travelling through old regions again, but when they are stuck in Cerulean City for a few days when Ash was re-challenging Misty a chain of events lead to Ash realising that he's in love with Misty as well. When the three realise Ash's feelings, Dawn is prepared to break up with Ash so that he and Misty can be together, reasoning that Misty has been interested in Ash for longer than Dawn, but Misty instead suggest a compromise where she joins Ash and Dawn's relationship rather than anyone breaking up.
- In Olivine Romance: Erika harbors a lesbian crush for Jasmine. Realizing Jasmine's heterosexual preference and the impossibility of reciprocation, Erika conspires to give Jasmine happiness by setting her up in a relationship with Volkner. Only in a moment of extreme torment does Erika reveal her feelings for Jasmine with a kiss. Jasmine turns her down gently.
- In Pokemon: Shadow of Time, while Ash doesn't feel he's worthy of a relationship with his female travelling partners, he makes it clear that he wants them to find someone better than him (ignoring how various parties have observed that his reasons for wanting to do this don't work when faced with how his female friends all genuinely want to be with him).
- In a Pokémon Reset Bloodlines sidestory, Ash's Butterfree temporarily leaves his trainer when they reach the mating spot where he met the Pink Butterfree in the original timeline. He goes off to search for her and finds her, only to learn that she already found herself a new mate and is happy with him. Ash's Butterfree has an open chance to kill her mate's new beau and pretend that a Fearow did it but ultimately can't bring himself to do it and decides to let them be, even pulling off a You Shall Not Pass! so the Fearow around the area don't get to them.
- In The Road You Choose series (an AU which, among other changes, has Misty and Ash maintaining a long-distance relationship since Misty joined them at Rota), Serena reluctantly puts aside her crush on Ash after learning about his relationship with Misty, deciding that she can accept losing Ash to Misty if the Cerulean gym leader genuinely loves him.
- In Sehnsucht, the main character's former incarnation, Cervello Cynthia, was in love with Daemon Spade. However, he was in love with Elena, her adoptive sister, so Cynthia refrained from ever telling him her feelings out of respect for their relationship.
- In the Western AU fic Calamity Jane Meets Doctor Isles, Jane was prepared to leave Hollow Creek after she managed to kill Charles Hoyt only after he nearly killed Maura because she thinks Maura will want a life away from the violence Jane’s brought into her world, only for Maura to immediately reject that idea and affirm that Jane is the one she truly loves and wants to be with.
- In Craving the Sky, both Yang and Weiss suffer through this as part of their Love Triangle with Blake. Yang is already in a relationship with Blake, but can see how happy she and Weiss make each other and so encourages Blake to pursue her affections even if she secretly fears it'll result in Blake leaving her. Weiss meanwhile is in love with both Yang and Blake, and the last thing she wants is to come between them, especially since she only developed her feelings for the two after they were already dating.
- White Sheep: A double version with the Jaune/Yang/Ruby Sibling Triangle. Yang is terrified that she is stealing her sister Ruby's friend and possible love interest (and this has happened before, so it's not an unreasonable fear), and keeps trying to think of ways to let Jaune down gently. Ruby, on the other hand, realizes that this is the first time Yang has been genuinely interested in a boy (all of Yang's previous "dates" were just friends who suddenly tried to get under Yang's shirt), and tries to encourage Jaune to go after Yang. It says something that Ruby is more proactive about it than Yang; Yang keeps thinking she needs to do something, but ends up enjoying herself too much and never discouraging Jaune at all. Jaune and Yang officially start dating at the dance, when Yang thought he was going with Ruby but he actually went alone because he knew Yang was busy.
- Amy in Solarhood acts nonchalant when she learns that Elise is Sonic's girlfriend. Though she still likes Sonic, Sonic chose Elise and she's fine with that.
- In ''Sonic the Hedgehog: Heroes of Mobius", Amy comes to this conclusion when she witnesses Sonic and Sally deciding to start dating, with Amy deciding to help out as well.
- In TSA: The Amazing Spider-Man After Gwen and Peter break up due to Peter keeping secrets from her, she starts dating Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four. Peter accepts this despite wanting to be with her, because Gwen is with a guy she likes, who can be honest with her.
- A key part of the Star Trek: Voyager fic A Little More Heart, where the Doctor disables the failsafe in Seven’s Borg implants that would have prevented her from experiencing heightened emotion when as far as he knew she would use that opportunity to pursue a relationship with Chakotay. Looking back on the lengths the Doctor went to in order to help her while certain that she was in love with someone else helps Seven realise that she only fell for Chakotay in a holodeck program she had created because the holo-Chakotay had so many of the qualities she’s come to appreciate in the Doctor.
- In the Star Trek (2009) fanfic Safe and Sound, Christine Chapel, who has feelings for Spock, pulls one of these towards the end of the story, upon realizing that his heart belongs with Uhura.
- In New Feelings, Jade (originally The Mole sent by her brother Peridot to kill Garnet to get back at Pearl) decides to move on after Pearl gets engaged. Unfortunately, this doesn't end well for her.
- In Hellsister Trilogy, Brainiac 5 is heartbroken when his long-time flame Supergirl falls for Dev-Em. Nevertheless, he notes Kara looks happy and Dev-Em looks good for her, so he has no option but resign himself to it.Brainiac 5: The woman I've wanted for most of my life is upstairs now, making love with a man who has nothing of what I have to offer, and I have nothing of what he has to offer. The worst part of it is, I can't even hate him. He's probably good for Kara. The battle's done, to the victor belong the spoils.
- A platonic, deconstructed example occurs in Black Wings, Black Sails- Laurence and Temeraire's internal conflicts are driven by their adamant refusal to believe they have anything to offer each other, and will most definitely be happier with someone else. Laurence fully expects to be hanged for his crimes before long- he can't bear the thought of Temeraire wasting his potential with a non-Aviator-turned-pirate, and eventually either grieving over losing Laurence for real, or getting executed himself. Temeraire, on the other hand, is insecure about everything that sets him apart from his Western cohorts, believes Laurence must have left him because he's not a good enough dragon, and is overprotective of Dayes in Laurence's place.
- Deconstructed in Candy for Your Thoughts?: Cody begins a relationship with Courtney, but realizes that she still has feelings for Duncan and moves aside for them to reconcile. (See under "Western Animation" that this is a habit of his.) Duncan, meanwhile, gets manipulated by Alejandro and Heather into voting Courtney off before she has the chance to tell him. During Cody's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Duncan, he has a revelation:Cody: If someone like her is willing to break down whatever lone wall of solitude that they've built up in order to give you a chance to be with them, you take it AND YOU DON'T LET GO! And...you don't let go. (sigh) I should have never let her go...
- A Codette World Tour:
- Even after Cody realizes that he likes Bridgette, he's willing (despite the pain) to let her be with her crush Alejandro if that's who she wants to be with. Of course, that's because he and Bridgette don't realize Alejandro's true nature until almost everyone else is eliminated.
- Sierra ultimately decides she is willing to let Bridgette date Cody despite her initial rage, but makes her promise to treat Cody with utmost respect and unconditional love as she would have.
- In the finale, Geoff comes to accept Bridgette and Cody being together, admitting to Bridgette that he knows he messed up back in Action and while he can't ask her to come back, he wants to make it up to her by helping her win the season.
- Total Drama All-Stars Rewrite:
- The aftermath episodes reveal Trent is perfectly okay with Gwen being together with Duncan.
- Averted with Cody, who admits he was never actually happy with Gwen being together with Trent, unlike in canon, to the anger of Gwen and Trent.
- Unbreakable Red Silken Thread: Cody, after Heather asked him why he wants to help Gwen. He admitted he just wants her to be happy, in spite of him acknowledging his previous feelings for her were not what he once thought they were or the fact she was not a great friend to him. Heather also admits the same thing, she just wants Gwen to be happy for once.
- This is the subject of one fankoma, in which Yukari encourages Rinnosuke to pursue a romance with Reimu, despite having a crush on him herself. The twist with this being is that, at the end, she is shown to have outlived them and her heart is shattered.
- Shatterheart:
- Fai has feelings for Kurogane but decides to help R!Syaoran with his relationship troubles because being with R!Syaoran makes Kurogane genuinely happy.
- Sakura breaks down in tears when Syaoran tells her that he loves Kurogane more than her, but is happy that Syaoran will not be alone when he has to continue to dimension-travel in order to prevent a paradox.
- Better Bones AU: Runningnose gives his acorn necklace to Firestar to allow him to summon Brokenstar for his purpose in bringing back SkyClan, even knowing this means they will be separated in the afterlife and he will be miserable in the Dark Forest alone, because he knows it is best for Brokenstar.
