In fiction, cohabitation (e.g. dormitories, apartments) is a fruitful ground for romantic and/or sexual tension (requited or no). Not only do situations like shared bathrooms, skimpy loungewear, late nights, and house parties set up Ship Tease, the living situation also allows the characters to get to know each other in their off time. For example, a domineering character's roommate might learn that they are in fact a great baker or a fan of romantic comedies.
Living together can also provide several relationship-developing plots that a non-roommate couple might have to come up with excuses to use: the characters can cook together, go grocery shopping, or tend to one another during the Sick Episode. It can also provide Plausible Deniability for their closeness — no, their weekly movie nights aren't dates... until they are. The Relationship Upgrade might be preceded by an a desire not to mess with the compatible living arrangement. If the characters are adults who then get a Relationship Upgrade, they won't even need to go through the whole moving-in together part, and the writers can decide to have the characters keep the place (and save having to come up with a whole new setting).
This might be exploited by someone who agrees to a roommate situation with ulterior motives.
This trope can be done with any combination of gender and sexual orientation. In the case of opposite-sex roommates, living together was once strictly only for family members, married couples, or very serious relationships, and the characters may have to tangle with that assumption: the Disposable Fiancé, for example, might visit his partner's place, meet her male roommate, and have to accept a He Is Not My Boyfriend explanation while hoping he won't get dumped for said roommate. Falling for your roommate in a non-coed environment such as Boarding School might be used as an explanation for Situational Sexuality; alternatively, being around one or more people of the same gender during and after puberty might serve as a Closet Key for a younger character.
From Roommates to Romance is justifiable for Magical Girlfriends because they tend not to have anywhere else to stay and Unwanted Harems because Pretty Freeloaders make for easier contact. Might feature in the romance subplot of a Roommate Com. Contrast Roommate Drama, for when roommates clash with each other (though they can certainly overlap in cases of Belligerent Sexual Tension). Compare There Is Only One Bed, for when characters are forced to share a bed.
Subtrope of Romance Ensues, a Plot Device that forces characters to spend time alone together, leading to the development of romantic/sexual tension.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Fruits Basket: Tohru becomes housemates with cousins Kyo and Yuki (and their other cousin and guardian Shigure), eventually becoming the center of a love triangle between the two young men.
- Itazura Na Kiss's roommate protagonists, Kotoko and Naoki, wind up living together after an earthquake destroys her family's home. Kotoko has a crush on the cold Naoki, and for a while they develop sexual tension. They end up marrying and having children together.
- Subverted in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War. Hayasaka moves into Shirogane's apartment near the tail end of the series while acting as his bodyguard. While she does tease him over the romantic implications, at no point is it even hinted at them possibly falling in love with each other.
- Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens: Jin and Nagi live under the same roof under the pretense of being relatives. After developing feelings for Nagi, Jin would like it to stop being platonic if Nagi becomes his girlfriend.
- Life with an Ordinary Guy who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout: During their journey to the fantasy world, Tachibana and Jinguuji have to live together at Tachibana's apartment, which they can enter thanks to Jinguuji's wish to "take Tachibana home" before the goddess summoned them. Tachibana, who used to be a guy, and Jinguuji are fighting their growing attraction to each other in order to try and keep their cohabitation innocent until they go back to their world.
- Macross Frontier: Alto moves in with Sheryl late in the series. The novel makes it clear they do end up sleeping with each other.
- This occurs in Negima! Magister Negi Magi between Natsumi Murakami and Kotarō Inugami after he decides to live with her (as well as their two other roommates). Belligerent Sexual Tension ensues due to the former being an Insecure Love Interest and the latter being Oblivious to Love. They're the only couple that's explicitly mentioned to be married in the epilogue.
Fan Works
- Hero Academia D×D: Ibara, Ochako, and Rias end up living with the Midoriyas for diverse motives. Of course, the three girls would really prefer it to be less innocent, and are very much not shy about showing Izuku how much.
- In Son of the Sannin, Jiraiya and Tsunade start living together to raise Naruto when they can't come to an agreement over who should take custody of him. Over the course of the next three years, Tsunade ends up returning Jiraiya's long unrequited feelings for her and they get married.
- Twelve Moons and a Fortnight: Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji live together during most of the story, but Lan Wangji doesn’t confess his feelings until the final arc. Hence, they co-parent and carry out their shared duties in the same space long before Wei Wuxian figures out why Lan Wangji keeps sticking by his side.
Films — Live Action
- Brokeback Mountain: Jack and Ennis live together during their summer on Brokeback Mountain. At first...then they have a sexual encounter and fall in love.
- Hands Across the Table: Ted suggests that he should be Regi’s roommate while he pretends to be in Bermuda, and all is fine and well until romantic feelings begin to boil…
- Zack and Miri Make a Porno: The titular Zack and Miri are two ostensibly platonic roommates and longtime friends who make a sex tape for money, but the act triggers realizations about sexual tension that has been there for some time.
Literature
- Her Royal Highness: Millie and Flora are assigned as each other's roommates at boarding school. Their relationship gets off to a rough start, but they eventually become friends and then girlfriends, although romantic feelings don't enter the picture until after they are re-assigned to separate rooms.
- The Hunger Games: Played with:
- In Catching Fire, Peeta more or less moves in to Katniss' bedroom on the Victory Tour and during their Quarter Quell prep week, but even though he's deeply in love with her and she's falling in love with him in return, they keep it platonic (if affectionate).
- As Mockingjay draws to an end, Peeta moves in and lives with Katniss in her house, sleeping in her bed to help her cope with her bad dreams. While they do end up married with children, it's implied that they essentially were just roommates for a while.
Live-Action TV
- Cinderella and the Four Knights: After Ha-won is driven out of her home by her Wicked Stepmother, she winds up living with three mega-rich cousins, all of whom are potential love interests for her. She ends up with the middle cousin, Ji-woon, whom she had actually met prior to their cohabitation.
- Community: Discussed when Annie moves in with Troy and Abed in "Studies in Modern Movement". Shirley has Friends-related concerns that "cohabitation leads to sex, drugs and something a Parade magazine called Schwimmer-fatigue". However, the three are compatible as roommates and Annie develops a siblinglike relationship with them instead of anything romantic.
- Crashing (UK) is a Roommate Com about a group of "property guardians"note . Among the six, tension develops between:
- Childhood friends Anthony and Lulu, even though Anthony is living in the hospital with his serious girlfriend Kate. The potential for intimate situations with Lulu around strains their relationship.
- Fred and Sam. The latter realizes that he has feelings for Fred over the course of the show.
- Crash Landing on You: Jeong-hyuk has to hide South Korean Se-ri from the North Korean authorities. To excuse having a strange woman in his home, he pretends that she is his spy fiancee. Though their living arrangement comes with some bumps (especially as pampered Seoulite Se-ri isn't used to the rougher living), their mutual attraction is clear and their romance continues even after Se-ri returns to South Korea.
- ER: Midway through season 12, Ray realizes he's fallen in love with his roommate Neela.
- Rachel moves in with Joey halfway during Friends. By the time she got pregnant with Ross's baby, Joey started having feelings for her. They eventually get together in season 9 finale, only to realize they're Better as Friends.
- Hotel del Luna: Subverted. Mi-ra ends up living with ex-boyfriend Chan-sung and friend Sanchez. Mi-ra had initially hoped to rekindle her romance with Chan-sung, thoguh she soon realizes than Chan-sung has feelings for Man-wol. Nothing happens between her and Sanchez either.
- My Love From Another Star is about an alien who is forced to provide shelter to a scandalous actress and they fall in love.
- My Roommate is a Gumiho: Woo-yeo and Dam initially move in together so they can find a solution to Dam swallowing Woo-yeo's gumiho bead. Love eventually blossoms between the two of them.
- New Girl:
- Jess moves into a loft with three male residents: Nick, Winston, and Schmidt. She develops a sisterly relationship with Winston and Schmidt (and their fourth friend/temporary roommate Coach), though sparks quickly fly between her and Nick. This eventually develops into a multiseason romance arc between the two, mostly taking place in said loft, and they eventually end the show married and about to move out.
- Nick's Temporary Love Interest Reagan was introduced moving into the loft as a fill-in roommate for Jess, who was sequestered away on jury duty.
- Personal Taste: Jin-ho moves in with Kae-in to study her home. She allows it under the mistaken assumption that he is gay. Throughout their roommate situation he continuously tries to improve her fashion, habits, and lifestyle, and the two eventually fall for each other.
Manhua
- My Wife Is a Demon Queen: Initially, Isabella sleeps on the bed and forces Xiang Ye to sleep on the floor. Few months later, she doesn't mind sharing her bed with Xiang Ye. Eventually, they do get officially married.
Video Games
- Moonrise: Rosario and the player live together. Depending on player choice, this can turn into a Romance Arc.
- Persona 5: After Futaba joins the party, she and Joker can both start staying at Leblanc during afternoons and on weekends without ending up in a romantic relationship for most of her Confidant quest chain. The player can then decide if they want to pull a Relationship Upgrade.
Visual Novels
- Early on in BUSTAFELLOWS, Teuta gets to live at Scarecrow's house with the other love interests after her apartment is destroyed and she has nowhere else to live. Though the love interests make it clear that she didn't have much choice, as they wanted to keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't reveal their secret job as Fixers to the public. It is up to the player to which love interest to have a Relationship Upgrade with.
- Lovestruck: In multiple series, the main character lives with their love interest as part of general circumstances forcing them together.
- Gangsters in Love: The protagonist comes to stay in the Valentine gang's mansion, and whichever member she chooses to keep tabs on her (i.e. to be her love interest) is the one she rooms with.
- Love & Legends: The protagonist rooms with her love interest, who is given the responsibility of watching over her.
- Starship Promise: For some of the Promise crew members, if the human protagonist is paired with them, she will bunk in their room on the ship.
- Sweet Enchantments: The human protagonist usually shares the bedroom of her love interest, since they are magically bound together.
- Queen of Thieves: Downplayed. The protagonist shares an apartment with the Gilded Poppy, who all live together, each member having their own bedroom. However, in most cases, she and her chosen love interest do not sleep in the same room at night. An exception is Zoe, who sleeps in her own bed while allowing the heroine to sleep on the couch in her room.
- Reigning Passions: In some cases, the heroine ends up sharing a room with her love interest before they get together.
Web Original
- Rats SMP: Oliver moves into Sniff's house at the start of the series, and the two get together near the end.
Sniff: I'm gonna make Olive[r] and I's room, because apparently we're sharing a room. Now, before you ask if that's gay, it is.
Webcomics
- Robber x Lover: Gang Dojin becomes Ji Ho's roommate so that he can keep house and thereby free up time for him to continue writing a story that Dojin became enamored with. The two end up becoming an item.
- You Say It First: The comic starts with Kimberly giving Brisbane a place to stay while he got back on his feet. As the story progressed, they're shown as going from sharing an apartment to sharing a bed to Happily Married In the end, they're co-CEOs of Kimberly's family company. The sequel comic, Derek And Nicole, shows them as parents of adult twin sons and a teenaged daughter.
Western Animation
- Young Justice (2010): Superboy and Miss Martian live together in the cave simply because they have no other home on Earth. Then they began dating.
