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alternative title(s): Hetero Life Mate
Heterosexual Life Partners
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Two extremely close friends or partners, of the same gender, who are as close or closer than a romantic couple. They aren't romantically linked, but they might suffer withdrawals from not being around each other. There might even be a "break-up" episode. When one gets a boy/girl friend, you can almost certainly expect the Friend Versus Lover quarrel to be epic. Note that despite the trope name, the characters in question are not necessarily both heterosexual.
Sometimes this is an extreme form of an Odd Couple, in that the two are different as night and day. Those Two Guys may also acquire this label, as may the title characters of any show with a title of the form X and Y. Don't expect them to be friendly to each other though, quite a few are Vitriolic Best Buds. In adventure stories, they are often Blood Brothers.
Works often lampshade, mock or play with the relationship by throwing in some Homoerotic Subtext, but that's by no means necessary. For fans' delight at such scenes or ship teases, see Ho Yay.
If the two friends are opposite sexes, they're Platonic Life Partners, perhaps Like Brother and Sister. When an entire group are life partners, they're True Companions. Compare also Chastity Couple, whose relationship is romantic but not sexual.
No Real Life Examples, Please. This is not a gossip column.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Kyoya and Tamaki appear to be this in Ouran Highschool Host Club Tamaki referring to himself as the father of the group and Kyoya as the mom, yet they don't have a sexual relationship. They are both straight.
- Kei and Yuri in Dirty Pair. (Though considering that they not only work together and socialize together, but live together and spend long periods of time alone together in deep space, as well as a few comments by their original creators, the "hetero" aspect is somewhat suspect. Some point to their relentless guy-chasing, which is a good point...if you believe in No Bisexuals.)
- Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Most everyone came with a strong pairing: Trowa and Quatre, Trowa and Heero, Quatre and Heero, Duo and Quatre, and to a lesser extent Heero and Duo.
- Natsumi and Miyuki from You're Under Arrest!. (Again, the creators seem to enjoy casting suspicion on the "hetero" part through various contrivances, including official art.) Although the plot is pretty clear about the guys they get paired with.
- Mihoshi and Kiyone in Tenchi Muyo! (yet again, the "hetero" is somewhat in question.) This trope is somewhat justified by the fact that the two are stranded on Earth and struggling to support themselves financially; sharing an apartment seems like a reasonable fiscal decision, if one doesn't factor in Mihoshi's klutziness.
- The variants in Magical Project S were a bit different. At one point, Kiyone was visualizing her future family with a handsome man, and one of the children was a dead ringer for Mihoshi! While Kiyone protests mightily, it looks more like a case of "She Protests Too Much".
- Unless this is taken to imply Kiyone perceives a semi mother-daughter (or at least, older sister) relationship with Mihoshi, in that she has to take care of Mihoshi and watch out for her. Which would also fit.
- Kiyone's Expy in the OVA series is more clear, treating Mihoshi exactly like a little sister.
- Lupin and Jigen from Lupin III. Of all the gang members these two are together the most and are even suggested to live together in several specials and films. Probably one of the oldest and greatest bromances in anime history.
- A younger example would be Nagisa and Honoka of Futari wa Pretty Cure...
- Rally Vincent and Minnie May in Gunsmith Cats. (Again, the hetero gets a little muddled, considering that in the first volume, May gropes Rally and comments on the firmness of her nipples after shooting a gun; at the end of the volume, Rally returns the favor, giving May a fairly extensive groping and going so far as to comment "they're like little pebbles".)
- Also we later find out that May already had a lover that she's still holding a torch for.
- This troper's Japanese wife has said the groping doesn't necessarily mean anything, and explained that the definition of 'private areas' in Japan is a little different than many other places. Friends (male or female) may well end up groping each other and commenting on what they feel as a joke.
- Athrun and Kira from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED
- Later on, Lacus and Cagalli seem to be headed this way.
- And in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, we have Rey and Shinn, though this goes to hell when Rey goes crazy and dies at the end of the series.
- Nezumi and Shion of No.6, who are aware of how important they are to each other, in a platonic way— honest. Even if they have kissed. On the lips. Twice.
- Sven and Train in Black Cat, who travel around together as sweepers all the time, and even adopt a "kid" (although they're not really daddy figures to her). Their Heterosexual Life Partnership is so strong that Creed tries to turn Sven into a monster so Train will join up with him instead.
- Lampshaded in the anime, where a waitress notes that Sven is the father, Eve is the daughter, and...awkwardly skips over Train.
- Ban and Ginji in Get Backers are the embodiment of this trope; even the other characters in the series remark on their "unbreakable bond". The resolution of the plot in the grand final arc of the manga actually hinges on the strength of their friendship. "The 'S' in Get Backers means neither of us is ever alone!"
- Kazuki and Juubei. The anime attempts to make the 'heterosexual' part a bit suspect in order to attract a wider audience; but in the manga, they are definitely this.
- This show loves the trope, since it's basically a Power of Friendship story anyway. There's also Emishi and Amon, who go from "strangers on a bus" to Boke and Tsukkomi Routine partners to HLP in what canNOT be more than one day.
- Paul and Der Kaiser are also later revealed to have been this; with Der Kaiser even making Paul his son's godfather. Though they eventually end up going their separate ways, they still understand and trust each other completely.
- Kirika and Mirielle in Noir. The "hetero" is a little suspect here, though. Not only do the two share the same bed, but in one episode, while staying in a hotel, they've apparently ''pushed the beds together''
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- Later in the series, Chloe makes it very clear she seeks a lesbian relationship with Kirika.
- Elenore and Margaret in Madlax do this to a lesser degree. Margaret being oblivious to the fact that Elenore is a lesbian, even right to the point where the latter dies later in the series.
- Mai-HiME has (at least) two such pairs, Chie/Aoi and Haruka/Yukino being the most visible. Amusingly, both pairs eventually join Natsuki and Shizuru in the Mai-Otome Official Couple pantheon.
- Ah! My Goddess has Dai-Chan and Den-Chan (as they call each other), Keiichi's seniors in the Auto Club. Considering the cutesy nicknames and an apparent willingness to dress up in drag, this is again debatable. ...Just not as pleasantly so. Yikes, they're huge!
- Digimon Tamers has Kazu and Kenta. They're good for major Ho Yay. The dub-censored Accidental Kiss is practically superfluous.
- Most same-sex Digimon/Chosen Child partners will probably also be this (most explicitly in the English dub of Adventure when Izzy actually says he loves Tentomon).
- Dan and Shun from Bakugan should count.
- Any brawler with a Bakugan of the same gender.
- Goten and Trunks in Dragon Ball Z have been very tight friends literally their entire lives and, as teenagers, quite often spill over into Ho Yay. Whether their being Fusion Dance partners makes this better or worse is debatable.
- In the second Dragonball GT ending, it begins with all the various couples being shown together: Goku and Chi-Chi, Gohan and Videl, Vegeta and Bulma, Krillin and Eighteen...and then cuts right to Trunks and Goten walking along, in the same style. Apparently the creators consider them "life partners" after one fashion or another.
- It's made worse by the fact that Trunks shows no interest in women, and indeed his mother has gone to the extreme of putting him in a office building shaped like a penis and filled it with hot women. He seems outright intimidated by both.
- It's just been revealed that in the upcoming Dragon Ball Online, the two of them start a martial arts school together.
- Can't forget Goku and Krillin, the original recipe version of what Trunks and Goten were later on. The two went from little kids to men in their fifties as best friends, and he was the final person Goku said goodbye to on Earth, even getting his wife and sons out of the way before one last spar with Krillin.
- In the same show (and in Dragon Ball), Tenshinhan and Chiaotzu, as brought up in the abridged series.
- Nanoha and Fate in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. In the third series they share a bed, dedicate several hours before sleeping to "strategy planning and personal time" and adopt a Mysterious Waif together, having her call them both "mama". Yet they both refer to the other as nothing more than a "best friend" and are never seen doing anything explicitly sexual. Most likely an extreme case of Hide Your Lesbians.
- The three are now called the Takamachi Family, according to the last Soundstages released; take that in any way you will.
- Subaru and Teana still play this straight, though both are just as Ambiguously Gay as Nanoha and Fate were. The two first met in the academy when they were paired as roommates and training partners (as a result of being the only ones with custom-made Devices), and served together for their time in the Bureau until Mobile Sixth Division disbanded. They then went their separate ways to the Disaster Relief and Enforcer positions they always wanted (albeit with considerable reluctance on Subaru's part), but according to Teana, Subaru emails her so frequently she doesn't even feel as though she's gone.
- Kotetsu and Izumo from Naruto.
- Shikamaru and Chouji also fit the bill- being best friends without all the convoluted rivalry alongside it.
- Johnny and Yosaku of One Piece, a bounty hunter pair who have the slightly hetero suspect position of following at Zoro's heels like lost puppies and idolizing him to a deeply heartfelt degree.
- Also Jango and Fullbody, who are significantly less suspect in their enthusiastic joint pursuit of attractive female superior officer Hina. Although they do have a knack for breaking out into off-the-cuff, perfectly coordinated dance numbers.
- Don't forget Coby and Helmeppo, introduced in the start of the series, and further shown several times later and in more recent arcs. The term Cobymeppo is coined in the titles of their own Lower Deck Episodes, helping to push these two towards Ho Yay.
- Arguably Sanji and Zoro. Despite his obsession with women, he will drop everything to argue with Zoro. But they both respect each other as the two guys who anchor the crew.
- Usopp, Chopper, and Luffy spend an inordinate amount of time together which made it all the more devastating when Usopp left. In regards to Luffy and Usopp, Luffy was able to recognize him just by his father's descriptions. It was also Usopp who motivated Luffy to continue fighting against Lucci
- Are you kidding me? Zoro and Luffy! They have been with each other from the start. Not to mention that Zoro always understands what Luffy is about to do next without any words spoken. He's also the only crew member who never questions any order. Zoro even gave up his life and dream in exchange for Luffy's life when Kuma attacked.
- Bleach has two main examples involving long-term relationships between men that the fandom enjoys pairing together.
- Ikkaku and Yumichika were together long before they became shinigami (only briefly mentioned in the manga but expanded in an anime episode). Yumichika even hides his true power so that he can remain in the same division as Ikkaku and their loyalty to each other is extremely strong. The fandom loves the pairing and the anime loves creating Ship Tease but there is no evidence in the manga that they want to be anything other than Heterosexual Life Partners. They are therefore text-book examples of this trope.
- Ukitake and Kyouraku have been together since at least their academy days which was a very long time ago. They're extremely close and they have a reputation for being the perfect battle partnership that's acknowledged even by Yamamoto himself. Ukitake being badly injured in battle is almost the only example of Kyouraku being willing to fight instead of trying to avoiding fighting that we've seen. That said, they're also text-book examples of this trope since the manga doesn't even hint at them being anything more than Heterosexual Life Partners, despite all the fandom Ship Tease that exists.
- America and Japan in Axis Powers Hetalia. They're on opposing sides during the WWII storyline, but are depicted as having become close friends in the modern-day strips and have virtually no Ho Yay moments between them despite being featured together in a good number of strips, in contrast with their more ambiguous relationships with England and Greece, respectively.
- Austria and Switzerland used to be this way as children. No matter how many times Switzerland denies it.
- Spain and Romano, who always seem to be shown together in the modern-day strips. Though there might also be some Ho Yay going on there, what with Spain being quite fond of Romano at the very least and Romano being quite Tsundere towards him.
- Gon and Killua from Hunter × Hunter, although recent chapters have Killua heavily treading the line between this and Ho Yay.
- Simon and Kamina of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann are a very badass form of this.
- Li Kouyu and Ran Shuei from Saiunkoku Monogatari. They are very rarely seen apart and even attend social functions together, despite one being a scholar and the other being a general.
- Many of the doubles pairs in The Prince of Tennis. (Some might be pushing it more towards Ho Yay: Koharu and Yuuji, maybe Ohtori towards Shishido and Eiji towards Ooishi. Your Mileage May Vary, of course)
- The instances in which Atobe Keigo is seen without Kabaji Munehiro somewhere nearby can be literally counted with one hand. To drive the point home, the fanbooks not only mention that they first met when Atobe was four and Kabaji three, but that Kabaji (and presumably his family) moved from England to Japan simply to follow Atobe.
- Hakkai and Gojyo in Saiyuki. Word Of God is that, while he technically owned the place and stayed there occasionally, Gojyo's house wasn't a home until Hakkai moved in.
- Not to mention Sanzo and Goku.
- Plus they're all four of them all together all the time, with four-way attachments that mean they all feel unbalanced if they lose one.
- Equally so in Gaiden particularly Tenpou and Kenren as Konzen and Goku's relationship goes more towards parent and child.
- Arguably, Youji and Ken in Weiss Kreuz, to the extent that Youji warns Ken about the dangers of getting serious with a girl he's falling for - and, several episodes later, Ken returns the favor.
- By the end of Weiss Kreuz: Gluhen, Ken appears to be well on his way to being Heterosexual Life Partners with Aya, to the point that he follows Aya to England in Weiss Side B. When Ken explains his reasons for doing so, Aya hangs a lampshade: "...really like a naggy wife."
- Ash and Brock from Pokémon appear to be life partners; they've been spending their time together for years.
- Ash and Pikachu even more so, since they've been together from the beginning of the series.
- In Ranma 1/2 the most stable and enduring relationship of any of the cast is between Soun Tendo and Genma Saotome. Of course in that series that really isn't saying much.
- Plus those two are stable old guys, helping with the 'stable' part.
- Asakura and Sayo of Mahou Sensei Negima!, though for a change, it's the "life" aspect that's a bit questionable due to one of them being a ghost. The two have been practically inseparable after Sayo became visible to Asakura. They go on scoops together, get lost in the Magic World together, take baths together with Sayo's possessed voodoo doll resting between Asakura's breasts...
- Negi's father Nagi had six of those in form of his team, Ala Rubra. Not only he knew more than half of them since he was child (the youngest we see him is twelve and it looks like they already knew each other for years), they fought together in Great Magic War, which at one point could be literally described as "them versus the rest of the world" (they won), saved the world, and after that they traveled together for 10 years helping people. The only reason why they stopped was because he mysteriously disappeared 10 years prior to the beginning of the story.
- Nagi also formed pactios with both Jack Rakan and Albireo. So.
- Mustang and Hughes in Fullmetal Alchemist. Academy friends, met up again in the *** of Ishbal, and Hughes signed on to 'support Roy from below.' Roy has recently gone on a psychotic rampage against Envy after learning he was responsible for Hughes' death.
- In Full Metal Panic!, an interesting example of this with a large age gap is Sousuke and Kalinin - though it was more so in their past history than currently in the series. As Kalinin put it, "Sousuke and I being inseparable seems to be destiny."
- Gil and Oz in Pandora Hearts. In fact, their bonds are so strong that fans and characters in the series wonder if it's hetero at all. Especially on Gil's part. Word of God often plays up their guy love to reel in more fangirls.
- Elliot and Leo also count as this.
- Helen and Deneve in Claymore, although the "heterosexual" part is up for debate. At any rate, theirs is the longest-lived friendship amongst the protagonists, and Helen was the one who snapped Deneve out of her suicidal depression in their early days together.
- In D. Gray-Man Mahoja and Anita are definitely this, as are Johnny and Tup (until THAT happens), and Reever and Komui.
- Hana Yori Dango / Boys Over Flowers has Sojirou Nishikado and Akira Mimasaka—very heterosexual and always together (except when they're not).
- Kimi ni Todoke has two such pairings: Yano & Yoshida, and Hirano & Endo. In each duo, it's nearly impossible to think of a scene where one is not without the other.
- Kudo Shinichi and Hattori Heiji in Detective Conan certainly seem to fit this trope, to the point where Hattori is willing to die for Kudo.
- Which gets a little creepy when you remember that Kudo spends most of his time in the series looking like a six year-old boy. Rein in the pedo-vibes there, Heiji.
- In a weird way Yugi and Atem fulfill every requirement for this trope. What with the whole living in the same body thing and all...
- Death Note's Mello and Matt might be this. Matt's not around enough for it to be certain. The fangirls however, see their relationship as being something else...
- Gokujou Seitokai has two such couples, Kanade and Nanaho plus Sayuri and Rein. Both groupings were brought together thanks to major events from their respective childhoods.
- Soul and Black*Star from Soul Eater have a very lampshaded version of this. Episode 6 of the anime has them attempting a joint attack which they call 'Friendship Fusion', then hugging each other after the attack's failure. After they run towards each other through a pink world filled with bubbles, of course.
- Amusingly Tsubaki seems to be honestly worried they might actually be gay, where as Maka just thinks they're both idiots.
- TBH, I think this counts more as Ho Yay than Heterosexual Life Partners.
- Judas and Luca of Saint Beast aren't really heterosexual, but they are very much the "best buddy/life partners" aspect of this trope. Goh and Gai can be argued to be this as well. In an aversion Rey and Shin, though having known each other as long as the other duos, are not as once they meet the others they largely gravitate away from each other despite maintaining their friendship.
- Satoshi and Daisuke from D.N.Angel, although the Ho Yay angle is definitely played with in canon as well.
- Huey Laforet and Elmer C. Albatross from Baccano!. The relationship just becomes more and more suspect as more of their backstory comes into the clear (Elmer, for example, seemed to have a tendency to make bets with himself to see if he could make Huey smile within a certain time period). And some of the quotes from Huey, such as the ones below, make him seem very Tsundere towards Elmer.
- In the 'What do you think about Elmer C.Albatross' section of the novel, Huey said this in 1705, 'An annoying person. That nosy personality of his will just cause problems. I'm looking forward to when he dies.' but in 2002 he seems to have warmed up to him more and says,'He is...a close friend. Simply a close friend. No less than that, no more than that. Though it would be too embarrassing to tell him something like that.'
- Mikado Ryugamine and Masaomi Kida from Durarara!!. They've been best friends since elementary school, and even stayed in touch when Kida moved to Ikebukuro. It got to the point where Kida was practically begging Mikado to move to Ikebukuro to be with him. And despite Kida claiming they're in a Type 3 Love Triangle with Anri, the two aren't any less close because of it.
- There's also Simon and Dennis, who've stuck together for at least the last twenty years since joining The Mafiya together.
- In Legend of Galactic Heroes there's Reinhard and Kircheis. Reinhard clearly perceives the extremely loyal Kircheis to be one of the two most important people in his life, the other one being his sister. This is of course, up to Kircheis's untimely death protecting Reinhard from an assassination attempt. Reinhard changes greatly after that, becoming colder, with many characters commenting that a big part of Reinhard has died as well. Even then, however, Reinhard still consults with Kircheis, asking himself what he would do or say in a given situation, and favouring his dead heterosexual life partner's opinion higher than that of, oh, his WIFE.
- In Gankutsuou, Albert considers himself to be Heterosexual Life Partners with Franz. The amount of Ho Yay on Franz's end, however, is so thick you could cut it with a knife.
- Subverted to hell and back by Rikimaru and Ranmaru of Kagerou-Nostalgia. They've been forced into this trope by The Big Bad they serve. As Ran used to be a girl that Rikimaru had a crush on. The whole thing's naturally played for angst.
- For Kiddy Grade, Eclair and Lumiere have already been said, but there's also Dextera & Sinistra, who I heard were apparently twin brothers. O.o
- Also, there is Meg and Jo from Burst Angel, although some clips can tell otherwise...
- Dio and Luciola from Last Exile seem to be this, although Your Mileage May Vary on the "heterosexual" part.
- Vash and Wolfwood meet, bicker, and then seem to just...click somehow. They're the only people they know who can see through them so well, and also the only people they trust half as much to have their backs in a fight, and operate on incredibly similar wavelengths...they're best friends for life by the end of their second adventure together.
- And this is despite them being one another's Foils and having profound philosophical differences, despite heaps and heaps of secrets, and despite Wolfwood being in the employ of Vash's Evil Twin all along. And in the manga, Wolfwood creepily seesaws between Crowning Moment of Heartwarming devotion and reflecting that Vash is sitting there with his back open and he could totally shoot him to death right now and get rid of half of the superpowered mutant threat to humanity...but eventually decides not to.
- Sailor Moon has a whole mess of them: there's Ami and Makoto, Chibiusa and Hotaru, Rei and Usagi (anime), and Rei and Minako (manga).
- Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle has Kurogane and Fai become this once the blood-drinking starts. Fai is literally dependent on Kurogane's blood to keep living, requiring them to spend the rest of their lives together.
- By the halfway mark of Tiger & Bunny Kotetsu has become the first and Only Friend Barnaby has had in his entire life. Despite already having a best friend (Antonio), by series end Kotetsu seems to have grown quite fond of Barnaby as well.
Kotetsu: [Speaking to a partially-amnesiac Barnaby in episode 23] Were the times we spent together that easy to forget!? You and I...we were the best team ever!
- And just before the closing credits of the last episode;
Barnaby: If you're making a comeback I suppose I'll have to, as well.
Kotetsu: Why's that?
Barnaby: Because I'm your partner!
- Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru: Every (male) Zweilt Guardian and his partner. Though there's lots of Ho Yay going on there as well.
- Lucky Star has Yutaka and Minami. While they do not consider themselves anything more than best friends, their friend Hiyori draws them in yuri.
Comic Books
- Batman and Robin. Wait◊, never◊ mind◊.
- Cable and Deadpool in, well, Cable & Deadpool (although many fans perceive this as going straight into Ho Yay). They are extremely close despite Deadpool's personality being obnoxious even at the best of times, and Deadpool was the first person Cable pictured/made psychic contact with while trying to decide whether to blow himself up. They were genetically commingled, so that "one phone call" would have happened even without intent....And Cable needed to make that contact to manipulate Deadpool into Doing The Right Thing.
- Deadpool is pretty much an omnisexual due to his mental instability, but there is not enough evidence to prove anything more than this trope.
- Deadpool and Weasel could also fall under this trope.
- Both C and D are well aware of their Life Partner status, especially evidenced when they both regularly called the time during a small falling out between them ("Small falling out" in this case being Deadpool's new membership in a mercenary group hired to destabilize Cable's fictional country Providence. Said membership was revealed when 'Pool shot Cable in the back of the head.) a "divorce".
- Luke Cage and Danny Rand, also of Marvel Comics, with Luke going so far as to name his daughter after Danny.
- Their close friends Misty Knight and Colleen Wing also are considered Heterosexual Life Partners, with Luke Cage going so far as to recommend the two get "gay married."
- When Danny is asking Luke to join his new non-profit, he says 'I love you with every fiber of my being'.
- Justice League International
- Booster Gold and the Blue Beetle (hereafter "Boostle") of JLI fame are probably the most prominent Heterosexual Life Partners in The DCU. One storyline in Booster's comic involves Booster time-travelling to keep Beetle from being killed; when he is told this has the potential to destabilize the entire multiverse, he decides Beetle is worth the risk.
- When encountering former (dead) Flash Barry Allen while cruising through the time stream, this exchange occurs:
Beetle You 'rear-ended' Barry Allen?
Booster Oh grow up!
- There's also the scene where, after one of their "break-ups", Booster trails Ted in a public place and begs Ted to take him back.
Beetle Get a grip, Booster. You're acting like some jilted lover.
Booster Well, that's what it FEELS like!
- Beatriz "Fire" DaCosta and Tora "Ice" Olafsdotter. Heck, it was even in-canon -mistaken- for gay when Tora was temporarily dead and her replacement, who (for some reason) looked a lot like her, misunderstand Bea's mourning. Admittedly, Bea was really off the deep end but still. The way it was written it did seem to indicate that Bea's close friendship towards Tora had sapphic undertones and that the resultant subconscious sexual jealousy was a big reason for Bea's sometimes extreme antipathy towards Tora's boyfriend, Guy Gardner. Once Icemaiden made her face up to that, Bea could learn to appreciate Guy's good qualities, and for a time the two found solace in each other's arms.
- Absolutely endemic in classic Franco-Belgian comics, whenever they followed the formula: a young, male hero, without any personality beyond some vague benevolence, going on adventures with an older, more emotional, sarcastic and morally flawed lifelong companion. The two would live in the same house; the young hero would never show or be shown any interest for/by the opposite sex, and, while the older one could sometime get involved in a romantic C-plot, the girl rarely reappeared in subsequent books and the romance would never go beyond a kiss on the cheek or the nose. The formula went out of fashion a while ago, and is now either lampshaded to death or exploited to its logical conclusion.
- Tintin, of course. The eponymous hero started his adventures alone, but was soon joined by Captain Haddock. It's debatable whether the two are heterosexual or asexual, though they're both definitely Celibate Heroes. This is probably due to Herge being a devout (liberal in later years) Catholic who didn't believe in including any romance in his works.
- The detective duo Thomson and Thompson (Dupont and Dupond in the original French) probably count; though they look like twins, we're never given any indication that they're actually related.
- Blake And Mortimer: together they fight pseudo-scientific crime...then go home to their house in London.
- Not really: they don't live together, although Blake does sleep over at Mortimer's place from time to time.
- In the American Civil War-set adventure comic The Bluecoats, patriotic and often naive Chesterfield tends to consider Corporal Blutch to be an defeatist coward while cynical and pragmatic Blutch considers Sergeant Chesterfield to be an obnoxious blowhard, but are virtually inseperable from the other.
- Spirou and Fantasio, in which the two eponymous intrepid reporters live together in some incarnations of the series. Recently, one of the (many) writers went out of his way to mention that Fantasio was obviously gay and pining for Spirou.
- Astérix came a few decades after the previous examples and subverts the character types, but not the dynamics.
- If you get away from the older/younger dynamic, "Tif & Tondu", "Johan & Peewit", "Quick Flupke"...
- Even, if you stretch it a little, Lucky Luke (with Jolly Jumper).
- Pol Pitron and Vic Video from Roger Leloup's Yoko Tsuno, who form a Power Trio with Action Girl Yoko. After some Time Travel, Pol gets together with Innocent Flower Girl Mieke, whereas Vic has quite the Will They or Won't They? with Yoko.
- Cutter and Skywise from ElfQuest (at least the earlier volumes). Although their relationship isn't entirely platonic.
- Am I the only one who gets this vibe off of the Dead Boy Detectives? It helps that they're, y'know, dead, and also really, really young.
- Barry Allen and Hal Jordan, especially as written by Mark Waid.
- And Oliver Queen and Hal Jordan - one Waid story had Barry jealous of the time Hal spent with Ollie.
- Heck, Hard Traveling Heroes was full of this. And it was lampshaded by Kevin Smith in his early run by Roy Harper (Red Arrow/Arsenal), saying that it was "typical Ollie, get a kid ward, train them, get close to Dinah then leave them both to go hang out with Hal". This is AFTER Queen had come back from the dead, and was brought to the afterlife to talk with Hal Jordan/Spectre to see what was up.
- Jay Garrick and Alan Scott, as well as their successors, Barry Allen and Hal Jordan and (to a lesser extent) Wally West and Kyle Rayner. Maybe it's just a Flash and Green Lantern thing.
- Mortadelo y Filemón. Definitely.
- It even gets lampshaded a couple of times.
- Spider-Man and the Human Torch definitely.
- This is more of a recent development; Torch and Spidey used to be friendly rivals and Daredevil was the closest thing to Spidey's HLP.
- Until recently, X-Men villains Black Tom Cassidy and the Juggernaut.
- Also until recently, Wolverine and Nightcrawler.
- Seriously, no mention of Magneto and Professor X yet? A tragic case of a broken life partnership, and Depending on the Writer Magneto especially regrets that their ideologies have driven them apart.
- Beast Boy and Cyborg.
- Depending on the writer, Dick Grayson (Robin I/Nightwing/Batman II) had this with either Wally West (Kid Flash/Flash II) or Roy Harper (Speedy/Red Arrow/Arsenal).
- James "Biggles" Bigglesworth and Ginger Hebblethwaite in the Biggles comics. The BBC sitcom The Thin Blue Line makes a case that Ho Yay is in the air, but Inspector Fowler, who is a fan of the books, vehemently denies it.
- Jill Trent Science Sleuth: At least in the Internet-available (and public domain) examples of this obscure Golden Age feature, Jill and her gal pal Daisy are almost always together. And no sign of boyfriends for either of them....
- Matt Murdock and his law partner/cowardly sidekick Foggy Nelson.
- Supervillain example, Mentallo and the Fixer. Though they "broke up" when Fixer joined the Thunderbolts, Judging by the MODOK's 11 mini, Mentallo stills misses the Fixer.
- Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner in Green Lantern Corps. So much so that Kyle's death causes Guy to become a Red Lantern.
- Captain America gives us Steve Rogers and James "Bucky" Barnes, and Steve and The Falcon (and the Falcon and Bucky too).
- The Iron Man book gives us Tony Stark and his est buddy Jim Rhodes( War Machine).
- Peppermint Patty and Marcie from Peanuts.
- and earlier, Patty and Violet.
- Rictor and Shatterstar of X-Force fame were this for a long time, along with that special touch of Ho-Yay, until finally the 'Heterosexual' part was thrown out.
- Calvin and Hobbes.
- Batman and Superman, more so in some incarnations than others.
- One of the major changes from Pre Crisis to Post Crisis is the removal of this trope from Batman and Superman's relationship. The impact of The Dark Knight Returns, as well as Character Development in the Bronze Age that had turned Batman back to his dark roots, set the stage for relatively little kerfuffle over the retcon, the reasoning being that their "true" personalities (friendly, laid-back reporter versus gruff, brooding vigilante) were too different to get along.
- And now it's back to Heterosexual Life Partners status, with the launch of the Superman/Batman title. But with the incoming DC Reboot, who knows where the relationship is going?
- Robin/Red Robin (Tim Drake) and Superboy (Conner Kent)
- Add in Impulse/Kid Flash (Bart Allen) for a three way one.
- Rudi and Freddy (German comic). Goes so far that they don't get an apartment because the landlady thinks they're really a gay couple, which she can't stand.
- The eponymous duo of Quantum And Woody. Enforced by the quantum bands they wear; if they fail to knock their bands together every 24 hours, they turn into energy and dissipate.
- Patrick "Steelgrip" Starkey and Flynn "Flyin'" Ryan.
- Rocket Raccoon and Groot. As the series went on, Rocket's relationship with Groot went from wanting The Big Guy for back up to this. And it only became more apparent after the Timely Inc. mini-series as they're currently the only active members of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Film
Literature
- Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Most loyal Sidekicks fall into this trope unless they have an abusive Hero, and sometimes even then.
- Joshua and Biff in Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal.
- Monk Kokkalis and Grayson Pierce in James Rollins' Sigma Force series.
- In Sherlock Holmes, the eponymous character and his "partner in crime" (who doubles as a chronicler of their adventures), Dr. John Watson.
- Likewise, Hercule Poirot and his Watson, Captain Hastings. Poirot is unmarried, and generally avoids romance altogether. Hastings does eventually marry and move to Argentina with his wife, but remains Poirot's Sarcastic Devotee.
- In Josepha Sherman's A Strange And Ancient Name, the main character (a half-elven (half-fairy?) prince) rescues Alliar, a wind spirit trapped in mortal flesh, and teaches the suicidal wind spirit to enjoy life in the flesh. They become very close friends, and the prince is about the only mortal Alliar can stand. When the prince's love interest almost writes him off - since he obviously loves Alliar and vice versa - Alliar explains to her that "flesh games" (sex) is so foreign to him, it's like trying to smell colors. And that's hardly the only place this is brought up. Kinda sad that our culture so identifies intimacy with sex that intimacy without sex must be made Anvilicious in order to even work.
- Older than Dirt: Gilgamesh and Enkidu.
- Bertram Wilberforce Wooster and Reginald Jeeves.
- Aziraphale and Crowley in Good Omens. Often Mistaken for Gay, even though they should be (im)mortal enemies as they're angel and demon, respectively. The other angels and demons are mostly busy trying to snare a soul here or there, or ignore creation completely, while Crowley and Aziraphale share a genuine interest in the world around them. They're just waiting for Armageddon. And humans, well, they're not around for as long, are they?
- A lot of the confusion — both in story and by fans — comes from the fact that Aziraphale calls Crowley 'my dear' (of course, he calls everybody 'my dear'), and Crowley calls Aziraphale 'angel' (of course, he is one).
- Colon and Nobby from the Discworld Watch series.
- Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg managed to evolve into Heterosexual Life Partners, as well.
- The Artful Dodger and Charley Bates in Oliver Twist.
- Also, to a degree, Nancy and Bet. Though, in all fairness, Nancy's completely codependent on Bill Sykes, and Bet's got this thing with Toby Crackit.
- Shakespeare's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (in Hamlet).
- Hamlet and Horatio?
- Also in Twelfth Night: Antonio and Sebastian.
- In The Merchant of Venice. Antonio and Bassonio.
- R & G even more so in the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead if only because they're the main characters in that.
- Rosalind and Celia in As You Like It. Even marriage doesn't likely break it up, since they marry brothers.
- Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee.
- Pretty much a definition of this trope - no matter what anyone wants to think. Actually almost every friendship ascends to this level, seeing as how Tolkien's amiable personality and experiences in war shaped his belief that friendship was one of life's greatest gifts...
- Not Relationship Writing Fumble, more like Values Dissonance. Only modern readers see anything beyond friendship between Sam and Frodo.
- Merry and Pippin—when the two were separated, it was a big deal.
- Despite long-lasting hatred between Dwarves and Elves, Legolas and Gimli eventually become this trope, to the point of taking each other sightseeing through Middle-Earth and then leaving together on the last of the last ships. In fact, Gimli is the only dwarf ever to make the journey to the Undying Lands, and he does so specifically to be with Legolas (and for a chance to see Galadriel again).
- Turin and Beleg in Tolkien's The Children of Húrin / The Silmarillion. They forego the comfortable Elven halls of Doriath to live together in isolation for years; then, when Turin is unjustly exiled, Beleg spends over a year searching for him in the wilderness, only to be captured and tortured to the point of death, rendering it nesesscary for Turin to swoop in and rescue him; and that's just the beginning. Indeed, due to women being fairly marginalized throughout most of the volume, Tolkien rather unsubtly uses Beleg as the Distressed Damsel of the narrative...the amount of times he is captured, imprisoned, and rescued at the last moment would make any number of female Mary-Sues jealous.
- Kethry and Tarma, of Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar story setting. Tarma's tribe is all but extinct, and Kethry is expected to restart it. Which she does. Fanfic is somewhat discouraged by the fact that Kethry is quite enthusiastically straight, and Tarma is asexual by divine directive. They're also sworn Blood Sisters, with that same divinity sealing the deal.
- Though that doesn't stop them from occasionally pretending to be lovers. And living alone together when Kethry's husband dies and all her children grow up. They do love one another, it's spelled out more than once - but they really aren't lovers.
- Although their relationship is strictly divided by their rank and they never treat each other familiarly, Commisar Ciaphas Cain spends decades of his long life fighting by the side of his aide, Gunner Ferik Jurgen. Jurgen is unflinchingly loyal to Cain and Cain, by nature an intensely paranoid and self-obssesed man, describes Jurgen as the only man he ever fully trusts. Cain even gets quite annoyed on his aide's behalf that Jurgen is always left out of the stories that circulate about him and even goes into shock when he thinks Jurgen has died- and that's only 13 years into their association.
- Bernard and Helmholtz in Brave New World. Bernard gets intensely jealous when John forms an instant bond with Helmholtz, and Helmholtz thinks to himself at one point that Bernard's self-centeredness distresses him because he likes Bernard. Not to mention that later on, Helmholtz manages to convince Bernard to agree to be exiled with him to a faraway island...off-page.
- Oz:
- The Scarecrow and the Tin Woodsman, who, after Ozma takes over as Ruler of Oz, decide never to be parted and live together in the Winkie Country. (In different houses, mind you). Not like it stopped them from frequent visits to one another and a few more adventures.
- The Cowardly Lion and Hungry Tiger would fall under this category as well, as well as Dorothy and Ozma in later books.
- Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin in the Aubrey-Maturin series.
- Diana Villiers tells Stephen in the second book that "anyone would swear you were married to that man".
- Horace Harkness and Scotty Tremaine from the Honor Harrington series - they are 'always' invariably assigned to the same ship. We later find out that this is because Harkness hacked the Navy's personnel files. They also have hugged several times throughout the series.
- Not to mention Horatio Hornblower, predecessor to both the above and inspiration for Honor Harrington. Bush starts out as Hornblower's superior officer, but they earn each other's respect and when Hornblower gets promoted past him, he requests Bush as his second, and Bush happily accepts. They're joined at the hip for the next few decades, through Hornblower's two marriages. In A Ship of the Line, Hornblower has a minor Heroic BSOD when his ship is destroyed...and Bush loses his leg. In Commodore Hornblower, Hornblower thinks to himself that having Bush around is better than having a wife (he's been married twice at this point). Horatio has a much bigger Heroic BSOD in Lord Hornblower, when Bush makes a Heroic Sacrifice. In the films, Hornblower's HLP is Archie Kennedy, and it's possible that Executive Meddling killed Archie off in part because he was interfering with the development of the Hornblower-Bush relationship.
- David and Jonathan from The Bible. When Jonathan dies, David laments that he loved him more than any woman. Ho Yay ensures.
- Gafinilan and Mertil in Animorphs book #40. Also arguably Marco and Ax, briefly, after Marco fakes his death.
- Actually, it's established in Animorphs that Ax and Tobias are the Andalite version of Heterosexual Life Mates...except on his planet it's called "shorm" which translates to "tail blade"...meaning someone who you would trust to put their tail blade against your throat...and I'm the single nerdiest person in the world.
- H.P. Lovecraft did this a few times. In The Hound, the two main characters retreat from the world to wallow in (chaste) decadence together. Poppy Z. Brite wrote a tribute to this in which the equivalent characters were gay.
- Another Lovecraft example: in Herbert West - Reanimator, West and the narrator live and work together for many years; if memory serves, the narrator even joins the military to stay near West during World War One. (And see under Film, above.)
- Interestingly, following a failed marriage Lovecraft's considered the poster boy for abstinent asexuality.
- Natty Bumppo and Chingachgook. Natty is even a sort of second father-figure to Chingachgook's son.
- Jiaan and Fasal in Hilari Bell's Farsala trilogy.
- And Fisk and Micheal in her Knight and Rogue series.
- And Wrayan and Brak in Wolfblade.
- Romance of the Three Kingdoms has Liu Bei somehow embody this trope with four different people — both of his fellow Peach Garden Oath Brothers (albeit their appearance combined with the brotherhood rules out Ho Yay), Zhao Yun in the novel and Zhuge Liang.
- Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, both shown as enthusiastic heterosexuals. In the last book Fritz Leiber wrote, the Mouser wonders why he and Fafhrd have never extended their relationship into the sexual, and whether this is a weakness.
- Played with in Michael Chabon's novel Wonder Boys. Protaganist Grady admits that he hoped his best friend Crabtree would be his life partner, but this is complicated by the fact that Crabtree is gay. Ergo, the very straight Grady oftentimes finds himself jealous of Crabtree's boyfriends.
- Jordan McKell and his partner Ixil from Timothy Zahn's sci-fi murder mystery The Icarus Hunt. Like Han Solo and Chewbacca they're both male, one human, one decidedly alien, and have spent many years flying a two-person ship. Apart from facilitating their murder investigation and flight from some particularly *** alien highjackers, their partnership turns out to be a major plot point.
- Also, arguably, Artemis Fowl and his manservant, Domovoi Butler. Admittedly, it's just Butler's job, but the point is, Artemis is heterosexual (Butler is married to his job), they're partners, and they will literally be together for life. It's in Butler's job description.
- Jim Pooley and John Omalley from Robert Rankin's Brentford Trilogy. In fact all of Rankin's heroes are straight maled and nearly all have a "bestest friend" whom they "love in a manly mannish way".
- Inigo Montoya and Fezzik from The Princess Bride.
- James Potter and Sirius Black in Harry Potter. The information of James' death was enough to make Sirius burst into crazy laughter, according to the Word Of God 'because he knew what he'd lost'. He continues to mourn James throughout the rest of his life (not helped by the Dementors of course), and it is clear that James was the person he loved most in the world, with no notable romantic interests at all and no other friends reaching the level that James held in his life. They're also referenced as being 'like brothers' (though with the way Sirius felt about his own brother I doubt it is an accurate comparison). Although, the way Sirius speaks about James is obsessive and seems bordering on infatuation, which might argue against the level of heterosexuality in this particular life partnership.
- One reason for this is that Sirius had big issues with his family and James was the only friend he could really confide in, being another pure-blood wizard. James also let Sirius live with him after Sirius ran away from Grimmauld Place. Friends like that are hard to come by.
- Arthur and Ford in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Ford constantly saves Arthur's butt, even when it'd be more convenient for Ford to simply take off and leave Arthur behind—surprising, considering that Ford by nature is incredibly selfish and self-serving. Not to mention that having Arthur around only makes Ford's life more difficult—everything needs explaining (and Arthur takes a while to catch on), Arthur has almost zip self-preservation instincts (to the point that Ford has to drag him away from an army of killer robots), and (perhaps the most irritating thing for Ford) Arthur never seems to want to do anything ("We're popping off to a party and having a bit of fun. Is that an idea you can wrap your head around?") By Mostly Harmless, the two seem to be completely and totally sick to the teeth of each other (to the point where Arthur seems to want Ford to kill himself), and yet they support and rely on each other anyway. If that's not hetero-love, I don't know what is.
- One may notice that instead of becoming closer friends as the series goes on, bonding through hardship as usually occurs, the two like each other less and less as the books progress. In the first book, they seem to be close friends that consistently stick their necks out for one another. Ford also tolerates Arthur's cluelessness since it is totally understandable. Later on, they become estranged with the relationship. Then annoyed. Eventually they seem to truly dislike one another. And finally, they just sort of passively tolere each other's presence. An odd-ball example of this trope. But an example nonetheless.
- Caesar and Brutus start off as such in Conn Iggulden's Emperor series.
- Brutus (or Marcus as he's known in childhood) was a ward of Julius' family when they were growing up. They were close as brothers, though Marcus considered himself The Unfavorite for the cool treatment he sometimes got from Julius' father. After they are reunited after Sulla's death, Brutus even surrendered command of his legion to Julius after they were reunited in order to honor The Promise. After this, though, the trope begins to be deconstructed. Brutus grows jealous of Julius' military successes, which he feels he could have won just as easily, as well as angry over Julius' romantic relationship with Brutus' own mother. During the campaign in Gaul, there is a tension in their relationship, which Julius taking Brutus' loyalty for granted and Brutus growing frustrated at living in Julius' shadow. At one point, while on leave in Rome, Brutus sleeps with Julius' sixteen-year-old daughter, whom he had known since she was an infant. When he returns to Gaul, the awkwardness of his friendship with Julius reaches even greater heights. All of this culminates during their triumphant march on Rome, when Julius selects Mark Anthony to stand as consul with him instead of his most trusted friend, neglecting to tell Brutus that it was because he wanted him to go with him to track down Pompey's army. This slap in the face is the final straw that drives Brutus to abandon Julius and join Pompey's forces. When Pompey is killed, Brutus is welcomed back by Julius, who remains torn because he wants so *** much to hate Julius, but can't bring himself to do it.
- Basically, they start off as Heterosexual Life Partners but Brutus keeps blaming Julius for more or less everything Brutus wants but doesn't get, ignoring the fact that Julius is the son of a senator and Brutus the son of a commoner and a prostitute
- Gilbert and Isak, the "Mice" of Taylor Anderson's Destroyermen series.
- Not quite. They're actually half-brothers.
- Harry Cat and Tucker Mouse, of The Cricket in Times Square.
- Lissa and Rose in Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy series. The two are psychically bonded to each other for life. In the fourth book, Rose goes off to kill Dimitri, leaving Lissa behind. The separation leaves a toll on both, and at the end, when Rose comes back, Lissa tells her to not leave her behind again.
Lissa: I just wanted to say, after everything that's happened...well, I don't want us to ever have this kind of separation again. I mean, I know we can't be together every single second - and that's kind of creepy anyway - but we're bonded for a reason. We're meant to look out for each other and be there for each other.
- Ned Stark and Robert Baratheon used to be, in A Song of Ice and Fire. This being a series very far down the sliding scale, they both move away, get married to people they do not love (not at the time, anyway) and speak only once over the next fourteen years (Ned basically has no interest in things in the south, while Robert is busy being king; it is notable that Robert's Hand was the mentor to both of them, and that once he dies, Robert immediately goes to Ned for the position despite the long gap since they were last together). When they finally do start hanging around each other again, the consequences are fatal for both of them.
- Additionally, Ser Duncan the Tall and King Aegon V.
- Sir Sparhawk and Sir Kalten in The Elenium by David Eddings.
- Tynian and Ulath grow to be this during the course of the series. In the second trilogy, someone explains their constant banter as a way of saying they love each other—and embarrasses all of them; men aren't too comfortable with the word 'love' when it's applied to other men (even if he IS your best friend).
- Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. Granted, Nero was Archie's employer, but they had a hard time generally without each other. Archie was a well-reputed ladies man throughout the 30+ years of novels, and Nero was a famed asexual, living only for fine food and his orchids.
- Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley of Pride and Prejudice — though it's more Darcy's doing things Bingley and he recognizes early on that Bingley is entirely too trusting and could easily get in with the wrong crowd if he's not careful. Thus, he starts the friendship with Bingley so that he can watch him and make sure he's making the right choices.
- Elizabeth Bennett and Charlotte Lucas were this for a long time...until Charlotte got married. To a smug, idiotic, pompous windbag.
- Emma and Elizabeth Taylor in Emma.
- Ton Phanan and Garik "Face" Loran. Described by Wraith One as "the best comedy team this side of the janitor's closet", they snarked off each other exceptionally well. All the Wraiths snarked off of each other, but these two took it to a new level. More seriously, Phanan confessed only to Face how much of his snark was an act and how he felt like his extensive cybernetics couldn't replace his lost future. After Phanan is shot down, Face follows despite leading a mission at the time, and after Phanan dies, Face talks about how they met in training and within days were finishing each others' sentences.
- For that matter, Wedge Antilles and nearly any of the Rogues who manage to survive. It's explicitly stated that as the head of a squadron with an alarmingly high mortality rate, Wedge stays a little distant from most of the pilots so he won't be as hurt when they die. But when they do prove themselves, he gets deeply attached. The three he's probably closest to are Derek "Hobbie" Klivian, Wes Janson, and Tycho Celchu, all of whom have been flying with him since Hoth or even before that. They're both a Badass Crew and True Companions. During Legacy Of The Force, when he and his daughter were on one side of the New Biggest Conflict Ever and Tycho was on the other, Wedge says that he's got family on both sides.
- Leia and Winter are implied to be this in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, though their relationship isn't fleshed out very much since Winter tends to be one of the more-overlooked recurring EU characters. Of course, technically, they are sisters by adoption but this detail wasn't established until fairly recently and they consequently tend not to refer to each other as such (presumably in part because they've always known they weren't biological sisters, even before the reveal of Leia's true parentage).
- Bran Tse-Mallory and Truzenzuzex from Alan Dean Foster's Flinx novels. Justified because they were once operators of a Humanx Commonwealth stingship, which required their minds to be linked so closely that their mutual understanding has never faded.
- Locke Lamora and Jean Tannen, in Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastard series. Either one of them would die for the other. And until we see how Republic of Thieves plays out, it seems Locke may have done just that.
- Andy Dufresne and Red in Stephen King's novella, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
- Norathar e'Lanya and Cawti. They worked together as assassins until one of them turned out to be next in line for the throne and the other married a mob boss. Several years later, Norathar is helping Cawti to raise her child, in spite of the vast difference in social class and Cawti's anti-Empire political beliefs.
- Outcast of Redwall's Sunflash and Skarlath, to the point that Sunflash writes sappy poetry about Skarlath.
- The Pickwick Papers has got two sets of them: the hard-partying med students Ben Allen and Bob Sawyer, and the swindler Jingle and his sidekick Job Trotter.
- Mole and Ratty in The Wind in the Willows. Awww.
- Joseph Corrigan and Joseph Feehan, aka Corrie and Fee, from Blessed Are The Cheesemakers.
- Joly and Lesgle in Les Misérables. Hugo specifically says they "hold everything in common", including Joly's mistress. Fanfic tends to portray them as a gay couple, probably due to the HoYay severely affecting the book's other male characters, but there was never any canon evidence that they were anything other than straight.
- Tyl and Karl in Ursula Zilinsky's Middle Ground (though Tyl is bi leaning gay, there's no attraction there). Karl explicitly says he loves Tyl.
- Rosemary Sutcliff, a celebrated English author of children's historical fiction, is all about this trope. Book after book of hers has as the main characters two guys who are lifelong best friends, often from childhood, who go everywhere together, fight and hunt side by side, hug each other, openly express love and devotion to one another, mingle their blood to become brothers, kiss each other's foreheads, cry in each other's arms. But they aren't lovers, both are implied to be straight though usually neither is shown having any affairs, and often one of them eventually marries without this disrupting the friendship. Examples: Drem and Vortrix in Warrior Scarlet; Lubrin and Dara in Sun Horse, Moon Horse; Artos and Bedwyr in Sword at Sunset; Marcus and Esca in The Eagle of the Ninth; Prosper and Conn in The Shining Company; Beric and Cathlan in Outcast; Justin and Flavius in The Silver Branch (they're also cousins of some sort); Simon and Amias in Simon; Thomas and Tussun in Blood and Sand; Randal and Bevis in Knight's Fee; Amyntas and Leon in A Crown of Wild Olive...you get the picture.
- Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Worth noting that in the first book Tom had a "bosom friend" named Joe Harper, but once Huck came in they became a trio, and then Joe was dropped altogether, probably because Huck was so much more interesting. At one point Tom hinted to Huck that he liked a girl and wanted to marry her, and Huck tried to talk him out of it, finally saying, "Only if you get married I'll be more lonesomer than ever." Tom's response? "No you won't, you'll come and live with me."
- Pooh and Piglet of Winnie the Pooh (who eventually move in together). A memorable scene involved Pooh deliberating (in poetry) who to visit for the morning, the verses beginning with, "I could spend a happy morning seeing X"; he ends up heading to Piglet's, which is what he was secretly planning on doing anyway, admitting that "I could spend a happy morning seeing Piglet/And I couldn't spend a happy morning not seeing Piglet."
- This shows up in the work of Ross Thomas whose Mac and Padillo and Artie Wu and Quincy Durant series have this. Both are about life long partners, but are shown to heterosexual with one happily married (Mac, Wu) and one a Cassanova (Padillo, Durant) in each set.
- Noddy and Big Ears, who in more innocent times used to share a bed.
- From Ranger's Apprentice - Will and Horace.
- The science fiction novella "Aqua Vitae" has heart-brothers, members of an alien species who have a lifelong relationship that shares some commonalities with romantic love, but isn't erotic.
Live Action TV
- The Roach Coach in Castle: Ryan and Esposito are a perfect example of a true 'bromance' or Hetrosexual Life partners.
- Hercules and Iolus in The adventures of Hercules.
- Also applicable to the early seasons of the spin-off Xena: Warrior Princess (between Xena and Gabrielle) Before it turned into Les yay.
- Miley and Lilly in Hannah Montana.
- So much so that, in the series finale, neither appears fazed by leaving their boyfriends, but can't stand the thought of leaving each other. Their decision of where to go to college was heavily influenced by where the other would go.
- Neal and Peter on "White Collar". Some fans see them as brothers, some father and son, and others...
- Cory and Shawn in Boy Meets World.
- And, oddly enough, so are their older brothers, Jack and Eric.
- Kirk and Spock of Star Trek: The Original Series are the epitome of this trope, as well as Kirk and Bones. Kirk and Spock's relationship grew exponentially over the course of the series, while Kirk and Bones were established to have been VERY close from the first episode, with their friendship reaching farther back than Kirk and Spock's. To say nothing of Spock and Bones.
- Their counterparts from the J.J. Abrams movie were set upon by the plot that they must end up like this. (Except less slashable, if J.J. has anything to say about it.)
- Chekov and Sulu are depicted this way in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Oddly, the rest of cannon doesn't really show them to be more than friends and colleagues.
- Nico and Grady from Sonny with a Chance, even with their own 'breakup' episode where they try to replace one another with Sonny.
- Walter Bishop and William Bell in J.J.Abrams' "Fringe".
- The title characters of Starsky & Hutch.
- Owen Wilson (Hutch in the film) described it to anybody who would listen as "a love story between two men".
- Both Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul (the original Starsky & Hutch) referred to the show as a love story.
- Bodie and Doyle from The Professionals.
- Bert and Ernie, from Sesame Street, and many a joke has been made about this one.
- Word of God says that Bert & Ernie were originally conceived to be brothers, but the show's creators saw more storyline potential with them as an Odd Couple pairing.
- Lewis and Oswald, from The Drew Carey Show, and many a joke was made on the show about it.
Oswald: "So I was drinkin' the other night, and I got to throwin' up and I got to thinkin'..." (long, rambling exposition about him wanting to move back in follows)
Lewis: "Hey. You had me at 'throwin' up'."
- George and Jerry on Seinfeld.
- Detectives Kevin Ryan and Javier Esposito on Castle, to the point where they have the same lottery numbers ("That way we both win and it's not awkward"). Lampshaded in 'The Double Down':
Castle: (to Esposito, after Ryan left abruptly) Don't worry, he still loves you.
- The gals of Charlie's Angels
- J.D. and Turk on Scrubs: even after Turk gets married and J.D. moves out, Carla, Turk's wife, calls J.D. "Turk's boyfriend" and often jokes about it on the show. This culminated in a musical number that celebrated their "Guy Love". In some early episodes, however, Turk was paranoid they might be Mistaken for Gay.
- Heck, one of the series' oldest running gags is that the two are gay for each other.
- Recently, J.D. and Elliot got back together, but J.D. was having a tough time saying the l-word. However, he later confessed that he loves Elliot more than Turk, which is a big deal to her.
- In the finale of the original run, this dialog ensues.
Carla: Please tell me my husband loves me more than you.
J.D.: It's about even.
- Jed and Leo on The West Wing are practically the embodiment of the trope, spending almost all their time together, having several old married couple-like moments, engaging in tiffs and squabbles that never stick, talking excessively and pointlessly, getting antsy and downtrodden when separated, etc. They were friends many, many years before Jed became the President of the United States and Leo his Chief of Staff and closest advisor, and therefore their working relationship (which takes up the vast majority of their waking hours) fits their friendship like a glove.
- Jed even teases Leo about it!
- There's a rather hilarious moment in one of the season one DVD Extras where Martin Sheen and John Spencer agree that they're the "parents" of the True Companions that is the main cast, but each believe that they're the husband and the other is the wife. (This troper is fairly sure that someone affiliated with the show called Abbey and Leo the President's "wife and mistress" at one point).
- Sam and Josh as well, until Sam was written out and Josh got more focused on Donna.
- Also, Ed and Larry, in later seasons.
- This pairing is the most obvious in the series, especially once many characters admitted that they weren't certain which was Ed and which was Larry, they were simply 'Ed and Larry.'
- House and Wilson on House. In the second and third seasons, the writers make light of the shipping.
Stacy: What is wrong with you?
House: I'm gay. (Stacy glares at him) Well, it makes sense. No girlfriend, always with Wilson, obsession with sneakers...
- Considering that the creators have said that there is a decent chance that House will end up with Wilson, and that Hugh Laurie ships it, the heterosexual part of this trope is highly debatable. It seems possible that House/Wilson could become canon.
- The fourth season goes well beyond "making light of," as House ends up demanding visitation rights from Wilson's new girlfriend.
- "My God! You're dating me!"
- That season also implies that House tries to sabotage Wilson's relationships so that he won't lose him to a woman.
- 5th season, Cuddy puts House and Wilson in "couples therapy" because Wilson doesn't want to be House's friend anymore.
- On the 6th season, House moves in with Wilson, and it seems that they're actually going to stay together for a while.
- Well, House is based on Sherlock Holmes, and as you'll see above, this same trope applied there.
- Yeah, but the lead of a TV show doesn't need a loyal biographer to connect him to the audience.
- Hiro and Ando from Heroes. In one episode, Ando even commented "That is how we roll." It helps that he has a thing for Hiro's sister.
- The eponymous characters from Drake & Josh.
- Sam Beckett and Al Calavicci from Quantum Leap. Al is about the only thing from his time Sam consistently remembers throughout the series, and both of them sacrificed a lot for one another.
- JT and Toby from Degrassi: The Next Generation.
- Even more so with Emma and Manny, who have been best friends since they were four. At one point in high school, Manny lived with Emma and slept in the same bed. And than when they went to college, Emma made sure that they were roomates. Emma ended up marrying Spinner, who was heterosexual life partners with Jay, who ended up enganged to Manny.
- Tigh and Adama from Battlestar Galactica. Made abundantly clear by Adama's breakdown over Tigh's revelation that he is a cylon, though it was obvious before.
- It's official. William Adama is the one Saul Tigh loves most in the universe. So says Saul's own wife.
- Steven Harper and Scott Guber from Boston Public.
- Denny Crane and Alan Shore from Boston Legal. They discuss their relationship, as well as social opinion of such relationships, frequently. Alan even discussed the English word "love", and how it's a shame that people use it lightly and a further shame that you can't be precise about your meaning, and then firmly applied it to Denny: "I love you." (Or so this editor recalls.) All in a non-sexual way, and yet these two are more intimate than a good number of television married couples.
- And in the series finale, they do get married, making them literal heterosexual life partners.
- The two do end a lot of episodes with some pretty heavy duty male bonding moments—sitting on the balcony, drinking Scotch and...well, without more to go on we'll just have to assume that in this case, a cigar (or rather two cigars) is just a cigar. Probably.
- They have sleepovers on occasion, in addition to everything else, and have gone at least once on an extended fishing trip.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine had Julian Bashir and Elim Garak; it is interesting to note that both actors remarked during interviews that they had deliberately played up the homoerotic undertones of the characters' relationship, and Andrew Robinson later wrote a novel A Stitch in Time about Garak's life in which he clearly depicted the alien Garak as bisexual. Later, when Paramount script writers had abruptly put an end to the Bashir and Garak subplots, Doctor Bashir and Chief O'Brien spent so much time together on various projects and on hobby activities that O'Brien's wife Keiko complained about it. They have an argument over it where Bashir says he's wildly in love with Ezri (female, now) but he "likes [O'Brien] more", and O'Brien doesn't feel the same.
- O'Brien may not immediately reciprocate Bashir's feelings in this scene, but there's another earlier scene where the two are discussing an argument O'Brien is having with Keiko, in which O'Brien says something to Bashir like "Why can't she be more like—" and though he breaks off and then ends with "— a man," it's obvious he was going to say "you."
- It's fairly obvious from the conversation that O'Brien feels the same way, even if he can't admit it to Julian. Which is a hallmark of their relationship.
- Over on Voyager we have Tom Paris and Harry Kim. Sorta. And Seven of Nine and Captain Janeway, depending on how you ship.
- The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nóg: Rohan and Angus, "friends for life."
- Jim Ellison and Blair Sandburg in The Sentinel; Blair actually moves in with Jim early in the series.
- Howard Moon and Vince Noir in The Mighty Boosh. They work together, live together, go on adventures together, throw satsumas (tangerines) at each other in the snow while wearing only underwear together...Vince is also often mistaken for Howard's girlfriend or wife (since Dude Looks Like a Lady). Lance Dior claims to have heard that Howard is Vince's wife, that he cooks his meals, cuts his hair, and bakes him "little cakes". The relationship remains strictly platonic, despite a few close calls. Once (infamously) in Party, and once in Boosh Live, when Howard's technique with the ladies is described by Vince as a rude invitation to get into his wheelbarrow (he's from Leeds, you see). Howard protests, claiming he was drunk, and Vince laughs, "I know, so was I — I was in the wheelbarrow."
- Although Olaf Petersen only makes a handful of appearances in Red Dwarf, a strong impression is given that, before the accident, he and Lister were Heterosexual Life Partners. Lister apparently has a tattoo that says "I Love Petersen".
- Rimmer and Lister could be considered involuntary Heterosexual Life Partners; there's simply no-one else for them to talk to. They live (well, in Rimmer's case, exist) in a mile-long abandoned spaceship, but still sleep in their old crew bunks in the same room.
- Not to mention the last episode of season 5 where Sophie is pregnant and it might be either Mark's or Jeremy's. Mark comments on Sophie's increasingly erratic behavior and says that if she continues like that, they can just adopt the baby "like those gay dads"
- Dean and Sam Winchester of Supernatural can be seen as a literal case of this. Not only are they heterosexual life partners as adults, but they've spent their entire lives together, except for four years when Sam was at college. YMMV on this, since they're brothers.
- Dean and Castiel have one of the oddest bromances on TV. Whether you see it as Ho Yay or not the two are protective of each other and at the very least care for the other. Misha Collins who plays Castiel is quoted as saying that "Castiel went against heaven because he didn't want to lose Dean's friendship". In 'Free To Be You and Me' there are many hints of bromance, ranging from Dean trying to get Castiel laid to Castiel using his trenchcoat as a method of protecting Dean from flying glass. In fact, the whole of 'Free To Be You and Me' is just one very funny, if awkward testament of the bromance between the two.
- Lampshaded in "My Heart Will Go On", where Castiel's friend Balthazar tells Dean "You have me confused with the other angel. You know, the one in the dirty trenchcoat who's in love with you?"
- Chandler and Joey from Friends
- Especially when they buy a table together and when Joey moves to a place of his own.
- Morecambe And Wise make this older than a LOT of people think, apparently. As do Flanders and Swann.
- Morecambe and Wise were always shown as very close and as quarreling like an old married couple, but were reluctant for years to do their first sharing a bed skit, even though their relationship is clearly platonic.
- Supposedly they were both immediately brought round to the idea by one of their writers pointing out that Laurel and Hardy shared a bed on film.
- Cagney And Lacey
- Rome features Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus. It's even lampshaded by Pullo's wife.
- Bam and Novak from Viva la Bam generally refer to each other as 'life partner' for the laughs, seeing as they were basically attached at the hip.
- From Keen Eddie, the professional friendship between Eddie Arlette and Monty Pippin is a prime example. Mark Valley: "You got to admit, whenever two guys have to spend an awful lot of time together, the question is going to come up. There's always that thing of, 'Oh my God, are we gay?' Like, not physically, but you're enjoying each other's company — you know what I mean? It could be read that way, and we joke about it, but they're just two regular guys hanging out, spending an awful lot of time together."
- The Naked Trucker and T-Bones, in both their live stage show and short-lived television show.
- Richard Sharpe and Patrick Harper. After brief enmity and beating the crap out of each other, they settle into a friendship that leads them to walk into combat zones for each other after they each leave the army, and the exchange "Are you with me, Patrick?" "Yes, always." Not to mention the strong implication that when Sharpe is should-be-mortally wounded, he only lives because of Harper's determination that he will.
- Grey's Anatomy has a Patient of the Week and her best friend, who are both runaways from a small religious group, and have basically pledged to be together "cradle to grave." Too bad one of 'em's dying.
- It also has, well, a good portion of the doctors. Yang and Meredith seem to fit this trope best, even though it's actually Izzie (and George, for that matter) that shares an apartment with Meredith.
- Christina and Meredith have gotten even closer in later seasons, declaring each other soul mates and more than once sleeping in the same bed. Along with Mer's husband.
- And just so nobody has to go looking for it elsewhere in the article...Tim and Mike in Spaced.
- Moss and Roy seem this way in The IT Crowd, even though Roy tries to deny it and Moss seems oblivious when it is mentioned:
Moss: I do like Roy, I'm just not "curious."
Roy: We are not a married couple..........and I'm the husband!
- Patsy and Edina in Absolutely Fabulous, although given Eddie's epic inability to relate to anyone else and Patsy's...well, Patsy...there've been a few joking suggestions that the "heterosexual" part of the description might not always have been entirely accurate.
- Patsy sabotaged at least one of Eddie's potential relationships (Saffy called her on it but couldn't stop her) and it's been implied that she was the main reason both of Eddie's marriages broke down.
- PJ and Duncan of Byker Grove fame, played by Real Life Heterosexual Life Partners Ant & Dec.
- Jason and Tommy in Power Rangers. Several seasons had the Red Ranger have this relationship with the Sixth Ranger.
- Interestingly, the source material for the first season Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger, had their counterparts (Geki and Burai) as long-lost brothers.
- Power Rangers in Space had Andros and Zhane. Zhane was injured and placed in cryogenic freeze, Andros' looking at his tube had a "lost love" look to it.
- Also, it's not just Power Rangers who have this trope. Even their enemies can also do it, such as Rito Revolto and Golar, despite the latter hating to hang around with the former.
- Let's not forget Bulk and Skull.
- Wendy and Lacey of The Middleman Years later the actress were hired(?) by David Lynch to have an epic romantic falling out in a music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWzy7Wk_6ZU
- Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry from Alias Smith and Jones are a prime example of this trope.
- Draconical and Weslmeister embody this trope well.
- Buffy Summers and Willow Rosenberg. It made for a bit of awkwardness when Willow came out as gay, partially because they had grown apart quite a bit during that season and Buffy had no clue until then. It's given shippers more ammunition than every bullet in every war ever.
- Angelus and Spike were this at one point. When Angelus got a soul and became Angel they didn't see each other much for about a hundred years. Their mutual hatred of each other (and subsequent Ho Yay) was only escalated because they used to be this trope.
- In flashbacks shown in Dollhouse, Caroline (the future Echo) and Bennett (Echo's future foil) became fast friends in college and were heading in this direction - until a certain bomb went off...
- Serena and Blair from Gossip Girl. Would rather spend their prom with each other than their boyfriends/love interests.
- Also Nate and Chuck.
- Highly debatable. Nate is rather an example of With Friends Like These. Even Dan Humphrey has been there for Chuck more than Nate has.
- Lts. Provenza and Flynn of the LAPD in the crime drama The Closer. In fact, it is not uncommon to hear Chief Johnson bellowing, "Provenza and Flynn!!" when she hears about their wacky hijinx (one of which involved a dead body, Provenza's garage, skybox tickets to a Dodgers game, and Johnson more furious than anyone's seen her), and when they're not assigned to work alone, she virtually always pairs them up.
Brenda: Now don't get angry. Lieutenants Flynn and Provenza...
Pope: Already angry.
- Harold and Lou on Neighbours. They actually started off as fierce love rivals but now they're like an old married couple.
- Also, from the same show, Steph and Libby.
- Tommy Dawkins and Merton Dingle on Big Wolf on Campus.
- The A-Team on...well, The A-Team. Given a Lampshade Hanging when they buy a house as part of a scheme, and the head of the neighborhood watch asks if they're gay. The team has to physically restrain B.A..
- Merlin and Arthur...according to the writers, anyway. Some would disagree.
- It would help that their two actors are very close in real life.
- There has also been vibes of Merlin and Lancelot. Also Merlin and Gwaine.
- NUMB3RS: Colby and David fit the trope to a "T", even displaying jealousy at each other's outside friendships and acting heartbroken when one or the other is removed from the group.
- Josh and Sugardaddy of Popular. In one episode, Sugardaddy is jealous of all the time Josh spends with his girlfriend.
- Life on Mars / Ashes to Ashes: Ray Carling and Chris Skelton, although as of season 2 the hints have been flying thick and fast that there might be a little more than that going on with Ray's chronic resentment of Chris's girlfriend (which admittedly got better during the third season - the resentment, though, not the hints). To wit, Alex's letters for the entire team to be opened in the event of her departure; of course, everyone opens theirs right away, and all we hear about Ray's is that it contains the word "repressed."
Shaz: Don't panic, Ray. I ain't going to be no gooseberry. Blimey, I'm amazed you two never tied the knot.
Chris: It's legal in Holland.
Ray: Can we talk about something else like...women, or snooker?
- Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin. Napoleon's steady stream of girlfriends (and Illya's occasional fling) does nothing to deter shippers, naturally.
- Perceval and Karadoc in the French show Kaamelott spend so much time with each other, they end up founding their own clan together.
- Gary and Wyatt in the 90s Weird Science series television show.
- Busmalis and Rebadow from Oz. Despite Rebadow once trying to kill Busmalis, they've got the "old married couple" thing down pat.
- In Black Books, Bernard and Manny appear to be Heterosexual Life Partners perpetually teetering on the verge of divorce, between the bitter arguments and put-downs, the Ho Yay and the living together thing.
- Bret and Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords live together, even sharing a bedroom if not a bed. Jemaine in particular tends to get jealous of Bret's girlfriends, and they will often accompany each other on dates. The lyrics to "Bret You've Got it Goin' On", which is supposedly an entirely platonic attempt to make Bret feel better about his looks, reveal that sometimes when Bret is sleeping Jemaine puts a wig on him and spoons him.
- Chuck and Olive become this in Pushing Daisies. Yes, Chuck's a woman.
- Howard and Raj from The Big Bang Theory. They've had their moments before, but half of the episode "The Cornhusker Vortex" is basically about them being like husband and wife, respectively.
- Lampshaded in "The Maternal Congruence".
- Lampshaded even earlier in "The Maternal Capacitance."
- Callan and Sam on NCIS Los Angeles are this trope, written that way intentionally, even to the point other characters make comments about them being a married couple.
- This is after they've begun arguing over which of them Ted is having erotic dreams about, as mentioned in the fake text message.
- In fact, a good bit of the first and third seasons' undertones is Ted coming to terms with the fact that he and Marshall can't be the exact same dynamic duo they had been since college anymore now that Marshall's marrying Lily (although it doesn't negatively affect their friendship — it just alters it a bit) and gravitating towards Barney in his quest to meet the woman he'll marry. In "Okay Awesome", after Marshall worries that Ted might be drifting away from him now that he's engaged, Ted says he wants nothing more than to do fun couple stuff with Marshall and Lily, but he can only do that if he himself is part of a couple too, so he has to first run around doing stupid single things with Barney in order to meet enough girls to find "the one".
- Frasier and Niles Crane fit this trope perfectly. Granted, they are brothers, but they are also best friends and constant companions. The fact that they act very much like a married couple gets lampshaded more than once, and even after Niles marries Daphne, he spends as much time with his brother as he does with his wife.
- Made all the more clear when Frasier becomes more and more depressed and jealous during the later seasons after Daphne starts living with Niles, who no longer has quite as much time for his brother as he used to, although this is more because Frasier's unreasonably clingy rather than any real distancing, as the two of them fit this trope through the last season:
Roz: I need to talk to you. You're not with Frasier are you?
Niles: Why does everyone treat us like we're joined at the hip? I do have coffee with people other than my brother, you know.
Roz: Oh good, because I'm avoiding him.
Niles: Well then talk fast, because he's meeting me in five minutes.
- Mac and Dennis on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
- They even broke up in Season 5. Charlie and Frank might also qualify for this, but they're freaky beyond description, so it's hard to say either way.
Dee So you don’t think that two thirty-year-old men who spend every waking moment together is a little bit pathetic?
- Michael Weston and Sam Axe on Burn Notice.
- Winters and Nix on Band of Brothers and in real life, starting in WWII till Nix's death.
- Troy and Abed in Community.
- Statler and Waldorf of The Muppet Show
- Norm Peterson and Cliff Clavin on Cheers
- Kip and Henry (AKA "Buffy and Hildy") in Bosom Buddies.
- Jack O'Neill and Daniel Jackson from Stargate SG-1.
- Although there is a lot of shipping between the two of them, the show actually lampshades this in the 200th episode. You know the one I'm talking about. The hypothetical wedding scene?
- John Sheppard and Rodney McKay from Stargate Atlantis don't lack in this trope, either, with Sheppard's actor, Joe Flanigan, joking that the closest Sheppard ever came to a girlfriend on the show was McKay.
- Mitchell and George on Being Human.
- The Mad Hatter and The March Hare in the 90's Disney television series "Adventures In Wonderland".
- The Lone Ranger and Tonto.
- Nick Stokes and Warrick Brown of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Similarly, Tim Speedle and Eric Delko of CSI: Miami.
- Warrick and Nick are another couple that even the actors playing them appear to ship, calling it "good, healthy man love."
- Zack Addy and Jack Hodgins were pretty much this on Bones before Zack was written out.
- Sam, Ben, and Sock from Reaper were a Heterosexual Life Threesome.
- Brian and Kurt from the British series Teachers are even commented on for acting very similar to a married couple. They rarely have any screen time apart, even when one of them is in a semi-serious relationship. They also share a flat with each other.
- James West and Artemus Gordon in The Wild Wild West.
- Davy and Georgie in Disney's Davy Crockett mini-series.
- Chris Pontius and Steve-O of Jackass sometimes give off this vibe, especially inasmuch as they eventually got their own show together, Wildboyz. Watch the "shark-fishing" skit in the second Jackass movie, when Pontius is helping Steve-O get the fishhook through his cheek. Pontius seems to be having sympathy pains.
- Stephen and J.T. of "Survivor" Tocantins were constantly referred to as the "BFF Boys" or borderline boyfriends by fans during their season. J.T. certainly manipulated the emotions of their friendship to his advantage at Final Tribal Council to win himself a unanimous victory, if later interviews and commentary are any indication.
- Hawkeye and BJ from M*A*S*H. "I'll never be able to shake you," Hawkeye says to BJ in the last episode.
- Laverne and Shirley
- Cordell Walker and Jimmy Trivette of Walker, Texas Ranger
- Tom and Roy of The Old Guys, mostly by process of elimination (spousal death, divorce and being incredibly unlucky with women).
- Sherlock and John from Sherlock might count - John's straight, although we don't know about Sherlock. Benedict Cumberbatch, the actor playing Sherlock Holmes, has called the Holmes-Watson relationship a "bromance", and in the second episode Sherlock crashed one of John's dates, and was outright hostile to the girl (although not really more so than to anyone else who seems to be encroaching on one of his investigations). Seriously though, since the source material for this 21st Century update show is considered one of the examples par excellence of this trope, how about we just dot it, file it, put it in a box marked 'done'?
- Maura Isles and Jane Rizzoli of the eponymous crime show. Oh, boy, Rizzoli and Isles.
- Rizzoli gets threatened by a serial killer? Goes to stay with Isles. Isles' friend gets killed? Reaches straight for Rizzoli. Eat together, run together, have drinks together, Fight Crime(!) together, far and away each other's Most Important Person. Isles is the product of a Friendless Background: she has never had a best friend before Rizzoli, and has a worrying tendency of pointing out to any potential Love Interest that they have a dire, undiagnosed medical condition - Rizzoli claims that men either run away from the badge or want to misuse the handcuffs. Some people see Les Yay, others merely intense friendship, but either way, very, very close - and hilariously codependent. They can't seem to do a thing without each other.
- Chumlee and Corey of Pawn Stars. Despite the fact that Chum annoys Corey, they care about each other.
- Sonny Corinthos and Jason Morgan on General Hospital. Despite the numerous women in their lives, they will always choose each other. Fans call them Sason.
- The NCIS episode "Guilty Pleasure" lampshades this one into the ground with Tony and McGee (Ziva provides the lampshades). The two have a falling out (which Ziva describes as a "seven-year itch") during which Tony spends a lot more time working with Phil McCadden, scheduling "hang out time" together after hours and even starting to dress the same. But after McCadden dares insult McGee's skills as an agent, Tony backs away and is soon back by McGee's side, refusing to answer McCadden's calls.
- Meanwhile, Gibbs and Fornell visit each other's houses with offers of dinner on the pretense of exchanging case information that could have been traded over the phone.
- Don't forget Gibbs and Ducky. They've worked together for years, and Ducky's the only person who gets to call Gibbs "Jethro".
- Gibbs and Franks.
- Avon and Vila, anyone?
- Blackadder and Baldrick. While Edmund give Balders a lot of abuse, it's apparent he's at least very used to having him around. One idea Richard Curtis had for a fifth series was "Blackadder as a very fed up and corrupt university don, and Baldrick has been his 'scout' for the past forty years, so in effect they've been married for forty years."
- On the other hand, the back cover of Blackadder: The Whole Damn Dynasty calls Baldrick Blackadder's catamite...
- The title characters in Jeeves and Wooster.
- CeCe and Rocky of Shake It Up, who do absolutely everything together, and have the same hopes and dreams. Reinforced by Rocky's refusal to be on the show if Ce Ce couldn't be on.
- Oscar and Felix in The Odd Couple.
- Falani and Eric during season six, this being outrageous fortune everyone ignores the first word when talking about them.
- In the new Hawaii Five 0 Steve and Danny are leaning toward this.
- More than leaning toward. In Ma Ke Kahakai, as Steve is being loaded into the helicopter after falling off a cliff, Danny points to himself, points to Steve, and draws a big heart on his chest.
- Horatio Hornblower and Archie Kennedy — and as has been mentioned under "Literature," Horatio and William Bush later on. During Mutiny and Retribution they form a Power Trio, until Archie is killed.
- Neal Caffrey and Peter Burke of USA's White Collar definitely fit the bill, as Neal is a CI under Peter's watch for a four-year term. Peter even says "For the next four years, I own you." Though they start out antagonistic with each other, as the series has carried on, they have shown more and more care for each other. Most recently, when Peter was kidnapped, Neal turned over a ring that he had saved for his late girlfriend, Kate, as ransom.
- Skins; go to the show page for a short list of these friendships.
- Sports Night's Casey and Dan. Though each has some significant romantic relationships, their most sustained - and sustaining - relationship is with each other. When Dana screws up her relationship with Casey, it's Dan who knows exactly how and why she went wrong. A painful estrangement, based on professional status and hurt feelings, between the two men is resolved during a Passover seder, at which Kasey confesses that the years he has spent working with Dan have been the best of his life, and he wouldn't trade them for anything.
- Ashleigh Howard and Casey Cartwright from Greek. This is most explicit in the final season, when they declare each other to be their soulmates and are both visibly horrified at the idea that their friendship might be a "college relationship".
- The Second Doctor and Jamie of Doctor Who, just as their actors were in real life.
- Ready Or Not ran entirely on Busy and Amanda being this.
- Special Agent Dale Cooper and Sheriff Harry S. Truman from Twin Peaks have a real bromance going on. Despite their very different characters they are endlessly patient with each other. In fact, they are visibly appreciative of each other's differences. Gazing, tender smiles, nose tweaking - it's all there.
- Kenan & Kel
- Shoutaro and Phillip of Kamen Rider W. Their apartment has only one bed, so not only is it possible that they share that sometimes, they regularly share a body - their catchphrase being "The two of us are a single Kamen Rider!"
- Ben and Cam in How To Make It In America. Pointed out at various points by other characters.
- Ann and Leslie from Parks and Recreation.
- Jones and Art from My Life In Film.
Professional Wrestling
- Pretty much any tag team that stays together for a while and isn't related ends up being Heterosexual Life Partners. That is, unless they're something more...
- WWE's Shawn Michaels and Triple H are probably wrestling's longest-running Heterosexual Life Partners (sixteen years and counting). Not that they haven't made us wonder about that first word. They've been enemies, friends, tag-team partners, and even gone years without speaking, but they'll be the first to tell you that neither of them has a better friend than the other.
- According to Hunter's wife, Stephanie, Shawn is Hunter's "road wife". And read the rest of Hunter's speech, while you're at it - it's proof positive they're it for each other.
- They're also True Companions, The Kliq, with another set of Heterosexual Life Partners, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall (and, occasionally, Sean Waltman). Hall even followed Nash to TNA and attempted to sober up for him several times. The latest comeback has them putting "The Band" back together.
- Before The Kliq was fully exposed in-ring, Shawn Michaels and Kevin "Diesel" Nash were played as Heterosexual Life Partners, with Shawn in particular referring to the pair as "twin brothers from different mothers".
- Before Shawn and Hunter, there was Ric Flair and Arn Anderson, spending twenty-five years on and off together. First, there was the Four Horsemen, and then Flair eventually followed Anderson to WWE.
- Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy are like the Winchester example above: yes, they're brothers, but they're also a hell of a lot closer than most brothers their age would be...living within line of sight of each other, doing a webshow together, going out together, etc. They've built up a pretty substantial group of True Companions around themselves as well, with the rest of the OMEGA crew in close proximity.
- And from TNA, we have the Motor City Machine Guns, who have used this exact phrase (specifically, Alex Shelly in regards to Chris Sabin) to describe each other.
- SHIMMER's Lacey, Rain and Jetta of the International Home Wrecking Crew are a three woman variant of this. Though given how Lacey and Rain refer to each other as their, "wives," perhaps 'heterosexual' isn't the proper term to describe them...
- Edge and Christian aren't brothers in real life, as they used to be billed, but they have been best friends since the sixth grade. They went to junior high together, went to high school together, went to college together, trained for wrestling together, broke into the indies together, went into the WWF together...Christian's TNA stint is pretty much the first time in their lives they weren't around each other constantly.
- In the mid-90's to mid-2000's, there was the trio example of Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, and Dean Malenko. While Chris and Eddie were the closest, Dean coined them "The Three Amigos" and still refers to his fallen friends by that name.
- Christopher Daniels and AJ Styles. They're so close that they named their children after each other.
- Kane and The Big Show have this type of relationship with a dash of Foe Yay.
- Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin, aka The World's Greatest Tag Team, have a very strong bond with each other; in fact, Charlie has said in interviews that, sometimes, he thinks that his deceased brother Russ sent Shelton to him as a replacement.
- The Miz and John Morrison definitely qualified during their time as a tag team. When they were separated in the WWE Draft, one announcer even stated "The bromance is over!".
Radio
Tabletop Games
- Ursarker E. Creed, Lord Castellan of Cadia, and Colour Sergeant Jarran Kell of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
Theatre
- Brick and Skipper in the backstory of Tennessee Williams' play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - that is, if you believe Brick when he vehemently denies they did "sodomy" together:
Brick: Why can't exceptional friendship, real, real, deep, deep friendship! between two men be respected as something clean and decent without being thought of as—
Big Daddy: It can, it is, for God's sake.
Brick: -Fairies...
- A Year with Frog and Toad: Frog and Toad were always good friends in the original kids' books, but The Musical elevates them comfortably to life partners at the very least. They even invade each others dreams to sing about how much they like each other. Twice. ("That's funny, you've been in all my dreams too...")
- Estragon and Vladimir from Waiting For Godot. They even have pet names for each other and put off killing themselves because of the slight possibility that one of them would live and be left alone.
- Don't forget that they were going to hang themselves so they could get erections. There is so much Ho Yay in this play, Wikipedia even has it's own entry on it.
- Avenue Q: Rod and Nicky, who are Captain Ersatzes of Bert and Ernie respectively. "We live together, as close as people can get / We've been the best of buddies ever since the day we met!" Which segues, just a song later, into "If you were gay / That'd be okay / I mean, 'cause hey / I like you anyway / Because you see / If it were me / I would feel free to say / That I was gay / But I'm not gay."
- Subverted, slightly, given that while Nicky fits the trope perfectly, Rod only qualifies for the "Life Partner" aspect.
- Voldemort and Quirrell are at least this by the end of A Very Potter Musical.
- They were gay through and through. Very gay.
- Harry and Ron, though, firmly hit this trope in both musicals:
Ron: Favorite way to say "red wines" in a German accent?
Both: Red Vines!
Ron: (hugging Harry) Oh my god, where have you been all my life?
Harry: In a cupboard under some stairs!
- Prof. Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering in Pygmalion/My Fair Lady.
- Mark Cohen and Roger Davis in RENT. Their duet, "What You Own" comes complete with Manly Tears and a big climatic Man Hug. The blink-and-you'll-miss-it instrumental reprise of "I Should Tell You" during their fight in "Goodbye Love" is also heartwarming.
- Oscar and Felix in The Odd Couple.
- Mame and Vera in Auntie Mame. The musical version gives them a duet about their relationship, "Bosom Buddies."
- Elphaba and G(a)linda from Wicked
- Kate and Queenie from The Wild Party, although they don't look it
- Janet van der Graaf and The Drowsy Chaperone
- Buddy and Ben in Follies
- Proteus and Valentine from The Two Gentlemen Of Verona, and (more humorously) their respective servants, Launce and Speed.
- Elder Price and Elder Cunningham at the end of The Book of Mormon.
- Enjolras and Grantaire from Les Miserables. This is somewhat more evident in the musical than in the book, probably because of how it's usually staged.
- Most fanfiction slashes them, but the evidence points more to best friends.
- Then again, Mizzies will slash Enjolras with anyone.
- This was all made worse by the fact that the two characters were played by real life best friends, Ramin Karimloo and Hadley Fraser, in the 25th Anniversary Concert.
- When all the other students walk off with their girlfriends at the end of "Do You Hear The People Sing", these two leave with their arms around each other.
- Hamlet and Horatio.
Video Games
- Ar Tonelico 2: Melody of Metafalica - Luca and Cloche wind up this way, particularly in the Jacqli and Cocona endings.
- Sam & Max: Freelance Police - actually lampshaded in the adventure game Abe Lincoln Must Die!, where according to Sybil's "compatibility test", their soul mates are each other. In another game, Chariots of the Dogs, a woman develops a crush on Max, and when Sam objects (because the woman in question is Bosco's mother, and that would cause a Time Paradox), she seems to assume he's gay, and "wants to keep [Max] all for himself".
- Hell, when Sam and Max were separated in Culture Shock, Sam actually started to hallucinate from withdrawal.
- When in What's new Belzeebub? Sam tells Max Demon Peppers claims to now be his new best friend, Max rips out Demon Peppers kidneys
- But probably the most iconic example is in They Stole Max's Brain! when Sam, believing Max actually is dead, goes in a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, stylized as a film Noir hard-boiled detective mystery, using Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique in every suspect to figure out, well, who stole Max's Brain. He even threatens friends at Gun Point for obtain information! He gets a lot better when he know Max has a fix though.
- If you think the video games are Ho Yay suggestive, check out the animated series, & it was for kids.
- Liu Kang and Kung Lao as well as Jade and Kitana in Mortal Kombat.
- There's also Sub-Zero (the younger brother from 2 onward) and fellow Lin Kuei Smoke. According to Deception, there's also Sub-Zero and Kenshi, as well as Ermac and Kenshi.
- Nathan Drake and Victor Sullivan seem to fit this pretty well, and Sully also acts as the mentor type figure for Nate.
- Gumshoe thinks he has one of these going on with Edgeworth in Ace Attorney. Unfortunately Edgeworth considers him to be a useless weight at all but the very best of times.
- X & Zero in the Mega Man X games, who were originally created to kill each other. By X5, the Ho Yay was waist-deep. It doesn't help that Zero looks like a girl.
- The Battle Network series give us Lan and MegaMan.EXE and Geo and Omega, though it's somewhat padded by them having other friends as well.
- Then again, in Lan's and MegaMan.EXE's case, they've been pulling each others' asses outta frying pans for as long as the series has run. Not to mention that MegaMan is Lan's dead older twin brother Hub, resurrected as a digitized Replacement Goldfish by their father. So their bond is pretty justified.
- Sanger Zonvolt and Elzam Branstein in Super Robot Wars. The jokes only get worse when Elzam gets a Humongous Mecha that transforms into a horse to be ridden by Sanger's mech.
- Xenosaga: Shion and Mary Magdalene.
- If you really feel that you absolutely have to, you could treat Snake and Otacon in Metal Gear Solid as Heterosexual Life Partners. But you would still know, that you are just lying to yourself.
- Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago from the Gears of War franchise, to the point where Dom will break into an abandoned prison filled with subterranean mutants in order to free Marcus. And sure, Dom's got a long-lost wife, but she conveniently dies during the second game.
- During a podcast from before Gears 2 was released, the staff of Giant Bomb commented that they wanted to see the game end with a passionate kiss between Dom and Marcus, if for no other reason than to annoy the legions of foul mouthed 12-year-olds who play Gears on Xbox Live.
- Luis Lopez and Gay Tony from Grand Theft Auto DLC "The Ballad of Gay Tony". Now, admittedly, Gay Tony is, well, Gay. But that doesn't stop Luis and Tony from having a close, yet strictly platonic friendship. Luis the muscle and Tony the plan maker (Even if he's not a very good plan maker) They compliment each other's character development well. Both characters need each other. Tony helps Luis get back on his feet and teaches him business sense and Luis keeps Tony safe and his head on straight once he begins to descend into a drug bing. Friends that close are rare to find
- Because they are the most famous Uber pairing in the game, the Medic and the Heavy from Team Fortress 2 can be described as hetero life partners. (The slashfic writers would disagree, but there you go.)
The Heavy: I love this doctor!
- While every class has variations of "Thanks, doctor!" and "Follow me, doctor!", the Heavy seems the most enthusiastic. In addition, he has several lines boasting about the fact that "his" doctor is still alive. The Medic's lines are more generic ("Ve did it, camarade!"), but the fact that many Medic players follow Heavies almost exlusively would seem to confirm the hetero-life-partner relationship, if only in Fanon.
- The BLU Soldier and RED Demoman had one of these going on before the Administrator broke them up.
- And the close companionships continue.
- Sora and Riku from Kingdom Hearts. Sora reacts with such heartfelt gladness over Riku's return in the second game that it overshadowed his reunion with his nominal love interest Kairi. It was obvious enough that one webcomic artist did a parody of the scene*
Possibly justified in that the last time Sora saw Riku was probably a year and a half prior, and he had been trapped in the Realm of Darkness. Riku could've been dead for all he knew, not to mention they've known each other for their whole lives. Kairi on the other hand, was just kidnapped, and since she was only in the castle to give Sora a little extra motivation for killing Heartless, he knew she'd be safe.
- Roxas and Axel, depending on your interpretation.
- Saix and Axel were shown to have had this dynamic from their time as a somebodies (Isa and Lea) up to them joining Organization XIII. It's too bad that their friendship suffered when Saix became too caught up in being Xemnas' Dragon...
- Another possible example: Zexion and Lexaeus, as seen in Chain of Memories. They're intellectual equals and often conduct civil, sophisticated conversation in each others' presence. The latter even goes as far as to silence Vexen when he becomes too condescending towards Zexion over his rank. Lexaeus' Secret Report in Days even says that Zexion's the only one he can trust, and Lexaeus is shown asking for Zexion's forgiveness when an "Ansem"-possessed Riku kills him.
- Reno and Rude of Final Fantasy VII and its spin-offs fit the bill.
- Genesis Rhapsodos and Angeal Hewley could also fit—Angeal ditches the organization he's worked for for who knows how long for Genesis, so they must be some damn good friends at least.
- Yuna and Rikku in Final Fantasy X could be said to be this, seeing as they formed the Gullwings together after the first game.
- One could also make an argument for Jecht/Braska/Auron as well. So much so, in fact, that when Jecht becomes Sin, Auron essentially acts as a godfather for Tidus and is the one person shown to be able to speak to Sin, which sets the plot in motion.
- Even though they don't last an entire life time, in The Legend of Zelda series King of Red Lions, Ezlo and Linebeck could easily fit as Link's partners.
- Well, more this one involves than two perhaps, as Star Wolf is a trio of male mercenaries who have shared their lives together, being Wolf, Leon and Panther. Also, it is hinted that Wolf and Leon have been together longer, going way before the events of Star Fox 64...though well...Leon seems to be enjoying his partner for sadomasochism.
- Sonic and Tails.
- The Team Chaotix members, especially Vector and Espio. Considering that this couple is also arguably the most popular homosexual couple amongst the minor characters (that is, outside of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow and Eggman), this definitely overlaps into Ho Yay territory, for the fans.
- Sonic The Comic had Tekno and Amy. Most Likely.
- Shinon and Gatrie from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn. Played for laughs, as Gatrie is forever Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places, and Shinon regularly points out that the girls are either only interested whatever little money he may have or wholly unattanaible.
Gatrie: "Don't mock me, Shinon! This is serious. I feel it. It's destiny! That girl and I are fated to be together!"
Shinon: "You're chasing after a laguz now? Gatrie, I swear you'd hit on a tree if I dressed it in a skirt. Tell me I'm wrong!"
- Most Fire Emblems have a pairing like this. Sword of Flame, for example, has Kent and Sain. The pairing of two Cavaliers, such as this one, is especially common, as we also have Forde and Kyle in Sacred Stones and Lance and Allen in Binding Blade. Binding Blade has a non-Cavalier example, too, with the Fighter pair, Ward and Lott (probably the better example from Binding Blade, actually).
- Also, Ike and Ranulf, though Ike's heterosexuality may be debatable. Especially considering that Elincia flirts with him relentlessly, and he ignores her. It should be pointed out that Ike generally ignores flirtation of any sort; he is generally a fighter, not a lover. Simply put, he's probably utterly disinterested in romance of any sort from either sex.
- World of Warcraft has Asric and Jadaar, two perpetually bickering ex-cops who have moved from Shattrath City, to the Cantrips and Crows tavern under Dalaran, to their current post at the Argent Tournament grounds since their first introduction. Speculation abounds about them.
- There's also Thassarian and Koltira, two death knights who were close friends even when they served under the Lich King. And Varian and Bolvar, who were "like brothers"; Bolvar is even something of a father figure to Varian's son and helped raise him.
- Tarenar Sunstrike and Gidwin Goldbraids from the Cataclysm expansion. Also known as "The Paladin Pals". While they bicker... quite a lot, their friendship is so strong it survived the fact that Tarenar is a Horde aligned Blood Elf and Gidwin is a Dwarf and part of the Alliance and when Gidwin's impatience gets the better of him and he winds up risking becoming a Death Knight Tarenar drops everything to go rescue him.
- Anren Shadowseeker and Tholo Whitehoof in the Firelands content. After one quest Tholo even says, "Anren and I might no longer face the terrifying risk of being separated from one another." D'aww!
- The main character and Yosuke in Persona 4 definitely have shades of this if you develop Yosuke's social link. In point of fact, a Fan Nickname for Yosuke is Brosuke.
Yosuke: There's still nothing here, but I have family and friends...and you.
- Touka and Karura after the final boss fight in Utawarerumono. Unfortunately for any yuri fanboys out there, they're basically confirmed to still be hetero, as their mutual berserk button is disrespecting their relationship with Hakuoro.
- Ryu and Ken from the Street Fighter franchise. Guile and Charlie may count too.
- Jak and Daxter fit this trope to a tee, including the unwarranted Shipping. Never mind Daxter's form.
- Ratchet and Clank are also this. In fact, the "life" part is very literal, having been together for nearly the same amount of time that Clank has been conscious. Also within the series are Qwark/Skrunch, Rusty Pete/Captain Slag (although, being pirates, they may not be heterosexual life partners), and Cronk/Zephyr.
- Captains Price and MacTavish have fitten into this one in the Call of Duty Modern Warfare series.
- Rios and Salem in Army Of Two.
- A female player character and Dawn Star in Jade Empire.
- Possibilities abound in Neverwinter Nights; any henchman can serve as this if you are the same gender, though Nathyrra/female player and Valen/male player are the best examples.
- Various fan-made expansions have examples; your character and your henchman (if same-sex) in the Shadowlords arc definitely qualify, as can the player and Llomir in A Hunt Through the Dark (depending upon your interpretation). A Hunt Through the Dark also has the Amazon Brigade Company of the Catlash, which probably counts.
- The player and Carth or Bastila in Knights of the Old Republic.
- In the fanfic, it's also rather common for Canderous and Carth to come to this - despite the fact they probably did face each other from across a battlefield or two.
- In the origin stories in Dragon Age, the Mage, Dwarven Commoner, and Dalish Elf each have Heterosexual Life Partners (well...however you take it, depending on the PC's gender) who also serve as their partners during the beginning of the game. However, they're pretty quickly forced to leave them behind when they're the only one recruited into the Grey Wardens. Depending on how the player plays their cards, they can always find another one later on in a party member, especially noticeable with a male Warden and Alistair or a female Warden and platonic!Leliana.
- A female warden can also form this kind of bond with Morrigan (she at one point refers to you as not just a friend, but a sister), but it comes with a large side of Vitriolic Best Buds. This is especially obvious if you tend to be more good-aligned or are romancing Alistair.
- The countries Canada and USA in eRepublik have a treaty that says they will "never give up on each other, never let each other down, and never run around or desert one another."
- Ralf and Clark in The King of Fighters (and their series of origin, Ikari Warriors).
- Dragon Age 2 has many possiblities, especially prominent with Male!Hawke and Varric. The fact that Varric is the only squad member who isn't your sibling who you can't at least flirt with helps.
- Male Commander Shepard in Mass Effect and quite a few of the male squadmates. Mostly in Garrus as he's a recurring member, but also in Wrex, Jacob and even Thane and Kaidan, and Tali with a female Commander Shepard.
- Male Shepard/Joker and Male Shepard/Garrus are the best examples. Though Female Shepard/platonic!Liara and Female Shepard/Tali works quite well too.
- Yui and Mako in Lux-Pain. It makes Mako's death really *** Yui.
- Live Powerful Pro Baseball's every success modes from the forth game including MLB Power Pros' have you work with a funny guy with large glasses (usually Yamada or Marvin) who is likely to be your best friend, roommate, and your personal Chew Toy.
- It wouldn't be too much of a stretch for Yuri Lowell and Flynn Scifo from Tales of Vesperia to be this, right? I mean, Flynn literally sent out dozens of ships to look for Yuri after he fell from Zaude and Yuri would trust Flynn with his own life. Of course, this usually falls straight into, well, you know...
- Golden Sun: Dark Dawn shows this to be Isaac and Garet's relationship. They live in a cabin away from any settlements, their wives are nowhere in sight, they raised their sons together, and they spend the entire opening sequence acting Like An Old Married Couple.
- Sonny and Veradux of the flash game series Sonny are definitely this, at least by game 2, where during the opening cutscene Vera shows genuine concern when Sonny has a flashback to the events that started the first game (part of which is a tutorial if you choose to play it when starting a new game in 2), and is quickly on his feet with his weapon at the ready when Felicity decides to use Sonny as a parking space for her motorcycle, but he gets a knife thrown into his face before he can fire a shot. In the first game, this trope gets lampshaded in dialogue the pair share at the beginning of the final zone of the main story:
Sonny: So how long do you plan on travelling with me?
Veradux: 'Till death do us part?
- Gomar & Shioh from F-Zero. We swear they're getting married to Women soon. Totally gonna happen. They're not gay at all.
- ATLAS and P-body from Portal 2. (though some fanartists depict them as being male and female.)
- Sly, Bentley, and Murray from the Sly Cooper franchise are pretty much a three character example of this trope. This becomes far more evident in the second game when all three become playable and are all given more dialogue and interaction with each other. They all met in an orphanage when they were young and have been inseparable ever since, or at least until the end of chapter 3 in Sly 2, where Sly and Murray get hauled off to a max security prison run by the Contessa. Bentley then proceeds to rescue them in chapter 4, but not without plenty of bromantic dialogue exchanges between the three of them before all is said and done.
- In The Reconstruction, Dehl and Qualstio have shades of this. Justified, since when Dehl came from the mainland, he had just witnessed his entire family being killed, and had only an infirm Moke for companionship. Qualstio helped him and gave him shelter at the first opportunity, and so he's practically the only family substitute Dehl's had for a decade.
- Mario and Luigi are brothers. This trope still applies, however, with the two's interactions.
Visual Novels
- In Katawa Shoujo we have Hanako and Lilly. The reason for this is that Hanako is an extreme social recluse, to the extent that she depends on Lilly just to help her cope at school, while Lilly has taken a role very similar to that of a mother in taking care of her. This trope is so in effect that their routes in Act 1 don't split until the very end, and each of their routes beyond that still feature the other heavily. In Lilly's route, Hisao even comments that they're sort of like an odd family altogether, with him and Lilly as the parents and Hanako as the child.
Webcomics
- Brent and Cole of PvP. Also Robby and Jase, the strip's Two Gamers on a Couch. Lampshaded in this strip.
- Bumper and Stunt of Dominic Deegan - this has been noted by other characters in the series, often to tease Stunt, a staunch homophobe.
- Casimiro and Finas of Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name have been together for centuries even though they are polar opposites in personality. Cas describes their relationship as "too unique to put a label on", but says yes, Finas is his best friend.
- Arthur and Lancelot in Arthur, King of Time and Space. Which is...kind of awkward, in the circumstances.
- More or less awkward (and more or less this trope) depending on the timeline. The "fairy tale" timeline strains their relationship the greatest, and they were never friends in the M*A*S*H parody line. The present-day and sci-fi timelines (especially down the road a few years) treat it as just a fact of their relationship - they both love Guinevere and each other too much to let it get in the way, and it's usually (usually) only a problem if someone else makes it a problem for them (like, say, political realities of their relationship or someone trying to reveal the queen is "unfaithful").
- Elliot and Tedd in El Goonish Shive, driven home by the fact that, in an alternate universe where Elliot was born a girl, they're dating. Later revealed by Word Of God to be true in nearly every alternate continuity where they are both alive and sexually compatible. Which is probably why Lord Tedd is such a grumpy gus - no Elliot and no relief (his "Grace" is an extremely large (and male) squirrel hybrid by the name of General Shade Tail).
- MegaTokyo's Piro and Largo. Also, Kimiko and Erika. All are canonically straight, but the fact that each pair lives together, and have done so at least since college, doesn't help matters on the Ho Yay front.
- Gamma and Zimmy's relationship in Gunnerkrigg Court is simultaneously sweet and toxic: On the one hand, Zimmy would gladly die if Gamma asked her to; on the other hand, she poisons other people's friendships with Gamma to insure she never leaves. It really doesn't help that Gamma is about the only thing that keeps Zimmy from freaking out and bad *** happening. Also, Annie and Kat. (Of course, the heterosexuality of those examples is in dispute.)
- Donald Donlan and James Eglamore are a healthier example. Surma even noted in one flashback that when Jim was away for training, Donnie seemed to miss Jim more than she did. Surma was Jim's girlfriend at the time.
- Gertrude & Brunhilda in The KAMics.
- Rayne and Noel of Least I Could Do have confirmed this status themselves.
- Somewhat blasphemously, Jesus and Mo
- Terinu and Matt. They spent half their young lives together as the abused slaves as a pirate warlord, with Matt stealing food to keep Teri healthy and at one point he actually cuddled in bed with him after Terinu's powers were traumatically activated. Word of God has stated "Both of them would rather be dead than see the other hurt."
- Torg and Riff from Sluggy Freelance. Though even after being best friends for decades, they're still not that comfortable with hugs. Zoe and Gwynn too, for that matter.
- Black Mage and Fighter from 8-Bit Theater. So...Fighter McWarrior and Blackmage Evilwizardington have been travelling together for probably years. No matter what made BM do that, it definitely qualifies them for the trope and if Fighter knew what heterosexual meant he'd probably describe their friendship like that. At least, FIGHTER would. Black Mage would stab Fighter a few dozen hundred times to illustrate his point as he said no. He would then probably Hadoken or evilstab the questioner. If Fighter's memory is to be trusted, they have been "best buds 4-eva" since when they were both kicked out of their respective schools, and continue to adventure together 3 years later in the epilogue.
- That's just absurd. Black Mage doesn't need a REASON to stab people!
- Emergency Exit has quite a few relationships like this, the most obvious being the main characters and roommates Bob and Eddie as well as Karl and Jason even though Jason technically expressed romantic interest in Karl but since Karl's straight they are meerly very close friends.
- Axel and Zexion in Ansem Retort. They're so close that Zexion was able to hit on Axel's wife-during their wedding-and not suffer a horrific death.
- Homestuck: John and Dave, despite never meeting in person. The moirallegiance quadrant of the trolls' romance system is this trope incarnate with elements of Morality Pet, though it's not restricted by gender at all and the most prominent examples are boy-girl.
- In Sakana, we are have Jiro and Taisei. They have been best friends since middle school, and they are practially inseparable, go shopping together and share an apartment. Oh, and after Jiro finally goes on a date with cashier girl, Taisei can't stop worrying about him getting hurt, and so he stalks their date.
- The artist also stated that Shigeru and Taro are "bros for life", and it shows.
- The main character 9 and his best friend, Chuckles, in Serious Emotional Disturbances. Lampshaded at one point during a reunion scene with a Celine Dion song being played as the two run towards each other. So much that basically the entire town of Bum*** (where they live), including 9's evil Gramma, assume the two are gay for each other.
- Lucco and Guz in Fite! are close enough to go Skinny Dipping together.
Web Original
Western Animation
- Toy Story: Buzz and Woody.
- From Monsters, Inc., Mike and Sulley. "If I Didn't Have You" might as well be called "Heterosexual Life Partners: The Song".
- Pinky and the Brain, though in all fairness, they're forced to live in a cage. They break out a lot, though.
- Optimus Prime and Bumblebee in Transformers. Bought to mind in particular when Bumblebee drives into Optimus's trailer when in vehicle mode.
- Darkwing Duck and Launchpad McQuack. Darkwing called Launchpad his "sidekick", but the dynamic was different. There's even less explanation for his living in DW's civilian house, plus Launchpad didn't even bother with a Secret Identity.
- Following the series' return, Stewie in Family Guy seems to have abandoned his plans for world domination just to have more time to hang out with Brian, formerly his arch rival. The episode "Brian & Stewie" even has them admit that they love each other as friends.
- Mac and Bloo from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. Never mind the fact that Bloo is a figment of Mac's imagination...
- Timon and Pumbaa from The Lion King, particularly in their eponymous Recycled: The Series.
- Jumba and Pleakley of Lilo & Stitch, especially in the sequel movies and series. The fact that Pleakley is a Wholesome Crossdresser doesn't help the Ho Yay any.
- Miguel and Tulio, partners in crime and fortune-seeking in The Road to El Dorado.
- The original script would have had them calling each other pet names like "darling," which would nearly nullify the "heterosexual" part.
- Ren and Stimpy are a textbook example of the trope Depending on the Writer. In the ill-fated revival series that briefly ran on Spike TV, Ren and Stimpy were actually a gay couple. Word of God says that their status depends on which is funnier for the specific episod, and the extent of Ren's contempt towards Stimpy seems to vary Depending on the Writer. Especially in earlier episodes, they're portrayed as a fairly normal pair of buddies, with little venom coming from Ren. Some episodes of Adult Party Cartoon show their relationship as a borderline type 1 of Vitriolic Best Buds (like "Stimpy's Pregnant"), while others make Ren out to be rather tender and kind-hearted towards Stimpy ("Onwards and Upwards"). It happens in the original series too, though much more subtly ("Rubber Nipple Salesmen" for the first example, "Son of Stimpy" for the second).
- Stan and Kyle from South Park.
Stan: I don't wanna hang out in the kids' room. I won't know anybody.
Randy: Well, it would be good for you to make new friends. You can't just hang out with your buddy Kyle all the time. People will think you guys are, you know, funny.
- Especially in the Guitar Hero episode.
Kyle: Don't you get it? I don't need you anymore!
Stan: I know. I need you.
- While not seen on the show much, anymore, Ned and Jimbo qualify.
- Terrance and Phillip, while we're at it. They were once Mistaken for Gay. By Phillip.
Terrance: Wow, Scott really hates us Phillip.
Phillip: Yes, perhaps he's homophobic.
Terrance: ...But we're not gay, Phillip.
Phillip: We're not?!
- While the show focuses on Stan and Kyle, Cartman and Kenny share this relationship. Particularly evident when Kenny is in the hospital dying of a terminal illness
Cartman: You know, it's funny Kenny. Stan and Kyle have always sorta been two best friends you know, and...Well, I don't know if I ever told you this Kenny, but, um...I always kinda thought you were my best f-f-friend. Don't you worry Kenny. I'm gonna find a cure for you! Everything's gonna be okay.
- And then there's Ace and Gary, the Ambiguously Gay Duo.
- Norbert and Daggett of The Angry Beavers. Being brothers helps.
- Daria: While there's never even any subtext of romantic involvement (Jane's sexual questioning in Is It Fall Yet? notwithstanding), Daria and Jane otherwise fit this trope, especially the way Daria gets intensely jealous of Jane's boyfriends.
- The romantics angle is joked about by the show; one of the "Daria Day" marathon host segments features them as husband and wife, and in another host segment with Daria as a nude model, Jane cracks that she can paint Daria's form "from memory".
- SWAT Kats: Jake Clawson and Chance Furlong spend nearly all their time together, even at the salvage yard garage where they live.
- My Gym Partner's A Monkey has Adam Lyon and Jake Spidermonkey. One episode even had them paired to take care of an egg in class.
- Another has Jake publicly crying when Adam is absent for a day.
- Futurama had Fry and Bender. Bender is also extremely possessive and jealous, and gets angry/weepy when he can't live with Fry, or when spends more time with his girlfriend than Bender in The Movie. Sometimes expanded to Fry, Bender and Leela.
- The Canadian cartoon Kevin Spencer features the characters of Porn Man and Afro Man, who not only co-star in the adult films they act in, but also share a swinging bachelor pad. There's no Ho Yay between them, though, since they get more than enough action both in their day jobs and at the wild parties they host in their free time.
- The Platypus Brothers in Taz-Mania. To a lesser extent, Taz and Digeri Dingo since they've known each other since birth and Taz always goes along with Digeri's schemes.
- Beavis And Butthead (though in This Book Sucks, it's explained that they're half brothers.)
- Ami and Yumi in Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi are like this. They live in the same dwelling...but it's a tour bus, which they travel the world in, along with their manager Kaz. Though there are times at which they appear to be a little too close not to be doing each other, they have both shown strong interest in men and even fought over a male nerd, labeling them as bona-fide Heterosexual Life Partners. (No Bisexuals?)
- Stan and Koji in Oban Star Racers.
- Diadoro and Gomez in Combo Nińos.
- Toot and Puddle, two animated pigs starring in a program by the same name, based on a series of picture books, by the same name. Live together in a small home in the burg of Woodcock Pocket / Pocket Hollow and often travel together.
- Badger and Mole of Animals of Farthing Wood are inseparable and they often worry about each other when one of them goes missing with Mole being the most emotional about it often bursting into tears, in fact after Mole dies Badger just can't accept the fact he mistakes Mole's son Mossy for him as they look alike and he goes along with it because he was told it would break his heart he remains his companion until Badger passes away of old age.
- It was different in the books however. Badger never died, but Mossy did. Badger found the body and as such, it's pretty clear that he can't go into denial a second time.
- Virgil and Richie from Static Shock. Helped along with the fact that it's been admitted that Richie is gay by the animators and in the original comic Rick, who Richie is based on, is gay and there is even an arc where Virgil deals with his feelings on the matter.
- Barbie and Teresa (and their story colunterparts Liana and Alexa) in Barbie & The Diamond Castle
- Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers: Chip and Dale.
- Rocko and Heffer.
- Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble are a popular example of this.
- The Venture Bros. has Henchmen 21 and 24. 21 even lampshades this in a third-season episode, when The Monarch doesn't know who 24 is.
- "You know whenever you're talking to me, there's another guy with me? That's 24!"
- Don't forget the "Jet Boy, Jet Girl" conversation.
- The Venture Bros. is nothing but Heterosexual Life Partners. Even if you don't count the aforementioned, plus the eponymous characters, you have Brock and Rusty, Pete and Billy, Tim-Tom and Kevin, Watch and Ward, Shore Leave and Mile High. Not to mention the creators of the show, who most of the characters are based on in some sense.
- Mac and Tosh otherwise known as the Goofy Gophers from Looney Tunes they are super polite to each other and agree with what the other says, many people have mistaken them for gay but in several cartoons they have fallen in love with female gopher disguises.
- Yogi and Boo Boo
- Pixie and Dixie
- Quick Draw McGraw and Baba Louie
- Snooper and Blabber
- Hokey Wolf and Ding-A-Ling
- Peter Potamus and So-So
- Breezly and Sneezly
- ...and a number of others. Let's just say that this trope was a semi, if not regular occurence in Hanna-Barbera's shows.
- In the Madagascar movies and the series The Penguins of Madagascar, Maurice and Julien's relationship fits as Heterosexual Life Partners, though Maurice is officially his right hand man and, since the series, Butt Monkey.
- Alex and Marty as well. Their friendship is basically what helps Alex conquer his predatory urges. And in the sequel, Marty has the "withdrawal" part when he finds out Alex can't tell him apart from the other zebras.
- Phineas and Ferb, a pair of inseparable (step)brothers. Also, from the same show, Perry and Doofenshmirtz. (Word Of God says they didn't want to give Perry a girlfriend because he's Married to the Job—beating up Doofenshmirtz.)
- To a lesser extent, Buford and Baljeet, whose bully/nerd relationship is portrayed more like a weird kind of friendship. You could even make an argument for Monogram and Carl, since they're always seen around each other. (Though that's an Unfortunate Implication.)
- Candace and Stacy also count for this.
- Skwisgaar Skwigelf and Toki Wartooth from Metalocalypse are a fairly good example of this trope. While they constantly bicker over Toki's role in the band and Skwisgaar is just generally a Jerkass to him in almost all of their interactions, they often choose to hang out with each other exclusively and once in a blue moon they will come to the other's defense (Skwisgaar in "Dethrace," for example). They've also waxed philosophical together about subjects such as family and women (well as philosophical as you can get with this show). Considering that Toki has stolen Skwisgaar's clothes to emulate him in a Dethklok tribute band, offered him a *** in exchange for not getting kicked out of the band, and dated a girl that looked exactly like a female version of Skwisgaar, some fans would argue that Toki is or was actually nursing something of a Tsundere-esque crush on him.
- It's worth noting that when Toki hangs out with another guitarist in Dethlessons, Skwisgaar's confrontation almost sounds like someone finding their spouse with another partner. And Toki's line "I've always hated you, Skwisgaar" in the first season finale is met with an almost affectionate sounding, "I knows, Toki. I knows." Not to mention the previous line, in which Skwisgaar's post-mortem plans include hanging out with Toki in Valhalla. Often times they hate each other, but they're also incredibly dependent on each other.
- Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn in Batman TAS, one of the few villain team ups that is based on friendship, rather than mutual gain. Though the Word of Gay probably strikes out the "heterosexual" part.
- In Invader Zim, Red and Purple. An unfinished episode reveals they were hanging around each other even before being appointed co-rulers of the Irken Empire. One could also argue Zim and Dib, in a weird, twisted sort of way.
- Don't forget Zim and Gir!
- Or for that matter, Gir and Tacos.
- Jimmy Two-Shoes and Beezy Heinous.
- Chris and Chef Hatchet from Total Drama Island.
- Even more so, Katie and Sadie, who take being "best friends" to a bizarre level. Lindsay and Beth develop a similar but more grounded relationship, especially in TDA.
- Owen and Noah also become this in TDWT.
- Russel Hobbes of Gorillaz actually described his best friend Del as his soulmate - he literally was, since Del's ghost lived in Russel's brain for several years. Russel is the only one of the three living male band members who doesn't have numerous illegitimate offspring, and we've never heard about any women in his life, so, um ...
- Peri and Entrče from Spliced.
- Fanboy and Chum Chum are two best friends who live together in a water tower with no parents whatsoever. Taken to the extent that the very stability of the fabric of the universe depends on them being together.
- Bill the duck and Aldo the alligator on Sitting Ducks.
- Sokka and Zuko from Avatar The Last Airbender seem to be headed this way, even though they didn't get a whole lot of on-screen interaction. To fanfic!!
- Arguably, Mai and Ty Lee as well.
- Aang and Sokka seem to fit this trope.
- Scooby and Shaggy in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, to the point that it prevents Shaggy and Velma from having an actual romantic relationship.
- Thrasher and Blastus in Robotomy.
- Robin and Kid Flash in Young Justice. They bicker with each other, cockblock each other, and have their own exploding bro-fist.
- It's worth noting that while Batman has told Dick not to reveal his secret identity to his teammates, Word Of God says that he did tell Wally.
- Rocky and Bullwinkle
- Mordecai and Rigby from Regular Show. Pretty much "bros" in the standard definition, as they act like two college roomies.
- Finn and Jake from Adventure Time, though raised as brothers, and referring to each other as 'brother', are this to a T.
- In My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, Rarity and Fluttershy are shown to be closest friends with each other out of the rest of the Mane Six. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie are sometimes shown to be closest friends with each other as well.
- And to round it all out, we have Twilight Sparkle and Applejack, who often turn to each other for advice or comfort.
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