Heterosexual Life Partners - Television Tropes & Idioms

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"It's Guy Love,
That's all it is,
Guy Love,
He's mine, I'm his,
There's nothing gay about it
In our eyes..."

— J.D. and Turk, Scrubs

Two extremely close friends or partners, both the same gender, who spend an 'excessive' amount of time together on and off the job. So excessive that they might as well be a couple. Note that there is no official evidence whatsoever that they're romantically linked, but they might suffer withdrawals from not being around each other. There might even be a "break-up" episode. If they are life-long friends, you can almost guarantee this trope. When one gets a boy/girl friend, you can almost certainly expect the Friend Versus Lover quarrel to be epic.

The lack of official information doesn't deter shippers from speculating. The weight of the resulting Fanwank will crush any reasoned observer. Regardless of romance, pairing of these two to anyone else is tricky, because any prospective romancer will have to deal with the fact that they are, at best, an additional Most Important Person. A skilled writer will figure out the dynamic as the Heterosexual Life Partner and the paramour have to share their Most Important Person's life. A less skilled writer will get rid of the competition, even if it's not romantic. Sometimes going as far as demonizing or killing them.

For some reason, Heterosexual Life Partners are fairly common across all cultures.

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. And 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.

Compare The Straight Will And Grace and Like Brother And Sister, which are the same thing except easier to ship without those pesky "sexual orientations" getting in the way. Pairing them is also appealing because they've already established a bond of trust and communication, unlike some pairings... Contrast Jumping The Gender Barrier, which can happen when a Love Potion or other revelation occurs.

Same gender characters who are simply friends aren't always Life Partners. When the fans do speculatory shipping of the same gender, that is something else entirely called Ho Yay. Not all Ho Yay is HLP and vice-versa. The key phrase for this is "Same Gender, Always Together."

Members of a Nakama generally all qualify as falling under this trope in relation to one other (or at least the ones the individual members aren't sweet on / involved with). Compare Living Emotional Crutch, which may overlap.

This is firmly established as Truth In Television as Troper Tales will attest to.

Examples:

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Anime and Manga

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.)
- As one might imagine, this trope was inspired by the Dirty Pair Discussion page.
- Their spiritual successors in that respect are Kiddy Grade's Eclair and Lumiere.
Gundam Wing: Most everyone came with a strong pairing: Trowa and Quatre, Heero and Duo are particularly notable because Heero is Not Good With People.
Natsumi and Miyuki from Youre 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. Probbably one of the oldest and greatest bromances in anime history.
A younger example would be Nagisa and Honoka of Futari Wa Pretty Cure...
- ...and Saki and Mai of Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash* Star.
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.
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. "The S in Get Backers means we're never alone!"
- Kazuki and Juubei probably count, but, once again, the 'hetero' aspect of their relationship is suspect. There's Juubei's passionate declaration that he was born to protect Kazuki, a shot of them in a desperate half-embrace, half-serious-personal-space-violation in the third ending sequence, and Ginji even says they act like they're on their honeymoon.
- Get Backers loves this trope. There's also Emishi and Amon, who go from "strangers on a bus" to Boke And Tsukkomi Routine partners to this in what can NOT be more than three days. And since we're going in escalating order of heterosexual ambiguity—Ban and Ginji are suspect, Kazuki and Juubei spawn honeymoon jokes, and Emishi and Amon? They get a canonical mpreg joke. Yes.
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''.
- Later in the series, Chloe makes it very clear she seeks a lesbian relationship with Kirika.
  - And Kirika doesn't seem averse to the idea. At least until Chloe goes after Mirielle.
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.
Dai-Chan and Den-Chan (as they call each other), Keiichi's seniors in the Auto Club in Ah My Goddess. (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!)
- Those two are so close that they even shared the same love interest (Chihiro).
Digimon Tamers has Kazu and Kenta. They're good for major Ho Yay. The dub-censored Accidental Kiss is practically superfluous.
Goten and Trunks in Dragonball 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 (If You Know What I Mean) 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.
- In the same show (and in Dragonball), 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 ~~romantic~~ 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.
Kotetsu and Izumo from Naruto.
- According to the average fan, Naruto and Sasuke. Except it's one sided, with Naruto being more like the obsessive stalker of an abusive and disinerested Sasuke. Your Mileage May Vary.
- Shikamaru and Choji also fit the bill- being best friends without the convulted 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.
Ikkaku and Yumichika of Bleach have been together a very long time; a flashback from before their Soul Reaper days showed that they wandered around getting in fights. Yumi has even passed up significant promotions just to stay close to Ikkaku.
- This is another case of the "hetero" being a maybe. Yumichika is heavily implied to be in love with Ikkaku, though there's no real indication that Ikkaku's feelings are anything but platonic.
- Don't forget Ukitake and Kyoraku, the Soul Reaper captains who've been best buddies for more than three thousand years and who trust each other so completely that they'll even break the law together without asking any questions of each other, and understand how the other thinks even though they're total opposites.
  - Their powers are even themed to this. Kyoraku uses wind-based attacks, Ukitake water-based. A major motif in Japanese art is "wind and waves" (not surprising for an island nation).
  - Just a fun mention, but in one of the DS games, neither of them have a third "super" attack option the way the other characters do. Nope. The only way they can pull off a third ultra-powerful move is when they're teamed up together. On the upside, said move kills everything on the screen.
- Chad and Ichigo. They'd go to any lengths to protect each other, and promised in their backstory to fight for each other. Also, they were close friends even before the events of the story, unlike some of their other friends.
Fay and Kurogane of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle fall under this trope if you don't interpret them as a yaoi couple. (Although if you don't, what are you doing reading CLAMP?) There's a slight twist in that they're contractually life partners: Fay's sustenance is Kurogane's blood.
Simon and Kamina of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann are pretty much the manliest form of this, to the point where Simon's ideal universe doesn't contain his fiance, and the only notable part of it is that Kamina is still alive.
Yukari and Minamo (Nyamo) from Azumanga Daioh. They both tease each other about still being single middle-aged women.
- Kaorin and Chihiro form another couple, and though there doesn't seem to be any romance between them, Kaorin definitely brings up the hetero question again.
Spike and Jet from Cowboy Bebop. Spike makes snarkacious comments about Jet's cooking in only the first episode and more than once they've argued Like An Old Married Couple ending in Spike storming off in his ship.
Of course there is Ouran High School Host Club with a lot of...boy friendships. Mori and Honey, Kaoru and Hikaru, Kyouya and Tamaki. (It's worth noting that Mori considers himself Honey's servant, and that Kaoru and Hikaru are twins.)
- Don't forget that Kyouya and Tamaki are "Mommy" and "Daddy". Tamaki's idea.
- Also, Mori and Honey's younger brothers, Yasuchika and Satoshi, in the manga.
Badou Nails and Haine Rammsteiner from DOGS Bullets And Carnage work together quite often, and so too do they often say, "Don't group me together with that guy!" or (to the implication that it is a homosexual relationship) "It's not like that!"
Leon and Count D in Pet Shop Of Horrors. The "hetero" is in considerable dispute on D's part especially since he's not human to begin with, but Leon, at least, is determinedly straight. And takes D on vacation with him and his little brother. Just because.
XXXholic: in recent chapters, poor Himawari was Put On A Bus to university, whereas Doumeki apparently spends most of his time in the shop with Watanuki. It's hinted he still has strong feelings for Watanuki.
Poland and Lithuania in Axis Powers Hetalia, even if Poland pushes the definition of "heterosexual" a good deal. (And not like it stops the shipping, either.)
- It's worth mentioning that up until 1795, Poland and Lithuania were one nation. Make of that what you will.
- Greece and Japan would be like this, if not for the fact that they once slept together. Even when Japan says this didn't happen... right after he wakes up naked, or at least shirtless, next to an equally nude/half-nude Greece.
  - America and Japan are a much better example. 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. It's probably telling that America/England shippers never seem to view Japan as a threat - and if he is, it's more along the lines of England/Japan, two characters who interacted in much fewer strips than America and Japan did and yet received more subtext than the latter.
- 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 X Hunter, although recent chapters have Killua heavily treading the line between this and Ho Yay.
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.
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 Pokemon appear to be life partners; they've been spending their time together for years.
- Ash and Pikachu even more so, though they might be The Straight Will And Grace instead.
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 sixof 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 be3 literary described as "them versus the rest of the world" (they won), saved the world, and after that they traveled thogeter for 10 years helping people. The only reason why they stopped was because he mysteriously disappeared 10 years prior tobegining ot the story.
Mustang and Hughes in Fullmetal Alchemist. Academy friends, met up again in the Hell 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 moreso 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 thier 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 thier guy love to reel in more fangirls.
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.
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. Reign in the pedo-vibes there, Heiji.
In a weird way Yugi and Atem fulfill every requirement for this trope.
- And skipping over a few years, Yusei Fudo is crowned King of the Riding Duelists, and basically becomes a superstar. What does he do in his down time? Work as a handyman in a workshop/garage that he lives in with the guy who he defeated, Jack the King Atlas and his other best friend, Crow. And then he gets a new roommate who Jack practices his famous ATLAS PUNCH on Bruno, who upon his arrival is commented on for how 'well' he clicks with Yusei. Launcher Of A Thousand Ships, Yusei is.
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.
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 DN Angel.
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).
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.

Comic Books

Cable and Deadpool in, well, Cable & Deadpool (although many fans percieve 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. To be fair, they were genetically commingled, so that "one phone call" would have happened even without intent....And Cable needed to make that contact to manipulate Deadool into Doing The Right Thing.
- Worst offender for this is a storyarc called "Bosom Buddies", where at one point Deadpool's darkest fantasy is exposed, which to his dismay involves himself, Cable and suntan lotion. And oil. For the arm. Ho Yay indeed. A few awkward follow-up jokes occur throughout the rest of the arc.
  - Deadpool and Weasel, and later Deadpool and Bob of HYDRA, could also fall under this trope.
  - Nah, Bob's more of a pet.
- 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'.
Batman and Robin have to be the ones to receive it the most; some incarnations have them sharing the same bed.
Booster Gold and the Blue Beetle (hereafter "Boostle") of Justice League International 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!
  - Also of Justice League International fame, 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, and it wasn't long before the two shacked together in Marlinspike Hall. The only romantic subplot was between La Castafiore and the captain, who mostly wanted to run away from her affections.
- Whole articles have been written about whether Tintin and Haddock were asexual, heterosexual, or something else. Word Of God is one of the former two, as Herge was a devout (liberal in his later years) Catholic who didn't believe in shipping beloved comics characters.
  - 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 they're related.
- Blake And Mortimer: together they fight pseudo-scientific crime... then go home to their house in London.
- 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 pinning for Spirou.
- Asterix 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 Wont They with Yoko.
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), 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 claim to be now 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, channeling a very rough Cowboy Cop and using Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique in every suspect to figure out, well, who stole Max's Brain. He even treats friends at Gun Point for obtain information! He gets a lot better when he know Max has a fix though.
Cutter and Skywise from Elf Quest (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 Filemon. Definitely.
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.
Beast Boy and Cyborg.
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.
Why are Iron Man and Captain America not on this page? Is it because they're generally accepted to be in love with each other canonically?
- Or because of the Marvel Civil War which pitted Captain America against Stark. And WHAT?!
Pepermint 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. And there was much rejoicing.
Calvin And Hobbes.
Batman and Superman, more so in some incarnations than others.

Film

Sherlock Holmes and Watson (especially in the 2009 movie, where Downey Jr.'s Sherlock makes this inclination VERY clear).
- His reaction to Watson's engagement is essentially that of a jealous boyfriend.
Laurel and Hardy, despite the former always getting the latter into "another fine mess".
Any Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson film.
Harold And Kumar. And their Jewish counterparts, Rosenburg and Goldstein.
Mark and Roger from RENT. In fact, fans seem to prefer pairing those two together rather than Roger and Mimi.
- If they aren't in one big happy OT3, that is.
The trope name comes from Jay and "hetero-life-mate" Silent Bob of The View Askewniverse.
- Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes may be real-life versions of this trope, as Jason lived for quite a while with Kevin and his wife.
- This can apply to Dante and Randall from The View Askewniverse as well.
- In fact, pretty much all of the main characters in said films come in pairs, most with the same dynamic. The most apparent being Holden and Banky in "Chasing Amy"...whose relationship gets to the point that Holden suggests a three-some just to see if they're really in love with each other.
In the movie Stick It (A gymnastics star who walked out of a national-level event for very valid and personal reasons, takes it back up and discovers it's fun. Also much snarking and funny), the main character has two goofy male friends, one of whom introduces the other as his 'hetero life partner'. And they manage to portray that, despite one of them trying on a dress when they take the gymnastics team out dress-shopping.
Romy and Michele from Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, if only for this scene:
Romy: Swear to God, sometimes I wish I was a lesbian.
Michele: Do you want to try, to see if we are?
Romy: What? Yeah, right, Michele. Just the idea of having sex with another woman creeps me out. But if we're still single at 30, ask me again.
Michele: Okay.
Pintel and Ragetti in Pirates Of The Caribbean, too (although they bicker Like An Old Married Couple). Allegedly, they were uncle and nephew.
- Debatably, Jack Sparrow and Joshamee Gibbs, as Gibbs appears to be the only person who can stand Jack for more than three days without turning on him, and Jack seems quietly appreciative of it.
  - One might also include Murtogg and Mullroy - if they appeared more often.
Harpo and Chico Marx often played Heterosexual Life Partners. It helped that the actors were brothers.
Simon Pegg's and Nick Frost's characters in both Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz. And very much so in Real Life, and that friendship was simply translated onto the screen.
- Shaun and Ed in SOTD is a particularly interesting case, as the movie bills itself as a "romantic comedy with zombies", presumably the romance between Shaun and his girlfriend Liz. But it's really more about the friendship between Shaun and Ed as the movie ends with them, the idea being that not even being a zombie (and in a sense death) can prevent Ed from being with his best friend.
- In the Shaun Of The Dead commentary, Simon Pegg mentionned that Nick had actually lived on his couch for a while in Real Life exactly like Ed does in the movie. Art imitating life indeed!
- Again, in the Spaced tv series.
  - One of the commentaries on the USA DVD release of Spaced actually has Simon getting permission from Kevin Smith to use the expression to refer to his relationship to Nick Frost.
- Of course, early drafts for Hot Fuzz had a female love interest for Pegg's character; in the end they cut her out and gave the lines to Nick Frost.
- And again in the upcoming Tintin movie, as — of course — Detectives Thomson and Thompson.
Harry and Lloyd of Dumb and Dumber. You could not find a better example.
Marwood and Withnail from Withnail And I. As Paul McGann said on the commentary, 'it's like a marriage going wrong.'
Max and Jude from Across the Universe do this trope hardcore, though the heterosexuality is highly debatable.
Dan Cain and Herbert West in the first two Re-Animator movies. In the first, they start out mutually suspicious but grow closer as they work together; by the second, they are sharing a house and West is actively jealous of Dan's girlfriend.
Detectives Hughes and Costanzo in Running Scared (1986).
Two examples from Mean Girls: Janis and Regina are former Heterosexual Life Partners whose friendship ended very badly. Gretchen and Karen are still best friends and it is implied that Karen is Gretchen's only actual friend.
Valentine and Earl in Tremors.
Jesse and Chester in Dude, Where's My Car?. Though they have girlfriends in Wanda and Wilma, they live together and seem to be with each other more often.
Bill and Ted.
President Andrew Shepard and A.J. Mac Inerney in The American President. Granted, they were the original models for Jed and Leo of The West Wing.
Han Solo and Chewbacca. They live in the same ship and travel everywhere together, for god's sake. How much more life partner can you get?
- In the prequels and the Expanded Universe, Obi-Wan and Anakin were pretty much this. That is part of the reason their climactic fight was so tragic.
  - It's been commented — accurately — that they bicker like an old married couple.
- R2-D2 and C-3PO, technically asexual life partners, being droids and all.
Chuck and Larry in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. After all, they did spend most of the movie pretending to be homosexual life partners.
Dale, Saul and Red in Pineapple Express, making up a rare trio example. It is Lampshaded. Notably, the end of the film does not see Dale tearfully reunited with his (presumably still in hiding) girlfriend Angie, but hanging out with Saul and Red instead.
- Then again Dale pretty much broke it off with Angie over the phone.
  - True (and he was right to do so), but it is still a pretty big subversion that we don't see them get back together at the end (with plenty of talk about they have gotten over their problems). It's actually almost unique there.
Abbott and Costello. Notably, only on-screen. In real life, they were not particularly close (and at one point, at the height of their fame, spent an entire year not speaking to one another except when the cameras were rolling).
The title characters in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, who had been together for some time before the movie started.
Rick and Sam. At the end, we are to assume that Rick and Louis will be heterosexual life partners, as Sam is staying in Casablanca, and the other two are going to Brazzaville to fight Nazis.
Louis, I think this might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
The Dude and Walter
(eventually) Lampshaded in Kangaroo Jack, with protagonists Charlie and Louis.
The titular rock band in the film Hard Core Logo is all about this until the Ho Yay boils over.
Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu in Red Cliff. Ironic, considering the two most likely never met historically, and in the book Zhou Yu was constantly trying to kill Zhuge Liang.
Danny and Rusty in ''Oceans 11, 12 and 13.
The entire plot of I Love You, Man revolves around the protagonist, Peter, trying to get his own heterosexual life partner. And then he meets Sydney...
Ira Kane and Harry Block from Evolution, though Ira does get the girl in the end.
Seth and Evan in Superbad. Remember this scene?
Tony Stark and Col. Rhodes from Iron Man, especially when reunited after Tony's capture.
Poppy and Zoe from Happy-Go-Lucky teach at the same elementary school, share a flat, are best friends, and have travelled the world together. They have have a regular very silly rapport all through the film, and it's implied that if they ever want to give up the flat, they'd buy a house together too. Throw in a few "jokey," Les Yay comments and another character thinking they actually are couple, and if Poppy hadn't started dating a social worker guy...
Billy Mack and his manager, Joe, from Love Actually. Solidified at the end where Billy returns early from a party at Elton John's house to spend Christmas with Joe, who he confesses has been his best friend for countless years, and is essentially "the fucking love of my life."
Joe: Well, this is a surprise. Ten minutes at Elton John's and you're as gay as a maypole.
Tahei and Matashichi in The Hidden Fortress.
Danny and Kenickie in Grease.
2 and 5 from 9 for the early part of the movie and from way before. When 2 is caught by the Beast and 5 goes with 9 to rescue him, the former muses about 2 and compares him to the latter - 9 does in fact seem to begin to become his new heterosexual life partner after 2's death - though 5 himself dies the next day tops.
- Actually, the nature of 5 and 2's relationship is up for debate. When 5 and 9 find 2, right when he realizes that 2 is alive, 5 gets out a soft partial 'My love!' (More like 'My lo—') before they're interrupted by the cat machine. And anytime you see 2 and 5 together, they have a tendency to touch each other, especially hands.
  - I've always heard him say "I thought-". Though while we're on this topic, 5 and 9 are seem to be very, VERY good friends in spite of the short time they knew each other. Almost all the characters are touchy-feely though.
Wayne and Garth.
Jake and Elwood
- Uh, they're brothers. I don't think that qualifies exactly. But John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd were definitely this.
  - Actually, they're not blood related, they just grew up being as close as brothers as they were raised together in the same orphanage. They definitely count.
Sean Devine (Kevin Bacon) and Sgt White (Laurence Fishburne) in Mystic River. In an interview, Fishburne stated that: "This is a film about three men and their wives - I play Kevin Bacon's wife."
By the fourth Lethal Weapon, Riggs and Murtaugh certainly qualify.
Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor in all the four films they did together: Silver Streak, Stir Crazy,See No Evil, Hear No Evil and Another You
Andy and Red in The Shawshank Redemption
The film Becket depicts King Henry II of England and Thomas Becket as heterosexual life partners until Henry made the mistake of making Becket the Archbishop of Canterbury. Becket took the job very seriously and defied Henry's rulings in favor of the church. Henry then acts like a Woman Scorned, exiling Becket and later has him killed. Becket: "He never forgave me for loving God more than him."
Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed go from being enemies to best buddies in Rocky III until Apollo is killed by Ivan Drago in the ring in Rocky IV.
Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris's characters in Appaloosa, whose relationship gets thrown for a loop with the arrival of Renee Zellweger.
Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan's characters in the movie Cop Out, in a typical buddy cop manner.
The Three Stooges (although Curly, Moe, and Shemp were real-life brothers).
Corey Mahoney and Terrence Christian in the SyFy channel original Soulkeeper
Roger and J.P. in the old Disney movie Angels in the Outfield. Despite only having been in a foster home with each other for a few months, and despite Roger being approximately four or five years older than J.P., they were best friends and went everywhere together. At the end, Roger refuses to allow himself to be adopted (he wanted a family more than anything in the world) unless J.P. could come with him.
Connor and Murphy Mc Manus from Boondock Saints. They're twins and so have spent their entire lives together; they work in the same meatpacking plant, live together, and would basically do anything for each other. This includes pulling a toilet out of the floor and dropping it on the head of a Russian mafia man from five stories up.
The various interchangeable characters played by Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in the Road to ... movies.
John T. Chance (John Wayne) and Stumpy (Walter Brennan) in Rio Bravo. At one point John even kisses Stumpy. Although one can also see HLP-ship in John's close friendship to Dude (Dean Martin).
Cole Thornton (John Wayne again) and J. P. Harrah (Robert Mitchum) in El Dorado. They both have a thing for Maudie (Charlene Holt) who at one point jokes that she is "girl enough for both o' ya".
Ben Stiller, William H. Macy and Hank Azaria in Mystery Men are a Heterosexual Life Trio. "The Shoveler" (Macy's) wife resents the time apart he's spending with his superhero friends and threatens to divorce him. "Blue Raja" (Azaria) is a Mommas Boy whose mom is beginning to suspect that he is more than just Married To The Job and comes to peace with the fact that she'll never have grandkids. "Mr. Furious" (Stiller) criticizes them for spending time away from the group, and they criticise him for being distracted by romance.
The Shoveler: I have a gift. I shovel. I shovel well.
Wife: Oh honey, I know. You shovel damn well. You shovel better than any man I've ever known...
Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, as mentioned in Literature, but emphasized in the film. These sorts of relationships were essential to life in the British Navy, though.
Captain America (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) from Easy Rider. Reputedly an Odd Couple due to Real Life Writes The Plot, with Fonda as the Straight Man and Hopper as the Cloud Cuckoo Lander best friend.
Gary and Julius from Remember the Titans become this over the course of the movie. Heck, after Gary's accident, Julius talks to Gary in the hospital about how race won't always come between them and essentially growing old together.

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
Sherlock Holmes and Dr John H. Watson.
- The fact that Holmes is famously a Celibate Hero does nothing to discourage speculation, despite Watson being something of a ladies' man and marrying at least twice over the course of the series.
  - Watson has a penchant for ignoring his wives' existences a month or two after marrying them, and living with Holmes.
  - His first wife, Mary Morstan, encouraged him to go on an adventures with Holmes though. Mainly because going in cases with Holmes was good for Watson's mood and they first met through Holmes, so she kind of owed him (They changed that fact in the 2009 movie)
  - The 1970 Billy Wilder film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes poked fun at this several times (turns out they both actually are straight - go figure).
- The 2009 movie really stresses the bromance between Holmes and Watson, despite what the executives who marketed it would try and have you believe; they argue and bicker like an old married couple yet are utterly devoted to each other, Holmes doesn't bother to conceal his jealousy that Watson is leaving him to get married to a very nice woman, and Watson himself also seems more than a little jealous of Irene Adler.
Likewise, Hercule Poirot and his Watson, Captain Hastings, fit the bill. Neither of them are married, and Poirot avoids romance altogether. They're like an old married couple most of the time, Captain Hastings being the Sarcastic Devotee to him.
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.
Croup and Vandemar, arguably.
Gilgamesh and Enkidu (making this Older Than Dirt).
- What?! No. They were TOTALLY GAY.
  - Stop with the ethnocentric Values Dissonance already! Bisexuality between male warriors was the norm during the era the poem takes place and during the era it was finalized. In the poem, Gilgamesh specifically enjoys his court concubines, and Enkidu is first tamed when he is seduced by a woman.
- More like If Its You Its Okay
Bertram Wilberforce Wooster and 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).
Achilles and Patroclus in the Iliad are probably an example of this, making it Older Than Dirt. Though ask a modern reader with a slashy bent whether it's a * heterosexual* life partnership, and you might get a different answer. I'm sure there's a perfectly logical explanation for one man to be longing for another man's... manhood. It meant something different. Back then.
- The homosexual interpretation is a product of Values Dissonance. The Greeks had a very different outlook on homosexuality. In fact, it was expected that every man be paired with a significantly older man, and the nature of the pairing was expected to be sexual in nature. In order for a man to be considered a homosexual, he must have a penetratively sexual relationship with another man. Since the Ancient Greeks considered such relationships to be perverse, it seems unlikely that a paragon of masculinity like Achilles would engage in such activity. This different outlook makes the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus, which is both sexual and heterosexual in nature, to appear homosexual to modern readers. In short, Achilles and Patroclus were definitely Heterosexual Life Partners.
- There's a specific line in The Iliad where one of Achilles' enemies derisively refers to them as "butt-brothers" or somesuch, so the issue was lampshaded, perhaps in terms of "I know what the audience may be thinking, but still..." If the relationship was sexual, it would not be a bromance. In fact, depending on how you interpret it, they might not be HLP at all, but simply Blood Brothers; we don't really see Achilles "let his hair down" with Patroclus, and look how Ajax reacts to Achilles' death.
- There was a "no penetration" rule, at least as between citizens, because taking it up the anything was considered undignified - that was something a gentleman did to his slaves - but kissing and frottage were perfectly OK. A more important rule was that pederasty (teenage boy, adult man) was the only socially acceptable pairing; homosexuality between adults was considered ridiculous. Pederasty was an actual recognized social institution, for educational purposes; the erastes (elder partner) was expected to be patron, mentor and role model to the eramenos. Its existence is not surprising, considering that Classical Greek citizen women were kept in purdah like women in some Muslim cultures today; if you were a Greek citizen boy the only women you would typically see in a day would be slaves, prostitutes, foreigners, and your own close relatives. Meanwhile you're expected to spend as much time as possible with the other guys in the palaestra, working out stark naked. Do the math.
  - At least one line in the Iliad implies that Patroklos is much older than Akhilleus.
  - Surely you mean Achillevs?
  - That would be if it were Latin. In Greek, chi is an aspirated kappa (so kh) and upsilon (what is often translated as a y and would sound vaguely French) looks like a u.
Colon and Nobby from the Discworld Watch series.
- In Men At Arms, Cuddy and Detritus are well on their way to becoming this, at least until the villain throws Cuddy from the Tower of Art, killing him.
- 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.
- You could also look at Bill Sykes and Toby Crackit, then.
- Or, Bill and Fagin. Mind you, Bill kinda only is friends with Fagin when it suits him.
- Toby and Barney?
Shakespeare's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (in Hamlet).
- Hamlet and Horatio?
  - Oh, definitely.◊
- This is actually invoked in Twelfth Night, with Orsino feeling this way about the "male" Viola. When he finds out she's actually a woman, his feelings change quite suddenly...
- In The Merchant of Venice. Antonio and Bassonio. Oh, heavens.
- 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).
  - In The Movie, it was more of a heterosexual three-way between Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn.
  - According to the appendices at the end of Return of the King, dwarven women accounted for less than a third of their population, and the number of dwarf men that marry is actually less than a third, much of which is thanks to them "being engrossed in their crafts." Heterosexual (or perhaps asexual?) life partners could very well be the dwarven norm.
Turin and Beleg in Tolkien's The Children Of Hurin/The Silmarillion.
- Finally, Silmslash that is not Fingon/Maedhros! (How in heaven's name did that one come about, anyway?)
  - This troper attributes it to the fact that the Fingon/Maedhros FRIENDSHIP is a clear parallel to the David/Jonathan FRIENDSHIP; ergo, the Biblical presumed slash comes along for the ride.
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.
In the ruining-your-childhood-one-trope-at-a-time category, 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.)
- 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.
Kellanved and Dancer in Malazan Book Of The Fallen.
- Also Hedge and Fiddler.
- And Tehol and Bugg.
- And Kalam and Quick Ben.
David and Jonathan from The Bible. When Jonathan dies, David laments that he loved him more than any woman. Ho Yay ensures.
- Not quite Ho yay considering the different biblical definitions of "love".
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.
- This particular relationship was Doomed By Adaptation since in the 1992 film adaptation he is Chingachgook's second 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.
Tom and Carl from Young Wizards (very possibly a gay couple, but that's never been stated outright by canon, so I put them here too). If they aren't a couple, they're still two successful thirty-something men who live together.
- Word Of God states that they are, in fact, a couple, and so are NOT heterosexual life partners.
  - Where did she say that? I didn't know it had been confirmed one way or the other.
Rivera and Cavuto from Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story — sort of, as Cavuto actually is gay.
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.
- Lampshaded in the 1991 anime, where Liu Bei's jealous oath brothers are quite snide about just how close Zhuge Liang seems to be. (They eat their words after he proves to be a frickin' genius.)
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.
Warriors: Ravenpaw and Barley; Fireheart and Graystripe.
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 pissed 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.
- Though it can also be seen as a Father-Son relationship, or even brotherly. Just ignore the Butler/Artemis slash...
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".
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.
- If there was anything sexual, it was purely on Sirius' side. You know...I'm starting to see that as a possibility. Eek.
- 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.
- Some see the friendship between Sirius and Remus this way as well.
- It's actually not that hard to become obsessed with someone in a nonsexual way.
- What about Harry and Ron, who seem to become apathic, depressed and hostile toward everyone else, when they fight each other. Their break-ups resemble lovers' quarrels.
  - Now they're basically brothers, so they probably continue this way even as they grow up.
Arthur and Ford in The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. Ford constantly saves Arthur's ass, even when it'd be more convienient for Ford to simply take off and leave Arthur behind—suprising, 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.
- Just ignore the fangirls...
- 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 damn 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. 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 — seriously, is there anything these two don't do together?
- To be fair, Darcy's doing it for Bingley— 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.
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 Nakama. 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.
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
Bastian and Atreyu in The Neverending Story.
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.

Live Action TV

Cory and Shawn in Boy Meets World.
- And, oddly enough, so are their older brothers, Jack and Eric.
Van and Munter from the New Zealand TV show Outrageous Fortune.
Nico and Grady from Sonny with a Chance, even with their own 'breakup' episode where they try to replace one another with Sonny.
Crockett and Tubbs in Miami Vice.
The title characters of Starsky And 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 conveived 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.
- "Not that there's anything wrong with that!"
Detectives Kevin Ryan and Javier Esposito on Castle lampshaded in 'The Double Down':
Castle: (to Esposito, after Ryan left abruptly) Don't worry, he still loves you.
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.
- In a recent episode, J.D. mentions Turk being the love of his life, after expecting him to say Elliot.
Jed and Leo on The West Wing are practically the embodiment of the trope. Granted, Jed has a wife whom he loves very much, but the two of them have an extremely close friendship that goes very,very far back and are utterly devoted to each other. Leo is willingly subservient to the President, his faithful servant, if you will, while the President is heavily dependant on Leo, whom he considers much smarter than himself. The two of them also spend as much time as humanly possible in each other's company while at work.
- Jed even teases Leo about it!
- Sam and Josh as well. They were often portrayed as younger versions of Jed and Leo, though neither was subservient to the other, until Sam was written out and Josh got more focused on Donna.
- In a slight variation, CJ and Toby apparently go way, way, way back, without any implications of a sexual relationship even though they are of opposite genders. Their jobs dilute their duo to a foursome, however.
- 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.
- Mohinder and Matt were shaping up to become this in season 2. They moved in together and even adopted a daughter that they were co-raising. Though, seeing as how Matt had a wife and may marry Daphne someday if the future holds true, this is either one way Ho Yay on Mohinder's part or just that they both care a lot for Molly. Of course, Matt was single at the time...
The titular characters from Drake And Josh.
JT and Toby from Degrassi The Next Generation.
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.
- Well, Adama's breakdown might be be more to do with the fact that a LOT of the people in his life are Cylons, One surrogate daughter was revealed as one when she SHOT him, one surrogate daughter is suspected of being one, one surrogate daughter is one; his best friend has turned out to be a cylon, AND fron the Caprica spoilers his sister was turned into one of the first Cylons. Ever,
- 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.
- That editor recalls correctly. This one cried.
  - 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.
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 while dying inside a virtual world of a dying man (don't ask), 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."
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 Nog: 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 wheel barrel (he's from Leeds, you see). Howard protests, claiming he was drunk, and Vince laughs, "I know, so was I — I was in the wheel barrel."
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.
  - Even when Rimmer does get someone else to talk to in Me Squared, it all goes wrong and he comes crawling back to Lister.
  - Let's not even get started on Lister's Dream Sequence in Blue..
  - Well, Lister himself was pretty horrified about that dream once he’d woken up. But still …
Mark and Jeremy on Peep Show definitely fall under this trope, possibly because they're both so appalling no-one else will put up with them for long. As Jeremy thinks at the end of one episode "I'm his one!"
- 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. Also, they share their own heaven together because they are "soul-mates".
- 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.
Shawn and Gus from Psych
Chandler and Joey from Friends
Vorenus and Pullo from Rome.
Carly and Sam from iCarly.
Crews and Ted from Life.
Chuck and Morgan from Chuck.
- Jeff and Lester, too.
Max and OB from Hollyoaks.
Ray and Fraser from Due South.
- Which Ray? There were two, after all.
  - Both. But Ray Kowalski was the one Fraser went off with at the end of the series.
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.
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.
Christian and Sean from Nip/Tuck
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.
Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May are all long-time friends off-camera — which helps explain how horrific they can be to each other on the show.
- Clarkson and May were among the first to visit Hammond when he wound up in the hospital after crashing in a rocket car doing 288 mph.
Greys 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.
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
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.
- 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.
  - Their respective girlfriends Darla and Drusilla are an even better example, as seen on Angel Season 2. That actually hung over the precipice of Ho Yay, really, despite the Grandmother-Granddaughter/Daughter-Mother thing going on simultaneously...
  - Both of these are rather questionable as it's Word Of God that Angel(us) and Spike had at least one "intimate" time together and Drusilla and Darla have "had relations" with a third party concurrently... then take a bath together while hanging all over each other and, well, caressing. And Parental Incest doesn't apply. Sires, while functioning as mother/father, often have sexual relationships with those they sired. If you think Freud Was Right, then the whole process of siring is a very sexual thing in and of itself. The vampire makes his fangs grow so that he can penetrate the body of his victim ending with his blood - one of two life fluids - entering his victims body.
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.
The title characters on Kate & Allie.
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.
Kirk and Spock of Star Trek The Original Series are the epitome of this trope.
- 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.)
- To be fair to the other Hetero-Lifemate pairing of the show; the Kirk/Spock relationship grew exponentially over the course of the series, but 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.
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 the most recent season 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. (And then, of course, there's the scene at the end of the latest episode where Alex has written 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.")
Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin. Napoleon's steady stream of girlfriends (and Illya's occasional fling) does nothing to deter shippers, naturally.
- At least one fanfic posited that the 'gay' rumors were started by Angelique, Napoleon Solo's...something-interest in THRUSH's ranks, in retaliation for Ilya's accurate assessment of her murderous personality.
Perceval and Karadoc in the French show Kaamelott spend so much time with eachother, 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.
Barney, Marshall and Ted from How I Met Your Mother
- True for all three, but truer for Barney-Ted and Marshall-Ted. Lampshaded in The Three Days Rule where Barney and Marshall change a girl's number in Ted's phone to Barney's work cell number, knowing Ted won't wait three days to call. He texts and they keep texting back, pretending to be the girl. At least twice, they stop, look at each other, and ask "Why do we keep trying to have sex with Ted?
- This is after they've begun arguing over which of them Ted is having erotic dreams about, as mentioned in the fake text message.
Frasier and Niles Crane fit this trope perfectly. Granted, they are brothers, but they are also best friends and constant companions, quite beyond what you'd normally expect from siblings. 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.
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.
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
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 Mc Kay 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 Mc Kay.
Cybill and Maryanne on Cybill.
Oddly enough, Lorelei and Rory Gilmore might arguably fit this trope, oddly because they're also mother/daughter.
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
Tod and Buz of Route 66.
Nick Stokes and Warrick Brown of CSI. 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"
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 MASH. "I'll never be able to shake you," Hawkeye says to BJ in the last episode.
Laverne and Shirley.
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 outrightly hostile to the girl.
Maura Isles and Jane Rizzoli of the titular 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 so Raised By Wolves that 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.
Chumlee and Corey of Pawn Stars. Despite the fact that Chum annoys Corey, they care about each other.

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), bordering on Most Triumphant Example. Not that they haven't made us wonder about that first word.
- They're also part of a Nakama (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".
Matt 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 Nakama 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.
For some reason the Team 3D hasn't been mentioned.

Radio

Phil Harris and his guitar player Frankie on The Phil Harris Alice Faye Show.
Eccles and Bluebottle on The Goon Show.

Tabletop Games

Ursarker E. Creed, Lord Castellan of Cadia, and Colour Sergeant Jarran Kell of the Warhammer 40000 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.
"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.
- Not to mention that Rod has non-platonic, repressed feelings for Nicky.
Voldemort and Quirrell are at least this by the end of A Very Potter Musical.
- They were gay through and through. Very gay.
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.

Video Games

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 little 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 Lifepartners. 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.
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!
Sora and Riku from Kingdom Hearts. Sora reacts with such heartfelt gladness over Riku's return in the second game that it somewhat overshadowed his reunion with his nominal love interest Kairi. It was obvious enough that one webcomic artist did a parody of the scene.
- Perhaps seeing as Sora pulled off a Heroic Sacrifice during he and Kairi's reunion in the original game, the developers didn't want to make anything as big of it this time around. To be fair, Kairi was the one who had to show Sora it was Riku in the first place. Well, let's think about this. Sora spent his KH 2 journey knowing (for the most part) that Kairi was perfectly safe, at least up until her kidnapping. But with Riku, it's an entirely different story. Considering how they parted ways at the end of KH 1, it seems perfectly understandable that he reacted the way he did. I mean, Sora left Riku behind at Kingdom Hearts. He left him there. Can you just imagine the guilt he must have been carrying? Add that to all the leftover regret and tension from Riku's Demonic Posession, plus the clues Sora kept finding (leaving him, with his vivid imagination, to wonder exactly WHY his best friend refused to show himself), and the fact that Sora's entire motive in the second game was specifically about finding Riku... I'd be surprised if Sora hadn't reacted like he did.
- What about Roxas and Axel? Whatever the Yaoi Fangirls say, they were written to have a deep bond of platonic friendship. There are also several different Organization pairings fangirls like to make up, but are unlikely as A) Roxas and Axel are the only ones who seem to show true emotion, and B) Since Nobodies are kind of etherial beings.
  - Well, it was more like Axel having a one-sided obsession with hanging out with Roxas. In his mind, they were definitely Heterosexual Life Partners (or something more, all depending on the person). Roxas didn't seem to feel the same way about Axel nearly as much, considering that he was very quick and willing to abandon Axel so he could go off and find those "friends" from his memories (which he admitted he desired). Not to mention the whole "No one would miss me" thing, with him completely disregarding Axel. Even in 358/2 Days, Roxas' level of friendship toward Axel and Axel's level of friendship toward Roxas are different from one another, with Axel's level being none too good.
  - Well, not so much poisonous as selfish. Not to mention the fact that Axel hadn't felt emotions for over ten years, so it's no surprise that he got a little crazy over the whole issue. Also, Roxas only abandoned Axel because of a percieved betrayal on Axel's part. Granted, the perception was partially true, but that's besides the point.
Reno and Rude of Final Fantasy VII and its spin-offs fit the bill.
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.
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 Mia 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.
  - Actually, Ike and Soren fit this trope very well. It's obvious that Soren is very attached to Ike (and crosses the line into Ho Yay quite often) since Ike was his first and according to Soren, his only friend. Ike respects Soren deeply and is more than willing to let Soren cry on his shoulder when he starts breaking down about his past. Not to mention that they end up leaving on a journey together in Radiant Dawn if they have an A-support.Both get rather upset when the other dies or is injured in battle, although Soren more so.
Soren: Ike? Ike! This can't... It can't... What am I... If you're not here, what am I to do?
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.
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 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.
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."
- ... did I just get rick rolled by a treaty?
Ralf and Clark in The King Of Fighters (and their series of origin, Ikari Warriors).
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.
Yui and Mako in Lux Pain. It makes Mako's death really hard on 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.

Webcomics

Brent and Cole of Pv P. Also Robby and Jase, the strips 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.
Ben and Eric from Loserz sometimes come close.
Casimiro and Finas of Hanna Is Not A Boys 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.
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.
Pretty much any Two Gamers On A Couch, when they're not trying to murder each other:
- Ethan and Lucas in Ctrl Alt Del.
- Gabe and Tycho from Penny Arcade, though several strips have shown that Gabe is only gay for Spiderman. And Patrick Swayze.
Robin and Jason in The Wotch.
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 shit 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.
The titular Sam and Fuzzy.
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. Wordof 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.
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.
- That's just absurd. Black Mage doesn't need a REASON to stab people!
Subverted in Coming Up Violet with the school bullies. (No link; the comic is now dead.)
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.
Dave and John from Homestuck are either this or Ho Yay. It's hard to tell, though it's probably safe to assume that Dave is just being ironic with his occasional Ship Tease. Probably.
Suicide For Hire's Arcturus and Hunter.

Web Original

Raimi and Oran of Broken Saints, although it takes them a while to bond.
Agents Five of Six and Tadkeeta Penguin in Protectors of the Plot Continuum.
- In fact, a lot of Agent partnerships go under this heading.
Kazamaru and Kebano, apparently.
Spoony and Linkara give the distinct impression of being this in the instances where they interact, such instances being much more common for the two of them than it is for other Channel Awesome people.
- And, of course, the Chick and Nella.
- Even though they're brothers, Doug and Rob too. They moved out of their parent's house recently and are now living together. They also proposed to their girlfriends on the same day.
"Home Star Runner"'s Strong Bad and the Cheat, as well as Strong Mad and the Cheat. Homestar and Pom Pom are supposed to be this, but in recent cartoons it's become much less apparent.
Jacob Charles and Ben Powell, or as their more affectionately known by the handlers, "BROMIES!".

Western Animation

Toy Story: Buzz and Woody.
Lenny and Carl on The Simpsons. There have been a few jokes about this, of course.
- Recent seasons have done the same for Wiggum and Lou. Wiggum is usually the overly emotional wife/girlfriend.
  Wiggum Lou, you can't leave the force! I can change!
  Lou I just think there's more money in private security.
  Wiggum What I'm hearing is I'm too fat! [Eats a sundae between sobs]
- While Smithers would obviously prefer his relationship with Mr. Burns to be something different, Mr. Burns himself seems to view their relationship this way. Smithers seems to be one of the very few people Burns regards with something more than disdain or outright hatred, to the point where he's "rewarded" Smithers' devotion with the "honor" of being buried alive with him after he dies.
- Makes a different sense since it was revealed that the two are really half-brothers.
  - Source? We are shown Carl being on (way) friendlier terms with Lenny's mother than Lenny, but that's about it.
- Bart and Millhouse.
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.
Mr. Small and Mr. Nosey in The Mr Men Show, also Mr. Persnickety and Mr. Messy.
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.
Andy and Jim in Mission Hill.
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 series has been known to play with their growing relationship:
[Stewie and Brian kiss to hide their faces]
Brian: [breaks the kiss] Come on, we gotta follow them. Stewie?
Stewie: Huh? Oh, oh, uh...
Brian: Everything all right?
Stewie: Uh, yeah, uh...hey, listen, freakin' shot in the dark: You wanna do something sometime?
- The episode "Brian & Stewie" even has them admit that they love each other as friends.
Mac and Bloo from Fosters 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.
Spongebob and Patrick of Spongebob Squarepants.
- Technically, Spongebob is Asexual, but Heteroromantic.
  - They may have meant biologically.
  - In which case he's hermaphroditic.
  - There's a difference between no gender and both genders.
  - Do you understand what you're debating?
Walter and Perry in Home Movies. They seem really intimate with each other; wearing matching clothes, holding hands, and just being inseparable.
- They're hardly "heterosexual" life partners.
Jumba and Pleakley of Lilo And Stitch, especially in the sequel movies and series. The fact that Pleakley is a Wholesome Crossdresser doesn't help the Ho Yay any.
- Gets even worse when you realise their cover is husband and wife, being Lilo's aunt and uncle (Jumba's the man).
Sully and Mike in Monsters INC. They even live in the same apartment! Though, Mike does have a girlfriend, lessening the Ho Yay somewhat. And then their theme song turns it right back around...
You and me together,
That's how it always should be,
One without the other
Don't mean nothin' to me...
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.
Despite the former feeling little more than contempt for the latter, Ren And Stimpy are a textbook example of the trope. 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 episode.
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?!
- In many episodes we can see Clyde and Token spending too much time together, or sitting near each other. This has been available for Craig and Tweek, too, since they fought each other. Not to mention the great amount of fanfics about them.
- Cartman and Kyle slip into this, whenever they're not loathing each other.
And then there's Ace and Gary, the Ambiguously Gay Duo.
- An audio commentary from the actors said that they thought the funniest outcome would be to have one of the Duo be gay, but couldn't agree on which one.
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.
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 Ami Yumi 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 Ninos.
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 And The Diamond Castle
"Ch— Ch— Ch— Chip and Dale!"
- Rescue Rangers!
Rocko and Heffer.
Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble are a popular example of this.
The Venture Brothers 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 Brothers is nothing but Heterosexual Life Partners. Even if you don't count the aforementioned, plus the titular 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 Mc Graw 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.
Phineas And Ferb, a pair of inseparable (step)brothers. Also, from the same show, Perry and 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.)
Squizgar Squigelf and Toki Wartooth from Metalocalypse are a fairly good example of this trope.
Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn in Batman TAS, 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.
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 Entrèe from Spliced.
Fanboy and Chum Chum are two best friends who live together in a water tower with no parents whatsoever.

Real Life

It has been argued that this form of relationship or "Romantic Friendship" was actually quite common until the beginning of the 20th century (at which time any expression of love contracted a sexual overtone).
Oprah and her friend Gayle. At least according to Kathy Griffin.
Justin Timberlake and Timbaland.
Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte.
- Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins.
Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki.
- Michael Jordan and Charles Oakley.
One biography states that The Beatles were closer to one another than each was to his respective girlfriend or wife during their career together (at least before things started falling apart).
- It's pretty much assumed by everyone now that that was the case at least for John and Paul.
- The other members of the band have pretty much all-but-admitted that when Yoko entered the scene, they felt threatened by John's intensely close relationship with her and by the fact that, unlike previous girlfriends, she was invading 'their' space (by coming along to studio recordings and such).
- This would also explain why, when the 'break-up' did eventually come, it was so filled with bitterness.
Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki are like the JD and Turk of the Real Life world.
- Which one is Chocolate Bear?
- You forgot that they've both read Wincest fanfics.
Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato
- Not anymore, sadly.
Fall Out Boy's lead singer and bass player have literally been called Heterosexual Life Partners.
- Which is probably going to be dampened by the fact that said bass player is now married with a kid.
- In a recent Ustream chat, said bass player Pete Wentz referred to said lead singer Patrick Stump as his Patronus. His wife agreed. Wentz also refused fan demands to prank call Stump during the chat, under the pretense that Stump was his homeboy.
Ryan Ross and Alex Greenwald
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (as mentioned above) are indeed best friends in real life. It was through their friendship that Frost got his big break, as Pegg was somehow able to get him a supporting role in Spaced (which grew in importance as the series went on) despite him having no professional training or experience. The pair, while they are both developing separate acting careers, still turn up together in plenty of TV shows and movies. The suggested Ho Yay is often acknowledged and played up by them in behind the scenes material (such as the Hot Fuzz video blogs) and even in the characters they play.
Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes, as mentioned above.
- And to a lesser extent, Smith and Scott Mosier, who was the producer of most of his movies.
- Also, Bryan Johnson and Walt Flanagan (Fanboy and Steve-Dave in the View-Askewniverse). Walt said on their podcast that he wouldn't mind being married to Bryan as long as they didn't have to have sex.
Michael Cera and Clark Duke.
The poet Dylan Thomas had this relationship with his friend Vernon Watkins. Somewhat of an unusual situation in that Thomas actually believed Watkins was gay and was surprised when he eventually married.
James Buchanan, the only US President who never married, and William King, the only US Vice President who never married (although King died before Buchanan became president). When they were senators in the 1830s and 40s they lived together and were apparently inseparable. Many people have speculated that they were gay lovers, but Buchanan also (unsuccessfully) courted women at the same time, and earlier in his life he was engaged to wealthy heiress (they broke up after a disagreement and shortly thereafter she committed suicide). As pointed out above, this type of arrangement between men was very common at the time and wasn't necessarily perceived as Ho Yay.
- Actually, regardless of Buchanan's actual sexual orientation, it was percieved as Ho Yay at the time, as evidenced by phrases like "Buchanan and his wife" or "Aunt Fancy" for King.
Penn And Teller. Penn Jillette told once in an interview with Larry King that even though he enjoys working with Teller, they were never close friends, and that that's the secret for a long working relationship like theirs: that it's JUST work. But he's also said that Teller is probably his best friend, but they rarely spend time together outside of work since they spend so much time together for it.
- Also, that isn't the first Teller.
Similary averted with Mythbusters hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman. Because of their good on-screen chemistry, many people assume they're Heterosexual Life Partners. But in reality, it really is JUST work.
Jack Black and Kyle Gass.
Wao Youka and Hanafusa Mari, who were top stars together and have continued to work together since retiring from the Takarazuka. The 'hetero-' is up for debate here...
Ant & Dec have been HL Ps since they got together on the set of Byker Grove and are so famously together that they have one combined page on the other wiki.
- They have one combined page on this wiki too.
- They're releasing a joint biography. Pretty much all of the other pairings have done some things apart from each other. Ant And Dec haven't.
Adrian Pasdar and Milo Ventimiglia
Montaigne and Etienne de La Boétie.
George Clooney and Brad Pitt.
Matthew McConaughey and Lance Armstrong.
Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen.
Joss Whedon and Nathan Fillion.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
Colin Mochrie and Ryan Stiles.
Pete Doherty and Carl Barât. (Once of the band The Libertines; their song "Can't Stand Me Now" was about the ups and downs of their relationship.)
In both Real Life and Professional Wrestling circles there is Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin (aka the Murder City Machine Guns) who have actually refered to each other by the trope name.
Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie are arguably Hetero Life Partners, even though one of them is gay. Both of them have other "sexual" partners, but they are totally two peas in a pod.
- Actually, according to the TV Tropes Asexuality page, Stephen Fry is asexual, but prefers the company of men in general. So back to the "Life Partners" thing.
Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick (creators of the Venture Bros) definitely count. Seriously, listen to the commentaries.
- They're basically the same person, they've said so themselves. Their taste in everything is almost suspiciously similar. They seem to agree on almost everything about the show and write almost identically, despite the fact that they seem completely different and didn't start hanging out until not long before creating the show.
David Mitchell and Robert Webb.
- Although both have acknowledged that they consciously attempt to spend less time in each other's company outside of work these days, in order to prevent their working relationship (and friendship) becoming poisoned by too much enforced proximity.
Chace Crawford and Ed Westwick.
Johnny Depp and Tim Burton.
- Arguably, Danny Elfman could also fit with Tim Burton. He scored, in whole or in part, almost all of Tim's movies.
James Corden and Mathew Horne.
Henry Rollins and the late Joe Cole.
Henry Rollins and Adam Rifkin.
Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna
British comedy duo Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson also fit this trope to some extent; having been close friends and working as partners since their University days.
Ben and Jerry?
Abraham Lincoln and his good friend Joshua Speed, to the point of them even sharing a bed together at one point.
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and his protege Clyde Tolson. They drove to work together every morning, dined together every evening and even vacationed together. When Hoover died, he left his entire estate to Clyde, who even accepted the flag off of his coffin (usually reserved for widows). Rumors abound that Hoover's soft stance on organized crime was due to the Mafia having a picture of the two that would strike the heterosexual from heterosexual life partners, though no photograph has ever come to light.
Quinton Flynn and Jeff Nimoy (both voice actors who work in anime/video games) are constantly with each other. And constantly mistaken for gay. They've been mistaken for gay so many times that they wrote a song about it and played it at a panel they were doing [1] after accidentally walking into a screening room showing yaoi and having the entire room think they were together.
Method Man and Redman
Christian Web entertainers Rhett & Link
- Rhett and Link are the ultimate example of this trope. They've been best friends since first grade, went to the same schools their whole lives, and were even college roommates for four years before Link finally got married and moved out. Today, they produce internet material together as a full time job, with little to no outside help. They've seen each other just about every day since first grade. In fact, they exude this trope so much that they semi-regularly have to state in their videos that no, they're not gay, and do in fact have seperate homes with wives and children. Otherwise, people tend to assume that they're a gay couple who live in their studio.
University of Texas quarterback Colt McCoy and his wide receiver/roommate Jordan Shipley.
The Google Guys - Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte?
Ron Howard and Brian Grazer.
Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson of ABBA.
Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert.
- More like Penn & Teller, they were not really friends outside of the job.
Cary Grant and Randolph Scott. (for certain values of "heterosexual")
Jonny Lee Miller and Jude Law.
Hunter S Thompson and Oscar Z Acosta, that is until the latter disappeared somewhere on the Gulf of Mexico.
Seth MacFarlane and Seth Green.
Adam Carolla and Jimmy Kimmel.
The Firesign Theatre briefly broke up for a year or so in the early seventies. David Ossman and Phil Austin both did solo albums, but Peter Bergman and Phil Proctor did a couple of albums together as Proctor and Bergman.
Andrew Andrew, two men named Andrew (last names unknown) who basically try to act as one person with two bodies.
Robert Pattinson and Tom Sturridge: It seems they even share clothes.
Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have said that they don't really socialise outside work (Stephen: "In theory, I think Jon would be excellent company, I just have nothing to back it up") but that hasn't stopped fanfic writers from portraying them as this. Bill O'Reilly, of all people, stoked the fire when he said to Jon on The Daily Show that he "saw you guys in a bar"...
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Keith: "I always feel sorry for Mick's women. They always end up crying on my shoulder and I'm thinking 'How do you think I feel? I'm stuck with him!"
George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. They had one hell of a first lovechild. Your Mileage May Vary on the rest.
Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. After Cushing's death, Lee called him his "one friend whom you love and care for very much...so close to you that you are able to share some things only with him." Ironically, they often played hero/villain when both were doing Hammer horror movies.
Patton Oswalt and Brian Posehn.
James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich.
Laurel and Hardy
Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, though it got a bit squicky at times.
Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz. Of course a lot of fans like to imagine the whole "hetero" part is technical at best.
Robert DeNiro and Martin Scorsese...and Harvey Keitel...and Joe Pesci. DeNiro's kind of a hetero-life-mate bigamist.
As mentioned above, Morecambe and Wise - they had an extremely close friendship off stage/screen as well as on. Eric Morecambe's son has stated in interviews that they were closer than any brothers he's ever known, and that although they weren't above disagreeing with each other they would invariably unite and turn on anyone who tried to criticise one or the other, even if the person offering the criticism was a family member. Eddie Braben, one of their most important writers for their BBC shows, has reported Morecambe as telling Wise to "hurry back, I'll go cold all down one side" when the latter had to leave the stage for some reason. When Morecambe died suddenly of a heart attack in 1984, Wise referred to him in interviews as "a partner and brother", and his death was like "losing a limb".
Accord to Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel, Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo and San Francisco 49ers coach Steve Mariucci, who grew up in the same town and lived together during their seven years of college. Izzo refers to Mariucci as "his clone", and when they were living together their families started to wonder about them. They eventually got married (to women, not each other) and are now godfathers to each other's kids.
Mike Barker and Matt Weitzmann.
CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien are notable for having been a heterosexual life partner Takahashi Couple.
Dave Mustaine and David Ellefson of Megadeth certainly qualify as this.
Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts.
Adam Busch, Tom Lenk, and Danny Strong, aka The Trio live next to each other.
George Romero and Tom Savini.
Donald Fagen and Walter Becker
John Linnell and John Flansburgh
Daz and Chip, otters in a New Zealand zoo. Read their story. Five bucks says you tear up.
Bill Cosby and his I Spy costar Robert Culp. They spent so much time together their wives had to become friends by default.
Hamish and Andy... 'nuff said.
Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, though all five of the lads in Aerosmith seem to be this trope for each other. Steven and Joe sometimes border on Vitriolic Best Buds and Cannot Stand Them Cannot Live Without Them, though- see the period of 1979-1984 when Joe left the band, and mid/late 2009-early 2010, when Steven and Joe had a rather large, cold, public feud. They have since buried the hatchet on both sides, and are touring together and trying to finish up Aerosmith's Vaporware 15th studio album.
For most of The Nineties, Trent Reznor and Chris Vrenna.
James Stewart and Henry Fonda
George Harrison and Ravi Shanker
Jared "Dirty J" Watson and Dustin "Duddy B" Bushnell of the band Dirty Heads
Corey Haim and Corey Feldman
Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Arthur Hallam. Tennyson and Hallam were best friends; Hallam even became engaged to Tennyson's sister. Sadly, Hallam died young (only twenty-two), and his death deeply affected Tennyson, who wrote the poem In Memoriam A.H.H. to cope/come to terms/honor his friend (among other things). The poem took him sixteen years to finish.
Going by their interviews together and how they talk about each other, Sharlto Copley and Quinton Jackson from The A Team have apparently become HL Ps, starting from when Jackson told Copley to become an American citizen so "[they'd] be the only two African-Americans in this movie".
"This Troper and his best friend" is something many of us could write.
Among real life nonhumans, the young hippo Owen and the turtle Mzee have astonished scientists with their friendship, demonstrating that close friendship is not restricted to humans or even mammals.
Alexander Hamilton, John Laurens, and the Marquis de Lafayette were so close, that Hamilton's son John called them "the three musketeers".
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were a Heterosexual Takahashi Couple with a deep-seated rivalry. They waited until each other died, on July 4th 1826.
Ian Mac Kaye and Guy Picciotto of Fugazi. Hell, all four members of Fugazi. It was once speculated they lived together in monastic seclusion and ate nothing but brown rice.
The Indigo Girls look like Platonic Homosexual Life Partners, but like Penn and Teller don't really have anything to do with each other outside of rehearsals and performances.
Dave Sim and Gerhard. There are rumors that Sim's seemingly abrupt swing into vehement misogyny was caused by Gerhard's marriage.
Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black. Also, they have issues.