Times where a situation is Not What It Looks Like to others in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- In TheNamelessDoll's video Anywhere But Here
, Anastasia sees Jim with Esmeralda and thinks they're flirting. Jim was just talking with his friend Esmeralda about how he's unsure what to do about his love for Anastasia. - The Bridge (MLP): Rodan abruptly walks up to Rainbow Dash and presses their foreheads together so that she can join the telepathic conversation he is having with Mothra Lea. When it is over, they look up to find Rodan's kinda love interest Phoenix Flamez jealous and the other bystanders, including Rainbow's parents, thinking they were getting intimate. They frantically try to explain it's not what they think.
- In Deku the Warcrafted, Izuku makes a ring to help Uraraka manage her Quirk. The other girls in Class 1-A see him giving it to her and mistake it for a proposal, embarrassing them both.
- Subverted in the Haruhi Suzumiya/TV Tropes crossover Kyon: Big Damn Hero. Kyon is found in a compromising position just to be photographed and teased a little. He still says the line though.
- Love Hina Double Trouble: Wakana walks in while Kotonoha is trying to help Ryuji to clean the tea he'd spilled off his pants. He tries convincing her that she's mistaken the situation for something lewder than it was, to no avail.
- Manehattan's Lone Guardian: Limefrost Spiral fights off two muggers in an alley and leaves one unconscious on top of the other, with a knife pinning one of the thugs' tails to the ground. When Coffee and Drama investigate the alley for unrelated reasons, the thug frantically declares that it's not what it looks like. After the thugs leave, Drama's dialogue suggests that she thought they were having sex, while Coffee was able to discern the truth behind the matter.
- In Overlady, Louise walks in on her sister Cattleya in a compromising position with one of her maids.Cattleya: It’s not what it looks like!”
Louise severely doubted that. She was almost certain it was exactly what it looked like. Her sister had her head between the wide-open legs of another girl, who had her skirt rolled up to her waist. The girl – a maid by the looks of it – was slack-jawed and vacant-eyed. And there were fluids smearing her sister’s jaw.
No, whatever Cattleya might say, it was exactly what it looked like.
Her sister had certainly sunk her fangs into the thigh of the other woman and had been drinking her blood. - The renegade hero!!!....Invader Zim?: When Jinmay bursts into Zim's base to "rescue" Gaz from him (after he abducted her for a conversation) and finds them in a rather compromising-looking position (Zim grabbing her by the face to hold her close in an intimidation move, her hands on his chest to push him away, and his leg at the right angle to partially push up her skirt), she immediately goes into tease mode and questions if she's interrupting something.
- In Shadow Snark, Shadow has Uma (who is female at the time) knocked out inside a sack (It Makes Sense in Context).
- In the Worm/Exalted crossover She Who Skitters In Shadows, Tattletale gives Skitter her phone number after meeting her in a restaurant. Of course, the real reason Tattletale gave her that note was so they could discuss the Abyssal Exaltation lodged in Skitter's soul, but Skitter can't tell them that. Cue the Wards joking about how Skitter's 'a player'.
- Before that, there's the scene of Skitter drinking Panacea's blood to heal herself, which everyone misinterprets.
- Shinji and Warhammer40k: In chapter 24, Shinji and his father are alone in a room and Shinji punches himself to get his father in trouble. When Misato stormed into the place and saw Shinji bleeding, Gendo tried to explain what this was not what it looked like... and then he shut up because he realized that NOBODY would believe him.
- In Chapter 14 of Stardust, Lana walks in on Matt cuddling Twilight Sparkle (he's comforting her, somewhat involuntarily — she hugged him first, he's under orders not to touch her without her permission — over her Chryssalid-related issues). Naturally, she can't resist teasing him about it.
- The title of Stars Above's fifth chapter is this. Kagami says it when Tsukasa misinterprets seeing her lying in Homura's lap.
- Super Sentai vs. Super Sentai: Invoked. After being dropped into the sea, Youhei rescues the unconscious Miki and has to take off all her wet clothes to prevent Catch Your Death of Cold. He actually dwells on the idea of her waking up to him undressing her and misinterpreting things, but it doesn't end up happening.
- Inverted and mixed with Sarcastic Confession in Thousand Shinji. Misato walks in on Shinji and Asuka on top of each other with a broken chair nearby.Shinji: "This is exactly what it looks like. Asuka and I were making out so hot and heavy, we broke a chair."
Misato: "Damnit. If you're going to fight, at least don't break the furniture." - In The Weaver Option the traitor Cardinal Hoth's flagship is decorated in a way that makes his allegiance to Tzeentch blatantly obvious. When his ship is boarded by the Inquisition and Astartes, this is the only defense he can offer.Hoth: Gentleman, it isn't what it looks like.
- White Devil of the Moon: An Omake scene has Fate tying Nanoha to the bed after she breaks her convalescence leave again, complaining about how that seems to be the only way to make her stop and rest. Hayate walks in and assumes she interrupted something else entirely.
- In Bullet with Butterfly Wings, Barok von Zeik is shot in his home with Herlock Sholmes as the lead suspect. Sholmes tells Naruhodo and Susasto that before the incident Herlock and Barok shared telegrams that sounded like Barok was threatening him, but was really the prosecutor's dark sense of humor. He warns them that the police and the prosecution could mistake it for an actual threat and a motive for the detective. While this does happen during the court, Barok's mother Amelia is able to dispel this, sharing that not only was Barok the same with his other friends but also his late brother Klint.
- The Plantar Family Pet:
- Since humans aren't native to Amphibia, Hop Pop mistakes Anne and Marcy cuddling together for something a little less innocent, separating them out of fear that they'll produce a litter of human babies.
- Sasha sees Anne receiving medical treatment and assumes that it's some kind of horrible experiment.
- Cat Tales: Non-romantic version in Blueprints, when Matt Hagen/Clayface shows his true "mudman" form to Sly (the bartender at the Iceberg Lounge). Sly starts staring at him wide-eyed, and Clayface gets annoyed because while Sly can handle people like Joker with no problem, he's "gawking at Clayface like Frankenstein's monster". Then it turns out Sly is gawking not because of Clayface's looks, but because Hagen is a former movie star, and Sly is a huge fan of Matt and his movies. Clayface is pleasantly surprised by this.
- In A Sunny Day in DC, Xander stops an attempted rape only to learn it was a couple roleplaying when the rapist uses a safeword and tells his "victim" that he didn't agree to a threesome.
- Twist of Fate: Touma carries Misaki and Seria around while all three are incredibly drunk, leading others to assume he was attempting to carry them to a bedroom or someplace similar.
- In the End has two if these; one with Lelouch's dead body and also when Nunnally finds out who Zero is and Suzaku tries to reassure her.
- Lelouch inverts this in Lelouch of Britannia after his bodyguards walk in on Kallen trying to assassinate him. Since he thinks she's a Stalker with a Crush and they're lying on top of each other (her half-naked, him completely naked), he calmly assures his bodyguards that it's exactly what it looks like and tells them to make sure they're not interrupted.
- Double Subverted in Esteem Roller. Jane and Sandi walk in on a half-naked Daria giving a nude Stacy a massage, and both assert that the massage was purely medicinal (Stacy having pulled a muscle) and the nudity was pragmatic (the massage oil involved was rather pungent and difficult to get out of clothing). And immediately after their denials, they learned that they were both closeted lesbians who were attracted to each other, meaning the prior setup had been intentional on both parts.
- The Self-Insert in Legal Crimes lives in a warehouse filled with toys, videogames, and cartoons, along with having installed a commercial walk in freezer and refrigerator. Batman and Flash assume he's a cannibal who eats children. In reality, the warehouse is cheap, the toys and such are for him, and the massive fridge and freezer are so he doesn't have to grocery shop often since he's rather antisocial.
- In the Digimon Frontier fanfic Mistaken, Kouji discovers his twin brother Kouichi has what looks like blood caked on his wrist and promptly starts freaking out with worry. Later he discovers, to his mixed relief and embarrassment, that it was just paint from Kouichi painting sets for the drama club; Kouichi does admit that the paint that caused Kouji's original Freak Out was for an extremely bloody murder scene and that it was formulated to look the exact color of real blood so Kouji's jump of logic wasn't completely unjustified.
- A Little Teary Eyed, by the same author, has Kouichi answering the door in tears, to Kouji's clear worry, but has him then start teasing his brother after he reveals he was chopping onions.
- A Little Teary Eyed
- all of the things we did wrong.: Valvatorez, Fenrich and Artina are gathered in his quarters having a somber conversation about her memories of the war when Fuka barges in. Their mere presence there is enough that she immediately accuses them of "getting raunchy together", having completely missed the grim atmosphere.
- In Tough To Swallow, Mr. Satan, to maintain his Fake Ultimate Hero reputation, treats Goku out for weekly meals. Soon, Mr. Satan starts asking Goku to train him, though he backs down out of despair when he realizes Bubbles the monkey was stronger than him. Goku confronts him in his bedroom where Mr. Satan was hiding, leading to Goku accidentally breaking the bed and scooping up a tearful Mr. Satan bridal-style. Where a photographer snaps photos of them "together" and leads the public to believe that Mr. Satan and Goku are having a steamy affair. The rest of Goku's family and friends find out and most either start laughing, are horrified or in disbelief but Chi Chi believes it and runs to confront Mr. Satan. Only to see Goku and Mr. Satan half-naked at the beach (they had been training in the ocean).
- In one tale in Tales of Fairies, the trope is averted when Cana casually states to Lucy that her making out with Loke while she's without her top and he has his shirt unbuttoned is what it looks like. When Lucy points out that Cana is suppose to say this trope, Cana replies that neither she nor Loke have any shame in admitting what they are doing.
- Fairytale of Doom: Subverted for laughs in chapter 25, when Levy, Lucy, and Jellal find Erza in a wedding dress and tied up in a chair with Gaston covered in wedding cake. Erza quickly tries to say the trope line only for Levy to interrupt and correctly deduce that Gaston had kidnapped and tied up Erza to forcefully marry her since she was cast as Belle and that Erza was rightfully lashing out him. She then cheekily asks Erza if this is an actual consensual wedding and that she's into such kinky actions, much to the warrior's embarressment.
- Parodied in this ''fan comic, where Kiara is resting her head on Hans Anderson's lap but wants to keep this softer side a secret to maintain her Nun Too Holy image. When their master arrives, Kiara frantically says this isn't what it looks like and she was doing something more sexual with Hans.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed
- A Well-Intentioned Blocking: Nie Mingjue thinks he’s come across his brother being assaulted by Jin Zixun. Turns out that it is a consensual game that they’re playing. Oops.
- In Catastrophes, Hermione slips on a bit of cake after a Food Fight and falls on the floor. When Harry goes to help her up, he slips himself and lands on top of her. Then Ron walks in, believes that they were having sex and accuses Hermione of cheating on him.
- In Harry Potter and Libromancy, Hermione sees Harry and Sarah enter an erotic graphic novel. When she goes to investigate, her mother spots her in the adult section holding a book of dirty pictures and jumps to the rather obvious conclusion.
- Harry has just hidden an "elf on the shelf" in The Rigel Black Chronicles, when Professor Lockhart comes across her, and is about to escort her back into the girls' bathroom, at 4:30 in the morning to check what she was up to. And then Professor Snape finds them.
- The Shoebox Project: Remus and Sirius take a tumble down a flight of stairs and wind up stuck on the helmet of a suit of armor, tangled up in each other. Mere moments later, Kingsley and Snape happen across them, with Snape sounding delighted when he asks, "Are they on each other?"
- In This Means War by Jeconais, there is an attempt to break Harry and Ginny up by convincing Cho Harry loves her and arrange for her to kiss him right as Ginny arrives. Ginny does see it, launches a punch, then we get a lengthy flashback to her older brothers teaching her to punch properly... cut to the present, and Ginny hits Cho right in the jaw - she knows Harry well enough that the situation looks exactly as it is to her.
- Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità: When Italy says he sleeps with Germany and Japan, he really did mean he just slept in their beds with them and nothing else. Until later...
- In Lost Boy, Hiccup tries to assure Stoick that he and Astrid did not have sex, Astrid simply needing company after she found out her father was going to sell her off to Snotlout. Stoick believes him, but warns him that if anyone saw Astrid sneaking to and from the house, everyone would make that assumption, tarring and feathering their reputations further.
- A Thing of Vikings: Gobber catches Hiccup and Astrid in a compromising situation that happens to be the result of a work accident.That gave Gobber a perfect view of Hiccup, the lad's hair smoking slightly, his shirt torn halfway open and smoldering, lying flat on his back, and Astrid, her shirt and pteruges also smoking slightly, crouched over him, her hair askew. She was breathing heavily, which was interrupted by a spasming hiccup.
Gobber took one look and felt a grin sprout. "Aye there lad, that's more like it!" he teased.
The two of them looked at each other and a moment of comprehension crossed their faces. Astrid leapt off of him like he was on fire, and they both started babbling.
"It's not what it looks like!"
"One of the Zippleback canisters cracked open!"
"We weren't doing anything!"
- Babysitting: While babysitting Jotaro's daughter Jolyne, Josuke and Okuyasu see her digging in the backyard before burying something inside the hole. When they ask her what was she doing, she replies that if you can't fix something, you have to bury it. Later that evening, the two discover that the starfish that Jotaro was studying is missing, causing them to suspect that Jolyne had taken it and buried it. It's then revealed that Jolyne only buried a vase that she broke, with Jotaro explaining that's pretty common for the girl.
- I Ain't a Doll, This Ain't a Dollhouse': In chapter 7, after Kakyoin reveals his suspicion of Giorno as a possible Joestar, Jotaro picks up his grandfather's suspicious silence and immediately suspects that Giorno is another'' illegitimate child of his like Josuke, especially since Joseph would be the only viable male Joestar to have a child when Giorno was conceived. Joseph has to reveal the more harrowing truth he got from Johanna's corpse in chapter 2: that Giorno is the son of DIO and Johanna, as a result of DIO's control and possession over her corpse.
- Jotaro Loves His Family has the titular Stand-user escorting his teenage aunt Josuko to a woman's clinic after she gets pregnant with her and Okuyasu's child. When they are there, Jotaro gets several dirty looks as people suspect that he is a delinquent that forced an underage and terrified girl into a relationship, particularly since Josuko is the granddaughter of a beloved late police chief, even leading to a co-worker of Ryohei pulling Jotaro outside to confront him. When Josuko returns from the check-up, she introduces Jotaro as her nephew, calling the police to balche in realization and quickly apologizing to Jotaro for the misplaced interrogation.
- Equal Romance 01: Tension Living" features Kim and Ron spending a week stuck together due to a malfunction in Drakken's latest invention, with this event also creating an occasional telepathic link between them. Unfortunately, this leads to Ron falling victim to a decidedly non-humorous version of this when Kim experiences a fragmentary telepathic link that leads to her concluding that Ron used the past week to emotionally manipulate her so that he could have sex with her, an assumption that isn't helped when she finds a condom he put in his pocket earlier in an idle "just in case" moment. The situation escalates in the sequel when Kim and Ron's first attempt at a mission sees Kim assume that Ron forcing her into a narrow crack while they're climbing a mountain is an attempt at sexual assault (he was actually trying to protect her from a boulder that was pushed down towards them by Drakken's henchmen).
- In Sex on the Beach, this is inverted and played straight both — inverted first, when Kairi mistakes Sora and Riku engaging in the eponymous activity for a Nobody attack. The "played straight" comes later when the three of them are congratulating each other on a struggle to escape being discovered by their parents... and Kairi's father walks in the door just in time to observe what appears to be a threesome.
- In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Link has to leave the forest and meets Saria, just as he did in the game. When he sees her, he tries to tell her this, but he quickly tells her the truth.
- It's (Not) Your Fault: What led to the whole mess. Rusty, jealous that Lincoln was getting close to Stella saw Lincoln and Sam together, snapped a photo of the pair while they were talking and doctored it to make it look like they were kissing. In truth, Lincoln was comforting Sam while they were waiting for Luna and, while they did consider kissing each other, they caught themselves and refused to do so. But apparently Rusty did a convincing job cause when he sent it out through his phone, near everyone brought that it was real, Luna especially despite Sam and Lincoln trying to explain otherwise.
- For His Own Sake: While working at the Kuromitsu Inn, Naru overhears a man teasing a nervous-looking woman. Automatically assuming the worst, she attacks and punches him out, only to learn that he was simply trying to convince his wife to play a fighting game with him at the arcade, teasing her about not being very good at them.
Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club
- In Kasumin's Super-Special Present, Kasumi is desperately trying to figure out a gift for Shizuku's birthday (especially as she wants to get something different than a romance novel since she knows the other school idols will get her that). When Rina suggested jewelry like rings, Kasumi nearly gets lost in a fantasy of her proposing to Shizuka for marriage. So she decides to get flowers along with a ring to avoid the implications... which would still come off as marriage proposal. Thankfully, the others are able to clear up the misunderstandings before Shizuka could think otherwise.Kasumi: AGGH! What do I do?!
Karin: What did you expect? Buying a ring and a bunch of flowers. How else did you think that would look?
- In the doujin YouChika Halloween Night, an attempt at a demon summoning by Yoshiko causes Chika to become a vampire and You to become a Cat Girl, with the changes said to last until after Halloween. When You is staying over at Chika's house, Chika gets hungry for blood and has to bite really hard to get to You's blood. Due to that night, a bandage on You's neck hiding the bite mark, and the rather intimidating word between the two, their unit mate Riko is convinced that they were in a heated passion that night before.
- Alya and the Harem Reality, Alya knowing Stompp's name despite being their first meeting and having faint memories of another timeline causes the Bull Kwamii to suspect that she used the Ladybug and the Cat Miraculous to try and change reality. Trixx has to quickly jump in and say Alya can't remember anything in full to make it clear that Alya had gotten in the way of someone's wish rather than deliberately using the Miraculouses.
- In The Internship by Neeko96, Gabriel gives Adrien and Marinette a rather stern talk once the girl is seen coming out of his son's room while he was following her with his pants unzipped. It's not like they can explain they just stumbled into each other when returning to the mansion after a mutual Identity Reveal, especially considering both weren't supposed to leave due to some public media issues.
- The Karma of Lies:
- Kitsune steps out to give Ladybug and Viperion a moment of privacy after he makes an unintentionally awkward suggestion, letting them hash things out. She comes back in just in time to witness him holding Ladybug gently, with the heroine immediately leaping back and saying it's not what it looks like.
- Played for Drama during the Final Battle with Mayura: Chat Noir defeats her, then offers a hand up, only for her to steal the Ring right off his finger. The footage captured by the news makes it appear as though he intentionally let her take it — and coupled with his exposure as Adrien Agreste, aka Hawkmoth's son, and how Chat Noir missed the last fight with Hawkmoth, people naturally assume the worst.
- LadyBugOut: Intentionally set up by Alya, who posts the picture she took of Ladybug and Chat Noir Kissing Under the Influence of their Obliviated memories and passes it off as proof that her favorite ship is sailing. She is fully aware of the context, as well as the fact that Ladybug specifically asked her not to share the photos, but does so anyway and attempts to hide the truth.
- Miraculous Ladybug Salt-Shots: ...How Could You? plays this for drama: Alya and Nino lock Marinette and Adrien into a janitor's closet and pretend an akuma's attacking, causing Marinette to go into a panic attack. When they reopen the door to find Adrien gently embracing and working her through it, both immediately start crowing about how well their plan worked, with Nino outright asking Adrien if he had a condom. Adrien and Marinette are horrified and disgusted by the pair, especially when both refuse to admit they did anything wrong.
- A non-romantic variant is Played for Drama in Missing. After Marinette mysteriously disappears, many of her classmates initially assume that she ran away from home. Alya, in particular, thinks that she's pulling a stunt for attention, though she comes to deeply regret thinking that way after learning that Lila is, in fact, just as bad as Marinette was trying to tell them. Others fear that her disappearance was far from voluntary. In reality, her disappearance is due to an akuma erasing Ladybug's memories of her alter ego, leading to her staying transformed and continuing to patrol Paris rather than heading home to a life she doesn't remember.
- In The One to Make It Stay, the pictures they find on Marinette's phone convince the Oblivated Ladybug and Chat Noir that she's dating Luka. Chat Noir decides to confess his feelings to her in order to get them off his chest, with no intention or expectations of having them returned... unaware that he normally makes a habit of harassing his partner. Alya then takes the footage and edits it to make it seem that Ladybug was receptive, posting it on her Ladyblog and creating all matter of problems as a result. Chief among them being that Hawkmoth reads the Ladyblog and is inspired to exploit their 'relationship'...
- In Phase Eight, Nino catches Ladybug and Chat Noir making out on the fire escape outside Adrien and Marinette's apartment, right when they're about to change back.Adrien: This isn't what it looks like.
Nino: It looks like you and Marinette are Chat Noir and Ladybug.
Adrien: Okay, this is exactly what it looks like. Sorry M'lady. I guess the cat's out of the bag.
Marinette: You used that line three years ago, you got to come up with better material. - Smart Adversaries AU:
- In Evillustrator Entangles, transforming into Ladybug frees Marinette from how Evillustrator bound her up. However, when she transforms back upon getting home, it all comes back, forcing her to call upon her parents for help.
- Puppeteer Too: Marinette wakes up to find herself kissing the real Adrien, and has to explain to the onlookers that she'd thought he was a wax figure.
- In Tangled Up In You, Marinette and Adrien end up on her bedroom floor in a compromising position after she knocks him backwards off his chair while trying to steal his phone (again). Sabine walks in on it but is more amused than anything else, calmly telling them when dinner will be ready.
- Young Midoriya: During a sparring session, Midoriya and Kendo wind up in a rather compromising-looking position that Ashido teases them about. Later on, Kendo tries flustering him at the Sports Festival by invoking this; it doesn't work that time.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- About Last Night:
- After discovering that they apparently got married at some point during the previous evening, Applejack attempts to take Twilight's wedding ring off. Said wedding ring is on her horn, and Applejack attempts to remove it with her teeth, while Twilight yells that she's being too rough and ordering her to be gentle. Naturally, this is when their friends find them.
- Later on, Twilight tries to get Applejack to open up about what's bothering her, warning that "I'm going to get rough!" if she doesn't start talking. Once again, this happens right as Rainbow Dash arrives.
- Friends with Everybody: Measurements has this little exchange:Flash Sentry: Sunset! This... this isn't what it looks like!
Sunset Shimmer: Well, it looks like Rarity was having some neck pains and you were being a good friend and helping her out with it. (I.e., giving her a neck massage.)
Flash Sentry: (truthfully) Um... in that case... it's exactly what it looks like. - Just An Everyday Princess: Non-romantic example in chapter seven, when Applejack sees a recently coronated Twilight riding on top of Big Macintosh with her guards on either side. She immediately assumes that Twilight's become just as bad as the Canterlot unicorns who treat earth ponies like property. Twilight later explains to her that Mac was being a gentlecolt and helping her out after she twisted her ankle. As for her guards' behavior (they had ropes on Mac to keep him from "running off with her" like Pinkie had earlier, and insisted on checking out the inside of the house before letting anyone in), they were just being paranoid, something which Twilight herself is not amused by.
- Of Flame and Shadow: Parodied with the Sirens' habit of feeling up the other students.Aria: "If we want to, we sirens can see into another's memories through physical contact. That's how we knew about what Sunset Shimmer did here at the school before we talked to her in that hallway. What? Did you really think that we would run our hands and fingers over the other students just help seduce them?"
Sonata: "Wait, we weren't?" - The Palaververse: In Wedding Bells, Burro Delver is almost assassinated by a changeling in the shape of Shahanshah Sailears, but Fairy Floss stabs it in the back with a broken bottle and saves him. Then Dame Lyuba, the Shahanshah's bodyguard, bursts in seeing what looks to be the body of her charge and rightful liege on the floor and Fairy Floss standing over it with a broken bottle...
- The Pieces Lie Where They Fell:
- The sequel Picking Up the Pieces has a case of "Not what it sounds like" — Hot Rod arrives at the Luna Guards' headquarters and asks to see their captain, saying that the other night he was sleeping with his wife Sound Mind but missed having Sweet in bed. The Luna Guards' lieutenant assumes he's having an affair with her as a result. When the truth comes out that all three (Hot Rod, Sweet Surprise and Sound Mind) are actually married, Lieutenant Even Hoof and the rest of the guards are utterly stunned.
- A non-romantic version in chapter 15 - when Memorizing mentions that he knows how far his fellow Captain Violet Lulamoon is into writing her next book, Blazen Sun gives him a disapproving look, and Memorizing hastily explains that no, he's not going through their personal affairs; he knows about this piece of information because one of his Guards had fetched and delivered the folder holding the draft in question to Captain Lulamoon on her way out of the office the other day, at her request, and had been told what it was; the Guard had then, per standard protocol, included the information in his end-of-day report.
- RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: In Tales Of Ponyville, Trixie needs to use a memory-transfer spell to show Raindrops something. Unfortunately, for Luna alone knows what reason, the spell requires that you kiss the pony you want to give memories to. With tongue. Naturally, Cherilee (who, incidentally, is under the mistaken impression that Trixie is not only a virgin (which she is), but totally ignorant with regards to sex) walks in at just the wrong moment.
- At one point in Retired to Equestria, Damien walks in on Gilda, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight Sparkle in a pile covered in batter and with their faces near each other's crotches. He pretends to believe their anger at each other gave way to lust.
- Inverted in Sophistication and Betrayal, where an encounter between the protagonist and Rarity was exactly what it looked like. Pinkie Pie however mistakes this for "a big hug", and accepts a Blatant Lies excuse of Rarity being excited over her recent business success.
- In A Voice Among the Strangers, Ebony says this when Twilight and Spike walk in on her tickling Jessica on the couch.
- Naru-Hina Chronicles:
- Konohamaru and Hanabi are trying to move some boxes at Naruto and Hinata's new house while going up some stairs. However, Hanabi accidentally steps on Konohamaru's long scarf, causing the latter to be strangled and to fall on top of his girlfriend. Immediately after that, Naruto and Hinata arrive and are angry to see Konohamaru lying on top of Hanabi, with the latter two trying to explain what actually happened.
- A rather glorious one in Chapter 51, where Naruto's friends think he's going to dump Hinata. He was actually trying to propose to her!
- During a training session, Moegi ends up pining Konohamaru to the ground. However, Hanabi arrives and isn't too happy to see Moegi sitting on Konohamaru's lap like that. Her boyfriend panics and says it isn't what it looks like before adding that they were just fooling around, only to realize that what he just said came out wrong.
- In one of the Mini-sodes, Naruto buys a bouquet of flowers from Ino so he can give it to Hinata. However, he accidentally drops it to the ground and kneels down to grab it. When Hinata arrives to ask Ino if she's free for something, the way Naruto is holding the bouquet gives the impression that he's offering it to the Yamanaka, making the latter panic over this misunderstanding.
- Naruto: Game of the Year Edition: While training for the Chuunin Exams, Naruto decides to send a horde of his Shadow Clones out in all directions to search for stat powerups. However, an ANBU operative warns him that his usage of the technique makes it appear that he's trying to spy on the other candidates, and that if he keeps it up, he could get disqualified.
- In This Time As A Namikaze, the Sandaime and Hyuuga Hiashi knock on Naruto's door. A sleepy Naruto sans jacket answers. Cue Hinata (also sleepy) walking in saying "Naruto-kun. Come back to bed. You over-exerted yourself last night." wearing nothing but his jacket. The explanation is that Naruto was masquerading as a missing-nin the previous night and got roughed up escaping from ANBU prison in a big storm only to get back to his apartment to see a soaking wet Hinata inside. He offers her his jacket to keep her warm and out of wet clothes then passes out in his bed where they end up cuddling. Hiashi has a fit.
- Played for Drama in To tame the deer: When Ino and Chouji find Shikamaru resting by herself, Ino immediately assumes that the other kunoichi's disheveled appearance means she was assaulted. In reality, Shika had just completed a three-hour training session with several other shinobi. This incident proves to trigger Shika's Rage Breaking Point when their parents call upon her to explain herself, as she furiously calls them out on believing Ino and assuming the worst instead of simply asking her what happened.
- Yet again, with a little extra help: After Naruto's first match in the tournament, Hana and Hinata are patching him up. This involves Naruto being shirtless, Hana pinning his arms while Hinata works on reopening his tenketsu points. She's straddling him in order to get into the best possible position for that right as the rest of the rookies burst in; upon realizing just how it appears, she turns bright red.
- Parodied in chapter 19 of Children of an Elder God. Shinji and Asuka are caught when they were about to make love in the base's lockers and Shinji automatically says what it is not what their friends think:Anna peeked into the boys' dressing room just in time to see her friend straddled atop Shinji, both wearing their plugsuits, though the way they were kissing, she had to wonder if the plugsuits were going to come off again. At Touji's outburst, the two lovebirds paused a moment and looked up, then quickly stood up and straightened themselves out.
"Aaagh!" screamed Touji. "It's true! You've turned kraut!"
"I-it's not what you think!" replied Shinji desperately. They all stared at him. He smiled weakly. "Okay, so it was what you think." - Once More With Feeling (Crazy-88): In one chapter, Misato catches Asuka leaving Shinji's room in the morning. Asuka has to explain that is not what it looks like, she had been not acting untoward towards Shinji and had a good reason for she sleeping in his room: he had nightmares, and she was trying to comfort him."It had taken some fast talking in the living room and not a little angry indignation to convince Misato that nothing untoward had happened between her and Shinji last night."
"And that she did have a good reason to be sleeping in Shinji's bedroom."
"In his bed."
"With him in said bed, at the same time."
"Not that in her opinion it was any of Misato's business what she and Shinji chose to do -or not do- together." - The One I Love Is...: In chapter 9 Shinji and Asuka argue as riding an elevator. Asuka loses her temper for a second and slaps him. Shinji falls on his back and Asuka gets horrified and kneels down. Shinji stands and reaches a hand down to help her up when the elevator stops and Maya walks in on them. She blushes and Shinji does not want to know what she thought was happening.
- The Second Try: Shinji and Asuka don't want people suspecting that they are timetravelers and Happily Married. They try and pretend that they are not together but they are lousy actors, and every time they are caught making out or believe they have been caught or let slip that they are together they swear that "this is not what it looks like" and "it is not what you are thinking".
- In chapter 5:"Uh... Mi... Misato!" he stuttered, trying to get the surprisingly calm redhead off him. "It... it's not what it looks like!"
- And in the sequel Aki-chan's Life it got subverted. Yes Touji, yes Hikari, that little girl who just answered the door of your friend's apartment is Shinji and Asuka's kid. It's a long story.
- In chapter 5:
- In All Mixed Up!, Olive reaches behind Otto and digs in the back pocket of his pants for his Ground-inator gadget to solve a case. Otto doesn't know he has the gadget in his possession, and so he assumes that Olive is simply touching his butt. It doesn't help that Larry and Phyllis are staring at him throughout the ordeal, at which he grows embarrassed and self-conscious. Once the case is solved, he asks Olive to not do that again, and while she does remark that what she did was weird, she justifies it by saying he didn't know what the gadget looked like or whether he had it or she did.
- In Opalescent, Olive and Otto, the former of whom thinks that she is the Countdown Crook, run up to the Medical Bay and find Opal standing next to a huge metal vat of pink goo and about to inject herself with a syringe filled with white liquid. When she sees them, she pulls her coat sleeve down and sticks the syringe needlepoint-first into the blonde bun that sits on her head, lying about what she's doing by saying that she's checking to see that the white liquid was the same color as her arm. Downplayed, however, as the agents don't inquire about it any further than that.
- Mr and Mrs Gold: During her interrogation of August, Rose took an axe to his leg to test it as wooden. Eventually someone called Emma who - since she does not believe the curse exists yet - sees Rose holding a bloody axe with a wounded August in her cabin. Subverted, as Rose puts up no fight and even tells her husband not to pay her bail, relying on August’s cooperation.
- In Hero's Harem, Silverfang sees Captain Mizuki running in fright from a pair of monsters and moves to dispatch them. In reality, the two monsters are friends of hers and the whole thing was mostly harmless teasing. Luckily, both injured monsters recover from their injuries.
- What Big Claws (To Protect You With, My Dear):
- Played for Drama: After seeing Luz covered with feathers, Lilith immediately assumes both that she's Eda's child and that she's inherited Eda's curse. (In reality, the feathers came from a minor incident at the Beastkeeping Coven exhibit.) Later, she sees that Eda and Luz have set up a routine where they take their potions at the same time, unaware that Luz is actually taking a nutrient supplement to help her maintain her health despite her dietary options being limited in the Boiling Isles.
- After meeting Luz for the first time, Raine realizes that she shares a lot of traits with both Eda and themselves, and is about as old as the one-night stand they had with Eda ten years prior. As a result, Raine assumes that Luz is their daughter.
- The Disappearance of Makoto Niijima: The story focuses on police officer Tatsumi Shin trying to find the eponymous character after her sister Sae reported she didn't came home. As the police investigate, they found out that there was much tension and a wide gape between Makoto and Sae, including Makoto hiding from her about her friends and how she was blackmailed by a Yakuza, something that should have come up to her guardian. There is also the inconsistency with the date of Makoto's actual disappearance and when Sae reported it, Sae vocal suspicion and even near-violent confrontation on transfer student Akira Kurusunote , Sae showing frustration at being Promoted to Parent, and Makoto buying several medical supplies with cashnote . The result is that the Police think that Sae was more frustrated and abusive to Makoto, and that when Makoto tried to get away Sae snapped and things went south, with even the Phantom Thieves considering the possibility since they only saw the prosecutor in a negative light. It's not until afterwards that the Phantom Thieves find out that Makoto had went into her sister's Palace alone, then was defeated and captured by her sister's Shadow.
- In the Send Your Original Characters fanfic Pokemon Take Two, Nurse Joy walks in on Ry on top of Alex on a bed. Ry was bringing a board game for them to play but tripped.
- In Pokemon: The Final Saga, Ash and Dawn accidentally get themselves locked in a janitor's closet. When Nando opens the door and sees them in a compromising position (because they were trying to find a way out), he assumes he caught them trying to have some "alone time", apologizes for bothering them, and closes the door. The chapter ends with Ash and Dawn shouting for him to come back and get them out.
- In Travels of the Trifecta, Paul jumps to the conclusion that Reggie was having sex with Maylene because Reggie is tired the day after Maylene stayed at their house (while Paul was staying with Conway), and starts a fight with Reggie over it. In reality, Reggie was tired because he was having nightmares that were keeping him awake, but Paul doesn't believe this at first.
- Inverted on two occasions in Along Came a Spider:
- First, Ren walks in on Jaune tied to a chair by Trifa after hearing some screaming. Ren assumes she's a prostitute and Jaune quickly agrees that he hired a dominatrix rather than mentioning Trifa was there to kidnap Weiss.
- Second, after Trifa turns to Jaune due to having left the White Fang rather violently, Nora walks in on her seemingly wearing nothing but one of Jaune's shirts. When Nora says she's not Jaune, Trifa awkwardly offers that she's "with Jaune", which Nora accepts and heads off to give Jaune a high five.
- In Jaune Arc, Lord of Hunger, Pyrrha ends up pinning Nora to her bed in order to stop her from asking Jaune an incredibly insensitive question about whether he's depressed. Being The Gadfly that she is, Nora teases Pyrrha about her crush on Jaune, causing the latter to start blushing. Of course, it's at this moment that Jaune enters his dorm and sees Pyrrha pinning Nora to her bed while having a Crush Blush, leading him to assume that they were being intimate.Jaune: You know, I don't mind if you guys want to, do stuff. But at least like, put a sock on the door or something.
Pyrrha: This isn't what it looks like! - In Massages, Jaune gives Yang a massage, but her screams of pleasure cause their friends to think they're having sex. After explaining the situation, the other girls make Jaune give them massages. Soon, their screams of pleasure convince everyone in Beacon that Jaune is sleeping with them all. Jaune is not happy about this, because all the boys get jealous and try to beat him up.
- Talk About a Role Reversal: Summer goes into a broom closet in order to have a confidential phone call with Raven. When she emerges, she's caught by some of Signal Academy's students, who assume she's having an affair with another staff member.
- White Sheep: A Running Gag is someone walking in an apparent sexual situation and told "it's not what it looks like" only for them to come to the correct conclusion. For example, after Emerald is hit by a bucket of paint meant for Jaune he lets her use his shower and borrow some of his clothing since hers are ruined. Cue Weiss walking in to see an unknown girl wearing her partner's clothes. Emerald insists it's not what it looks like but since she's carrying her ruined clothes, Weiss had already figured out what actually happened. Pyrrha sheathes her weapon before anyone notices.
- In the Empath: The Luckiest Smurf story "One Night With The King", which adapts the Book of Esther into a play, Brainy as Haman falls on top of Esther (played by Smurfette) while pleading for her mercy after being exposed for his plot to destroy the Jews, and ends up struggling with her, refusing to get off her unless she forgives him. The king (played by Empath) returns into the room and thinks Haman is going to violate the queen in his presence. Haman tries to use this as his line of defense, but the king isn't buying it, and orders for Haman to be put to death by his own gallows.
- In this fandubbed comic, originally by 819_aka1205, Anya, Becky, and Damian are in their teens and Anya is participating in a beauty pageant. When Becky and Damian enter her dressing room, and are stunned as to how pretty she looks. However, Anya starts asking for help because her dress feels too tight, and Becky surmisses because Anya ate too much again. As Becky and Damian help Anya out of her dress, Loid walks in to tell them they should help set up the venue, and when he sees the three of them tired and sweaty, he yells at them, asking what were they doing, which is made worse by Damian sheepeshly admiting that they were helping Anya take off her dress, which only serves to make Loid madder (begins at the 1:35 mark).
- In Female Queens and Marco, a monster asks Marco to open a jar of strawberry jam. Just as Marco succeeds, he involuntarily time travels once again, leaving behind his hoodie with strawberry jam on it, which the monster scoops up to eat. Then comes Queen Solaria, who sees a monster with what appears to be blood on his hands and the discarded clothing of the man she fell in love with. The monster doesn't live for much longer.
- In Insontis, the Security team finds a video of McCoy threatening Spock; it turns out to be the two of them playing superhero with kid!Kirk.
- Imperium of Vader: Vader says this when Tarkin walks in on him seemingly getting drunk. He's actually drinking a consumable version of Bacta as part of a medical procedure to finally address his physical ailments, which Palpatine never let him do while he was alive.
- Played for Drama in Moria's Revenge. Gollum manages to track the Fellowship to Lothlorien and attacks Frodo, only to be attacked himself by Icicle, a warg Pippin befriended during his captivity in Moria. She succeeds in chasing him away, then turns to see if Frodo is alright - at which point, Haldir (who already thinks the worst of Icicle due to her being a warg) barges in and sees her nuzzling a blood-covered Frodo. Naturally, he assumes that she attacked Frodo, and kills her in a misguided attempt to protect the others. When he learns what really happened, he's so guilt-stricken that he asks Galadriel to offer his immortality to the gods in exchange for Icicle being brought Back from the Dead (luckily for him, they revive the warg and allow him to remain immortal).
- In Awakening, Starscream and Optimus are talking, and Starscream mentions that Seekers have claws. Intrigued, Optimus asks to see them, and Starscream obliges - only to be attacked by Rodimus, who misinterpreted the gesture as an attack on Optimus.
- In this Long Posts of Trepan comic, Trepan questions Overlord as to why he ordered a particularly expensive brand of lube, and Overlord allows him to touch it. After noticing that it's less watery than the old lube, Trepan remarks that it doesn't feel as sticky as it looks, and that it both feels smooth and easy to move his hands up and down through it and has a wonderful texture...and then Starscream shows up to remind Overlord about the meeting he's supposed to attend. From his angle, it looks like Trepan and Overlord are getting up to something lewd.
- In Fire and Shadow, it's a case of "Not What It Smells Like". When Firefang comes back reeking of RiverClan cats, Yellowfang gets the idea that he slept with a RiverClan cat. Firefang was hanging around RiverClan cats because he rescued Mistyfoot's kits, and he did have a less-than-platonic cuddle with Mistyfoot, but he didn't mate with her.
- Risk It All: After breaking the arm of the man who mugged him, Ren quickly realizes that it looks like he's the one doing the mugging and feebly tries to tell onlookers that the guy mugged him first. He quickly gives up, takes his money back, and runs for dear life:
