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Crossovers
- Dungeon Keeper Ami (Sailor Moon and Dungeon Keeper): One of Drunk Ami's fears about her relationship with her crush, as said in her thoughts from Beryl's Plan
:A horrible thought almost made her gasp out loud. Could it be that he was gay? She needed another drink! A moment later, she settled back against him, her thirst slaked. This required some careful observation. - Fallout: Equestria (My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and Fallout): Littlepip grows up with a crush on Velvet Remedy, who is straight. They later become best friends and Velvet goes so far as to become something of a motherly figure to her, and they settle for other ponies who they're compatible with. Notable in that it's Littlepip's feelings for Velvet that compel her to leave the Stable when Velvet runs away, so this trope actually sets off the plot.
- Hazbin Ghost (Hazbin Hotel and Danny Phantom): Angel Dust becomes attracted to Danny immediately after meeting him. You'd think the only problem would be that the one who is gay is attracted to the one who is straight, but you'd be wrong. Angel Dust's strong come-ons, innuendos, and constant use of the nickname "Daddy" turn Danny off greatly, to the point that he tries to avoid Angel Dust whenever possible.
- Mœbius (Bleach 'and Puella Magi Madoka Magica) has Homura fear this with Madoka, who has said she loves her, but Madoka uses that language with friends and family alike. While Madoka is aware of just how much Homura means to her via space-time shenanigans, Homura dreads the assumption that Madoka doesn't return those feelings the same way she feels about them. As it turns out, she does. She was waiting for Homura to confess when she was ready.
- Sixes and Sevens (Agent Carter and The Invaders): While serving in France, Michael fell in love with fellow Soldier Fred Davis, but knew it would never be reciprocated because he already had a wife and a young son.
- In The Haunting of Villa Layla Mark still has a lingering crush on Pat, who is asexual and has little interest sex and sexual relationships. This is becoming a possible point of tension at least on Mark's part.
- White Devil of the Moon (Sailor Moon and Lyrical Nanoha): The basic premise is that Nanoha Takamachi is discovered to be the reincarnation of Princess Serenity instead of Usagi Tsukino. Mamoru Chiba, the reincarnation of Serenity's lover Prince Endymion, tries to rekindle their relationship. He completely fails to win her over because Nanoha is a lesbian who is in love with her girlfriend Fate Testarossa.
- Played for laughs in one chapter of Voyages of the Wild Sea Horse when Casanova Wannabe "The Reefster" hits on Harumi, who is a straight male who just happens to look extremely feminine. However, when Harumi reveals his true sex, instead of the Unsettling Gender-Reveal he was expecting, the Reefster simply shrugs it off, states he's fine with pretty-looking boys, and continues trying to flirt, to Harumi's disgust and the annoyance of Harumi's girlfriend Miriam. Especially as the Reefster is trying to seduce her at the same time.
Anime & Manga
- Death Note: The Abridged Series (kpts4tv): Butch Lesbian Rem is in love with Misa, who is in love with Light, who is in love with L, who is "snack-sexual". Also, after Mikami abandons Takada she considers going out with Light, but then remembers he's gay. Rem later ends up with Misa by possessing Mogi and Jumping the Gender Barrier.
- Dragon Ball Z Abridged: Dende, who comes from a race with No Biological Sex, finds himself smitten by Bulma's breasts. Later, we find he has something of a crush on Gohan, as the two had been friends for a while. After a few months of living together, he confesses his love, to Gohan's confusion. Poor guy...
- Fairytale of Doom: In chapter 25, when the trapped wizards try to confess their romantic feelings to escape the Fairy Tale Free-for-All, Natsu finds out that Lucy likes him romantically. He admits that he's never been able to feel either romance or sexual. Lucy replies that she suspected for a while, joking that it explains why he never made a move on a such a beautiful girl after so many times seeing her naked. It's impled that her suspicious on Natsu's orientation is one of the reasons why she never confessed her feelings for him]].
- You Got HaruhiRolled!: Kyouko has a MAJOR lesbian crush on Sasaki, who will have none of it. The only person Sasaki feels attraction towards is herself. Kyouko is completely oblivious to this.
- Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità: Subverted. Germany and Japan thought Italy was this, thinking he was straight since he flirted with girls all the time. Turns out Italy is not straight, but bisexual.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders
- from porcelain to ivory to steel: Sherry Polnareff falls in love with Mohammed Avdol through the course of their journey, leading her to confess in chapter 13. Avdol somberly responds that while he loves her as a friend, he can't reciprocate her feelings since he is gay, and apologizes for unintentionally deceiving her. Sherry tells him he doesn't have to apologize and she'll be more than happy to be his friend. She even adds that he would have been a good match for her late brother Jean-Pierre, who was bisexual and had enjoyed dating another man in the past.
- Blizzard of the Red Castle: As with the anime, Ooi is into her sistership Kitakami. Kitakami not only isn't into incest, but she's heterosexual as well. Ooi didn't take it well. It's played for laughs though.
- What it Means to Be a Hero: Mrs. Joke always greets Mr. Aizawa with a marriage proposal, which he will instantly turn down. Shinsou tells her that he's pretty sure Aizawa is gay. Joke says she knows—in fact, she's a lesbian herself. That's why she finds it hilarious to keep doing it.
- Man of Dreams has this within a Love Triangle: Mito (straight) with Hashirama (gay). Both of them with Madara (asexual).Perhaps it was because on some level Hashirama knew who Mito was really interested in marrying; and on that same level, Hashirama acknowledge it was the same person he was interested in.
- Son of the Sannin: Hinata catches the eye of a female Kumo genin named T, who starts flirting with her when they face off in the Chunin exams preliminaries. Naturally, since Hinata has Single-Target Sexuality for Naruto, T's chances were less than zero from the get-go.
- Evangelion 303: Jessika is lesbian and she likes Asuka. However Asuka is straight AND taken (by Shinji), so Jessika kept quiet. It does not help that Jessika already has a girlfriend.
- It's a Trap: Played For Laughs. Brock goes out on a date with Erika, only to find out partway through that Erika is not only taken but she's lesbian. Erika thought that Brock knew this already (she does give out the Rainbow Badge and have a female-only gym after all).
- But You Won't Have to Do It Alone: Subverted — Rei is a closeted lesbian who is in love with her straight, slightly heteronormative friend Usagi. However, it turns out that Usagi isn't straight... But she still has a boyfriend that she's dedicated to, so Rei doesn't stand a chance anyway.
- Shadowchasers Series: Kyon Rokudai was madly in love with Ace and repeatedly tried to win her over, but she never reciprocates. Later, in Shadowchasers: Tournament of Shadows, Ace comes out as a lesbian when she falls in love with Kenshin.
Comic Books
- Angel of the Bat: Cassandra has unrequited feelings for best friend Stephanie Brown, who is both straight and in a relationship. Despite her desires, Cassandra only admits it because she is tired of carrying it and doesn't want to hurt their relationship.
- Meet Me Where You're Going has both Steph and Cass believe this by mistake, due to only knowing each other to have dated boys (Robin and Superboy respectively). They don't figure it out until after some clubbing and Cass turning down her friend Xiao Yin because she's too hung up on Steph to date anyone else.
- Kara of Rokyn: Jara (lesbian) likes Kara (straight). Jara doesn't take rejection well at all, but in the end, she accepts the fact that they can only be friends.
Films — Animation
- The Bolt Chronicles: In "The Imaginary Letters," fellow male furry-con guest of honor Sassie propositions Bolt. The latter refuses, saying he's already in a relationship with Mittens, and besides, he doesn't "swing that way." Far from being upset, Sassie high-fives him, congratulating Bolt on having a sex life even more offbeat than his own.
- Through the crack in the wall: Isabela is expected to pair up with Mariano, but she prefers the company of Julia, a village girl she develops a connection with.
- Becoming Free: Freya kissed her childhood friend Greta when she mistook their bond for romantic. Greta reacted badly. She ran off, told her family, and later that day her family came and burned down Freya's house. They likely would have harmed Freya if she hadn't escaped. Greta didn't intend for them to attack Freya, and when they meet years later she is regretful.
- How Bad Can A Little Gossip Be: Many girls in Portorosso are smitten with Alberto because of his hunky physique and his brave and confident personality, but he only has eyes for Luca.
- The Story of Apollo, Daphne and Luca: An Italian Tragedy: Rosa briefly hits on Luca completely unaware of the fact that Luca is completely head over heels for Alberto.
Films — Live-Action
- 5 People Who Thought Loki Was Gay and One Who Knew Better: Thor and Jane's relationship ends this way, as Thor finally comes to terms with his sexuality, something he has struggled with for the entire story (which spans centuries).
Literature
- The Power of Seven: The story features a somewhat downplayed example; it sees Harry Potter form a harem with seven witches to save his life. While the girls are all attracted to Harry, their interest in doing anything sexual with each other varies, with some of them content to just watch Harry with other women while focusing on him to other girls embracing their bisexual awakening and enjoying pleasuring each other outside of the harem having orgies with Harry. This trope particularly applies to Ginny Weasley's relationship with Hermione Granger, as Ginny finds herself acknowledging that she's fully bisexual (initially just believing she's being affected by Harry's own attraction to other women), to the extent that she realises she's attracted to Hermione at the same time as she has to accept that Hermione isn't interested in doing anything with other women directly. Fortunately for Ginny, Luna Lovegood, Demelza Robins and Fleur Delacour are more willing to "experiment"...
- In a background-era fanfiction, OC Andrahar is in love with his master/best friend, Imrahil. Imrahil is very straight, however, and if this wasn't already made clear by his conspicuous tendency to frequent brothels, he offers to sleep with Andrahar "to see if he is a man for men". The results are definitive, and disappointing for Andrahar. Later fics by the same author imply that Andrahar never falls out of love with Imrahil, but they remain lifelong best friends in spite of it.
Live-Action TV
- This Is A Wild Game Of Survival: In the prequel ''Sun, Sea And Alcoholic Decisions, I-sak has a crush on Joon-yeong, and she and her best friend On-jo are quite excited about her asking him out and dating him. Unfortunately for her, Joon-yeong is gay and has secretly been in love with his own best friend for longer than she's known him.
- The Lucky Ones: In a much more heartwarming example, Woo-jin and Ji-min meet and quickly start dating after becoming friends, being the first very close friend of the opposite sex either has had at that point. However, Woo-jin is gay and in denial while Ji-min is aromantic, and neither wanted to deal with their lack of feelings for the opposite sex, so both took their friendship to mean that they actually were straight and their worries were for not. Their breakup is quite amicable and they remain good friends, supporting one another with the problems coming from their respective sexualities.
- The Hurricane: Al-Owal admits to Laurel and Shado that if Batman accepts Ra's' offer to become his heir and Talia still refuses to rejoin the League, then Ra's will have Nyssa take her place as his bride. Understandably, as Nyssa is a lesbian, that only furthers her resentment over the situation.
- Compelled: There was a subplot where Connor had a crush on Kennedy, who is both lesbian and taken. It mostly served to give him some Character Development.
- The Knight's Consort: Kennedy the Vampire Slayer (a lesbian) slowly falls in love with Xander (not just a crush or a strong friendship, but actual romantic-poetry-flowers-and-schmaltzy songs love). Unfortunately, the fact that he is male (and has no interest in not being male) keeps her from being attracted to him or wanting to actually consummate their relationship beyond a single experimental kiss.
- Prehistoric Park Reimagined: Leon (a bisexual in this continuity) used to have a crush on his straight best friend and future rescue team leader Drew when both of them were in school. Drew, however, is 100% straight, and he ultimately let Leon down gently after Leon confessed said crush to him out loud.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Some fans of the Picard/Q pairing have pointed out the implausibility of a stout heterosexual man like Captain Picard (with several noted love interests in canon) changing his preferences by pursuing a relationship with Q's male form. As an Energy Being Q has no mortal body, so any form he assumes is more like a costume than anything else, and that "costume" could just as easily appear to be female as it does male; this is something that Q even lampshades in canon.
- The Mysterious Case of Neelix's Lungs: Harry Kim (gay in this fic as an Actor Allusion) briefly carries a torch for Tom Paris, but late in the first season he complains to Emil Tarak that Paris isn't into men. Harry also has to rebuff advances from a female Sikarian in "Factoring Primes".
Video Games
- Pretender: Robin is in love with Chrom, who is straight and gets married to Sumia early in the story.
- Another Realm: The protagonist Cieran and his friend Trena become Platonic Life-Partners largely as a result of this, as she prefers other asari.
- This Is Our Justice: Sae develops a crush on her teammate Sadayo. Tae quickly picks up on it and tries to discourage her from pursuing it. Sadayo also picks up on it by the time Sae confronts her about overworking herself.
- A parody short posits that the reason Sonic makes such fast tracks when Amy's around is that he doesn't have the heart to tell her he and Tails have long since passed the point of goo-goo eyes. Amy is not impressed. It's later revealed that this was another scheme of his to keep her away, though when he later needs her help to avoid certain death she decides she's had enough and angrily dismisses him.
- There's a... genre? of fanart known as The Sad Truth of Gensokyo, which mostly amounts to an Ambiguously Gay Rinnosuke Morichika being annoyed by the various girls. This trope is played for laughs.
- Resident Evil Abridged turns Wesker's homoerotic obsession with Chris into a full-blown unrequited crush, since Chris is straight and implied to have the hots for Jill.
- Respawn of the Dead: The RED Spy is in love with the RED Engineer, who is both straight, and has a family back home. Needless to say the Engineer rejects him (not helped along by the many atrocious acts that Spy commits over the course of the story), and the Spy ends up killing himself.
Visual Novels
- Despair's Last Resort: Kazumi is in love with Shizuka, who is stated to be straight and was possibly in love with someone during the year at Hope's Peak. Kazumi makes it clear that she won't chase after her, though Shizuka's execution is not handled well.
- Where Talent Goes on Vacation:
- Hikaru Kurogane has a crush on his roommate Shigeru Kojima. Unfortunately, Kojima not only is heterosexual but is infatuated with Akira Azuki, despite the fact that she personally finds him rather irritating.
- Himeno Himemiya is a lesbian, while her maid and long-time best friend Kanae Tsukimura is heterosexual. Himemiya is fine with this, though, since the class differences between the two of them would preclude any potential relationship, and ultimately gets together with the bisexual Sayuri Sasaki.
- From Shizune's Perspective: In this fanfic, which was written prior to the game's release, Shizune is bisexual and Misha is heterosexual, resulting in Misha rejecting Shizune's confession. This becomes Harsher in Hindsight when you consider their backstory in the final game where Shizune is the one who rejects Misha.
Web Animation
- re:Bound (RWBY): Sun has an unrequited crush on his straight best friend Neptune.
Web Original
- Always You: Abby pulls away when Strange kisses her, explaining that not only is she straight, but she's also married. She then admits she was just kidding, and the two of them kiss again.
Western Animation
- Kimberly T's Gargoyles series features an example of this when the Manhattan Clan visit the New Orleans gargoyle clan and meet Robert, a gay male gargoyle who lost his human mate a year ago. Considering the relatively small size of the gargoyle breeding pool, some of the New Orleans clan are prejudiced against Robert, who is so gay that it's impossible for him to be aroused by women; while he has a close friendship with fellow gargoyle Rebecca, the one time they attempted to mate was just embarrassing for both parties no matter how fond they were of each other. After Robert and Rebecca become a mated trio with Lexington, Robert and Rebecca are only able to mate after Lexington helped get Robert suitably aroused.
- Some of the New Orleans clan accused Robert of being interested in Brooklyn, but it's made clear that Brooklyn has no interest in males; it's even mentioned that back in Wyvern, Lexington once made a pass at Brooklyn, but accepted that Brooklyn wasn't interested in males and the whole incident was basically forgotten about.
- Jackie Chan Adventures: Olympian Journey: When Eros!Drew tries to charm Simone, she tells him (rather bluntly since he doesn't get it immediately) that she's gay. He decides to bypass this by forcing one of his brainwashing chocolates into her mouth and altering her sexuality (though in an Even Evil Has Standards moment, he makes it clear that he's expanding her sexuality, not flipping it).
- "Match Ado About Nothing" features a very unconventional example of this when Deidre Lusional, the self-proclaimed "Matchmaker", tries to force Kim and Shego to become a couple by using a Sappho Ray to turn them both gay. Although the Matchmaker's plan fails as Kim and Shego still aren't each other's type, the ray is so effective that Kim literally can't be with Ron even if she still genuinely cares about him, forcing them to temporarily break up (until Shego recruits DNAmy to use a Genetic Resequencer to turn Ron into a woman).
- Many fans have written fanfics where Luna's female crush Sam isn't interested in girls. Given that this was hinted at but never outright stated concern in canon, it's no surprise fans have been intrigued by it. How much angst this causes depends on the work in question but Luna's always disappointed when Sam turns her down.
- Less popular but still a thing is that Clyde's crush on Lori is being used to cover up feelings for the very straight Lincoln, whether consciously on Clyde's part or not. How much angst there is depends on the work in question but there's always initial awkwardness between the boys and Lori may even be drawn into it considering how weird it would be to have someone's crush on you derive from feelings for your little brother.
- The Nightmare House: Bisexual Luna wants to date Sam but is told by Mick Swagger that she prefers blokes (the series later revealed that Sam is in fact either a lesbian or also bisexual).
- Crimson and Noire: Played for Drama — Alix is aromantic and says as much as to Kim prior to the story. Unfortunately, Kim back then thought she meant "arrow" instead of "aro", and later tried to ask her out for Valentine's Day. Alix, so frustrated that her friend was seemingly ignoring her sexuality and how it brought up old memories of others doing the same, gets Akumatized into Aro Dynamix, who has the power to remove romantic feelings from others to try and get people to understand what's it like to be aromantic. After Alix is cured and Kim is told by Aurore what Aromantic means, the two agree to continue being Vitriolic Best Buds.
- The Murder of Lila Rossi: This was how Alix realized Lila was a liar. Lila had called Chloé jealous of her "relationship" with Adrien –- despite the fact that Chloé's not even interested in Adrien (she's dating Alix here).
- (pockets full of) Stones: Adrien discovers he is both aromantic and asexual. Not only does he genuinely see Marinette (and Ladybug) as just a friend, he also gets frustrated when their friends try to matchmake them and think he's just Unknowingly in Love.
- There's More Magic Out There: Juleka thinks this is the case regarding her feelings for Rose, who had a crush on the male Prince Ali and might be straight. Alya is convinced it isn't the case and that Juleka hasn't asked Rose yet. Not only was Alya right about Rose not being straight but Rose and Juleka have been dating for months without Juleka realizing it.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- Aftermath of a Fallen Star: Applejack (lesbian) was in love with Twilight (straight).
- The Alarmaverse: Twilight Sparkle and the Case of Old Res: Resonius IV and Pitch Drop. One's heterosexual and in love with the other one who is gay.
- Applejack's Love: Applejack has a crush on Rainbow Dash, and eventually confesses her love. Rainbow is straight, hates being Mistaken for Gay, and thus takes AJ's confession badly.
- The Conversion Bureau: Not Alone: Andrew (a male human) admits he's developed a crush on Ice Breaker (a male pony), well aware of the incredible likelihood of this trope being in force. It is, and they remain Just Friends.
- Crystal Camaraderie:
- Nomination's first attempt at asking Colt out ended this way earlier in the day, so he's still rather miserable.
- Chartreuse also has a crush on Chalcedony, not that she's figured it out yet, who is straight.
- The Elements of Friendship: Book II: Applejack confronts Twilight on the kiss she gave her in Book I, Twilight explains it was chaste and she's aromantic. Applejack admits she's kind of disappointed.
- Principal Celestia Hunts the Undead: The original work has Applejack crushing on Sunset at the beginning but Sunset gently turns her down due to her being straight, making it a straight example of the trope. However, the sequel Sunset Shimmer Hunts The Undead has Sunset also developing a crush on AJ, suggesting something changed in the years between the stories.
- The Dashverse: Cloud Kicker eventually confesses to Twilight that she actually is in love with Rainbow Dash. Unfortunately for her, Dash is not only straight but completely oblivious to her feelings, as she just assumes it's part of Cloud Kicker's usual personality.
- Reading Rainbowverse: Big Mac has a crush on Twilight, who admits she doesn't see stallions that way.
- Sparkling Shimmer: Sunset breaks up with Flash when she realizes she's into girls. Flash takes it rather well.
- A Stallions Man: This trope is the driving force behind the plot, which designates a man named Barrett as the object of the affections of seven eager — and familiar — stallions,note all of whom cannot accept that his barn door doesn't swing that way (it's only a gender barrier, though; Interspecies Romance doesn't bother him and in fact, he wants a marefriend). He outright tells them, but only a few acknowledge hearing it — regardless, none give up on winning his heart, certain that they can change his mind and bring out the repressed homosexual they're certain lurks underneath. How exactly Barrett ended up in this situation is uncertain as of right now, but it's possible that, in order to escape a dreary life back home, he wished to end up in the show with all the main characters fawning over him... and just failed to specify which gender he was actually into, or something else that he didn't think he had to clarify. Now he's stuck with it, with no way back. The fic also greatly exaggerates the implications of this trope, making several — if not all — of his harem's members boy-crazy to an over-the-top extent just for laughs.
- This Nearly Was Mine: Frederic Horshoepin has a massive crush on his bandmate Octavia. Unfortunately for him, this universe has the VinylTavia ship in full play, so he's stuck watching the love of his life making out with the DJ mare.
- We're the Same! is a trio of fanfics in which Discord creates and runs a club for reformed villains. In the third story, their one-year anniversary meeting includes Pharynx (reformed Changeling), who's developed a crush on Fizzlepop Berrytwist (formerly Tempest Shadow, the Storm King's second-in-command). Fizzle has to gently let him know that she's not attracted to stallions, and is in fact happily dating one of the mares she works with.
