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Indirect Kiss
aka: Date Crepe

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"I know you didn't wanna kiss me, but when I was taking a hit off that bottle before, I backwashed in it. I mean, like, really big-time."
McKenas Cole, Alias

Issues of physical contact taken to a logical extreme. The surprise is when someone is offered food or drink by someone they like, then realizes that swapping spit residue is similar to a kiss, albeit indirectly.

During The Hays Code era of American films, a couple smoking cigarettes together, particularly if they share one cigarette or light one with another, would suggest they were up to something more than kissing.

A form of this notion, the sharing of a drinking glass with a lover as an intimate act, appears in a treatise on romance by the Roman poet Ovid, making this Older Than Feudalism.

See also Sweetheart Sipping. Signed with a Kiss is a subtrope, where one partner sends another a letter with a lipstick mark. The recipient may or may not kiss the kiss mark.


Examples:

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    Advertising 
  • This very squickful Hong Kong ad for Tempo tissue paper: a dork picks up a piece of used tissue, with a lipstick mark, from the desk of his female colleague, and treasures it like his own dear life.
  • This is the reason, according to the Man Law, that men must toast with the bottom of the beer bottles.
  • The fear of this is implied in this spark plug commercial, where the voiceover notes that "the gut knows you're gonna need two new beers" after neither man can tell which beer bottle is his after having set them down on a workbench, complete with zooming in on them nervously biting and licking their lips.

    Anime & Manga 
  • The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You:
    • In Chapter 1, Hakari tries to get one with Rentarou by having him take a sip from a can of juice he bought for her, but she accidentally spills the drink on herself before she can drink it.
    • Rentarou invokes this in Chapter 107 to get a kiss from Mai by telling her that the last girl he kissed was Mei, the subject of Mai's Big Sister Worship. The volume extra for that chapter has Rentarou realize that by that logic the entire family is constantly kissing one another. He decides its fine, since everyone is so close, anyway.
  • In Ah! My Goddess, while under the influence of a drug that makes her more "aggressive", Belldandy purposefully sets up Keiichi on the verge of having an indirect kiss with her after she asks him to have a taste of his canned drink. Too bad that it spilled over.
  • Happened in Angelic Layer, Tamayo sharing out of Koutarou's bag of chips.
  • Ayakashi Triangle:
  • Black Lagoon (pictured above) between Revy and Rock — the "cigarette kiss", in which Revy chains her cigarette from Rock's after a fight between them. Hence, (indirect) kiss and (silent) make up.
    • At the end of Roberta's Blood Trail, Revy takes a cigarette from Rock's mouth and smokes it herself.
  • This trope is lampshaded in Beelzebub when the Best Couple Grand Prix features a challenge based on it involving drinking from the same bottle.
  • Captain Tsubasa: At one point, Kojiro Hyuga offers his not-quite-girlfriend Maki Akamine a bit of his Coca-Cola. Considering that it's his favorite drink, says a lot that he's willing to share it with her.
  • A Certain Scientific Railgun:
    • Kuroko becomes elated at the prospect of getting a bite of something after Mikoto and later freaks out when Mikoto and Saten innocently spoonfeed each other samples of their ice-cream. Kuroko desperately asks for equal treatment, but Mikoto refuses since Kuroko got the same kind as her.
    • Implied but not really dwelled upon in the related A Certain Magical Index, when Mikoto drags Touma into pretending to be her boyfriend. They both get hot dogs, and are distracted after each has taken a bite. When they turn back to their lunch, they don't know which belongs to whom. Touma doesn't care, since they both got the exact same thing, but Mikoto quietly obsesses over the idea. Attentive viewers note that each did in fact end up with the other person's hot dog.
    • About a year before the events of Index, Touma had given Shokuhou Misaki an emergency whistle so she could use it to call him if she needs help. She tries it out, but not before learning Touma had tested it himself. Misaki would keep the whistle as a memento.
  • In episode 6 of Chocotto Sister, Choco shares an ice cream with a boy named Kakeru Ishida. As they share it, he thinks "This is an indirect kiss!".
  • In a magazine based on the rock band AU of Code Geass, Euphemia mentions how as a child, she enjoyed playing music with Lelouch — "I mean, a boy who looked like Lelouch," — and they shared a harmonica. Shirley says that means they shared an indirect kiss, not realizing what that would mean. Since they were close as children and there was romantic subtext between them, it is likely that Lelouch and Euphie did share an indirect kiss through a harmonica as kids in canon. Which is cute.
  • The Dangers in My Heart: In a bonus chapter Yamada spooks Ichikawa with a poorly drawn Oni mask. Then when Ichikawa starts asking questions about what kind of Oni she is, she slaps the mask on his face so he can show her how it’s done. Both of them realize that Ichikawa’s lips are touching the mask.
  • Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?: In the Beach Episode OVA, Porta tries to blow up an inner tube but runs out of breath, so Masato offers to do it for her. Wise jealously stops him because it would mean Masato and Porta's lips would indirectly touch.
  • In Dragon Half, Mink has an Accidental Kiss with Dick Saucer; later, her friend Lufa tries to get an indirect kiss with Dick Saucer by kissing Mink.
  • In the original manga ERASED, near the end the killer uses this concept to trick Satoru's friend, who has a Precocious Crush on him, into drinking from his now-drugged thermos.
  • Parodied (as are all things) in Excel♡Saga: Watanabe agonizes for some time over whether or not to sip Hyatt's tomato juice, thereby getting his first "indirect kiss". Before drinking it, however, he notes that it's overflowing. It's not all tomato juice; Hyatt presumably vomited blood into it. Later in the episode, it's revealed he was hospitalized after drinking it. Although the hospitalization probably came from all the medicine Hyatt added to it when he wasn't looking. She needs a lot of medicine, given her tendency to cough up blood and die at a moment's notice. Factor in that her medicine, once used to leave a trail behind her when she was kidnapped, was eaten by birds... and left a trail of dead birds instead.
  • Fairy Tail: After saving Jellal with a mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, Kagura thinks she stole a kiss from Erza, so as an apology she kisses her to carry over the kiss. But since Erza doesn't know what's going on, she and everyone else is shocked and confused by that sudden kiss.
  • A creepy version exists in Flame of Recca. While eating and licking ice cream, Fuuko encountered Soukakusai and he proceeded to snatch the ice cream, lick it and consider it an indirect kiss. Note that Soukakusai is a creepy guy who hunts after women, especially those who refused him. Fuuko was horrified even before knowing that fact.
  • In FLCL, Kitsurubami unintentionally does this with a drink she was holding for Amarao. She's horrified after she realizes what she's done.
  • Parodied in Gakuen Heaven: keeping up the Yaoi Genre spirit that pervades the whole series, the whole cast that consists of varying degrees of Bishōnen discuss who was it that used a character's toothbrush, something that would constitute an indirect kiss of the creepy kind. Did I mention that everyone is naked in one of those Hot Springs Episode type of situations? As it turns out a cat was the culprit. Of course.
  • An episode of Galaxy Angel has the protagonists start a megacorp that sells candy, and Ranpha invents a candy recorder that replicates the taste of when you snuck an indirect kiss from your school crush by playing their recorder when they weren't around. It's a huge success because apparently nearly everyone in the Galaxy Angel world has done this.
  • When Chiharu offers Kyo a drink from his water bottle in Girl Got Game, she realizes it's an Indirect Kiss and nervously prepares to drink . . . then Hamaya grabs it from her hands and takes a drink himself.
  • Gunbuster: The female protagonist Noriko realizes she's been "indirect kissed" after drinking a soda shared with her short-lived love interest, Smith Torren.
  • In one episode of Haré+Guu, Guu suddenly goes on a wild kissing spree, kissing everyone in school. One of the boys collapses in depression over the fact that he'd just indirectly kissed his male friend.
  • Haruhi Suzumiya:
    • "The Melancholy of Asahina Mikuru" story of the 6th light novel. Mikuru silences Kyon's flustered, mumbled attempts to comfort her by placing her index finger on his lips. She then slowly lifted her index finger and placed it on her own lips. While neither of them outright acknowledge it as an indirect kiss, Kyon's elated reaction and his following thoughts are very much in line with the trope.
    • While shooting their film in "The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya", Mikuru offers Kyon water from the bottle she's been drinking from. Haruhi immediately grabs it from him. Later at the end of the arc, Haruhi drinks from the same cup as Kyon in a café, though it's mostly just to spite him. We never see if Haruhi had this trope in mind or not.
  • Hayate the Combat Butler:
    • Though no one calls it an Indirect Kiss outright, chapter 150 shows Aika being all blushy and hesitant at taking a drink from a bottle Wataru just offered her — a bottle he just drank from. Naturally, oblivious Wataru does not understand why she'd be so fussy.
    • Hinagiku gets flustered over one from a coffee cup in chapter 283.
  • In an episode of Hen Zemi, a show focuses on the many psychological as well as physiological aspects of sexual fetishes, Anna intentionally takes the bottle Komugi leaves and drinks from it, to observe everyone else's shocked reaction and analyze it. The only catch is, that's no bottle of fizzy drink but one that's full of Komugi's juice as Ichikawa reluctantly points out. She then rushes to the bathroom in horror of what she's just consumed, only to quickly come back later at Taguchi who's still jealous that he wasn't the one who got to indirectly kiss her and angrily jam that bottle of cum into his mouth.
  • In Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Hestia tries to give Bell some of her food with this in mind, but Bell says he should not take the food of his goddess. Then he offers some of his food, and Hestia takes it happily.
    • The Sword Oratoria spin-off shows that, right at that moment and close to them, Loki is trying to do the same thing with Aiz, who gives Loki some of her food just to shut her up. Of course, Loki crows about this success.
    • While the Hestia and Loki Familias are eating together in the dungeon, Bell tries some fruit and finds it too sweet. Lili offers to eat the rest but Welf snatches it himself, much to her disappointment.
  • Junjou Romantica. When Usagi-san calls Misaki out on his inability to express his affections for Usagi, Misaki tries this — by kissing his own hand, then slapping it over Usagi's mouth, exclaiming "How's that for erotic?!"
  • Pops up in K during a Flashback. When Yata Misaki loses at a video game he grabs Fushimi Saruhiko's drink and chugs almost all of it, then throws the bottle away. Suoh Mikoto catches it and drinks the rest. So Misaki shared an indirect kiss with Saruhiko and Mikoto with them both.
  • Kaguya-sama: Love Is War:
    • Kaguya considers sharing earbuds to qualify as this.
    • Another chapter has Kaguya deliberately set this up by swapping her and Shirogane's teacups in an attempt to get out of a reaction out of him, only to realized that the exact same thing would apply to her should she drink from his cup.
    • At one point, Shirogane offers some of his lunch to Chika to make Kaguya jealous. Kaguya is thoroughly pissed when Chika has an "indirect kiss" by sampling rice from the part that Shirogane already ate.
  • Kämpfer:
    • Shizuku intentionally invokes this. Asking Natsuru to pass her first the soda, then two cups. She pours into both, picks one up, but only kisses it. Then she offers it to Natsuru. The entire crew is there for this, and they all act suprised, except Natsuru himself, who tries to back away. Eventually Shizuku just does away with the indirectness.
    • Shortly after, Akane considers kissing Shizuku because it would be an indirect kiss with Natsuru.
  • Anzu from Kanojo ni Naritai Kimi to Boku gives Akira one of these when she kisses her fingertips and then places them on Akira's lips. Hime minds more than Akira.
  • During an episode of Kaze no Stigma, Kazuma asks Ayano to hold his canned coffee for him while he takes care of some mutant. Cue Ayano staring at the can and blushing slightly. After the fight, Kazuma asks for his coffee back — she replies that she drank it.
  • Episode 19 of Kimagure Orange Road has Kyosuke and Madoka consciously sharing an indirect kiss on a deserted island. Namely, they share an apple and she chooses to eat from the portion he started from.
  • Koharu no Hibi: Creepily invoked in the first chapter. Akira first spots that something is wrong with Koharu when she drinks the saliva out of his recorder. After the incident, she also starts keeping the bottles he's used, and insisted that he do the same with hers.
  • In Marginal #4, Tsubasa says this is why he can't bring himself to kiss the statue of Pythagoras that Atom had already kissed — thereby losing the kissing competition. The main portion of the competition was acting out a dramatic love confession scene with the statue, and Tsubasa actually did better than Atom with that, but since he couldn't top it off with a kiss, he forfeits.
  • In the anime adaptation of Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!, Yuuta is fed a tomato from chopsticks that Rikka was just using. Yuuta realizes just a second too late what he just did, and the entire class (every member of which was apparently watching the spectacle) applauds.
  • Love Hina:
    • In the manga, Keitaro contemplates an indirect kiss when Narusegawa offers him her drink to wash down some pre-exam antacids.
    • In a later chapter, they share an indirect kiss through a human intermediary, Mutsumi, who explains that she kissed them both for this express purpose.
  • In the first episode of Magic of Stella, Yumine is excited when she talks about a senior nearly drinking out of another freshman's cup.
  • Usui in Maid-Sama! teases Misaki by telling her they've had an indirect kiss after sharing an apple slice with her. In another instance, although the trope isn't specifically mentioned, it is clearly in mind when Usui puts his lollipop into Misaki's mouth before hugging her.
  • Lucia in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch keeps freaking out about this sort of thing, especially in the chapter when her emotions go out of control while visiting Kaito (anime: influenced by magical item; manga: drunk), until they finally do kiss.
  • Referenced in the first episode of Miracle Girls. Jackson steals a sip from Toni's soda and jokingly wonders if it counts as an indirect kiss.
  • In one chapter of Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun, Sakura jokingly offers Nozaki a bite from her candied apple, at that point having given up expecting anything romantic from him. Nozaki, being Nozaki, nonchalantly takes a bite. Cue Sakura going redder than the apple.
  • In My Girlfriend's Not Here Today, Yuni Asahina, the main character, is in a relationship with her schoolmate Nanase Natsume, but is dissatisfied with Natsume's cold and distant behavior. As such, when Nanase not only calls a clubmate by her first name despite calling Yuni by her surname, then agrees to help the clubmate finish her saved ice, Yuni reaches her Rage Breaking Point and calls Nanase out.
  • Mysterious Girlfriend X:
    • The manga is based on this trope; the Boy is literally addicted to the Girl's sweet saliva, but they've yet to kiss — she sucks on her finger and lets him suck her drool off.
    • Used a little bit closer to form in chapter 59 Tsubaki kisses Urabe's photo and then lets her taste his 'drool' so she can feel how turned on he is. Then she has him do it again, and she kisses the back side of the picture, directly opposite his lips.
  • In Negima!? (second season) Setsuna starts fantasizing when it's pointed out that making a pactio with Negi would count as an indirect kiss with Konoka.
  • In Nyaruko: Crawling with Love!, Mahiro and Cuuko have crêpes during their fake date. Cuuko's Clingy Jealous Girl cousin Cuune steals Mahiro's in order to try and ruin the date, but Cuuko offers him a bite of hers, making Cuune freak out over the indirect kiss (that she caused).
  • Abe from Occult Academy gets flustered when his crush wants to share some of her oyaki because of this.
  • Parodied in Ojojojo. Haru wonders if Kawayanagi reading a book she read counts as an indirect touch. Also, the article she wanted him to read was about kissing.
  • Tamaki from Ouran High School Host Club freaks out when he thinks Haruhi and Hikaru might have one of these by sharing an ice cream cone. He quickly disguises himself as an ice cream vendor to give them a second cone to prevent an indirect kiss from happening.
  • In Please Twins!, a flustered Miina accepts a can of soda from her love interest Maiku, literally referring to it as an indirect kiss later on.
  • Princess Mononoke. San feeds a wounded Ashitaka, who is too weak to even chew, by chewing up the meat for him and then transferring it from her mouth to his, without using her hands.
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion: If you watch closely, Kyoko and Sayaka actually share a piece of Pocky between them before they fight Hitomi's Nightmare- but not in the traditional sense. Kyoko instead tosses it to Sayaka, and she catches it in her mouth.
  • Tsuwabuki in Revolutionary Girl Utena ends up throwing away a chocolate bar that a girl had bitten after contemplating that eating it would count as an indirect kiss. This apparently harmless item later appears in his duel as a symbolic manisfestation of Tsuwabuki's desire to grow up.
  • Rurouni Kenshin has an example that foreshadows Kenshin & Kaoru's future relationship: they both drink from the same sake cup, after which Megumi slyly remarks, "It's as though they're a married couple", eliciting embarrassment from Kaoru & Kenshin's trademark flustered "Oro?".
  • Saiyuki:
    • Saiyuki does the cigarette kiss in all forms of media; anime, original animation videos, manga, & promotional art. It's always Kenren & Tenpou, or more commonly Sanzo & Gojyo.
    • A more unique form of indirect kiss was from an actual kiss in volume 3. Kanzeon Bostatsu extracted blood from Gojyo by kissing him, then injected the blood into Sanzo by kissing him. Sanzo involuntarily slapped her. Shortly after, Gojyo joked to Sanzo, refuring to it as an indirect kiss, to which Sanzo pointed a gun at him.
    • Gojyo has a bad habit of losing or forgetting his lighter & will put his face right up in Sanzo's to get the burn of a prelit cigarette to ignite his own. This always annoys or embarrasses Sanzo, especially if Gojyo jokes about it like afterwards, in Saiyuki Premium.
  • Sakura-chan to Amane-kun: On their date in Chapter 5, Amane takes a bite out of Sakura's crepe (even though he has his own), getting an indirect kiss (they had already had a real kiss in Chapter 1, though).
  • Samurai Harem: Asu no Yoichi:
    • Mashiro notices that Kagome has run out of juice before she gets her share. He offers her his glass, clearly stating that he's not invoking this trope in that he hasn't taken a drink yet.
    • Ayame attempts to play it straight and gets browbeat for it.
  • In Shugo Chara! the Cat folk Ikuto starts eating the other side of Amu's ice cream cone (Much to her dismay).
  • In Spirited Away, Chihiro bites the medicine ball in half before feeding it to Haku. She may have been trying to show him that it was safe to eat or that she simply did not have the strength to break it half with her hands.
  • Star Driver: Do you mind the glass?
  • They Are My Noble Masters has one when Shinra gives Ren a canned beverage she'd been drinking and tells him he can finish it. After he does, she forces him to admit that he enjoyed it because it was an Indirect Kiss.
  • In This Ugly Yet Beautiful World, Takeru's cousin Mari becomes mad after Hikari kisses him. Later, after some dwelling on it, Takeru raises his soda to his lips and finds it's empty, while Mari walks away with a hand on her lips, whispering about her minor victory.
  • In the second episode of the To Heart 2 OVA, the sister of Manaka Komaki lampshades this when Konomi swipes Takaaki's cola drink and finishes it.
  • Toradora!:
    • Happened when Minorin enjoyed an indirect kiss with Takasu off her fist, after sending him out after Taiga.
    • Earlier, Kitamura took a bite of Taiga's crepe, thus getting an indirect kiss from her. Taiga, flustered over the prospect of eating the rest of the crepe, panicked and shoved the entire thing down Ryuuji's throat, thus giving him the indirect kiss from Kitamura.
  • In an episode of Urusei Yatsura, Moroboshi sells the face mask worn by a sick Lum, and every boy in the class queues up to enjoy an indirect kiss. They are promptly infected with Lum's cosmic germs.
  • Usagi-chan de Cue!!: Haru allows Mimika to taste his cola, though she was unprepared for its fizziness, and starts coughing. As Haru takes her to a wash station, Miku sees Haru's unfinished cola, and ponders sipping it herself as an indirect kiss. Miku blushes and puts the cup down, ashamed that she almost used such a desperate tactic.
  • In Witchblade, Shiori is deeply in love with her mentor and employer, Dr. Reina Sohou, and kisses the lip print left on her teacup after the good doctor has left her office.
  • Referenced in the first episode of You and Me when the boys are at the Tea Club. Yuki tries to avoid sipping the same part of the cup that Kaname did, which causes him to mention that Kaname likely doesn't want an indirect kiss. The others think Kaname actually wanted an indirect kiss from Yuki and call him "creepy" for it.
  • An early scene in Your Name portrays Mitsuha performing a ritual to make kuchikamizake. Described as the oldest method to make sake, it involves a priestess (in this case, Mitsuha) chewing rice and then spitting it back out into a container, where it's left to ferment. Much later, Taki drinks Mitsuha's kuchikamizake, sending him back in time inside Mitsuha's body one last time to save the people of Itomori from comet Tiamat. When Mitsuha finds out, she gets clearly flustered.
  • Yuugai Shitei Doukyuusei: After borrowing Miyako's panties, Reika compares it to an "indirect clam kiss". Later on, she claims that swimming in a public pool is an "indirect orgy".

    Comic Books 

    Fan Works 
  • Fates Collide: When Cu Chulainn trips and breaks his coffee cup, Medb tries to invoke this by offering hers. Naturally, she gets mad when Glynda Goodwitch simply fixes his cup.
  • Hetalia: Axis Powers fanfic Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità: When Italy tried the tiramisu from Germany and the hijiki and dried shiitake mushroom spaghetti from Japan, he had them try the food too. With the same spoons he ate from.
  • Guys Being Dudes: Spark and Arlo have one of these during their picnic on Go Fest Day 2 when they share a protein bar.
  • In the Haruhi Suzumiya fanfic Kyon: Big Damn Hero, Kyon's aunt observes no real hesitation on Kyon's part when he has to share a teacup with Yuki.
  • In a Princess Tutu fic, Fakir after taking a bite from an apple tosses it up to Ahiru who was sitting in a tree. She unwittingly takes the bite from the same place as he did, causing him to observe that they just did this. And coincidentally, making Ahiru to fall off the tree.
  • Sachiko and Yumi's Alphabet: This comes to Yumi's mind after she lets Sachiko drinks water from the same cup as her.
  • In Spider-X, which sees Rogue (X-Men: Evolution) dating Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man, their first kiss occurs when he puts on his mask and Rogue kisses him while he's still wearing it.
  • In the Star Wars Rebels fanfiction A Sword to Pass, putting on someone’s helmet on for them is a very intimate act to Mandalorians. Ezra ended up doing this for Sabine without knowing that, causing her to run off to her task very quickly. She is flustered by this because he might as well have kissed her on the lips. Alrich does this for Ursa symbolizing their intimacy with one another.

    Film — Animated 
  • In How to Train Your Dragon 2, Ruffnut forces one of these on Eret by kissing her hand and pressing it to his lips while he's pinned down, much to his disgust.
  • In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, when the Prince visits her at the start of the movie, Snow White shyly runs up to a balcony, then kisses a dove and sends it to deliver the kiss to the prince.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • In 99 River Street, the protagonist's friend, Linda, flirts with the villain to keep him distracted. At one point, she uses his cigarette to light her own.
  • Black Widow (1987). The federal agent and the female serial killer she's investigating meet during a scuba-diving course where they practice mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. This is the first sign of their Homoerotic Foe Romance Subtext.
  • From Dusk Till Dawn. During the table dance scene, Salma Hayek drinks from a whiskey bottle, then pours the booze from her mouth into Quentin Tarantino's.
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. In a scene showing that the Horcrux is starting to mess with Ron's mind by making him think that Hermione prefers Harry over him, Ron glares suspiciously at the two as they share a bottle of water.
  • The Foe Romance Subtext version appears in Hannibal. Clarice Starling receives a letter from Hannibal Lecter, and the scene cuts between Clarice reading the letter and Hannibal writing it, including a scene of Hannibal licking the envelope. He knows Clarice will examine the letter closely for forensic clues, after all.
  • John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. John Wick has to walk out into the desert to meet the Elder or die trying. His Distaff Counterpart Sofia (whom he's just fought side-by-side with) looks like she's going to give what's left in her water bottle to John, only to drink it herself, use what's left to rinse out her mouth and then spit that back into the bottle which she then hands to John. Given the ambiguous nature of their past history, it's either Spiteful Spit or a Take That Indirect Kiss.
  • In Rashomon, Tajomaru and Masako have a rather disturbing one — according to him, at least. They're struggling; she bites his arm, and he then lasciviously licks the bite.
  • Taken even further in The Searchers where the way Martha tenderly handles Ethan Edwards' coat show that her feelings run deeper than those appropriate to a married woman and her brother-in-law.
  • Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Knives, to Envy:
I've kissed the lips that kissed you!
  • In the Michael Powell film, The Spy in Black, Conrad Veidt lights Valerie Hobson's cigarette with his own amidst much Unresolved Sexual Tension.
  • In Starship Troopers when Ace and Dizzy visit Johnny Rico in the hospital where his wounds from the battle with the giant Bugs are being healed with a laser while he's in a rejuvenation tank, before she leaves Dizzy kisses the glass near his face.
  • Near the end of the film of Trainspotting, Begbie orders Renton to give him a cigarette, and just stands there waiting with his mouth open until Renton puts it in his own mouth to light it, and then puts it in Begbie's. While this could just be a display of dominance and control (which is well within Begbie's character,) Word of God is that they imagined Begbie as an Armored Closet Gay, so this trope was certainly intended.
  • Invoked in the first Sin City film, when Marv can taste Wendy's lipstick on the cigarette she lit for him and finds it very distracting.

    Literature 
  • The Last Kiss between Riki and Iason Mink in Ai no Kusabi was like this, with them pressing the tips of their cigarettes together as they share both a Last Kiss and One Last Smoke right before Iason bleeds to death after having his legs cut off and the place they're in blows up. Together in Death, indeed.
  • Lampshaded in The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons. Alexander offers a cigarette to Tatiana, but she refuses as she doesn't smoke. A friend of Tatiana who suspects their Secret Relationship asks, "Are you sure you don't want it? It's been in his mouth."
  • This trope is explored at some length in Longus' Daphnis and Chloe, owing to the woeful sexual inexperience of the two titular characters. Being written in the 2nd century AD makes this, well, rather old.
  • In Kelley Armstrong's Exit Strategy, Jack smokes constantly while Nadia has quit smoking. Jack lets Nadia take puffs off his cigarette, since she won't smoke a full cig but she can rationalize sharing as not really smoking. Neither of them ever discuss it, but the third point in the love triangle notices and gets nasty towards Jack about it. After it's pointed out to her, Nadia is uncomfortable with the intimacy of sharing a cig.
  • A rather strange example of indirect sex occurs in John Donne's poem "The Flea". A man tries to get his girlfriend in the mood but she's having none of it. He pulls a tick/louse/some bloodsucking insect from his pubic hair and puts to her skin so that it feeds. He then argues that since their bodily fluids have now mixed in the tick it's like they've already had sex, so they might as well do it for real anyway, because it makes no difference. Needless to say, she squashes the tick.

    Of course, this is also a prime example of Get Thee to a Nunnery, as the poem repeatedly mentions "sucking". Back in the day, the long "s" would have resembled an "f".
  • In one of the Left Behind books, a character wipes away a rogue cookie crumb from his girlfriend's mouth and then absent-mindedly licks it off his finger. The significance of this is discussed in a Slacktivist review;
    "For our protagonists and readers who come from this no-touching-during-courtship subculture, Buck's actions during the Cookie Incident were bold, shocking, even risqué. Thumb to lip contact — that's third base! His thumb touched her mouth and then his own — that's almost like kissing, the sort of thing proper courtship says ought to be saved for the wedding night."
  • In Midnight's Children, the narrator describes seeing a Bollywood movie that got around the conservative social conventions of the day by having the hero kiss an apple, then pass it to the heroine so that she can kiss the same spot. For the pre-teen narrator it ends up being more erotic than if they had simply kissed in the first place.
  • In The Name of the Wind Kvothe and his love interest share an apple, which he explains is, "as close to kissing, if you've never done it before," or something to that effect.
  • Invoked and averted in Noble House, where Quillan Gornt stubs out a cigarette given to him by his ex-mistress, because he does not want "the taint of her lips". When he said the relationship was over, he really meant it.
  • Not a straight example of this trope, but possibly an early proto-form of it: in Rainbow Valley, Rosemary West can't help but notice that Rev. Meredith put his lips on the same spot of a tree-bark-cup that she did when she drank from it earlier, and thinks about how she was told that when that happened, the destinies of the two involved will be linked together...
  • Some illustrations from Paradise Lost, particularly one by William Blake, show Satan as a serpent feeding Eve the Forbidden Fruit with his mouth.
  • In the Vorkosigan Saga novel Shards of Honor:
    • The Hero and Heroine give CPR to another character, and at one point they have to change because her arms are tired. She has a silent ironic laugh at the "parody of a kiss"
    • Done again and heartbreakingly in the same novel when the heroine decides to send the hero a physical letter rather than an electronic one because "it was as close to a touch as they could come."
  • A version of the legend of the city of Ys mentions that Dahut-Ahès, the scandalous princess, makes her new-lover-of-the-evening drink from the cup she drunk from and bite from the fruit she bit from.

    Live-Action TV 
  • As shown in the quote above. One episode of Alias has a one-shot villain who has a little crush on Sydney backwash into some bubbly and then force-feed her some.
  • In Being Human, Annie, a ghost, drinks from (or at least, puts her mouth on) a bottle her still-living ex-fiancé had just been drinking from, the implication being that this is as close as she can get to kissing him anymore.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Anya and Xander are sharing a tub of ice cream with a single spoon, griping about how they can hear Willow and Kennedy making love. When we cut back to them, they're making out on the floor.
  • In the UK TV series Cracker, highly observant (and highly annoying) psychiatrist Fitz is briefing the detectives, one of whom makes an ignorant comment in his area of expertise. Fitz immediately jumps down the man's throat for this...but a few seconds before that same detective had passed a drink to Fitz's love interest DS Penhaligon, who drank from the bottle without wiping the mouth first — just the kind of minor detail Fitz would notice.
  • The second episode of the Due South two-parter Mountie on the Bounty: Fraser gives Ray Kowalski air via mouth-to-mouth "Buddy Breathing" while underwater in a sinking ship. Although there is direct contact, this is still an Indirect Kiss, as the intent was the exchange of air rather than romance. Fraser calls it "standard procedure", and when Ray asks if anything has changed between them, Fraser assures him that no, it hasn't.
  • In the penultimate episode of season 3 of Family Law (2021), Martina and Daniel spend the night at the vet after Danny's dog Craig accidentally ingests some chocolate from a wedding-cake sample. While there, they realize that they both still have feelings for each other, but they can't act on them because Martina is about to get married. As they part ways at the end of the episode, Martina kisses Craig on his head with a lot more longing than one would normally attribute to kiss for a dog.
  • In Friends, Chandler buys Monica an engagement ring. Phoebe happens to be holding it when Monica walks in. To keep it out of sight, she quickly puts it in her mouth. When Monica leaves, she gives it back to Chandler who then has to hide it in his mouth too when Monica enters the room again. Once she leaves, Phoebe teases Chandler: "We're practically kissing."
  • In Gran Hotel, Julio and Alicia cannot kiss in public because they are having a secret Interclass Romance. So, they share cigarettes and he remarks on how it is almost as if they are openly kissing.
  • Interview with the Vampire (2022): In "Is My Very Nature That of a Devil" and "The Thing Lay Still", Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt (who are a same-sex couple) share a "cigarette kiss" by touching the ends of their cigarettes together.
  • In Kamen Rider Double, when Akiko is about to reach Official Couple status with Ryuu, the Indirect Kiss makes her very excited at drinking from a coffee cup that she believes he has just used.
  • In Legion, Syd's powers cause her to switch bodies with anyone she has skin-on-skin contact with. In the finale, as she and her friends all part ways because of Time Travel, she gives Kerry a kiss goodbye by kissing her own gloved palm and pressing it into Kerry's bare hand.
  • Vanessa and Ethan regularly share cigarettes and occasionally what are implied to be spliffs in Penny Dreadful. Passing a spliff between each other was even a central part of a Ship Tease scene for the two.
  • Averted in Person of Interest. As part of their ongoing Homoerotic Subtext Root pinches Shaw's soda, but Shaw just wipes it off in irritation before drinking from it again.
  • Another variation is in Pushing Daisies. Ned and Chuck can't ever kiss directly because if any part of their bodies touch, Chuck dies permanently, so they kiss through cling wrap and hold hands through gloves.
  • Seinfeld:
    • Elaine became frustrated at the mixed signals a man was sending her at the gym, such as wiping off the neck of her water bottle before drinking from it.
    • Another episode has George being berated for double-dipping a chip. "It's like putting your whole mouth in the bowl!"
  • Supernatural
    • In "Girl Next Door", a pre-teen Sam Winchester saves the Girl Next Door from school bullies. She treats a head injury he received in the process by pressing a soda can on it, then she drinks from the can. From the grin on Sam's face at this point, he's aware of the subtext.
    • The episode "Sex and Violence" had an indirect magic kiss. Sirens are Shapeshifting Seducers who control their victims with a kiss. They can do this because of a chemical in their saliva. So when Dean lets his new friend Nick drink out of his flask and doesn't wipe it afterwards...
  • Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has a subtle one in the pilot, where John is eating out of a bag of potato chips. Cameron approaches him, they have a conversation, and when John remarks that she acts disturbingly like a real person, her response is to take a chip out of the same bag and eat it. Considering the direction that the series took regarding their relationship as it progressed, this is remarkably subtle.
  • In Episode 6 of Whites, Skoose plays Kiki's trumpet and they both point out that their spit is mixed together.

    Music 
  • HoneyWorks' "Tokyo Summer Session" has Souta offer his crush, Akari, a sip of his drink to invoke this trope. Akari isn't fooled, but she accepts the drink anyway.
    Akari: I'm thirsty.
    Souta: Want a sip of this?
    Akari: Is this what they call an indirect kiss?
    Souta: … you noticed?

    Theatre 
  • The stage directions of Bugsy Malone more than once call for Bugsy to kiss his own fingertips and then press them to his Love Interest's nose.

    Video Games 
  • In Season 2 of Batman: The Telltale Series, Harley Quinn playfully offers Bruce a slurp from a slushy she just drank, which makes "John Doe" (this universe's version of Joker) jealous. If Bruce accepts, John angrily takes the cup and finishes it himself. Not accepting leads him to happily swiping it from Harley in order to get it himself.
  • In a cutscene in Disgaea 2, the party is surrounded by monsters and attempt to use a magic flute to distract them. Adell tries playing it first, but is proven to have no musical talent whatsoever, so Rozalin takes the flute from him and puts it to her lips — at which point she realizes the significance of this act. She then forcefully discards the flute into her servant's forehead. Axel later finds the flute and plays it, but this trope isn't mentioned.
  • Cloud's immaturity in Final Fantasy VII is showcased in his reluctance to perform the Kiss of Life on a little girl.
  • A body-swapped variation occurs in Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town on the show within a game 'Aaron Changes', when the main character Aaron and his girlfriend Erin change bodies. During band class, he thinks that her using his Recorder might be a form of indirect kissing.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has Mio ask Noah to exchange flutes, as they both have the same occupation and thus play them. He's flustered by it, while Mio doesn't seem to immediately realize the implications.

    Visual Novels 
  • BUSTAFELLOWS
    • Crow ends up drinking from the same drink as Teuta. While she doesn't notice, he does and he starts blushing once he realizes it.
    • Shu steals the spoon from the ice cream bucket Teuta was eating from to take a bite of the ice cream and later on, Teuta freely offers him the last bite with the same spoon.
  • In the CLANNAD visual novel, the hopelessly shy Ryou takes a grain of rice off Tomoya's lips and eats it. When she realizes the implications, she gets so flustered that she runs away. If the player tries to go for her more confident twin sister Kyou, Ryou does the same thing a few days later, but doesn't mind at all, a hint that she is trying to act like Kyou.
  • In Collar × Malice
    • This happens twice in Shiraishi's route. When Ichika accidentally downs his drink and when he eats the omelette that she had already taken a bite out of. When Ichika freaks out over the implications, he teases her out loud over this.
    • In Yanagi's route, when trying to dissuade Ichika from drinking more alcohol, he takes her drink and downs it. Ichika subsequently becomes flustered by it.
  • Galaxy Angel: In the third installment, Eternal Lovers, Ranpha decides to invoke this trope sharing a can of juice. She does so as a way to continue showing affection for Tact, since she's under a Reflexive Response that causes her to punch him whenever he touches her.
  • Go! Go! Nippon! is a visual novel aimed specifically at Occidental Otaku who want to visit Japan, and as such has plenty of anime and manga tropes, including this one. The indirect kiss happens by sharing a drink with one of the two sisters who are hosting the protagonist.
  • If My Heart Had Wings: Aoi and Ageha share the latter's tub of her favorite cookies and cream ice cream. Ageha even lampshades this as "Cookies & Cream & Ageha Indirect Kiss Flavor".
  • Katawa Shoujo: in Rin's route, she and Hisao share a cigarette and Hisao thinks about how they're sharing indirect kisses.
  • Piofiore: Fated Memories:
    • In Gilbert's route, he takes a bite from the same gelato that Lili was eating from.
    • Throughout Yang's route, Yang has a habit of eating foods that Lili has eaten from.
  • Referenced by name during two separate instances in (P)lanets - the life of normalcy has ended!. In the first instance, the main character shares her half-eaten sandwich with a Love Interest; the second instance happens when a different love interest steals one of her half bitten rice balls.
  • Queen of Thieves: In a heart scene in Vivienne's first season, the heroine accidentally drinks from Vivienne's wine glass. When Vivienne playfully chastises her, she teases back saying that it's the closest she'll probably get to a real kiss, then deliberately drinks from it again.
  • Sin With Me: In Yvette's first episode, she kisses her fingertips and touches them to the heroine's cheek.
  • Sweet Enchantments:
    • A heart scene in Runa's first season has her and the heroine sharing a pot pie, passing the fork between themselves.
    • Liora's first season has a heart scene where the heroine brings her dinner after she Forgets to Eat. After eating her fill, Liora offers the heroine a bite, passing her the fork.
      Heroine: (Don't think about indirect kisses, brain. This isn't a TV show.)
    • A heart scene in Emeril's first season has her sharing a slice of charlotte with the heroine. She gives the heroine a bite, then takes one herself with the same fork, which the heroine blushes at.
  • In Tokimeki Memorial, if the protagonist meets ace swimmer Nozomi Kiyokawa for the first time as she does her daily 50 kilometers run, she'll offer him some of her juice. As she'll leave him, the protagonist will realize and gleefully mention to himself he had an indirect kiss this way.

    Webcomics 

    Western Animation 
  • In Adventure Time, Finn and Flame Princess use this by passing a rock back and forth, kissing it. Of course, they have to, considering Flame Princess' unstable state could cause the world to be destroyed if they get too romantic. Well, that and the first real kiss they had burnt Finn's mouth.
  • Beavis And Butthead once got kicked out of a lingerie shop because they went around touching all the crotches of the panties and insides of the bras, figuring all of them will eventually be bought and worn by hot chicks.
  • Happens to Vlad Masters from Danny Phantom in "Maternal Instincts". "The Backwash Incident" is one of the reasons why he wants to kill Jack.
  • Averted in the Futurama episode "Roswell That Ends Well", in which a stereotypical 1950's diner has a sign on the door telling patrons, "One teen to a malt please."
  • In the Generator Rex and Ben 10 crossover special, Holiday gives one to a comatose Agent Six by kissing the glass covering of his bed, close to his cheek.
  • Miraculous Ladybug includes an unusual example. Standards and practices would not allow the series to show Marc and Nathaniel kissing each other, but there was no rule against both of them kissing their good friend Adrien's cheeks simultaneously, on opposite sides of his face.
  • Steven Universe: "An Indirect Kiss" has the eponymous indirect kiss happen between Connie and Steven, when Steven trades the rest of his juice box to Connie in exchange for letting him try on her glasses. He even admits it's mostly backwash at that point. This would seem like a footnote to the episode, which is mostly about Steven trying to gain Swiss-Army Tears, except it turns out that he actually has healing spit, which cures Connie's astigmatism.
  • In one episode of X-Men: The Animated Series after Gambit saves Rogue from a sentinel he asks for a kiss, because of her powers touching them zaps their energy, so she puts her gloved hand over his mouth and kisses her hand.


Alternative Title(s): Date Crepe

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The Cigarette Kiss

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