Childhood Friends

Tropes and genres
Synonym(s)	osananajimi
See also	Friends to Lovers, Friends to Rivals
Severus Snape and Lily Evans (art by JattGoi, 2023).
Related articles on Fanlore.

Childhood friends is a trope concerning two (or more) characters that have known each other closely since a young age. Their relationship may or may not become romantic in later life.

Romantic works often follow how childhood friends get together, making the transition from Friends to lovers, and explore the challenges that come with changing a long-held relationship. The situation may be that the friends didn't know they were dating. The friends may have been hiding romantic feelings and pining, or come to the realization that their feelings are more than platonic.

A variation of this trope is chance or casual meetings as children.

Canon examples

• Fullmetal Alchemist : Alphonse Elric, Edward Elric, and Winry Rockbell are childhood friends (Ed/Winry is a canon ship)
• Marvel: Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes (Stucky)
• Free!: Haruka Nanase, Makoto Tachibana, Rin Matsuoka (MakoHaru, RinHaru, MakoRin)
• Haikyuu:
  • Oikawa Tooru and Iwaizumi Hajime (Iwaoi)
  • Tsukishima Kei and Yamaguchi Tadashi (Tsukkiyama)
  • Kuroo Tetsuro and Kenma Kozume (Kuroken)
  • Sawamura Daichi, Sugawara Koushi, and Azumane Asahi (Daisuga is popular)
• Boku no Hero Academia: Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugou are childhood friends-turned-rivals (Katsuki Bakugou/Midoriya Izuku)
• Assassin's Creed III: Kanen'tó:kon and Ratonhnhaké:ton are childhood friends.
• The Fire Emblem series has many pairs, roughly half of them romantic in nature. Most notably:
  • Marth/Caeda in the Akaneia series
  • Alm/Celica in Gaiden and its remake Echoes
  • Azelle and Lex as a platonic example, either one with Tailtiu as romantic in the first generation of the Jugdral games. The second generation has Leif/Nanna and Seliph, Lana, Larcei, Scathach, Lester, and Diarmud.
  • Lifis and Perne in Thracia 776
  • Roy/Lilina and Wil/Rebecca as romantic examples in the Elibe games. Hector and Eliwood are a platonic version.
  • Ephraim, Eirika, and Lyon are a tragic example in The Sacred Stones. Colm/Neimi is a romantic example.
  • The Tellius games have Ike/Soren, Mist/Boyd, and Geoffrey/Elincia as romantic examples. Mist/Rolf, Aran/Laura, and Lucia/Elincia are platonic, though shipped heavily in the fandom.
  • All of the child characters in Awakening can make opposite-sex pairings with each other and are all good friends due to having grown up together. From the first generation, Lissa/Maribelle, Chrom/Maribelle, and Chrom/Sully.
  • Princesses Elise and Sakura in Fates are childhood friends with their retainers and can marry the male ones. The Avatar is this with the maids Flora and Felicia and the butler Jakob.
  • Ingrid with either Sylvain, Felix, or Prince Dimitri; Yuri/Bernadetta, and Jeritza/Constance in Three Houses. Linhardt/Caspar isn't explicitly romantic, but Linhardt is canonically bisexual and has a paired ending with Caspar.
  • Engage has Prince Alfred with either of his retainers, Boucheron and Etie. Etie is also a close friend of Alfred's sister Princess Celine.
• In Kim Possible, the titular character and Ron Stoppable are childhood friends who become lovers.
• Kevin Arnold, Winnie Cooper, and Paul Pfeiffer in The Wonder Years are a trio of childhood friends.
• Cory Matthews, Shawn Hunter, and Topanga Lawrence in Boy Meets World.
• Miaka Yuuki and Yui Hongo in Fushigi Yuugi, the main driving point of the series' plot has them becoming enemies.
• Ash Ketchum and Serena in the Pokémon XY anime were retconned to be this. Ash and Gary are childhood friends turned rivals turned friends again. Dawn has a childhood friend named Kenny in the Diamond and Pearl series.
• Kamui Shirou and the siblings Kotori and Fuuma Monou in X/1999
• Tomoyo Daidouji and Sakura Kinomoto in Cardcaptor Sakura
• Pathologic: Apple Basket Gang in Pathologic 2
• Phantom of the Opera: Raoul de Chagny and Christine Daaé are childhood friends who end up a couple

Fan Comments

1971

How I Spent My Summer Vacation is a well-written story revolving around one of those silly plots that has Spock and Kirk meet as children, Scotty as an ensign, and McCoy as a young doctor...ridiculous but fun for a while.

1981

‘His First Command,’ a hilarious Kirk-and-Spock-meet-as-children tale. While not all the havoc they manage to create in an afternoon seems logically possible, the author has caught the essence of two little boys excellently.

Fanwork Examples

Fiction

• How I Spent My Summer Vacation by Doris Beetem (James T. Kirk, as a boy, goes to San Francisco to visit his aunt, and meets with Spock, whose parents are attached to the Vulcan embassy there. Together, they run into a cadet Scott and a young Dr. Leonard McCoy.) (from Eridani Triad #1 (1970)
• And Puppy Dogs Tails by Lyndy Harding (A story about Starsky and Hutch meeting as children.) (in APB #38) (1986)
• Children of the Federation, a whole zine of related stories (Blake's 7) (1990)
• Puppy Love by J.M. Lane ("Spock and Christine meet as children on Vulcan when her father is assigned as an assistant to his father, Sarek. The children eventually become close friends and Spock wants to bond with her, but Sarek refuses, having already chosen T'Pring. This cases sorrow and hard feelings and the Chapels transfer off Vulcan, causing Spock to vow that he will find "Chrissy" again some day and that when he does, they will never be apart again.") (from Heart Treks #3) (Star Trek: TOS) (1995)
• Tangled Destinies by Keira Marcos (Star Trek: AOS) (2010)
• Would you, Won't you by Mad_Merry. Desmond Miles/Delsin Rowe childhood friends AU (2017)
• Fue sin querer queriendo by Lybra (Canon divergence in Spanish where Tobi x Deidara meet as kids.) (Naruto) (2020)
• Home is Where... by JoWithTheFlow -- "childhood friends" AU in which Midoriya Inko works for the Yaoyorozu family so Izuku and Momo meet as children (My Hero Academia) (2021)

Art

1981

• 
  P.S. Nim portrays Kirk and Spock in "His First Command" in Farthest Star #2 (Star Trek: TOS)

1990

• 
  Suzan Lovett portrays Starsky & Hutch in the zine, Bonaventure (1990)
• 
  Anna Deavers portrays Vincent Wells and Catherine Chandler in a chance meeting as children (Beauty and the Beast (TV)) (1990)

Additional Resources

• "Childhood Friends" tag on AO3
• "Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends" tag on AO3