Fake-Out Make-Out/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A boy and a girl need a distraction, so they decide to kiss.

  • Straight: Samantha and Jake enter the fortress about the Big Bad and don't want to be caught, but someone walks by, so they decide to kiss as a distraction.
  • Exaggerated:
    • They want to enter the base, but there's no-one around to watch them. They kiss anyway as a distraction, despite not needing one.
    • Alternatively, Samantha and Jake kiss as a distraction... but they decide it's not effective enough, so they take their distraction one level higher.
    • Or they start doing this in the middle of the enemy base, and the guards just walk past them without even batting an eyelid.
  • Justified:
    • The Big Bad and his army are Allergic to Love so they have to look away or they'll die themselves, so it was the best possible distraction.
    • Alternately, someone finding two people in an area where they aren't supposed to be would assume they're doing something suspicious. If they can convince the observer that the suspicious thing they're up to is just an illicit make-out session, they can distract attention from their real purpose.
  • Inverted:
    • Samantha and Jake are making out when they are caught in the middle of the fortress.
    • Samantha and Jake think they are about to get caught by two of the guards, then the two guards suddenly start making out.
    • Alternatively, worried that they're about to get caught, Samantha slaps Jake across the face and runs off, seemingly on the verge of tears. Jake runs off after her, either because he's in on the plan or because he's go no idea what he did to set her off. The guards decide they don't want to get dragged into it and leave the two alone.
  • Subverted: Samantha suggests kissing, but Jake refuses, saying they'll sure be able to find another way...
  • Double Subverted: ...Until they're almost caught and Jake realizes there is no other way.
  • Parodied:
    • Jake and Bob are entering the fortress when they're almost caught, so they decide to kiss as a distraction. Naturally, they fail miserably.
    • Alternatively Jake and Samantha are infiltrating the fortress. Jake proposes this and Samantha misunderstands and makes out with the soldier coming around the corner. The soldier walks off dumbfounded after that as Jake tries to explain that's not what he meant.
    • Samantha has an unrequited crush on Jake and insistently suggests that they do a Fake-Out Make-Out every time a distraction is called for... and quite a few times where a distraction is not called for, much to Jake's discomfort.
    • Samantha and Jake are forced to keep kissing for a very very very long time.
  • Deconstructed: Jake and Samantha kiss as a distraction, but because of this, the enemy soldier immediately notices them and tries to catch them...
  • Reconstructed: ...But since they are making out so heavily, the soldier decides to leave them alone, to grant them some privacy.
  • Zig Zagged: Samantha brings up the idea of kissing as a distraction, but Jake refuses, until the enemy soldier is near and he's forced to give in. However, just before they kiss, the soldier recognizes them and stops them using the trope.
  • Averted: Whenever a distraction is needed, Samantha and Jake never decide to kiss.
  • Enforced: "We need a good bit of Ship Tease for the Official Couple... how about we let them infiltrate the fortress and almost let them get caught, so they need to kiss?"
  • Lampshaded: "Oh no, you're not going to kiss me, are you? It probably won't even work!"
  • Invoked: Samantha knew she'd almost get caught, so she brought Jake with her to kiss as a distraction.
  • Defied: Samantha always travels alone, in fear of having to use this trope one day.
  • Discussed: "I heard Samantha and Jake kissed when they needed to infiltrate the base..."
  • Conversed: "Oh no, they're kissing to distract the soldier! How can they possibly think that'll work properly?"
  • Played For Laughs: Samantha and Jake are kissing vehemently to distract the enemy soldiers. However, they are so caught up in making out, that when they let go, the entire army of the villain, including the Big Bad himself, stands in front of them, some cheering them on while others tell them to Get a Room.
  • Played For Drama: Jake has a girlfriend with whom he is quite happy, until Samantha is forced to kiss him as a distraction. Although he agreed to kissing, he feels like perhaps Samantha is feeling something. They drift apart rapidly because Jake begins to distrust Samantha, and since he kissed his friend, the relationship between him and his girlfriend is going south rapidly as well...

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