Friends with Benefits/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Basic Trope: A couple that is sexually involved with one another, but not an Official Couple.
  • Played Straight: Alice and Bob have sex, and are good friends with one another, but not boyfriend and girlfriend.
  • Exaggerated: Alice and Bob do nothing else together except have sex.
  • Inverted:
  • Justified:
    • Alice and/or Bob are involved with other people
    • Alice and Bob want sex, but not necessarily to be tied down.
    • Alice and Bob are going for a Relationship Upgrade. (YMMV as to whether they're going about it the right way or not.)
    • Alice and Bob in the mood, and trust each other.
  • Subverted: Alice and Bob are attracted to one another, but the attraction is where it stops.
  • Double Subverted: Until they have a little too much to drink at a party and end up in bed together.
  • Deconstructed: It can lead to all sorts of awkwardness, especially if one is falling in love with the other, who isn't interested.
  • Reconstructed: Everyone is on the same page, and does not have any unrealistic expectations as to where this is (or may be) going. And who knows? It might become a real relationship with time anyway.
  • Parodied: Alice and Bob have had sex with all their friends.
  • Lampshaded:
  • Averted:
  • Enforced: They're teasing the shippers.
  • Invoked: Alice, unhappy in her relationship with Charles, is comforted (and ultimately seduced) by her friend Bob.
  • Exploited: Bob and Alice stay friends with each other for the sex.
  • Defied: Alice and Bob agree not to let raging hormones lead them to risk ruining their friendship
  • Played For Laughs: What Did I Do Last Night?
  • Played For Drama: Almost always is.

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