History Main / MutualPining

* Disney's version of ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood'' has Robin and Marian doing this because they haven't seen each other since they were children and have no way to know whether the other's feelings have changed. Robin also agonizes because his status as an outlaw leaves him UnableToSupportAWife and he thinks Marian deserves better.

* ''Manga/FullMoon'' has Oshige, Full Moon's manager and a failed former idol, and Wakaoji, Full Moon's producer and a former bandmember whom Oshige had been fostering a CelebCrush on since her idol days. The failure of Oshige's idol career had left her as a BrokenBird who believes she'll never get to be happy, which is only reinforced by Wakaoji talking about having had Mitsuki's mother Hazuki as his FirstLove. On the other hand, after Wakaoji starts becoming ''extremely'' invested in Oshige, he learns about her CelebCrush on him but also that she's currently [[SleepingWithTheBoss sleeping with the company president]] in an attempt to get favors for Full Moon's sake, which plants doubts in him about what Oshige really wants or whom she loves. [[spoiler:Eventually, Wakaoji realizes that the pen cap on Oshige's bus pass case is [[TwoHalvesMakeAPlot the other half]] of a very important pen he'd treasured from someone who'd sent him a life-changing message in his band days; he'd fallen in love with Hazuki specifically because he'd attributed it to her, but a younger Oshige had been the actual writer, and she'd been keeping the cap on her bus pass wistfully hoping but not actually believing Wakaoji would figure it out. Upon learning this, Wakaoji is invigorated enough to go into the company president's room, drag Oshige out, acknowledge her feelings, and start a relationship with her.]]

* ''Manga/MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch'' has a somewhat more complex take on the usual LovesMyAlterEgo scenario: Kaito ''does'' actually suspect that Lucia is the mermaid from his childhood, but as long as he doesn't have proper confirmation, he'll still need to make a choice between committing to "the girl who's currently actively involved with his life" or "the mermaid he promised to find but is only a vague existence to him". After deciding that the former is more sensible, he makes a LoveConfession to Lucia, but since a {{Geas}} prevents Lucia from telling him she's the mermaid no matter how much she wants to, there's something hollow about it and Lucia isn't nearly as happy as she feels she should be. [[spoiler:Eventually, the {{Geas}} turns out to be irrelevant when it's revealed [[ChangelingFantasy Kaito isn't even human to begin with]], and Kaito confirms her identity when Lucia's sheer feelings manage to get across, giving both him and Lucia closure and allowing them to love each other more openly the way they actually want to.]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'': At various points, ChildhoodFriends Cloud and Tifa demonstrate they have feelings for the other in their interactions, but thanks to emotional hang-ups caused by their [[DoomedHometown shared trauma]] as well as the impending threat they face taking priority, neither are really able to act on it until near the end of the story.

* The manga version of ''Manga/FullMoon'' has Oshige, Full Moon's manager and a failed former idol, and Wakaoji, Full Moon's producer and a former bandmember whom Oshige had been fostering a CelebCrush on since her idol days. The failure of Oshige's idol career had left her as a BrokenBird who believes she'll never get to be happy, which is only reinforced by Wakaoji talking about having had Mitsuki's mother Hazuki as his FirstLove. On the other hand, after Wakaoji starts becoming ''extremely'' invested in Oshige, he learns about her CelebCrush on him but also that she's currently [[SleepingWithTheBoss sleeping with the company president]] in an attempt to get favors for Full Moon's sake, which plants doubts in him about what Oshige really wants or whom she loves. [[spoiler:Eventually, Wakaoji realizes that the pen cap on Oshige's bus pass case is [[TwoHalvesMakeAPlot the other half]] of a very important pen he'd treasured from someone who'd sent him a life-changing message in his band days; he'd fallen in love with Hazuki specifically because he'd attributed it to her, but a younger Oshige had been the actual writer, and she'd been keeping the cap on her bus pass wistfully hoping but not actually believing Wakaoji would figure it out. Upon learning this, Wakaoji is invigorated enough to go into the company president's room, drag Oshige out, acknowledge her feelings, and start a relationship with her.]]
* ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' protagonists Kaguya and Shirogane are head-over-heels in love with each other, but both have far too much {{Pride}} to confess, getting them to engage in the titular "love war" BattleOfWits and try to make the other fall for them and confess their love. [[spoiler:Kaguya's reason for hesitating is that [[IDontWantToRuinOurFriendship she doesn't want to risk ruining their existing relationship]], while Shirogane is worried about [[CantCatchUp whether he can stand next to her as an equal]], and both are worried that [[InsecureLoveInterest they may not be good enough for the other]].]]
* The manga version of ''Manga/MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch'' has a somewhat more complex take on the usual LovesMyAlterEgo scenario: Kaito ''does'' actually suspect that Lucia is the mermaid from his childhood, but as long as he doesn't have proper confirmation, he'll still need to make a choice between committing to "the girl who's currently actively involved with his life" or "the mermaid he promised to find but is only a vague existence to him". After deciding that the former is more sensible, he makes a LoveConfession to Lucia, but since a {{Geas}} prevents Lucia from telling him she's the mermaid no matter how much she wants to, there's something hollow about it and Lucia isn't nearly as happy as she feels she should be. [[spoiler:Eventually, the {{Geas}} turns out to be irrelevant when it's revealed [[ChangelingFantasy Kaito isn't even human to begin with]], and Kaito confirms her identity when Lucia's sheer feelings manage to get across, giving both him and Lucia closure and allowing them to love each other more openly the way they actually want to.]]
* By her own admission, this dynamic is one of manga author Megumi Tachikawa's [[CreatorThumbprint Creator Thumbprints]] in general:

* ''Manga/MoriartyThePatriot'': A friendship variant--Sherlock and William both admit in volume 14 that they've been secretly thinking of the other as friends and wished desperately to spend more time together and solve mysteries together...if only it weren't for William's grand plan to murder people and cast himself as a villain.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1683167/1/STE-Hoshi-s-Birthday-Surprise Hoshi's Birthday Surprise]]'', [[AdaptationalRelationshipOverhaul Malcolm and Hoshi are in love]], but neither feels they can pursue the other, since Hoshi [[MistakenForGay thinks Malcolm is gay]] due to him accidentally entering a {{Gayborhood}}, and Malcolm knows that Hoshi thinks he's gay.

* ''Literature/AnneOfGreenGables'' has Rosemary West and John Meredith. Rosemary is compelled to reject a marriage proposal from John even though she loves him due to a promise she made to her sister years earlier. Consequently, John is devestated that the woman he loves seemingly doesn't return his feelings, while Rosemary believes that John will never forgive her for breaking his heart. Rosemary resigns herself to being alone even after her sister releases her from the promise. When John's daughter Una reveals to Rosemary that he's still in love with her, she wastes no time confessing her true feelings and they quickly get engaged.
* In ''Literature/TheHeartstrikers'', ''Literature/NoGoodDragonGoesUnpunished'' reveals that [[spoiler:Chelsie and the Great Dragon of China had a forbidden affair six hundred years ago and have been estranged ever since, while still in love with one another and believing the other would never want them back. They make no steps to rekindle their relationship, and it's through Julius' intervention that they finally do in the next book of the series (''Literature/ADragonOfADifferentColor'').]]
* The WebSerialNovel ''[[https://digi-lab.blog/1-an-old-tale-inscribed-in-blue-of-carnelia/ Iol and Carnelia]]'' features a couple of [[ArtificialHuman Artificial Humans]] named Iol and Carnelia trapped in a cycle of EternalRecurrence: one would find the other in an underground cave and awaken them, take them around the world and teach them about music and emotion for a year, then pass away and leaving the other WalkingTheEarth until [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the world ends]] and is reborn. Eventually, the other would find a recreation of the first one in an underground cave, and the cycle would repeat. While both of them are in love with each other during their short times together, both are also afraid that doing anything different would trigger a ButterflyOfDoom and render them unable to meet again, so their feelings remain unspoken just so they can continue seeing each other for short periods of time. [[spoiler:Eventually, Iol confesses his feelings, allowing him to retain his memories the next time they meet and for them to spend their happiest year together, and with the cycle broken for good, he returns to the hill where they met so they can be TogetherInDeath.]]

* In ''Series/SonOfACritch'', it becomes increasingly obvious as the series continues that Mark and Fox have feelings for one another, but Fox is too stubborn to admit that she loves the dorky Mark, and Mark doesn't dare make the first move because [[IDontWantToRuinOurFriendship he's afraid Fox won't hang out with him anymore]] if it turns out that she doesn't love him back.

* ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' series ''Series/MahouSentaiMagiranger'' has a late-stage example: [[spoiler:Urara and Hikaru turn out to have fallen in love with each other over time, and [[EveryoneCanSeeIt the entire family can tell]], but when Hikaru has a vision of his incoming death, he tries to [[BreakHisHeartToSaveHim leave Urara and her family behind for their own good]], reasoning that the emotional pain will be much easier for them if he leaves as few attachments as possible. Urara respects his reasoning but is still miserable, and Miyuki convinces him to come around by telling him Urara would be happier to have his love at all, leading him to change his mind, deliver a LoveConfession, and marry her.]]
* In Series/SomeAssemblyRequired Jarvis and Piper do this for the majority of the show, though for the early parts of the show we don't know that it is mutual.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasy7'': At various points ChildhoodFriends Cloud and Tifa demonstrate they have feelings for the other in their interactions, but thanks to emotional hang-ups caused by their [[DoomedHometown shared trauma]] as well as the impending threat they face taking priority, neither are really able to act on it until near the end of the story.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' has [[Characters/StarWarsObiWanKenobi Obi-Wan Kenobi]] and Duchess Satine, who fell in love when Obi-Wan was younger and stationed on Mandalore. Obi-Wan's position as a Jedi led to them becoming StarCrossedLovers, but it's also stated that Obi-Wan ''would'' have dropped everything and willlingly left everything behind if she'd just been a little clearer about wanting him at the time. It's very obvious that neither of them have gotten over each other, [[spoiler:and by the time Satine finally does give Obi-Wan an AnguishedDeclarationOfLove, [[DiedInYourArmsTonight it's on her deathbed]].]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonPrince'': After a fairly traumatic experience where [[Characters/TheDragonPrinceCallum Callum]] falls into a Dark Magic-induced coma near the end of Book 2, Rayla undergoes a LoveRevelationEpiphany and almost confesses how she feels to him while he's unconscious, [[AbortedDeclarationOfLove but he wakes before she can]]. Early in Book 3, it's heavily implied Callum feels the same way about her but hasn't yet realized it himself with a couple of {{Crush Blush}}es occurring on their travels through Xadia, that is until "The Midnight Desert" where a heartfelt YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre speech from Callum causes Rayla to [[MistakenForFlirting kiss him]] catching him off guard. [[spoiler:It doesn't take long for both to [[RelationshipUpgrade officially get together]] afterwards once Callum's feelings have crystalized and he reciprocates her kiss while getting caught up in praising her as a hero.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonPrince'': After a fairly traumatic experience where Callum falls into a Dark Magic-induced coma near the end of Book 2, Rayla undergoes a LoveRevelationEpiphany and almost confesses how she feels to him while he's unconscious, [[AbortedDeclarationOfLove but he wakes before she can]]. Early in Book 3, it's heavily implied Callum feels the same way about her but hasn't yet realized it himself with a couple of {{Crush Blush}}es occurring on their travels through Xadia, that is until "The Midnight Desert" where a heartfelt YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre speech from Callum causes Rayla to [[MistakenForFlirting kiss him]] catching him off guard. [[spoiler:It doesn't take long for both to [[RelationshipUpgrade officially get together]] afterwards once Callum's feelings have crystalized and he reciprocates her kiss while getting caught up in praising her as a hero.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonPrince'': After a fairly traumatic experience where Callum falls into a Dark Magic-induced coma near the end of Book 2, Rayla undergoes a LoveRevelationEpiphany and almost confesses how she feels to him while he's unconscious, [[AbortedDeclarationOfLove but he wakes before she can]]. Early in Book 3, it's heavily implied Callum feels the same way about her but hasn't realized it himself with a couple of {{Crush Blush}}es occurring on their travels through Xadia, until "The Midnight Desert" where a heartfelt YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre speech from Callum causes Rayla to [[MistakenForFlirting kiss him]] catching him off guard. [[spoiler:It doesn't take long for both to [[RelationshipUpgrade officially get together]] afterwards once Callum's feelings have crystalized and he reciprocates her kiss while getting caught up in praising her as a hero.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonPrince'': After a fairly traumatic experience where Callum falls into a Dark Magic-induced coma near the end of Book 2, Rayla undergoes a LoveRevelationEpiphany and almost confesses how she feels to him while he's still unconscious [[AbortedDeclarationOfLove just before he wakes up]]. Early in Book 3, it's heavily implied Callum feels the same way about her but hasn't realized it himself with a couple of {{Crush Blush}}es occurring on their travels through Xadia, until "The Midnight Desert" where a heartfelt YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre speech from Callum causes Rayla to [[MistakenForFlirting kiss him]] catching him off guard. [[spoiler:It doesn't take long for both to [[RelationshipUpgrade officially get together]] afterwards once Callum's feelings have crystalized and he reciprocates her kiss while getting caught up in praising her as a hero.]]

* In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Melora", Melora and Bashir fall in love, but Bashir thinks that she's taken, since he saw a photo of her with a man. When she informs him that this man is actually [[RelativeError her brother]], they kiss.

** Even in most of Tachikawa's other works, particularly her oneshot chapters and ''Dream Eater Guide'', some variant of mutual pining is usually behind the plot's main conflict. A common recurring Tachikawa plotline involves a heroine being resigned to the idea of her LoveInterest not returning her feelings and trying to settle for being able to support him at all, only for it to turn out that he'd been far more devoted to her than she'd expected (something that may have {{Foreshadowing}} beforehand but usually isn't revealed until late).

** The protagonist of ''Portrait of a Morning Glory'', a oneshot chapter that Tachikawa referred to as an indirect prototype of ''Saint Tail'', is a morning glory flower that makes a ''Literature/TheLittleMermaid''-esque deal with a divine entity to temporarily become a girl named Saaya so she can spend some time getting to talk to Kazuma, a boy she'd fallen in love with. Although the deal stipulates that Saaya can [[BecomeARealBoy keep her human form]] if she manages to get him to return her feelings within a week, Saaya thinks the idea of that actually happening is hard to believe and stays laser-focused on getting to spend as much of the week as she can with him without expecting anything back. However, after she [[ActOfTrueLove sacrifices her own life]] so he can have more paint to use for his art, it turns out that he'd taken the fact [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe she supported him when no one else would]] ''really seriously'', and he ends up yelling for her to come back with such despair and anguish that it convinces the divine entity to retroactively extend the time limit and let Saaya come back as a human.

** Even in Tachikawa's other works, particularly her oneshot chapters and ''Dream Eater Guide'', some variant of mutual pining is usually behind the plot's main conflict. A common recurring Tachikawa plotline involves a heroine being resigned to the idea of her LoveInterest not returning her feelings and trying to settle for being able to support him at all, only for it to turn out that he'd been far more devoted to her than she'd expected (something that may have {{Foreshadowing}} beforehand but usually isn't revealed until late).

* The manga version of ''Manga/MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch'' has a somewhat more complex take on the usual LovesMyAlterEgo scenario: Kaito ''does'' actually suspect that Lucia is the mermaid from his childhood, but as long as he doesn't have proper confirmation, he'll still need to make a choice between committing to "the girl who's currently actively involved with his life" or "the mermaid he promised to find but is only a vague existence to him". After deciding that the former is more sensible, he makes a LoveConfession to Lucia, but since a {{Geas}} prevents Lucia from telling him she's the mermaid no matter how much she wants to, there's something hollow about it and Lucia isn't nearly as happy as she feels she should be. [[spoiler:Eventually, the {{Geas}} turns out to be irrelevant when it's revealed [[ChangelingFantasy Kaito isn't even human to begin with]], and Kaito manages to confirm her identity when Lucia's sheer feelings manage to get across, giving both him and Lucia closure and allowing them to love each other more openly the way they actually want to.]]

** ''Manga/KaitouSaintTail'' has the titular PhantomThief fall in love with her own SympatheticInspectorAntagonist Asuka Jr., who just so happens to also be a classmate of her civilian identity Meimi. Although he clearly has some kind of fascination with Saint Tail and even considers her to be his WorthyOpponent, that doesn't change the fact that his job is to arrest her, and Meimi is worried about him coming to hate her if he finds out the truth. On top of that, Meimi and Asuka Jr. have a [[BelligerentSexualTension semi-hostile]] relationship at school, so Meimi copes by channeling all of her affection into the Saint Tail persona because she knows [[LovesMyAlterEgo anything Saint Tail does will actually mean something to him]]. What Meimi ''doesn't'' know is that not only does Asuka Jr. happen to be far more [[DevotedToYou secretly devoted]] to Meimi than she thinks, he's already suspecting her of being Saint Tail, which means what seems like mere FoeRomanceSubtext to her is actually him unconsciously spilling all of his pent-up feelings for Meimi.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonPrince'': After a fairly traumatic experience where Callum falls Into a Dark Magic induced coma near the end of Book 2, Rayla undergoes a LoveRevelationEpiphany and almost confesses how she feels to him while he's still unconscious [[AbortedDeclarationOfLove just before he wakes up]]. Early in Book 3, it's heavily implied Callum feels the same way about her but hasn't realized it himself with a couple of {{Crush Blush}}es occurring on their travels through Xadia, until "The Midnight Desert" where a heartfelt YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre speech from Callum causes Rayla to [[MistakenForFlirting kiss him]] catching him off guard. [[spoiler:It doesn't take long for both to [[RelationshipUpgrade officially get together]] afterwards once Callum's feelings have crystalized and he reciprocates her kiss while getting caught up in praising her as a hero.]]

This trope tends to have good chemistry with the BelligerentSexualTension dynamic (if both characters assume the other dislikes them, it's easier for both to pretend they dislike the other back instead of admitting [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther they secretly care about each other]], right?) and LovesMyAlterEgo, especially the LikesClarkKentHatesSuperman and HatesMySecretIdentity variants (an easy way to depict a DarkSecret that will seemingly turn off the other person if revealed). StarCrossedLovers can be this if the nature of the relationship itself is unresolved thanks to the obstructive factors in question. Contrast UnrequitedLoveSwitcheroo, which similarly centers around {{Irony}} regarding two people in mutually unrequited love but legitimately does (at least temporarily) involve one person moving on from the other.

If an outside party notices the signs of Mutual Pining, expect them to be a ShipperOnDeck and try to get the two together. If it's something only communicated to the audience, then that's ShipTease. TwiceShy is a SisterTrope that also involves mutual inabilty to confess feelings but usually has much less severe causes and effects (although being TwiceShy may serve as an additional explanation as to why a Mutual Pining couple won't do anything about their situation).