Like Brother And Sister / Literature

• Adventure Hunters: Lisa's feelings for Artorius are complicated to say the least. The age difference is great enough for him to be her father but they work more like siblings. Regina thinks she's genuinely in love with him.
• In the Arrows of the Queen trilogy, Herald trainees Skif and Talia try for an adolescent romance but continually find circumstances conspiring against them. Eventually they give up and swear blood brotherhood instead. The inevitable shipping is sunk once and for all when she ends up lifebonding to Dirk.
• Betsy-Tacy: Betsy and Tony by the end of Heaven to Betsy.
• In Chronicles of Chaos, Amelia, who has been in love with Victor since day one, has her hopes crushed when he curtly tells Colin to "stop molesting his sister." Victor is actually tacitly warning Colin to back off.
• In the Circle of Magic series, this is the explanation for why none of the main characters are sexually interested in each other. They call each other foster siblings.
• The Divine Comedy: The saint Sister Piccarda is one of a few people who Dante cares enough about to ask about her place in the afterlife. In return, she affectionately refers to him as brother when the two happily reunite in Heaven. Dante likes her so much that he debates with his love, Beatrice, for two cantos about whether she should be even higher in the Heavenly ranks.
• There's a bizarre, amusing variant mentioned in the Eighth Doctor Adventures novel EarthWorld: Anji considers the Doctor to be like a sister to her. No, he hasn't regenerated into a woman, but he's the Eighth, who's just shy of Camp Bisexual, at least in the novels. She considers him to be quite nice to look at but not her type, and he very rarely seems to fancy anyone. He does kiss her on the lips later in the book, but that's because he acts as if he had No Social Skills and has No Sense of Personal Space. And he opens up to her emotionally perhaps a bit more than he does to his Also-Not-Exactly-Heterosexual Life Partner, Fitz.
• In the Elenium series, Queen Ehlana forms this relationship with - of all people - the master thief Platime. After they enter a very peculiar sort of peace accord, he cheerfully informs her that she's "the same as my very own little sister now," and that anyone who crosses her will pay for it. He continues to address her as "little sister" or "baby sister" from that point onward, and she is quite fond of him.
• In Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi, Wei Wuxian is taken in by the Jiang sect as a child. While he's never officially adopted (a tricky subject in ancient China), he's considered part of the main family by most of its members and raised together with Jiang Yanli and Jiang Cheng. When he defends Yanli from her fiancé's insults, her fiancé remarks that if he loves Yanli so much, he should be the one to marry her instead. Despite this, the love between Wei Wuxian and the Jiang siblings remains entirely familial.
• In Halo: The Fall of Reach, it is established that John-117 (The Master Chief) is like this with childhood friend/surrogate sibling Kelly-087. They're very close even by the already close-knit standards of the other Spartan-IIs.
• Harry Potter:
  • Harry assures Ron in the seventh book (and Viktor Krum briefly in the fourth) that he only loves Hermione like a sister. Until then it was basically a Running Gag that people were devising Imaginary Love Triangles involving the two. Within the books, Harry never demonstrates any romantic interest in Hermione. He notably Has a Type, in that the two girls he crushes on (Cho Chang, Ginny) share his interest in Quidditch, and initially attract him because they seem to be carefree, extroverted, and less girly than others, none of which fit Hermione's traits (she notably hates sports within the books). When he's desperate to find a partner for the Yule Ball, it doesn't occur to him to ask Hermoine. Furthermore, like virtually everyone in Hogwarts, he is surprised when Hermione cleans up nicely at the ball, and initially doesn't recognize her (unlike Ron who has a crush on her already). In the movies, Emma Watson's Adaptational Attractiveness and the greater on-screen chemistry she shared with Daniel Radcliffe's Harry, as well as the softening of some of Harry's more jockish traits, led the eventual resolution to come across as an Ass Pull to those who hadn't read the books.
  • Although he never says so Harry may also feel this with Luna Lovegood. He adores Luna's innocence, feels compassion for her aloofness, and for being picked on by others, and admires her for her courage and determination. At the end of Book 5, his grief for Sirius was lessened when he talked with Luna and felt sympathy for her being picked on, offering to help her. Years later, his youngest child with Ginny Weasley was named Lily Luna Potter after her.
• In Hell's Children, the Damned are this way.
• The Heroes of Olympus has at least two sets: Piper and Leo (she calls him the annoying little brother she never had) and Percy and Hazel (who gives him a "sisterly kiss" at one point).
  • A third set forms (or at least starts to form) between Reyna and Nico in Blood Of Olympus. Despite both being generally aloof characters, as their quest goes on Reyna ends up having to remind herself that Nico is not a little brother she needs to take care of, both share details of the darker aspects of their pasts that they've never told anyone else, and, to top it off, when Reyna hugs him at the celebration feast, he accepts it rather than pulling away, a show of affection Nico has reserved only for his sisters.
• Victor and Ginny have this sort of relationship in Honor Harrington, although it's complicated somewhat by the fact that they frequently go Undercover as Lovers.
• Played with in The Hunchback of Notre Dame in regards to the relationship between Pierre and Esmeralda. They are married, but it's In Name Only, and it's established early on that Esmeralda views him more like a brother or friend than a lover. Given her relationship with the rest of the characters, it's kind of a relief.
• The Hunger Games:
  • Finnick Odair and Johanna Mason. While we are limited to what our first person narrator actually can observe, she considers their "years of friendship" is probably worth more in the end than their in-game alliance. They seem especially close even within the larger Breakfast Club of Hunger Games winners, just judging by the fact that Finnick can get away with hauling Johanna into the ocean and dunking her until she stops screaming. And there's no danger of things becoming romantic, as Finnick is in love with another victor, Annie.
  • Gale Hawthorne and Prim Everdeen have this type of relationship. Prim's sister Katniss also sees her relationship with Gale as being this... until she finds out he sees things differently.
  • The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: Coriolanus Snow and his cousin Tigris have been raised together all their lives and thus, they're deeply bonded in this way as a result.
• Jane Austen does this a lot.
  • It's amazing; you can practically hear Mr. Knightley's heart break when Emma uses these words when they're about to dance in Emma. His brother is married to her sister, and what she actually says is that they aren't quite related enough to make it improper for them to dance, but the implication is that they are this trope. They're not, of course, and they marry in the end.
    • This is also the best way to describe the relationship that she ultimately develops with Frank Churchill. The fact that his father is married to her former governess and mother figure lends itself nicely to the bond.
  • At the beginning of Mansfield Park, Sir Thomas Bertram is reluctant to adopt his niece for fear of Kissing Cousins. His meddling sister-in-law Mrs. Norris believes raising them like brother and sister will actually be their greatest protection against that trope. She's wrong.
  • In Sense and Sensibility, everyone ships Colonel Brandon and Elinor Dashwood... except themselves, because Brandon is in love with Marianne Dashwood and Elinor with Edward Ferrars. But they hang out more or less all the time, because they're the most rational and responsible people in their social circle and like each other a great deal. Elinor even notes that "they always conversed with confidence," so when she comes to realize that the others are shipping them, she at least understands why they would. He marries her sister in the end, which effectively does make them brother and sister.
• In P. G. Wodehouse's Thank You, Jeeves, Bertie has to spend a good deal of time insisting that he and Pauline Stoker are this trope. No one buys it because they used to be engaged, even though Pauline is now in love with Bertie's friend Chuffy and Bertie is actively trying to set them up.
• Journey to Chaos: Eric and Kasile develop this sort of friendship in A Mage's Power due to a Mind Link Mates event. By the end of Looming Shadow, he explicitly refers to her as "my little sister" complete with Big Brother Instinct when it comes to her suitors.
• In The King's Avatar, Ye Xiu and Su Mucheng have a close relationship in this vein beyond being former eSports teammates. The prequel movie expands on this, showing Ye Xiu living with a young Mucheng and helping her older brother, Muqiu, look after her. Muqiu even tells Ye Xiu that Mucheng is now his sister too.
• In Little Women, Jo has always seen her best friend and neighbour Laurie as a brother despite his persistent wooing, and he eventually comes to feel the same way after moving on and falling for her sister, Amy.
• Mako: Lee and Mac, two stalwart friends from college who lean on each other, exchange music, etc. Lee even protests that Mac is like his sister when Danny starts shipping them. They have a Relationship Upgrade by the end of the book.
• In Patricia Briggs's Mercy Thompson novels, Mercy's love triangle with Samuel and Adam is resolved when Samuel, a werewolf, is forced to admit that his wolf side sees Mercy this way, not as a potential mate.
• Lampshaded in the Molly Moon series, when describing the relationship between Molly and Rocky and said by Rocky himself in the last book. Understandable, since they have been best friends from babyhood.
• The Mortal Instruments:
  • Simon and Clary come off as this at first, until Simon gains the status of Unlucky Childhood Friend before moving rather briefly into Victorious Childhood Friend and then going back to Just Friends.
  • Jace and Isabelle have a loving but purely platonic relationship.
• Subverted in The Phantom of the Opera. For much of the book, Christine describes her relationship with Raoul, whom she grew up with as such, claiming to Erik (at that point disguised as the Angel of Music) that Raoul is simply like a brother to her. The narrative even likens Christine and Raoul to close siblings at several points. However as noted by the Erik himself their affection for each other is too strong to be platonic and Raoul openly has romantic feelings for her whilst Christine ultimately loves him in return. Given the danger Raoul is in being the rival and obstacle for Erik, you can’t fault Christine for trying brother-zone Raoul for the sake of his life.
• The Queen of Eddis has this type of relationship with her cousin, Eugenides. They find it funny when others imagine them in love.
• In Rachel Griffin, Rachel and Siegfried Smith have this relationship. She's a cultured, well-educated member of the English nobility. He's a gamy, street-smart orphan who slew a dragon. They get into trouble together.
• Horace and Alyss and Will and Evanlyn from Ranger's Apprentice. Evanlyn actually lampshades this at one point, telling an overly jealous Alyss that she feels about Will the exact same way that Alyss feels about Horace.
• The Raven Cycle has a "like brothers" example in The Dream Thieves with Richard Gansey and Ronan Lynch. Local Bad Boy Kavinsky makes comments throughout the book about Ronan being in love with Gansey and/or sleeping with him. When he confronts him towards the end of the book, Ronan claims that it's not like that and that he sees Gansey as a brother, criticizing Kavinsky for not being able to see more to relationships than sex.
• Reign of the Seven Spellblades: Oliver Horn and Michela McFarlane are the de facto co-leaders of the Sword Roses (he The Hero, she the Team Mom), and the two are social peers as Blue Bloods and get along very well. However, Oliver is in love with The Lancer Nanao Hibiya, and though Chela performs some Intimate Healing on him in volume 4 to address the aftereffects of an antagonist's Sex Magic, it's motivated solely by concern for his health, and she feels very guilty about low-key manipulating him into it afterwards. Amusingly, her father once dated his mother.
• Matteo and Eliza in Someone Else's War.
• In Clive Barker's Sacrament, Cornelius and Adrianna are described as being as close, nine days out of 10, as brother and sister. And on the 10th day, they fight like brother and sister.
• In A Song of Ice and Fire, Tommen and Margaery are married. Tommen is too young (8) and innocent to really grasp what marriage is about, but they are technically married and he sees her more as an awesome sister.
• Oathbringer (third book of The Stormlight Archive):
  • Implied to be Kaladin's final feelings for Shallan, because she reminds him of his brother Tien. He sees Sylphrena, his Bond Creature, as a sister in an Annoying Younger Sibling sort of way.
  • Adolin ends up in a similar relationship with Veil, considering her a drinking buddy. And yes, he knows she's Shallan's Split Personality. Dating a Lightweaver is weird.
• Princess Andromeda does this deliberately in Mercedes Lackey's Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms. She and her rescuer swear blood-siblinghood to prevent the story from forcing her to fall in love with him. It turns out it wasn't as necessary as it seemed, as they actually ended up swearing sisterhood.
• In Thr3e, Kevin and Sam are this. It's stated that they are best childhood friends and would never, ever jeopardize this. It becomes fairly obvious why there can be no sexual attraction when you find out that Sam is actually one of Kevin's multiple personalities.
• Universal Monsters: Book 5 reveals that Captain Bob has come to think of Joe and Nina as his honorary brother and sister in their time together.
• In Warrior Cats, things become awkward when Bristlefrost confesses her feelings to Stemleaf, and it turns out that he views their relationship this way (he even describes her as being like a littermate to him); he has feelings for Spotfur instead.
• Egwene uses this line in The Wheel of Time to make it perfectly clear to Rand that he has no attachments. (He agreed, though she thought, incorrectly, that he was mostly putting up a brave face at the time.) It's followed by her best friend Elayne getting into a relationship with Rand that is most definitely not this trope. Perrin also says it in an attempt to let Min down easy, before realizing that he needn't because it's not him she's after.
• The Dragonets from Wings of Fire. They've been raised together since birth, and think of each other as surrogate siblings. The only exception is Starflight's crush on Sunny, but she turns him down specifically because their relationship is too familial.
• In Zeroes, Bellwether and Flicker have this type of relationship. During his Breaking Speech that tore apart the Zeroes, Scam accused Bellwether of both thinking of Flicker as a younger sister and at the same time being romantically attracted to her; the chapters from Bellwether's perspective confirm this.

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