Somebody who loves another's alter ego while disliking their civilian identity in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- Ben 10: Unlimited: Ben points out the absurdity of Superman keeping his identity from Lois; she's in love with Superman and works/is friends with Clark, while he loves her no matter his identity. He backs himself up by telling Superman that he told Julie about his being a superhero shortly after their first date, as it saved him a lot of guilt (and prevented issues down the line). Clark clearly takes it under consideration.
- Inverted in the Love Hina/Negima! Magister Negi Magi crossover Four Seasons
, with Keitaro asking the net idol Chiu for advice on dealing with his unrequited feelings for a girl...and when she "just out of curiosity" (since unbeknownst to him, they actually know each other) asks the girl's name, he reveals that it is Chisame, her true identity. - In The Hollow World, Death the Kid continually fights Dead Master, unaware that she is the Superpowered Evil Side of his crush, Yomi Takanashi.
- There are at least two cases of this in Life Ore Death. First is that Lois Lane still doesn't know Superman's secret identity, and thinks of Clark as just a co-worker and friend. Second, Beautia Sivana has strong feelings for Captain Marvel, but just thinks Billy Batson is a cute and brave little kid.
- The Many Dates of Danny Fenton: In Danny and Kara, Sam admires Supergirl as "a strong, female figure" in spite of "her brightly primary colors", but hates Kara for being her romantic rival.
- In The New Spider of Tokyo, Kasumi cannot STAND Ren, and tries to keep Sumire away from him as much as possible. She later develops a crush on his alter ego Spider-Man, much to Ren's amusement.
- Persona EG: Played for Laughs when Sonata falls hard for one of Flash's personas, Sephiroth. While fully aware that he's just just a persona, she admits being sexually attracted... and turns down Pinkie's suggestion that she do it with Flash while he's wearing a wig, declaring that it just "wouldn't be the same".
- The Symbol of Peace and Justice: Katsuki admires the Golden Blur, blissfully unaware that he's none other than Gohan, somebody he's despised from the moment they met during U.A.'s entrance exam.
- In We Were Friends, Korra falls hard for her friend Takona, treating him as her confidant and nursing a crush upon him. What she isn't aware of is that Takona is none other than Amon himself.
- Played With in Misadventures Of The Baby Batbros: Jason's attraction to Stray serves as a Closet Key, as he starts noticing how attractive he finds Tim afterwards.
- Danny Phantom: Stranded: In the Stranded Side Story: Swapped, Jerk Jock Dash loves picking on Star, yet develops a crush on her heroic alter ego Starlight Spirit, much to her dismay. When he hits on her, she makes clear that she's Turned Off By The Jerkass.
- Resurrected Memories: Paulina is head over heels for Danny and wants to date him but Danny refuses due to knowing that she is only interested in his ghost half and wants nothing to do with her now.
- Inverted with Ember, she becomes heartbroken upon realizing that Danny (and by extension, their friends) only like Amberline Lain and still view Ember McLain as their enemy.
- The World According To Peter Parker And Karen Starr plays with this: while Peter and Karen are dating as civilians, they pretend not to know each other as Spider-Man and Power Girl, figuring it's better not to acknowledge their relationship while "on the job".
- In Broken Facades, Misa may like Light, but she utterly worships Kira.
- Second Chances: L fears Light Yagami, as his defeat at Light's hands broke him — he dearly wishes that Light will never enter the regular afterlife. At the same time, during the course of the fic he falls in love with his Shinigami, Rae. It's not until towards the end of the story that it is revealed that Rae is actually Light Yagami in hell, and even then L is still unaware of the truth.
- Frozen (2013) Modern AU fan fiction Struggling in Arendelle City has Elsa masquerading as a superhero and lived a double life as both a sister and a Snow Queen and Anna is shown to fall in love with the masked woman, completely unaware of her true identity. She does not take it well when she realizes that both Elsa and Snow Queen turned out to be the same person and the person she fell in love all the time turned out to be her sister.
- In a large number of Dragon Ball Z fics involving Gohan and Videl, Videl almost inevitably falls for Gohan's identity as either The Gold Fighter or as Saiyaman before finding out that they're actually Gohan.
- Inverted in the Super Fic i'm giving you a nightcall; despite their terrible break-up Roy is still head over heels over Edward but he can’t stand the vigilante Fullmetal. He is actually rather ashamed of his attraction to Fullmetal, considering he's trying to get Edward back.
- Some use the series' set-up, but tackle it from the angle of building up Marinette and Chat Noir's relationship in a slow burn, "friends to lovers" scenario, since Marinette can interact with Chat Noir without being so starstruck that she stammers and panics, while Chat Noir isn't doggedly pursuing her.
- Obsession is a prime example, in which Chat Noir develops a cat-like addiction to petting, and doesn't want to go to Ladybug for help, as he gets the sense that she'd do it out of duty without the affection he craves from her. As he puts it to Marinette, "My lady couldn't feed me macarons and chocolate milk. My lady wouldn't wait up in the rain to make sure I'm okay. My lady's smile doesn't light up her face when she sees me. Yours does. She can't give me what I need, Marinette. What I need, my Princess is you. And a princess is far brighter than a lady." He only finds out that they're the same girl later in the story, after she's found out his identity.
- 'Ladrien' is another angle that can get explored in several ways:
- The Parts of You is an example of Marinette approaching Adrien as Ladybug after learning about his celebrity crush on her, while inwardly lamenting that she has no chance as her normal self.
- Alternatively, some stories have Adrien learn about Ladybug's crush on him and see it as an opportunity to hook up with her. fresh eyes takes a different angle, with Adrien deciding that Ladybug's interest in him shows that she's shallow, since "a boy she's really only ever seen on billboards and screens has more effectively stolen her heart than her partner."
- The Parts of You
- For a non-Love Square example, this fan comic by chlogami has Zoé Lee having a crush on the temporary Ladybug Scarabella after working with her as Kitty Noire, and happily shares the news with Alya, Scarabella's civilian identity. Alya can't reciprocate since she only sees Zoé as a friend and already has a boyfriend, but can't tell Zoé that Scarabella is in a relationship already because the news would break her.
- Extremely Naughty: Marinette has a crush on an unsuspecting Adrien and ends up telling the flirtatious Chat Noir (completely unaware that he and Adrien are one in the same). She eventually ends up in a relationship with Chat Noir (even having sex a few times) before she puts two and two together and finds out his secret identity.
- Deconstructed in I See What You Do Behind Closed Doors: Adrien notices that Marinette looks a lot like Ladybug and starts dating her so that he can fantasize about being with Ladybug instead... unaware that they're the same person. Marinette is unamused by his two-timing, especially when he reveals his secret identity as Chat Noir to her and jokes about hiding it from his partner.
- In Lady Luck, Adrien loves Marinette, but she's crushing on his alter ego, Chat Noir.
- Miraculous Ladybug Salt-Shots:
- What Makes You Think I Still Love You? has a mutual identity reveal between Marinette and Adrien after they've defeated Hawkmoth. Not only is Marinette dismayed to realize Adrien had been constantly harassing her alter ego as Chat Noir, he'd already rejected her in their civilian identities... but now that he knows she's his crush, he expects her to dump her partners and hook up with him. He also pointedly addresses her as "Ladybug" despite how they're both detransformed, repeatedly insisting that they have to be together because of their respective Miraculouses.
- Played With in Maribug, where Marinette pretends to be in a relationship with her own alter ego in order to protect her secret identity. Adrien takes this as evidence that he might have a shot with Ladybug, so he attempts to convince Ladybug to dump Marinette as both Chat Noir and Adrien. Ladybug is especially disgusted by the latter revealing himself to be a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, though the story ends with both unaware of the other's respective secret identities.
- In Broken Reflection of Love, Adrien only dates Marinette due to her resemblance to Ladybug. He tries convincing her to start wearing the same shade of red; when she rejects the idea, he gets up and walks out on their date, unaware that he's ruining his chances with the very girl he's been lusting after all this time.
- Of Patience and Pettiness has a Downplayed example when Rose falls in love with the new superheroine Reptilitany. While she doesn't dislike their civilian identity, it still makes them feel uncomfortable about revealing their own feelings for her.
- Scarlet Lady: Adrien/Chat Noir has an unambiguous crush on Marinette, but initially treats Marigold with cold professionalism because he's had to deal with Scarlet Lady (and briefly, Volpina) and is unused to a crimefighting partner who actually cares about his well-being. Marinette, meanwhile, has a crush on Chat Noir, and views Adrien simply as a good friend.
- Spots Off: This is Defied by Adrien; after Marinette is publicly exposed as Ladybug, he takes the time to think about matters and have a Love Epiphany about her civilian identity.Adrien stopped. He had already known that Ladybug was strong and brave and caring and confident and graceful and gorgeous. But now he also knew that she was adorable. And smart and talented and...
The longer the list grew in his head, the more he became convinced that he couldn't put it off any longer - he would have to tell her. He would have to tell Ladybug, tell Marinette, how he felt.
And suddenly that wasn't so scary, because he knew her. He knew both sides of her, loved both sides of her, and... and maybe he actually had a chance. - Tangled Up In You: Early on, Marinette learns that Adrien has what he calls a "polka dot kink", and realizes he's been crushing on her alter ego. Unusually for the trope, she takes this well, realizing this means he likes her by extension.
- Played With in Two Letters: After spending two years doggedly harassing Ladybug, Adrien finally gives up and switches targets... to Marinette, whom he reveals his Secret Identity to. Marinette then tells him that she's more in love with 'Chat Noir' than she is with 'Adrien Agreste', asking him for time to process these revelations; in reality, she uses this time to set up a plan to strip him of the Black Cat Ring, as she's sick of his callous and entitled treatment of her in both identities.
- When Your Best Friend has a Crush on You has a Two-Person Love Triangle between Adrien and Nino. Adrien has a huge crush on his best friend Nino, though he finds out that Nino has feelings for his hero identity Chat Noir, which unbeknownst to him also springs up when Nino is Carapace.
- On the side, Rena Rouge and Ryuko get annoyed when Ladybug tries to get them to have plenty of bonding time together, since both of them have a girlfriend in their civilian life. When the two head off to patrol, Ladybug cheekily reveals to the others that Rena and Ryuko are actually dating each other in their civilian lives. She also brings up that while Queen Bee doesn't know her Secret Identity, they have met each other as civilians, though Queen Bee argues she would have recognized her crush easily.
- Won't Tell a Soul: When Chat Noir discovers that Ladybug has a crush on Adrien, he's deeply conflicted; thanks to his Control Freak father, he feels smothered and restricted in his public persona, and fears this means Ladybug is more interested in a "porcelain doll" than the actual him.
- In My Hero Academia: Mechanical green, up-and-coming Pro Hero Burnin isn't particularly interested in All Might, but has a crush on his "secretary", Toshinori. When he shows up to the Sports Festival in his civilian guise, he's forced to deal with her relentless flirting while concealing his secret identity. She eventually finds out when he publicly retires, and can't pursue her interest in Toshinori any longer since it would bring bad PR for the new Number 1 Hero to be dating the previous holder.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- The Games We Play has this as a central element, as Rainbow Dash finds herself being romantically pursued by Mare Do Well without having any idea just who's behind the mask. The culprit is intentionally Invoking this, believing they have a better chance of winning Dash's heart as Mare Do Well than they do as themselves... though this ultimately ends up complicating matters far more.
- In Professor Arc, Jaune remarks that every girl interested in him actually wants the confident badass Professor Arc, not the awkward and untrained Jaune Arc.
- Remnant’s Blonde Bard: Whitley is deeply upset with how Jaune has managed to obtain Willow's attention and affection when she's failed to show such emotions towards her own children. Yet he's also infatuated by Guitar Cutie, unaware that's Jaune's alter ego.
- Beautiful Destroyer Sailor Moon: Usagi and Mamoru get along much better as Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask than they do in their civilian identities.
- Leafa's interest in Kirito starts in Episode 13 of Sword Art Online Abridged and all but dies a squicktastic, incest-fraught death by the end of Episode 14. Not because Leafa's player Suguha goes through with it, but she instantly recognizes her relative Kazuto by his in-game name and unleashes scream after profanity storm after bloodcurdling scream as a direct result of her own revulsion.Suguha: Son of a horse dick-fucking shit weasel-fucking bitch whore... ASS!! What is that FUCKING cock-sampler doing in MY game?! Oh Jesus fuck, I said my brother had a sweet patootie...! Aaaaaaaaaaah! (sobs into pillow) Noooooo!
- Done both platonically and romantically in Confrontation and it's sequel. Platonically, Buzz and Shadow Stalker are best friends for most of the first fic, even while Taylor and Sophia absolutely hate each other. When they learn each other's secret identities due to Aegis, Taylor immediately breaks Sophia's jaw, though she then argues to keep her out of prison due to actually wanting to regain the friendship she had with Shadow Stalker.
- The romantic version occurs in the sequel where Shadow Stalker and Grue hate each other, mainly because the latter's power terrifies the former and she's tried to kill him several times as a result. Sophia and Brian however hit it off while she's undergoing therapy with Taylor and the pair quickly become boyfriend and girlfriend. Sophia suffers a Heroic BSoD when she realizes the villain she was trying to murder was her boyfriend.
- I Am Skitter: Emma believes that she's in this situation with Sophia, as she's in love with her while Sophia is in love with Skitter. Played With in that Emma isn't Skitter, but has been convinced that they're her Split Personality.
- Young Justice: Darkness Falls: This gets Discussed when it's revealed that Dick actually dated Batgirl and Zatanna at the same time when he was younger.
