Basic Trope: Two characters hang out together, are thought to be dating, and insist that they are not.
- Straight: Alice and Bob have dinner together. Charlie sees them and asks, "Hey, are you dating?" Alice replies, "What? No! We're Just Friends."
- Exaggerated:
- Alice and Bob get really mad at everyone who calls their dinner a "date".
- Both Bob and Alice are dressed up and eating at a restaurant that caters to couples. Yet both of them are wearing signs that say "not on a date".
- Downplayed: Alice or Bob calmly denies that it's a date.
- Justified:
- They don't realize they're in love.
- They want to keep their love a secret from their friends.
- They’re actually not on a date.
- Inverted: Alice and Bob are Just Friends, but insist that they are a dating couple.
- Subverted: They admit it was a date later.
- Double Subverted: They were trolling their friends.
- Parodied: Bob and Alice are police partners on a steak out. When the suspect they're tailing finally arrives, they arrest him and he asks if they're on a date. Alice vigorously denies out it with a Luminescent Blush, Bob puts his foot in his mouth and the suspect says he will plead guilty if they go on a real date. The result is Alice going Tsundere. "I-it's not like I want to d-date that idiot anything. It's for the sake of justice!"
- Zig Zagged: Alice and Bob change their minds several dates over the course of their "outing".
- Averted:
- Alice and Bob do not hang out together.
- They are in love and not ashamed.
- Enforced: "The episode will be funnier if the pair don't realize they're on a date until midway through, and it can also build up to the Love Epiphany."
- Lampshaded: "Why did Alice and Bob deny that they were on a date? It's obvious that they were."
- Invoked: Everyone teases them. (e.g. "Hey, Bob, how was your date with Alice?")
- Exploited: The Leader sends Bob and Alice on a something that is explicitly a "mission" to a place with a romantic atmosphere in the hopes that it will help resolve their Unresolved Sexual Tension. If nothing happens, it was still just a "mission".
- Defied: To prevent confusion, Bob and Alice tell everyone that it's a date upfront.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed:
- Insisting that they're not a date means they're both available which means both have suitors they're not interested in and can only get rid of by acknowledging their not-a-relationship.
- Bob and Alice arrange an outing not thinking it's a date until the middle of it. They have a Love Epiphany and it becomes a date.
- Reconstructed:
- Despite their instistence that they're not on a date, Everyone Can See It and so the pair are unoffically "taken."
- Bob and Alice arrange an outing not thinking it's a date until the middle of it. They have a Love Epiphany but Cannot Spit It Out and the status of their outing remains ambiguous.
No, we're just friends! This is Not a Date!
