Not Love Interests in literature.
- Ampris and Elrabin from Alien Chronicles are very close, go through a lot of traumatic times together, and get the odd Ship Tease. But the fact that they are of different species (Aaroun and Kelth respectively) proves an insurmountable barrier, with Ampris especially being unwilling to take a non-Aaroun mate. They end up as close Heterosexual Life-Partners instead.
- Jason and Rachel in The Beyonders. They're the only two people in Lyrian from our world, they develop a deep bond over the trials they face in that world, and Rachel eventually comes to harbor a bit of a crush on Jason. However, for the most part, their relationship is entirely platonic — Jason even has a separate love interest, and Rachel's crush never comes up during the story.
- The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, Henry and Vlad. The two are extremely close and often act more like love interests than any of the girls (many girls, in Henry's case) that they are interested in. Vlad seems to be Henry's only serious relationship.
- In Dragon Bones, the hero, Ward, takes the escaped Beautiful Slave Girl Bastilla with him on his own escape (which was only necessary because he refused to deliver her to those wanting to re-enslave her), after having tended to her wounded feet beforehand. No Rescue Romance ensues, even though the woman tries to invoke it; Ward says he just isn't interested in casual sex, and has no deeper feelings for her. There is also Oreg, who due to some ancient evil magic is Ward's slave (Ward inherited him), and Ward's foremost priority when some of the group (which also includes Ward's sister Ciarra and his brother Tosten) are in need of help. Ward says it's due to the fact that everyone will readily help Ciarra, but Oreg has no one but him. There is some, possibly unintended Ho Yay, but Oreg never becomes a love interest.
- Rachel and Notak from SG Night's Attrition: the First Act of Penance have a relationship like this. They are virtually inseparable, spend nearly every waking hour together, and occasionally exhibit a certain chemistry. Despite this, and despite the assumptions of several fans, Word of God has stated that the two are Better as Friends, and/or Like Brother and Sister. The same is true of Racath and Alexis, although the platonic nature of their relationship is a little more blatant.
- The Dresden Files:
- Harry's relationship like Thomas is like this sometimes. Thomas Raith the incubus is Harry's friend and half-brother and they never have any doubts about the relationship, but when Harry is between girlfriends, Thomas takes on that role in the story a little bit: He's closer to earth in some ways and has needed to be rescued more than once. Although Harry does pretend to be "Toe-moss"'s gay lover once, to keep someone from questioning why he was searching Thomas's apartment ( since nobody else knows that they're half-brothers)
- Molly Carpenter has this duty when the narrative isn't focused on Thomas. As the daughter of his closest friend and later his apprentice, Harry feels personally responsible for her safety and well-being and blames himself when he fails her. She is in many ways his Distaff Counterpart and Foil and their interactions emphasize how they bounce off of and affect each other. Despite Molly's crush on him, Harry refuses to consider a romantic relationship partly because he doesn't feel that way, party because of the Squick (he knew her when she was a kid and there's the power imbalance of a student-teacher relationship)
- Harry Potter:
- Even after Harry fell in love with Ginny Weasley, her brother Ron was the first Weasley he met and the one we see more; indeed, Harry almost never began dating Ginny in out of fear that it would tick Ron off. Perhaps the clearest example of this for Ron is in Goblet of Fire, when the Second Task consists of each Champion rescuing one of their closest loved ones from the merpeople's village. Two of the Champions had to rescue their Love Interest, one their sibling, and Harry had to get Ron.Dobby: Harry Potter has to go into the lake and find his Wheezy—
Harry: Find my what?
Dobby: —and take his Wheezy back from the merpeople!
Harry: What's a Wheezy?
Dobby: Your Wheezy, sir, your Wheezy—Wheezy who is giving Dobby his jumper!
Harry: What? They've got… they’ve got Ron?
Dobby: The thing Harry Potter will miss most, sir! - Hermione also takes this role with Harry sometimes — notably when the trio were separated in The Deathly Hallows.Harry: [to Ron] She's like my sister. I love her like a sister and I reckon she feels the same way about me. It's always been like that. I thought you knew.
- Luna. She was the only one who could successfully comfort Harry after the death of Sirius, and the two later went to a dance together in what was legitimately Not a Date. Word of God even notes that Harry's friendship with her (as well as Neville) is meant to mark his Character Development between books five and six.
- Even after Harry fell in love with Ginny Weasley, her brother Ron was the first Weasley he met and the one we see more; indeed, Harry almost never began dating Ginny in out of fear that it would tick Ron off. Perhaps the clearest example of this for Ron is in Goblet of Fire, when the Second Task consists of each Champion rescuing one of their closest loved ones from the merpeople's village. Two of the Champions had to rescue their Love Interest, one their sibling, and Harry had to get Ron.
- Honorverse: In the wake of the battle of Lovat, Thomas Theisman and Eloise Pritchart become this to each other, as the man Eloise loved, her de facto husband Javier Giscard, was killed there. With her lover gone, Eloise drew ever closer to Theisman, who quite literally held her hand as she agonised over the decision to authorise the operation that would result in the First Battle of Manticore and became her closest confidant, friend, and supporter. If they were romantically involved, they would fulfill the Ruling Couple trope to a tee.
- Gale Hawthorne fills this role to Katniss in the first two books of the Hunger Games series, being her best friend, her hunting partner and quite handsome. The Capitol realizes this is a possible problem in selling Katniss' sort-of fake relationship with Peeta and try to pass Gale off as her cousin. It gets more complicated when Gale turns out to have romantic feelings for Katniss, and while she doesn't reciprocate those feelings the situation does confuse her and she wonders if she would have ended up dating him by default if she hadn't gotten to know Peeta.
- Ozma is this to Dorothy in the Land of Oz books. They're extremely close friends who regularly hold hands and kiss. They also both rule over Oz together. Due their young ages (with Dorothy being vaguely twelve and under while Ozma is no older than physically sixteen) and the time period the books came out during, their relationship is simply a platonic girlish bond. One non-Baum book, Kabumpo in Oz, depicts Ozma as outright disgusted by the idea of romance.
- The Lord of the Rings.
- Frodo and Sam. There's obviously strong affection and emotion between the two, and incredible devotion, especially on Sam's side. Sam winds up marrying Rosie Cotton (who seems to have no problem with their bond and even tells Sam to take care of Frodo in the books) and becoming mayor of the Shire, and he and his wife take care of Frodo until he leaves the Shire itself. One of the appendices at the end of the book reveals that after Rosie's death, the elderly Sam ultimately ends up taking a ship to the West, where Frodo is presumably waiting.
- Merry and Éowyn. He's devoted to her, treats respectfully and commends her courage when everyone else puts down her desire to fight in battle, and the two even kill the Witch-King together. However, Éowyn falls in love with Faramir over their similarities and Merry returns to the Shire with Frodo, Sam, and Pippin.
- Conn and Rowan in The Magic Thief. They form an incredibly close friendship, to the point where the people around them are even jealous of how close to Rowan Conn is. Conn confides in her, comforts her in times of stress, and she likewise helps him get out of scrapes. But they're Platonic Life-Partners through and through, with nary a hint of romance between them.
- This practically defines the relationship between Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin. They understand each other without words, and completely trust each other — but both feel that having sex would somehow undermine their relationship. Stressed in the novel where the Big Bad brainwashes Willie, making him believe his lover to be Modesty and the real Modesty to be an evil enemy bent on getting the couple apart. Not knowing about their special relationship, the Big Bad doesn't realize that 'this person had sex with you' and 'this person is Modesty Blaise' is so contradictory it makes Willie doubt his preconceptions and it ultimately helps him fight off the brainwashing.
- Tal and Milla, the two leads of The Seventh Tower, are this to each other. A boy and a girl, both decently good looking and about the same age (teenagers at that!), whose relationship forms the emotional backbone of the series and who start out hating each other but gradually develop an incredibly strong rapport — and they never make the slightest move towards getting together romantically. Tal at one point admits that Milla is pretty (albeit after another character brings the subject up, and he admits to have not really given it much thought before that) but that's as far as he takes it; Milla never even goes that far. The (admittedly small) fandom still ships them sometimes, though, and neither has an actual Love Interest.
- Sherlock Holmes: Because Sherlock Holmes isn't that close to his brother Mycroft and eschews the possibility of friendships and romantic interests as things that might get in his way, Dr. Watson is literally the only important person in his life. It's shown most clearly in ''The Three Garridebs'' when Watson is wounded, since he begs him not to be hurt and calmly tells the idiot that if his friend had died on him, he wouldn't have left the room alive, but it's apparent in subtler ways throughout the series. For his part, Watson, despite being a more emotional and social person than Holmes, has few friends, no surviving family, and is unmarried or a widower for most of the series, so that Holmes is the most important person to him.
- Sword Art Online finds this trope in the Alicization arc character Eugeo. Because Kirito spends so much time in Underworld mentally, he treats Eugeo as if he were a lifetime companion and becomes his brother in arms on the battlefield. Their bond becomes so great that on multiple occasions after the first half of the arc, Eugeo's ideas, supportive words and his Tragic Keepsake, the Blue Rose Sword keep Kirito in his right mind and motivates him. In the climax of the arc Eugeo is even elevated to the importance of Kirito's other love interests, but it is only the former who is able to give the latter a Heroic Second Wind.
- The Meg Cabot novel Teen Idol is all about a small town girl who has to show a glamorous movie star around her high school while he's preparing for a role. The movie star kick starts the plot, helps her start to come out of her shell and gain some confidence, the two develop a close relationship, he takes her to prom, and then... they both hook up with other people. The Just Friends excuse they were using throughout the book was genuine.
- This Is Not a Werewolf Story is loosely based on Bisclavret, but it's Raul's best friend, Vincent, who fulfills the role that the wife had in the poem (namely, betraying him). Raul's crush, Mary Anne, provides character motivation but little direct effect on the plot.
- Meg McCaffery to Apollo in The Trials of Apollo. She's the first one he meets after being expelled from Olympus, and quickly becomes his closest friend during his latest bout of mortality. He is also distraught when she betrays him to her abusive stepfather, Emperor Nero, at the end of The Hidden Oracle, and half of his motivation for defeating the Triumvirate thereafter is to free her from Nero's grasp.
- In Uprooted, Kasia fills this role for Agnieska — they're childhood friends, and a large fraction of the book's plot is about Agnieska trying to rescue her, first from the Wood, and then from the laws which say that her life is forfeit because she was taken by the Wood.
- In Spindle's End, Robin McKinley's retelling of Sleeping Beauty, secret princess Rosie and her best friend Peony fill this role for each other. Though they both have male love interests and describe themselves as "sisters," theirs is very much a Pseudo-Romantic Friendship with more than a little Les Yay. After Peony saves Rosie from the evil fairy's curse by masquerading as the princess, pricking her finger on the spindle and falling asleep in her place, Rosie takes on the role traditionally played by the prince in the fairy tale, defeating the evil fairy, rescuing Peony and waking her with a kiss. On the lips.
- Isaac Asimov's "The Ugly Little Boy": Miss Fellowes develops a crush on Dr Hoskins, but his wife and family are used to clearly shut down the possibility of a romantic relationship developing. Despite that, Miss Fellowes must struggle with her feelings for him, seeing an ersatz relationship through the way they created Timmie (it was his mathematics and company that "gave birth" to Timmie, while she's been taking care of his physical and emotional needs).
