Pretend Couple

Trope · Genre
Synonyms:	Pretending to be Married
Related:	Undercover in a Gay Bar
See Also:	AMTDI
Tropes · Slash Tropes · Tropes by Fandom
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Pretend Couple is a trope found in all genres of fanworks. This trope includes all sorts of pretenses; marriages of convenience, undercover identities, investigations, financial schemes, immigration schemes, high school reunion dates, wedding dates, making someone jealous, and many others.

The main purpose of the trope is to throw the couple together in extended proximity and then explore the hidden, or not so hidden, feelings that develop. It has a long, long history in original media, in everything from films, romance novels and sitcoms. Undercover in a Gay Bar is a slash-specific version of this trope that puts the couple in a gay-friendly environment.

Pretending to be married is on the Cliché Bingo list.

The trope is sometimes used as a jumping off point for an AMTDI story, where the "aliens" call the bluff of the pretense.

Example Fanworks

• DC Comics: Close to Home by iesika. Kon investigates a series of attacks in Smallville, and Tim goes undercover as his boyfriend. Also contains a little identity porn.
• Lewis: each to each by Jenwryn. Lewis & Hathaway go undercover as a married couple seeking a surrogate mother as part of a case
• Lois & Clark: Green Card by Wendy Richards. Lois Lane and Superman embark on a marriage of convenience when Superman is threatened with arrest as an illegal alien.
• Merlin: Lord Drake's Bequest by pennyplainknits. Arthur needs to marry to take control of Tintagel Distribution. Fortunately he knows the right man for the job.
• Sherlock (BBC): The Troubles of Marriage Counseling by jennistar. Sherlock and John must go undercover at a couples' retreat.
• Sherlock: the Intellectual Intercourse series by waketosleep. asexual!Sherlock decides he and John should get married so he can get into John's hospital room easier and John will replace Mycroft as his next of kin.
• Star Wars: Marriage of Convenience by Cindy Olsen. While on a mission together, Han and Leia must pretend to be a married couple.
• Stargate SG-1: A Pretense of Romance by Maureen Thayer. Daniel volunteers to pretend to be Sam's boyfriend in an attempt to make Jack jealous, but the plan backfires in the most unexpected of ways.
• Stargate Atlantis: A Convenient Husband, by Brighid. Earth-based-no-Stargate AU in which John gets old friend Rodney to marry him so he can fulfill the terms of a will. Harlequin AU and an early example of the trope in SGA fandom.
• SGA: Wherein could this flea guilty be by Mahoni. To save SGA-1 from corporal punishment off-world, Sam claims to be married to Sheppard, Rodney and Ronon. But then she has to prove it. Combination with AMTDI.
• SGA: Three Times They Pretended They Were Married and One Time They Didn't by Mirabile Dictu. Rodney and Teyla pretend to be married for trading purposes until they don't pretend anymore.
• SGA: Weddings, Plural, and a Yak by speranza. John and Rodney pretend to be or get married on various planets, until they don't anymore.
• SGA: However Improbable by Zoe Rayne. To get John the alien medical treatment he desperately needs, Rodney pretends to be married to him.
• Starsky & Hutch: Outcome, by Lamardeuse. While it also employs the trope, Undercover in a Gay Bar, Starsky and Hutch pretend to be gay to keep an eye on Hutch's Little Brother, Kiko and support the young man's coming out.
• Supernatural RPF: Something Borrowed, Something Blue, by belyste. J2, Jared hires Jensen to be his date for a wedding. This story manages to combine Pretend Couple with a Based on a Movie fusion and hookerfic.
• The Sentinel: "Mixed Emotions" by DC Black, a gen story in the zine Cascade Effect. In it, Jim and Blair go undercover as a couple.