She'll fade away in time, but the memories will remain.
"From now on, Tetsuro, I will live only in your memories. I will be nothing more than an illusion of your young boy's heart, a dream of your youth."
— Maetel, Galaxy Express 999
Love, sex, romance – these are all common to the human experience. However, they come in a variety of forms.
Traditionally, marriage was the goal of romance, with a couple falling in love, marrying, and producing children to carry on the next generation.
Some individuals, however, aren't interested in marriage, but do want to enjoy the various aspects of a romantic relationship. Sometimes they're willing to make this long-term. Other times, however, they aren't really interested in anything other than a one-night stand.
Then there's the in-between. Someone meets a person with whom they are highly compatible. They care for them, want to spend time with them, and even desire to be physically intimate with them. The only problem is, circumstances have already ensured that it will be a brief relationship. It could be that they're soldiers in a war, and they will be recalled to their home nation with no way to bring their lover with them. The same can be true of work obligations. And then there are teenagers on holiday with their parents to some exotic land, and they will have to leave when the season is over, with no guarantee they'll ever be able to return, oft referred to as a "summer romance" or "summer fling".
In some cases, with more youthful characters, the relationship never gets a chance to turn physical, while in others, it results in the production of children whom the partner on holiday is typically unaware of (unless they're the one pregnant). A child of such a union can show up years after the fact to let the other party know about their existence and any other potential consequences, often revealing the existence of such a relationship in the first place.
And then, of course, there are the tragic romances where one person is dying of a terminal illness, and they at least knew that a romance would be short-lived, but want to experience a passionate love-affair before shuffling off their mortal coil. Whether they share this with their partner or not varies. In such instances, the party who is dying may be afraid of Dying Alone and the fear of death may cause them to mistaken their heightened mental arousal as sexual arousal, vis a vis the "Suspension Bridge Effect
".
In the wartime variant, it may overlap with Permission to Cheat. In many instances, it overlaps with The One That Got Away. In happier circumstances, the situation will change and become a Forever Fling.
This can also be caused by factors such as familial duty, especially where an Arranged Marriage or having an heir is important. As an example, in early works in the Yuri Genre (specifically those that featured relationships in school), many relationships are understood to be temporary and that they'd be unlikely at best to reconnect after they left school (i.e. "Lesbian Until Graduation"). Similarly, it can also come up in the male versions in the Yaoi and Bara genres, where it is the males who have some sort of responsibility that makes the relationship fleeting. Similarly, forced confinement in a single-sex environment, e.g. prison, can result in Situational Sexuality, with both parties knowing that the relationship ends when one or both are freed.
Compare Mayfly–December Romance, which are often short-term from the perspective of whoever the "December" is in the relationship. Compare and contrast Cartwright Curse, where the audience knows that a relationship is doomed to a tragic end, but the characters do not; and Temporary Love Interest and Girl of the Week for when a story's meta structure keeps a successful long-term relationship from forming without the characters being aware that the relationship is short-term.
As a sex-related trope, No Real Life Examples, Please!.
Note: To qualify, at least one person in the relationship must be aware that the situation is short-term only, and often both parties. If the story structure makes a relationship short without at least one partner knowing in advance it is not this trope.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Girlfriend Limited To Seven Days: Manatsu and Sumie begin dating on the condition that they will break up and go their separate ways after a week. Manatsu does so because she has never dated before and just wants a trial run, while Sumie is traumatized by a past betrayal and deathly afraid of commitment. This is ultimately subverted, with the two falling in love with each other and becoming long-term girlfriends past the seven-day mark.
- My-Otome: Otome are young women imbued with superpowers due to technology. Sex with men will destroy the tech, so they must choose either a life of celibacy, or, same-sex partnerships while training to be Otome. These relationships are short-lived, as once an Otome graduates, she will serve the head of a nation as a One-Woman Army, though some retire if they find a male love interest and decide to have children (as was the case with Arika's mother).
- Release the Spyce: The Tsukikage are a group of female ninjas that protect society and use a substance known as "spyce" to enhance their abilities, which only works on young women. They have a mentor/apprentice relationship that in many cases carries strong romantic tones with Implied Love Interest strongly in effect. However, once the "spyce" stops working, the girls have a choice of either serving in a support role, or having their time as a Tsukikage wiped from their minds so they can live a normal life. It is then expected that the apprentice will become herself a mentor, and draw in a new apprentice (oft with new romantic tones to their relationship).
- The Summer You Were There: When Kaori reads the draft of a novel that her classmate Shizuku was working on, she proposes that they go out long enough for Shizuku to write a new novel based on the relationship. Kaori knew from the begining and Shizuku eventually learns that Kaori is dying of a terminal illness involving a critical respiratory condition. Shizuku isn't able to be there when Kaori dies, since she isn't a family member, but she finishes the novel.
- Urusei Yatsura: Exaggerated in one story; Nozomi is a Cute Ghost Girl who was sickly and bedridden in life. But every day, from her window, she saw Ataru energetically passing by and believed he was a nice young boy living a wholesome life. Sakura tells Ataru that Nozomi wants to go on a single date with him so that she can let go of her earthly regrets and move on to the afterlife. She also wants Ataru to wear the warm winter clothes she knitted for him, although it's a hot summer day. Ataru protests mildly at first, but agrees to it after seeing Nozomi. He's even a perfect gentleman in her presence, and is genuinely moved to tears when Nozomi does manage to let go of her regrets and move on.
Comic Books
- Captain Marvel (Marvel Comics): It's eventually revealed that Mar-Vell, during the time he was trapped on the Skrull homeworld, had a brief relationship with Princess Anelle when she helped him during the events of the Kree Skrull War note . Despite the attraction, both knew there was practically no way it could be anything more than a short fling by two people in a desperate situation: Anelle was the crown princess of the Skrull, and Mar-Vell one of their hated foes the Kree even if he was considered a traitor by the Kree themselves. Mar-Vell would never see Anelle again before his passing in The Death of Captain Marvel, and Anelle herself would tragically perish when Galactus consumed the Skrull homeworld.
Fan Works
- The Bolt Chronicles: In "The Paris Trip," Mittens meets a handsome black cat named Berlioz during her trip to Paris with Bolt and company. He becomes her impromptu tour guide and vacation fling, but it's clear to both that they'll have to part when she goes back home — there's no place for Mittens to live in France, and Berlioz has an owner employed as a jazz pianist in the city. They part tearfully at the end of the story.
Films — Animation
- Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown:
- Implied in conversations about Charlie Brown's grandfather, Silas Brown, and Violette Honfluer's unnamed grandmother, as Silas was stationed at Le Chateau du Mal Voisin, and Violette recounts that her grandmother never forgot "the charming American".
- Marcie and Peppermint Patty stay with a young man named Pierre during their time as exchange students, and it becomes clear during the ending by their tight embrace that Pierre and Marcie had strong feelings for each other, though, of course, Peppermint Patty assumes that it's her that Pierre is interested in.
Films — Live-Action
- Dirty Dancing: The relationship between Frances "Baby" Houseman and Johnny Castle is a summer fling, as the Housemans are only vacationing at the resort where Castle works for the summer at the invite of the owner.
- The Holiday: Discussed, deconstructed, then subverted in the Amanda-Graham storyline. Amanda, staying in a small cottage in England for two weeks (and is already planning to leave early because she is still as depressed as she was back home), meets Graham, the handsome brother of the cottage owner. Having just gotten out of a bad relationship, she discusses the appeal of being intimate with someone she will never see again and asks him to have a one-night stand. The next day, however, Amanda decides to stay and go out a few more times because she enjoyed his company so much. Their relationship quickly grows complicated as they grow closer, with Graham confessing his love and desire to make their relationship work long-term. Amanda rationalizes that the time limit on their relationship might be making their attraction stronger than it would be under normal circumstances, and thinks it would be best if they let it go once she goes back home. Amanda instead has a Love Epiphany on the way to the airport and turns around to spend New Years with Graham and his daughters, seemingly ready to commit and find a way to make it work.
- Last Night: Sandra and Duncan met, fell in love, and got married in the months between the end of the world being detected and the day it is set to happen.
- My Life In Ruins: Invoked by Georgia when she asks Poupi to have his nephew, Didi to spend time with sullen teen tourist Caitlin Tullen, who was clearly not enjoying her time in Greece with her bickering parents.
- Seeking a Friend for the End of the World: The film starts with the news that a mission to stop the massive asteroid "Matilda" has failed, and the world will end in three weeks. Dodge is indifferent when his wife leaves him but wants to see his old high school flame, while his neighbor Penny needs to catch a plane to see her family in England, so they team up. Dodge and Penny eventually fall in love, and at the end of the movie, Penny abandons her plan to see her family to be with him as the world ends.
Literature
- Kino's Journey: Kino arrives at a village and is set to stay three days, per usual. Kino befriends a girl named Sakura at the village (and the story implies that Sakura was Kino's own name before taking on the name of the man who made a Heroic Sacrifice to save her from her Brainwashed and Crazy parents). Sakura shows Kino around town, and at one point they witness a wedding, with Sakura noting the couple is a bit younger than would usually be allowed. Kino discovers after leaving the village, through a note left by Sakura's mother, that the villagers had discovered that a volcano nearby was going to erupt soon and destroy the village, but they had determined not to leave. The couple had been permitted to marry young so that they could spend their last night on Earth together.
- Ripley's Game: Prior to the events of the book, Simone started going out with Jonathan, who has terminal cancer. Less than a month into their relationship, they decided to get married to make the most of their limited time together. At the start of the book, the two are Happily Married, with a son. Still, the spectre of Jonathan's illness looms over them, which is what makes Jonathan decide to take up Tom Ripley's offer to murder some Mafiosos to financially support his family after he's gone. A subsequent run-in with the mafia leaves Jonathan dead long before his illness could catch up to him.
- Shadow of the Leviathan: The protagonist Dinios becomes lovers with his new colleague Kepheus at the end of the first book, knowing that their respective duties to the Empire will soon take them to different places. By the time of the second book two years later, they've long since separated, though Dinios still regrets the end of their brief relationship.
- Winter's Tale: Beverly has tuberculosis and has already lived two months past her diagnosis (which she quickly admits to) when she and Peter fall in love.
Live-Action TV
- Doctor Who: In "A Christmas Carol", Kazran learns that Abigail is dying, and that every Christmas Eve that he and the Doctor have been taking her out of her cryogenic freezing, she is losing a day, until she only has one left. Kazran hoards her final day like a miser, turning against the Doctor and growing old without her, until he is convinced that the only way to save the crashing spaceship with Amy and Rory aboard is to release Abigail one final time, since only her voice can clear the skies. The special ends with the duo flying off together to enjoy her final day, Christmas Day.
- M*A*S*H:
- Col. Potter recounts to Hawkeye and BJ the story of a young woman he fell in love with during World War II, a French nurse by the name of Collette. He was temporarily blinded, and Collette's voice was all the comfort he had in the hospital. Until he reveals, they took the bandages off, and he saw her face. He pretended he was still blind.
- Most of the relationships that happen at the 4077th are implied to be this by the very nature of being a military unit operating in a foreign theatre.
- Col. Blake has a wife back home, but is in a relationship with a nurse named Leslie. There is no indication that he ever promised Leslie anything like leaving his wife and that they both understand that its just physical relief during the war. That said, they both seem fond of one another, as Leslie once chastises Hawkeye when Major Houlihan is giving Henry grief about one of Hawkeye's patients.
- The relationship between Frank Burns, who is married, and Maj. Houlihan, the head nurse. Frank has no intention of leaving his wife, though he sometimes intimates to Margaret Houlihan that he might do so for her.
- Margaret fully intended for her relationship with her short-term husband to last, so that does not qualify, but afterwards she falls for a frontline soldier named Sully. Unfortunately, Sully and Margaret have too many differences to be compatible, and so it doesn't last.
- Hawkeye has had relationships with most of the nursing staff, with the understanding that they will only be short-term flings in the war zone.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: in the episode "Bloodlines" Captain Picard is reminded of his short relationship with Miranda Vigo...
Picard: We met through a friend when I was on shore leave on Earth. It was all very romantic, very intense, probably because we both knew I would be leaving in two weeks. And we kept in touch for a while, but we never managed to get together again.
- Witchblade (2000): In "Lagrimas", Sara meets and falls for a man named Daniel Germaine... who turns out to have sought her out because Jesus cursed him with immortality for tormenting Him at the Crucifixion, and he believes the Witchblade can break the curse and kill him. He finally persuades Sara to run him through with it, and dies.
Music
- Luke Bryan's "Roller Coaster" is about a beach-town local who has a very short-lived summer romance with a tourist whom he falls for pretty hard. The chorus includes the line, "I should've known that kind of feelin' would last longer than that week did."
- Roger Whittaker's song "The Last Farewell" has an English naval officer telling an unnamed lover that he must part from her, as he must go off to war. And even if he survives the war, he will then have to return to England, instead of to her.
- Robbie Williams: "Win Some, Lose Some" recounts a summer fling between two teenagers where neither of them expects the relationship to last past the summer. The singer laments that he wonders what could have happened if they'd tried to keep it going.
Mythology & Religion
- Celtic Mythology: Fionn Mac Cumhaill's son Faolan was born from such a romance. Fionn met a sorceress from Greece who becomes his lover after she bests him in a game (dice, cards or fidchell depending on the version). However, she states that the romance is only to last up until Fionn gets her pregnant, at which point she will return to Greece. Sure enough, she becomes pregnant with a son and leaves, but not before promising 1. That their son shall be named Faolan, and 2. That he will be sent to join Fionn when he's old enough to make the journey. Years later Faolan arrives in Ireland and becomes one of Fionn's bravest and most loyal warriors. On the sorceress' end, the romance was part of a longer plan to free her brothers from a curse, which only her at the time not yet conceived son could break.
Theatre
- RENT: Since half of the main characters are HIV-positive in The '90s, this is a given. "No Day But Today" is the anthem of the musical for a reason.
- Roger initially pushes Mimi away, in spite of his attraction to her, because he doesn't want to infect her and knows his diagnosis means he doesn't have much time. He already lost his girlfriend April to the same disease. He finds out after "La Vie Boheme" that Mimi is also HIV-positive, leading them to start a relationship. While they briefly break-up, Mimi's near death in his arms causes him to recommit to being with her for as long as they have.
- Angel finds Collins injured in an alleyway and, because both already have HIV, start a relationship. Angel's health declines over the course of the next year, leading to death, but the example set eventually inspires Roger to reunite with Mimi.
- Wicked: Discussed. Elphaba and Fiyero finally get together while Elphaba is on the run for crimes against the Wizard of Oz, with Fiyero turning traitor himself to be with her. They sing "As Long As You're Mine" knowing their time together will likely be short because of this, willing to take whatever enjoyment they can in the moment. Seemingly played straight when Fiyero is captured and beaten to death in the next scene before Elphaba herself dies by Dorothy's hand. Subverted at the end, revealing Elphaba's spell turned Fiyero into the Scarecrow and she faked her death, allowing the two to run away from Oz together.
And just for this moment
As long as you're mine
I've lost all resistance
And crossed some borderline
And if it turns out
it's over too fast
I'll make every last moment last
As long as you're mine
Video Games
- The Quarry: The Inciting Incident of the game is caused by Jacob's inability to come to terms with the fact that his relationship with Emma was supposed to be one of these situations. Emma is ready to say goodbye to him at the end of summer and just look back at their time together as a fun summer fling, but Jacob is determined to get her to give a long-distance relationship a chance. He goes so far as to sabotage the group's minivan so they'll be forced to spend an extra night at the now-empty summer camp.
Visual Novel
- Kana: Little Sister: Should Taka and Kana begin a relationship, it is with the understanding that they really don't have much time together due to Kana's worsening condition. In many of the endings, the inevitable happens and the last part of the game is Taka coming to terms with Kana's passing. In one ending, he's even driven mad with grief, wandering the neighbourhood trying to find her until Yumi manages to snap him out of it through sheer determination and The Power of Love.
Western Animation
- Family Guy: In "Married With Cancer", Brian dates and then marries Jess, who has stage four lymphoma and only has weeks to live. Stewie accuses Brian of only doing it for public sympathy and planning to return to dating as soon as she dies, something Brian vehemently denies. However, when Jess makes a miraculous recovery, Brian realizes Stewie was right about him and he's now trapped in an Awful Wedded Life he never wanted.
- Miraculous Ladybug: In the New York special, the class travels to New York City for a week. With her BFF Chloé deciding to sulk because her parents sent her on the trip so that they could have some alone time, Sabrina is left to her own devices, and decides to spend the week getting close to a nice local boy, Delmar, who treats her like an actual human being. At the end of the trip, she goes back to being Chloé's loyal minion while Delmar remains in New York City.
- The Simpsons: Parodied in "Trilogy of Error". Lisa is accidentally dropped in East Springfield Elementary School (she goes to West Springfield) and encounters a teen who is equally smart and attracted to the same passions she does. The entirety of their relationship, from beginning through Falling-in-Love Montage to "you must go, Lisa, you have important things to do at your school and we shall never meet again until maybe college!" end, lasts approximately ten seconds (and a mere handful of In-Universe minutes).
