Hickeys — Tag Meaning
A tag for the marks left behind by enthusiastic kissing, and more importantly for the morning-after comedy of trying to hide them. The hickey is fandom's favorite incriminating evidence, outing secret relationships to observant friends one collar-tug at a time.
What to Expect From "Hickeys" Fics
Expect visible marks, failed concealment attempts, teasing teammates, and mild possessiveness played for warmth.
How to find Hickeys fics on AO3
On AO3, click any tag to see every work that uses it, then refine with the "Filters" sidebar — combine it with your fandom or ship, set a rating, or exclude tags you don't want. See our AO3 filtering guide for the full walkthrough.
Browse "Hickeys" works on AO3Popular Fics Tagged "Hickeys"
Real examples from AO3's most-kudosed works:
Related Tags
Love Bites
Close cousin to the hickeys tag, covering gentle biting and marking during kissing or sex as an expression of passion or claim. In creature fandoms it shades into vampire and werewolf territory, where a love bite can carry literal supernatural meaning.
Tag guide →
Neck Kissing
A physical-affection tag for kisses pressed to the throat and neck, a charged gesture that sits between sweet and heated. Authors tag it both in soft established-relationship scenes and as the tipping point where making out turns serious.
Tag guide →
Secret Relationship
The couple is real; the world doesn't know. Whether hiding from teammates, press, families, or hostile institutions, the secrecy shapes everything — stolen moments, cover stories, the strain of public distance. Authors mine both the thrill of the hidden and the cost of it.
Tag guide →
Morning After
Opens on the morning following a significant night — waking in someone's bed, in someone's shirt, in someone's life. The fic lives in the negotiation over breakfast: was it a mistake, a beginning, or something neither party has vocabulary for yet. Despite the implication, the tag itself spans all ratings; the night is often offstage entirely.
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More Romance, Identity & Ratings Tags
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