Best Short Friends to Lovers Fanfics
Friends to Lovers novellas — 10k to 50k words, polished and contained. Curated from AO3, ranked by kudos.
Top 20 Short Friends to Lovers Fanfics
Ranked by AO3 kudos. Each fic is tagged with friends to lovers and falls in the 10,000–50,000 words range.
The Standard You Walk Past
by bafflinghaze
On returning to Hogwarts for their Eighth Year, Headmistress McGonagall decided to room Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter together. She may have hoped for a leading example of house unity; the other students fully expected insults and fights. But nothing happened.That was, until Harry sleepwalked into D
I'm Reading Your Lips (You're Speaking My Language)
by some1_around
Rozanov cocked his head. “You speak Russian? Or just the curse words?” “Yes, I speak Russian,” he snapped, defensive and angry. He knew that it had been a mistake to even try to be friendly with Rozanov. “Why? Do I not look Russian to you?” He scoffed. “No, not really,” Rozanov said. Some of his tea
As the Romans Do
by kooksie
As a straight man, Ilya Rozanov has never had a gay roommate before, but it’s going pretty well. Shane Hollander is kind, silly, and an even bigger hockey nut than Ilya. So when Shane starts bringing men over, and Ilya begins to want to bash their fucking heads in, Ilya comes to a startling conclusi
"what's your type?"
by sapphicflower
“Congratulations on getting nine out of ten questions correct! Without further ado, let’s move on to the last question..” Hanazawa paused for dramatic effect as the lights dimmed and the spotlights overhead honed in on their podiums.“What is … your hero partner’s type?”A brief silence.“‘Type?’” Izuk
We Wear Chains on the Weekend
by surveycorpsjean
Well, in a day of revelations, it turns out that Izuku isn't as vanilla as Katsuki previously thought. Unfortunately, that fascinating discovery is overshadowed by Izuku's dumbassery, because he has zero concept of aftercare. "Don't go to anyone else," Katsuki says, because screw it. He can do a bet
I Think I Missed a Step ('Cause I'm Fallin' For You)
by mokuyoubi
There’s a weird familiarity about the kid's tone and posture, and it’s true that Wade is pretty far from home today but he’s also certain he’d remember that baby-face if he’d seen it before. On the other hand, he has spent the better part of the past few years feeling like he’s missed a step, so thi
decorate my heart
by beetlesandstars
“So,” Ilya says, dragging the word out. He’s swiping at non-existent crumbs on the counter, avoiding his eyes. “You have dinner at parents on Christmas, yes?” “Yeah.” Ilya nods. “I can house-sit while you are away. Make place pretty, if you have decorations. Make it less boring.” Shane’s eyebrows
Real Slow
by surveycorpsjean
“I see.” Zuko closes the scroll. “Is the Water Tribe sending a replacement?” “Uh yeah,” Sokka gestures to himself dramatically. “You’re looking at him.”
beneath six layers of silk
by darkredloveknot (enheduane)
While exorcising a haunting, Lan Wangji gets cursed with a brand of honesty, and is forced to speak his every thought out loud.
Are You Flagging?
by soidade
“Look, I’m just asking, okay? Not– I don't mean anything by it. But, uh.” His eyes darted back and forth, then he leaned in close to Steve. Steve had gotten used to that, kind of. The guy had no concept of personal space. “Are you flagging?” Eddie finally finished. Steve shook his head slowly, eyes
lovesick (the beat inside my head)
by meridies
After moving to Florida, George relies on his online best friend, Dream, to help him adjust to his new school. But only a few weeks in, George falls head over heels for one of the most popular boys in school, Clay. With the help of his new wingman, Sapnap, and his best friend Dream, George tries to
Atlas
by etymologyplayground
"Eh! 'Little brother,' what!" Wei WuXian says, mock-outraged. "I'm thirty-five!" (Sort of. He was born thirty-five years ago, anyway.) "You must be, what, twenty-five tops?""Nooo," Xie Lian says, smiling. "I'm eight hundred years old.""You don't look a day over four hundred," Wei WuXian says. "Serio
The PDA jar
by orphan_account
“What is that thing for?”“I’m glad you asked, captain. This… is the Public Display of Affection jar. Or PDA jar for short.”“Now whenever you do something that may hurt our children’s innocence, you’ll have to put money in the jar as a punishment."Inspired by simple-symponia's art.
Those walls I built didn't even put up a fight
by Aza (sazandorable)
"Is it morally okay to stab a medic with their own scissors?" Nico asked Cecil. (Not that he usually cared about morally okay, as Octavian might demonstrate.) Nico's three days in the infirmary go by faster than he'd thought, and Will just won't stop flirting.
You And Me
by bixgirl1
When Harry sits down with Malfoy, he's really only looking for a reprieve from the constant stares and whispers. (Mostly.) What he gets instead are a series of strange events that lead to a friendship that is something else, questions that nobody knows how to answer, and the realisation that the pe
the distance to the stars
by cloudydaisies
“Didn’t know you were seeing someone.”Buck just laughs. Like, honest to god giggles. Eddie is stuck fighting off doubly massive waves of butterflies and confusion, all while Buck just gazes down at him.“That’s cute,” he hears Buck mumble, just before climbing into the truck, calling Eddie after him.
Instructions Not Included
by Vinci
Logically, Connor should have noticed something was different after the moment of his deviancy, after he consciously chose not to shoot Markus, but he truly didn’t notice it until months later, as he watched, in absolute interest, as Hank typed something on his computer across from him at his desk.O
State of Flux
by Atiki
John’s marriage is over and he is finally back home (i.e. at Baker Street, where he belongs).Sherlock is awfully insecure and John is awfully hesitant, and they're both awkward idiots, of course, but they figure it out. Many First Times happen.
a light hidden and singing
by occultings (microcomets)
Since he was a child, since Lan Wangji had first become aware of his own alienating effect on others, he has long resigned himself to a loveless marriage. Perhaps even a companionate one, so long as his partner was agreeable and unbothersome and let him have his own space.He could not have even begu
hands-on learning
by dawnshine
Minho tutors Jisung in math. Jisung is a player and devastatingly straight.However, he doesn't seem to have much of a problem with letting Minho suck his dick every week when Minho propositions him under the guise of earning experience to woo his "crush" - which is none other than Jisung himself. Bu
More Short Friends to Lovers Fics on AO3
AO3's search bar accepts custom word-count ranges. We've pre-filled the 10,000–50,000 words range for you. Then read offline with Fanfict Reader.
About Friends to Lovers
Best friends who realize their feelings run deeper than friendship.
The foundation of trust and intimacy is already there - it's about recognizing what was always true.
Common scenarios: Childhood friends, college roommates, longtime partners in crime realizing there's more.
About This List
This list of 20short Friends to Lovers fanfics spans 572,414 total words. Kudos range from 17,411 on the newest entries to 71,914 on the most established. Nearly all (90%) are complete, so you can start any of them without WIP anxiety. The most common rating is Explicit (11 of 20 fics).
Recurring tags across this list: Friends to Lovers · Getting Together · Romance · Mutual Pining · Slow Build.
Read short friends to lovers fanfiction on the go
Fanfict Reader is the best way to browse, search, and read AO3 fanfiction on your iPhone. Download for free and start reading your favorite stories today.