Meet-Cute
Two strangers collide in a charming, embarrassing, or absurd first encounter that all but guarantees a second one. The trope is the romcom opening distilled: wrong coffee orders, shared umbrellas, dogs with better instincts than their owners.
What is Meet-Cute in fanfiction?
Two strangers collide in a charming, embarrassing, or absurd first encounter that all but guarantees a second one. The trope is the romcom opening distilled: wrong coffee orders, shared umbrellas, dogs with better instincts than their owners. With over 30,000 works on Archive of Our Own, Meet-Cute is one of the most beloved tropes in fanfiction.
Why readers love Meet-Cute
A great meet-cute makes the romance feel fated from the first paragraph, and the format's compactness has made it a favorite for one-shots and prompt fills.
Examples of Meet-Cute
Grabbing the identical suitcase at baggage claim and exchanging numbers to swap them back, or a florist and a tattoo artist who keep mis-delivering each other's mail.
Best Meet-Cute Fanfics
The highest-rated Meet-Cute stories across all fandoms on AO3.
Slide To Answer
Completeby relenafanel
"What do I do?” Steve appealed into the phone. “I’m freaking out.”There was silence on the other end of the line. It lasted so long that Steve pulled the receiver away from his ear and frowned at it. Pay phones were old. Maybe this one wasn’t working despite the obvious dial tone when he picked u
Stiles Stilinski, Boyfriend Extraordinaire
Completeby MereLoup
“Beacon County Sheriff's Department, this is deputy Mahealani speaking.” “Oh thank god!”“Stiles?” “I, uh, I need some advice.” “Advice?” “Yeah. So, hypothetically, say you met your boyfriend’s mother and sister for the first time ever. Completely by accident. In the grocery store. And they convin
Like Real People Do
Completeby third_crow
“Could I get a name for the order?” Marlene asked.“Serious,” the man replied. “Like the star,” he clarified, and Remus mentally scratched out 'Serious' and rewrote 'Sirius' in his head.“The… star?” Marlene asked, her pen hovering over the cup as she hesitated.“S-I-R-I-U-S,” Remus said. He stocked cr
Thanks for Thumper, But I Prefer Cheeseburgers
Completeby isthatbloodonhisshirt (wasterella)
The wolf’s head whipped around so fast, Stiles felt like he was watching The Exorcist. Stiles wondered if he could just stand still enough to make the wolf think he was a tree. A very bright red and jean-clad tree. He doubted it, but one could hope. He knew it was a lost cause when the wolf turned f
rose garden filled with thorns
Completeby galactictsukki
“I’m sorry, but my answer is no. Someone else might be willing to switch if you ask.” “I can’t believe—this is unacceptable! I’m going to call the flight attendant over and get this sorted out right now!” Flustered and cornered, Shane injects his Captain Voice into the conversation. “Ma’am, I unders
on my lips (your laughter is the sweetest)
Completeby luway
Jisung cleared his throat, a sudden feeling of embarrassment coming over him. He stared at the paper cup in his hands as he spoke. "So you're really nice and all, and your cocoa is amazing, but the whole lip thing— I can see you staring when I talk and I just wanted to say it's kind of uncom-""Uh so
Night Changes
Completeby proseandpulse
Shane is drunk, concussed, and hiding in a phone booth when he calls the only number he knows by heart. The man who answers is not Hayden Pike.
Save a Horse, Ride a Captain
Completeby galwednesday
Bucky tapped him on the shoulder, swaying back and forth a little as he waited for the man to turn around. “Hello,” he said, and then promptly forgot what else he was going to say, because this guy was fucking beautiful. “Wow. Good face.”Two of the guy’s friends, a man wearing a suit that fit so wel
this time it's a tweet cute
Completeby Owlwinter
Sapnap: Damn, even I think that is one dry-ass trending descriptionSapnap: How much do you get paid to write those again?George: none. this is an unpaid internship and I hate it here.--Or: in which George is the Twitter Description Man, and Dream is the perpetually-trending Minecraft youtuber he has
Side bitch out of your league
Completeby rohkeutta
“I tried to call Sam,” Captain America says, bewildered. He’s sprinting like Usain Bolt and doesn’t sound even a little out of breath. Fucker. “Who’re you?”“Someone who’s watching you live on TV,” Bucky tells him as the tiny patriotic figure on the screen takes the turns like he instructed. Bucky sh
Covered in Bees
Completeby ScarlettStorm
“Cloud Reccesses Apiary,” says a toneless, deep masculine voice, with zero question in it. Wei Ying doesn’t care, because whoever possesses that voice is probably going to come save him from bees like a fucking hero while wearing like, a suit of armor. That’s what you wear to catch bees, right?“I ha
Know You Better
Completeby rotasha
Clark asks Bruce on a date, not knowing he’s a famous billionaire. Bruce says yes, because this is the first time this has ever happened to him.
took no time with the fall
Completeby cherryvanilla
When the Avengers had briefed him on Deadpool, they played up the Kills People for Money and Has No Real Morals angle and left out the Is Pretty Damn Funny and Charming in a Weird, Terrifying Sort of Way part. Or, five times they meet on rooftops plus one time they take it to the streets*(*with apol
Meet Cute (these dorks)
Completeby Mayvn
The instant he turned to dash into the fight, Liu Qingge froze as he saw Not Shen Qingqiu standing coolly over one unconscious thug, guqin in both hands and still in a pose that clearly showed he had, in fact, just bludgeoned someone with the end of his guqin. Not Shen Qingqiu smirked and tilted his
A Lot's Gonna Change
Completeby etymologyplayground
"Are you each other's beards?" Wei Ying guesses, mostly joking.Lan Zhan says, "I don't know what that means."Wen Qing says, "Yes." Then, to Lan Zhan, she says, "It's what we're doing."--What's even better than attending the wedding of someone you hate? Being the bartender at the wedding of someone y
Skull Rock Era
Completeby chattrekisses
Steve Harrington never planned for Eddie Munson.Steve was supposed to marry his high school sweetheart, have 2.5 children, and take over the family business. He was supposed to live a blissful life on a nondescript cul-de-sac, complete with a white picket fence and a closet full of tasteful polo shi
Quack (Stiles Stop Calling It That)
Completeby isthatbloodonhisshirt (wasterella)
“Stiles, I’m serious, I need a favour.” “That sounds like a trap,” Stiles Stilinski muttered sleepily into both his pillows. “You know,” he continued when the man in his room made no move to leave, “you’d think I’d be used to this. My dad, coming into my room, smacking my ass to get me out of bed, w
Natural
Completeby withered
Derek goes grocery shopping, and somehow walks out with a kid, a pack and a mate.
we're awesome, totally genius
Completeby napricot
At this point, Sam’s scanning the coffeeshop for an exit strategy from this terrible date; maybe he can trip a customer into spilling coffee on one of them, or pretend like he’s seen a friend, something, anything. His eye lands on the white guy sitting at the table behind Mike, directly in Sam’s lin
a paper friend
Completeby soft_wanning
Lan Wangji finds a paperman far from its body and helps get it home. -Or-Lan Wangji unknowingly meets Wei Wuxian for the first time.
Popular Fandoms for Meet-Cute
Ships with Meet-Cute Stories
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Related Tropes
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Meet-Cute fics are on AO3?
There are over 30,000 works tagged with Meet-Cute on Archive of Our Own.
What fandoms have the most Meet-Cute stories?
Popular fandoms for Meet-Cute include MCU, BTS, Haikyuu.
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