... or at least not in romantic fanfiction.

Okay, I'll shut up soon. I promise there'll be no more tl;dr posts to fanficrants for the next... ohh, fortnight? Just let me get this out and then I promise I'll be really good and quiet and not ranty at all, honest. It's just that, once again, badfic has amazed and confounded and saddened my brain and left me with yet more to complain about.

Because it seems that in romantic badfic world, Friends Don't Count. In in far more romance-driven fanfics than I'd care to count, it seems that the minute the miracle romance kicks in, every other interpersonal relationship our star-cross'd lovers possess or have ever possessed goes well and truly out the window. Their entire social network, wide and extensive as it may be, is suddenly reduced to one (1) other character: Their One True Love.

And everyone else in their lives? Set-dressing at best.

And it happens everywhere. It's not something that restricts itself to Suethors. It's not something that is unique to slash or femmeslash fiction, or is utterly unknown to anyone who doesn't write het. We all do it, and none of us have any excuse. Why? Because it's stupid, and it has the slightest tendency to make no frackin' sense.

( Rant. )

... yeah, okay, so it might be understandable if, at the beginning of a new relationship, the character and their new Significant Other get a little bit mutually exclusive - it's not unheard of, either in fiction or in the real world. That doesn't change the fact that, outside of first-person fanfic, we the authors are not part of that relationship. The characters might marginalize their friends in favor of a cute new lover, but that doesn't mean that the fic has to be seen to support this take on things.

There's nothing wrong with romance or whith characters getting caught up in it, but I'd like to see rather more acknowledgment that their true love for one another isn't the only thing in their world, even if that's what it seems like to them at that moment. Nine times out of ten, their feelings for each other won't be what brought them together in the first place and the circumstances that did bring them together haven't changed just because they've hooked up. If there were monsters attacking before they got it together, there are still monsters attacking now they've found true fulfilment in one another's arms.

I'd like to see romance ficcers remember that the lovers in question don't exist in a bubble. They might feel like they exist in a bubble and they can think that all they like, but they don't and the story rather needs to acknowledge that. I'd like to see ficcers realize that if something bad happens, it doesn't just affect their lover. Characters can be as isolationist as they want, but there's no excuse for the ficcer to decide they agree with them and push every single other aspect of said characters' lives (no matter how unavoidable) under the carpet.

Authors are not their characters, no matter how much they may identify with them. They're not the ones who've been blinded by hormones - they're the storytellers, and they've a responsibility to make sure their actual story doesn't get totally derailed by all the hearts and flowers.

Now, I'm not unreasonable, or at least not massively so. I understand if you're writing about a romance, your characters' friends probably won't be the center of attention. But that doesn't mean they have to take a quick vacation either.

No matter how miraculous the Miracle Romance, our lovers' friends are still going to be there, watching from the sidelines and occasionally passing comment, and not just because one half of said Miracle Romance needs a mug of coffee and a shoulder to cry on at two in the morning. And they're going to be there reminding their friend that the guy's coming to fix the register this morning and by the way they've run out of milk and would they mind going to get some. They're still going to be there when something disastrous happens, and they're going to be just as worried (and maybe rather more vocal about it) than the victim of the latest plot twist's lover is.

Because friends exist, and they matter, and they deserve better than to be forgotten because there's a shiny new lover on the scene.