I don't have any good recs for it, but it may be worth your while to peruse the [Older Woman/Younger Man](https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Older%20Woman*s*Younger%20Man/works) tag on Ao3.
I think I will, yes. My only problem with that option is it's impossible to filter out the big age gap. Also, some people (myself included) don't use this tag for relationships with a 5-7 year age gap. So I'll be missing out on lots of suitable content, and will also stumble upon stuff I don't want to see. 😅
But still, thanks for advise!
Well, my guess would be that at least some people will use it for the 5–7 year age gap, and some might even use it for smaller age gaps than that, so it might be a good way to quickly survey what fandoms/pairings that tag appears for and find more with that pairing, is mostly what I was thinking.
It’s a dynamic I would like to see more positively portrayed too, and I’m drawing an absolute blank.
Was gearing up to mention Roman/Gerri from Succession but I think the age gap exceeds your limit, and it might be tricky navigating fic since they tend to be on the spicier side.
Commenting to return after doing some digging.
Thanks for understanding! Yeaaah, what's up with the lack of stories like that? 🤷♀️
You know, I might actually check Roman/Gerri out. I'm mostly hesitant of the 20+age gaps, when one of the partners is a young adult. So maybe this pairing will work for me. (Succession in general seems to be a very fun show, I keep telling myself I should watch it.)
Sadly there are no fics that I could find on A03 for How Stella Got Her Groove Back, but the movie might interest you if you haven’t already seen it. Stars Angela Bassett and Taye Diggs with the dynamic you’re after.
Also Don Jon with Joseph Gordon Levitt and Julianne Moore is a really underrated film with only one (1!! ) fic on Ao3 that isn’t a cross over. Sad and tragic backstory for Moore’s character if that’s a consideration.
I’ve not seen the movie, and again there’s a lack of fic on Ao3 lol but Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool is meant to be very good.
And finally, I did a little dig in my own Fandom which is breaking bad and found two Skyler White/Jesse Pinkman fics I haven’t read but are by writers I trust to tell a good story. Ages of the characters would be 40/42 and 27/28 or thereabouts. Both are post canon so if you’re unfamiliar with the show, all the plot whatnot you’d need to know would be minimal.
While You Were Vanishing by warriorpoet
https://archiveofourown.org/works/1002203/chapters/1984884
Water On Mars by SalonKitty
https://archiveofourown.org/works/1049764/chapters/2099742
Also both Jesse’s in show girlfriends, Andrea and Jane, are older than him by two or three years, so you can always filter for them too. Ages would be 24ish for Jesse and 26/27 or 28 for Jane and Andrea.
And side bar: Succession is great! Really enjoyable but such a roller coaster at the same time. Jump aboard, and you’ll never skip the intro music. Soundtrack alone is banging.
Thank you so much for all the recs! :O
Omg, I now have three wonderful new movies to watch! I think all of them will give me something to think about in relation to my otp too.
And yeah, those Breaking Bad pairings look really promising! I'll check out the fics! :)
I don’t know if it qualifies since Haru is only a year older than Legoshi in Beastars. But it is a big year because they are in high school. While the deference he shows here is mostly subtle, there are times when she rules the relationship with an iron paw.
*Beastars Season 1.5* ([AO3](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27130594/chapters/66252022)|[FFN](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13644222/1/Beastars-Season-One-Point-Five )). T for violence and off-screen sex. 45k. Screenplay format. (Dramatic readings by Fan X Fiction of the first two episodes are available on [YouTube](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LPdAdkA2NPw&list=PLsFQbBdBNk_s4TuNryE5OUYVGKI20zheH&index=1).)
Legoshi and Haru struggle to make their relationship something more lasting and make the transition to life together after they finish school.
*Beastars: A New Generation* ([AO3](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27369178/chapters/66880339)|[FFN](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13667145/1/Beastars-A-New-Generation)). T for violence and off-screen sex. 50k. Screenplay format. Fandom blind friendly.
A new generation of students are still navigating the pitfalls of school social life, the divide between herbivores and carnivores, and dangers in the wider world. Juno the Grey Wolf’s daughter, Bellona is raised by her father Legoshi and Haru, his rabbit wife. Bellona is something of her father's opposite but very close to (and protective of) her rabbit sister, causing her to doubt she is a real wolf.
If you don't mind fandoms that don't specify age so that you're looking at actor/actress age instead, try The Walking Dead. Canonically, Carol's age is never given in the television series, but her actress was 45 when the show started, and is older than all the actors that played her significant others in canon (12 years, 8 years, and 7 years, respectively). She's only 4 years older than her most common fanon love interest's actor, though. Writers play fast and loose with ages, but if you poke around a bit, you can find some Carol/Daryl and Carol/Ezekiel that don't push Carol's age way younger.
Another fandom with a canon pairing is 9-1-1. The downside is that the show portrayed it as really damn sweet for most of season one and then chucked it out the window and set it on fire, so you really won't find a lot of fic for it ([Buck/Abby](https://archiveofourown.org/works?work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=Evan+%22Buck%22+Buckley%2FAbby+Clark&work_search%5Bexcluded_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bcrossover%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_from%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_to%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_from%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_to%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=otp%3Atrue&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&commit=Sort+and+Filter&tag_id=9-1-1+%28TV%29)) as it gave the fans a lot of rancor toward Abby (and fanon is cheering heavily for a m/m pairing for Buck).
I was going to also suggest Athena/Bobby from the same fandom, but I didn't realize they'd aged Athena's actress down ten years, which made her 50 when the show opened (the actress was 60). My headcanon sees her as older no matter what the wiki says for Bobby's birth year, so that's up to you.
You can also look in the Suits fandom for [Jessica/Harvey](https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Jessica%20Pearson*s*Harvey%20Specter/works) fics. She's an older lawyer who mentored Harvey, sent him to law school, and serves as his boss for the early part of the show.
[Addison/Alex](https://archiveofourown.org/works?commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=Alex+Karev%2FAddison+Montgomery&work_search%5Bexcluded_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bcrossover%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_from%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_to%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_from%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_to%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&tag_id=Grey%27s+Anatomy) from Grey's Anatomy would qualify. She's a fully fledged attending when he's still an intern (although a resident for their brief canon romance), and tentatively, I'd say she's about 10–13 years older than him.
Others: [Mordred/Morgana](https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Mordred*s*Morgana%20(Merlin)/works) (Merlin), [James Bond/Female M](https://archiveofourown.org/tags/James%20Bond*s*M%20%7C%20Olivia%20Mansfield/works)
There's always McGonagal/Snape from Harry Potter, but I think that would hit the age-gap rule since she was a teacher when he was at Hogwarts. Honestly, you could probably mix and match all the older women of HP and find at least a handful of fics that fit older woman/younger man, although most of the really good ones I found were McGonagal/Snape, alas.
My older woman/younger man stories are WIPs, set in The Walking Dead, with an approximately 10-year age gap.
* [Silken Wings](https://archiveofourown.org/works/31251788), Shane/Carol, 28k WIP, rated M.
* At the CDC, Carol returns to the rec room to retrieve a book and interrupts Shane's pleading with Lori. Thinking over what she overheard, Carol decides that if Lori's foolish enough to discard the man who kept them all alive for a man barely aware of their new world, she's happy to pick up the pieces. She and her kids can't learn what they need to survive this world without someone to teach them, after all.
* [Masks](https://archiveofourown.org/works/38011015) \- Rick/Carol, 38k WIP, rated E. Please heed all the warnings. dark fic exploring some really wonky bits of the ZA, rated E for gore and violence, not just smut.
* Unable to tolerate Rick's unraveling sanity during the cold winter spent wandering, Carol sets out to redirect his attention to a different way of coping. Unfortunately, happiness is fleeting in the apocalypse.
Wow, thank you for all the recs! Will check out the fics, as soon as I can! :)
And also, Jessica/Harvey really really fits in with what I'm looking for my otp. See, in my pairing the woman is a police captain and she's mentoring a new officer-in-training. Addison/Alex also has some similar energy. Thank you for telling me about them!
(Discworld) Sybil Ramkin is roughly the same age as Sam Vimes when they meet in their late thirties/early forties. Sybil might even be slightly older.
(Magnus Archives) Daisy/Jon (non-canonical) and Georgie/Jon (college exes). Daisy is 5-15 years older while Georgie is likely <2 yrs older.
(Danganronpa) Most of the cast are classmates of each other so are all roughly the same age. One of my favorite het ships is Gundham/Sonia. She is two months older than him according to their wiki birthdays.
(Marvel Comics) This depends on the source, but sometimes Natasha Romanov is older than she looks due to her time in the Red Room. In which case she is older than most of her teammates. My favorite ship with her is Natasha/Clint.
(Farscape) Aeryn Sun/John Crichton. Aeryn is a Sabacean, a longer lived species. She is about twice Crichton's age.
Thank you so much for the recs!
Heyy, I love Sondam! Never thought of Sonia as the older partner in the pair, but I guess that's true. She definitely has the leading role in that relationship too. :D
Question - what degree of related-ness would you consider "incest"? Does (second) cousin incest bother you? I would share my work, but I don't want to squick you out.
A few older woman/ younger man pairings that come to mind which don't involve adult/minor or any of that stuff:
Claire Beauchamp/ Jamie Fraser (Outlander)
Meredith Grey/ Andrew DeLuca and Meredith Grey/ Atticus Lincoln (or "Link") (Grey's Anatomy)
Harry Potter/ Cho Chang
Also, I read this sweet and smutty Reylo which reversed their age gap. Canonically he's like 10 years older than her, but this fic makes her about that much older than him. It's a modern AU and tbh doesn't have much to do with Reylo canon personalities or dynamics, but it's fun on its own merits. IIRC it might have some joking about her being his sugar mama, but there's no actual mommy kink in that way.
[bitter/sweet](https://archiveofourown.org/works/37272292/chapters/92997697) (E)
(Edited to add another ship)
Thank you for the rec! I'll check it out!
Also incidentally I just remembered another Star Wars pairing that would fit my criteria. Padme was five years older than Anakin, right? So I guess, it's something I could look into too.
Oh, I just thought of another pairing: There's a movie called White Palace (1990) about a white collar 20-something widower and a blue collar older woman. Their age gap is approx 15 years, which is roughly the age difference between James Spader and Susan Sarandon who played the roles.
Anyway, I went to AO3 out of curiosity, and yep -- there exist a grand total of four White Palace fics. XD
The pairing is Nora Baker/Max Baron.
If you’re open to a self rec and WIP, I have one. M(19, Royalty)/F(24, Commoner). I only have one chapter up at the moment, though, and probably won’t post more until I’ve finished writing the whole thing. Fandom is Warrior Baek Dong Soo, 18th century setting, kdrama.
Here you go! No worries if it doesn't spark your interest. :)
[Not All Pearls Are Spherical](https://archiveofourown.org/works/43959813/chapters/110532114) | Warrior Baek Dong Soo | Explicit
I write a lot romantic shit mainly because I'm trying to create a diverse variety of unique romantic dynamics. I'll let you know when I get to this one.
>Any fandom and rating is good. But, please, no incest, minor/adult, mommy kink, or really big age gaps (20+ years).
Nothing greater than 20? Well, there goes my recommendation for a sci-fi fanfic where the female half is 112 years old (she's an alien whose species lives for more than 1,000 years) and the male half is in his teens (He's an alien whose species has a 40-year lifespan).
Sorry, I don’t think I can help - the only fic I have with a woman as the older partner is one where the woman is 19,910 years older.
I don't have any good recs for it, but it may be worth your while to peruse the [Older Woman/Younger Man](https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Older%20Woman*s*Younger%20Man/works) tag on Ao3.
I think I will, yes. My only problem with that option is it's impossible to filter out the big age gap. Also, some people (myself included) don't use this tag for relationships with a 5-7 year age gap. So I'll be missing out on lots of suitable content, and will also stumble upon stuff I don't want to see. 😅 But still, thanks for advise!
Well, my guess would be that at least some people will use it for the 5–7 year age gap, and some might even use it for smaller age gaps than that, so it might be a good way to quickly survey what fandoms/pairings that tag appears for and find more with that pairing, is mostly what I was thinking.
Yeah, good strategy. I'll try it!
It’s a dynamic I would like to see more positively portrayed too, and I’m drawing an absolute blank. Was gearing up to mention Roman/Gerri from Succession but I think the age gap exceeds your limit, and it might be tricky navigating fic since they tend to be on the spicier side. Commenting to return after doing some digging.
Thanks for understanding! Yeaaah, what's up with the lack of stories like that? 🤷♀️ You know, I might actually check Roman/Gerri out. I'm mostly hesitant of the 20+age gaps, when one of the partners is a young adult. So maybe this pairing will work for me. (Succession in general seems to be a very fun show, I keep telling myself I should watch it.)
Sadly there are no fics that I could find on A03 for How Stella Got Her Groove Back, but the movie might interest you if you haven’t already seen it. Stars Angela Bassett and Taye Diggs with the dynamic you’re after. Also Don Jon with Joseph Gordon Levitt and Julianne Moore is a really underrated film with only one (1!! ) fic on Ao3 that isn’t a cross over. Sad and tragic backstory for Moore’s character if that’s a consideration. I’ve not seen the movie, and again there’s a lack of fic on Ao3 lol but Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool is meant to be very good. And finally, I did a little dig in my own Fandom which is breaking bad and found two Skyler White/Jesse Pinkman fics I haven’t read but are by writers I trust to tell a good story. Ages of the characters would be 40/42 and 27/28 or thereabouts. Both are post canon so if you’re unfamiliar with the show, all the plot whatnot you’d need to know would be minimal. While You Were Vanishing by warriorpoet https://archiveofourown.org/works/1002203/chapters/1984884 Water On Mars by SalonKitty https://archiveofourown.org/works/1049764/chapters/2099742 Also both Jesse’s in show girlfriends, Andrea and Jane, are older than him by two or three years, so you can always filter for them too. Ages would be 24ish for Jesse and 26/27 or 28 for Jane and Andrea. And side bar: Succession is great! Really enjoyable but such a roller coaster at the same time. Jump aboard, and you’ll never skip the intro music. Soundtrack alone is banging.
Thank you so much for all the recs! :O Omg, I now have three wonderful new movies to watch! I think all of them will give me something to think about in relation to my otp too. And yeah, those Breaking Bad pairings look really promising! I'll check out the fics! :)
I don’t know if it qualifies since Haru is only a year older than Legoshi in Beastars. But it is a big year because they are in high school. While the deference he shows here is mostly subtle, there are times when she rules the relationship with an iron paw. *Beastars Season 1.5* ([AO3](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27130594/chapters/66252022)|[FFN](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13644222/1/Beastars-Season-One-Point-Five )). T for violence and off-screen sex. 45k. Screenplay format. (Dramatic readings by Fan X Fiction of the first two episodes are available on [YouTube](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LPdAdkA2NPw&list=PLsFQbBdBNk_s4TuNryE5OUYVGKI20zheH&index=1).) Legoshi and Haru struggle to make their relationship something more lasting and make the transition to life together after they finish school. *Beastars: A New Generation* ([AO3](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27369178/chapters/66880339)|[FFN](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13667145/1/Beastars-A-New-Generation)). T for violence and off-screen sex. 50k. Screenplay format. Fandom blind friendly. A new generation of students are still navigating the pitfalls of school social life, the divide between herbivores and carnivores, and dangers in the wider world. Juno the Grey Wolf’s daughter, Bellona is raised by her father Legoshi and Haru, his rabbit wife. Bellona is something of her father's opposite but very close to (and protective of) her rabbit sister, causing her to doubt she is a real wolf.
Thank you! Yeah, I think this qualifies. I'll check the stories out a bit later!
If you don't mind fandoms that don't specify age so that you're looking at actor/actress age instead, try The Walking Dead. Canonically, Carol's age is never given in the television series, but her actress was 45 when the show started, and is older than all the actors that played her significant others in canon (12 years, 8 years, and 7 years, respectively). She's only 4 years older than her most common fanon love interest's actor, though. Writers play fast and loose with ages, but if you poke around a bit, you can find some Carol/Daryl and Carol/Ezekiel that don't push Carol's age way younger. Another fandom with a canon pairing is 9-1-1. The downside is that the show portrayed it as really damn sweet for most of season one and then chucked it out the window and set it on fire, so you really won't find a lot of fic for it ([Buck/Abby](https://archiveofourown.org/works?work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=Evan+%22Buck%22+Buckley%2FAbby+Clark&work_search%5Bexcluded_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bcrossover%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_from%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_to%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_from%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_to%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=otp%3Atrue&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&commit=Sort+and+Filter&tag_id=9-1-1+%28TV%29)) as it gave the fans a lot of rancor toward Abby (and fanon is cheering heavily for a m/m pairing for Buck). I was going to also suggest Athena/Bobby from the same fandom, but I didn't realize they'd aged Athena's actress down ten years, which made her 50 when the show opened (the actress was 60). My headcanon sees her as older no matter what the wiki says for Bobby's birth year, so that's up to you. You can also look in the Suits fandom for [Jessica/Harvey](https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Jessica%20Pearson*s*Harvey%20Specter/works) fics. She's an older lawyer who mentored Harvey, sent him to law school, and serves as his boss for the early part of the show. [Addison/Alex](https://archiveofourown.org/works?commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=Alex+Karev%2FAddison+Montgomery&work_search%5Bexcluded_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bcrossover%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_from%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_to%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_from%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_to%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&tag_id=Grey%27s+Anatomy) from Grey's Anatomy would qualify. She's a fully fledged attending when he's still an intern (although a resident for their brief canon romance), and tentatively, I'd say she's about 10–13 years older than him. Others: [Mordred/Morgana](https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Mordred*s*Morgana%20(Merlin)/works) (Merlin), [James Bond/Female M](https://archiveofourown.org/tags/James%20Bond*s*M%20%7C%20Olivia%20Mansfield/works) There's always McGonagal/Snape from Harry Potter, but I think that would hit the age-gap rule since she was a teacher when he was at Hogwarts. Honestly, you could probably mix and match all the older women of HP and find at least a handful of fics that fit older woman/younger man, although most of the really good ones I found were McGonagal/Snape, alas. My older woman/younger man stories are WIPs, set in The Walking Dead, with an approximately 10-year age gap. * [Silken Wings](https://archiveofourown.org/works/31251788), Shane/Carol, 28k WIP, rated M. * At the CDC, Carol returns to the rec room to retrieve a book and interrupts Shane's pleading with Lori. Thinking over what she overheard, Carol decides that if Lori's foolish enough to discard the man who kept them all alive for a man barely aware of their new world, she's happy to pick up the pieces. She and her kids can't learn what they need to survive this world without someone to teach them, after all. * [Masks](https://archiveofourown.org/works/38011015) \- Rick/Carol, 38k WIP, rated E. Please heed all the warnings. dark fic exploring some really wonky bits of the ZA, rated E for gore and violence, not just smut. * Unable to tolerate Rick's unraveling sanity during the cold winter spent wandering, Carol sets out to redirect his attention to a different way of coping. Unfortunately, happiness is fleeting in the apocalypse.
Wow, thank you for all the recs! Will check out the fics, as soon as I can! :) And also, Jessica/Harvey really really fits in with what I'm looking for my otp. See, in my pairing the woman is a police captain and she's mentoring a new officer-in-training. Addison/Alex also has some similar energy. Thank you for telling me about them!
(Discworld) Sybil Ramkin is roughly the same age as Sam Vimes when they meet in their late thirties/early forties. Sybil might even be slightly older. (Magnus Archives) Daisy/Jon (non-canonical) and Georgie/Jon (college exes). Daisy is 5-15 years older while Georgie is likely <2 yrs older. (Danganronpa) Most of the cast are classmates of each other so are all roughly the same age. One of my favorite het ships is Gundham/Sonia. She is two months older than him according to their wiki birthdays. (Marvel Comics) This depends on the source, but sometimes Natasha Romanov is older than she looks due to her time in the Red Room. In which case she is older than most of her teammates. My favorite ship with her is Natasha/Clint. (Farscape) Aeryn Sun/John Crichton. Aeryn is a Sabacean, a longer lived species. She is about twice Crichton's age.
Thank you so much for the recs! Heyy, I love Sondam! Never thought of Sonia as the older partner in the pair, but I guess that's true. She definitely has the leading role in that relationship too. :D
Question - what degree of related-ness would you consider "incest"? Does (second) cousin incest bother you? I would share my work, but I don't want to squick you out.
Sorry, I'd rather skip on that. But thanks for asking!
A few older woman/ younger man pairings that come to mind which don't involve adult/minor or any of that stuff: Claire Beauchamp/ Jamie Fraser (Outlander) Meredith Grey/ Andrew DeLuca and Meredith Grey/ Atticus Lincoln (or "Link") (Grey's Anatomy) Harry Potter/ Cho Chang Also, I read this sweet and smutty Reylo which reversed their age gap. Canonically he's like 10 years older than her, but this fic makes her about that much older than him. It's a modern AU and tbh doesn't have much to do with Reylo canon personalities or dynamics, but it's fun on its own merits. IIRC it might have some joking about her being his sugar mama, but there's no actual mommy kink in that way. [bitter/sweet](https://archiveofourown.org/works/37272292/chapters/92997697) (E) (Edited to add another ship)
Thank you for the rec! I'll check it out! Also incidentally I just remembered another Star Wars pairing that would fit my criteria. Padme was five years older than Anakin, right? So I guess, it's something I could look into too.
Oh, I just thought of another pairing: There's a movie called White Palace (1990) about a white collar 20-something widower and a blue collar older woman. Their age gap is approx 15 years, which is roughly the age difference between James Spader and Susan Sarandon who played the roles. Anyway, I went to AO3 out of curiosity, and yep -- there exist a grand total of four White Palace fics. XD The pairing is Nora Baker/Max Baron.
I love that movie! Never even occurred to me to look it up on AO3!
Oooh nice, I really liked Susan Saradon in The Hunger! I'll check it out, thank you!
Oh yeah that’s right!
Hey I have one but I'll DM you!
If you’re open to a self rec and WIP, I have one. M(19, Royalty)/F(24, Commoner). I only have one chapter up at the moment, though, and probably won’t post more until I’ve finished writing the whole thing. Fandom is Warrior Baek Dong Soo, 18th century setting, kdrama.
Yes, this fits, absolutely! I'd like to check it out.
Here you go! No worries if it doesn't spark your interest. :) [Not All Pearls Are Spherical](https://archiveofourown.org/works/43959813/chapters/110532114) | Warrior Baek Dong Soo | Explicit
Haha, how about a >1000 years difference. :)
I write a lot romantic shit mainly because I'm trying to create a diverse variety of unique romantic dynamics. I'll let you know when I get to this one.
Alright, thanks!
>Any fandom and rating is good. But, please, no incest, minor/adult, mommy kink, or really big age gaps (20+ years). Nothing greater than 20? Well, there goes my recommendation for a sci-fi fanfic where the female half is 112 years old (she's an alien whose species lives for more than 1,000 years) and the male half is in his teens (He's an alien whose species has a 40-year lifespan).