Now I'm only focusing on the canon couples (couples that the show put together and not who the fans want to be together), more specifically the ones that got together in the end and stayed together (so not the couples that got together in the middle of the show, but then broke up). So the three big couples: Ross and Rachel, Monica and Chandler, and Phoebe and Mike. Technically R/R and M/C are the two main couples, but I'm including P/M. (And if we need to get even more technical, R/R are THE main couple of it all).
ROSS/RACHEL
Ross has been obsessed with her since his high school years (which Rachel was aware of), but she just thought of him as Monica's geeky older brother. Ross tries several times to tell Rachel his feelings for her, but is derailed by her ex-fiance, and Paolo the Itallian man. Then Chandler accidentally reveals to Rachel that Ross has feelings for her while Ross is is China, and Rachel realizes she has romantic feelings for him as well so she decides to approach him. Unfortunately, while in China, Ross got into a committed relationship with an American woman of Chinese descent, Julie. After her attempts to reveal her feelings for him fail, Rachel decides to move on. While on a date with another man, she leaves a drunken message on his answering machine, telling him her feelings, which she later tries to stop, but Ross hears it anyway. On hearing this, Ross and Rachel kiss and he ends his relationship with Julie to be with Rachel. Things go very well until she finds a list of pros and cons he wrote in order to help him chose between her and Julie, and is deeply hurt, and as a result ends their relationship.
Later, Monica finds a box of high school memories, including a video of Monica and Rachel getting ready for their high school prom. In the video, Rachel's date is late and Ross, wearing his father's tuxedo, is about to surprise her by offering to be her date. Just as he is about to ask, her date arrives. Ross watches, heartbroken, as Rachel leaves. Touched by this unknown romantic gesture, Rachel forgives him and they resume dating. They remain together for around a year before Ross's jealousy of her colleague, Mark, and his obsessive behavior leads Rachel to suggest taking "a break". Ross assumes this means they have ended their relationship. Depressed, he gets drunk at a bar and ends up sleeping with another woman. Rachel finds out, and after a very long and bitter argument, she ends their relationship. From then on, the two have an on/off relationship. Usually, during the off-time, they remain good friends.
After a few years, Rachel is revealed to be pregnant and in the following days Ross is revealed to be the father. They have a girl, Emma, whom they partnered in raising.
After Rachel is fired from her job, she gets a job in Paris, devastating Ross. At her going-away party, she says goodbye to everyone except Ross. This upsets him and after he confronts her about it, Rachel tells him that saying goodbye would upset her too much as their history would make moving too hard for her. To give her a reason to stay, he kisses her and they sleep together. The next morning, Ross thinks they are back together and is stunned when she says "It was the perfect way to say goodbye". After moping throughout the day, thinking he's lost her, he chases her to the airport and admits he loves her and pleads for her to come back with him. Rachel still gets on the plane. When he returns home heartbroken, Ross finds a message on his answering machine and on playing it, he hears Rachel telling him she loves him too and what a mistake she's made and has to get off the plane. But she's interrupted by flight attendants when the line cuts off, leaving Ross wondering if she got off. Just then a voice speaks from behind him "I got off the plane". It's Rachel and Ross rushes to her. The two share a kiss, rekindling their relationship for good.
MONICA/CHANDLER
Monica and Chandler have known each other since high school/college because Chandler was roommates with Monica's older brother, Ross. After an incident involving revenge, seducing, and a missing toe, they became good friends. Years later, Chandler lived in the apartment across the hall from Monica's. They were friends for years, but all that changed one day when Ross got married in London. Being sad after a drunken guest had thought she was Ross's mother, Monica went to Chandler for comfort and they ended up sleeping together. They kept trying to steal little moments together, determined to stop it once they got back home, but never got a chance. However, they couldn't stay away from each other once they got home and continued to see one another. They hid their relationship from the others until Joey put two and two together after some hints and found out about it. Still, they didn't want anyone else to know, but Rachel and Phoebe soon found out and tricked the truth out of them.
Later, on their one year anniversary, they almost got married in Vegas, but decided against it when they saw Ross and Rachel drunkenly stumble out of the chapel. They realized it was too soon for them to get married, but decided to take their relationship to the next step. So Chandler moved in with Monica.
After nearly a year, Chandler decided to propose to Monica. And after several misunderstandings and their relationship almost disintegrating, they finally became engaged.
Chandler almost ran away from their wedding, but came back after some convincing from Ross. He ran away again after believing Monica was pregnant, but after coming across a baby's outfit in a gift shop, he realized that he wasn't afraid and actually wanted this future life with Monica, so he returned (as it turned out, Rachel was the one who was pregnant, not Monica). Soon, they were married.
After several months of marriage, they decided to try having a baby. And after several more months of failed attempts, they went to a clinic only to realize that they are infertile. So they decided to adopt. They were chosen by a pregnant girl named Erica who would let them adopt her baby after it was born. However, the surprise was during the birth when it was revealed that Erica was having twins. Only the doctor knew about it since Erica had always assumed the "two heart beats" were hers and the baby's. Even though they weren't prepared for two babies, Monica and Chandler decided to keep them, naming them Jack and Erica.
PHOEBE/MIKE
Phoebe and Joey were supposed to set each other up on blind dates, but Joey forgot his end of the deal and ended up telling Phoebe that her date's name was Mike (choosing a random name). Realizing he didn't know anyone named Mike, Joey went into the coffee house and just shouted out the name Mike, and a man sitting alone at a table responded. Joey recruited him to come on the double blind date and pretend to be his old friend from high school. The charade worked for a little bit until Phoebe began to grow suspicious and asked Mike how many sisters Joey had and Joey held up the wrong number of fingers behind Phoebe's back. Phoebe got so mad that she stormed out. Mike found her the next day at the coffee house and apologized for the night before and explained why he got roped into the date "because I was promised I would get a free dinner, which I didn't. And I was promised I would meet a pretty girl, which I did." They talked for a little bit, Phoebe still a bit skeptical, she even made him prove that he was a piano player by making him play without a piano right then and there, but eventually Mike asked her out. They went on a second date, which was equally bad thanks to Ross, who accidentally upset Phoebe before it even began, causing her to spend most of the night crying on Mike's shoulder. Ross then went to Mike's house and tried to explain to him that he had accidentally upset Phoebe, which set off a chain of riduculous events which eventually resulted in Mike deciding he still had feelings for Phoebe.
After several months of dating, they decided to move in together. As they were doing so, Phoebe brought up the idea of maybe getting married one day. However, after his messy divorce, Mike never wanted to get married again. Because of this, they broke up. Both were distraught, but tried to move on, Phoebe's former love of her life, David, came back into her life, but she was still stuck on Mike. When David asked Chandler why Phoebe broke up with Mike, Chandler mentioned marriage and David took it to mean that HE should propose. Monica and Chandler scrambled to fix the situation, ending up with Monica calling Mike and telling him to get his head in the game. Mike ended up coming down and proposing to Phoebe before David did. She turned him down, but said she would like to get married someday. And they got back together.
Later, after many confusing, failed attempts, Mike eventually proposed to Phoebe. Originally, they planned on giving all the money for their wedding to charity, but Phoebe changed her mind when she realized how much the day meant to her (since she didn't have any graduation or sweet sixteen or any sort of big party in her life before) and that it was only going to come once, so she wanted it to be grand.
After Monica and Chandler brought home their babies, Mike and Phoebe decided that they wanted to have kids of their own.
Ah, Friends, Friends, Friends.
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