Also, the difficulty of getting certain characters to admit they like each other - not necessarily on an explicitly romantic level, but just kind of generally - is one reason why I enjoy both reading and writing a variety of intense hurt/comforty tropes, ranging from characters going through some kind of hell together (torture, survival in the wilderness) to things like sex/cuddle pollen, involuntary soulbonding, and sudden onset telepathy. Some people just need to be jammed into each other's proximity and then forcibly held there.