#but it wasn't until the Iron King and the Dniss were released and many people died as collateral

[nex-kyit]

Fits with Varic/Raion and Varic/Sola too, if you choose to interpret them that way. Even if you see them as platonic, I'd imagine their friendship is impacted in a similar way. Varic and Raion, forgoing many friendship dates to fight off monsters and save lives. Same with Varic and Sola, except worse because neither of them are going to push to have a relationship as Raion and Mell probably would. Man, I can totally imagine Varic and Mell putting their entire relationship on hold when Starhammer snaps, no time for a relationship when your entire galaxy is in danger. And yet, yet!! Their only comfort is that they will fight it and face it together.

Kaleshwi and Varic/Mell are my two favorite “never quite develops into an established romantic relationship” ships. Frankly they might be the only two I even know of but I like them strongly.

Man. If it only weren’t for frequent life-threatening danger and even more frequent quests/responsibilities, these ships could have been together. But that’s what brought them this close to each other in the first place. Augh the very nature of what brought them together denies them from getting closer.

Basically this:

[Image ID from alt text: A graph of potential energy vs distance. The curve reaches the minimum of potential energy at a non-zero distance.]

Longer ID below. [Image ID: A graph of potential energy of a two-atom system versus inter-nuclear distance. There is a minimum of potential energy at a non-zero distance; to either side of the minimum, the energy rises. As distance approaches zero, energy approaches infinity asymptotically; as distance approaches infinity, energy approaches zero asymptotically.

There are several other labels: “repulsion” for the positive energy quadrant, “attraction” for the negative energy quadrant, “equilibrium bond length” for the distance at which energy is a minimum, and “bond energy” for the energy at its minimum. The axes are labeled, and the graph is labeled BYJU’s, the website that displayed the graph.

/End ID]

Image source: BYJU’s, from this webpage specifically: https://byjus.com/chemistry/potential-energy-curve/