A main character's best friend

Let's face it, in almost every fictional book the main character has a best friend.  Their best friend is someone they can trust, depend on, tell their secrets to, and ultimately come to in the darkest of times.  Without a close friend, who knows what madness are MC would be involved in --besides the usual, mind you.  Perhaps without this special person, no one would truly have a reason to care about our MC.

For the longest time I worried that Celestria would not have someone like this for her.  After she forced --or convinced; whichever you prefer--Leal to leave, it seemed she would be alone yet again.  In the original draft of the book, she never found one person she stayed with throughout the entire book.  A second time around, though, I discovered Alaire and before Celestria and I knew it he was becoming an important person in her story.

While Alaire and Celestria's relationship is anything from normal, it did evidently grow throughout the book.  Once Alaire saved her, he became someone she knew she owed her life to.

Death had been only a few inches away from me; if it had not been for him… You would have died. I thought.

Their relationship was interesting to have build up as the story continued, but I think this is mainly because of the way the two acted.  Celestria and Alaire do not at first become friends; they develop interests in one another as they continue on in their journey.  Alaire being serious and witty and Celestria being sarcastic and vengeful.  Their views on violence, love, and life itself are very different. Even so, it was not a great mystery to see that they began having feelings for one another.  And what may be the most special about a best friend in a book is that only you --the writer--knows what comes next in their relationship.  Nothing says they have to fall in love --for all we know, they could remain close friends until the very end.

With Celestria, it's never certain who she'll stay with long since she has had so many downfalls in her past.  However, with Alaire there is a spark of something new.  Despite the awkward suggestive moments and comments about/between them, there is a strong bond they form together.  That bond was extremely difficult to work out, believe it or not, because as you may recall Celestria felt that only she and her sister had a bond with one another.  She even pushed herself away from Leal because she felt if they were together they'd fall in love.  The true reason Alaire was more acceptable to stay with Celestria for a longer time was probably because of his personality. 

“Away,” he flashed his smile at me; something I was becoming too familiar with. “Unless, of course, just nearly being killed in the street is your preference.”  

It's safe to say that when one is working on a relationship in their book, they must think of their relationships in real life.  A friendship between fictional characters should take time to develop just as a friendship between two real people.  The more strong the relationship, the closer the characters can be to one another.  Fights, sharing secrets, and listening to each other... it's really not a fictional world when one is able to bring two fictional characters close and keep them that way.

Without asking permission, I reached for the silver chain around his neck. I took his necklace out from under his tunic and stared at it in my palm. A silver cross… 

"There's a lot that I want." He said. He smirked as he said it like he knew he was pushing my patience.