I'm not too sure if this has been discussed before, I did look it in the older threads but didn't see one. So I apologise if there is already a thread on this topic.

If you haven't finished the game, here's another spoiler warning. Bye bye.






Anyway, do you think that there was any kind of romantic feeling that developed between Ashe and Basch near the end of the game? I know the emphasis on the game was not on love, yet it's clear that Vaan and Penelo are closer than friends, as well as Fran and Balthier. It seems silly to judge on a picture but on FF wiki there is artwork of the game's cast, with Vaan and Penelo sitting in a tree, with Fran and Balthier together on the right and Basch and Ashe together on the left. This seems to suggest the 'couplings' that happened in the game, even though no partnerships or romances were directly dealt with in the story.
At the end of the game, Penelo says in her letter that Ashe misses the team, and Basch especially (or something along those lines). Ashe and Basch also appear together in one of the sequels (FW or TA2). I haven't played the sequels but I have been reading up on the characters in FF Wiki and I just noticed that there seemed to be a leaning towards a Basch/Ashe coupling in the same way as there was a leaning towards a Vaan/Penelo and Balthier/Fran coupling.
Any thoughts on this?