Ayna and Shiro. Not much else to say.

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/The Lovers/

First: the most obvious pair of lovers in the series is definitely Shiro and Ayna. Especially, since, ya know, the whole prospect of the entire series revolving around them and their relationship, etc etc. Shiro and Ayna's love affair is both whimsical (you know, in a bizarre, futuristic way) and forbidden (you know, the whole opposing teams thing. Minor technicality.). When Ayna and Shiro meet in outer space that first time, the viewer can feel the connection between them--- and of course, you know that Ayna will become a pivotal character from the moment Shiro doesn't shoot her in space. Their attraction is symbolized in the form of the watch that Ayna lets Shiro borrow (and that he ends up STEALING from her. Oh, don't deny it. He has a watch fetish.) Periodically, until they meet up again, Shiro continues to look at the watch and fawn over it with some sort of unspoken affection. Ayna and Shiro have had some sort of a love connection on their first instances with each other--sort of a "love at first sight" type thing. We'd like to believe that they feel something more than just a "Whoa, you're a sexy anime character, similar to myself, so I'm going to obsess about you for the rest of the series until we elope." Anyway. Shiro is apparently thinking about Ayna continuously until their next meeting, though she seems to have put him out of her mind despite her attraction to him. When they meet again, Ayna is in the process of kicking Shiro's ass, so that puts a little strain on the romantic mood. When Shiro makes the assumption he's going to die, he manages to shrill out--whether his emotions just boiled over, or else maybe he figured it would buy him some time-- "Ayna, I love you!!" Of course, she's a bit surprised, but wonders if he's really stupid enough to get away with saying that just to save his life. Finally, she decides he's got balls, so she lets him live. So next thing we know, the two are stranded off together somewhere. (First of course, Ayna saves Shiro's life, and he tries to kill her when he wakes up, in which Ayna seriously contemplates the prospect of ever sleeping with Shiro or even NEAR Shiro, for fear of losing her own life). So they're off gallivanting around, and they're alone, Shiro makes the serious suggestion that they take a bath. Tricky, tricky Shiro. Ayna, of course, has been under watchful eye of Psycho Big Brother, and hasn't gotten any action for awhile, so acquiesces the request for her own purposes. (Not, we'd like to think, because she actually thought he meant SEPARATE baths.) Anyway, Ayna bares all concerning being Ghinius's puppet and Shiro gets the added bonus of a prolonged front-view. Later, Shiro saves Ayna as she's diving out of a craft with a bullet hole in her chest (which she somehow is unharmed from--I'm thinking, very thick spacesuit?) So they're even: she saved his life, and he saved hers, and then they kill Ghinius and are presumed dead, until no, we find out that they've been off running about with Very Young Children in the forest (which, of course, sounds like a scandal in itself) and now are living in the mountains together. Ayna is definitely pregnant, or else has accumulated a beer belly. And that, boys and girls, is how they knew it was love. In all seriousness, I think Ayna and Shiro are supposed to be "soul mates" or whatever in this series--their frequent meetings make that for certain. Shiro's awkward, unwarranted declaration of love seems a little sudden for those of us that like to take it slow, but for someone he barely knows, he really does seem to love her. Love at first sight, maybe; combined with the fact that she's a bad ass MS pilot like himself; combined with the fact that she's "forbidden" in the sense that they're on opposing sides---and the peekabo in the bathtub didn't hurt either---equals a divinely enticing combination, and boom! They're smitten. Ayna, on the other hand, doesn't contemplate Shiro as much and certainly doesn't miss her watch, but after he tells her that he loves her, she seems a changed woman as well as she realized that her attraction to this mop-top man might be more than just that. By the end of the series, I think both have seen the other in action and therefore are aware of their individual valor and achievements as well as strength, and that seals the deal. After taking to the mountains together, Shiro sacrifices all of his friendships and relationships just to be with this one woman (Ayna's sacrifices are hardly mentionable--most of her loved ones are dead now, anyway) and they're out of here. After spending such a prolonged period of time together, at this point they must be in love, and by the time Michel and Kiki stumble upon their mountain-top abode, we know by the overwhelming sense of a good clean domestic home that they indeed are blissfully happy together. Deciding to sacrifice their identities to be together was awfully romantic, yes? Part of me wanted to retch, and part of me wanted to weep tenderly and cry out, in a decidedly high-pitched voice, "Awwww!" -- the rally cry of Beanie Baby fanatics. Ayna and Shiro's passionate forbidden love is the main premise of the story, and is painfully reminiscent of Romeo & Juliet. (well, minus the multiple death scenes. But had Ayna been "dead" any longer in the final episode, I guarantee you Shiro's next move would have been suicide.)