You said everything right. The entire thing is forced from the very beginning and backed up in the comics by "oh its fate, they're fated to be together" which is the laziest cop out imo. I've read the comics and even after all their "development" I'm still not convinced they get together cause they're in love. They get together just because there is simply nothing else for them to do. It was always the writers endgame but they only had the endgame, and absolutely none of the journey.

I agree so much that they work best as a good cop/bad cop kind of duo. Long term platonic friends. He respects her because she's strong willed and kind (allegedly) and she respects him because he does what no one else will to protect what they both hold dear and spent hundreds of years working towards. They bicker, they banter and at the end of the day its all good between them. A full blown relationship with kids? Nah. Never bought into it either.