User blog comment:Crazylittlefreakgirl/Fairy Tail Official Pairings?/@comment-24286925-20131226023643/@comment-4829046-20131226030836

Indeed, being a shounen doesn't mean anything in that regard, imo only idiots think that teenage boys don't like romance and thus the manga will not make money. That's my problem with both Kubo and Oda. But on FT, that all depends on how Mashina wants to do it this time.

"why is hiro even developing Nalu then? Why is he strengthening lucy's feelings for natsu, if he doesn't plan on him reciprocating them?"

You will find this problem in a lot shounen and seinen romance series, mostly in harem. Such series usually end with the guy not reciprocating the feelings of the girl/girls properly. Take Beelzebub and Toriko for example. There is absolutely no hint of the MCs ever actually falling for the girl/girls who have crushes on them. But that's just how the "dense, tactless and insensitive-at-times" stereotype is in animanga. Keep in mind that even in DBZ, Goku himself didn't plan on getting married(he didn't know what it even was) and didn't even fall for Chi chi, that was all based on some misunderstanding and more like Goku being Goku rather than a proper love if you ask me. And though they didn't really state it, I feel that the conception of Trunks was more physical than emotional but I could be wrong.

Again, it all depends on how Mashima wants to take it. Even in RAVE, technically the only one he kept at a certain level without really changing was HaruXElie(strongly supported by the Levin shorts at the end of chapters). The other ships were there but it was hard to say if they were... y'know... there. I wish Mashima included all the other ships in an epilogue chapter instead of just showing Levin Glory's part.