Why on earth do you want to force a solution. Just write the story, don't add any trash which isn't needed, and let the readers make of it what they will.
The smallest act of kindness can turn a relationship from friendship to romance. It can fester in the heart and does not tell the brain. Even if told, the feelings can become so strong that facing them results in denial and pain as a you relationship with that friend is lost and sullied by the notions of a physical relationship. You do not need to save anyone from anything, the characters may not even know it themselves, but such love can exist anyways. For years it can be there, than its just... love... and you cannot figure out when it began or when your feelings became so strong. It is so easy to project such desires into a text and be disappointed only to see it never develop. Even writing that it will never go anywhere does not stop it from happening to readers like me.
When it comes to romance, there is something you should know. Someone will always think your characters are hooking up! My point in saying this is not to tell you it's hopeless to avoid romance, but rather, that you can content yourself with knowing the relationship is not romantic. Another piece of advice, though: I would recommend thinking first about what romance is to you. What is your favorite memory of hanging out with your best friend? What is your favorite memory of hanging out with your crush/boyfriend/girlfriend/significant other? Have you ever rejected someone else's advances? Recall these types of moments, and then write about them in story format. As you write about these platonic and romantic relationships, you will most likely notice a difference in how you have written them. Furthermore, love is a very subjective matter. There is "love," and then there is "being in love." Sometimes the lines of typcial romantic or platonic actions get crossed. For instance, in Ice Age (2002), two male protagonists take up the typical mother and father role as they take care of a young, human child. Here, romance is subverted by making the mother/father interactions a parody of romance. Also, J.K. Rowling wrote the Harry Potter book series with a Hermoine Granger and Ron Weasley romance in mind. Yet, she later reports feeling there was a stronger romance between Harry and Hermoine, despite her own wishes. To sum it up, love is complicated. The best you can do is write your characters' relationship with the intention of it being non-romantic. Just don't be too stubborn if your characters decide to fall in love without your permission.
Another vote for keeping it simple. I think this is a case where death of the author applies very strongly. Isn't the whole point to make the reader care and get excited? If you've created characters that the reader thinks about outside the scope of the text, cares enough about to ship them "off-hours," if you will, then you've done your job as a writer. It's in the reader's hands, now, where it belongs.
You know, I just thought of something today that reminded me of this post. JK Rowling has very much regretted the way she wrote Harry and Hermione's relationship. She said recently that she felt all along from the beginning that they wanted to be together, but she as the author felt it would be too cliche and she wanted other things for them. She feels like she had to almost force the other things to happen. Now she wishes she had written it differently, and she praised Emma Watson for picking up on the subtle energy between the two characters that still leaked through onto the page. My point is - don't think about it so much that you ruin where the story was trying to go in the first place. If you feel like your characters are telling you that they want to end up together, explore that possibility. If it does not, then don't, but forget about cliche because the last thing you want to end up with is regret.
@Lyrical @Emberi Homa Holy crap, I thought I imagined the Harry/Hermione thing. I remember going like WTF at HP's romantic pairings (I read the series when I was in my to mid teens, not sure how I'd interpret it now). I just didn't feel them (Harry with Ginny and Ron with Hermione). I guess the tension snuck in despite Rowling's wishes. How fascinating, 'cause you'd think it was all in the author's hands and that they couldn't "accidentally" write romantic tension -- which I felt between Harry and Hermione.
It is difficult to write a platonic relationship between male and female characters because ultimately authenticity comes across in writing. I would say the majority of people rarely make a true friend of the opposite gender that stays that way, and so that kind of relationship is hard to understand and even harder to write about. I for one know that my writing skills severely fall short on that front! Love is complicated, and very few people truly understand it, if that's even possible at all. That's why so many people write about it, because it is such an intriguing, important thing to people and has been for hundreds, if not thousands of years. You only need to look back 50 years ago where men and women being "friends" was frowned upon, where the majority of schools were boys and girls only, as a race I think we have little experience in these kind of relationships, so my best advice is give it a shot and write your interpretation of what such a relationship would look like. Hope this helps -Del.
Right? I was in the saaaaame boat. In the early books, I was pretty sure Harry and Hermione would eventually get together. It just felt natural. Then when it took a weird turn and she started hooking up with Ron, I thought: "uh...that came from left field." They just never seemed all that compatible. And Harry with Ginny was just 'meh.' I felt very validated when I read the article where Rowling admitted all of this. I will go try to find it. She was discussing Emma Watson's portrayal of Hermione and how wonderful it was, citing specifically the scene in the 7th movie where she and Harry dance in the tent. It was that scene that prompted Rowling to confess her regrets. I also find it fascinating, because I think sometimes we, as the authors, tend to believe we have everything under our control. But in reality, we may be less in control than we think.
Well, even if you did portray them as good brother-sister friends (-though its doubtful you'd get something like that undiluted; its natural for it to be complicated as pointed out already)- putting them together in the end anyway could be fine- depending on how that balance works out... was reminded of the David Copperfield ending...