brotherhood.

okay, no, not the type of brotherhood that goes around assassinating people or anything, but a TRIAD. and by that, i also do not mean the chinese mafia. nope, nothing like that at all. ...although half of the triad is chinese if that counts for anything.
anyway.
at my church, we have these smaller-than-small-group things called triads. triads have three people (obviously) who get together on a somewhat regular basis to discuss things happening in their lives and also go through scripture together. the point of the triad is to help the three individuals grow in their faiths. my triad (yeah, we finally met for the first time!) is just awesome--even though we've known each other for a long time and this is our first time meeting, i feel a sense of kinship with these guys now. they're like my brothers, and they have my back when i'm ever in trouble. they're even more brotherly than that though, they make fun of my horrible word choice and the fact that i sometimes pull awkward words out of the air instead of words that i really want.

which leads me to my connection to writing.
even though two characters may be close, there should be something that the characters do to annoy each other. if you look at best friends in real life, they tease each other all the time (although sometimes more harshly than others). characters (who aren't orphans or outcasts) need to have that history and that sense of placement within the story. how exactly to do that is a struggle that each author needs to face.