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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/6539
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

You need to know your characters first to be able to know how they'll react to the whole situation. Is the "Agent" a kind master, or is she a cruel bitch? If she's a bitch, is it just a façade she puts on to make herself look tough? Does she like fighters in general, or she thinks they're brainless twits? What about the "Fighter"? Is he resenting her for being forced to fight, or has he accepted his fate? Is he rude and defiant towards her? Or perhaps he's a flirt and makes inappropriate passes at her just to make her uncomfortable? Is he a jerk or a nice guy?

When you have their personalities down, the relationship will sort itself out on it's own, they will react to each other and the situation according to their natures. For example, if she's a bitch towards him, he might start hating her in the beginning, but later when he finds out it's just a mask she wears and she's actually very vulnerable underneath, he might start to turn around, he might get intrigued to find out what's under the mask. He might even be sorry for being rude to her in return. Or if she really is a cruel bitch, maybe he falls in love with her (falling in love isn't really a rational thing, people fall in love with bad people in spite themselves) but fights it, because, well, she's a bitch. If she thinks of him as a brainless twit, she might come around when she realizes there's more to him. Maybe because of his flirtatious passes at the beginning, she doesn't believe he's sincere when he starts having feelings towards her?

One way to make it is to have them hate each other because of some misconceptions about one another, and then slowly have them come around when they get to know each other and realize they each misjudged the other. Or have one hate and the other like, then find a reason to turn it the other way around. Switching them from hot to cold and cold to hot could prolong the tension and keep them from getting together too soon :) Usually when the tension between two characters is driving the story, as soon as they get together, it stops being interesting for the readers ;)

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