Guess who just pulled an FMP marathon.
Ahhhhhh, every last episode... <purrs in satisfaction>
Anyhow, now that I feel qualified to speak out on this subject:
I believe there is a definitive case for Sousuke's feelings
belonging exclusively to Kaname-san throughout the series.
Take a look at what he values.
Competence. Strength. Self-sufficiency. Professionalism.
Tessa loses to Kaname by every one of these metrics.
Unfortunately for Tessa, she has to do some fairly unprofessional
finagling to engineer each and every opportunity she has to get
close to him. She inconveniences him with increasingly untoward
'situations,' beginning with borrowing his shower and most of all
during the beach AS training scene... (come on, he has to make
several attempts to slide out from under her body, while she's
allllllllll over him trying to stay on top... ewww, so unbecoming...
two things a lady doesn't chase - 1. a man, 2. a bus). The only
thing she does right in the whole series is giving him her
strategic analysis of the site of her AS duel... transparent,
but effective. She actually exceeds his expectations, but only
that one time. Every time she was unprofessional, she fell short
of his expectations, so... her whole approach was misguided.
Sort of surprising, since she's supposedly so astute and intuitive.
In contrast, he and Kaname have a nice thing going, where each
inspires the other to rise to the occasion and save the day...
over and over again. In the beginning, she surprises him with
her inner strength; towards the end, he grows
dependent on it.
(And she never tries any cheap ploys to worm into his heart or into
Tessa's mind, which is nice... it's a bit irritating to watch when Tessa
pulls something, e.g. her inaccurate portrayal of her relationship
with Sousuke in direct conversation with Kaname on Daanan...
boy was that low... Kaname just has better character.
Tessa is Sousuke's superior officer, while Kaname is his charge,
i,e. he's not supposed to get involved with either of them, really,
so I think the girls are evenly matched there.
Sousuke is the kind of guy that won't notice a girl unless she does
something exemplary that stops him in his tracks. Tessa tries
to use her body a couple of times but he's just not that type,
and besides, Kaname's got the better bod (in terms of physical
fitness... I'm sure both gals look plenty nice in bikinis).
If Tessa had flexed her brain in his face a few more times along
the lines of the terrain analysis before the AS duel, then maybe,
maybe, maybe she would have given him more to consider...
So. As the things progress, he has more and more substantive
reasons to love Kaname, and only superficial ones tugging his
attentions towards Tessa. Kaname wins his affections fair and
square.
IMHO