We, The Infected

the future of Oskar and Eli's relationship is a great topic for speculation and many of my fellow infected have some very interesting ideas and opinions concerning this topic. forgive me if i rehash anything here with my own ideas and opinions. earlier in my life i had a couple of real opportunities for love and happiness with two really great girls but being young and dumb i was focused on other trivial things. later in my life i came to realize what rare opportunities i had dismissed because nothing even close has come along since. certainly this is one of the many reasons that LTROI appeals to me. i see Oskar as having such a rare opportunity and almost being too young to realize it. i believe the torment of his own life makes him aware of such an opportunity at a much younger age than most.
Eli on the other hand has had a long and seemingly tortured existance. i'm sure that during Eli's life there have been several relationships based on necessity and survival. there may have been some attempts at companionship but they obviously failed.(ofcourse this entirely speculation) i believe that by the time Eli meets Oskar she knows how important and rare a loving and meaningful relationship is where as Oskar has yet to experience even an attempt at such a relationship.
that being said, my concern for their future is this: will Oskar become distracted by trivial things and take Eli for granted and eventually lose her or will he realize what a precious gem their love is. when you've had something precious and lost it the value and rarity of what you lost becomes painfully clear. for some of us youth and lack of experience can cause us to miss the diamond in the rough. i don't think this is the case with Oskar because of his aforementioned personal torment. i guess JAL will enlighten us with the epilogue.(hopefully)
well this is just one of my countless LTROI thoughts.

Eli definately realizes what she's got. "This is the first real friendship I've had in over two hundred years." That about sums it up.

Oskar I'd say does as well. What solidifies it for me is when he compares Eli and his father and the things that make them monsterous figuratively (his father) or literally (Eli) and realizes that Eli wants to be with him despite having no say in being a monster whereas his father willingly chooses that which makes him monsterous (the sauce). When he walks out on his dad to be with Eli it's a huge event from the perspective of their relationship.

Also it's hard (or at least should be) to take something for granted when you basically burned down all your bridges to get it.

Because Eli and Oskar's future relationship is a favorite subject of mine and is the topic of my fan fiction, and because I don't really know how that will end, I think I'll keep my opinions to myself, except to say that I agree with NaKriege--I think that there are clear indications that they both realize what an amazing person each of them has discovered.