Hurt/comfort might be my favorite trope. When someone tends another’s wound, it seems—at least for a moment—to fix something deeper than the injury. Touch starved? Forgot what it felt like to be taken care of? Hurt/comfort answers those problems, and it’s why I keep going back to it. I love the hurt/comfort trope.
Lately I’ve wondered why the trope consistently appears in my writing. It doesn’t matter if its my gritty superhero romance or my steamy yet slapstick romantic comedy. And I think it’s because I keep writing people who have told themselves they can’t stop. They’re going to take ibuprofen and push through a headache. They’ll save everyone else before they save themselves. Their entire identity is built around being the person who keeps going.
But hurt/comfort forces a character to stop. It forces the character to be vulnerable and let love in. I’ve written hurt/comfort driving the meet cute because it throws two strangers together before they have their defenses up. I’ve had it appear at a midpoint shift because it pushes the relationship from hiding behind pleasantries to becoming something real. I’ve had it show up during the grovel scene because when someone is at their physical low, they let go of their pride and recognize what truly matters. And what matters is love.
