"Edge", Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Nuada/Nuala)
Title: Edge Author/Artist: shiegra Rating: R Word count: 273 Prompt: Hellboy II – Nuada/Nuala – Rough Sex – Sometimes it was the only way to feel, feel something different.
She was the only one he lost control with.
The only one he lost control to, the only one that reduced him to the man rather than the warrior, seamlessly cloaked in black armor and the guard of his vast, regal contempt.
She was no less of a warrior than he; no less a fighter, no lesser in strength. She might not have been a match for him on the battlefield, but she was not ashamed; few were, and she had power all her own.
So he knew she wouldn't break when he tore her dress, the web-spun silk ripping under lean, strong hands, knew that when she clawed at his shoulders it was not fear or a struggle for escape, but desire, and when he held her to him, fierce and dark as a storm, she buried her face in the juncture of shoulder and neck and sank her nails into him.
During the black days and nights of the war, when blood soaked the ground and smoke and desolation rode the air like a strangling touch, he left bruises on her thighs and she on his shoulders and ribs. Sometimes they were gentle, touching each other like it would be the last time, holding each other as close as they knew how and lingering for long twilight hours--but more often, it was a near-feral affirmation of life. If I can still hurt--if I can still feel pleasure, if I can scream from this touch and moan from this--I am still alive, and so are you.
It was how they survived each night that might have been their last.