[X] Well there’s fighting, which usually is not part of a porno? There’s a lot of pain and misery on its way to balance out all that smut ;]

After the second journey, [Marius] came home weary and uncommonly sad. He said, as he
had said once before, that “Those Who Must Be Kept” seemed to be at peace. 

“I hate it what these creatures are!” I said. 

“No, never say such a thing to me, Amadeo!” he burst out. In a flash I’d seen him
more angry and uncomposed than ever in our lives. I’m not sure I’d ever seen him
really angry in our lives. 

He approached me and I shrank back, actually afraid. But by the time he struck me,
hard across the face, he’d recovered himself, and it was just the usual brain-jarring
blow. 

I accepted it, and then threw him one exasperated searing glance. “You act like a
child,” I said, “a child playing Master, and so I must master my feelings and put up
with this.“ 

Of course it took all my reserves to say this, especially when my head was swimming,
and I made my face such an obdurate mask of contempt that suddenly he burst out
laughing. 

I started to laugh too.

^Could they have really lasted as a ship if not for what separated them? Idk really but they are like many VC ships, beautiful and

beautifully dysfunctional.