SWORD #5 - the last, boo, hiss at cancellation - ended the satisfying miniarc presented, with the expected grand action climax and only one twist I hadn't foreseen. ( Spoilery comments ensue. )The final panel made me go awww in the best way. It also reminded me of something I've been thinking about recently, and that's that I have really soft spot for pairings where "I love you" isn't actually said out loud, either due to a variety of issues or because one or both just aren't the "let's talk about our feelings" types, but conveyed via gestures. (In this particular case, it's also nice to feel oneself in tune with canon because I used a similar gesture in fanfic recently.) This goes for all types of couples, het and slash alike, btw. Which is why schmoopy fanfiction where both partners keep coming up with the "I love yous" and praise each others physical and character virtues ping me as ooc in 99% of the time, and more likely expressing how the writer feels about both characters.

Of course, anything is possible. And I'm strictly speaking about personal preferences here; mileage will differ, etc. But take, say, movieverse Magneto and Xavier. I remember a story penknife wrote in which they by coincidence both ended up in the same airport, snowed in, and had to take a hotel room for the night until the next morning when the weather was cleared up and they went their separate ways again. Now, what this story DIDN'T have were sudden passionate declarations on how they never stopped loving each other, bewailings that ideology kept them apart, or declarations on how wonderful they really found each other. It also didn't have reunion!sex. What it did have was Erik taking the chair because there was just one bed available, a lot of witty dialogue and a breakfast during which they kept switching newspaper sections silently once the other was done reading. That, to me, was X/M as schmoopy as they can get, believable and moving in a way "I love you" "I love you, too" dialogues would not have been.

Granted: there's a difference between a middle aged couple and, say, younger, or even teenage characters. Either Willow/Tara or Willow/Oz from Buffy, for example, are pairings where occasional "I love yous" are entirely ic (and were said plenty in canon). But even with youngsters, it really depends. What's in character for early season Buffy would not be anymore for later season Buffy who closed herself off emotionally more and more. And, to take a current fandom of mine, in Merlin you have Gwen going from openly expressing every emotion she feels to becoming far more adept at hiding them due to what happens to her in the course of the first season, you have Merlin going from being clumsy at lying to using it more or less as his default option and collects more and more issues as the show proceeds, and you have Arthur who only gushes about people when he's under a spell and otherwise, if he wants to express fondness, either uses the playful insult routine or goes for physical gestures. So fanfic in which where there's free confession of love complete with praise for physical beauty of any party involved? Isn't that believable to me. (Otoh, I can see Gwen and Morgana praising each other's virtues and looks and confessing affection without restraint, BUT they'd have other things to restrained about, if the story is supposed to take place post-To kill the king.)

What set all this off? Ah, yes, Hank McCoy and Abigail Brand, in the last panels of SWORD, where ( not a lot is said but in a very telling way ) In conclusion, if I'm ever asked to compile a list about my favourite expression-of-love moments between couples either canonical or fanonical - which, come to think about it, I did four years ago (worth doing again or not? Hm. I did collect some more characters since then, but enough for a new list?) - , actual "I love you"s on it would be really, really sparse. Give me those gestures, banter or deceptively harmless statements any time.