On nights like this, Dave was very glad he couldn't feel pain. They'd taken a beating.

That wasn't to say that the evening had been a total failure. In the end, they had triumphed over a truly impressive number of thugs, though the cost was definitely high compared to the low-key nights they usually had.

Objectively, Mindy looked awful. The side of her face was bruised and caked with dried blood, and her muscles ached with the effort of a pitched battle. That wasn't so abnormal for Hit Girl at the end of a night on the town, but what made tonight different was that the blood on her face was actually hers. She had taken a brutal spill onto the street and ended up with a bad case of road rash. It was the first time Dave could ever remember her falling on her face – and this was a girl who'd been flung from the roof of a moving police car. Mindy was very disappointed in herself, and Dave was trying his hardest to cheer her up.

He reminded her that they'd won in the end. She hollowly replied that yes, they had, but she'd still fucked up. He pointed out (very suavely) that the blood contrasted beautifully with her fair complexion. It was perfectly true, but she just rolled her eyes. He even offered to go find ice cream to help numb her aching face, but the petite girl showed no enthusiasm for the idea. She was still depressed by the time they returned to the safehouse.

Dave was growing desperate – it was downright haunting to see Mindy frown, and he hoped it was a sight he'd never have to get used to. Still, there was one other thing he could try.

He pulled Mindy up from the bed and began to undress her.

One by one, the buckles and straps yielded to his efforts – unconscious at this point, as he'd been through the process so many times – and a few minutes later, Mindy stood in nothing more than her tights. He kissed her cheek, choosing the damaged one over the pristine one. He licked his lips after he pulled away, tasting the metallic tang of the iron in her blood. Dave pressed his forehead against Mindy's and - through unfocused eyes - he saw her lips twitch.

Progress.

He went to work on the tights.

Dave was soon carrying his girlfriend's very petite, very naked body into the bathroom, pointedly saying absolutely nothing about the tiny smile that was growing on her bruised, bleeding, beautiful face. She liked to be carried. Some might have said that she had a submissive streak, but Dave saw it differently. He was carrying her, so he reasoned that she was the one calling the shots, even if she hadn't needed to call this one.

Mindy had her own rationalization for her love of being carried: She liked to see Dave take charge. And the strong arms wrapped around her? Well, that was just icing, really.

Dave deposited Mindy on the side of the tub, started the water and began to disrobe. Mindy's tiny smile grew slightly predatory while her lover was distracted with the process of undressing, though she managed to school her face to indifference by the time he looked at her again.

So she hoped, anyway. Dave's knowing smile suggested otherwise.

After checking the water temperature and finding it suitable, he took Mindy by the hand and guided her under the cleansing spray. Mindy closed her eyes as the water poured over the raw mess that was her cheek. Dave grabbed a cloth, applied soap, and began to gently scrub the grime and self-loathing from Mindy's body.

He started with the wound on her cheek. He cradled her face in his hands, pressing the cloth to the wounded side to loosen the coagulated blood. As it warmed and dissolved, the water around their feet ran pink. Dave hated the pained grimace Mindy wore as he carefully scrubbed the tiny rocks out of the wound, but they both knew it had to be done. He tried to soften the blow by kissing her neck and ear on the "good" side, but Mindy's senses were too busy taking in the burning pain of hot, soapy water in an open wound to relay the sensation of Dave's lips on her skin. Mindy figured it was the thought that counted, so she grasped her partner by the shoulder, steadying him so that she could reward his noble efforts with a proper kiss.

When their kiss ended, Mindy no longer looked depressed – just slightly pained, but otherwise content, and with the hint of a loving smile. Dave smiled widely at the change and began to scrub the rest of her body, favoring certain places with extra attention, occasionally foregoing the cloth in favor of a direct approach.

When he'd gotten Mindy thoroughly clean, hot, and bothered, she took her own turn with him. Dave didn't have any of his own pain to wash away, but Mindy's touch was nevertheless gentle and loving. She too spent extra time on certain regions, even substituting the flat of her tongue to clean an object of particular interest. By the time the young lovers noticed the hot water running out, they were more than ready to adjourn to the bed to finish what they'd started.

Unfortunately, the moment Mindy laid down, she found that her aches, bruises, and the raw sting in her face were still very much present, and as a result she could offer Dave nothing more than a sexy grimace as he loomed over her in anticipation of what had become their favorite kind of exercise. Dave reflected silently that there was really no such thing as a sexy grimace, and set himself to the task of killing Mindy's pain with extreme prejudice.

In the end, Dave managed to conquer Mindy's pain, and in the process, he firmly established that he still found her breathtaking - even when she was missing some skin.