Brawling in Love

With Valentine's Day upon us it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking all couples are destined to constantly swoon and coo over each other like turtle doves on meds. But having been married for over a decade and with the same man for over twenty years I can tell you there's a whole lot of brawling that comes with the sweet loving. But it's the fighting that makes the loving better, in my opinion – if you can agree to disagree with the one you love it makes for a better, more interesting life. So in keeping with the holiday here are some of my favorite battling couples!

Eve Dallas and Roarke from J.D. Robb's "In Death" series. If' you've read any of this long, wonderful series you'll find that mixed in with the hot passionate love scenes are just as many fights, some of them physical – let's face it, having a cop marry a less-than-squeaky-clean man with a mysterious (read: criminal) past isn't going to go perfect all the time. Add in a dash of BDSM (in my opinion) and this couple is going to still be madly in love and brawling well into their senior years.

Han Solo and Leia Organa (Star Wars). Yes, yes – we've all seen the movies multiple times over. But you have to love the verbal jousting going between these two in the most dangerous of situations where the stress is high and obviously so is the attraction and love. The whole "I love you… I know" exchange is priceless and if you don't giggle during the touchback in the two movies… well, I don't know you.

Richard Castle and Kate Beckett (Castle). I know it's not exactly paranormal (unless you believe crime writers can just hop along with the cops for months and months…) but this couple still makes my day every time I see them verbally joust. And who doesn't love Nathan Fillion, our favorite Browncoat?

These couples are all deeply in love – and don't mind getting into brawls, physical and mental, when they disagree. But it's the making up that's got me loving these people and makes them, for me, characters I can relate to and enjoy.

So let me toss this out to you – what couples do you enjoy seeing (or reading) getting into fights and arguing before a passionate make-up session?