From: Tavia Chalcraft tavia@btinternet.com
I tend to dislike hurt/comfort as a B7 genre, unless it's done rather subtly. I think Neil is correct that one of its 'purposes' is to allow the writer and/or reader emotional closeness to usually distant characters, frequently Avon, though I've seen it done successfully with other characters, including Travis and Servalan, which might tend to support Neil's analysis. I'd agree that in this sense it's essentially a non-overtly sexualised version of slash.
Not what I was trying to say, actually. More that slash is - in part - an overtly sexualised form of hurt/comfort where the sex is the means of emotional access rather than the debilitation. More than one way to skin a cat etc (though I don't recall anyone asking the cat).
Neil