I have noticed that I have a rather odd cliche' in my stories. I don't think it's a particular tic of mine, but this morning while I was trying to figure out what to do with Officer Orin and Anaria Abbas (oh, dear, that's a terrible last name; I shall have to change it), the crux of which is that the upstanding officer learns that Miss Abbas is running around town with a very short skirt and no underwear. So, how does the officer get a good upskirt glance of the rather airheaded Miss Abbas? How do I get him down to the ground?
He slips on the ice, falls and hurts himself, of course. A groaning turn over onto his back, which gives an full inventory of Anaria's glories. A laceration on his forehead gives Anaria an excuse to bend down, bringing him an even better view and arousing other senses. And her care for him is a kind of intimacy forced by circumstance.
Except that I've done this before. A few times, I think. Furry & Nicolai had a "caring for the injured" scene, as do Linia & Shandy in the Honest Impulse novel. It seems too convenient, or maybe I'm just noticing it more.
Maybe I don't read enough romance. (I haven't been reading romance recently, anyway; historical non-fiction and Joe Abercrombie's nifty The First Law has been my reading stack this week.) Is caring for the injured as a pretense for getting the characters into physical contact, with barriers lowered by circumstance, a common trope in romance? Or is it just me?
Do you have a personal cliche that you'd be uncomfortable using again?