Author Notes: Hi, this is my first House M.D. fiction and I am curious how you will like it. It has one more chapter which I hope to post in the next couple of weeks.

The story includes a trans male character so if that's not your cup of tea, don't read on. Everyone else, enjoy the story!

Curiosity killed the Cat

"What are you hiding from me?"

Wilson rolled his eyes as House barged into his office but he didn't rise to the bait. Instead Wilson calmly reached for the next file of - no doubt - yet another dying cancer patient.

Impressive, House admitted to himself as he closed the door quietly behind him after his grand entrance hadn't gotten him the desired reaction. Wilson was probably the only one in the whole hospital who had gotten somewhat immune to House's antics. Nowadays he only protested against House's unannounced visits if he was with a patient. Not even Cuddy managed to stay this calm when faced with one of his requests.

Of course House mused as he lolled in the visitor chair and tapped his cane against his good leg this made it even more challenging to annoy his friend. And if House loved something more than a fascinating case and soap operas then it was a good challenge. The only thing he could admit to loving more than an intriguing puzzle was Wilson himself. The man who was too damn busy with his boring bald kids as to even acknowledge House's presence. For a second House contemplated throwing the pile of files onto the floor - just to get a rise out of Wilson - but then he thought better of it. After all House had a secret to unravel and the perfect ammunition to do so.

"You are not a panty peeler."

This statement got him one raised eyebrow and a snort. "So, you have come up with some better childish nickname than Wilson the Pantypeeler for me or to what do I owe your visit?"

Snarky but not annoyed, House noted absently and grinned when Wilson didn't turn back to his boring files but instead kept his eyes fixed on him. Amusement, resignation and a little wariness were written in the chocolate brown eyes of his friend and House's grin grew even wider. Oh, how he loved to toy with Wilson. The only better way to spend his time would be playing an entirely different - and X-rated - game with Wilson. Though House doubted that he would ever get that chance. Or rather he had always assumed that Wilson would never be interested in this kind of a relationship with him - a man - but certain new - and shocking - information had gotten his hopes up a notch.

"You didn't sleep with even one of the nurses at the hospital."

Both eyebrows climbed up on Wilson's forehead. "So what? If a Department Head doesn't abuse his position of power to sleep with everyone he is suspicious now. As far as I know you haven't slept with one of the nurses either."

"I am also a cripple and more importantly I don't have the reputation for sleeping around. A reputation that you haven't contested once."

An annoyed sigh. Good the more annoyed Wilson got the more likely it was that he blabbed his own secret by accident. "I have told you numerous times that I..."

"Wasn't cheating, yes. But you never told me that you didn't sleep with any of the female nurses."

"Before you change my sign to say James Gay Wilson, I assure you that I also didn't sleep with any of the male nurses... or doctors. I haven't slept with anyone at the hospital. Satisfied?!"

Wilson didn't wait for a reply as he turned back to his file. House allowed him the time to imagine himself safe while he mulled over the newly, confirmed information. When he had overheard the head nurse telling a cadet nurse that she shouldn't get her hopes up because Wilson had flirted back at her because no one had ever gotten past first base with him. Of course, she had worded it slightly differently - "You won't get more than a chaste kiss out of him." - but House's curiosity had been sparked. Which self-respecting doctor with a sense for his reputation would allow rumors about him bedding all the nurses go wild if they weren't true?! The only logical explanation was that Wilson wasn't as much into women as he wanted others to believe. That would also explain his three failed marriages. Still it stood to reason that he wouldn't sleep with any of the male staff members if he wanted to keep his sexual orientation a secret. So even if his last statement was true- it didn't prove anything, at least not to House.

"So," House decided to lighten the mood before Wilson could get the idea that he was after his secret. "No one at the hospital has seen you naked except for... No, I haven't seen you naked either."

House frowned as he gave up on the joke that had come to his mind a second ago. It was useless if he hadn't seen Wilson naked... and he hadn't. Which was strange because... weren't best mates supposed to see each other naked at least once. Shouldn't they compare cock sizes or at least slap each other with towels in the showers? House couldn't claim a waste amount of experiences when it came to friendships. Nevertheless there had to be an unwritten rule that they had to be around each other naked to cross the space between friends to best friends. Wilson had certainly seen House naked on numerous occasions - not only during his stays at the hospital - but also in the locker room when he had still been capable of playing sports against his friend. But he couldn't remember seeing Wilson completely naked at even one such occasion... and House would have remembered it so that meant...

"You are hiding something."

"You already said that," Wilson reminded him with a supposedly bored voice but House could detect an underlying tension.

"But now I know where you are hiding it." House pointed his cane at Wilson. "You are hiding it under your clothes. Something you don't want anyone else to see. Maybe I should call one of your ex-wives and ask them..."

"You won't do any such thing!"

House jerked back in his seat as Wilson jumped to his feet and slammed his hands on his desk. Brown eyes flashed with anger, annoyance and... fear. House blinked slowly even as his friend pulled him up and dragged him towards the door. He had only intended to make a joke along the lines of "I will ask Julie if you blow dry all your hair" or "Bonnie will certainly tell me that you paint your toe nails" because he hadn't actually believed that Wilson had anything to hide. Expect for the fact that he was obviously more of a prude than House had ever suspected. Now though House got the certain feeling that he had hit the nail on the head. These perfectly boring suits were hiding something and House would figure out what it was.

"Eight o`clock at my place. Bring Chinese," House ordered, before Wilson closed the door in his face.

OOO

"You're late."

Wilson rolled his eyes at the greeting and closed the door behind himself. He carried the take away boxes to the couch where House was enjoying a beer - probably not his first - and an episode of the L World.

"Beer is in the fridge. Bring me one as well while you are at it."

Really, Wilson sighed to himself as he got two beer and carried them back to his friend, sometimes he wondered why he even put up with House. Most people who knew of his friendship with House either believed Wilson to be a saint or crazy. Nowadays Wilson tended more to the latter himself especially considering his latest conversation with House. Not only had his friend developed a sudden - unwanted - interest in his intimate affairs but House had also managed to rile him up until Wilson had lost his temper. Which in itself wouldn't have been too bad if Wilson hadn't also spiked his friend's curiosity with his outburst. He had seen the gleam in these blue eyes right before he had closed the door in House's face and he knew what it meant. House was on to something and Wilson feared that he wouldn't be able to put him off the scent now.

He had entertained the idea of staying away from House until an interesting case took his fancy - that was why he was an hour late - but had decided against it in the end. House would get only more suspicious if Wilson started avoiding him. Besides Wilson didn't want to stay away from his best friend even if he behaved like an obnoxious ass sometimes. Love truly was a terrible motivator especially when it came to self-preservation.

"Are you waiting for the beer to get warm? Sit your arse down here, Wilson!"

With an exasperated sigh - and a hidden smile - Wilson did as he was told and claimed one of the take away boxes for himself before House could steal any more of his king prawns.

"What are we watching?"

It was a futile question considering that Tuesday night was Monster trucks night but at least it was a safe topic. As safe as any topic could be with House if you were trying to sidetrack him. It rarely worked especially as his friend wasn't above jumping topics if the mood struck him.

"Monster trucks... but I could be persuaded to play one of my favorite movies. How about Bad Girls gone wild or..."

"Monster trucks is fine, thanks."

"Suit yourself." House beamed brightly at him as he switched the TV to Monster trucks and Wilson allowed himself to relax. Maybe his friend had given up on the topic and found himself something else to obsess about. Preferably something that would lead to another epic fight with Cuddy to give Wilson the time to prepare himself for the next time that House's focus shifted to him. Because he wasn't stupid enough to believe that his friend would just completely forget about his outburst and the reasons behind it. If he steeled himself for the next attack though then nothing would...

"Oh Shit!"

Wilson heard the insincere words before one of the take away boxes landed in his lap and the contents - Chicken-Curry-Rice - started to soak through his trousers and shirt.

"What..." Wilson barely managed to get out when a hand holding a bottle of beer entered his peripheral vision and cold liquid joined the mess on his clothes.

"What the fuck?! House!" Wilson didn't care about the mess he made when he jumped to his feet and sent the take- away box tumbling to the ground.

"I just wanted to make sure that you didn't get burned in a sensitive place and the beer was still cold."

If it were anyone else Wilson might have given the person the benefit of the doubt. Seeing that this was House, he knew that there was an ulterior motive behind soiling his clothes. Otherwise his friend wouldn't have sacrificed a perfectly good bottle of beer just to prevent Wilson from getting burns... from lukewarm Chinese food.

"You did that on purpose." Wilson shuddered in disgust as his trousers and boxers stuck to his flesh when he took a step towards his innocent looking friend. "Why would you..."

"You should probably undress and shower." House nodded to Wilson's soiled and soaking clothes. "One of your hoodies and a fresh pair of pants should still be around here."

Slowly - much too slowly - the penny dropped and Wilson gaped as House's words finally registered with him. "You want me to undress!"

His friend had the nerve to raise an eyebrow at him and cock his head to the side like he was an extremely stupid patient of his. "Unless you want to drive home like this then I would suggest..."

"You fucking bastard!" Wilson clenched his hands into fists at his side as he glared at House. "You can't leave anything alone, can you?!"

Wilson took a shaking breath to slow down his erratic beating heart even as his whole body was shaking with rage. It wouldn't do him any good if he beat the annoying grin from House's face - although he badly wanted to hurt the smug bastard - as it would only delay the inevitable. Of course Wilson could just collect some fresh clothes, lock himself in the bathroom to change and leave with his dignity intact but...

"If I don't undress here you will come up with some other crazy plan like spraying me with water in the clinic and claiming that it is radioactive or something like that, right?"

A thoughtful look crossed his friend's face. "Actually I thought about spraying you with something contagious but your idea..."

"Shut up!"

Wilson didn't know if it were the words or his tone of voice but House snapped his mouth shut with a click. Maybe, it also had something to do with the fact that Wilson had started on the first few buttons of his shirt and House didn't want to interrupt the show.

"Fucking bastard," Wilson muttered to himself - not caring if House heard him - as he untucked his shirt and reached for his belt. He was aware that he could still walk away without giving his friend what he wanted but then... he didn't fancy getting undressed by the nurses if House used some security protocol to his advantage and forced Wilson to get undressed at the hospital. At least if he only revealed his secret to House there was a chance that the whole hospital wouldn't know about it by tomorrow... although the gambling odds didn't appear to be in Wilson's favor.

Wilson ignored the cold thread of fear that settled in his stomach and made his hands shake with nerves. He almost ripped his trousers open in his haste to get it over with and then pushed both his trousers and boxers down to his knees in one swift motion. It almost felt cowardly as Wilson turned his head away afterwards but he wasn't brave enough to face House when the realisation hit his friend. It might be pathetic but Wilson didn't want to see repulsion and shock mirrored in the beloved blue depths as they noticed...

"I always knew that you didn't have any balls to speak of."

A choked breath rasped past Wilson's lips at the terrible joke. He knew what House was seeing right now. It wasn't hard to notice the absence of... the expected equipment between Wilson's legs. And it was even easier to draw the right conclusions from the thick dark curls that hid his most intimate place... although not well enough to shelter it from piercing blue eyes. He bit down hard on his lip as a shameful sob threatened to force its way out in the open. House wouldn't get the satisfaction of seeing him cry. He might see the scars on his chest and notice the spare hairs there but Wilson wouldn't show him his tears. No matter how hot they burned in his eyes as the humiliation of being exposed before his best friend continued.

"Wilson."

His head snapped in the direction of the well-known voice which sounded close to him... much too close. Either House had learned to tiptoe with his cane or Wilson had been too distracted to notice him moving towards him. Either way House stood only a few inches away from him now. Wilson almost stumbled over his trousers in his haste to bring more space between his friend and himself. He would have landed on the ground if a strong hand on his biceps hadn't stabilized him.

"Wilson..." House started again but he couldn't bear to listen or even look at his friend right now.

"Go on," he pressed out and allowed his anger to bleed into his voice to push the hurt to the background. "Ask me what cup size I was when I got the mastectomy or if I still have pictures from that time - preferably nude ones. Or maybe you want to know if I have a strap-on collection in my wardrobe. You could also imply that my ex-wives were actually lesbians and..."

"Stop!" The hand squeezed his upper arm before it fell away and Wilson finally dared to peek at his friend. House looked like a puppy who had torn apart the cushions and was slowly realising why that might anger its owner. There was no hint of disgust hidden in the blue depths and Wilson slowly unclenched his hands although his heart was still hammering away in his chest.

"Take a shower and get changed. There is enough time of the commercial left for you to get back in time for the last part of the show and another beer."

Under any other circumstances these words would have been enough for Wilson. Coming from House they were as good as a heartfelt apology and Wilson usually - on the rare occasions that House felt guilty for something - treated them as such. But not this time. No, not after he had been humiliated and forced to reveal this part of himself to House although he had never wanted his friend to know. Certainly not after the countless jokes about transgender people made by House that Wilson had been forced to listen to during their years as friends. The jokes hadn't changed how Wilson felt about House - which proved just how stupid a feeling love was - but they prevented him from getting too close to his friend. There had always been some distance left between them - his wives had also helped in this regard - and Wilson would have kept it this way if not for House stupid curiosity. Now his friend knew. Everything was out in the open. The fundament of their friendship shaken and...

"I'm sorry."

Wilson's eyes widened in disbelief as they met sincere blue ones and it took him a moment to find his voice again. "You are sorry for forcing me to come out to you as transgender by staking an incident that forced me to get undressed in front of you?"

House shook his head. "No, I just... you are my friend."

The words weren't what Wilson had expected but they were enough to calm his nerves and allow him to take a deep breath as he nodded his acceptance. He didn't know if it was the shock - or some sense of guilt - that had forced the reassurance from House's lips. Maybe he was even sincere but he would take what he could get for now. Even if it meant that he would feel the betrayal even harder come tomorrow - if House changed his mind about him - he would take this one evening with his best friend even if it was the last one.

OOO

"Oh crap!"

House leaned back against the cushions - one arm thrown over his eyes - and sighed heavily. He hadn't expected to unbury such a secret when he had come up with his plan to get Wilson undressed at home. In fact he had been prepared for anything but the reality he had revealed. He had imagined something like a penis that leaned a little heavier than the average to one side - Wilson would be the type to be embarrassed about that. Or maybe scars that spoke of some kind of abuse - again Wilson would be someone to be ashamed of that. He had even hoped that this evening might lead to something more after he had already come up with the hypothesis that Wilson might be into men. Hell, he had even stocked up on condoms and lube only to be caught completely off guard.

"Damn!"

House cursed out loud as he sat up - finally free to let his feelings out after Wilson had gone home. They had spent another couple of hours watching Monster trucks and sharing Wilson's portion of take away but... there had been some underlying tension the whole time.

"Idiot, of course there had been tension. You just forced your best friend to out himself as transgender in the worst possible way."

Usually House ignored the little, annoying voice in his head that always tried to meddle when he had crossed some line but this time he had to admit how badly he had wronged his best friend. Really it wouldn't surprise him if Wilson didn't want to have anything to do with him anymore. He might only have stayed for another few hours with House because he had been too shocked to think logical.

A piercing pain shot through his leg at this thought and House grinded his teeth together as he grabbed for the bottle of Vicodin and dry swallowed a pill. Usually he would have taken at least two to knock himself out. Since he wanted to be functional for a while longer he needed to minimize his drug intake tonight. Groaning House got to his feet and stumbled through the room to fetch his laptop before he collapsed back onto the couch. He couldn't force Wilson to forgive him for his terrible prank and stay friends with him but there was a way to make sure that he didn't hurt his friend even more by accident with some stupid joke.

Impatiently House waited until the laptop had booted up before he entered his first search of the night: Woman to man - transgender His search got him thousands of results and House browsed through some of them before he found an interesting sounding article from a psychologist and started his research in earnest.

OOO

"Did you sleep at all last night?"

House barely glanced up from the file in his hands to note Cuddy's deeply cut blouse - a little deeper and the ladies would sniff fresh air - and shrugged nonchalantly. "What's a guy to do when there is an insatiable lady at his place?!"

"Did this lady demand payment by the hour?"

House rolled his eyes at the disgusted undertone in Cuddy's voice. He didn't book a hooker as often as she believed - his sex drive had severely suffered from the Vicodin and the constant pain - but it was fun to play with her assumptions.

"Flatrate, I booked her for the whole night and got a bottle of champagne on top of it. Her clothes were almost as revealing as yours." Now, House allowed himself a lustful glance at Cuddy's cleavage and was met with an insulted huff and a glare. "Don't expect you will get away with not doing your clinic hours this month."

House merely rolled his eyes at the weak remark and vowed to himself to sent Cameron to do some of his clinic hours for him. Then he marched - as best as possible with his cane - in the direction of the lifts - with one promising file under his arm. At least the case of the sixteen year old girl that had already fainted several times without the doctors figuring out what was wrong with her sounded interesting enough to keep his team entertained for some time. Certainly long enough for him to go through everything he had learned last night during his research.

House popped another Vicodin and rubbed his eyes tiredly, the words on the screen blurring as he tried to keep himself awake. It was six in the morning, almost time to get up and he hadn't even caught a whiff of sleep yet. Still the hours spent researching had busted his knowledge of transgender individuals immensely... at least to a point at which he realised how insensitive all his "tranny" jokes had been. Especially considering that he had made these jokes in front of Wilson.

Well, House stared at the ceiling, it was no wonder that his friend had decided against coming out to him after he had painted himself as a transphobic asshole. Not that House didn't make inappropriate jokes about anything and everyone but he had never given Wilson a hint that there wasn't some serious resentment fueling his jokes. Probably because he hadn't really given the topic much thought besides making fun of "women with beards" or "ladies with a cock". And adding his cringe-worthy behavior towards the intersexual model - who had clearly identified as female - to the list House was surprised that Wilson had put up with him at all for so many years.

House closed the laptop but didn't get up from the couch as his head swam with the newly found knowledge. He had researched as much as possible in the short time. His reading had covered articles from psychologists and medical professionals and various statistics as well as blog posts from transgender individuals. The medical stuff - hormones and surgeries - had been the easiest to read for House. He learned about some new surgery techniques but nothing that really surprised him. It was different with the articles that focused on the psychological aspects of living as a transgender person. House hadn't been aware how badly some people suffered from body dysphoria and under the expectations of society. But while these articles had opened his eyes somewhat to their struggles the posts from transgender individuals had left the greatest impression.

House would deny that he was able to empathize with anyone even under torture but in the safety of his own home he could admit that he was only human. Admittedly, he hadn't really thought about the people who's blogs he had read but instead about Wilson. He had wondered when his friend had known that he was a man and how his family had reacted to him coming out. Had they insisted that it was just a phase before coming around? Considering that Wilson was still on speaking terms with them, they must have accepted him at some point but House wondered how long it had taken them and what his friend had gone through in this time.

Of course he could ask him but... numerous sites advised against asking for such details if they weren't offered freely. Usually House would throw such advice to the wind but... he had already fucked up once and he didn't want to make it worse. So as hard as it sounded he had to keep his curiosity in check and... treat Wilson like always. Yes, House nodded to himself as he stretched on the couch it would be for the best if he didn't treat his friend any differently. No new, insensitive jokes. No invasive questions. Just buddies as usual. It should work considering that nothing major had changed. Wilson was the same man he had been this morning. The only difference was that House had gathered some new information about him and it was his responsibility to handle this situation like an adult. Once every decade he should be able to manage such a feat. Content with himself, House finally allowed his eyelids to drop and his body to collect some much needed sleep.