Author's Note: This is my submission to the House_Cameron Secret Santa Ficathon on LiveJournal. My recipient, athousandsmiles, requested the following:
Wants:
Something romantic, but not over the top.
House and Cameron in NYC. Either they went their together or ran into each other there.
A reference to a classic Christmas movie. Your choice.
Do Not Wants:
No Huddy.
Wilson lecturing House about anything.
Heavy focus on anyone but House or Cameron.
House watches her as she stands on the balcony of their hotel room. Cameron is bundled up in his charcoal grey wool pea coat – he loves that it can almost wrap twice around her petite frame. Her hands are pulled up to her face and she blows warm air into the too-long sleeves to keep her fingers from going numb with cold. The tip of her nose is pink, and her eyes sparkle with the reflected lights of the city beneath them.
He braves the bitter wind sans coat, stands behind her and wraps his arms around her. She leans into him, rubs his forearms to instill some of her body heat into him. He places a kiss on the top of her head and smiles when she sighs with contentment.
They stand there like that for some minutes, wrapped up in their comfortable silence. What seems like miles beneath them, tiny ice skaters dance and leap on the rink at Rockefeller Center. Everywhere, there are lights – the rink, the breathtaking Rockefeller Christmas tree, smaller trees lining the sidewalks, store fronts, even their balcony – all glowing like millions of tiny candles, and the frigid December air somehow feels just a little bit warmer than it really is.
House strokes Cameron's hair, runs his fingers through the silky blonde strands, and lowers his lips to her ear.
"What did you ask Santa for Christmas?" He places a kiss just underneath her ear lobe, and she sighs again, breathier this time.
"If I tell you what I asked for, then I won't get it."
He chuckles.
"You're thinking of a birthday wish. The rules are different for Christmas, you're allowed to share."
Cameron laughs and looks up at him, kisses the under side of his jaw, then turns back to the view of the skyline.
"Okay, then you go first. You know, to prove it's safe."
"Oh, ye of little faith. Alright then, I'll go first. If I've been a very, very good boy - "
Her head whips around and she gives House a mock stern look while he waggles his eyebrows suggestively, then she dissolves into laughter.
"It's rude to interrupt," he scolds her as he playfully swats her arm.
"As I was saying, if I've been a very, very good boy, tonight Santa will bring me…" he pauses momentarily for suspense, "… an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle."
"But House, you'll shoot your eye out!" she answers without missing a beat.
"You never let me have any fun," he pouts. Then he lowers his voice. "I'd settle for you in some tiny little silk thing." Another eyebrow-waggle, and she blushes.
Cameron pulls House's arms more tightly around her then sticks her hands in the coat pockets, and they find themselves in another pensive silence. They are each lost in their separate thoughts, until eventually Cameron speaks.
"You really want to know what I asked Santa to bring me?"
House nods. He has spent months contemplating this, scrapping dozens of gift ideas that seemed perfectly brilliant while he sat sipping scotch at 3am, but revealed themselves to be perfectly horrible in the light of day. Finally coming to the decision that really, there is only one gift that could possibly do, he is now curious to see what she has in mind. Hoping that what he gives her isn't mortifyingly off the mark.
"It's silly, just some little thing that I've-"
As the words leave her mouth, suddenly House realizes that he most definitely does not want to know. Does it matter, after all? What's decided is decided, and he can't very well go looking for a replacement present at 10pm on Christmas Eve. So he cuts her off, says the first thing that comes to his mind.
"Cameron, you know I love you, right?" The words tumble out of his mouth, and she stops mid-sentence, turns in his arms and stares up at him, speechless.
This is the first time he has said these words to her.
They have been together for… he's not sure, actually. Of course he remembers the first time she came over to his place for pizza and a movie, the first time she cooked dinner for him, the first kiss, the first time they slept together, but it feels like their timeline started so much earlier than any of those things. To him, they may as well have been together since the day they met.
He has loved her forever. And miraculously, she loves him too. She tells him all the time. He has never been able to bring himself to return the sentiment. Each night when they go to bed, he pulls her into his arms and she whispers that she loves him, and he is only able to squeeze her tighter then kiss the top of her head. She says nothing about it, but he knows it kills her a little bit each time.
"House, you really don't have to do this," she chokes out, which is not the reaction he was going for, but it could be much worse.
"I'm sorry, I should have said it a long time ago. It's been the truth since… forever. I don't know why I couldn't say it before now." He reaches a hand into her pocket and laces their fingers together. She is still just looking up at him, searching his eyes, seeing the obvious truth for the first time.
Her hand gives his a reassuring squeeze. This gives him the courage to do what happens next.
His free hand slides into her other pocket, his thumb brushing across her knuckles, stopping on her third finger. She knows, before it's even done, eyes widening as she tries to comprehend. She gasps as he shakily slides the ring onto her finger.
There is a brief moment of complete stillness. Neither of them is breathing, and he is certain that even the ice skaters have stopped moving. A horrible, wonderful moment when he has no clue what is going on in her mind. There is only their fingers clasped so tightly, his thumb pressing on the ring that he wants more than anything for her to accept.
Slowly, she removes her hand from her pocket and holds it up. The ring is beautifully simple, just a plain white gold band, and the diamond is a very tasteful size, but it reflects the city lights and sparkles even in the darkness. Which is why he chose it – it reminds him of her.
House watches Cameron as she inspects the ring. It is snowing lightly now, and he observes a single snowflake land on the diamond and instantly melt, feels the hush of eight million people settling into this night of peace and joy. He feels like his entire life is hanging in the balance.
And then suddenly she is kissing him with a fervor previously unknown as she walks him backwards into the hotel room. Her hands are reaching, stroking, teasing, unzipping, everywhere at once. She is pushing him onto the bed, pulling his boxers off and tossing them across the room. He lays on the bed, propped up on his elbows, shamelessly gawking as she stands at the foot of the bed and removes her clothes one article at a time. For this, she moves slowly. Deliberately. Savoring his reactions.
And then she is on top of him and her skin feels like velvet as he skims her back with his fingertips. He loves this, this moment right before they get to the really good stuff, these brief seconds of simply reveling in the fact that she is here and she is his and he gets to see her like this, touch her like this, make her moan like this.
The seconds are over almost too soon, and she straddles his hips, settles onto him, closes her eyes and bites her bottom lip, and a groan comes from deep within him because no matter how many times they do this, he is always amazed at how perfect it is.
House is sitting with his back propped up against the ridiculously plump hotel pillows, and Cameron starts moving, rocking back and forth like waves, and he gets lost in the steady push and pull. She laces their fingers together and they both look down, taking in the contrast of her fine, delicate fingers intertwined with his larger ones. Again, his thumb brushes the ring, a question. She squeezes his hand, presses her lips to his, and he pushes higher up into her, swallows her moan.
She is moving faster now. Fingers still twined together, House moves their hands down her body, starting at her throat, caressing delicate tendons, down her chest, drawing circles around her breasts. Teasing her nipples into hard peaks. Her hands rest on top of his, guiding him, as he cups her breasts and squeezes before moving lower. One hand on each side of her slender waist. Grasping her hips, urging her on, undulating in time with her movements. Their hands slide around to meet just underneath her navel and they move lower, lower. House nuzzles his face against her neck as his thumb dips into her folds, can feel the puff of air against the back of his neck as she gasps. He is stroking her now, moving his thumb in small circles around the one spot that he knows will make her lose control, and her hand is still on top of his, no longer guiding, but simply following his lead.
She whispers his name. "House." And it is a plea.
He captures her mouth with his own, and then suddenly she is shaking in his arms. The heat and the wetness and god, so tight, and he lets go too, and their moans are mingling, dancing on their tongues like the ice skaters so far below them, and still their hands are clasped, and still his thumb is pressing into the ring just as his other thumb is pressing into her center.
Slowly, they quiet themselves. Struggle to normalize their breathing. Cameron rolls off of him and snuggles into his side, placing her top leg between his thighs and her arm across his chest. He draws her closer into him, strokes her back. They are both looking at her hand resting on his sternum, at the ring capturing the dim light of the room, amplifying the rays, twinkling with more brilliance than the hundreds of lights that adorn their balcony, just visible through the sliding doors across the room.
She looks up at him and smiles.
"Yes." With all the love she has for this man whom she knows has loved her forever.
He lets out a breath he didn't know he had been holding, closes his eyes, then squeezes her tighter and kisses the top of her head.