This is another one-shot for my ships50 claim of Kutner/Thirteen, but I'm posting it separate of my other claim ficlets because of the overall tone of it. If you haven't seen the season finale of House (Wilson's Heart) don't read, the story is riddled with spoilers.
Title: The Sake of Comfort
Prompt: Hardship
Word Count: 490
Rating: PG
Warnings/Spoilers: Spoilers for Wilson's Heart. Canon character death mentioned.
She woke up from an early evening nap. The events of the past two days had exhausted everyone, especially her. She had a hard time believing the things she now knew.
That Amber Volakis was dead.
That she was dying, whether now or later.
Times were hard and she would've loved nothing better than to curl up in her bed and never come out again. But she knew that wouldn't happen. She was going to make the best of whatever she had.
Her cell phone vibrated on the bedside table. She picked it up and read the screen. A missed call from Kutner. Normally in times like these, she would ignore her calls and texts for a few days and reemerge, appearing to have coped properly. Tonight, the ghost of some memory, some faceless grandparent loomed in her mind.
'The best thing you can have in times like these is company, even if they don't understand your pain,' the memory said calmly.
She grabbed her keys and purse and walked out of her apartment, and got in the elevator. She walked out to her car a few moments later and started it, driving away from her apartment complex and stopping about a mile down the road at a small convenience store. She walked inside and went up to the large freezer they had sitting beside the check out area and opened it, thinking for a few seconds and grabbing two pints of ice cream. She checked out and got back in her car, driving for about ten more minutes until she was at her final destination.
She climbed the stairs and knocked on the door (secretly hoping it was the right address), after another, more persistant knock, the door swung open.
"Thirteen?" Kutner said, looking a little confused. "What's up?"
She shoved her hand in her bag and pulled out one of her pints of ice cream, handing it to him. "Get two spoons, put in a movie, and don't talk," she said simply, walking inside Kutner's apartment.
He stepped into the kitchen and she made her way into the living room, sitting down on the sofa and opening her own pint. He returned, handed her a spoon, sat down beside her and grabbed the remote.
"Are you okay?" he asked casually as opening credits began to roll.
"Getting there. Are you?"
Kutner didn't answer. "Getting there," he repeated back at her, devouring a few spoonfuls of ice cream. "Thanks for the ice cream."
"It's what my mom used to buy me every time I was upset," she admitted calmly.
He nodded and didn't say anything else. But it actually meant a lot to him that she was willing to come over to see him simply for the sake of comfort.
Though Kutner wasn't sure if it was for his comfort or her own that had brought her over.
But he didn't mind either way.