His left leg held all of his weight as he hooked the cane haphazardly over the white board. Unnoticed by anyone, a small pain filled spasm ran down his right thigh, causing small facial muscles to twitch with surprise and annoyance. One hand absently made its way to the ravaged muscles that were left in the leg and small massaging motions attempted to soothe away the pain.

House wrote several symptoms on the board, hooking the cane over it to free his right hand. He held onto the board with his left hand for balance and kept his weight off the battered right leg.

So far it had been a good day and his leg wasn't bothering him too much except for the occasional twinge. The only thing bothering him was that every time Chase was in the same room as him, he couldn't keep the feeling of being stared at from bothering him. He knew the young blonde was watching him… almost studying him obsessively but he couldn't figure out why.

The strange watchfulness had been going on for a few days, House figured. The worst was when Chase would write down little notes after looking at House and he probably didn't think anyone even noticed it.

House really just wanted to turn at some point and tell the kid to stop, but then he'd never figure out why Chase was watching him. Plus, it was part of his reputation not to let stupid self-conscious things get to him.

"Any thoughts? C'mon people… differential diagnosis." He said impatiently. He could see Chase was paying more attention to the notebook lying in front of him than the white board so he ignored each idea that Cameron and Foreman threw out, opting to grab his cane and slam it down on the table in front of the intensivist.

He smirked when Chase jumped out of his seat.

"Lupus!" the automatic response flew out of his mouth. Cameron smothered a giggle behind her hands and Foreman cracked an amused smile.

"Yes, I'm sure that would account for the extreme rise in estrogen levels in our patient." House's tone was biting and chase looked at the board, seeing the symptoms for the first time. Properly embarrassed, his face grew red and he dropped his gaze slightly.

"So what's taking the attention of my wombat?" House reached for the notebook, but Chase pulled it back quickly.

"Oh now…"House raised his eyebrows with interest.

"It's none of your business." Chase said steadily.

"Actually… since it's on the clock and it's stealing your attention away from the work your supposed to be doing… it is my business." House smacked Chaise's hands with his cane, causing him to pull back and leave the notebook open for House to grab… and grab he did.

He read from a random page that he opened to. Chase's face was red and his lip bled slightly from nervous chewing.

House's schooled features never changed and nobody could read what he was thinking.

"Write your stories on your own time." His voice was calm and unchanging, "You can pick up your notebook when you leave. Back to the board. Cameron, we'll start with your idea. You and Foreman take his blood and get an MRI. Chase… I believe you have clinic duty today. Have fun." He dismissed them all.

As soon as he was alone, House hobbled back into his office and reclined in his chair, making himself comfortable for a good read. He started from the beginning of the notebook and was surprised to find himself actually getting interested in the story about a gruff doctor who walked with a cane.

His amusement came to a grinding halt when the main character seduced by the young British (okay, he still that that part was funny) doctor which Chase had obviously based off himself. House was still interested… maybe more interested… just not as amused.

He stopped reading and stood from his comfortable seat. He picked dup the notebook and brought it with him to Wilson's office. He didn't bother to knock, but just entered and tossed the notebook onto the desk.

Wilson looked up from his paperwork with raised eyebrows.

"Read." House said. He plopped down on the plush couch by the wall, wondering why he didn't have a couch like that in his office.

With an exaggerated sigh, Wilson opened the notebook and started to read. Within a minute, he looked up.

"You-"

"Shh… read." House silenced him and watched the pages turn until he counted the right amount of pages and watched as Wilson's eyes widened.

"Why are you writing about you and Chase?"

"Does it look like my handwriting?"

"Noo…"

"Chase is writing porn about him and I."

"House, this isn't porn… you of all people should know that. It's more like… a romance novel." Wilson skimmed a few more pages quickly. "See, it doesn't even get that graphic. It's more tastefully written than a Harlequinn romance novel."

"How would you know?"

"I… I was bored one night and Julie had a bunch of them lying around. I just picked one up and started reading. No big deal." Wilson knew that explaining it was useless as House would store this information in the recesses of his memory and pull it out at the most inopportune moment.

"So what do I do?"

"Well… I say you should invite him into your office for a private differential." Wilson smirked.

"…. what should I do about him writing during work hours is what I meant." House grimaced, slightly annoyed that Wilson had used a perfect amount of wit and sarcasm against him.

"Okay… private differential in your office and then get kinky and punish him a little bit for slacking off of work." House was amazed at Wilson's ability to sound so serious and professional while spouting off unwanted sex advice.

"I don't want to get kinky with Chase."

"Yes you do. You said so after I drove you home when you got drunk with that guy on death row."

"I never said any such thing." House smiled smugly, trying to run through his memories and not coming up with any recollection of what happened after he had staggered into Wilson's office with the bottle of tequila still gripped in one hand.

"Hmm… I knew I would need this one day. Though… I had been hoping to save it for blackmail purposes. This will do." Wilson reached into his desk and pulled out his phone. He pressed some buttons and brought up a grainy low quality video recording on the phone. He handed it to House and the older man reluctantly pressed play.

"They all think I hired Cameron for her looks and Chase because of his dad… but they're wrong. Chase is the hot one. Probably the best doctor out of them to… he's got that…. Balance thing. He's not a bastard like me… but he won't cry if someone dies. Perfect, ya know. I'd hit that if I could."

House was mortified as he watched his drunken self engage in one sided conversation with his more sober friend who remained behind the camera phone.

"I…"

"Haha! Speechless for once. House… just let yourself be happy for once. You want him… he clearly wants you. Do the math."

House tossed the phone back at Wilson and hobbled out of the office, forgetting the notebook. Wilson smirked and paged Dr. Chase to his office.

A few minutes later, there was the hesitant knock on his office door and he yelled for the young doctor to enter and then invited him to sit.

"The reason you wanted to see me…?" Chase spoke up.

"This." Wilson held up the notebook and then started flipping through the pages, not paying attention to the startled sputter that escaped from Chase.

"What…. I mean… House showed… damnit." Chase muttered, the red blush of embarrassment creeping up his neck and settling on his cheeks.

"Well, House got something embarrassing from you. So I'm going to even the score." Wilson tossed the phone to Chase and let him watch the video. Chase was very confused after watching the video and handed the phone back to Wilson.

"Dr. Wilson?"

"Well… now you both know that the other person is interested. One of you should do something about it. We both know that House is probably too scared to try and dive into a new relationship again after Stacy. But… I'm a big fan of this office scene on page 12." Wilson handed the notebook to the stunned owner and then picked up a pen and got to work.

"Uh…"

"Oh, that's it. You can go now, Dr. Chase."

"OK. Uh… thank you, Dr. Wilson." Chase left in quiet astonishment and Wilson leaned back in his chair with a large grin on his face as soon as he was alone. He wondered if House often felt this powerful and godlike.

At the end of his shift, Chase was exhausted not physically but emotionally. He'd been trying to figure out what to do and had finally come to a conclusion.

He made his way to House's office and saw the older man standing in the shadows, watching the rain fall outside. He entered the office without receiving any acknowledgement fro House.

Chase took a deep breath to calm himself and then approached the older man.

"I don't have your notebook… I left it in Wilson's office." House said.

"I don't want the notebook. I want you." His voice was soft and airy, his accent giving it the most seductive lilt. House's face turned sharply to him but before he could react further, Chase had him pinned against the windowed door to the balcony. He nudged the cane out of House's grip with his knee and took the weight and kept House balanced.

"Chase, what are you-" House's voice was silenced by the soft mouth that covered his and he lost his train of thought completely. Chase's hands slid down the older man's long torso and one hand continued down House's bad leg, causing a noise of protest to come from House. Not a noise of pain, but one of reluctance and embarrassment. He still hated people acknowledging the leg. Chase steadily ignored him and let his hand stop when it reached the knee. He softly grasped it and lifted House's leg up and wrapped it around his own body.

The position made it easier to put his weight on one leg and keep his grip on the young man without losing his footing. All his reservations were forgotten as his youngest fellow explored his mouth and he groaned slightly when the blonde broke the kiss.

"You okay with this?" He was asked.

"Only if we can recreate page 25 back at my place."

The End