Title: People Pleaser
Summary: "If he could not get his duckling to stay by his side willingly, he would have to make the little duckling unpleasant for others to be around."
Warnings: Implied yaoi (could be seen as a precursor or just House being House), mild language, poor grammar/structure, no character development, etc.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
At first, he said it just to tease his newest duckling. It was only when Chase shrugged and grabbed his name tag before walking off that House had realized that there was something wrong with the blonde. No self-serving human being would actually agree to do someone else's work for them and let them take the credit without having some kind of ulterior motive. After spending weeks of watching his fluffy, innocent duckling running around the hospital, helping out others in different departments and doing clinic hours for both himself and his boss, the Diagnostician began to realize that there was something severely wrong in his little Wombat's head. It was then that he began to dig into the blonde's past.
And shortly after that decision, he hit his first roadblock; much of the wombat's past was hidden overseas and nothing short of calling his duckling's father or talking to the duckling himself was going to reveal the Wombat's secrets to him. Giving up on that route, he had taken to observing the blonde doctor as he bent over backwards to make others happy, even if it meant sacrificing his precious free time to do so. Something that House would never even think about doing.
To be quite honestly, it was really starting to piss him off.
His newest duckling had turned into a martyr for the other doctors in the hospital and even the addition of newer ducklings to the pond did not deter him completely. Sure, he had to cut back to help out with his new brother and sister ducks, but even then he was still willing t help others by taking over their shifts, working out their patient's diagnosis, fixing any mistakes on charts, the list went on and on.
It was then that House began to plot.
If he could not get his duckling to stay by his side willingly, he would have to make the little duckling unpleasant for others to be around.
After all, there was no way that the innocent quasi-British duckling would ever stand up for himself if he thought that he was being taken advantage of. He had proven that time and time again when he just passively took whatever was thrown in his direction. Sure, there were times when he was feeling particularly cranky or just plain tired that he would snap before looking like a dejected and morose puppy; all sad-eyed and his tail firmly between his legs as he slunk off to do whatever the Diagnostician wanted. Metaphorically speaking, of course. There was no telling what another, much less compassionate doctor would do to the simple-minded, eager to please duckling if he found out that the little blonde was willing to bend over backwards to make someone else happy.
So, it was up to him to put a stop to this obvious cry for help before it escalated into something horrible.
...Like being unable to do his boss's clinic hours because he's too busy helping some inept doctor in a different department!
Huffing to himself, the brunette leaned back in his chair as he began to scheme about how he could pry his duckling away from the latex-covered clutches of his peers. It was not as though he could use the same tactics we previously did with Wilson. His Jewish friend was far too intent on helping his patients with every little thing and all his attempts to get the brunette doctor to spend less time with them just brought the gossip mill to life with the accusations that he was a jealous boyfriend. Hell, the Boy Wonder in Oncology still could not live down-
Smirking brightly, the Diagnostician rose from his chair and gripped his cane before quickly limping out of his duckling-free office. Heading into the hallway, the brunette made his to the clinic, where he was sure he could easily find his Australian duckling. Leaning against the sign-in desk, House reached over the desk and picked up a pad of paper and a thick marker, quickly scrawling a message on the yellow pad of paper before tossing the marker haphazardly onto the desk. Tearing the sheet of paper off of the notepad and affixing a small strip of tape to it, the brunette laid in wait to see which door the pseudo-British duckling would come waddling out of.
He quickly succumbed to boredom and looked at all of the sniffling and hacking patients sitting in the plastic and metal chairs that filled the room. Grimacing, the brunette tried to think of any reason that the blonde could have for possibly wanting to spend more time than absolutely necessary in such a horrendous place. Nothing other than being an complete masochist came to mind, making the brunette grin as he thought about his youngest duckling. Chase sure was a masochist what with the way he took everything that House dished out with little more than a shrug or a sharp comeback.
"House? Did we get a case?" a lightly accented voice cut into his thought, getting the curmudgeon's attention.
"Nope, not a thing," House replied. "Got any batteries? I ran out and I can't save Princess Peach without them." He knew it was a lie, there were plenty of batteries in his office; Wilson made sure of that after the whole battery-fiasco last year.
"You don't have any?" the blonde questioned as he rose an eyebrow.
"Caught me," the brunette doctor sniped as he grinned. "I have plenty of the suckers and came down here to see you. What do you think, Wombat?"
Rolling his eyes, the blonde peered over the desk and quickly fished two batteries out of a small drawer, jumping when he was suddenly smacked on the back. "What the hell, House?"
"Spider," he replied before holding out his now-free hand. "Gimme."
Holding back a cringe, the blonde handed over the batteries to his childish boss before picking up a new clipboard and heading into the next examination room. Smirking, House pocketed the batteries before limping back to his office and making note of how long it would take the blonde to discover the "Property of Dr. House. Touch and feel my wrath!" note on the back of his lab coat.
...The safe money was when he took it off at the end of the day.
Now, if only he could find where Jimmy had wandered off to so he could bet against the Oncologist. Hell, he might even be able to weasel some lunch out of his friend in addition to his money.
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