Chalk dust
He hated the feel of chalk dust on his fingers. The gritty texture covering his palms, threatening to get under his nails as well. He had his back turned to the room, but could hear the students filing out, gathering notebooks, putting away pens and making a general racket as they left the lecture hall. Did they have to talk so loudly? He wiped one hand on the side of his pants, leaving a white smear against his dark colored jeans and reached into his pocket for the bottle inside. Tipping one pill out he dry swallowed it, grimacing a little as the normal bitter taste of the medicine was made even more so by the faint hint of chalk as well. He capped the bottle and put it back in his pocket. The students were almost all gone, judging from the lessening sounds behind him. Picking up the eraser he gave a half hearted swipe across half the board where he had written the multiple symptoms today's 'patient' had. If anything, it made the board worse though, smeared white all over. He dropped it back to the table, giving up and grabbed his cane. Turning, he was stopped short by the sight of one Lisa Cuddy, standing in the doorway, leaned back and crossing her arms, giving him a rather nice view of her more perkier assets. He gave an odd little half smile as if he should have expected to see her standing there and stepped off the raised stage in front of the auditorium.
"I can't believe you're making me do this. Again." He said grumpily, walking towards her.
"Well, you said you were sick of clinic, and if you refuse to do clinic, then you have to teach. It's one or the other House, I can't have you running around all the time in this hospital ordering excessive tests for all your patients."
"Dr. Cuddy, are you saying that you would compromise patient care by not ordering every test that they may need? What if the one test I need holds the key to the case but you won't let me run it?" He asked, stopping just inches away from her.
"Of course I'm not saying that, and you know it." She laughed, uncrossing her arms and pointing one finger on his chest. "I just need to balance it out a little. You can run all the tests you want so long as you have time when you're not doing that. And still working. Not playing with that damned Playstation. Which is why teaching is a great option for you. Now instead of patients complaining to the nurses, I have a hundred eager students who will report you missing the second you don't show up. So you have no chance of hiding."
He frowned. "Well, there's always the chance you won't find me. I'm very good at hiding you know. I've had years to perfect my technique."
"Yes. And you also lost the advantage when you took me to all those places for stolen kisses, when the both of us should have been working. I know all your hiding places now. There's no getting out of this teaching position House." She said gleefully.
"Stolen kisses," House guffawed. "Those kisses were anything but stolen. I seem to remember you being a very willing accomplice." He smirked, grabbing a hold on the finger on his chest and wrapping his hand around hers; keeping her hand where it was. She smiled and tried to pull her hand away but he was much stronger and kept it in place. He leaned his cane against the wall beside her and freed his other hand to wrap around her waist.
"House, we're in the middle of the hallway, for god's sake. No, it's one thing when we're in our offices or-"
"-or secluded someplace where no one can see us?" He interrupted with a soft murmur; eyes cast downwards, gazing at their linked fingers. She was getting chalk on her fingers now too.
"Yes! No. not like that. I just mean- House it's not proper, especially in the workplace. People talk."
"And? They talked plenty about us before."
"Well now it's real, if rumors get spread around this hospital because someone sees us. I can't very well deny the truth House!"
"If someone sees us?" House questioned. "I don't see anyone, do you?" He asked, glancing down the corridor. "Baby steps Cuddy. You shouldn't be ashamed of someone seeing us."
"I'm not!" She immediately denied.
"And still not even a kiss? We're all alone, but because there isn't a door between us and the rest of the hospital, I don't get one kiss?"
With that Cuddy pressed forward and then quickly spun them around. Suddenly she wasn't leaning up against the wall, he was and she was pulling him down and raising herself on her tip toes and their mouths met in a heated kiss; tongues quickly gaining access and battling for dominance. Their linked hands pressed between them as he used the hand wrapped around her waist to pull her even closer to him.
He loved riling her up like this.
Down the hall two passing students, one tall with bouncing red hair and the other a shorter brunette with wildly curly hair and carrying a clipboard, stopped and stared. There they stood, just taking in the sight of the dean of medicine pressing one of her department heads into the wall and kissing him frantically, her hand roaming under his un-tucked shirt and his gripping her ass suddenly, drawing a surprised little squeal from Cuddy's lips. She only pressed herself closer to him, linked hands now at their side, even those battling each other. His thumb made small circles in the middle of her palm.
"See, what did I tell you?" The brunette said to her companion. "Foreplay."