Foreman grinned, walking through the snowy park. He loved snow. He loved winter.
He brushed the snow off a bench facing the tree-lined parking lot, and sat down, watching people park, get out of their cars, sometimes alone, sometimes with another person, sometimes with children.
As he watched, he realized that there was one car that wasn't moving—he had been there over three hours, all the other cars that had been there when he arrived had left.
It was an old, dusky blue car. That looked a lot like House's car.
He got up, walked over to it, and leaned down, brushing the snow off the licence plate. It was House's car.
He stood up, looking around.
There wasn't anything else around here but benches and trees.
There, halfway across the park, a familiar silhouette sitting on a bench.
He looked around, shrugged to himself, and walked over. He thought House didn't like cold weather...
House sighed, sitting on the bench in the snowy park.
God, he was bored. And lonely, but he was currently denying that.
No case, team went home, Wilson with amber, Cuddy too busy to pay attention to him bugging her, chase in surgery, Cameron totally pooped from three ER shifts in a row, and Foreman nowhere to be found. This sucked.
He blinked, as he saw a familiar figure approaching. Oh. Well, apparently he had found Foreman after all.
Foreman stood awkwardly in front of House for a moment, then sat down next to the older doctor.
"Why're you here?" he asked, looking at House.
House shrugged, "bored."
"You hate cold."
"My leg hates cold. I like it."
"Ah."
they sat there for a while, watching a slow parade of couples and the occasional young family pass in front of the bench. Several people gave them odd looks, which amused both of them.
Then, one guy, accompanied by his young female companion and three children, stopped, glaring at them.
"what?" asked Foreman, blinking.
"I don't care about what goes on in private, but I find it offensive that you do that in public." he stated frankly.
House and Foreman glanced at each other.
"Do... what?" asked Foreman, blinking.
House smirked, grabbed Foreman's chin, and kissed him.
They froze.
The guy and his family stalked off, but they didn't notice.
House finally pulled back, eyes wide.
"Shit..." he muttered, blinking.
Foreman nodded, blushing.
Wilson looked up, as House entered his office and started pacing rapidly around it.
"Uh... good morning?"
House looked at him, then looked away, and continued pacing.
"Ok... what happened?" asked Wilson, watching House practically wear holes in the carpet.
House stopped, sat down, got up, walked over to the balcony door, walked back to the couch, walked back to the balcony door, turned back to the office, turned back to the balcony, and left.
Wilson blinked after him, completely baffled.
Then he got up, following House over the low wall and into the diagnostics office. He blinked, seeing House very, very not looking at Foreman, and Foreman very, very not looking at House.
Wilson watched for a moment, then walked over to Foreman. House would take forever to coax into spilling.
"What happened?" he asked, standing in front of Foreman, who was sitting in a chair in the corner, an upside-down medical journal held up in front of his face.
He lowered it, looking at Wilson with... red cheeks?
"I ran into House at the park yesterday, sat down next to him. Some guy yelled at us, thought it was some public display of affection or whatever. House... uh... kissed me, just to piss the guy off."
Wilson blinked at him, "so? It isn't like it meant anything, right?"
Foreman looked away, uncomfortable.
Wilson stared at him.
Then he laughed, shaking his head.
Foreman glared at him.
Wilson shook his head again, smiling.
"Just... ok, may I point out that it evidently meant something to House as well?" he said, jerking his thumb at House, currently staring very intently at the wall.
Foreman looked past him at House. Then back at Wilson.
"You seriously think... I mean, he's not..."
"I've met some of his college ex's. Two of them were guys."
Foreman blinked.
"Seriously?"
Wilson nodded, smiling.
"Seriously."
Over the next week, neither of them did anything different than usual. They led the differentials, called each other idiots, irritated each other, laughed, and generally continued on as the situation had been going.
Then, after nine days, there came a point where Thirteen was the only one in the differential room, and Foreman and House were arguing in House's office. Unbeknownst to either of them, both of them were only doing it to keep talking to the other.
Thirteen looked up from the patient's file just in time to see House stamp his cane triumphantly, and Foreman sigh.
She started to look away, but stopped when something caught her eye. Foreman had turned away, heading towards the hall door. House, who a moment before had still looked irritated, was grinning. So was Foreman, who had lost. Huh?
Over the next week, she saw at least twenty more of these odd results of arguments, and was thoroughly confused.
Then came Monday.
Monday started like every other day.
House came in at ten.
Everybody sat around for a while, waking up and drinking massive amounts of coffee to facilitate that process.
Chase came in, holding a folder.
"Got a case for you guys."
Taub took it, passing the copied files out to everyone, and nodded to chase.
They went through the differential, House and Foreman grinned at the end.
Then, as Thirteen was turning to go, she noticed something in Foreman's hand.
It was a ticket.
She smiled and left as quickly as she could.