Knot
House, ever awkward in social settings, pulled uncomfortably at the tie round his neck. Wilson noted that it was one of his own, probably one which had been left around the last time he had stayed over at the flat. Unthinkingly, he reached over and retied the knot in a neat windsor, ignoring the scowl he received in return.
"Well, now that I'm looking presentable, darling, I'd like to go chat up some women with big boobies... then we can go home and have hot passionate sex..." House ignored the sharp intake of breath from the hospital benefactor with whom they and Cuddy had been making polite conversation. The man's red suit was truly horrendous.
"Not as horrendous as the bloody tie you made me wear." Wilson smiled at the soft hiss in his ear: how did House do that? He watched his friend stalk off towards Cameron.
Wilson turned with an apologetic smile. The man in the red suit stretched his mouth horizontally in a frosty grimace, then turned away on a pretence of getting more canapės. Cuddy looked indulgently from the older of her best two doctors to his best friend. Her eyes were bright: Wilson suspected she had been hitting the red wine rather hard this particular benefit. His opinion was confirmed when she uttered her next sentence.
"When are you going to admit that you're in love with each other?"
Wilson spluttered into his drink. "Pardon? What on earth gave you that idea?"
"Well," she leaned back slightly into the table, and raised one finger. He knew he was in for a lecture now, he searched desperately for an escape route, but everyone was having civilised conversations except House, who was trying to chat up a woman in a sequinned top. The misanthrope caught his best friend's eye, and grinned. Wilson grinned back, and returned his attention to his boss, desperately hoping that she had finished by now. She hadn't, however, and had noticed his look. She sprang up, arms waving wildly.
"See! That's what I mean! You instinctively search for him in a crowded room. You smile when he speaks, even if he's insulting you. You bend over backwards to save him when he screws up, and you let him take the one in a million chances because you want to think he's always right, even when you know he can't possibly be. You're the only person who's ever been able to get him to wear a tie for god's sake!
He listens to you when he won't listen to anyone else. You're the only person to whom he has ever said sorry, and meant it. He tried to get off the Vicodin for you (yes, he knew it was you), and saves that private little smile of his just for you. He's jealous as hell, and was distraught that time you couldn't go to the monster trucks with him.
He loves you, and you love him too. So, when are you going to admit it?"
Seemingly exhausted from her spiel, Cuddy relaxed back into the table once more. Wilson was reeling. Could it possibly be true? Was he... could he... House?
He supposed it would explain everything. The way his heart skipped a beat when House entered the room. The way that he would give up almost anything to be near him. The way that he always felt safe when his best friend was near, the way that he somehow took abuse from House which no one else would have dared to give to the Wonder Boy Oncologist, the one with the best grades in the country in his year, the saintly one. It made sense, he supposed. To everyone. That they were in love. They were, in a way. And yet...
And yet... no. It made sense, and everything pointed to them being... well... but no. He loved House, more than he could quite conceive, and would do anything for him. But there was nothing sexual about it. It was just... need. He needed House like a fish needed water. They were entangled like... like the knot around House's neck, which he had once again pulled too tight, in agitation at his failure to chat up Sequinned Top Girl. He caught Wilson's eye and strutted over. Cuddy was smirking, but Wilson didn't care. He reached out, and re-tied the tie for the thirf time that night.