It's not what people say, it's what they do.

Yes, he cares about me.

Wilson wandered through the hospital corridors towards his office. It had been a log hard day. He'd lost a patient, had to tell three people they were dying and exactly how long they had left, and then he'd almost been beaten up by a very large woman during her breast examination. It had been, as House would put it, 'a crappy day of normality'.

Sighing Wilson opened his office door and frowned slightly when he found a brown box in the middle of his desk. Looking around the corridors he saw no one who looked like they might be a secret admirer. He shrugged to himself, assuming it was paperwork, though they never usually delivered it to his office like this.

Sitting in his chair behind his desk, he pulled the box towards him and opened it up, slightly surprised by its contents. It was full of all his favourite Chinese dishes from the shop down the road. Judging by their warmth they hadn't long been dropped off either.

Pulling them out, he frowned. There was enough here for two. Then, right at the bottom of the box, he caught sight of a scrap of paper. Picking it up and unfolding it, Wilson read:

I'm crap at cooking unlike you, so all I can offer is Chinese. I know how crap your day has been and you probably don't want to listen to me brag about my latest case and whatever, but I bought two lots of food so tough. By the way you should probably look up.

Wilson frowned slightly and read the last bit again. Look up? Unable not to he glanced up and caught sight of House stood at the balcony door, cane in hand. He shot Wilson a look that said 'can I come in'. Wilson nodded back and House pushed the door open, plopping himself down on the chair the other side of Wilson's desk.

"Saw you wandering round the hospital like a lost puppy and guessed you weren't having the best day," House said, pulling one of the Chinese cartons towards him.

"You could say that," Wilson agreed, grabbing another. "It never gets any easier."

"Your problem is, you care too much," House mumbled, his mouth full.

Wilson pulled a face at him, shaking his head.

"Yes, I care, I'm pathetic, I don't need reminding," He lay back in his chair, too tired and drained to argue.

"You didn't see me blubbing last time I lost a patient," House pointed out, waving his chopsticks menacingly in Wilson's direction.

"Is this your idea of comfort?" Wilson asked sadly. "'Cause it's not working."

"No this is me trying to get you to snap out of it," House snapped. "You're still alive and well, all your friends and family are still alive and well, it's only your patients dying and in your line of work you should be used to it by now."

Wilson glared at House.

"You know the rest of us humans actually show some compassion towards each other," he growled back.

"No, you pretend to care because you'd want others to pretend if you were in their shoes," House replied. "But the only people who truly care, are those who do something that for you that you don't notice because it's so subtle."

Wilson paused and glanced at the food House had bought him. He wasn't normally one for showing any kind of affection so it was little things like this that reminded Wilson they were best friends.

"Giving you a shoulder to cry on just makes you want to mourn, don't offer it and you have to move on," House continued a little more softly. "If you mourned every patient you lost, you wouldn't be the fantastic doctor you are."

Wilson smiled slightly. Now this really wasn't House. If one of the kids turned up looking for him, House would turn back into his usual maverick egotistical self. Speaking of the kids…

"Where are Cameron, Foreman and Chase?" Wilson asked.

"Finishing paperwork," House said shrugging. "I wanted the kids out of the way for a bit. Otherwise the only time we'd talk is during our marriage counselling sessions."

"Ha ha," Wilson rolled his eyes. "What did Cuddy say when you told her what was up with the patient?"

"Almost wet herself," House grinned. "Especially when I mentioned how much nicer her breasts were."

"Ahh so that's why you went to visit this one!" Wilson said, realisation dawning.

"Aww, jealous Jimmy?" House asked. "Don't worry, she wasn't as cute as you."

Wilson almost chocked on his Chinese as he laughed.

"Better not let Cameron here you say that," He chuckled.

"She already knows," House laughed.

They lapsed into silence as they finished off the Chinese. It was nice, moments like these, when House would be close to a normal human being, emotions exposed and actually friendly towards someone else.

In fact, it was tiny moments like this, that Wilson hardly noticed, that made his day seem brighter. Maybe House wasn't that bad after all.

"You know, I've hardly kept the smile of my face all day when I've seen you," House noted.

"Oh yeah?" Wilson frowned slightly.

"Your flies have been open the whole time," House laughed as Wilson looked down to find that his flies weren't open. See that was what House did. He started to sound like he might actually be nice for once and then he'd turn the situation to humiliate you. Something about that made Wilson like him even more.