Disclaimer: Nope.

A/N: A nice and fluffy chapter.

Chapter 25 – Muffins

Day 9-Sunday

A shrill sound of an alarm clock woke House up from a peaceful slumber on a Saturday morning. It was his day off. Needless to say, he did not appreciate the interference. He groaned loudly, covering his ears with his hands.

"For the love of god, woman. Would you shut that thing up?"

Cameron hastened with apologising, "I'm sorry. I forgot to turn it off yesterday."

She struggled to reach the alarm clock, still dozy from sleep.

"Jeez," House muttered, before she finally managed to turn off the alarm.

"Sorry," she tried once again, sheepishly.

With the amount of work they were given lately, exhaustion took its toll on her body. She set up the alarm just in case. Of course, she woke up before it went off yesterday. That's the law of the nature. You set up the alarm, you'll wake just in time; you don't set it, you're bound to oversleep. And of course, if you forget to turn it off, well… Luckily, both were so tired, that sleep came easily even though it didn't last long.

A couple of hours later, House's alarm went off, once again waking both of them. Cameron turned on her side and observed him with a mixture of amusement and annoyance, amusement clearly predominated. House hit the alarm clock none too gently and upon noticing Cameron's expression, muttered, "Not a word."

She smiled. "I didn't say anything."

"You better not."

Noticing that she made herself comfortable again, he asked her, slightly surprised, "You're not going to get up?"

It was around 9 am and ever since she shared his bed, he never knew her to sleep this long.

"Too tired. I think I'll just sleep in today."

"Good idea," House murmured as he made himself comfortable as well.

It was quarter to noon before Cameron stirred again, waking up House in the process.

It was a wonder what a good night's rest could do. Not only that their energy was at least partially replenished, but they were also quite in a good mood. They agreed to spend the day doing nothing. Cameron was not exactly sure what that would entail, but at least for a day she wanted to erase the idea of any form of work from her mind.

Once they both changed their attire, they found themselves in the kitchen, attracted by the empty feeling in their stomachs.

Cameron was rummaging through the refrigerator when she suddenly spoke, "I have an idea."

She turned around to look at him.

"Yes?" House prompted her.

"Let's make muffins. I don't feel like cooking or going out to eat and we've been practically living off take outs this week."

House raised his eyebrows. "You want to eat muffins for lunch?"

Cameron grinned. "And dinner."

She found the confused expression on his face terribly amusing.

"I did that sometimes in college. Me and my roommate would go on a baking spree and then we'd live off them for a few days. It's actually been ages since I did that," she said with a thoughtful expression.

Apparently House still wasn't convinced as he looked at her as if she were crazy.

"Trust me, you'll love them."

Finally, House shrugged and said, "Fine. As long as I don't have to bake."

He turned around to leave the kitchen when she stopped him, "Nu huh, you are going to help me." She pointed at him with her index finger to emphasise her point.

House was about to object, when she interjected, "They're with extra chocolate."

Here's the magic word! House reluctantly approached her, still not too keen about the deal.

"They better be worth it."

Cameron started to assemble the necessary ingredients. "Trust me, they are."

She finished the process by conjuring two large plain chocolates from one of the cupboards.

"Whoa, where did those come from?" exclaimed House, trying to snatch one from Cameron. She immediately removed them from his reach.

"We'll need these. Now make yourself useful and melt this chocolate together with the butter. "

He was about to take the chocolate when Cameron once again hid them behind her back.

"Don't even try to eat it. I'll be keeping an eye on you," she warned him.

House gave her one of his 'I can't believe you don't trust me' looks, which made her smile. Finally, she relented the chocolate and got to work herself.

While she mixed the flour, eggs and all the other ingredients, House completed his task.

She poured the chocolaty substance into her mix.

"Now take the other chocolate and cut it into small bits," she ordered him.

Noticing his mischievous smirk she added, "Don't even think about it, we need the whole chocolate. Besides, you'll regret it later, because it tastes much better in the muffins."

"But I'm hungry," pouted House.

Cameron was unrelenting, "Eat a piece of bread."

House shot her a glare before starting his new task.

Cameron couldn't quite wrap her mind around the whole turn of events. Here she was, on a Sunday afternoon, making muffins with House and she was enjoying herself. The thought that she was in fact happy screamed at her over the buzz of the blender.

She glanced at House who was struggling with the chocolate. Her roommate and she always fought over who will cut the chocolate as the job was anything but easy on the hands, not to mention messy.

Cameron turned off the blender and leaned against the counter. All that was left to do was to mix in the chocolate chips. A couple of minutes later, House finished his gruelling task with an annoyed expression on his face.

Feeling a pang of guilt, Cameron apologised, "Sorry, but someone had to do it."

"And that someone had to be me."

She shrugged. "You don't know the recipe."

House took a few steps closer and observed her with interest as she mixed in the last ingredient. The dough did look rather appealing.

Cameron sensed him shift directly behind her a moment before his lips descended upon her neck. He moved her hair out of the way before his lips continued to explore her skin. Now completely distracted from the muffin- making process, Cameron turned around to face him. Her hands came around his neck as she awaited his next move. A moment later he touched his lips to hers.

Caught in the situation, she was taken aback when he abruptly stopped the kiss and took a step back. However, all was explained when he licked his chocolate covered fingers. She placed her hands on her hips and shook her head while he smacked his lips.

Expertly contemplating on the taste, he finally came to a decision. "This is not all that good," he complained.

"It will be when it's baked. You're not supposed to eat it raw," she paused before getting an idea, "Why don't you go rent us some movies. This will take a while to bake."

"Why do I have to do all the hard work?" he complained.

"Because I don't trust you not to burn the muffins," came her immediate reply.

House rubbed his chin in a contemplative manner. "That's actually a very good reason," he admitted.

Placing the first batch into the oven, she followed him into the living room just as he was about to leave.

"I'd prefer something light. No blood or drama," she instructed him.

* * *

About half an hour later, she could hear the front door open and the sound of keys being dropped on the coffee table. Soon, House poked his head into the kitchen, immediately noticing the rows of very delicious looking muffins. He was about to take one when Cameron slapped his hand.

"They're still too hot," she responded to his evil stare.

That's when something else caught his attention.

"Are those chocolate shakes?" he asked hopefully.

"They sure are."

A suspicious look crossed his face. "That's a lot of chocolate. Is it that time of the month?"

"I happen to like chocolate, if you must know. And there's nothing wrong with overindulging every now and then, is there?"

"Nope," he readily agreed.

"So, what did you bring us?" she inquired, nodding towards the DVD's in his hand.

He handed them over to her and she read out loud the titles, "Kung Fu Panda, Ice Age 3 and Madagascar?"

It was obvious that this was not what she had in mind when she said something light.

"What?" House defended, "You didn't think I'd bring a chick flick, did you?"

That was one of her ideas, but she supposed that knowing House, that was unrealistic to expect. On second thought, she didn't mind the cartoons at all. They fit nicely into their 'don't think- overindulge' theme.

Half an hour later, the muffins were done and they relocated into the living room with a liberal amount of said pastry, milkshakes and the DVD's. The first movie of choice was Madagascar.

As soon as they got settled on the couch, House stuck half of a muffin in his mouth. He practically swallowed it without chewing, the second half receiving the same treatment. Cameron thought better than to comment. Besides, she was starving as well. A keen observer would notice that the amount of space between them while sharing the couch, increasingly lessened during the week.

Half of the first movie over, there was a knock on the door which was immediately followed by a jiggling of keys and opening of the door. Wilson came in, surprise written all over his face as his eyes travelled from the couple to muffins to TV and back to the couple.

"I didn't give you that key so you can just barge in whenever you feel like it," House remarked.

"I knocked," Wilson feebly defended.

House rolled his eyes, "And all the good that did. What if we were in the middle of some more interesting activities?"

Wilson stuttered, not quite sure how to respond to that. Of course, House enjoyed the situation immensely.

"I don't think Allison would appreciate that," he said, looking at Cameron and patting her comfortingly on her thigh.

Choosing to save the poor guy, Cameron offered Wilson a muffin.

He gratefully took it and plopped down on the couch next to her.

"Please, make yourself at home," House said sarcastically.

"Don't mind if I do." He immediately took off his shoes and placed his feet on the coffee table. Once he settled himself, he grabbed another muffin from the tray and begun munching on it.

Cameron gave House a confused look.

He whispered to her rather loudly, "He's just feeling lonely. Since his wife left him and all. He probably though he could share in our 'love'."

Cameron laughed and instinctively moved closer to him when he placed his arm around her shoulders. Realising what happened, she froze, though only for a moment. It felt rather cosy, so she snuggled closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder and her hand on his thigh. He didn't seem to mind or perhaps it was just a farce intended to rouse Wilson, either way, she didn't care.

She was settled comfortably with a bunch of muffins within her reach and a fun movie on TV. It was as good as it gets.

A/N: This would be a perfect day for me. Sleeping till noon is one of life's greatest pleasures. And just imagine soft, tasty chocolate muffins with bits of melted chocolate. I can tell you that they are really yummy. :) As for the movies, you're never too old to watch cartoons. They're just about the only thing I go watch in cinema (besides bad horror movies). And yes, I know the movies I mentioned were not out yet at the time the story takes place, I thought you could cut my some slack on this one.

Mmm, I've got an exam on Monday, which means I'll be forced to look inside some books. I've never been one to study much so it may not cause much of a delay. We'll see.