"Okay." House said, deciding that it would be amusing to adopt a funeral tone. This was, after all, the most serious thing he had ever done in his life. He winked at Cuddy, who looked away. Oh, she so wanted him.

"Well, come here Cuddles, and plant one on old House." He made an exaggerated kissing face. Trust him to make something he wanted so badly into a joke. Cuddy shuffled her chair over to House's, and was about to place her lips on his when Booth interrupted.

"Wait, you have to straddle him." the FBI agent added, having WAY too much fun. Unfortunately, there was such thing as too much fun.

"You can't give me instructions, you can only give instructions to the person you're daring." As much as she wanted to kiss House... well, doing it with her body exposed to him on his lap would get him a bit too excited. She was in no way in the mood to deal with awkward male situations. She was fairly certain that he was already pretty turned on, what with the lab coat and the lingerie that he was currently wearing. A kiss as hot as that one would be would probably send him over the edge.

"Fine." Booth said, refusing to give up on the dare, "Dr. Cuddy, I dare you to kiss House while straddling him." Oh, he thought he was being tricky, daring her instead. Well, Booth had gotten too caught up in his own game, because there was no way in hell that that dare was going to happen, not like that.

"I choose Truth." Cuddy said. Oh yes, very tricky Dr. Cuddy, but you didn't count on Booth catching up to your game. You're going to regret picking Truth...

"Are you in love with House?" he asked bluntly, catching Cuddy completely off guard. And to be fair to House, the world renowned diagnostician was pretty surprised too. Surprised to the point of embarrassment, of course. They all knew she had it bad for him, so what was the point in dragging it out in the open?

And of course, Cuddy was struggling to figure out the best way to answer the question. The simple, beautiful, to the point answer was yes, but she wasn't ready for that, no one was. Booth might have found himself a new unabashed approach to his female problem, but a man such as House didn't like to put labels on the emotions he so reluctantly experienced. But no, the inevitable love question had been asked, and all eyes were on her to answer it. All eyes except for the pair of ice blues orbs that belonged to the stubborn, egotistical, insufferable ass of a world renowned diagnostician who she happened to be in love with.

"What do you mean by 'in love with'?" she asked, trying to delay the inevitable. Unfortunately, there's this thing with avoiding the inevitable. The inevitable has an annoying habit of being inevitable.

"Oh come on, you know what I mean." Booth said, smiling. "You smile when you start thinking about all the things they've done for you, you always want to protect them, you get all nervous when they're in the room because you're afraid of screwing up, you can't stop thinking about them, even when you really need to focus on something else, you-"

"So pretty much what you feel about Dr. Brennan?" House felt that his sure to be long winded tangent needed to be interrupted. That was because he didn't want to hear a lovesick ramble, not because it described to a tee what he felt about Cuddy. Oh no, that would be ridiculous. Perish the thought of him being in love. Preposterous.

"I believe we're talking about you, Dr. House, so if you could shut up and wait for your boss to answer…"

"I don't think I can answer that." If she could just wiggle out of the question… well, that was unlikely with this group of people. But a woman had to try.

"Do you love him?" Oh, this one was tricky, but Booth would get her, somehow, someway… it was her fault, after all, that he wanted revenge on the pair of them; it was her question about marriage that sent him on attack mode, that on top of the lap dance… oh, he needed revenge.

"I care about him, I would be devastated if he died, I want him to be happy, he's been in my life for two decades, yes, I LOVEhim." But did she say she was IN LOVE with him? No, no she didn't. Ha ha ha. Round one goes to Cuddy, Special Agent Booth.

"So you ARE in love with him?"

"No, I said I LOVE him. Nothing about harbouring any romantic feelings. There's more than one type of love, and I said that I have deep feelings of friendship towards him."

"So you didn't answer my question. You have to answer the question, or you can't play anymore."

"You changed the question to 'Do you love him'. So I don't have to tell you whether or not I'm in love with him until you Truth me again."

"No, that was an extra question that you chose to answer. You still have to answer the first one. It's in the rules."

"Well, since House is the one who started the game, I think he gets to decide." Devious, very devious, Dr. Cuddy, getting the man who does NOT want to hear about you being in love with him to decide whether or not you should spill the beans. Very devious.

"I think Cuddles is right." House said cheerfully, obviously relieved that he wouldn't have something as horrible and complicated as the word 'yes' to think about for oh, the rest of his narcotic shortened life.

"So, now it's my turn to pick someone." Cuddy was painfully aware that though she had won the battle, she was going to lose the war. When Booth picked her again, she would either get dared to kiss House while straddling him or admit that she was in love with him. Just perfect.

"Angela. Truth or Dare."

"Dare." Angela giggled, ready for some action. She hadn't seen too much lately.

Cuddy pondered for a moment. She wanted to get back into the ridiculous dares part of the game, not the touchy-feely moments.

"I dare you to sit on Sweet's lap."

"NO way!" Angela squealed, looking over at the young psychologist in fear. "He's naked!" Hodgins looked down in shame. Sweets wouldn't still be in the nude if he hadn't stolen his clothing. Now it was coming back to bite him in the ass. Not that it mattered whose naked lap his ex sat on. It would just be better if it was his. Curse karma, and curse Booth for screwing up the House/Cuddy kiss. He had really been looking forward to that.

"I don't see a problem." Cuddy said, smiling innocently. Giving Angela this dare to get back at her for the lab coat thing, that would be petty. Then again, pettiness was a key element in the game. "If you don't do it, you can't play anymore." she finished, echoing Booth's earlier words to her. Truth or Dare was a vicious, underhand game, full of secret plots and dirty revenge, and this round was no exception.

"Fine." the younger woman grumbled, walking reluctantly over to Sweets. Judging by the way he was sitting, the psychologist had no shame when it came to his body. She sat rather forcefully down on him, which really, wasn't fair, seeing as the dare wasn't his fault. Nearly everyone in the circle laughed as she grudgingly sat on his thighs, looking as if she would rather be fighting off a pair of rabid skunks than occupy the same chair as Dr. Lance Sweets.

"Okay guys, stop laughing. We're going to do an all truth round next." House groaned. He hated truth. He only picked truth to screw with people, not to admit anything to anyone.

"Good idea, Angela." Booth said, smirking. House knew that that smirk meant no good, and that no good was for him.