Hi guys! Here's a quick drabble for you...
Is it set in early season 7? Is it another secret relationship AU? You decide!
Thank you for reading, and thank you for your support. Don't think I'll be able to publish another before May, but either way: see you soon!
65. It doesn't bother me.
Sometimes after they'd made love, he traced her ear with his fingertip, mesmerised by how the cartilage curled around itself. He tirelessly drew golden spirals along the outer shell. He looked at the tiny holes that she'd had pierced back when she partied a lot, that she now hid under her hair at work, recognizing the ones she already had when they met, wondering how badly it had hurt – but knowing she'd taken the pain like it was nothing at all. He pushed every single, tiny hair back behind her ear, knowing it was a battle he would never win.
On the morning he watched her slip her earrings on as easily as she stepped into her stilettos, remembering how Stacy rarely removed her studs, how his mother seldom wore earrings and always fumbled with them.
He liked when she'd already taken off her earrings when she was horny, because that meant he got to lick her earlobe and feel her shudder in his arms.
From time to time, he'd kiss her ear affectionately, for no reason, like he'd kiss her cheek or her mouth, her forehead, her neck.
"You like my ears a lot," she spoke up one night when he was post-coitally lost in their contemplation.
She was lying beside him, her head resting on his chest. His other hand covered hers above his bellybutton.
There was no reproach, no mocking in her tone – it was simply an observation. She'd grinned inwardly when the realisation had dawned on her, loving that he loved a part of her body that had nothing to do with sex-appeal.
House, however, moved his finger away without saying a word and cupped her shoulder instead.
Cuddy reached up and gently took his hand, redirecting his finger towards her ear.
"It doesn't bother me," she said quietly.