009. Puzzle

Dinner

House watched curiously as Wilson walked out of the office. His friend had been acting oddly for the last couple of weeks and House hadn't yet been able to figure out why. At first he'd thought it was because of the stress of the divorce but Julie was being quite decent about the whole thing and the process was running smoothly. He'd then thought that maybe Wilson had a case or two that was impacting on him more than usual but a few discreet enquiries by his team had ascertained that that wasn't the case. Just plain old ordinary cancer patients at the moment.

He didn't think it was anything he'd done either. He'd had his normal number of run-ins with Cuddy, tried his normal tactics to avoid clinic duty and paged Wilson for non-existent consults so they could watch TV together the usual number of times. His patient was boring and getting better and his team were working together smoothly at the moment. He wasn't annoying arrogant billionaires or goading patient's parents into hitting him or even being sued by anyone. And Stacy had seemed to have finally worked out that he wasn't overly pleased to see her all the time and was staying out of his way…mostly thus reducing his snapping at all and sundry when he tried to avoid her.

He leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers together over his chest as he turned his mind to the curious behaviour Wilson had been exhibiting and decided to try and find a cause for it. Wilson had started being oddly hesitant in his presence, like he wanted to say something but couldn't quite work out how to do so. Wilson had been giving him odd looks when he thought he wasn't watching. Wilson had started edging into his personal space more so than usual. Wilson had asked him out to dinner tonight.

That last one caused his mental ruminations to stutter to a halt. Wilson had asked him out to dinner. He hadn't been giving his full attention to the other man as he'd been reading a file Wilson had brought him but he seen and heard enough. He'd seen that expression on Wilson's face before and he'd heard that tone of voice before…just never before directed at him. Wilson had asked him out to dinner tonight…on a date.

House blinked then grinned and tossed the file on his desk. He grabbed his cane and pushed himself to his feet. He limped out onto the balcony and after seeing that Wilson was alone in his office, he went in.

"House, what's up?" Wilson asked casually as House limped up to him.

"I worked it out," House replied, his eyes intent.

Wilson froze momentarily. "Worked what out?" he asked warily though House could see the hope lurking in his eyes.

House grabbed Wilson's tie and pulled him forward into a searing kiss. When he pulled back, he let the tie go and ran his hand along Wilson's now flushed cheek.

"You asked me out on a date," he said with almost impish amusement as he headed for the door. "I hope you know I don't put out on the first date."

The door had nearly closed before Wilson recovered enough to reply.

"I'm sure I can convince you otherwise," drifted through the almost closed door and House grinned. Wilson was probably right.