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Chapter 2

She recovered after a moment, frowning, feeling chilly and angry. What should have been a sigh turned into a bored snort "So what?".

House was dumbfounded, staring at her with eyes-wide, then he twisted his mouth, grinning. He crossed his arms "What? I love you too! The idea of spending the rest of my life with you fills me with immense and inexplicable joy, comparable only to the sight of a litter of kittens! I'm over the moon knowing that I'm the man you've always dreamed of!".

Silence.

He left the role of tragedian and returned serious. She didn't move, still holding her hands to her sides, half-shocked and dumbfounded.

He snorted a couple of times before taking a step closer to her, smiling and opening his arms "It's what every woman says after one of my kisses...I was hoping you'd be more original" he grimaced "I don't know what, a liberating cry or tearing my clothes off, something innovative...And instead you stay in silence, dazed. Whatever, the next!" he shrugged, turning to the corridor. He retrieved the cane that was against the couch, hearing her snickering.

"And just for the record, how much they ask you for being kissed and pretending they like it?".

He smirked slightly before returning to look into her eyes, she was so darn proud of herself, the idea of having contributed to that was destabilizing.

"You kissed me, do you want a prize? Some recognition for it?".

"I don't know, you gave something to Chase?" he spat back.

She went to him like a fury, raising her hand suddenly, stopping before slapping his cheek. He blinked rapidly. Her fingers were trembling as If she had already hit him, and the diagnostician smiled looking at her hand in a gesture similar to the one in his office, but with a completely different intent.

"You wouldn't dare...".

She smiled bitterly and lowered her hand, he didn't expect it "No, you are right...There is no reason to do that, it would make sense If one of us cared for the other, but since it's not the case, it makes no sense. Goodnight, House" she said with a nod and a sad smile before walking the short distance that separated her from the door and then the street.

He smiled hysterically, watching the empty hallway, tapping his cane in total silence. He looked down and sighed loudly, walking down the corridor, he turned off the lights and went into his bedroom. He completed his slow ritual to get to bed, he sat on the edge and turned off the alarm, now completely useless, he took a couple of pills from the bottle nearby and, after having tucked his left leg under the duvet, he slowly dragged his right leg, holding his breath while he stayed there with eyes closed, ignoring the burning rising slowly inside. He nudged the pillow, stretched his neck, pulling the duvet up to his chin...Holy shit...Now he couldn't sleep...And her words, her lips...especially them...His head hurt like after a hangover, he hated to lose sleep...

She still couldn't believe it, standing there and looking through the peephole...She couldn't believe it...She sighed and looked at her apartment before hearing the umpteenth knock on the door.

"Will you open the door or what! ?".

She took a deep breath before taking the bolt off. She opened the door, immediately yelling at him "Do you realize that it's three in the morning? ! And that you are yelling!" she hissed in his face. House stood staring at her frown.

"If you opened the first time I knocked, I'd stop!" he defended.

"I was sleeping!".

He rolled his eyes, smiling, "Yeah, right! You were behind the door, not knowing whether or not to open it".

She pointed her hands on her hips, looking at him stunned "Tell me a thing, has anyone ever told you that you are selfish? !".

"Why, apart from me and the cuddly peluches, what are the other topics you were thinking?".

She was about to reply when she heard one of her neighbors open the door, she grabbed him by the sleeve of his coat and dragged him inside, closing the door slowly "What do you want now? !" she looked up at him and had a flashback of some documentary on Discovery Channel: the antelope surrounded by a horde of lions; it had the same expression of House in that moment, in the center of her living room. She smiled amused, crossing her arms over her chest, approaching him "House, something wrong?".

His eyes were studying the shelves and the furniture around him "No porcelain dolls and teddy bears everywhere...?" he muttered.

"I keep them hidden in the false bottom wall in my bedroom".

He blinked in disbelief, he didn't believe that she had heard him, he recovered from his thoughts after a moment, returning with his mind to the reason that had driven him out of bed. He stood still for a moment, trying to read the titles of the books on the bookcase behind her, to buy time, then he turned to look at her seriously "You told me that I'm an idiot!".

She frowned, puzzled.

"You have had the boldness to pose as a great strong woman, as If you have everything under control! What did you think you were doing? !".

"Help you, maybe?" she shrugged, smiling, leaning against the desk behind her, watching him tormenting his cane "And I had already explained it to you. You have come here just for the satisfaction to say it again?" she looked up at the ceiling before returning to look at him "And just for the record, you were the first to call me idiot, but I had a good reason to do that, yours was just an outburst".

He frowned angrily "I've never called you idiot!".

She went to him, smiling under his nose, putting her hands on her hips "In your hallway, tonight, when we came to tell you that it wasn't a tumor".

He snorted, remembering "It was referred to the group. Sometimes I have to make Chase feeling a participant of something".

"So now you can go, right? You've got my explanation of why I called you idiot, you have no reason to stay" she turned to the frontdoor, opening it. She was sure he was a few feet behind her and she was sure that now they were really done, but he surprised her...

"I cannot sleep...".

She felt a cold shiver down her spine, she didn't know If it was for his words or for having him closer than she had thought.

"I don't feel guilty for what I did, do you understand? It was what I wanted, but then you had to come with your beautiful idealistic theories, but it's not even for that...It's...Oh, damn it!" he moved to pass her and get to the door but Cameron turned slowly, staring at him with a frown.

He took a deep breath, annoyed and resigned "Everytime you do it again, damn, you cannot even imagine how stressful it is for someone like me".

She blinked quickly, not understanding "What?".

"I always think I'm done with you, that I have understood you. I can do it with everyone, I had framed you the day of your first interview and, starting from that, I had decided how time I'd have take to solve you" he was getting nervous, which was pretty funny, the evening had taken an unusual twist "Not even Foreman gives me so much trouble, I know what to expect from him, but you...Everytime I put in place the last piece, here there is another new one. The most unnerving thing is that the new piece is never marginal, it is always one of the most important that would let me understand the situation. You are -".

"Wait, wait...The problem is that I'm out of your analysis, therefore you can't sleep because you haven't been able to solve your stupid puzzle? !" she looked at him astonished.

House shrugged, eyes-wide "Yes! And you can't realize how destabilizing it is for me! I have an idea about you and then you resign; I have an explanation and then you sleep with the kangaroo; I see the situation under another perspective and you perform euthanasia on a patient! And then, when I finally think I have understood something, you kiss me!" he stood still to catch his breath, the thing had unnerved him more than he had thought. He stayed still under her incredulous, angry, disappointed gaze. He was feeling uncomfortable, unable to avoid her eyes as If it was the only way he had to calm her.

"Therefore, your problem is this, knowing how to avoid me?".

He ran a hand across his face, rubbing his beard "No, my problem is..." he smirked, looking down "Difficult conversation for these late hours, Cameron".

"You cassify everything as right or wrong? You don't seem the type of white or black and nothing else".

"No! I didn't say that, it's just that I like to know what I have before me, but I can't do it with you. I always understand half of what you are or what you want to do and then..." he leaned against the wall, tapping his cane. He sighed heavily with his head down.

Cameron smiled, leaning against the opposite wall, watching him observing her movements. They looked at each other and then he looked away.

"And then I kiss you" she saw him raise his eyebrows and twist his lips "So it was a mistake...But If it was a mistake, House, why did you kiss me again?".

He smiled amused at how she was changing the subject to her advantage "I've never said that, and I've already explained why I kissed you".

She walked towards him, smiling, and neither ignored the fact that the distances between them, not just the physical one, were slowly breaking down "So let's see, If you consider ketamine half a chance, what would be a kiss? Half error? Or it is -".

"You are changing the subject completely, I haven't come here to talk about it, but about the fact that you always come to me, messing with my life, my habits! I put a tie to go to dinner with you, for God's sake!".

She shrugged, folding her arms "I didn't ask you for it".

House missed her joke in his head when he realized that she was coming closer to him in too many ways.

"House, what's for you this story that you kiss me and I kiss you?" probably she had lost him in that moment.

He moved away from the wall quickly, getting rid of that shadow of a smile that had crossed his face "I'm tired of this game, maybe now I'll be able to sleep".

She was before him in a moment but in no way she was preventing him from leaving...But he stopped anyway.

"I'm just wondering whether coming here has been a mistake or a possibility. And If you hadn't kissed me, instilling a doubt in my mind, now I'd be sleeping comfortably in my own bed".

She nodded, moistening her lips, tightening her arms around her waist "Ok...Ok".

He nodded too, her confirm had calmed him somewhat, but she was unable to wash away the doubt from his mind. He turned quickly to the right, where she stood motionless, waiting for him to go out. He sighed, looking into her eyes, succeeding for the umpteenth time to lose himself in her eyes "Did you kiss me just for that sample?".

Cameron smiled, approaching him...

TBC...