Valentine: Chapter Two
(re-arranged a bit to make sense since this morning...)
Violet Trepp took her role of being the big sister extremely seriously. She felt it was her job to always know when Valentine needed her, especially when their mother was busy working, and the girls were on their own at home between school and dinner. It was obvious, when she met Val at the bus stop that was exactly between the two girls' schools, that it had been a bad day. Probably, she thought, it was all David House's fault. Her sister "hearted" a boy named David House, but David didn't even know the poor girl was alive.
“Okay,” she said to Valentine, as they found seats at the back of the New Jersey Transit 'Go Bus.' “So...did you get to walk with David House today?” she asked.
“Yeah.” Valentine stared out the window, hoping to send a clear message without actually saying, that she didn't want to talk about her heartache while they were riding on a public bus.
“And?” Violet poked her. “Tell, Vallie...now.”
Valentine shrugged. “We walked to class. That's all.”
“Did you talk?”
“Not really.”
“Either you did talk, or you didn't talk. You can't 'not really' talk.”
“I said we're gonna be late. He said we better hurry. I asked if he wanted to practice reading aloud, he said no, thank you. I said goodbye before his dad drove away, and he said bye. ” Valentine blurted out, rapid fire. “Okay? Happy?”
“Huh...” Violet had been sure that any boy would eventually like her little sister. Vallie was pretty, and a nice girl, and she didn't have bad habits, so there shouldn't be any reason for this David kid to dislike her. Val had been trying to get him to notice her for about three weeks now, but had had no luck whatsoever. “You want me to beat him up?” Violet asked seriously.
That snapped Valentine right out of her crappy mood. “No WAY!” She stood up, and punched her sister's shoulder. Are you nuts? He'd never like ...” Valentine remembered that she was on a public bus, and people had begun to stare, or so she thought. She sat back down, and continued at a whisper. “He'd never like me if you did that!” Val took a breath and composed herself. “Anyway, he's like a prize fighter. You should've seen what he did to Sammy Chu last month....And Sammy's his BEST friend.”
-------------------------
“How about a birthday party?” Wilson was asking David when House joined them at the dinner table. “We could have a party for you and invite the kids in your class, you know. There are only ten, right?” He peered from his seat in the dining room into the great room. “There's enough space to have a party for ten kids in there...”
David regarded his Wilson nervously. He didn't want such a fuss made over his birthday, not after all the years it had been ignored. He really just wanted to have House, Wilson, and maybe Lisa Cuddy to have dinner together like a family, and if they wanted to give him presents, he wouldn't turn them down. But mostly he just wanted his parents to notice that he was older, and to be happy he was here. A birthday party would be just too hard to get through. He decided to try to negotiate, the way Wilson always did with people.
“You could bring cupcakes to school, you know...if you want to.” David was still quite shy about making demands on his parents sometimes. “Or maybe just cookies and juice?” He started moving food from one side of his plate to the other, pretending to eat. “You don't have to make anything, just get a bag of chocolate chips from the store...no - not chocolate chip; it can't be anything chocolate, because of Sam.” He fiddled with his fork. “Ginger snaps - he likes those.”
Wilson exchanged a glance with his partner and sighed. “There is NO way we're taking a BAG of crappy ginger snaps... Would you like me to serve them stale, on a dirty trash can lid, as well? Just the broken ones, maybe?”
David ducked his head down so that he wouldn't have to look at the sadness in Wilson's eyes. “I'm just saying,” he began, a little desperately, “That you don't have to make a big deal about it. You don't have to go to any trouble...”
“Honey, that's just...” Wilson was at a loss for words.
His parents were looking at him as if he'd just landed in a spaceship. Then they looked at each other. David hated that - when they communicated with each other about him with their eyes. He felt like an outsider when that happened. Like he wasn't a part of them, of the family.
“Greg...” Wilson turned to House. “Talk to him.”
House had been staying out of the conversation, quietly observing his son. He speared his pot roast, cut it quickly, and stuck it in his mouth to stall for time. “Hmm...”
“Daddy, I don't want a party,” David cut in before House could speak. “I just want you, me, Wilson, and Lisa.” He looked pleadingly at his dad, then at Wilson. “We could have dinner. We-we-we-we could go OUT to have dinner.” He set his fork down carefully by his plate.
“What about Sammy?” House asked.
David shrugged. “What about him?”
“Don't you want to celebrate your birthday with your bestest buddy?” Wilson asked. “I've spent just about every one of Daddy's birthdays with him since... well, since forever. That's part of being friends, babe.”
Sighing, David replied, “Sam can come, too.” His voice dropped to an almost inaudible level. “If we have dinner, can we forget about doing anything at school? I don't want to stand up in front of everybody while they all look at me, and sing, okay? Please?”
“Okay,” House told his son.
Wilson was pissed. “Greg! No - David, maybe you don't need to have a party, but Dad and I should discuss this first.” He glared at his partner. “That's part of being a COUPLE who are raising a child TOGETHER.”
House rolled his eyes and sighed.
“Do you want me to eat in the other room? So...so you can talk?” David asked, eager to get the matter settled.
House made another decision without at least consulting Wilson with his eyes. “No.”
At the same time, Wilson said, “No. We'll talk about it later and then tell you tomorrow morning.”
------------------------
House didn't really want to fight with Wilson, but he understood David's feelings, and he didn't want to make his son miserable, either. He himself had never minded standing in front of people and having them look at him, but he knew that David could be painfully shy, except where music was involved. House also knew that David getting what he'd missed all his short life sometimes resulted in a meltdown, surely something that they all would want to avoid in front of his peers.
House had stalled going to bed with Wilson, ostensibly to watch a documentary, but mostly to avoid the conversation (or possibly, the fight) that he knew they were going to have. Unfortunately, House hadn't waited long enough for Wilson to actually fall asleep before turning in, himself. His partner was in bed, wearing his nerdy cotton seersucker “you're-SO-not-getting-any-tonight” PJs but wide awake, and reading a novel.
“Hey,” Wilson greeted as he looked up at his partner. He didn't want to fight, either, but he knew he couldn't let Greg run roughshod over his rights as David's “other daddy.”
Optimistically, House responded with: “Hey yourself.”
“I put your pajamas on the dresser.”
House smiled. “You're such a good li'l wifey,” he teased.
Wilson rolled his eyes and lay back against big, fluffy, down-filled pillows.
House sat down on Wilson's side of their bed, hoping to change Wilson's mind and derail his mood. He tugged at his partner's shoulders forward until he was able to get his arms around the man, and hugged him. He slid his hand down Wilson's back until he was gripping his ass firmly. “Y'know, we didn't have dessert tonight...”
He felt Wilson's lips stretch into a smile against his shoulder. “Hmm... Do you really think you deserve to get dessert tonight?” He pushed House back a bit by his shoulders, and looked him square in the eye. “I'm really pissed, because you made that decision about David's birthday as if my input didn't matter.”
House ignored Wilson's weak show of resistance and untied the drawstring of his lover's pajama pants. “I think we should just do whatever David wants for his birthday. Fuck the party idea. And the cupcakes at school.” He slipped his own t-shirt over his head, and went back to hugging Wilson.
“Um-mm....” Wilson purred. “I could do this all night.” He started unbuttoning his top. “I could do more, but it's much easier when I'm not annoyed with you.”
House kissed him. “Wanted to settle it quickly so he'd eat, Jimmy. He was playing Tetris with his dinner again.”
“I don't want to make him do anything he really doesn't want to, honey, but what he wants isn't always that clear. He's hurt because his birthdays were ignored, and all he wants us to do now is ignore his birthday. We need to be able to talk things through with him to figure out what he really wants.”
Wilson unbuttoned House's pants as he kissed his way down to his lover's nipples. He then leaned back on his hands and raised his hips so that House could remove his sleep pants, then started tugging at the other man's jeans.
"One thing I'm sure he doesn't want to do is to lose it in front of his whole class at school, Jimmy. You know how he was when we were giving him all those surprises last year, when he was pretending he didn't remember his birthday." House stripped off the rest of his clothes unceremoniously and slid his now naked body into bed and lay on top of Wilson.
It would be what House came to think of as “boring maintenance sex,” then. Barely sex at all, by comparison to some of the thunder-and-lightning their bed had seen. Just feeding the fire to keep it alive...taking the edge off...something like that.
Without thinking, they aligned their bodies, chest to chest, pelvis to pelvis, House's long hand wrapped around them, and they started to rock together gently.
“Feels good, baby,” whispered Wilson. It was easy to let go of his irritation when House was making love to him.
House grunted his agreement. He began to thrust his hips, grinding himself against Wilson, more firmly now. “Sorry, Jimmy,” he murmured into the other man's ear. It was easy to apologize when they were making each other feel so good. “...and your input always matters.”
Since their goal was more or less to take the edge off their desire so that they could sleep, they finished pretty quickly. House rolled himself to Wilson's right, allowing his lover to clean them up, then rolled himself to Wilson's side. Like magnets, they snapped back together in an embrace. They traded tender kisses until House dropped off to sleep first. Wilson pressed an ear into the other man's chest, and listened to House's heartbeat and breathing until he, too, dozed off.
-----------------
(Comments would REALLY be appreciated. I'm a little unsure about this story...)
Violet Trepp took her role of being the big sister extremely seriously. She felt it was her job to always know when Valentine needed her, especially when their mother was busy working, and the girls were on their own at home between school and dinner. It was obvious, when she met Val at the bus stop that was exactly between the two girls' schools, that it had been a bad day. Probably, she thought, it was all David House's fault. Her sister "hearted" a boy named David House, but David didn't even know the poor girl was alive.
“Okay,” she said to Valentine, as they found seats at the back of the New Jersey Transit 'Go Bus.' “So...did you get to walk with David House today?” she asked.
“Yeah.” Valentine stared out the window, hoping to send a clear message without actually saying, that she didn't want to talk about her heartache while they were riding on a public bus.
“And?” Violet poked her. “Tell, Vallie...now.”
Valentine shrugged. “We walked to class. That's all.”
“Did you talk?”
“Not really.”
“Either you did talk, or you didn't talk. You can't 'not really' talk.”
“I said we're gonna be late. He said we better hurry. I asked if he wanted to practice reading aloud, he said no, thank you. I said goodbye before his dad drove away, and he said bye. ” Valentine blurted out, rapid fire. “Okay? Happy?”
“Huh...” Violet had been sure that any boy would eventually like her little sister. Vallie was pretty, and a nice girl, and she didn't have bad habits, so there shouldn't be any reason for this David kid to dislike her. Val had been trying to get him to notice her for about three weeks now, but had had no luck whatsoever. “You want me to beat him up?” Violet asked seriously.
That snapped Valentine right out of her crappy mood. “No WAY!” She stood up, and punched her sister's shoulder. Are you nuts? He'd never like ...” Valentine remembered that she was on a public bus, and people had begun to stare, or so she thought. She sat back down, and continued at a whisper. “He'd never like me if you did that!” Val took a breath and composed herself. “Anyway, he's like a prize fighter. You should've seen what he did to Sammy Chu last month....And Sammy's his BEST friend.”
-------------------------
“How about a birthday party?” Wilson was asking David when House joined them at the dinner table. “We could have a party for you and invite the kids in your class, you know. There are only ten, right?” He peered from his seat in the dining room into the great room. “There's enough space to have a party for ten kids in there...”
David regarded his Wilson nervously. He didn't want such a fuss made over his birthday, not after all the years it had been ignored. He really just wanted to have House, Wilson, and maybe Lisa Cuddy to have dinner together like a family, and if they wanted to give him presents, he wouldn't turn them down. But mostly he just wanted his parents to notice that he was older, and to be happy he was here. A birthday party would be just too hard to get through. He decided to try to negotiate, the way Wilson always did with people.
“You could bring cupcakes to school, you know...if you want to.” David was still quite shy about making demands on his parents sometimes. “Or maybe just cookies and juice?” He started moving food from one side of his plate to the other, pretending to eat. “You don't have to make anything, just get a bag of chocolate chips from the store...no - not chocolate chip; it can't be anything chocolate, because of Sam.” He fiddled with his fork. “Ginger snaps - he likes those.”
Wilson exchanged a glance with his partner and sighed. “There is NO way we're taking a BAG of crappy ginger snaps... Would you like me to serve them stale, on a dirty trash can lid, as well? Just the broken ones, maybe?”
David ducked his head down so that he wouldn't have to look at the sadness in Wilson's eyes. “I'm just saying,” he began, a little desperately, “That you don't have to make a big deal about it. You don't have to go to any trouble...”
“Honey, that's just...” Wilson was at a loss for words.
His parents were looking at him as if he'd just landed in a spaceship. Then they looked at each other. David hated that - when they communicated with each other about him with their eyes. He felt like an outsider when that happened. Like he wasn't a part of them, of the family.
“Greg...” Wilson turned to House. “Talk to him.”
House had been staying out of the conversation, quietly observing his son. He speared his pot roast, cut it quickly, and stuck it in his mouth to stall for time. “Hmm...”
“Daddy, I don't want a party,” David cut in before House could speak. “I just want you, me, Wilson, and Lisa.” He looked pleadingly at his dad, then at Wilson. “We could have dinner. We-we-we-we could go OUT to have dinner.” He set his fork down carefully by his plate.
“What about Sammy?” House asked.
David shrugged. “What about him?”
“Don't you want to celebrate your birthday with your bestest buddy?” Wilson asked. “I've spent just about every one of Daddy's birthdays with him since... well, since forever. That's part of being friends, babe.”
Sighing, David replied, “Sam can come, too.” His voice dropped to an almost inaudible level. “If we have dinner, can we forget about doing anything at school? I don't want to stand up in front of everybody while they all look at me, and sing, okay? Please?”
“Okay,” House told his son.
Wilson was pissed. “Greg! No - David, maybe you don't need to have a party, but Dad and I should discuss this first.” He glared at his partner. “That's part of being a COUPLE who are raising a child TOGETHER.”
House rolled his eyes and sighed.
“Do you want me to eat in the other room? So...so you can talk?” David asked, eager to get the matter settled.
House made another decision without at least consulting Wilson with his eyes. “No.”
At the same time, Wilson said, “No. We'll talk about it later and then tell you tomorrow morning.”
------------------------
House didn't really want to fight with Wilson, but he understood David's feelings, and he didn't want to make his son miserable, either. He himself had never minded standing in front of people and having them look at him, but he knew that David could be painfully shy, except where music was involved. House also knew that David getting what he'd missed all his short life sometimes resulted in a meltdown, surely something that they all would want to avoid in front of his peers.
House had stalled going to bed with Wilson, ostensibly to watch a documentary, but mostly to avoid the conversation (or possibly, the fight) that he knew they were going to have. Unfortunately, House hadn't waited long enough for Wilson to actually fall asleep before turning in, himself. His partner was in bed, wearing his nerdy cotton seersucker “you're-SO-not-getting-any-tonight” PJs but wide awake, and reading a novel.
“Hey,” Wilson greeted as he looked up at his partner. He didn't want to fight, either, but he knew he couldn't let Greg run roughshod over his rights as David's “other daddy.”
Optimistically, House responded with: “Hey yourself.”
“I put your pajamas on the dresser.”
House smiled. “You're such a good li'l wifey,” he teased.
Wilson rolled his eyes and lay back against big, fluffy, down-filled pillows.
House sat down on Wilson's side of their bed, hoping to change Wilson's mind and derail his mood. He tugged at his partner's shoulders forward until he was able to get his arms around the man, and hugged him. He slid his hand down Wilson's back until he was gripping his ass firmly. “Y'know, we didn't have dessert tonight...”
He felt Wilson's lips stretch into a smile against his shoulder. “Hmm... Do you really think you deserve to get dessert tonight?” He pushed House back a bit by his shoulders, and looked him square in the eye. “I'm really pissed, because you made that decision about David's birthday as if my input didn't matter.”
House ignored Wilson's weak show of resistance and untied the drawstring of his lover's pajama pants. “I think we should just do whatever David wants for his birthday. Fuck the party idea. And the cupcakes at school.” He slipped his own t-shirt over his head, and went back to hugging Wilson.
“Um-mm....” Wilson purred. “I could do this all night.” He started unbuttoning his top. “I could do more, but it's much easier when I'm not annoyed with you.”
House kissed him. “Wanted to settle it quickly so he'd eat, Jimmy. He was playing Tetris with his dinner again.”
“I don't want to make him do anything he really doesn't want to, honey, but what he wants isn't always that clear. He's hurt because his birthdays were ignored, and all he wants us to do now is ignore his birthday. We need to be able to talk things through with him to figure out what he really wants.”
Wilson unbuttoned House's pants as he kissed his way down to his lover's nipples. He then leaned back on his hands and raised his hips so that House could remove his sleep pants, then started tugging at the other man's jeans.
"One thing I'm sure he doesn't want to do is to lose it in front of his whole class at school, Jimmy. You know how he was when we were giving him all those surprises last year, when he was pretending he didn't remember his birthday." House stripped off the rest of his clothes unceremoniously and slid his now naked body into bed and lay on top of Wilson.
It would be what House came to think of as “boring maintenance sex,” then. Barely sex at all, by comparison to some of the thunder-and-lightning their bed had seen. Just feeding the fire to keep it alive...taking the edge off...something like that.
Without thinking, they aligned their bodies, chest to chest, pelvis to pelvis, House's long hand wrapped around them, and they started to rock together gently.
“Feels good, baby,” whispered Wilson. It was easy to let go of his irritation when House was making love to him.
House grunted his agreement. He began to thrust his hips, grinding himself against Wilson, more firmly now. “Sorry, Jimmy,” he murmured into the other man's ear. It was easy to apologize when they were making each other feel so good. “...and your input always matters.”
Since their goal was more or less to take the edge off their desire so that they could sleep, they finished pretty quickly. House rolled himself to Wilson's right, allowing his lover to clean them up, then rolled himself to Wilson's side. Like magnets, they snapped back together in an embrace. They traded tender kisses until House dropped off to sleep first. Wilson pressed an ear into the other man's chest, and listened to House's heartbeat and breathing until he, too, dozed off.
-----------------
(Comments would REALLY be appreciated. I'm a little unsure about this story...)