Curiosity killing the cat, maybe?

[dr_gregoryhouse]

Who: House, Cade, Wilson might make some kind of cellular appearance at some stage
Where: The same bar they both went to last time
When: May 22nd, just after 5.30pm.

Comments

[dr_gregoryhouse]

House turned his head down to his beer when Cade gave his opinion about the hooker thing being cold. Talking about hookers only served to remind House of the last time he'd used a hooker... which in turn only served to remind him of Wilson. Cold was a good description. Being with that hooker, being with any hooker, in comparison to what he experienced with Wilson... there simply was no comparison.

He shot Cade a look when he then said about getting into House's pants. Because he now knew Cade was bisexual, he couldn't tell if Cade was being serious or not. Surely not. Why the hell would Cade want to get into his pants? Cade was, what - late twenties, and House was almost fifty. And as far as House was concerned, he wasn't even very good looking, didn't have much going for him, so why would Cade even consider him if he was being serious?

House abruptly looked away. Why was he even thinking about Cade getting into his pants? Curiosity, just like those other times he'd considered what sex with another man would be like. Cade was making it very hard for him not to wonder what that would be like. He quickly sculled back the last of his beer and set it down, pushing it away from himself.

"You were the one who wanted to know what my opinion was on age differences when it comes to people choosing sexual partners," he pointed out, ignoring Cade's question about why he was a doctor for the moment.

He looked up when the bar girl took the bottle. She asked if he wanted another beer; he nodded, then looked back to Cade.

"Strange thing to ask. Especially if you're not interested in getting into my pants. Which begs the question, why did you invite me out?"

He held Cade's gaze for moment, trying to will himself not to freak out at how bold he was being about this. The bar girl placed a fresh bottle of beer in front of him, which he gratefully took into his hand and after he slipped her some money for it, he drew the bottle towards him.

"But sure, let's talk about why I became a doctor," he continued, his tone a little sarcastic. "We'll start off by talking about how fascinating the human body is."

[caden_walker]

Cade stared back at House, though it was difficult. House, Cade thought, was a guy who could probably make people sweat just by staring at them. It wasn’t just the power of his gaze, of course, but also what he was asking.

When House looked away Cade breathed in deeply before letting the air back out slowly. The next thing House said didn’t exactly take the pressure off. Glancing at House, Cade rubbed a hand over his mouth, trying to decide if he should continue pursuing his question or answer House’s question. He finally decided on the latter, figuring he might learn more about House that way.

“Technically, I didn’t say I wasn’t interested in getting into your pants. I said I didn’t invite you here to get into your pants,” Cade said, keeping his voice even. He then looked over at House, his expression betraying nothing before he suddenly smirked. “Which is not to say I am interested… Hey, you don’t give me a straight answer, I won’t give you one.”

[dr_gregoryhouse]

House glanced away from Cade and quickly rubbed his chin with his hand, and tried to suppress the stab of panic that was fluttering in his chest. The more he played this game with Cade, the more he was going to end up revealing about himself; that he wasn't exactly straight. He wasn't sure he was at all ready for even a bisexual guy to know this about him, not when House hadn't fully come to terms with it himself.

He drew in a deep breath and let it out quietly to control his nervousness, and then looked back to Cade. Determined to try and remain calm, he smirked slightly at Cade.

"The fact that you completely ignored my comment about being a doctor says to me that maybe you are interested. Because if you were so interested in getting to know me, you wouldn't just concern yourself with pointing out the technicalities of what you said about getting into my pants."

He looked away and took a sip of his beer, and then looked back to Cade again. "But if you want to talk technically, then technically I don't have to give you a straight answer about anything if you're not going to return the favour." He smirked at Cade again. "I like playing hard to get."

[caden_walker]

“Oh, so that’s what you’re doing is it?” Cade said, still smirking. “Making me work for it.”

He rubbed at the back of his neck, trying to work what on earth House had said before his last comment. “I’m not sure I follow your reasoning’s. Remember, I have a simple, shallow mind and I think your complex ideas go waaay over my head.”

Cade paused a moment to drink his beer. “I think you just walked yourself into a wall though, because if you were completely turned off of the idea of me being interested in you, you would have just blown me off and have been done with it.” Cade set his beer down and looked over at House critically. “So…something’s got you interested.”

[dr_gregoryhouse]

House returned his attention down to his beer. He swiped his thumb over the glass, wiping away small droplets of condensation gathered on it. It was getting harder and harder to take Cade in his stride when Cade cornered him with something like that - by pointing out that House wasn't exactly displaying disinterest. Or telling Cade to back off.

He shifted on his stool and fought back another twist of nervousness as he raised his beer to his mouth. "Who said I was turned off? You make a lot of assumptions."

He took a long pull from his beer and then placed it back down. "Then again, who said I was interested? Maybe I'm just very open-minded."

[caden_walker]

Cade swivelled on his stool again so he was facing House. He didn’t say anything for a moment, while he took in House’s words and - possibly what was more telling - House’s body language. Could House actually be…gay, or bi? Bisexual seemed more possible, but still Cade couldn’t tell for sure. Maybe bi-curious. Or…?

“How open minded are you?” Cade asked, raising his eyebrows. “Open minded enough to flirt with another man, maybe. But are you open minded in the sense you might kiss a man…sleep with one?” Cade paused for a moment, looking down at House’s hand on his beer and smiled a little.

“Or…are you just trying to mess with me? I think you,” Cade gestured at House with his beer, “like messing with people. Winding them up, seeing what makes them tick…that kind of thing. You say human bodies are interesting but…you seem more interested in human minds. Maybe you should have been a psychiatrist.”

[dr_gregoryhouse]

Cade turning around on his stool and facing him like made House feel completely exposed. He unconsciously pushed his beer away from Cade while he resisted the urge to turn away from him. He felt his stomach knot up when Cade boldly asked if House was open-minded enough to kiss... sleep with another man.

House shifted on his stool again and hunched over his beer. Discreetly as he could, he glanced down at his watch. Not even six-thirty yet. He drew in a deep breath and was about to make a sarcastic reply to Cade's comment, when Cade then shifted gears.

House looked across at him. Relief flooded through him as Cade started analysing him, diverting himself from the subject of sex. House found enough confidence to swivel on the stool to face Cade more, now giving him an assessing look.

"Psychiatry is about piecing together someone's psyche based upon what they tell you," he said, glad to latch onto the change in topic. "Assuming they're telling you the truth. I find that if you want to know the truth about someone, that someone should be the last person to ask. Psychiatry isn't about wanting to find out anything about a person, seeing that person came to you in the first place. Got someone who's dying, on the other hand, with symptoms that don't add up, then you want to know about that person. Where they've been, why, what they're not telling you. Like a puzzle. That's way more interesting than sitting opposite a person, playing Freud to their neuroses. Besides, playing mind games with people in unexpected places is way more fun."

House lifted his beer to his mouth, hoping that he'd managed to divert Cade off track from the sleeping with men business.

[caden_walker]

“I can see your point,” Cade said. He was by no means the most observant person around but Cade could have sworn there had been relief on House’s face when he’d diverted the conversation away from sex again. Or, more to the point, away from gay sex.

And the plot thickens, Cade thought to himself with a smile, turning away to face the bar. “So you like puzzles. Me too…except the ones I like come in paper form, not skin. Do you see everyone as puzzles to be solved, or just patients and innocent young male nurses?”

Cade looked over at House and smirked a little. He considered for a moment, trying to push House again to answer his question about how open minded he was but decided against it at the last moment. Maybe Cade didn’t want to get a negative answer. “Or maybe I’m not a puzzle at all. Because, obviously, what’s there to solve about me? But if I’m not a puzzle,” Cade smiled, “that must mean you like me. Why else would you spend any time with me?”

[dr_gregoryhouse]

House gave Cade a wry look, refusing to be thrown off by the innocent young male nurse comment. The guy was audacious, that was for sure. "Innocent?" House snorted. "I have a sneaking suspicion you're about as innocent as you claim you are shallow."

Facing back to the bar a little more, House took a swig of his beer, just as Cade then went on to say something that made House falter again. He sat there, beer bottle poised to his lips without actually drinking from it, as Cade's words why else would you spend any time with me, rattled around in his mind.

He set the bottle back down and watched his thumb wiping drops of condensation from the beer bottle label as his mind instantly moved to thoughts of Wilson. The fact that he'd turned Wilson down to join him here in favour of spending time with Cade. Which... why? Why was he doing this? What did he really hope to achieve, if anything?

He suddenly realised he had no idea. Sure, he was curious about what it would be like to kiss another man, sleep with another man. And sure, in the back of his mind, maybe he was doing this because he wanted to test Wilson. But how did he actually intend on sating his curiosity about other men? Did he intend on sating it? He didn't want to answer that question. Much like he didn't want - or know how - to answer Cade's.

"Yeah," he replied sarcastically, "I like you. Like I like pickles." He pulled a face and shuddered. He leaned his elbows against the bar. "Let me ask you something," he continued without giving Cade a chance to reply, and before he could give himself a chance to chicken out. "How long you known you swing both ways?"

[caden_walker]

Cade scrunched his face up and then just settled for squinting at House for a moment. For a long moment. There were two reasons people asked that kind of question. One was that they’d never met a gay or bisexual person before. The other was because they were questioning their own sexuality.

Shaking his head, Cade looked down at the bar and ran a hand over his face. Was this why House was hanging out with him? There was no way Cade was the first non-straight person House had met but he just couldn’t quite believe House was having some kind of sexuality crisis. It just didn’t seem probable at all but then…who knew. Some people lived in denial until they died.

“Joe Puccini,” Cade said suddenly, dropping his hand down. “We had a few classes together in high school. At first I just thought he was cool, figured I just wanted to be friends. But then…when we were friends, he’d touch me or something - something completely innocent - and I’d…” Cade glanced at House with a slight smirk, “well, you know, teenage hormones and all that.

“That was when I really knew, but I think there were signs there long before that. I just didn’t take much notice of them. I guess it would have been clearer if I didn’t like girls as well. It can get…a little mixed up if your sexuality isn’t clear cut, like we’re all brought up to believe it should be.” Cade gave House another quick glance, trying to get any clues from his expression.

“Stupid really, if you ask me. Why would sexuality be so black and white when nothing else about human nature is? Or nature period?”

[dr_gregoryhouse]

House wanted to kick himself for asking that question when Cade just sat there and squinted at him. He pretended not to be perturbed, however, by focusing on taking sips of his beer. Long sips of his beer; an excuse not to have to look at Cade. He also watched the bar girl moving about behind the bar, even giving her a brief half-smile when she grinned at him.

As Cade started to talk, though, House grew less interested in his beer and more interested in what Cade was saying. What he actually hoped to find out, he didn't know - maybe some reassurance that what he was going through was normal, or some reassurance that... Maybe just some reassurance.

He definitely got the part about sexuality not being clear-cut. Especially at his age. By the time Cade finished talking, House was staring absently down at his beer. He had this sudden urge to just blurt out to Cade that this was something he was seriously struggling with.

He leaned heavily against the bar and sighed, swilling his beer in its bottle. "Because that's the way a society heavily influenced by Judeo-Christianity makes it," he replied, a little bitterly. "The morals and standards of Western society are based upon biblical principles, and the bible teaches that human nature is evil. Especially when it comes to things like sex and sexuality. That's the whole reason why it's treated like it should be black and white."

He sipped his beer and set it back down, and resumed peering down at it. "That's one of the things I hate about religion. Best way to learn nothing about the world, sexuality included, is to rely on religion to teach you. That's whole the problem with this screwed up society."

[caden_walker]

“Amen,” Cade said dryly before taking another swig of beer. “Makes me glad I wasn’t brought up in a religious family. I agree with you, religion as a whole has done no one any favours. Not the environment either. It’s not just human nature that is evil according to many religions, but all of nature really.”

Cade shook his head and gave House a look. “Whoa, this is getting way too intellectual of a conversation for me. I’m gonna sprain my brain around you, I can sense it already.” Cade smirked a little, well aware that he hadn’t fooled House at all with his dumb and shallow act.

That didn’t mean he had to admit House was right. Besides, Cade had been hiding behind that mask for so long that it was hard for him to let go of it with someone he didn’t know well enough yet.

“So, why are you interested in how I came to know that I ‘swing both ways’? Don’t tell me you’ve never met an openly bisexual person before. Or…is sexuality a special interest to you recently?” Cade raised an eyebrow, looking at House inquisitively.

[dr_gregoryhouse]

House gave Cade a look. "Common sense gives you a brain sprain?"

House knew Cade wasn't stupid, and he'd worked Cade out long ago to know that stupid act was simply that - an act. House played along, anyway, though made it obvious he hadn't been fooled. He raised his beer to his mouth, adding dryly, "No wonder people see you as a doormat."

House tensed up again, however, when Cade swung the conversation back towards him, and why he wanted to know about Cade's sexuality. He paid extra special interest in reading the label on his beer bottle as he scrambled for a way to answer Cade's question. A part of him still really wanted to just blurt it out; another part of him wanted to flee.

He quickly checked his watch again. Almost six-thirty. He cleared his throat and glanced quickly at Cade. "Practicing medicine is a good way to come across all walks of life," he replied as his way of saying he'd come across more bisexual people in his lifetime than he could shake a stick at.

He paused, trying to work out how he could explain why he'd wanted to know about Cade. He could just avoid answering altogether... but Cade wasn't stupid enough to just let that slide. Maybe he could just say that was something about Cade he didn't know and had therefore asked about it. Or maybe he should just avoid answering it all together, yeah. Just hope Cade would ignore it, too. Or maybe he could say something without neither confirming nor denying that sexuality was a 'special interest' to him lately.

"Special interest," he echoed. "You make it sound like that section they have in every video store; the section with DVDs about wildlife and Jane Fonda aerobics and soft porn arthouse movies, all listed under 'Special Interest', which no one ever rents out."

[caden_walker]

Cade took note of House’s body language - the way he checked his watch and cleared his throat - and kept quiet, hoping to draw an answer out that way. He sighed when it seemed that was all House was going to say.

“You’re avoiding the question,” he pointed out bluntly before finishing off his second beer. For a moment he weighed up the option of getting a third before deciding not to - more because he had more useful things to spend his money on than concern over getting drunk.

“Look, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. But if there is…something, you can tell me and I promise it won’t go beyond me,” Cade said, trying a slightly different tactic. “I’m not the kind to be judgemental about people, in case you haven’t realised that already.”

[dr_gregoryhouse]

House's hope that Cade would let the subject go, sank when Cade pointed out he was avoiding the question. He was just about to ask Cade if he wanted another beer, just to shut him up, when Cade then continued. He gave Cade an assessing look. Even if he did say anything, he couldn't trust Cade would keep it to himself. On the other hand, Cade at least got the whole sexuality thing, judgmental or not.

He debated with himself whether to actually say anything or not for a moment, drinking back the rest of his beer to stall for time. Beer finished, he set the bottle down onto the counter and shoved it from him.

"You're shallow and happy-go-lucky, right," he replied with a hint of sarcasm. "Why would you be judgmental about anything?" He watched the bar girl collect his beer and shook his head when she asked if he wanted anything else. He followed her with his eyes as she walked off before settling his eyes back on Cade. He studied Cade's face for a moment, then looked down to the bar with a quiet sigh.

"Get to my age, you think you've got it all worked out," he admitted in a low voice. "And then something happens that completely changes almost everything you thought you knew about yourself without being even remotely prepared for it, and you think to yourself, 'Boy, never saw that coming'."

He glanced at Cade again and then looked away again, frowning down at the bar.

[caden_walker]

“Oh, I see,” Cade said, making it clear by his tone that he didn’t really see at all. Eyeing House, Cade rubbed at his jaw thoughtfully. “Are you…are you saying that…” Cade trailed off, frowning. “Have you recently realised that you might be…something other than straight?” Cade asked, raising his eyebrows.

At first, Cade thought this possible revelation of House’s had something to do with him but then…no. Whatever was going on with House, it was something recent but not that recent. At least, Cade didn’t think so. Not if House was - even reluctantly - talking about it with him.

“Well?” Cade prodded, still looking at House carefully. “Is that it?”