Fic: The Tie
Title: The Tie
Author: Pinigir
Fandom: House
Characters/Pairing: House/Wilson (pre-)slash
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Slash. Tie!kink mentioned.
Time-line: Takes place somewhere in season 6, when House and Wilson are living together.
Summary: House is wearing a tie and Wilson wants to know why.
Disclaimer: As far as I know, my name isn’t mentioned anywhere in the credits of the show, so I guess it’s not mine.
Notes: No beta. All mistakes are mine.
The Tie
House was wearing a tie. Not just that, but it was a tie that Wilson was very familiar with. Because it had been around his neck a lot of times. It was his tie. What was House doing wearing his tie? Why was House wearing a tie in the first place?
House hated wearing ties. He would only do so when he was forced to. Like the times when he had a lawsuit hanging over his head. And even then, it would be under much protest. What could have forced House to wear a tie now? Wilson racked his brain, but as far as he knew, House hadn’t attracted any lawsuits recently. So, that was out. What other possible reasons could there be for House to wear a tie?
Maybe it was for Cuddy’s benefit. But if House really wanted to please her, he would wear a lab coat or do his clinic hours. And since when would he try to appease Cuddy anyway? Ass kissing was not House favored way of dealing with Cuddy, or anybody, for that matter. House had far more devious ways of manipulating Cuddy.
Now that he had ruled out Cuddy, what was left? House’s fellows. And Wilson himself. Maybe House wanted to mess with them or with him? Though he couldn’t think of any reason for House to pester his team more than normally. And he didn’t think he had done anything lately to merit House’s special brand of attention. On the other hand: House didn’t really need a reason to mess with his team. And Wilson was always fair game. But still, would House willingly subject himself to the horror of wearing one of the hated ties just to mess with his fellows and/or Wilson? Wilson wasn’t so sure about that.
Wilson had exhausted all of the options he could think of and still he had no idea why House would be wearing a tie. He was mystified. Of course, he could try asking House, but that never went down well. He would have to find the answer on his own. Which was probably going to take him all day, distracting him from all the work he had to do. He knew he should just try to ignore the issue, but he also knew that that wasn’t going to work. House had provided him with a mystery. And Wilson was trapped by the need to solve it.
Wilson tried his best to bury himself in his work. Meanwhile, House was prancing around the hospital as if it were perfectly normal for him to be sporting a tie. One of Wilson’s ties at that.
It was really hard not to get distracted by these facts. It was even harder when House barged into his office at odd intervals. It became increasingly difficult for Wilson to pretend not to notice the tie. It even felt like House showed up more than normal, just to make it more difficult for him to ignore the little piece of cloth.
Come lunchtime, Wilson hadn’t gotten nearly as much work done as he had planned. He had valiantly tried to ignore the tie issue, but it had kept creeping up on him. Lunchtime itself was even worse. The tie was in front of him the whole time. There was no escape. Wilson had to tear his eyes away from the offending object more times than he cared to count. And he lost the thread of the conversation at least once. House had to have noticed something, but he hadn’t said anything.
When Wilson was finally back in the relative safety of his office, after the disaster that was lunch, he didn’t fare much better than before. He caught himself staring off into space several times, contemplating the nature of House’s tie. Like he had observed before, it was one of his own ties. Not that it really surprised him all that much: House was known to go through his things and steal them. Also, House owned two, maybe three ties. It would make sense for him to pilfer one of Wilson’s, since Wilson had plenty of them. All of that explained why House had “borrowed” one of Wilson’s ties, but it didn’t explain why he had chosen this particular tie.
It was a light blue tie, with a subtle pattern woven into the fabric. He was aware that it didn’t look all that good on himself, but boy, did it look good on House. For one, the color really brought out his eyes. And somehow, House had made it look cool. Ties made Wilson look nice and respectable, but never anything approaching cool. In fact, ties made Wilson look decidedly uncool. So, how had House managed to pull it off? Maybe it wasn’t just the tie, but the way he used it. Apart from the tie, House was mostly dressed in black. Black was known for its coolness, but that wasn’t all. The black of House’s clothes stood in stark contrast with the blue of his tie. The effect was striking. Coupled with the already noted emphasis the tie brought on House’s eyes, this could be upgraded to stunning. To sum it up, this particular tie made House look cool, maybe even hot.
This brought up two questions in Wilson’s mind. First: could it be possible that House had chosen this tie because of the way it made him look? Second: why was he thinking about House looking hot and stunning and having pretty eyes? This second question made him stop in his tracks. He didn’t know how he had gotten from the subject of House wearing a tie to thinking about House’s attractiveness, but it was something he should never have allowed to happen. It was a train of thought that could only lead to badness. He had to abandon it. Right now. So, Wilson did his best to banish all thoughts of House from his mind and focused all his attention on the chart he had been trying to read for the last ten minutes.
Wilson had just gotten back into his work groove when his concentration was broken by a knock on his door. It was Taub. It appeared that House’s fellows were just as stumped about House wearing a tie as Wilson was. And they had elected Taub to pay a visit to the House Oracle: Wilson himself. Well, wasn’t he happy about that. Lucky for him, Taub didn’t waste any time pussyfooting around.
“Do you know why House is wearing a tie?”
“Probably just to mess with you.”
Wilson wasn’t going to admit that he didn’t have any idea either. His answer could be true, anyway. And whether it was intended or not, one of the effects of House wearing a tie to work today was that it greatly confused House’s team. Which was proven by the fact that one member of said team was now asking him about it. So, it made sense, in a way. It was convincing enough for Taub, it seemed.
“What should we do about it?”
“Ignore it. Just like I am doing.”
Well, that was a blatant lie. Not that ignoring wouldn’t be a good idea, but it hadn’t worked for him at all today. It should work just fine for House’s team, though. Taub seemed to think so as well.
“Okay, we’ll try that.”
“Good luck.”
“Thanks.”
With that, Taub left. And Wilson was left with thoughts about House again. He remembered that, before his thoughts had derailed completely, he had come to an interesting conclusion. It could be that House had chosen to wear a tie because it would make him look good. But who would he do that for? Certainly not for himself. There had to be someone House wanted to impress, possibly woo. It wouldn’t be anybody on House’s team; it was ridiculous to even think that. That basically left Cuddy, and Wilson himself.
A few months ago, House had tried to pursue Cuddy. That had fallen flat on its face when it was revealed that Cuddy had started dating Lucas. For all appearances, and Wilson tended to believe them this time, House had given up on actively trying to seduce Cuddy. There was nothing in House’s recent behavior to indicate that he had changed his tactics. Which meant that it wasn’t very likely that House had done this for her.
Some traitorous thoughts in the back of his mind were telling him that House could actually have done this for him. But he refused to entertain such thoughts. First of all, he had no reason to believe that House would want to seduce him. House was his friend. Nothing more. Secondly, the part of his brain where these thoughts came from was known for its stupidity. It secretly wanted things that the rest of him knew were impossible and would probably ruin his life if they ever did come to be. Wilson habitually ignored this part of his brain and was inclined to do so now. He didn’t dare believe that House was wearing a tie for him.
It seemed that there was no-one left on the list of people House might try to put the moves on. Unless there was someone he didn’t know about, but that was very unlikely. Maybe he had been wrong in thinking that House was trying to impress someone. Maybe House was just trying to screw with everybody’s minds, even though that didn’t make total sense either. Whichever way he looked at it, Wilson couldn’t come up with a satisfying answer for House wearing a tie. It seemed that he had to admit defeat. Which meant that he might as well get back to his work. So he did.
By the end of the day, Wilson had gotten a little bit more work done, even though House had come to visit him once more. He had half expected Cuddy to come by his office and ask him about the tie, but she hadn’t shown up. That was a small mercy, at least. He was about to leave when he was greeted by House, for the umpteenth time that day. Wilson didn’t feel up to dealing with him yet again, but he didn’t have a choice. House had cornered him. It was clear that he wanted something, so the only thing he could do was wait till it became clear what House wanted. He wasn’t left in suspense for long, because House attacked him with a question almost immediately.
“Don’t you wanna ask?”
“Ask what?”
“The question everybody’s been dying to ask me all day, but was too afraid to.”
“And that question would be?”
Wilson could see where this was going and he didn’t like it. House was going to bring up the tie. A subject Wilson wished to leave well alone. Even though he was slightly curious as to why House would bring up the subject.
“Something along the lines of: “Why are you wearing a tie?” Because, you know, I’m wearing a tie today. Look, here it is.”
House made an obnoxious show of grabbing the tie with one hand and practically shoving it in Wilson’s face.
“Really? I hadn’t noticed.”
That was a stupid lie. Something he knew House would see right through. But is was obvious that House was playing some kind of game and Wilson wasn’t in the mood for that. He wasn’t going to play along with it that easily, just to please House.
“Right. And I’m a Russian mail order bride with leprechauns growing out of her ears. I know you must have seen it. And don’t pretend otherwise. I’ve caught you staring. Plus, I’m sure that Taub didn’t come by your office today just so the two of you could compare your philandering histories.”
“Okay, House, you’ve got me. I’ve seen your tie and have been wondering all day why you’re wearing it.”
“So, ask me.”
“Alright, whatever. If that’s what it takes. Tell me, House: why are you wearing a tie?”
“Why do you think?”
“House! That’s not an answer! That’s just another question!”
“I never said I was going to answer your question. Besides, I’m sure you’ve come up with some interesting theories yourself. I would like to hear them.”
“What makes you think I will tell them?”
“Well, you can tell me and then I can tell you how wrong you have been. Or you don’t tell me and I’m not going to tell you anything in return. Your choice.”
Wilson had a feeling that there was a flaw in this logic. Because he wasn’t so sure he really wanted to know anymore. And it was obvious that House wanted to tell. He just wanted to be difficult about it first. So really, House didn’t have all that much leverage. But still, it would make no sense to walk away now.
“Okay, I’ll humor you. I’ll tell you what I’ve come up with.”
“Neat.”
“First thing that crossed my mind was that there might be some lawsuit I didn’t know about, but that clearly wasn’t true. Then I thought that maybe you wanted to appease Cuddy, but that didn’t seem very likely either. Most logical thing I could think of is that you just wanted to mess with everyone’s heads.”
“Was that all?”
“Well, no, but my last theory didn’t make a lot of sense, so I don’t really see the point in telling it.”
“I wanna hear it anyway. So, spill!”
“See, the thing is, I noticed that the tie you are wearing doesn’t look all that unappealing on you. I thought that, maybe, you wanted to impress someone. But I couldn’t think of anyone you would do that for at the moment. Which led me to discount this idea and go back to thinking that the most logical thing is that you just wanted to screw with everyone, in a not so literal sense.”
“Interesting analysis. Do you wanna know my side of the story?”
“Go ahead.”
“First of all, this has nothing to do with Cuddy. Second, I can’t say that I’m not pleased to have the opportunity to cause so much confusion - in you, in Cuddy, in my team, in the rest of the hospital staff - but that wasn’t the main reason for me to wear a tie. Third, there was a reason why I was wearing this tie... Can you see where I’m going with this?”
“What? How would I know?”
“Come on, Wilson, think! What option is left? You were on the right track somewhere. Why would I want to wear this particular tie? Remember, Cuddy is not the answer.”
“Wait, you wanted to impress someone? But not Cuddy. Who - ?”
“How many other people do I know?”
“Well, there’s your team, maybe a few nurses...”
“And?”
“Me.”
House didn’t reply to this, just simply looked at him. Which could only mean one thing: Wilson had found the right answer. At least, that was what he thought it meant. But that couldn’t be, could it? That had to be wishful thinking. Why would House want to wear a tie for him? Why would House want to impress him, seduce him? He couldn’t believe that to be true, didn’t dare believe that to be true. House had to be messing with him. But would House really go to all that trouble just to mess with him? And why would he do it like this? It had the risk of ruining their friendship if anything went wrong. Surely, House wouldn’t be that destructive?
While Wilson was trying to work it all out, House kept silent. He also kept looking at Wilson, his expression hard to read, as if too many emotions were fighting for dominance. That was probably a good sign. Wilson was inclined to believe that House had genuinely been trying to impress him, even though it was hard to imagine. Still, he didn’t entirely trust his own deductive skills. He needed proof. He needed to hear it from House himself. For that reason, Wilson decided to ask House and hope he would get a real answer.
“Are you seriously telling me that you have been wearing this tie to impress me?”
House looked like he was debating answering with a smart ass remark, something to indicate how stupid Wilson was being, but it seemed like he opted to actually tell the truth this time around.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why did you do it?”
“I just told you. You’re not getting senile, are you?”
“No, I mean, why would you want to seduce me?”
“Come on, everybody knows you have been secretly wanting me for years.”
Wilson needed to digest that. Was it true? Had he really been that transparent? Or was House grossly over-exaggerating? Whatever the case, he’d better ignore the issue and get on with what was at hand. He’d think about his possible failures at obfuscation later.
“Okay, that explains why you would think it would work on me, but it doesn’t explain why you wanted it to work.”
“I thought that would be obvious.”
“Not to me, apparently. Please, elaborate. I want to actually hear you say it.”
“Do I really have to say it?”
“Yes, please.”
“I want to be sure of something first. It did work, right? Me wearing the tie?”
“Yes, House. Your plan worked, as I’m pretty sure you’ve figured out already. Now, quit stalling.”
“Ugh. Okay, here goes nothing. I’ll put it like this: you’re not the only one with inappropriate feelings towards his best friend. Although I’m not sure I’d really call them inappropriate...”
“How long?”
“Well, it’s not just a recent thing. Quite the contrary, actually.”
“Why did you decide to act on this now?”
“Nothing particular. I was tired of waiting, I was bored and I was willing to take the chance. Besides, it seemed like a perfect opportunity: we’re already living together, we’re both single; it would be logical to take it to the next level.”
“And in stead of talking to me about it, you decided to do this?”
“Basically, yes. It was a lot more fun this way.”
“Sure, House.”
Secretly, Wilson thought that House might be right. Actions did speak louder than words. And it was even kind of romantic of House to try and seduce him. When he looked at it that way, Wilson could appreciate House’s method, even though it had messed with everyone’s heads, himself included. That Wilson appreciated House’s method, didn’t mean that he was going to inflate House’s ego by admitting to it.
Anyway, Wilson had finally gotten his answers. House had been predictably difficult about it, but he was willing to overlook that. Because the answers he did get more than made up for the difficulty he had had in procuring them. They were more than he could have ever hoped for. House actually wanted Wilson like Wilson had been wanting him. Hearing this made feelings surface that he had been subconsciously suppressing during this whole conversation, or maybe for a “slightly” longer period of time. He felt elated and giddy, like he was ready to burst out of his own skin, in a good way.
Realizing his own feelings made Wilson wonder what House was feeling. He looked at House. House looked more nervous than he had looked in ages. Maybe he feared he had done the wrong thing? It was adorable to see House so vulnerable, but Wilson decided that it would be best to help him out of his misery. He knew just the thing.
Wilson made a show of taking in House’s appearance, paying special attention to the tie. Then, he reached for the tie, grabbed it and yanked. It had the desired effect: it brought House’s face a lot closer to his own face. Close enough to kiss. Which was what he did. It was a strange sensation, suddenly kissing House like that. But he liked it. And it seemed that House was of the same opinion. House didn’t recoil or freeze or anything like that. No, he was eagerly participating.
Because of the need to breathe, they had to break apart eventually. Only then, after having had a few big gulps of air, did Wilson take in his surroundings. It seemed that he had managed to forget that they were still in the hospital, in plain view for everyone who happened to walk by. Luckily for him, it appeared that no-one had seen them. Nevertheless, he felt a blush creeping up, out of embarrassment for his total lack of decorum. It didn’t mean he regretted the kiss, though. He wouldn’t mind a repeat. Though he would prefer that to be in a more private location.
They were both silent for a while, as they pondered their first kiss and recovered from it. House was the first to speak.
“Hm, if this is what happens when I wear a tie, maybe I should steal your ties more often.”
“Maybe you should.”
Generally, Wilson didn’t approve of House stealing his things, but this time he was willing to make an exception. House did look rather attractive with the tie. He wouldn’t mind House wearing it more often. Maybe he should give it to House. Clearly, House had more use for it than he did. And if he didn’t give it to House, chances were that it would end up in House’s possession anyway, under mysterious circumstances.
“If you want, you can have the tie. As a gift.”
“You really like me wearing the tie, don’t you?”
“Yes, I think we’ve established that.”
“Interesting.”
“What do you mean: “interesting”?”
“It opens up all sorts of possibilities. Whoever knew that good ole Jimmy Wilson had a little bit of a tie kink going on?”
“Who said anything about a tie kink?”
“I just did.”
“...”
“Hah! No sense in denying it, is there?”
“Sure, House. You know, I was going to suggest you to wear a tie more often, but maybe that’s not such a good idea after all. Might be too distracting.”
“I’m all for distracting, but I’ll agree with you this time. I still hate wearing ties. And it could ruin my reputation looking respectable all the time. Next thing I know, they would expect me to go wearing a lab coat!”
“Oh no, we couldn’t have that. You’d better limit wearing ties to private situations, then. Speaking of which, we’re still at the hospital. Let’s change that.”
“That’s an excellent plan. Come on, let’s get out of here!”
House and Wilson didn’t waste any time. They quickly made their way out of the hospital and back to their apartment, where they made some good use of the tie in exploring the new shape their relationship had taken.
The next day, the both of them showed up for work in a better mood than they had had in a long time. Wilson didn’t even mind that he was a bit later than usual. The only thing he worried about, was people bringing up the tie again. Because he wasn’t sure he would be able to keep a blank expression. Right now, the memories of yesterday were hot on his mind. Being reminded of them would surely make him blush and stammer. House’s team and anyone else who asked would have no trouble figuring out what that meant. That could get a bit tricky. Still, he was ready to face the situation if it arose. It was worth it. House wearing the tie had changed his life for the better.
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Author: Pinigir
Fandom: House
Characters/Pairing: House/Wilson (pre-)slash
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Slash. Tie!kink mentioned.
Time-line: Takes place somewhere in season 6, when House and Wilson are living together.
Summary: House is wearing a tie and Wilson wants to know why.
Disclaimer: As far as I know, my name isn’t mentioned anywhere in the credits of the show, so I guess it’s not mine.
Notes: No beta. All mistakes are mine.
The Tie
House was wearing a tie. Not just that, but it was a tie that Wilson was very familiar with. Because it had been around his neck a lot of times. It was his tie. What was House doing wearing his tie? Why was House wearing a tie in the first place?
House hated wearing ties. He would only do so when he was forced to. Like the times when he had a lawsuit hanging over his head. And even then, it would be under much protest. What could have forced House to wear a tie now? Wilson racked his brain, but as far as he knew, House hadn’t attracted any lawsuits recently. So, that was out. What other possible reasons could there be for House to wear a tie?
Maybe it was for Cuddy’s benefit. But if House really wanted to please her, he would wear a lab coat or do his clinic hours. And since when would he try to appease Cuddy anyway? Ass kissing was not House favored way of dealing with Cuddy, or anybody, for that matter. House had far more devious ways of manipulating Cuddy.
Now that he had ruled out Cuddy, what was left? House’s fellows. And Wilson himself. Maybe House wanted to mess with them or with him? Though he couldn’t think of any reason for House to pester his team more than normally. And he didn’t think he had done anything lately to merit House’s special brand of attention. On the other hand: House didn’t really need a reason to mess with his team. And Wilson was always fair game. But still, would House willingly subject himself to the horror of wearing one of the hated ties just to mess with his fellows and/or Wilson? Wilson wasn’t so sure about that.
Wilson had exhausted all of the options he could think of and still he had no idea why House would be wearing a tie. He was mystified. Of course, he could try asking House, but that never went down well. He would have to find the answer on his own. Which was probably going to take him all day, distracting him from all the work he had to do. He knew he should just try to ignore the issue, but he also knew that that wasn’t going to work. House had provided him with a mystery. And Wilson was trapped by the need to solve it.
Wilson tried his best to bury himself in his work. Meanwhile, House was prancing around the hospital as if it were perfectly normal for him to be sporting a tie. One of Wilson’s ties at that.
It was really hard not to get distracted by these facts. It was even harder when House barged into his office at odd intervals. It became increasingly difficult for Wilson to pretend not to notice the tie. It even felt like House showed up more than normal, just to make it more difficult for him to ignore the little piece of cloth.
Come lunchtime, Wilson hadn’t gotten nearly as much work done as he had planned. He had valiantly tried to ignore the tie issue, but it had kept creeping up on him. Lunchtime itself was even worse. The tie was in front of him the whole time. There was no escape. Wilson had to tear his eyes away from the offending object more times than he cared to count. And he lost the thread of the conversation at least once. House had to have noticed something, but he hadn’t said anything.
When Wilson was finally back in the relative safety of his office, after the disaster that was lunch, he didn’t fare much better than before. He caught himself staring off into space several times, contemplating the nature of House’s tie. Like he had observed before, it was one of his own ties. Not that it really surprised him all that much: House was known to go through his things and steal them. Also, House owned two, maybe three ties. It would make sense for him to pilfer one of Wilson’s, since Wilson had plenty of them. All of that explained why House had “borrowed” one of Wilson’s ties, but it didn’t explain why he had chosen this particular tie.
It was a light blue tie, with a subtle pattern woven into the fabric. He was aware that it didn’t look all that good on himself, but boy, did it look good on House. For one, the color really brought out his eyes. And somehow, House had made it look cool. Ties made Wilson look nice and respectable, but never anything approaching cool. In fact, ties made Wilson look decidedly uncool. So, how had House managed to pull it off? Maybe it wasn’t just the tie, but the way he used it. Apart from the tie, House was mostly dressed in black. Black was known for its coolness, but that wasn’t all. The black of House’s clothes stood in stark contrast with the blue of his tie. The effect was striking. Coupled with the already noted emphasis the tie brought on House’s eyes, this could be upgraded to stunning. To sum it up, this particular tie made House look cool, maybe even hot.
This brought up two questions in Wilson’s mind. First: could it be possible that House had chosen this tie because of the way it made him look? Second: why was he thinking about House looking hot and stunning and having pretty eyes? This second question made him stop in his tracks. He didn’t know how he had gotten from the subject of House wearing a tie to thinking about House’s attractiveness, but it was something he should never have allowed to happen. It was a train of thought that could only lead to badness. He had to abandon it. Right now. So, Wilson did his best to banish all thoughts of House from his mind and focused all his attention on the chart he had been trying to read for the last ten minutes.
Wilson had just gotten back into his work groove when his concentration was broken by a knock on his door. It was Taub. It appeared that House’s fellows were just as stumped about House wearing a tie as Wilson was. And they had elected Taub to pay a visit to the House Oracle: Wilson himself. Well, wasn’t he happy about that. Lucky for him, Taub didn’t waste any time pussyfooting around.
“Do you know why House is wearing a tie?”
“Probably just to mess with you.”
Wilson wasn’t going to admit that he didn’t have any idea either. His answer could be true, anyway. And whether it was intended or not, one of the effects of House wearing a tie to work today was that it greatly confused House’s team. Which was proven by the fact that one member of said team was now asking him about it. So, it made sense, in a way. It was convincing enough for Taub, it seemed.
“What should we do about it?”
“Ignore it. Just like I am doing.”
Well, that was a blatant lie. Not that ignoring wouldn’t be a good idea, but it hadn’t worked for him at all today. It should work just fine for House’s team, though. Taub seemed to think so as well.
“Okay, we’ll try that.”
“Good luck.”
“Thanks.”
With that, Taub left. And Wilson was left with thoughts about House again. He remembered that, before his thoughts had derailed completely, he had come to an interesting conclusion. It could be that House had chosen to wear a tie because it would make him look good. But who would he do that for? Certainly not for himself. There had to be someone House wanted to impress, possibly woo. It wouldn’t be anybody on House’s team; it was ridiculous to even think that. That basically left Cuddy, and Wilson himself.
A few months ago, House had tried to pursue Cuddy. That had fallen flat on its face when it was revealed that Cuddy had started dating Lucas. For all appearances, and Wilson tended to believe them this time, House had given up on actively trying to seduce Cuddy. There was nothing in House’s recent behavior to indicate that he had changed his tactics. Which meant that it wasn’t very likely that House had done this for her.
Some traitorous thoughts in the back of his mind were telling him that House could actually have done this for him. But he refused to entertain such thoughts. First of all, he had no reason to believe that House would want to seduce him. House was his friend. Nothing more. Secondly, the part of his brain where these thoughts came from was known for its stupidity. It secretly wanted things that the rest of him knew were impossible and would probably ruin his life if they ever did come to be. Wilson habitually ignored this part of his brain and was inclined to do so now. He didn’t dare believe that House was wearing a tie for him.
It seemed that there was no-one left on the list of people House might try to put the moves on. Unless there was someone he didn’t know about, but that was very unlikely. Maybe he had been wrong in thinking that House was trying to impress someone. Maybe House was just trying to screw with everybody’s minds, even though that didn’t make total sense either. Whichever way he looked at it, Wilson couldn’t come up with a satisfying answer for House wearing a tie. It seemed that he had to admit defeat. Which meant that he might as well get back to his work. So he did.
By the end of the day, Wilson had gotten a little bit more work done, even though House had come to visit him once more. He had half expected Cuddy to come by his office and ask him about the tie, but she hadn’t shown up. That was a small mercy, at least. He was about to leave when he was greeted by House, for the umpteenth time that day. Wilson didn’t feel up to dealing with him yet again, but he didn’t have a choice. House had cornered him. It was clear that he wanted something, so the only thing he could do was wait till it became clear what House wanted. He wasn’t left in suspense for long, because House attacked him with a question almost immediately.
“Don’t you wanna ask?”
“Ask what?”
“The question everybody’s been dying to ask me all day, but was too afraid to.”
“And that question would be?”
Wilson could see where this was going and he didn’t like it. House was going to bring up the tie. A subject Wilson wished to leave well alone. Even though he was slightly curious as to why House would bring up the subject.
“Something along the lines of: “Why are you wearing a tie?” Because, you know, I’m wearing a tie today. Look, here it is.”
House made an obnoxious show of grabbing the tie with one hand and practically shoving it in Wilson’s face.
“Really? I hadn’t noticed.”
That was a stupid lie. Something he knew House would see right through. But is was obvious that House was playing some kind of game and Wilson wasn’t in the mood for that. He wasn’t going to play along with it that easily, just to please House.
“Right. And I’m a Russian mail order bride with leprechauns growing out of her ears. I know you must have seen it. And don’t pretend otherwise. I’ve caught you staring. Plus, I’m sure that Taub didn’t come by your office today just so the two of you could compare your philandering histories.”
“Okay, House, you’ve got me. I’ve seen your tie and have been wondering all day why you’re wearing it.”
“So, ask me.”
“Alright, whatever. If that’s what it takes. Tell me, House: why are you wearing a tie?”
“Why do you think?”
“House! That’s not an answer! That’s just another question!”
“I never said I was going to answer your question. Besides, I’m sure you’ve come up with some interesting theories yourself. I would like to hear them.”
“What makes you think I will tell them?”
“Well, you can tell me and then I can tell you how wrong you have been. Or you don’t tell me and I’m not going to tell you anything in return. Your choice.”
Wilson had a feeling that there was a flaw in this logic. Because he wasn’t so sure he really wanted to know anymore. And it was obvious that House wanted to tell. He just wanted to be difficult about it first. So really, House didn’t have all that much leverage. But still, it would make no sense to walk away now.
“Okay, I’ll humor you. I’ll tell you what I’ve come up with.”
“Neat.”
“First thing that crossed my mind was that there might be some lawsuit I didn’t know about, but that clearly wasn’t true. Then I thought that maybe you wanted to appease Cuddy, but that didn’t seem very likely either. Most logical thing I could think of is that you just wanted to mess with everyone’s heads.”
“Was that all?”
“Well, no, but my last theory didn’t make a lot of sense, so I don’t really see the point in telling it.”
“I wanna hear it anyway. So, spill!”
“See, the thing is, I noticed that the tie you are wearing doesn’t look all that unappealing on you. I thought that, maybe, you wanted to impress someone. But I couldn’t think of anyone you would do that for at the moment. Which led me to discount this idea and go back to thinking that the most logical thing is that you just wanted to screw with everyone, in a not so literal sense.”
“Interesting analysis. Do you wanna know my side of the story?”
“Go ahead.”
“First of all, this has nothing to do with Cuddy. Second, I can’t say that I’m not pleased to have the opportunity to cause so much confusion - in you, in Cuddy, in my team, in the rest of the hospital staff - but that wasn’t the main reason for me to wear a tie. Third, there was a reason why I was wearing this tie... Can you see where I’m going with this?”
“What? How would I know?”
“Come on, Wilson, think! What option is left? You were on the right track somewhere. Why would I want to wear this particular tie? Remember, Cuddy is not the answer.”
“Wait, you wanted to impress someone? But not Cuddy. Who - ?”
“How many other people do I know?”
“Well, there’s your team, maybe a few nurses...”
“And?”
“Me.”
House didn’t reply to this, just simply looked at him. Which could only mean one thing: Wilson had found the right answer. At least, that was what he thought it meant. But that couldn’t be, could it? That had to be wishful thinking. Why would House want to wear a tie for him? Why would House want to impress him, seduce him? He couldn’t believe that to be true, didn’t dare believe that to be true. House had to be messing with him. But would House really go to all that trouble just to mess with him? And why would he do it like this? It had the risk of ruining their friendship if anything went wrong. Surely, House wouldn’t be that destructive?
While Wilson was trying to work it all out, House kept silent. He also kept looking at Wilson, his expression hard to read, as if too many emotions were fighting for dominance. That was probably a good sign. Wilson was inclined to believe that House had genuinely been trying to impress him, even though it was hard to imagine. Still, he didn’t entirely trust his own deductive skills. He needed proof. He needed to hear it from House himself. For that reason, Wilson decided to ask House and hope he would get a real answer.
“Are you seriously telling me that you have been wearing this tie to impress me?”
House looked like he was debating answering with a smart ass remark, something to indicate how stupid Wilson was being, but it seemed like he opted to actually tell the truth this time around.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why did you do it?”
“I just told you. You’re not getting senile, are you?”
“No, I mean, why would you want to seduce me?”
“Come on, everybody knows you have been secretly wanting me for years.”
Wilson needed to digest that. Was it true? Had he really been that transparent? Or was House grossly over-exaggerating? Whatever the case, he’d better ignore the issue and get on with what was at hand. He’d think about his possible failures at obfuscation later.
“Okay, that explains why you would think it would work on me, but it doesn’t explain why you wanted it to work.”
“I thought that would be obvious.”
“Not to me, apparently. Please, elaborate. I want to actually hear you say it.”
“Do I really have to say it?”
“Yes, please.”
“I want to be sure of something first. It did work, right? Me wearing the tie?”
“Yes, House. Your plan worked, as I’m pretty sure you’ve figured out already. Now, quit stalling.”
“Ugh. Okay, here goes nothing. I’ll put it like this: you’re not the only one with inappropriate feelings towards his best friend. Although I’m not sure I’d really call them inappropriate...”
“How long?”
“Well, it’s not just a recent thing. Quite the contrary, actually.”
“Why did you decide to act on this now?”
“Nothing particular. I was tired of waiting, I was bored and I was willing to take the chance. Besides, it seemed like a perfect opportunity: we’re already living together, we’re both single; it would be logical to take it to the next level.”
“And in stead of talking to me about it, you decided to do this?”
“Basically, yes. It was a lot more fun this way.”
“Sure, House.”
Secretly, Wilson thought that House might be right. Actions did speak louder than words. And it was even kind of romantic of House to try and seduce him. When he looked at it that way, Wilson could appreciate House’s method, even though it had messed with everyone’s heads, himself included. That Wilson appreciated House’s method, didn’t mean that he was going to inflate House’s ego by admitting to it.
Anyway, Wilson had finally gotten his answers. House had been predictably difficult about it, but he was willing to overlook that. Because the answers he did get more than made up for the difficulty he had had in procuring them. They were more than he could have ever hoped for. House actually wanted Wilson like Wilson had been wanting him. Hearing this made feelings surface that he had been subconsciously suppressing during this whole conversation, or maybe for a “slightly” longer period of time. He felt elated and giddy, like he was ready to burst out of his own skin, in a good way.
Realizing his own feelings made Wilson wonder what House was feeling. He looked at House. House looked more nervous than he had looked in ages. Maybe he feared he had done the wrong thing? It was adorable to see House so vulnerable, but Wilson decided that it would be best to help him out of his misery. He knew just the thing.
Wilson made a show of taking in House’s appearance, paying special attention to the tie. Then, he reached for the tie, grabbed it and yanked. It had the desired effect: it brought House’s face a lot closer to his own face. Close enough to kiss. Which was what he did. It was a strange sensation, suddenly kissing House like that. But he liked it. And it seemed that House was of the same opinion. House didn’t recoil or freeze or anything like that. No, he was eagerly participating.
Because of the need to breathe, they had to break apart eventually. Only then, after having had a few big gulps of air, did Wilson take in his surroundings. It seemed that he had managed to forget that they were still in the hospital, in plain view for everyone who happened to walk by. Luckily for him, it appeared that no-one had seen them. Nevertheless, he felt a blush creeping up, out of embarrassment for his total lack of decorum. It didn’t mean he regretted the kiss, though. He wouldn’t mind a repeat. Though he would prefer that to be in a more private location.
They were both silent for a while, as they pondered their first kiss and recovered from it. House was the first to speak.
“Hm, if this is what happens when I wear a tie, maybe I should steal your ties more often.”
“Maybe you should.”
Generally, Wilson didn’t approve of House stealing his things, but this time he was willing to make an exception. House did look rather attractive with the tie. He wouldn’t mind House wearing it more often. Maybe he should give it to House. Clearly, House had more use for it than he did. And if he didn’t give it to House, chances were that it would end up in House’s possession anyway, under mysterious circumstances.
“If you want, you can have the tie. As a gift.”
“You really like me wearing the tie, don’t you?”
“Yes, I think we’ve established that.”
“Interesting.”
“What do you mean: “interesting”?”
“It opens up all sorts of possibilities. Whoever knew that good ole Jimmy Wilson had a little bit of a tie kink going on?”
“Who said anything about a tie kink?”
“I just did.”
“...”
“Hah! No sense in denying it, is there?”
“Sure, House. You know, I was going to suggest you to wear a tie more often, but maybe that’s not such a good idea after all. Might be too distracting.”
“I’m all for distracting, but I’ll agree with you this time. I still hate wearing ties. And it could ruin my reputation looking respectable all the time. Next thing I know, they would expect me to go wearing a lab coat!”
“Oh no, we couldn’t have that. You’d better limit wearing ties to private situations, then. Speaking of which, we’re still at the hospital. Let’s change that.”
“That’s an excellent plan. Come on, let’s get out of here!”
House and Wilson didn’t waste any time. They quickly made their way out of the hospital and back to their apartment, where they made some good use of the tie in exploring the new shape their relationship had taken.
The next day, the both of them showed up for work in a better mood than they had had in a long time. Wilson didn’t even mind that he was a bit later than usual. The only thing he worried about, was people bringing up the tie again. Because he wasn’t sure he would be able to keep a blank expression. Right now, the memories of yesterday were hot on his mind. Being reminded of them would surely make him blush and stammer. House’s team and anyone else who asked would have no trouble figuring out what that meant. That could get a bit tricky. Still, he was ready to face the situation if it arose. It was worth it. House wearing the tie had changed his life for the better.
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