House, M.D. -- Greg House/Brittany House -- "Drive" and "Risk Addiction"
Title: Shift
Characters/Pairing: Greg House/Brittany House
Prompt: #3 -- Passion
Word Count: 301
Rating: PG
Summary: They found a way to turn pain into drive into pleasure.
Author's Notes: Inspired by the Depeche Mode song "A Pain That I'm Used To."
It wasn't until Brittany had been married for almost a year that she started to realize some of the deeper reasons why she had married Greg. Including ones that weren't exactly wholesome or likeable. They were both living with pain, now they just got to suffer together.
There was the physical pain. Her disability, his infarction. She thought hers didn't really count anymore, but the lacerations that still stung with the cut nerves in her back seemed to make up for that. They had both been through their share of hurt at other people's hands. People had taken their punches at her. Punches and gunshots and stab wounds. The acts of violence that hurt him were just less obvious and less pronounced, and that made them hurt more.
Scars, and lots of them. She'd seen the ones on his leg, could map them out in her sleep and sometimes she did. He knew about her back, her hip, her shoulder, and her forearm. There were others that didn't exist, that she could still see. The roadmap of the damage done to them.
Because the emotional pain was the real bitch in it all. Things like betrayal and tough decisions and watching people they liked get screwed or killed. Names becoming swear words and lashing out at people who were long since gone without any sense of remorse. Their rage, their cynicism, needed an outlet somewhere, kept sometimes not so quietly beneath the surface.
When she met him, he could sniff out all those things under her skin without much effort. These things they hated in themselves became things they loved in each other. Because it meant empathy. Understanding. Not being alone. Nobody really wants to be alone. The pain didn't hurt so much anymore. The bad was good for them.
Title: Risk Addiction
Characters/Pairing: Greg House/Brittany House
Prompt: #3 -- Passion
Word Count: 418
Rating: G
Summary: This couldn't be more unexpected.
Author's Notes: Takes place during House and Brittany's first meeting, flying home from London, just before their first kiss.
Greg House always had an addictive personality. To the drugs, to gambling, to figuring out medical puzzles. He was an addict, and he'd admitted it. But his next addiction surprised even him.
She was gutsy, recklessly and singlemindedly so, the same kind of bullheadedness he had displayed in dealing with patients and his staff she was showing at the end of a gun. It made him smirk at the same time that he knew she had balls of steel to be risking her own life like that. She was beautiful, the way she sat in the airplane seat, hair falling into her eyes and reading glasses sliding down on her nose. Her eyes were always alive. She moved with confidence even though she was separated from her husband, on her last nerve and hadn't slept for three days.
And she was passionate. God, was she passionate. He could see it in everything she did. She spoke, or yelled depending on the situation, and everyone listened. She had a conviction that was obvious in the sound of her voice, the look in her eyes. It moved her and she gave it to the people around her. This plane was filled with her friends and allies. People who were here less because of a national crisis and more because of her personally. The fire was palpable in the air and House thought it the most marvelous thing he had ever seen. It almost made him want to hope the human race wasn't doomed.
Almost.
There was something there between them. He hadn't talked to someone this openly and this long in a damn long time. She was looking for someone to open up to. He didn't mind listening, even though the more he knew, the more he just thought she'd gotten a raw deal. House wasn't blind; he saw the chemistry. Felt it when he touched her shoulder or caught her eye.
She was tempting, too tempting. Smart, beautiful, driven, and intelligent. He was honest to God attracted to her. He sat there beside her, watching her, talking to her, and every word and glance was pushing him closer to that edge in his brain. He was becoming addicted to her. Her passion was eating him from the inside and it would swallow him whole.
He didn't care. By the time they were over Nevada, his lips were on hers, and from the moment she kissed him back, again and again, he was already gone.
Because she was addicted, too.
Characters/Pairing: Greg House/Brittany House
Prompt: #3 -- Passion
Word Count: 301
Rating: PG
Summary: They found a way to turn pain into drive into pleasure.
Author's Notes: Inspired by the Depeche Mode song "A Pain That I'm Used To."
It wasn't until Brittany had been married for almost a year that she started to realize some of the deeper reasons why she had married Greg. Including ones that weren't exactly wholesome or likeable. They were both living with pain, now they just got to suffer together.
There was the physical pain. Her disability, his infarction. She thought hers didn't really count anymore, but the lacerations that still stung with the cut nerves in her back seemed to make up for that. They had both been through their share of hurt at other people's hands. People had taken their punches at her. Punches and gunshots and stab wounds. The acts of violence that hurt him were just less obvious and less pronounced, and that made them hurt more.
Scars, and lots of them. She'd seen the ones on his leg, could map them out in her sleep and sometimes she did. He knew about her back, her hip, her shoulder, and her forearm. There were others that didn't exist, that she could still see. The roadmap of the damage done to them.
Because the emotional pain was the real bitch in it all. Things like betrayal and tough decisions and watching people they liked get screwed or killed. Names becoming swear words and lashing out at people who were long since gone without any sense of remorse. Their rage, their cynicism, needed an outlet somewhere, kept sometimes not so quietly beneath the surface.
When she met him, he could sniff out all those things under her skin without much effort. These things they hated in themselves became things they loved in each other. Because it meant empathy. Understanding. Not being alone. Nobody really wants to be alone. The pain didn't hurt so much anymore. The bad was good for them.
Title: Risk Addiction
Characters/Pairing: Greg House/Brittany House
Prompt: #3 -- Passion
Word Count: 418
Rating: G
Summary: This couldn't be more unexpected.
Author's Notes: Takes place during House and Brittany's first meeting, flying home from London, just before their first kiss.
Greg House always had an addictive personality. To the drugs, to gambling, to figuring out medical puzzles. He was an addict, and he'd admitted it. But his next addiction surprised even him.
She was gutsy, recklessly and singlemindedly so, the same kind of bullheadedness he had displayed in dealing with patients and his staff she was showing at the end of a gun. It made him smirk at the same time that he knew she had balls of steel to be risking her own life like that. She was beautiful, the way she sat in the airplane seat, hair falling into her eyes and reading glasses sliding down on her nose. Her eyes were always alive. She moved with confidence even though she was separated from her husband, on her last nerve and hadn't slept for three days.
And she was passionate. God, was she passionate. He could see it in everything she did. She spoke, or yelled depending on the situation, and everyone listened. She had a conviction that was obvious in the sound of her voice, the look in her eyes. It moved her and she gave it to the people around her. This plane was filled with her friends and allies. People who were here less because of a national crisis and more because of her personally. The fire was palpable in the air and House thought it the most marvelous thing he had ever seen. It almost made him want to hope the human race wasn't doomed.
Almost.
There was something there between them. He hadn't talked to someone this openly and this long in a damn long time. She was looking for someone to open up to. He didn't mind listening, even though the more he knew, the more he just thought she'd gotten a raw deal. House wasn't blind; he saw the chemistry. Felt it when he touched her shoulder or caught her eye.
She was tempting, too tempting. Smart, beautiful, driven, and intelligent. He was honest to God attracted to her. He sat there beside her, watching her, talking to her, and every word and glance was pushing him closer to that edge in his brain. He was becoming addicted to her. Her passion was eating him from the inside and it would swallow him whole.
He didn't care. By the time they were over Nevada, his lips were on hers, and from the moment she kissed him back, again and again, he was already gone.
Because she was addicted, too.