rivers_bend

For paperclipbitch because her fic rocks my world and she asked, and for kohl_rimmed_eye because she kicked ass on her exams. Though I'm not sure if this is what she was after.

Fandom: House
Pairing: Wilson/Chase (and nothing to do with House, so H/W shippers, avert your eyes)
Rating: pg-13
Warnings: fluff so fluffy your teeth might hurt
thanks to karaokegal for last minute beta



Chase had been on call for 53 hours and hadn’t slept for a single one of them. At 7:21 pm, their patient came out of surgery. The recovery nurses could have him now. Despite being bleary-eyed with exhaustion, Chase got himself upstairs to the diagnostics department. House gave him a quick once-over, clearly not impressed with anything he saw.

“What did you do to Dr. Pretty? Chase, you look like shit. Go home. I don’t want to see you back here til – what’s today?”

Chase had no idea anymore and said so.

“Anyway, I don’t want to see you back here until day after tomorrow. And please take a shower.”

Chase didn’t wait for House to change his mind. He probably wasn’t safe to drive but he didn’t really care. His eyes only drifted shut at the red lights and the cars behind were quite happily willing to honk to wake him up when they were green.

He did manage a shower when he got home, but couldn’t be bothered to eat anything. It was one of those nights when getting into bed was better than sex.

The most amazing aroma woke Chase up thirteen hours later. It smelled like someone was cooking in his kitchen. There was a cup of coffee on the table next to his head. Chase stretched luxuriously and only then realized that the only part of him covered by the bedding was his left leg. And he wasn’t wearing pyjamas.

Chase heard humming from the other room and hastily covered himself with the sheet. “Hello?” His voice came out a scratchy whisper. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Hello?” This time he heard footsteps coming towards his room. Wilson stopped in the doorway.

“Morning. Did I get the coffee right?”

Chase was struck dumb. Wilson was in his apartment. Cooking, if the smells and the spatula in his hand were any indication. Making him coffee. Seeing him… oh shit seeing him naked.

“I can’t remember if you take sugar.” Wilson sounded as though it were perfectly normal for him to be standing in Chase’s bedroom doorway talking about coffee.

Chase rubbed his eyes, but Wilson was still standing there when he opened them again. “I, um, I, not in the morning. I only have sugar at night.”

“That explains why I couldn’t remember.”

Wilson took the bathrobe off the back of a chair and threw it to Chase. “Come on, get up, breakfast’s almost ready.” He turned and walked back to the kitchen. Chase took a sip of coffee and obeyed.

Looking in the bathroom mirror, he saw that his hair was all stuck up on the side of his head where he’d gone to bed with it wet. Part of him wanted to die of embarrassment that Wilson had seen him looking like that. On the other hand, most of his brain refused to believe that Wilson was anything other than a dream or a figment of his over exhausted imagination, so he was less distressed than he would have been otherwise. He stuck his head in the sink, brushed his teeth, and went out to the kitchen.

The man at the stove had his back to Chase, but definitely looked like Wilson. Chase cleared his throat. “Wilson? Um, not that I’m not grateful for the coffee, and the breakfast, but, what are you doing here?”

“Making you French toast.”

“What, no macadamia nut pancakes?”

“Too clichéd. Besides, look at this bread.” Wilson picked up a loaf of bakery bread from the counter next to him.

Chase tried again. “How did you get in?” He was starting to feel very naked under his bathrobe as the sight of Wilson making himself at home in the kitchen woke up parts he would rather stayed sleeping. He debated returning to the bedroom for more clothes, but decided to just hide under the table. He sat down at the place Wilson had set for him.

“I was going to ring the bell when I got here, but it turned out you forgot to lock the door behind you when you got home last night, so I just let you sleep.”

“Guess I’m lucky it was you and not burglars who discovered that. Shit.”

“What is it they say? ‘There’s a special god for drunks and children?’ They should add doctors who’ve been working two and a half days straight.”

“Did House send you?”

Wilson gave him a look that said “Are you nuts”, but not in an unkind way. “I watched you leave last night. I followed you home because you didn’t look like you should be driving. I made sure you got home safely. I figured I would leave it at that, but this morning I woke up and there was no food in my apartment and when I went out to get some I thought you might need breakfast too.” Wilson was looking intently at the bowl of strawberries he had just put on the table.

“Thank you.” Chase wasn’t sure how else to respond. He’d always been fairly certain that Wilson wouldn’t notice if Chase left work one day and never came back.

Wilson busied himself in the bag at the end of the table. “Do you want syrup?”

“Sure.”

Wilson put syrup in front of Chase and brought two plates to the table. “Here you go.”

They ate in a silence that Chase was surprised to find was almost companionable. The food was delicious. He ate as though he hadn’t eaten in almost twenty four hours and then realized that he hadn’t. Unless you counted the chocolate bar from the vending machine on the second floor.

Wilson stood as Chase was taking his last bite and served him two more pieces of the crispy golden eggy bread which had been keeping warm on the back of the stove. Chase heaped them high with fruit and poured syrup over the top. He looked up to say thank you again and noticed Wilson watching him. Something about his gaze made a flush shoot from the middle of Chase’s chest to his cheeks. Expressions of gratitude died in his throat as his mouth went dry. Chase was suddenly very aware that Wilson had seen him lying sprawled naked across his bed. He was finding it difficult to breathe.

Wilson smiled. “I have to say, when I decided to come over this morning, I wasn’t expecting the view.”

“Sorry about that. I wasn’t expecting house-guests.”

“I never said I was complaining.” Wilson reached across the table and pushed a lock of Chase’s hair out of his eyes. “I wouldn’t say no to seeing it again, if you aren’t hungry any more.”

It was well after lunch time when Chase decided he’d been wrong the night before. Nothing was better than sex.