Title Touch
Rating PG
Pairing House/Wilson
Word Count 448
Spoilers None
Summary James Wilson is not a touchy-feely guy.
A/N Another short fic to keep from going insane while working on a much longer one. And on a completely unrelated note: I had a dream about Wilson, House, Foreman, and Cameron (yes, I know, no Chase!) having a freaky four-way in a patient's kitchen. I blame Nip/Tuck.



1.

James Wilson doesn't touch anyone who's not a patient. It was only with great thought and effort that he could express the proper level of physical affection to his wives, and they never caught on, because James Wilson is also a very good liar.

There are probably very good reasons for all of that, involving hormones he was exposed to while in his mother's womb and how he was raised. But the why isn't really important; fact is, James Wilson doesn't touch anyone who's not a patient.

So Wilson touched House-the-patient, but never House – at least not intentionally. When he did, Wilson found the contact rather comforting and, what was the word?

Oh, yes, absolutely terrifying.

Wilson used to wonder why that was, but he finally stopped kidding himself one day.


2.

House doesn't seem like a touchy-feely kind of guy. Wilson always assumed this was the case, even though looking back, House took far too much glee in touching him (granted, in completely obnoxious and juvenile ways).

Sometimes Wilson is pretty stupid when it comes to House.

For example, there was that time Wilson was watching some inane piece of television with House when he felt a hand gently rubbing his back – then his shoulder, his neck, his arm. Wilson reciprocated the action, but as soon as he wandered below the belt, House almost growled, “You're such a guy.”

Well, that was a nice change of pace from being called a girl. “What? Were you trying to...cuddle with me?”

“I take it back. You still think like a woman,” House said, removing his arm from behind Wilson.

That's how Wilson learned not to tease House about something if he wants House to keep doing it.


3.

James Wilson doesn't touch anyone who's not a patient in public, because he never wanted to. But watching House with Cuddy, or House flirting back to the occasional insane patient, makes Wilson want to walk up and mark House as his, somehow.

He knows it's insane, because House isn't going to leave him; it's equally insane that Wilson knows this with such certainty.

Those territorial moments always come to pass eventually. What doesn't go away is the urge to run a hand through House's hair when Wilson sees him. Or the urge to just touch him in the middle of the day, for no reason, when Wilson is sitting in his own office.

Sometimes Wilson humors the urges, and House humors Wilson, but doing so seems to have just made the feeling stronger.

At some point, the hospital staff started accidentally (but rightfully) referring to House as his boyfriend when talking to Wilson.