Chapter Text
House POV:
House took to flying around the area, in wait of the next challenge coming. Sure, he makes the challenges, but every good host needed time for ideas! In his perspective, anyway.
As he flew, he hovered above the temple-like place that held The Orb. How he desired that single, almost jewel-like object for himself.
But the object next to it caught his eye.
Sticky.
Sticky.
He quickly teleported in a display of his power, snapping his fingers to do so. His face was ingrained with a smile moments later as she came into his view.
She, however, did not seem to reciprocate such feelings.
"What do you want? And you're not getting The Orb." She stated with an authority made from resentment. And maybe... fear at the idea? Whatever.
"Can we talk for a bit?" House asked in a manner he presumed to be polite, before adding a little extra "Please?"
Sticky glared in a way that made him feel disappointed in himself. He added with an almost anxiety filled that surprised even him, "We don't have to."
She begrudgingly sighed, dragging herself the small distance between them to about arm's length. She muttered in a low tone that House didn't know how to feel about, but something and fear, and smiled at her rather reluctant agreement to his question.
"I'm only doing this because otherwise you're gonna walk around all mopey if I were to say no. And nobody likes me anyway. That'd just be a worse inconvenience for me." She sighed out. House took notice of how she said nobody liked her, but chose to not comment.
House took her hand, bringing her along the rocky path as she sputtered out incoherent words and forcibly fixing her papers with her free hand.
"Thank you, Sticky." He smiled out at her. He felt more... nervous around her. Like he might have a better chance if he acted better?
A better chance at what?
He sucked in a breath and pushed that thought away. He didn't know how to answer it, but it made him feel weird.
"So, uh, yeah. Now that you know I'm... farther from The Orb, will you talk with me?" He gave another nervous grin.
"I already agreed, but okay." Sticky said, almost having a hard time not rolling her eyes at him. Why was it so hard for her to trust him?
He supposed she had some amount fo good reasoning anyway, however, considering that he appeared one day and threw multitudes of challenges at her little group of objects. But that was all in... good fun! Yeah!
He can't put his finger on it. He could think for days on end. But what he wanted out of Sticky, no matter his masquerades to even himself, he knew what he wanted.
He wanted to find a way for Sticky to willingly tryst him. With her life, even. That would be amazing. H's brain basked in the light of that thought flowing through his head. That was bound to be his greatest achievement.
"Why... do you seem to dislike me? I don't think I've done anything!" He proclaimed in a tone that implied he thought he was absolutely right on that fact. "Not to you anyway! Well, we did have that thing in the rain and-"
"Shh Okay, Okay, I get it! But don't go telling people you kissed me!" She whisper-yelled. "That... People don't need to know that. And they won't. Got it?"
House nodded anxiously, despite the fact he was started to regain his usual confidence. God, what was he doing? He usually was fun and happy-go-lucky, and now he's barely muttering words from his mouth without sounding like a kicked puppy.
"Alright. One thing cleared up." Sticky scoffed, before making a motion with her hand to continue.
House started, stuttered, paused, and then finally put the right words in his mouth. "As I said... You seem to quite heavily dislike me. My presence. All of it." He took a moment to think a bit longer. His bowtie was quivering as he was in his head. "I showed you affection. I trust you. Why don't you reciprocate?"
"Because I simply don't think I should." She stated.
"Why?"
"You showed up one day and are begging for my trust, probably since I'm the only one not falling for your stupid trick of a competition. You can ask me to join, but I'll happily decline. Especially if it requires distance from The Orb farther than I can cross compared to your wacky alien powers." Sticky glared at him, and he could tell she was judging him as harshly as she could. "I'm not letting my guard down like the others. I refuse to take a chance with you."
And House could see that. That she outright declared that she didn't like him and what he was doing here, if he was even doing anything. Which he wasn't!!
Or, that's what he wanted to say anyway.
"If that's all you needed to hear, I think I can stand with taking my leave." She said.
House nodded.
"But you're teleporting me back."
House started to float away, but once he registered the words from her mouth, his eyes went as wide as his slack-jawed expression. "What?"
"I won't take any chances with The Orb. But if you're as good as you claim to be, then teleport me back with you. I wouldn't walk back when you can fly more than ten times faster, anyway. Such a waste." Her eye twitched, but House paid (Almost, still enough to notice) no attention to that detail and grabbed her hand.
Her papers seemed to stain a shade of a light-pink rose, taking to the gesture and what he could tell was pretty well. He mustered up a bit of energy and they popped back into the temple's center area with a slightly louder than expected sound to follow.
"Good." She muttered, and turned to him. "I don't exactly mean this, but I'm still saying thank you out of courtesy. I still have manners. So thank you." And the same begrudging tone. that accompanied her voice moments before disappeared to silence as she took to tending to being a presence to guard him from The Orb.
So he teleported out quickly, and floated above the forest muttering to himself.
He felt... nice.
When she said thank you.
He knew she didn't actually mean that. She said she didn't herself, for god's sake, but he still cherished the words in a place he didn't know he was still capable of storing them.
The voice of hers, her explicitly disinterested tonality. While that should've of made him more than crestfallen about the conversation, he held a grin and his usual self came back.
He convinced something out of her.
That was good enough.
She got him to see the other side of things at least, instead of simply berating him for it. And that proud feeling swelled everywhere thorough his body. Especially his chest. He couldn't figure out why, but he held onto that warm and fuzzy feeling a few moments longer, before heading to watch and exchange words with a few of the other contestants.
Unfortunately, to his (non) surprise, they weren't anywhere as interesting as Sticky. They just didn't make him feel like he wanted to keep talking. There was no fire in their voices at all. Sticky had a flare of anger. But they just all seemed... fine.
He decided on just people-watching.
and no, his eyes were not flicking back to that temple structured building for any reason.