Work Text:
“Are you in or out? Pick a side!” Wilson grumbled as his husband untucked himself from the sheets for the third time that night. “Or you can happily sleep on the end of the bed.” He threatened, pretending to pull away from the cuddly entrapment he was already stuck in.
“You’re mean.” House grimaced, only holding on tighter.
“Right, and you’re a pleasure.” Wilson retorted playfully. House poked him in the ribs gently but stayed buried into his side. Wilson sighed and returned back to the book he’d been trying to read, but ultimately decided that the man curled at his side would only keep torturing him with requests to “come to bed” even though he was already there.
Wilson shut the book and placed it neatly onto a bedside stack before switching off the lamp next to him, leaving the room in sheer darkness.
“Oh thank god, even with my eyes shut I was getting direct radiation from that thing. Next time don’t practice radiotherapy at home.”
“That lamp barely lights up half of the room!”
House only replied with a poorly hidden smile. Dusty blue moonlight peaked in through wide windows casting a soft glow over the room. Wilson gently wrapped his husband up in his arms as he finally settled into bed. “Okay well, you’ve only tucked and untucked yourself about 500 times, forced me to stop reading, and poked me twice, is there anything else I can get for you tonight sir?”
House huffed his laughter into Wilson’s side before poking him again. Now Wilson was laughing as he jostled his husband about. “What’s gotten into you tonight, you just think you’re so funny?”
“I am.”
“They’ve got to give you more challenging cases at that hospital, the more you solve the more haughty you become.”
House exhaled a contented sigh into Wilson’s neck and allowed himself to drift off. The temperature was always just right in Wilson’s arms and it seemed even his bad leg complied better when intertwined with his husbands. To hell with Wilsons book, he was tired and wanted comfort. It didn’t hurt that it also made him very happy. He’d never admit it.
“Hey House?”
Wilson’s request was met with silence and upon closer inspection, House was breathing deep and even. Wilson smiled watching his husband sleep, he looked peaceful and maybe even happy.
He ran his hands through the scruffy gray hair beneath his fingers and decided his question would have to wait for later. “Goodnight Greg. Happy early Birthday.” He whispered, ready to fall asleep himself.
“Hmmph.” Wilson froze when he heard the muffled protest pressed into the side of his shirt. Hopefully House hadn’t been conscious enough to hear that. “Who told you?” Too late. Wilson parted away from their embrace to get a better look at Houses face.
House only mimicked Wilsons shock in an effort to mock him. “What, planning to throw a party? I’m sure all the little girls and boys would show up, I could wear my party hat and you could pass out the cards.”
Wilson heaved a heavy sigh “.. I knew your birthday was around this time and I looked through your file, so sue me. I didn’t want your birthday to be a mystery anymore. And you’know, I feel like an asshole every time I have to hand you a belated gift. You’re my husband and I just wanted to know..”
House looked as though he was deep in thought. Wilson couldn’t tell if he was going to be serious or quip another joke but he figured that’s what House was contemplating as well.
“I didn’t exactly have the best birthdays with my ‘family dearest’ but I appreciate that you want to recognize, well whatever this is. A day I existed? I’ve existed many days after my birth and even before it in the womb, so it doesn’t mean much to me.”
Wilson shook his head smiling. “Leave it up to you to try and debunk birthday’s as a whole. You don’t have to celebrate House, but I just thought maybe it’d be nice if you wanted to. I could pick up a cake after work and we could watch your favorite show? Anyways it’s all up to you so just, think about it okay?” Wilson shrugged, expecting his husband to reject the idea immediately, but instead House tucked himself into the crevices of Wilson’s neck and torso once again with a sleepy “Why not.”
So Wilson decided that was that. Whether a less sleepy House regretted it or not.
-
Wilson sighed, leaning against the cool metal of his husbands office desk. “How close do you think you are to being fired? You can’t just show up to work every day looking like you’re on your way to the nearest Whole Foods.” Like every other morning, House had whined about leaving bed, sulked around their home, and gotten himself dressed at the very last second, leaving Wilson to drag him out of the door by the hand.
“Hmm, says who? Sometimes you wear that ridiculous purple button up and nobody says anything.”
“It’s just a button up Greg, and it’s not ridiculous. At least I’m not in my T-shirt at work.”
“It makes you look like a raspberry.” House quipped, adding his usual sarcastic emphasis on ‘berry’.
“Oh, you are so going to regret that later” Wilson promised with a mischievous look. Yielding a giddy smile, Wilson quickly left the office ignoring his husband’s desperate pleas of “I didn’t mean that”’s and “come back here”’s.
Wilson spent the rest of his workday gleefully considering what he would do to get revenge against his husband. He thought he was doing a fairly good job at hiding his emotions until Cuddy remarked he looked exceptionally happy today. Cuddy was the only coworker who knew of his marriage, it wasn’t necessarily that they kept it a secret but they also didn’t make much of an effort to advertise it. House wore his ring on a necklace, always carefully tucked beneath the collared rim of his shirt, while Wilson had no problem keeping his on display.
When lunch had finally rolled around, Wilson could barely contain his smile. His department had a slow day leaving him with an extra twenty minutes to meander around the bakery across the street. He considered all the warm scents and enticing flavors until he found just the perfect thing to bring back. Behind cool glass casing sat a small box cake. The frosting was frothy and purple, covered in a variety of wild berries and shaven almonds. Written in small gold calligraphy, a card in the display case read Vanilla & Raspberry. “I’ll take that one.”
-
“What’s in the bag, cocaine?”
“What? No, I’m not El Chapo. It’s something for you just hold on, let me get it out.” Wilson reached into the small white paper bag, unveiling a styrofoam box. Opening it before House could react, he scooped a small glob of the purple frosting into his hands and launched it at his husband. House gasped, reaching for the frosting that stuck uncomfortably to the side of his face. “How could you? You’re really going to bully a cripple on his birthday?”
Wilson was laughing wildly when House took the lump from his face and smeared it onto his lab coat. Wilson retaliated with frosting to the face which was returned equally and accompanied by a rouge berry to the head. Before they knew it, an all out food fight had begun. Wilson rarely saw House smile so openly and laugh so loudly. It was adding to the humor of everything and he’d almost forgotten he was at work in his state of hysterics. Their shoulders shook with laughter as they amped down and House took a bite of the cake.
“Mmp. You know this is actually kind of good. Sorry for taunting you so much lately, I love you.. almost as much as I love cake.”
Wilson rolled his eyes. “I know House. I love you too.” House shifted his gaze onto the creased indents of Wilson’s dimples and kissed the corners of his mouth before pulling away in atonement to his seriousness.
“By the way James, what flavor was that?”
“Raspberry.”
House launched another berry at Wilson’s head and nearly slipped, Wilson catching him by the hands.
“Look, I nearly just fell, I could’ve been maimed for life!”
“You hardly could’ve been maimed.”
“No? Let’s ask a doctor than.”
“You’re ridiculous!” Wilson beamed.
House searched for his next rebuttal, surprised to find himself so lively. He wasn’t too concerned though, because he figured if there were a person to bring this out of him, it’d have to be Wilson. “Yeah well, you were the one who-“
At that exact moment the three ducklings decided to walk in, even though white shutters had been covering the glass walls of House’s office. They’d probably identified the sickness of their most recent patient, but they could’ve at least waited until lunch was over.
House broke apart from the hand holding, immediately sobering up while Wilson considered if there were any reasonable explanation to what the three had just seen. They’d been covered in cake, holding hands like they were learning how to ice skate, and worst of all, House had been smiling openly and genuinely. They’d probably never seen that before.
Chase appeared to be the most shocked, standing completely still wordlessly. Foreman shot Cameron a casual yet knowing glance that had “I told you so” written all over it. Cameron was the first to step forward looking confused but far from judgemental. “But.. Wilson, I thought you were married?” she pointed at the golden band on the brunettes ring finger.
“He used to be.” House remarked grimly, side eying his husband while wiping purple sludge from his own face. Wilson buried his head into his hands, contemplating what his life had become.
“Well, he never did say to who.” Foreman acknowledged, allowing Wilson a short reprieve from explanation.
“We don’t always hop around covered in cake you know,” House jeered, “only when it’s my birthday.”
“Okay, hold on. You and you..??” Chase added, vaguely pointing between the two, “and it’s, I mean, I… Happy Birthday?” He guessed, barely forming a proper sentence.
“Oh my god, we just gave him a factory reset.” Wilson sighed with concern, finally removing his face from his hands. “Yes I am, well, we are married. We have been for ten years, happily obviously.”
“Unhappily.” House quickly added with the obstinance of a toddler, lowering himself into his chair to spin around in slow paced circles.
“Well, we’re happy for you if.. you’re happy and I uh. Yeah.” Chase decided eloquently.
The team all nodded, rambling over one another with agreements of acceptance, excuses to leave, and apologies for the interruption. Once the room was all clear of the unexpected visitors, House looked up at Wilson with a snide smile. “You are so going to regret that later.”