Work Text:
Torres would eat alone at lunch. He didnt like to talk to people he didnt know, he wasnt here to make friends. He was recommended this job solely on his ability to perform well.
So when his measly break came around he would sit at a table by himself and eat.
Sometimes he would bring food he cooked last night for himself from home. Sometimes if he didn’t have leftovers, or there was a particularly large amount of cash burning a hole in his pocket, he would buy food from the cafeteria.
It was during this time, in line waiting to buy a sandwich, that he noticed the oncologist.
Christopher Budny worked closely with House’s team, and Torres had seem him often. It wasn’t like they were strangers, but they definitely werent friends. He was right in front of Torres scrambling in his pocket for cash. Torres sighed and stepped up, offering the 20$ for the both of their lunches.
Budny looked at him and grimaced “Its fine, I have money. I just thought I had extra cash.”
Torres shrugged, “Its fine, im not going to use that for much else anyway.” He grabbed the rest of his change from the cashier, thanked them, and started walking towards his table.
Budny followed, “Well, thanks anyway, Torres.”
Torres just shrugged again and sat down at his table. Budny sat with him.
“You know…” Budny started, “I dont really eat with anyone anyway. We can just eat together?”
Torres looked at him confusedly, then composed himself “Uhhh.. Sure. That’s fine. I’m just not the best conversation partner.”
Budny sat his tray of food down on the table and flexed his hands, “Don’t worry. Im not either. But we can just enjoy comfortable silence and talk about the weather every now and again.” He smiled and started unwrapping the sandwich Torres had paid for. Torres followed suit, unwrapping his aswell. They sat there and ate, barely talking to each other. Torres could agree though, it was a lot nicer to sit with someone else and eat. So they continued the ritual. Occasionally one or the other would be busy at the usual time but on most days they ate together.
It had been a busy week. So busy, that Torres thinks he hadn’t seen Budny at lunch once.
He had brought pasta today, cold noodles he didnt feel like heating up. They were fine cold anyway. He had started making easier things to have more of, considering he spent so much more time at work now. As Torres sat down to eat, he looked up again to see if Budny had actually made it this time, and to his suprise he did. The orange haired man was briskly walking in, clutching his own lunchbox of food so close to him Torres thought it would have flown away if he didnt. Budny put his lunchbox in the tables and slumped into the chair, groaning.
Torres just stared at him.
“Are you okay?”
Budny looked up at Torres and groaned again, then sat up in the chair. He sighed, “Yeah, it’s been super busy and I finally have time to eat for once this week!!” He threw his hands up dramatically. “But I mean I also had a lot of patients. It was really stressful. I had to tell a lot of people the bad news this week.”
Torres frowned and put his knee up against Budnys in understanding.
Budny just stared at him, then sat up more, unzipped his lunchbox and started getting his food out. He ate wordlessly and Torres did the same, still with their knees pressed together. Budny, despite getting there last, left first and didnt say anything. Torres was almost done his pasta. He hoped that wasnt too weird.
It seemed that every time they ate lunch together now their legs would somehow find the others. Either one would initiate the contact and they would stay that way, still only sometimes chatting about mundane things. But to Torres, it was too much. They did not speak about it. But Torres knew, and he knew Budny knew. Torres could be overthinking it but on his end it was something that had definitely kept him up at night one too many times. Now instead of being happy to share his lunch space with another person he just felt dread every time he went to eat. This felt like a last hospital crawl, when every nurse would line the halls and you would be wheeled out in a hospital bed silently. Everyone knew what happened at the end.
At some point they stopped eating together.