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Honestly, Wilson would give anything for today to just be a calm, normal day at work. He’d lost a patient yesterday. A sweet, older lady named Edith who, whenever she received a bouquet of flowers, never failed to hand him one when he came in to check on her.
It was always hard to lose a patient, especially one as kind as Edith, but Wilson took some solace in the fact that she was surrounded by people who loved her when she passed.
Still, he knew that he was a bleeding heart, House made fun of him for it constantly, and he wanted to have a quiet day to mourn.
Of course, with his taste in best friends, Wilson should’ve known that was never an option.
The door to his office swung open and, out of the corner of his eye, Wilson could see a cane waving frantically through the room.
“BOO! Prepare for a week of terror!” House shouted.
A fake spider landed on the papers in front of him, and Wilson only had the energy to blink slowly at it before looking up at his friend, eyebrows raised, and asked, “Can I help you with something?”
For a moment, Wilson almost thought he detected some concern on House’s face. But he blinked and it was gone, replaced by his patented ‘are you fucking stupid?’ look. Nevermind that he was the hospital’s head oncologist and was regularly passing down offers—ones with better pay, mind you—to stay here.
He’s allowed to be a little bitter today, alright?
“Uh, yeah,” said House. “You can be terrified like you normally are. It’s a lot less fun when you won’t even flinch. I paid two whole dollars for that spider!”
Wilson sighed, “Right, of course. Sorry for ruining your fun, I’ll be sure to try harder next time.” He promptly turned back to his work, hoping that House would just take the hint and leave him alone.
And, to his surprise, he did.
The papers in front of him scattered when House swiped his cheap spider off of Wilson’s desk. He pointed it threateningly at him and said, “Alright. But watch your back! I’ll get you when you least expect it!”
“Okay House. Sounds good.” Wilson only let himself relax when he heard the door close.
He had a feeling that this was going to be a long day.
And, of course, as he so often was, Wilson was quickly proved right.
No how much he would’ve liked to, he couldn’t isolate himself away in his office all day. He had patients to attend to and he had a meeting scheduled with Cuddy that he wouldn’t be able to avoid even if he wanted to.
So, after going over his work for the fourth or fifth time, Wilson reluctantly lifted himself out of his chair and made his way out of the office. The moment he opened the door and stepped outside, a net of fake spiderwebs fell on top of him, complete with little spiders dotted through it and everything.
Wilson just stood in place for a moment, blinking a couple of times, before taking a deep breath and carefully extracting himself from the mess. Around the corner, he caught a glimpse of House watching him, brows furrowed.
He made sure to hold direct eye-contact while he bunch the cobwebs into a little ball, shoved it in the nearest garbage can, and walked away.
Going through his rounds was bittersweet today. Wilson always did his best to bring a little light into his patient’s lives during what can feel like a terrifying and hopeless time. He makes sure to smile at them, to make small talk and ask about their family or their friends or any exciting hobbies they were into.
Seeing them smile, and knowing that he was helping chase the light away even for a little bit, always made him feel better, At this point, Wilson would go so far as to say that it was his favourite part of his job.
Today, though, there was that looming knowledge that some of these people might die. No amount of small talk would be able to prevent it.
But still, Wilson did what he could, and he couldn’t help but feel better after hearing the delighted laughter of eight-year-old Moira after he put on a silly little show for her with some stuffed animals. It wasn’t fair that she was going through this, but it always warmed his heart to see how brave and generous she remained through it all.
This is what he was thinking about when he pushed open the door to Cuddy’s office, ready to update her on the happenings of the oncology department. They both looked forward to these meetings, because they always managed to set aside a few minutes to just talk as friends, without the pressure of running a hospital and saving lives weighing them down.
Wilson pushed open the door and came face-to-face with an uncannily realistic skeleton staring him down from Cuddy’s usual seat.
When he walked over to move it, House suddenly jumped out from behind Cuddy’s desk with a loud “BOO!”
“You need to come up with something more original than boo,” said Wilson as he picked up the skeleton and—oh God, was that real bone? “It’s getting a little tired. And please, give this back to whatever department you stole it from.”
House begrudgingly too the skeleton when Wilson handed them over before going, “God, you’re being so boring. Where’s your Halloween spirit? You’re usually all jumpy even on a good day, what gives?”
“He lost a patient yesterday, House.” Thank God for Cuddy’s miraculous timing, Wilson was going to have to buy her a coffee for this save. “Unlike some people, that sort of thing actually affects him. Now, why don’t you get some of your clinic hours done, because I know for a fact that you haven’t set foot in there all week.”
As House left, mumbling something about killjoys and revealing cat costumes, Wilson shot Cuddy a grateful look and mouthed thank you. She offered him an understanding smile, gesturing for him to sit down so they could get started with their meeting.
Finally, after what felt like forever, Wilson had finished up all his work for the day and was packing up in order to head home. He was excited to order some take-out, drink a couple beers, and watch reruns of shitty reality shows for the rest of the night.
The moment he took a couple of steps towards the door, the cushions on his couch burst upwards and House sprung out of his hiding place. He reached out to where Wilson was standing right next to him, staring at him with tired eyes, and grabbed onto his sides.
“Hey! Hahands off!” Wilson flinched away from the touch, hoping that House didn’t notice the small giggle that slipped out.
Thankfully, he was a bit too distracted with congratulating himself. “Aha! I got you! Wilson has finally been felled by the great and mighty Doctor House!”
“House,” Wilson sighed, bringing up his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose, “how long have you been hiding in my couch?”
House shrugged, doing his best to look as nonchalant as a grown man sitting inside a couch could look. “Since your meeting with Cuddy. You didn’t think that I was actually going to do clinic duty, right? Why don’t you make yourself useful and help me out of here.”
Wilson was already reaching down to hoist his friend out, burying his concern when House covered up a wince. House didn’t like to be fussed over, and Wilson didn’t have the energy to push it right now.
He got most of the way through putting his couch back together while House made himself comfortable, before letting himself think that he’d gotten away with it. He was actually going to get through today relatively unscathed.
“Don’t think I didn’t see that flinch, by the way.” House smirked when Wilson froze for a brief moment. “I think that I can help you lighten up. It’s my duty, in a way. Don’t want you moping around the hospital all day and taking my job.”
Wilson put down the last cushion and went to start backing away. “It’s okay, really! You don’t need to do anything rash—woah!”
Before he could get out of reach, House managed to grab onto Wilson’s wrist and pull him off balance, bringing him crashing down onto the couch.
If it looked like he didn’t fight it as much as he could, Wilson would say that he didn’t want to hurt his disabled friend. The friend in question gave him a knowing look, but didn’t say anything, which was definitely odd for House. He loved pointing out whenever Wilson did anything that could be considered embarrassing.
It was almost like House was doing this to cheer him up.
“Alright,” House said, like he could hear Wilson’s thoughts and wanted to drown them out. “Let’s have some fun. Maybe laughing will banish all that sad, sad grumpiness. You don’t have the face for it.”
Huh. Looks like hell really was freezing over.
Fingers dug into his ribs, which did a much better job of stopping Wilson’s thoughts in their tracks. “Hey—wait! House, c’mohohon. Not there—”
“There it is!” House cheered as Wilson folded over, laughter bubbling out while his hands flailed unsuccessfully to stop the attack. “God, finally. We can’t have two soulful, brooding types.”
The snort Wilson let out at that had nothing to do with the tickling. Mostly. “Soulful? Please, as if you have a sohohoul—nohoho cut it out!”
House, in an act of mercy that was unlike him, stopped squeezing Wilson’s legs in favour of wriggling fingers against his neck. Embarrassingly, it just sent him into high-pitched giggles that Housd scoffed at.
Raising his voice, he said, “Yeah, obviously I’m the soulful guy with the tragic backstory, and you’re, like, a golden retriever that barfs sunshine. I’m just restoring the balance over here!”
Due to lack of air, Wilson didn’t exactly reply to that sentiment beyond wheezing incredulously. Luckily for him, House took that as his cue to wind down, leaning back smugly while Wilson tried to catch his breath.
They sat there in companionable silence for a little bit before House said, “I’m sorry you lost your patient.”
The sentiment wasn’t exactly common for House, but Wilson couldn’t find it in himself to be surprised. House had always been a little softer when it came to him, and it was something that he tried not to take for granted.
“Yeah, me too.”
Almost simultaneously, they both heaved themselves up, making their way out of the office.
“So, d’you wanna order some takeout, drink some beers, and watch trashy TV?” House asked.
Wilson smiled at that because, no matter what he might say, House did have a soul. And he counted himself lucky to be one of the few who managed to catch a glimpse of it every so often.
“You know what, House?” Wilson said with a smile that was only partially the remains of his recent attack. “You read my mind.”