House

[london_spy]

After getting Fin home, Danny had done the same for himself, getting his homework done at last before calling it a night. House's text was what woke him mid-day. ...Apparently he was getting that lunch after all.

Car still in the shop, Danny took the tube into the city proper, meeting Greg in a diner he'd never been to before.

He spotted House in a booth and went to join him, dumping his bag on the seat beside him as he slid into the booth.

"Rough night?" he quipped.

Comments

[london_spy]

"You're welcome- Or I'm sorry, depending on how that works out for you," Danny laughed.

[drfeelbad]

"Well it's already been a weird week," House said with a little snort. Between Wilson showing up and Fin's drunken night.

[london_spy]

"Yeah," Danny agreed thoughtfully. "You've got a lot going on I suppose. ...Was your mate alright when you got him inside? Didn't see him get slipped anything, but you can't always tell."

[drfeelbad]

"Yeah, Fin was fine, slept it off..." House sighed a little. "He's not usually like that. He was upset about something. Justifiably upset."

[london_spy]

"I wasn't judging," Danny assured him with a small shrug.

[drfeelbad]

"I would have," House said. "He was a fucking mess."

[london_spy]

"At least he was out in public where someone could step in. I've made far worse mistakes in the privacy of my home," Danny said quietly, looking just a bit ashamed of himself and rubbing his jaw. "Hell of a bruise he was sporting though," he noted.

[drfeelbad]

"Yeah, that was... part of the reason he was upset," House said. Then paused, remembering that Danny knew Hex and not wanting him to jump to any conclusions. He wished he could tell him the truth, but finally he settled on, "Someone broke in to his flat. Everything's fine now though."

[london_spy]

"So he does have a stalker," Danny replied. "I sussed that out but he wouldn't confirm. Suppose he's worried people will tell the paps."

"For whatever it's worth, I'm just glad he didn't wind up back at some blokes flat. You're a good man getting him home, Greg. He's lucky to have you."

[drfeelbad]

"He had me because you texted me," House pointed out.

[london_spy]

"Well, I'm such a hero," Danny snorted. "It's- It was what it was. I've been an idiot in the past. I can't undo that, but I can stop others going through that hell, I guess. Or I can try."

[drfeelbad]

House looked at him for a second and said, "I'm guessing a really big idiot, based on your current calculations about how much you have to make up for."

[london_spy]

"If I told you, I don't believe you'd have any kind words left for me," Danny said softly.

[drfeelbad]

"I find that highly unlikely," House said, looking him straight in the eyes. "But there's no need for you to tell me unless you want to."

[london_spy]

Danny was silent for a long moment, thinking it over.

"I could tell you about the lover I stayed with even after he blackened my eye and split my lip, week after week. Ever the foolish romantic, convinced he just needed me to love him, and that he'd change, that he loved me. Or perhaps the night I invited an endless line of strangers into my home to fuck me however they liked- No names, no words, no protection... Or perhaps the simplistic sin of lingering at Scottie's side, pretending not to realize that all he wanted was for me to fall in love with him? Take your pick, it's all shit," he shrugged, leaning back in his seat. "I was shit. ...I don't know if that's really changed, but I'd like to pretend it has. It makes all the pain I went through almost feel worth it. Almost," he said, voice breaking slightly on that last word.

He patted himself down, looking for a smoke- Forgetting for a moment that he'd quit months ago and he couldn't smoke in here anyway.

Sniffing, he clasped his hands to stop himself fidgeting, but he didn't look at Greg. He was sure if he did he'd see a look of disgust or at least disappointment.

[drfeelbad]

House looked at him for a long moment and then said, "I'm trying to work out whether you actively want me to judge you. Sorry to disappoint."

[london_spy]

"I'm not an emotional masochist," Danny assured him, rubbing his face and then shrugging. "I just think you should know who you're making nice with, Greg."

[drfeelbad]

"I mean, the way you were talking, I figured you were going to tell me you shot a man in Reno just to watch him die," House said with a shrug, and took a bite of the burger.

[london_spy]

Danny watched him, sharp eyes picking apart things perhaps only he could see. Maybe they were real, perhaps they were imagined, but he dissected them nonetheless.

"You said you'd fuck me," he said, the words blunt but his tone casual. "You said it to comfort me, but you also said it because you're starved. Not for sex, that you get. You're looking for something more. Do you think you'd find it with me, Greg? You're a healer, but you're not a fixer. You said yourself, it's the puzzle not the cure you care about. So it's not that. ...Is it because I look like him, but I'm not in some lush bohemian harem? You do have a type, going off your wilting American friend... Young faced, broken... No, that's not part of the equation just an inevitable trait."

He tilted his head then, considering. "You like sharp. You like a battle too I wager. Not physical, but a good verbal spar- I bet you win far too often though, and they go running. ...Some people can't take that many kicks."

[drfeelbad]

"Jesus christ," said House. "You do this to everyone who says they'd fuck you? I mean, if you throw out enough of that some of it's bound to be right." He didn't say which parts were.

[london_spy]

"Most people I tell to go fuck themselves," Danny replied honestly, holding Greg's gaze a moment, then shrugging a little. "Most people say it though, and that's all they want. To fuck me. I don't get that from you."

[drfeelbad]

"I get that all the time myself," said House. "Everyone just wants me for my body." He was deflecting with a joke because he honestly didn't know how to respond to this. He wasn't even sure what the question was.

[london_spy]

Danny started to eat again, taking a thoughtful bite.

"We'd be an interesting mess," he decided between bites.

[drfeelbad]

"You just want me for my brain," House said. "I bet I'm not as hot as the previous braniac, though. Though which one of us had better social skills? Based on what you've told me I'm thinking he was probably borderline autistic. I'm just an asshole."

[london_spy]

"I don't have a type, if that's what you're getting at. And if I had, Alex would have been the exception. You'd follow the rule. I dated a lot of assholes," Danny shot back easily.