A/N: This came to me kind of out of nowhere. I recently discovered this pairing and had to write a fic about it. Now it's out of my system. Please Review! n.n

A Puzzle Well Solved

Gregory House surveyed the traffic below him with his usual calculating stare. Intense blue eyes swept over the slow-moving lights and pedestrians moving to and fro. Nothing particularly interesting. He sighed. With no new cases, he had to resort to watching the streets for a new puzzle. Unfortunately for him, the intersections he was observing weren't missing that crucial piece that made solving a puzzle so gratifying. There were no mysteries lying beneath the pavement. How boring. Although... maybe he just couldn't see them from all the way on the hospital roof. But that seemed unlikely, because House didn't miss things.

Lately, the world had been devoid of mystery. House could feel his mind going stagnant from disuse and boredom. Maybe he'd exhausted the universe's store of questions. Of course, there was always "What is the meaning of life?"; but that was a stupid question. Life didn't have a great, superior meaning. That was what made it all pointless, in the end.

It seemed especially pointless now. Maybe he should make himself into a puzzle. A jump from this height would probably break lots of bones, rupture organs... and kill him. Even if, by some miracle, he lived; the puzzle wouldn't be his to solve. Though it would be fun to watch his team try and figure it out. But House knew he could watch them fret over mysteries without throwing himself off a building.

Yet the multiple-story drop to the pavement held some twisted, tantalizing quality. House leaned on his arms, sticking as much of his upper body as he could over the edge of the cement barrier. Vertigo made his head spin and he relished the sensation. He stood completely still, contemplating the fall, turning the idea over and over in his brilliant mind...

"House!" The shout broke the trance the doctor had conjured for himself. He didn't move from his dare-devil stance, recognizing the familiar voice as Wilson's. Wilson was a puzzle. An old puzzle, but an unsolved one. Interesting.

Wilson crossed the roof toward the edge, drawing his coat closer against the night's chill wind. He stood uneasily next to his friend and wondered aloud;

"Okay... what are you doing?"

"Considering the fall..." House muttered, not moving his gaze from the pavement below.

You cannot be serious."

"...I'm thinking broken ribs, collarbone, limbs... Ruptured organs..."

"You have a death wish."

"Of course I don't. I'm just curious."

"Like you were 'curious' the time you stuck a patient's pocket knife in that outlet?"

"Hm..." House thought about it for a moment; "Pretty much."

"Once was enough, House," Wilson decreed, "I'm not letting you almost die on me again."

"Would it be okay if I actually died? Because you specified almost dy-"

House's smart-ass loophole explanation was cut off by Wilson's lips crashing against his. Surprise dominated as the first response, quickly followed by desire. That too was short-lived, however, because Wilson pulled away after a few seconds. He grabbed the front of House's shirt and shook him insistently.

"You're definitely not allowed to die," the oncologists harsh tone softened softened suddenly, "I can't lose anyone else close to me. It was too hard, with Amber; if I lost you too, I couldn't..." He trailed off, shaking slightly and fidgeting agitatedly, the way he did when trying to hold off pain or fear.

House placed his hands over Wilson's; still knotted in his shirtfront. The diagnostician closed the distance between their faces and kissed Wilson firmly. The other man stiffened in surprise, then relaxed to the older man's affections.

When House was sure the younger man had been thoroughly kissed, he pulled back. Wilson was slightly out of breath, and he looked at House with chocolate eyes a shade darker than their usual tone. House smiled, or rather, he bared his teeth in an almost feral grin. His theory had been right. Wilson was deathly afraid of losing him.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" the oncologist asked apprehensively.

"I was right."

"About...?"

"You. I knew you liked me."

Wilson shook his head and scoffed exasperatedly. "I should have known you had some ulterior motive. Which means this was all just another game." He tried to disengage his hands and walk away, but House wouldn't let him go.

"It was a puzzle I had to solve. And now that I have..." House explained, "You're stuck with me."

Wilson smiled slowly. "I thought I already was."

"Even more now."

"Great." Wilson muttered teasingly.

From that night on, the two doctors were even more inseparable than before. They continued to share Wilson's apartment, long after House's therapist decreed it no longer necessary. Whenever House felt the need to visit the roof and contemplate the fall, he went to Wilson's office instead. Even if it was empty, House stretched out of the couch and awaited the oncologists return.

Though outwardly it seemed that nothing had changed, the two shared a new bond. Secret affections were exchanged for many years and the bond became unbreakable. It was never expressed in words, neither of them felt that was necessary. There were never any stipulations, the two had the freedom to simply be. It was what kept them sane.