Disclaimer:I do not own any of the characters.

Enjoy!

CH. 1

It started off as every other day for the past how many years now… Cuddy arrived at her office right on schedule .

She opened the door to her office, walked to her desk, put the files down, set her purse on the floor, and was about to walk over and hang up her jacket when all of a sudden, who should come bursting though her door…

"Well, good morning to you too. A little early today, aren't we?" she greeted.

"It's never too early to heal the world!" House responded sarcastically.

Cuddy rolled her eyes. "And to what do I owe this pleasure? That is, what do you need, now…" It was way too early to already be dealing with him… but she feigned interest.

"Can't a guy just pop in to say 'hello?' without someone thinking that there is an ulterior motive?"

"Yes, but in your case, NO. What do you want, House, I have a meeting in twenty minutes, for which I still have to go over my notes. So if you don't mind gett-" he cut her off.

"I need to pick a man's brain."

"Brain biopsies are dangerous, what do you have to support this? Have you done an MRI, EEG-" again, he cut her off.

"Yes, mom, I already finished all of my chores before asking for a treat." He said with a smirk while waggling his brow. There was a double meaning to that.

"House, until you have more evidence proving you need to probe the guy's brain, you can't do a biopsy. Now, I'm busy. Goodbye, House," she said as she forced him out of her office.

She shut the door behind her, and locked it… or so she thought. After returning to her desk, she sat back in her chair, rubbing her temples. Why does he always barge in?

"Hey Cudles."

Not. Again.

"HOUSE. OUT!" Cuddy demanded, not even opening her eyes and pointing to the door.

"Okay, okay, fine. Then I just won't ask." He mumbled as he backed towards the door, with his hands up mocking a surrender.

Rolling her eyes she looked at him. "What is it now?"

"Nothing. Obviously now isn't the right time… so forget about it… you'll just never know." He said with a snark, and walked out.

Damn it. Now he's done it. Ruined her morning. She didn't even have her morning coffee, and he just barged in. She wasn't ready for her meeting, and now she was going to be late, and not to mention, he barged in again. What was he going to ask her? Why did he back away? If it was for his patient, he would've pursued the topic, right? And it couldn't have been about clinic hours, or the lack there of… she would've instigated that discussion… so what was he up to? Shit. Now he has her thinking about him… this meeting was not only going to be long, but unbearable. Why does he always have to do that?

Cuddy huffed as she picked up her files; this was going to be a fun meeting. She made her way to the elevator, and was shocked and unnerved to find him waiting for the same elevator. She stopped a foot away, and thought about taking the stairs. Then the elevator dinged and the doors slid open, and he spoke without looking at her:

"After you, madam" he said, motioning toward the elevator.

Cuddy breezed past him a let out yet another huff. This was not the time. Occasionally taking a few side glances at House, Cuddy mentally slapped herself, while urging herself to worry about the task at hand – the meeting. She closed her eyes, and mentally willed House not to speak, while all the time waiting for him to instigate a discussion, one that would no doubt aggravate her. But he didn't… The elevator dinged and opened. He let her out first without a word and watched her stomp off to the meeting.

House limped back to his office, and sent his ducklings off to run more tests on their worsening patient. With that he picked up his overly sized tennis ball and fumbled with it as he let his mind wander about the question… the one that she didn't let him ask… the one that made him anxious for her answer. Maybe it was a good thing that she didn't let him ask… maybe she would have said no… maybe this was for the best, a sign that it just wasn't meant to be.

"Hey, how'd it go?" Wilson asked popping his head through the office door.

"Didn't happen." House said, his attention still drawn to the tennis ball.

"Hmmph." Wilson walked in and sat in the chair in front of the desk, analyzing what his friend was thinking and how he was feeling.

"For whatever reason it 'didn't happen' there is no need for you to overanalyze this. This isn't some sign that it's not meant to be. She's just unnerved because of the big meeting today. Otherwise, she would have said yes. You are still going to ask her though.."

"It was only dinner. She is capable of eating on her own. It's fine. No big." House answered still playing with the ball.

"Yeah, right. 'Only dinner.' It's not like you practiced asking her out all week in front of the mirror, or anything like that." And with that Wilson took his leave.

Finally, she thought, the meeting's over. As fast as she could, Cuddy left the conference room and was about to get into the elevator when she thought about House.

Now he's going to have me going to his office to make sure that everything is okay, because I shut him off so rudely. Great. Now the bastard had her feeling bad about kicking him out of her office. He was interrupting me. I was clearly busy and frustrated…but the look on his face when he left…and the way he acted in the elevator. Shit. She found herself at his office door. Before entering, she looked in and saw him sitting there… playing with his tennis ball, completely engrossed. What was he thinking? Why did she care? Cuddy breathed a deep sigh and entered.

"House, I-"

"I'm sorry," he said still looking at the ball. "I didn't mean to bother you this morning. I was childish, and didn't notice you were on end. I should've just shut up."

Cuddy blinked hard, and edged closer to his desk. What was going on? Any minute she was sure that something was going to happen, and House will have once again pulled a big one over her. This had to be a joke…or a ploy… what did he want?

"House, it's ok. I didn't-"

"Will you have dinner with me?" he asked, well mumbled, still fumbling with the ball.

"Wh-what?" Cuddy swallowed.

"I shouldn't have asked…"

"Yes. I'll have dinner with you…?" What was she saying? Didn't the man make her life miserable every waking second?

House finally took his eyes off of his tennis ball and looked at her. Their eyes locked, intense baby blues on fiery blue-grays.

"Friday night at eight. Wear something formal, but bring something casual, too." With that he left. He walked right past her. He didn't want her to see his smile, and besides, if there was going to be a Friday night, he had to solve his patient's ailments.

What just happened? Cuddy thought to herself. Friday at eight. Did that really just happen? She turned to leave, but couldn't understand why she felt like a giddy school girl. She walked to her office with a huge smile plastered to her face that she couldn't wipe off. Walking straight to her desk, she took her pen and scribbled '8 p.m.' in Friday on her calendar, and circled it.

This is my first fanfic... so let me know what you think! Should I continue? :)