Work Text:
They were reckless. There was no better term for James' friendship with Greg. When they were together, they both recklessly abandoned the principles that guided the rest of their lives. James allowed truth to become a fuzzy concept rather than the certainty it contained at other times. The ridiculous became commonplace. And Greg gave up at least a portion of his misery. He allowed true smiles to grace his lips and words past them that were not laced with pain and sarcasm.
Other people didn't understand. Other people saw them together and were puzzled at how such a relationship could exist. Other people knew James only as the driven yet compassionate Oncologist who treated everything in life so very seriously. Light flirtations with the nurses was the most reckless act they knew James to undertake. He was careful with his life. He was careful with his marriage even, though it might not seem so. He was not careful with Greg House. Other people saw House. They never saw Greg. They saw a sarcastic, bitter, but brilliant diagnostician. They thought he was more trouble than he was worth. They thought that he had completely given up joy in favor of anger, unless it was joy in causing others pain.
Other people weren't wrong. They had very accurate ideas of who James and House were. Other people didn't understand that together, they were different. Together they were reckless. Once in the midst of all the recklessness, they became new people, maybe better people. If recklessness defined their relationship, love refined it. The love of friends who have seen each other through the worst times in life, and maybe in the recklessness love that was something more.
Away from Greg, James agonized over the things they sometimes did. Away from Greg, those actions did not fit into his perfectly ordered life. But when they were together, the recklessness drove everything including the soft press of lips to skin, hands that roamed, and pain that receded if just for a moment to allow pleasure. They were reckless.