Work Text:
The Story of House's Ball
by JE
Chase loved playing with House's ball and he loved feeling the gazes of Cameron and Foreman on him. Both had tried taking it at one point only to be reprimanded by House not to do it. He never was. Which meant an endless amount of questions from the other two. Not to mention the jealous glares he received from Cameron. Then again, none of them knew why he was allowed to handle the ball, and neither of them ever would. The reason was simple actually. The ball was technically his, bought with House on mind.
House had kept stealing his pens as a token with the excuse that he needed something to play with that belonged to Chase. That in itself had meant a lot to Chase. House wasn't big on showing his feelings and usually hid them well behind insults and sarcastic comments. At times, Chase wondered whether it was really worth it to have a relationship with the older man and then he saw him play with the ball and everything was alright again, because he knew that House cared, no matter how much he denied it. Since it was still technically his ball (so House could play with something that belonged to Chase), so he was allowed to play with it.
Besides, it was the biggest reminder of how much House really cared when he held the ball in his hand and talked with the others in House's absence. Maybe he should ask House for something that belonged to the older man for keepsake; it would be worth it just to hear House's comments about the request. They could be very amusing. And they always made him feel warm in his stomach, because they obviously made the older man happy. Now all he had to do was try and ignore the comments if House was in a bad mood, because then they didn't make House happy. No, when House was in a bad mood he didn't pay attention to what he said.
For now he was playing with House's ball while discussing their latest case, ignoring the glare from Cameron. Foreman had mostly shrugged it off by now, although he still was curious as to why Chase was the only one allowed to play with it and would ask him every now and again. Not that he ever got an answer. Maybe once he found out about Chase dating House. Something he was sure Cameron would never know about.
Their session was interrupted when House entered with a smile, wordlessly demanding the ball. Throwing it over, Chase raised an eyebrow to ask what had the older man so amused.
"Case solved. Patient admitted to a past case of a heavy allergic reaction to some food. Turns out he ate just that again because it tastes so good," the sarcasm in House's voice told them just what he thought of that.
With that House went to his office, tossing the ball up and catching it again. Chase suppressed the grin, least one of the others got the idea to ask why he was grinning like an idiot. House was playing with his ball again. He could watch that for hours with no end in sight. Because it was so obvious that the reason why House had this need to play with something from Chase merely hid the need to play with Chase, something they weren't able to do at the hospital. Just like he always played with the ball, when he had rather naughty thoughts about the older man and couldn't do anything about it.
The End.