Not Friends

[deelaundry]

From the S5 post-ep I'm not going to write:

"You said we weren't friends."

"You said you were going to trample my feelings, ignore what I want, use my compassion against me, and risk a patient's life in order to get what you want. Does that sound like friendship to you?"

"You asked me to risk my life, and even worse my mind, on the slim chance it would save your girlfriend of a couple of months. Does that sound like friendship to you?"

"'Girlfriend of a couple of months' implies a lot less love than I actually had for her... but no, it doesn't sound like friendship. Which is why I said it as 'we,' instead of saying you weren't a friend to me."

Comments

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

The beginning of the scene was... um... not quite as realistic as this. So I don't think I'll write it up. : )

These lines seemed pretty apt, though.

[bell]

Ouch.

And I want to read that like woah.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

That's all I've got. Well, in my mind I have a scene that happens before, but it's very different in tone and not particularly realistic.

[bell]

If it's porn, who cares if it's realistic? (...*If* it's porn.)

[primarycolors92.livejournal.com]

I suspect you may be a genius :)

And I had MUCH LOVE for Amber, so I don't like when she's dismissed as Wilson's fling. She was AWESOMENESS personified.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

You're a flatterer. :D

Amber was amazing and awesome, and having her around only made House and Wilson's relationship more awesome.

[primarycolors92.livejournal.com]

Well, I WAS feeling nice, but my good day (yay burritos!) turned into a fucking awful day (boo homophobic vandalism!), so now I have no more compliments >:|

I hated the custody-agreement episode, but the matress shopping remains on my list of favorite things ever. I just loved that whole scenario.

[inlaterdays.livejournal.com]

Ohh. That's lovely. And painful. And lovely.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

It will be interesting to see what kind of issues are addressed in House's therapy. I kind of doubt there'll be much if anything about his relationship with Wilson, though. The producers seem to feel everything's back to baseline there.

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

I don't think they're going to tell us a damn thing about House's therapy -- at least, not in terms of what had to be dealt with there. It's just ... given the nature of the show, I don't expect it.

If they did go there, I don't see how they could skirt around the relationship with Wilson, though. I mean, seeing as House's primary hallucination is of Wilson's dead girlfriend. Giant blinking HERE IS AN ISSUE light, much?

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

The show ran right past the "why Amber?" question at the end of S5, in favor of showing us House fantasizing about Cuddy. So I don't expect too much about that. I could be wrong, though.

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

Well, I happen to be with you there. I don't expect them to deal with House's actual issues on the show, at all. I expect they'll imply that he's somehow been patched back together mentally and then things will go on as they always have.

I won't be satisfied with that, but it's what I think will happen, because I know this show.

[m-supercomputer.livejournal.com]

I have some hope there's going to be at least a little discussion about 'why Amber' next season - of course, I was hopeful that 'Lucky 13' wouldn't be the end of the reconciliation arc, so who knows. *g* Of course, they did bring it up again vaguely in 'Social Contract' and 'Saviors,' but only after treating things as back to normal for over half a season.

Though, my big wish for season 6 is no shipping House, with anyone. Maintaining or building friendships with Wilson, Cuddy, Cameron, Chase, Foreman, even Taub and Thirteen = awesome. House ships in canon = ugh.

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

no shipping House

SECONDED MOST STRONGLY.

I'm actually in the same camp as diysheep. I ship House/Lampy. Heh.

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

"Then what are we?"

Oh, this begs to be answered. I even have a theory, but I'd love to see what you make of it.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

I have a ton of theories, most of which I've written into fics already. Please share yours.

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

They act like brothers.

They ride the hell out of each other, take advantage of each other, take each other for granted, drive each other crazy. But when it comes down to the really important things, they're not afraid to wield the clue-by-four (all their lovely, heated arguments; Wilson leaving House in his own puke), they'll accept if grudgingly what it takes to make the other truly happy (e.g. House accepting Amber), and they will sacrifice themselves for the other in a heartbeat (House doing the DBS).

I always thought Wilson saw House as a Danny-substitute in some ways, but this season proved it's deeper than that. I think they are brothers now, in every sense except genetics. Which--sorta makes the slash aspect icky, but it's not incest-y, so... That's where I thought you might have been going in your snippet, anyway. So maybe House and Wilson's friendship isn't so much about the bromance as about the bros.

(I know you've written a couple of brother-fics--could you refresh my memory again?)

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

I've never actually written them as family-related brothers. That'd be an interesting AU.

The simplest answer for me as to what their relationship is: soulmates. You can add sex to that or not, but they are singular in each others' lives (credit to Pun for those words). As someone pointed out, they mutually roofied each other and then with barely a word went back to their nomal day-to-day. Who does that? No one.

There are so many ways you could describe that kind of mutual devotion. Here's some of the ways I've tried to capture it:

In Ever After, they decided to become father and son.

In Commitment, Wilson admitted that he loved House more than he'd ever loved anyone else -- even more than the brother he'd lost. He wasn't sure if he was in love with House or not.

In Milk, Silk, a Bedspread or a Quilt, House found out that Wilson loving him like a brother wouldn't preclude them getting laid.

Before they got married in Pillory, they were brothers of choice (an official, declared best-friend status in that culture).

In The Pier at Caesars, they drunkenly got joke-married, and after sobering up, Wilson said that real marriage would actually be a step backward for their relationship.

After the episode "Airborne," Wilson got mopey and decided they weren't as close as he would like, in Didn't I: "House will never love him as much as he wants. Brother, lover, ten-year-old best friend forever – they’re all just different sides to the same oddly-shaped coin. Any of those could suit, could work, but none of them will ever happen. He accepted that the moment he learned House had left for the other side of the world without telling him."

In Snowglobe, House was actually an embodiment of the parts of James Wilson that James was trying to deny existed.

And of course I've made them a couple more than a dozen times. That works too.

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

they are singular in each others' lives (credit to Pun for those words). As someone pointed out, they mutually roofied each other and then with barely a word went back to their nomal day-to-day. Who does that? No one.

A brother would. He'd take an axe to your bike because you wouldn't let him use it when he wrecked his and you needed it; stomp on your record player because he broke his own; steal your cheques and forge your name on them; it's amazing what brothers can do. (What? *looks shifty*)

Otherwise, word to everything you say. :-)

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

Yes, this. I'd love to see more of this.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

I don't have any more, unfortunately. I wouldn't mind if someone else took up the thread...

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

That's okay. God knows sometimes a fragment is all there is, but if you don't actually get it out of your head it will drive you crazy.

:-)

[dangomango.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think you should write this :D

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

That's all I got, but if anything more comes to mind, I'll continue. : ) Have you caught up on Season Five?

[dangomango.livejournal.com]

I, uh, still haven't finished S4...

I'm just going to blame the fact that I'm looking for a job on the complete mess that is my life :D

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

you should write this.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

I don't have anything more in mind right now. I just thought these lines were interesting enough to get down.

*hugs*

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

They will never, ever have this discussion in canon. Ever.

Which is why it would be so nice if some really outstanding fic writer were to take it on. Someone who loved and respected both characters and would be fair to them instead of dumping a load of blame all over one guy while promoting the other to sainthood.

You don't know where we could find someone like that, do you?

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

No, they won't ever have this conversation. Because then the producers would have to acknowledge the depth of the relationship, and explain what it means to each of the characters, and goodness knows two men not actively having sex aren't allowed to love each other, no.

Not that I'm bitter.

Right now in my head there's nothing more after these lines. If a fic writer such as the one you described (*cough*you*cough*) felt the desire to run with them, I'd happily offer them up.

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I think House has shown the potential depth of a nonsexual male relationship in a way that very few other shows have dared or bothered to do, and generally I am very pleased with them for it.

I mean -- if we think about the way House went after Wilson, the way Wilson was cornered and had to deal with House saying, you love me and you're afraid of losing me so you figured you'd leave first. And Wilson, unable to admit the truth, got mad and threw a bottle through a window. I can't think of any other show where a friendship would be treated with that much intensity (although, granted, I don't watch a whole lot of TV).

Here, if House were to ask, "Then what are we?" (and he would), I can hear Wilson pause, then: "We're ... we're friends, House. But that's a rhetorical question and you know it. We're friends who treat each other like, like ... servants, or toys, or ... something."

And that's all I've got. Back to you now. :-)

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

Actually, Wilson sort of answered that question already, in one of the Amber episodes, when he said (paraphrasing) "We treat each other like crap, and keep coming back for more."

Or ... something like that. *g*

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

"We're friends who treat each other like, like ... servants, or toys, or ... something."

"I think the word you want is 'shit.' Which you are also full of."

"What? House --"

"What do you call the part where you lie to the damn cops for me, you idiot? The part where you'd have gone to jail, or the part where I did let Chase stick electrodes in my brain? How about the part where you've always got a place to stay when the reigning Mrs. Wilson kicks you to the curb? Or that thing where I've got an alibi and can say I wasn't there when my patient hanged himself?"

"That's not what I'm talking about."

"Yeah. It never is."

Er, I don't know. I'm goofing around a little. And I need to go goof around with that Crow's Nest thing I'm working on, I think. Anyone who wants to pick this up, chop it up, slice dice or julienne it -- have fun.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Showing House going after Wilson was good, but they never said why. House opened up the question, "What does Wilson mean to me?" but never answered it. Then after one ep of pursuing Wilson, House stopped. Ep 5-3 had no mention of Wilson at all. Hugh Laurie mentioned House needing to do something extraordinary to win Wilson back, but House didn't do anything. He gets Wilson back in his life by chance, and then when the time came at the end of the ep for them to have an honest conversation on why they wanted to be friends... they punted. House said, "It's OK if you just like my neediness," and Wilson said, "We don't get a choice who our friends are, but it's fun to hang out with you."

: (

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

Oh, I never said I was satisfied with the way they handled these things. Just that in comparison to other friendships we see on TV, House and Wilson are so far beyond the norm even with what we are shown. I try to appreciate that rather than making myself crazy because of all the places they just zoom right past the opportunities to really explore things between those two.

[taiga13.livejournal.com]

I liked that, though. That Wilson made it clear that he was returning because he realized he did like being House's friend, that he left for the wrong reason. It meant he WANTED House, not just NEEDED him.
And oh, don't get me started on the DBS issue.

[xaipw.livejournal.com]

Are you SURE that you are not going to write it? :batting:

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Pretty sure. : ( But I am going to write that Sheppard/Ronon fic, though.

[photoash.livejournal.com]

interesting :) I always find myself floundering to articulate Wilson's 'side' in that type of situation. I would love to see you write more :)

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Thanks. If there is any more, I'll post it.

[daisylily.livejournal.com]

*happy*

I hadn't thought about the 'we' thing - that's a very good point.

Those two are insane (OK, only House is officially insane XD )

(I won't try and persuade you to write it because I've read all the comments, but OTOH... >:D )

[hibernia1.livejournal.com]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah - you see, Wilson does know how to be honest. Excellent fragment, it's like a whole story actually!