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Title: Life In General
Author: YoungFreak92
Beta: Anna was kind enough to give this a look-over
Rating: G
Pairing: Gen
Wordcount: 1 015
Disclaimer: I don't own House MD or anything related to the show. I'm just playing around a little.
Summary: In which Wilson is being told the same statement during two different periods of his life.
Author's Note: I promised myself to never write backstory!fics, especially not with Wilson. I am now working on another fic that is almost exclusively about Wilson's Long Lost Brother and Wilson as kids. Damn. Oh, and as you'll probably figure out, I named LLB "David". And he is Wilson's older brother. I have actually managed to write a whole summary over Wilson's childhood, maybe I'll post it on my journal someday. There is only one bad thing about writing backstory -- I have to call Wilson "James" (first names in House-fics is my pet peeve).
The statement comes from my very nice and very kind uncle.


- - - - - - - - -


It was late in the evening sometime in the middle of the summer. Their parents had gone away to one of their friends' party and taken Michael with them. They'd put David in charge of taking care of James, and told them with a hug and a kiss to be good boys while they were away. James knew that their parents didn't know about David's /habits/, because otherwise they wouldn't have left them home alone. It wasn't even two hours after they'd left and David was already drunk, maybe even high. James wasn't entirely sure that the cigarette in his older brother's hand was of the same kind their father used. James had curled up in his bed with a book when David had told him to go away, but not even half an hour later David came to his room, a bottle of beer in his hand. James did what he always done; He put away the book and kept David company, to later take care of him when David started to throw up. James was sure it was dangerous, but David kept insisting he was fine and became snappish when James argued further or tried to help when he wasn't asked. But sometimes David did ask James to help him, and James was always eager to do anything he could. One of the things David had asked him was to not tell their parents. James wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do, but he'd kept his mouth shut. After all, David was fifteen while James himself only was ten. David knew a lot more about things than he did.

David was laying on his back on James' bed, cigarette in one hand and a bottle of beer in the other. He was talking fast and slurred, and James didn't catch all of the words or understood everything his brother talked about. But he still sat with crossed legs on his pillow and listened.

"Life," David slurred while waving the hand holding the cigarette wildly in the air, "is nothing but a sexually transmitted disease with a fatal outcome". James peered at his brother curiously.

"What about love then, Dave?" he asked, wondering what his clever older brother would have for answer. James himself didn't know much about 'love', but their parents often talked about it, and so did David. David huffed and took a swig of his beer.

"Bah, love's just a fictional concept," he muttered and took another drag of the cigarette. James pondered upon these words while David kept on talking about something or other. He didn't have much more time to think about it though when David declared that he was feeling sick and James had to fetch a bucket.

- - - - -

Wilson hated the internship. He'd always considered himself pretty smart, he was one of the best students at med-school, but at the hospital he was currently employed at he was treated like an idiot. He felt like his days only consisted of endless hours running brainless errands and being ordered around by his superiors. This free Saturday he had however decided to take a break from it all and went to a bar. Not to get wasted, he couldn't afford that. Dr. Brennan would be furious if he showed up tomorrow with a hangover. He was just going to take a few beers and try to relax. As soon as he entered the bar he started to reconsider his decision. It was loud in there, and smokey, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was that by the bar counter he saw the notorious Dr. Gregory House 'playfully' argue with the bartender, and loudly at that. But then he remembered that his other option was to uselessly stare at the ceiling of his apartment or go to work and suddenly Dr. House didn't seem so threatening anymore. He headed towards the counter and the bartender was more than happy to be able to avoid Dr. House if even just for a minute. James was tense for a few seconds, but relaxed when Dr. House took no notice of him and started to argue with a man on his other side. Wilson spent a whole quarter of an hour listening to Dr. House's chatter and twaddle while drinking his beer. The man just wouldn't shut up. Wilson was just considering leaving and try to find another place to relax when Dr. House started to complain about life in general to the stranger at his right.

"Life," Dr. House started loudly as he took a swig of his beer, "is a sexually transmitted disease with a fatal outcome". Wilson turned his head and stared at the young doctor with wide eyes.

"What about love then?" he blurted out before he could stop himself. Dr. House stopped in the middle of a sentence and slowly turned around and looked at Wilson. Wilson knew he probably was going to get a verbal beating. Dr. House was infamous for his sharp tongue and sarcasm, and was known to treat both superiors and colleagues with little respect. Wilson didn't even want to think about what the man might do to a scrawny postgraduate. But surprisingly enough Dr. House didn't humiliate him. Instead a sly smirk tugged at the doctor's lips.

"Love is just a fictional concept," he told Wilson matter-of-factly, "created by humans to explain what you are feeling when your hormones go haywire". Wilson blinked, and for a second he was back in his boy's room with his older brother in front of him, but then nodded slowly.

"But how do you explain platonic love then?" he asked, shocking himself with his boldness. Dr. House looked genuinely surprised for a few seconds before the smug expression came back. The two young men got into a rather playful argument about love, faith, science and baseball and didn't stop until Dr. House with a curse exclaimed that he was late and ran away. It wasn't until then Wilson looked at his watch and saw that he'd been at the bar for three hours.