Title: Early Morning Conversations

Title: Early Morning Conversations

Author: ryogirl

Rating: PG

Summary: House and Chase's first morning together after Chase moves in. Set during "Moving In."

House had a hard time falling asleep, but once he did, he never woke up a minute earlier than he had to.

Which was why he was extremely annoyed when he felt Chase slip from bed at while it was still dark out. He heard Chase grab some clothes from the closest, and then he heard the front door open and close.

Chase had finished moving his things in last night – and he hadn't brought a whole lot. No furniture, really, mostly just clothes and other little things. Once he'd finished tossing the boxes out, he'd gone out for Chinese, they'd eaten it, and then they'd spent the rest of the night in bed, wrapped around each other.

He would have thought that a night full of sex would have worn the Australian out, but apparently, he'd been wrong. He absolutely refused to leave the bed, but he listened for Chase to come back the entire half hour he was gone. The door opened, close quietly, and then the bathroom shower kicked on.

Where the hell had Chase gone for half an hour? The only places open were gas stations and 24-hour Walmarts. Those Walmarts were filled with people high on drugs – and House knew from experience.

The shower cut off, and then Chase was getting dressed in work clothes – ones he thought were nice but made House want to stuff him back in the closet and not let him out until he discovered some sort of fashion sense.

Chase left again, and House still refused to get up. Then there was a series of loud-as-hell bangs from the kitchen, some louder Aussie curses, and then silence.

The bangs had sounded like little-used pans. House finally forced himself up but waited ten minutes before he actually went into the kitchen.

When he got there, he paused. There were green peppers on the counter and egg shells had been dropped into the sink.

"Why are you waking me up so early?" he groused, trying to see what Chase was going.

"I'm cooking breakfast," Chase said.

House looked at the stuff in the pan and backed away slightly.

"I'm not eating that," House said immediately. "It looks like something an animal threw up."

"I didn't make any for you," Chase said, spooning some of the whatever-it-was into a bowl and sitting down at the table.

"Why the hell is there still half a pan left, then? I'm not paying to feed you if you always eat that much." Chase was eating pretty quickly, actually.

"You don't pay to feed me," Chase shot back. "I'm always the one doing the shopping. I just like to have leftovers. In case I don't feel like cooking."

House scowled. "No, no, no. Part of the deal was, you live here, you cook. Every night."

"I thought the deal was, I live here, I put out every night."

"That, too." House said smugly.

Chase snorted and finished eating, sticking his bowl in the sink and leaving the kitchen. House leaned his head out to make sure Chase was really in the bedroom, then he swiftly grabbed a fork and stabbed the food in the pan. He shoved a forkful in his mouth and hid the fork, chewing very slowly so it wouldn't look like he was.

It was good. Not McDonald's Egg McMuffin-good, but still pretty good. House scowled.

Chase came out of the bedroom with his bag and House high-tailed it out of the kitchen to finish getting ready himself. He and Chase weren't going to work in the same vehicle; that was part of the deal, too. House loved riding his motorcycle, and he was not going to show up with Chase on the back of it.

He peeked out to see Chase take out the sandwiches he had made last night, leaving one on the counter and stuffing the other into his bag.

"See you at work," Chase called, slipping out the door. House headed into the kitchen and pulled the refrigerator door open. A plastic tub was in there now, filled with the eggs…whatever Chase had made.

House grabbed it and heated it up, putting the other sandwich into his own bag. When the eggs were warm, he shamelessly ate them all.

He told himself it was just to make sure Chase earned his place in House's house – and that meant cooking. Every night.

And putting out, of course.

A/N: I promised myself I'd never write House again, because I had such a hard time making sure Moving In was in character. You see how well that worked out! I hope this was a good addition to that verse!