wilson is honestly suchhh a good examination of a trope that you see a lot but rarely get to look inside of which is someone who is kind and selfless to a degree of needless self sacrifice. and especially when that character is paired with someone who is callous and mean (classic sunshine x hater dynamic or whatever) the reason that's given for WHY the nice character not only puts up with the mean one but actually likes being around them is always IN SPITE of their nasty attitude and depending on the degree of rudeness it can leave like well .... how much "in spite of" can you get before you only halfway even like this person.
with wilson that dynamic is absolutely pushed to it's breaking point-- house is pretty much undeniably a terrible person. he not only refuses to change but genuinely doesn't believe it's possible, he consciously makes choices to test his friendship with wilson to see what it would take to push him away for good, he doesn't care about anyone other than himself and when it seems like he does it's because he cares about what that person means to him rather than as an individual. wilson is an oncologist who coaches people through treatment and management of incurable diseases. he gets brought onto cases he isn't involved in purely so that he can break the news that the patient is going to die, because no one knows how to do it as kindly as he does. sometimes the patient will even thank him. he never forgets a patient, he memorizes their life stories, he finds a way to make all of them interesting to him so that even the loneliest person feels loved while they're dying.
And yet. he's been divorced three times and greg house is his best and only friend. and at first it makes no blooming sense. what the fuck does wilson see in house. he seems so sweet and levelheaded, why would he be thrice divorced. and its because being niceys constantly only all the time, setting your thoughts and needs aside every damn time because someone else's problem always comes first, is exhausting! and not in a way that's digestible and respectable and Good, but in a way that makes him grow resentful of his wives for no reason other than he didn't have the guts to bring up little problems when he had them! and in a way that makes him best friends with the only person he can trust to say every mean thought he thinks and in return can take the hit when wilson for once, finally, does the same. he's drawn to house's neediness, yes, but if that was it then they wouldn'tve been friends for this long. he's also drawn to the fact that he can call house an ass with no repercussions.
it's strange for him to say that he wants to spend his final months with family and friends and for thirteen to correct him to "friend". but it's true! for the exact opposite reason that wilson is house's only friend, house is wilson's only friend! because no one else actually knows him! because he can't tell his problems to anyone else! because wilson can't make anything about himself, and house can be counted on to make everything about house anyways! that's WHY it's so huge for house to fake his death to spend wilson's last months by his side.... house is hardwired for selfishness, and as much of a pos that objectively makes him it is a trait that wilson is incapable of finding within himself, even when he absolutely needs it. wilson's cancer is the breaking point, where wilson needs this, for once, to be about him. so house, ceo of people don't change, makes the first sacrifice that anyone has ever made for wilson. because he loves him . and because wilson doesn't want to spend his last few months alive with literally anybody else.