Pretty-Handsome Kindergarten [3/5]
Title: Pretty-Handsome Kindergarten
Pairing: Harvey Specter/Mike Ross
Other characters: Jessica Pearson, Rachel Zane, Donna, Louis Litt, Kyle, Gregory, Scotty, Harold
Rating: G
Word count: 2,877
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters.
Warning: none
Summary: Mike is the new kid in the kindergarten that everybody wants to play with.
Author’s note: Originally written for suits_meme. The prompt was ‘The new kid Mike is as cute as a button and everyone just wants to hold him because he's irresistibly adorable.’
On Monday morning, Harvey’s mother noticed that something was going on with her son. The boy had been spending twice as much time in front of the tall mirror.
“Come here, son. Let me see that handsome face.”
“Mom, you see me all the time.” Harvey didn’t even look at her.
“Is it someone’s birthday today? A party at school?” She asked. There must be a reason why her son was paying more attention to his looks.
“No, mom. Leave me alone.”
The mother laughed. “A new friend then? Someone with a pretty smile?”
She saw the boy’s shoulders tense up and knew that she had hit the right spot. It was time to press until it hurt.
“What’s her name? Or is it a boy?”
“I am not going to answer that.” Harvey spoke in his most grown-up voice.
“But I’m your mom, Harvey! You can tell me anything!” She laughed some more. She was definitely enjoying this.
“Is this friend as pretty as me? Am I being replaced already? Does this friend kiss you on the cheek like I do?”
She didn’t miss the hint of red appear on her son’s cheek. It was time for the final blow.
“That friend likes light blue?” She asked, pointing at the color of his T-shirt. He hadn’t worn that shirt in months.
“I’m not talking to you, mom. I’m late!” Harvey ran out of the room with his schoolbag in hand, wondering how she could possibly know all that.
When Donna arrived at school, Kyle was sitting in Mike’s seat, sobbing into a Kleenex.
“What happened?”
“Boo hoo hoo…”
Kyle told her about the umbrella incident between sobs and sniffs.
“I’m sorry, Kyle. But I’ll have to take a sticker off the board. Mike was worried about that umbrella.” Donna spoke in a soft voice while Rachel patted the boy on the back.
“That’s okay. I want to take my name down anyway.”
“What? Why?” Rachel asked.
“I’m not six like Harvey. He’s not going to choose me.” Kyle blew his nose.
“Aww.” Donna patted him on the head and took a look at Harvey. The boy looked perfect today.
‘Did he use hair gel? Seriously? Well, well, well… isn’t this getting interesting…’
After taking off Kyle’s name from the scoreboard, she walked towards Harvey with an amused smile on her face.
“Morning, Harvey.”
“Morning, Donna.” Harvey looked up from his penmanship book.
“You look great today.”
Harvey looked at her cautiously. “What do you want?”
“I want to know how much gel you put in your hair.”
“No, you don’t. You want something else.”
“Fine, I need your help. You see, Harvey, I was sick yesterday.” Donna coughed, wondering if she should become an actress.
“Did you see a doctor? You should go to the nurse’s room if you’re still sick.”
Donna smiled. Harvey could be sweet like that. “Yes, I saw a doctor. He said I had a cold. So I want Mike to nap with you until I get better. I don’t want to get him sick.”
She tried really hard not to burst into laughter at Harvey’s shocked expression.
“Donna, you know I nap alone. I’ve always napped alone.”
“That’s just it! Everybody has a friend to nap with, so there’s nobody else I can leave Mike with!”
Donna coughed some more and saw that Harvey was buying her acting. Oh god, she was going to be a superstar on the red carpet one day.
“What if he snores and drools? Four year olds always drool.”
“Mike doesn’t snore or drool.”
“Can’t he sleep alone on another mattress with his bunny?”
“Harvey, he’s four! Of course he has to sleep with somebody!”
“Fine. Stop yelling.” Harvey gave up.
“One more thing. Keep him happy and safe, okay? If he cries or goes missing, I’m going to kick your ass.”
“Why would he go missing?”
“He’s pretty! Haven’t you read the stories where bad people come and steal things when good people are asleep?”
“He’s not a thing.”
“But he’s pretty! So keep him safe, okay?”
Harvey grunted and Donna took that as a ‘yes’.
By the time nap time had arrived, everybody in the kindergarten knew about Kyle’s broken heart and how Mike had kissed Harvey on the cheek. So it was no surprise that everybody in the classroom was watching Mike drag his pillow and his stuffed bunny towards Harvey’s mattress.
“Um… People are looking at us, Harvey.” Mike whispered.
Harvey lifted his eyes and gave his friends a death glare which made them pretend that they weren’t looking.
Mike put his pillow next to Harvey’s and lay down with Jenny. He was tired.
“Ready for a nap?” Harvey asked, covering the baby boy with a blanket.
Mike nodded, letting out a long yawn. He looked small and weak in the six year old boy’s eyes.
Harvey thought about what Donna had told him. ‘Hmm, how do I keep him safe?’
He looked around and saw large toy bricks under the book shelf.
“I’ll be right back.” He told Mike and brought as many bricks as he could in two baskets.
“What are you doing?” Mike asked in a sleepy voice.
“I’m building a wall. It will keep you safe.” Harvey started to put toy bricks around Mike’s side of the small mattress.
“From monsters?”
Harvey looked around and got some very jealous stares. “Yeah, from green-eyed monsters.”
“Can I help?” Mike asked even though his eyes were closing.
“It’s okay. You go to sleep.” Harvey ruffled his hair and was surprised at the softness. It reminded him of his dead puppy that used to have incredibly soft hair.
“Are you okay?” Mike looked up, wondering why Harvey suddenly looked sad.
“Yeah, I think I’ll be okay.” Harvey smiled and kept working on the wall.
Meanwhile, Louis was huffing on his mattress, unable to fall asleep.
‘What is he trying to build? The Great Wall of China? He wants Mike all to himself! That liar! He said he wasn’t my rival!!’
Louis gritted his teeth. He looked on as Harvey finished the wall and lay down next to Mike. He grabbed his chest and winced when Mike turned to one side and hugged one of Harvey’s arms.
‘He has Jenny! Why does he need Harvey’s arm! He probably has a robotic arm anyway! It can’t be that warm! My arm is very warm!’
“Louis, can you stop shaking the mattress please?” Harold pleaded.
“Sorry.” Louis apologized and lay down, urging himself to sleep.
Minutes passed and more minutes passed, but he was still unable to nap in peace. Mike was his pony and it was going to stay that way.
‘I’m not going to just lie here. I’m going to break down that stupid wall!’
He saw Miss Pearson leave the classroom with her coffee mug and knew that he had to act fast. Like a street cat, he glided off his mattress and tiptoed towards the wall. Harvey and Mike were asleep with a small smile on their faces, and it annoyed him to no end.
He quickly grabbed as many bricks as he could and carried them back to where they belonged. He repeated that a few more times and looked down at the low wall with a huge grin.
‘Uh oh…’
He could hear Miss Pearson’s footsteps right outside the classroom. He didn’t have time to put back the bricks that he had just grabbed.
‘Oh crap…’
He hurried back to his own mattress and hid the bricks under his blanket.
Minutes later, when Harvey woke up for a glass of water, the first thing that he noticed was the broken wall.
‘What the hell! Who did this??’
His laser-sharp glare looked for a suspect and it didn’t take him long to notice how Louis was fidgeting under his blanket.
He didn’t bother to fetch a glass of water and headed straight to Louis’ mattress. “Louis, I know you’re not asleep. What do you have in there?”
“Nothing.”
Harvey narrowed his eyes. “They look like bricks.”
“Just because they look like bricks doesn’t mean they’re bricks.” Louis was proud of his clever words.
Harvey yanked one of the bricks from under the blanket and shoved it in Louis’ face. “I think this is a brick, Louis. What do you think?”
Louis grumbled. “I was just worried about Mike, okay? The wall looked dangerous. What if the bricks fell on Mike?”
“I know how to build a wall, thank you very much.” Harvey growled.
“Boys! Why aren’t you napping?” Jessica approached the two, and Harvey took it as his cue to go fetch two glasses of water.
**************************************************************************************************************
A week had passed and the game had completely changed. Louis couldn’t believe that Donna gave Harvey half a sticker every time he smiled at Mike and a whole sticker every time he patted him on the head or pulled the blanket up to his neck during nap time.
“Donna, do you ever really look at the scoreboard?” Louis approached the red-haired girl at playtime. She was sitting on the bench, watching the competitors on the playground like a hawk.
“What’s wrong with the board?”
“Look!” Louis pointed at Harvey’s section of the board. If Kyle’s name hadn’t been taken off, there would’ve been no space left for Harvey to earn new stickers.
“So Harvey’s winning. What’s wrong with that? You just have to do better.” Donna slapped Louis’ hand away. She was the only person allowed to touch the board, and if there was anybody else, it would be Mike.
Louis narrowed his eyes and whispered closely to her ear. “Well, I will not worry about the score too much. You’re not coughing anymore, so Mike can go back napping with you.”
Donna suddenly developed a horrible fit of coughs. She even added a few sneezes. “Atchoo! Atchooo!”
Louis shook his head, leaving her side with hands over his ears.
Meanwhile, on another bench, Kyle was talking to Rachel about how his dad had bought him a Lego spaceship. The little girl was busy brushing her long hair but she still paid enough attention to what her friend was saying.
“Oh, I almost forgot! I have something for you.”
Rachel put down the hairbrush and pulled out two four-leaf clovers from her jacket pocket.
“Wow, these are for me?” Kyle’s eyes went wide. Everybody in the kindergarten knew that she collected four-leaf clovers.
“Yes, one is to help you glue your broken heart back, and the other one is to help you find a new friend to like.”
Rachel put the clovers on Kyle’s hand and he picked them up to take a closer look. She had felt bad for him ever since she had heard about the umbrella incident. She knew how hard Kyle had worked to make Mike happy and she thought that he didn’t deserve such heartbreak. The fact that she sat next to Mike during class didn’t help her mood. She was happy to see Mike and Harvey grow close to each other, but a part of her wished that it was Mike and Kyle.
“Thank you, Rach. But are you okay?” Kyle asked, after carefully putting the clovers in his jeans pocket. His mom had told him that they were good jeans, so he hoped that they were good enough to keep his clovers safe.
Rachel nodded but her face didn’t get any brighter. “Kyle, do you like sushi?”
Kyle didn’t even know what sushi was. Was it a new toy? The name of a new robot, maybe? Captain Sushi?
“Uh, I don’t know.” He answered vaguely, not wanting to embarrass himself in front of a pretty girl.
“You’ve never had sushi before? You should try it! I can share with you if you have lunch with me.” Rachel blushed a little as she realized that she had just asked a boy out on a lunch date.
“But you sit at the grown-ups’ table with Mike and Harvey.” Kyle made sure that there were absolutely no good feelings inside him when he spoke Harvey’s name.
“I don’t have to sit there every day.” Rachel twined her fingers together.
“Oh, then you can join our pirates’ table. I eat with Gregory, Harold, and Ben.” Kyle offered.
“I can be a pretty piratess…” Rachel wasn’t sure if such a word existed, but that didn’t stop her from being proud that she had figured out the female form of the word ‘pirate’ all by herself.
“Great! See you at lunch then.” As the captain of the pirate ship, Kyle had to tell his pirates that they were going to have a guest on board.
“Hehehe…”
Mike giggled as Harvey tickled the back of his neck. They were in the ‘clean room’, brushing their teeth next to each other.
“Harvey! Stop! Ehehe…”
Toothpaste bubbles jumped out of Mike’s mouth as he giggled uncontrollably.
“Unbelievable.” Louis muttered as he brushed his teeth more forcefully.
“Does tickling Mike get him a sticker?” Gregory asked, wondering if he should ask Donna about the exact rules.
“Mike is laughing. So I think it does.” Harold answered, thinking that Mike had the prettiest laughter in the school.
“But he’s laughing too much! What if he swallows the toothpaste?” Gregory was a little worried.
“Then we can make Donna take off a lot of stickers from Harvey’s board.” Louis suggested as he checked both sides if the girl was anywhere near them.
“Do I look clean, Harvey? Miss Pearson says smart people are clean.” Mike asked as he showed off his freshly brushed teeth.
“Yes, you’re clean, Mike.” Harvey pinched the baby boy’s nose and heard annoying sounds coming from Louis’ area.
‘Oh, this is going to be fun.’ He thought and ruffled Mike’s hair. He could hear Louis and some other kids gasp sharply.
“Harvey! I brushed my hair like a movie star!” Mike looked in the mirror and made a face. His hair looked messy.
Fully aware of his “competitors’” glares, Harvey bent his knees a little and whispered in Mike’s ear. “You look much cuter with hair like this.”
Mike’s face turned red like a strawberry and Harvey led them out of the clean room, leaving a bunch of angry kids behind.
The same thing happened during nap time as Harvey found out that it was a lot of fun to mess with Louis’ life by being nicer to Mike. He thought that this new game of his had three good sides (he could annoy Louis, earn new stickers, and see Mike smile happily) and no bad sides at all.
“Mike, do you want me to read you a naptime story?” Harvey asked, as soon as Mike had settled down on the mattress, a warm blanket covering him.
“Yes!” Mike was excited. Harvey had never read him a story before.
“Which one do you want?” Harvey didn’t need to tell him which choices he had. Mike had already memorized which books they had on the book shelf.
“Pick something you haven’t read yet. You already know many books by heart.”
Mike went through his mental library and picked one that Donna had recommended the other day, “Ali Baba and the forty tieves, please.”
Harvey nodded as he went to fetch the book. There was a time when he was annoyed by Mike’s imperfect ‘th’ sound, but now he found it rather adorable. Besides, he had gotten much better at it. Now he could pronounce it all right when there was only one ‘th’ in a sentence. Harvey could tell that it was only a matter of time to hear him nail the sound.
“Aww, how many stickers do you think I should give him, ladies? Reading somebody the right book for nap is serious business.” Donna asked Rachel and Scotty who lay on the mattress next to hers.
“What about one and a half? One for reading Mike a naptime story, and half for choosing the right book.” Rachel suggested.
“Scotty?” Donna wanted a second opinion.
“I just can’t believe Harvey’s reading someone a book! I think you should give him three stickers. Harvey never reads me anything! And, I’m the closest friend he has!”
“Ladies, get your beauty sleep, will you?” Jessica looked up from her desk.
Scotty made a zipping gesture against her lips and Donna figured that she should reflect both of the girls’ opinions.
‘Hmm, two then? Maybe two and a half?’
She took in the sight of Harvey lying on his stomach, reading the book and making different faces for a dramatic effect. She saw Mike giggle and gasp, enjoying Ali Baba’s adventures. A ray of sunshine was poking its head between the drawn blinds, eager to listen to the story.
‘Oh my god, how did I not notice that before? Harvey moved from his dark corner!’
She remembered that Harvey used to nap in the darkest corner of the classroom. At the time, she had thought that he just wanted as less light as possible to sleep well, but now that she saw him right beneath the window, she wasn’t too sure anymore.
‘Two and a half, it is.’
Donna made up her mind. She knew that Harvey could use a little bit of sunshine in his life.