Summum Bonum (M/H) (5/?)
Title: Summum Bonum (5/?)
Author: fluffygremlin
Pairings: Mike/Harvey, Mike/Trevor
Rating: R
Warnings: none
Word Count: 2,157 (this chapter)
Summary: When Professor Harvey Specter stumbled upon a skinny student getting harassed by a campus cop, he intervened against his better judgment. He had no idea this brilliant kid would turn his world upside down. Meanwhile, Mike has now been given the opportunity to turn his life around but it might just cost him everything and everyone.
Authors Note: This is obviously AU. Huge thanks to veritas_st for the beta and cheerleading.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned people who are NOT me. No copyright or trademark infringement is intended and no money is being made.
Chapter Five
Harvey watched Mike as the other man walked into his apartment. The silent young man who had sat beside him in the car seemed to unfold when surrounded by age-smoothed wood floors and a wall full of vinyl. He wandered over and ran a thing finger along one of the shelves holding Harvey’s DVD collection while the brunet slipped off his shoes and tossed his keys onto the small table near the door. The sharp clanging sound they made when they hit ceramic bowl the held his pocket change drew Mike’s eyes to him.
“You don’t have anything released within the last ten years,” the blond said, turning around quickly. Harvey watched as he went to cross his arms and then stopped, shoving his hands into his pockets instead. Harvey could only shrug as he moved over to set his briefcase onto the table near the open kitchen.
“I prefer the classics.” Mike scoffed and came to stand across the table from him.
“Things don’t have to be old to be worth your time.” The comment made Harvey glance up at Mike but the other man was staring down at the table as if he was trying to read something in the grain of the wood.
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” Harvey said as he popped open his briefcase and set one folder worth of essays in front of Mike. “Sit down and earn your keep, kid.” The gruffness of his voice seemed enough to propel the student into action. Mike sat quickly, taking the seat next to Harvey instead of the one opposite him, close enough that Harvey could hear each time he took an extra deep breath.
Harvey glanced over at him as they worked together in silence, watching his pale blue eyes flit across the page. Mike only got through one paper for every three of Harvey’s and it made the older man curious. He started looking closer, observing the way Mike chewed on his bottom lip until it was red and swollen and the way his eyes would occasionally skid past the paper to stare off across the table.
“Okay,” Harvey said finally, dropping his pen and rubbing his face for a moment. “You are totally useless to me right now.” Mike looked up and Harvey felt almost bad for his abrupt words. “Obviously, something is bothering you. Let’s get it out of the way so we can actually accomplish something tonight.”
“It’s nothing,” Mike said with a shrug. He ran a hand through his blond hair, leaving it sticking up more than usual. Harvey found himself having to fight back the urge to flatten it.
“Right.” He grabbed the paper from in front of Mike and read it for a moment. “Care to tell me which German philosopher’s thesis on the concept of the greater good this student tried to cite to back their argument?”
“Uh… Schopenhauer?” Mike crossed his arms on top of the table and let his head fall down to rest on them.
“Kant,” Harvey said. He set the paper on top of the stack he was grading and pushed the entire pile aside. “OK, Soap Opera, out with it.”
“It’s nothing,” Mike mumbled.
“If it’s nothing then you can get out of my apartment and go back to your own.” Harvey leaned back in his chair. He slowly undid the cuffs of his shirt and rolled both up to his elbows in what he considered a masterful show of patience. When the other man didn’t say anything he reached out and kicked at his foot. “Mike…”
The blond sighed through his nose before straightening up and looking Harvey in the eye. “I live with my two best friends and they broke up and now I’m stuck in the middle because I care about both of them but I can’t be around either of them because I got to third base with Jenny when we were teenagers and I fooled around with Trevor the other night and now there’s all this tension there that I cannot deal with and oh my God I just told you I messed around with my very male roommate. Let’s pretend this never happened.” Mike dropped his head again, this time moving his arms so his forehead thumped on the table. Harvey opened and closed his mouth several times before clearing his throat.
“Is Trevor the friend who left you at the mercy of the campus PD?” Mike’s head moved minutely in what Harvey could only assume was a nod. “And I’m going to guess that Trevor is also the one who called you in the middle of the planning meeting this afternoon.” Another nod, this one more definite. “Just my opinion, rookie, but this guy seems like he’s poison.”
“I couldn’t just turn my back on him when he needed help. Trevor’s my oldest friend,” Mike said firmly, sitting up and meeting Harvey’s eye with only the hint of a blush on his cheeks. Harvey chose to ignore the way it made his eyes more intense and focused on the root of the problem as he saw it.
“Oldest doesn’t mean best, Mike. Isn’t that what you tried telling me about my movie collection?” Mike gaped at him.
“You can’t… I wasn’t… That’s unfair.”
“Lawyer.” Harvey pointed at himself. “Well,” he corrected, “Retired-lawyer-turned-law-professor.”
“This isn’t actually helping, you know. I’m already thinking that Trevor’s a dick right now but that doesn’t mean I’ll still be mad in the morning.”
“Then what’s the problem?” Harvey pushed. Mike stood up and walked away for a moment before returning to the table and leaning over his chair.
“The problem is that this is a lose-lose situation. If they don’t get back together then I’ll lose one or both because Trevor would never be OK with me spending time with Jenny knowing that we got together in High School and if I choose Jenny then at some point it’ll come out that I hooked up with Trevor and then that’s done. If they do make up, like they always do, then things are going to be so awkward I’m not sure how to move past it.” Mike stared at Harvey and the older man stared right back, relaxing back in his seat further.
“So you’re afraid of losing your friends no matter what happens? Okay. I get that. What I’m saying is try to create a situation where that’s not even a possibility. Kobayashi Maru.” Harvey straightened up in his chair and was reaching for his pen when Mike shook his head.
“Koba-what now?” Harvey looked back up at him.
“Star Trek. Captain Kirk. He wins a no-win situation by rewriting the rules.” Harvey pulled his stack of papers back in front of him.
“You’re a Trekkie,” Mike said with a wide grin. He sat back down, angled towards Harvey so that his knee bumped the older man’s thigh. Harvey turned and pointed at the blond with his pen.
“Hey, Captain Kirk is the man. I don’t want to hear another word about it.” Harvey glared at Mike for a moment. “Now enough with your high school drama club problems, let’s get some work done.” He turned away but not before he saw the smirk cross Mike’s face.
“Aye, aye, Captain.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike awoke with the suddenness associated with being somewhere unfamiliar. It took him a minute to push past the dream he had been in, full of broad shoulders, dark hair, and eyes that crinkled in delight, to focus on his immediate surroundings. It was still dark outside and the old apartment was quiet with only the gentle hum of a fan in the other room keeping it from being unbearably silent. He kicked away the thin blanket Harvey had given him the prior evening and stood slowly, reorienting himself before heading towards the bathroom.
He quickly relieved himself and splashed water on his face. It was obviously too early to be awake so he was headed back to the couch when he noticed that the door to Harvey’s bedroom was partially open. Mike allowed himself thirty seconds of hesitation before stepping forward and peeking in, feeling very much like he was somewhere he shouldn’t be.
Harvey slept on his back and, apparently, was too warm to wear anything more than boxers that night. A thin slip of sheet was wound around one leg but the rest of his body was uncovered, lit up by the full moon that was peeking over the neighboring building.
Mike had a hard time rectifying this Harvey with the one who had stayed up until 2 AM grading essays and arguing with Mike over the merits of remaking Hollywood classics. Sleep smoothed away the lines that crisscrossed Harvey’s forehead, leaving him looking young and free of the weight he always seemed to carry during the daylight hours. Watching him like this, Mike wondered if this was the Harvey that was kept behind a façade of not caring and stubborn adherence to a list of personal rules Mike could never fully comprehend.
The brunet in the bed moved slightly, letting out a quiet sound that had Mike backing away from the door as quickly as possible lest he be found creeping around. He felt somewhat like an intruder as he padded back into the living room. The wood floors felt cool under his feet and he stood for a long while next to the couch, lost in a middle of the night fuzziness, staring at the wall of movies and records that Harvey lovingly collected.
He walked over to the wall and pulled out the first record at eye level and held it up to the pale light coming through the tall windows. “Djangology…” he read in a whisper before slipping it back into place. He pulled out another and another and another until he had reached the end of the row. The records weren’t in any sense of order, not by artist or title or release date, and the thought itched at the back of Mike’s mind.
Harvey found him in the morning, bleary eyed and with several paper cuts, slipping the last record back into place. The older man stood behind the couch, hands in the pockets of a pair of pajama pants Mike couldn’t help but remember he wasn’t wearing last night, looking at him with a sort of amused curiosity.
“Wha’cha doin’?” Harvey asked, rocking back and forth on his feet slightly. Mike groaned in response, pushing himself off of the hard floor and wiping his hands on the sweatpants that Harvey had lent him.
“You do realize that there is no rhyme or reason to your record collection, right?” he asked, hitching up the pants slightly. Harvey only shrugged. “It’s maddening. How do you even find what you want?”
“I prefer it this way,” Harvey said, gesturing towards the shelves. “It’s like… a playlist set on ‘shuffle’ only this playlist has soul.”
“You have no soul,” Mike muttered to himself, slipping one hand under his shirt to scratch at his stomach. He looks up to find Harvey staring at him and feels suddenly shy, remembering having seen the other man at his most vulnerable. “Right, so… I should probably start looking for a new place. Something cheap.”
Harvey tilted his head slightly before nodding. “Breakfast first, rookie. Can’t have you fall down dead while you trudge around the city.”
“It almost sounds like you care about me.” Mike grinned at Harvey. The other man only gave him a baleful look before turning and heading towards the kitchen. Mike hurried after him when he heard the word “coffee” being muttered. He stood off to the side, watching Harvey move around his kitchen with purpose inured from countless mornings on his own. First the coffee maker was filled and programmed and then the toaster was filled with bagel halves. Eggs and thick-sliced ham sat in adjoining pans on the stove and were happily sizzling away by the time the coffee was finished.
“Before you make any sarcastic comments,” Harvey said randomly, moving around with plates and grinding pepper, “I’m only doing this because I don’t want to have to hire a new TA when you faint onto a subway rail and electrocute yourself.” Mike opened his mouth to interject but Harvey cut him off. “Do we need to have that talk about you interrupting me again?” Mike shook his head quickly. “Good. Also, if anyone asks, this never happened.”
Mike nodded quickly. “Don’t worry, Harvey. I’ll always respect you in the morning.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It took nearly a week for Mike to find a small studio apartment near the campus that he could afford. Nearly a week of sitting around Harvey’s small table working on homework and grading essays. Nearly a week of breakfasts that Harvey pretended he didn’t enjoy making before both men rushed off, trying to act as if nothing had changed.
Next Chapter
Also on AO3
Author: fluffygremlin
Pairings: Mike/Harvey, Mike/Trevor
Rating: R
Warnings: none
Word Count: 2,157 (this chapter)
Summary: When Professor Harvey Specter stumbled upon a skinny student getting harassed by a campus cop, he intervened against his better judgment. He had no idea this brilliant kid would turn his world upside down. Meanwhile, Mike has now been given the opportunity to turn his life around but it might just cost him everything and everyone.
Authors Note: This is obviously AU. Huge thanks to veritas_st for the beta and cheerleading.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned people who are NOT me. No copyright or trademark infringement is intended and no money is being made.
Chapter Five
Harvey watched Mike as the other man walked into his apartment. The silent young man who had sat beside him in the car seemed to unfold when surrounded by age-smoothed wood floors and a wall full of vinyl. He wandered over and ran a thing finger along one of the shelves holding Harvey’s DVD collection while the brunet slipped off his shoes and tossed his keys onto the small table near the door. The sharp clanging sound they made when they hit ceramic bowl the held his pocket change drew Mike’s eyes to him.
“You don’t have anything released within the last ten years,” the blond said, turning around quickly. Harvey watched as he went to cross his arms and then stopped, shoving his hands into his pockets instead. Harvey could only shrug as he moved over to set his briefcase onto the table near the open kitchen.
“I prefer the classics.” Mike scoffed and came to stand across the table from him.
“Things don’t have to be old to be worth your time.” The comment made Harvey glance up at Mike but the other man was staring down at the table as if he was trying to read something in the grain of the wood.
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” Harvey said as he popped open his briefcase and set one folder worth of essays in front of Mike. “Sit down and earn your keep, kid.” The gruffness of his voice seemed enough to propel the student into action. Mike sat quickly, taking the seat next to Harvey instead of the one opposite him, close enough that Harvey could hear each time he took an extra deep breath.
Harvey glanced over at him as they worked together in silence, watching his pale blue eyes flit across the page. Mike only got through one paper for every three of Harvey’s and it made the older man curious. He started looking closer, observing the way Mike chewed on his bottom lip until it was red and swollen and the way his eyes would occasionally skid past the paper to stare off across the table.
“Okay,” Harvey said finally, dropping his pen and rubbing his face for a moment. “You are totally useless to me right now.” Mike looked up and Harvey felt almost bad for his abrupt words. “Obviously, something is bothering you. Let’s get it out of the way so we can actually accomplish something tonight.”
“It’s nothing,” Mike said with a shrug. He ran a hand through his blond hair, leaving it sticking up more than usual. Harvey found himself having to fight back the urge to flatten it.
“Right.” He grabbed the paper from in front of Mike and read it for a moment. “Care to tell me which German philosopher’s thesis on the concept of the greater good this student tried to cite to back their argument?”
“Uh… Schopenhauer?” Mike crossed his arms on top of the table and let his head fall down to rest on them.
“Kant,” Harvey said. He set the paper on top of the stack he was grading and pushed the entire pile aside. “OK, Soap Opera, out with it.”
“It’s nothing,” Mike mumbled.
“If it’s nothing then you can get out of my apartment and go back to your own.” Harvey leaned back in his chair. He slowly undid the cuffs of his shirt and rolled both up to his elbows in what he considered a masterful show of patience. When the other man didn’t say anything he reached out and kicked at his foot. “Mike…”
The blond sighed through his nose before straightening up and looking Harvey in the eye. “I live with my two best friends and they broke up and now I’m stuck in the middle because I care about both of them but I can’t be around either of them because I got to third base with Jenny when we were teenagers and I fooled around with Trevor the other night and now there’s all this tension there that I cannot deal with and oh my God I just told you I messed around with my very male roommate. Let’s pretend this never happened.” Mike dropped his head again, this time moving his arms so his forehead thumped on the table. Harvey opened and closed his mouth several times before clearing his throat.
“Is Trevor the friend who left you at the mercy of the campus PD?” Mike’s head moved minutely in what Harvey could only assume was a nod. “And I’m going to guess that Trevor is also the one who called you in the middle of the planning meeting this afternoon.” Another nod, this one more definite. “Just my opinion, rookie, but this guy seems like he’s poison.”
“I couldn’t just turn my back on him when he needed help. Trevor’s my oldest friend,” Mike said firmly, sitting up and meeting Harvey’s eye with only the hint of a blush on his cheeks. Harvey chose to ignore the way it made his eyes more intense and focused on the root of the problem as he saw it.
“Oldest doesn’t mean best, Mike. Isn’t that what you tried telling me about my movie collection?” Mike gaped at him.
“You can’t… I wasn’t… That’s unfair.”
“Lawyer.” Harvey pointed at himself. “Well,” he corrected, “Retired-lawyer-turned-law-professor.”
“This isn’t actually helping, you know. I’m already thinking that Trevor’s a dick right now but that doesn’t mean I’ll still be mad in the morning.”
“Then what’s the problem?” Harvey pushed. Mike stood up and walked away for a moment before returning to the table and leaning over his chair.
“The problem is that this is a lose-lose situation. If they don’t get back together then I’ll lose one or both because Trevor would never be OK with me spending time with Jenny knowing that we got together in High School and if I choose Jenny then at some point it’ll come out that I hooked up with Trevor and then that’s done. If they do make up, like they always do, then things are going to be so awkward I’m not sure how to move past it.” Mike stared at Harvey and the older man stared right back, relaxing back in his seat further.
“So you’re afraid of losing your friends no matter what happens? Okay. I get that. What I’m saying is try to create a situation where that’s not even a possibility. Kobayashi Maru.” Harvey straightened up in his chair and was reaching for his pen when Mike shook his head.
“Koba-what now?” Harvey looked back up at him.
“Star Trek. Captain Kirk. He wins a no-win situation by rewriting the rules.” Harvey pulled his stack of papers back in front of him.
“You’re a Trekkie,” Mike said with a wide grin. He sat back down, angled towards Harvey so that his knee bumped the older man’s thigh. Harvey turned and pointed at the blond with his pen.
“Hey, Captain Kirk is the man. I don’t want to hear another word about it.” Harvey glared at Mike for a moment. “Now enough with your high school drama club problems, let’s get some work done.” He turned away but not before he saw the smirk cross Mike’s face.
“Aye, aye, Captain.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike awoke with the suddenness associated with being somewhere unfamiliar. It took him a minute to push past the dream he had been in, full of broad shoulders, dark hair, and eyes that crinkled in delight, to focus on his immediate surroundings. It was still dark outside and the old apartment was quiet with only the gentle hum of a fan in the other room keeping it from being unbearably silent. He kicked away the thin blanket Harvey had given him the prior evening and stood slowly, reorienting himself before heading towards the bathroom.
He quickly relieved himself and splashed water on his face. It was obviously too early to be awake so he was headed back to the couch when he noticed that the door to Harvey’s bedroom was partially open. Mike allowed himself thirty seconds of hesitation before stepping forward and peeking in, feeling very much like he was somewhere he shouldn’t be.
Harvey slept on his back and, apparently, was too warm to wear anything more than boxers that night. A thin slip of sheet was wound around one leg but the rest of his body was uncovered, lit up by the full moon that was peeking over the neighboring building.
Mike had a hard time rectifying this Harvey with the one who had stayed up until 2 AM grading essays and arguing with Mike over the merits of remaking Hollywood classics. Sleep smoothed away the lines that crisscrossed Harvey’s forehead, leaving him looking young and free of the weight he always seemed to carry during the daylight hours. Watching him like this, Mike wondered if this was the Harvey that was kept behind a façade of not caring and stubborn adherence to a list of personal rules Mike could never fully comprehend.
The brunet in the bed moved slightly, letting out a quiet sound that had Mike backing away from the door as quickly as possible lest he be found creeping around. He felt somewhat like an intruder as he padded back into the living room. The wood floors felt cool under his feet and he stood for a long while next to the couch, lost in a middle of the night fuzziness, staring at the wall of movies and records that Harvey lovingly collected.
He walked over to the wall and pulled out the first record at eye level and held it up to the pale light coming through the tall windows. “Djangology…” he read in a whisper before slipping it back into place. He pulled out another and another and another until he had reached the end of the row. The records weren’t in any sense of order, not by artist or title or release date, and the thought itched at the back of Mike’s mind.
Harvey found him in the morning, bleary eyed and with several paper cuts, slipping the last record back into place. The older man stood behind the couch, hands in the pockets of a pair of pajama pants Mike couldn’t help but remember he wasn’t wearing last night, looking at him with a sort of amused curiosity.
“Wha’cha doin’?” Harvey asked, rocking back and forth on his feet slightly. Mike groaned in response, pushing himself off of the hard floor and wiping his hands on the sweatpants that Harvey had lent him.
“You do realize that there is no rhyme or reason to your record collection, right?” he asked, hitching up the pants slightly. Harvey only shrugged. “It’s maddening. How do you even find what you want?”
“I prefer it this way,” Harvey said, gesturing towards the shelves. “It’s like… a playlist set on ‘shuffle’ only this playlist has soul.”
“You have no soul,” Mike muttered to himself, slipping one hand under his shirt to scratch at his stomach. He looks up to find Harvey staring at him and feels suddenly shy, remembering having seen the other man at his most vulnerable. “Right, so… I should probably start looking for a new place. Something cheap.”
Harvey tilted his head slightly before nodding. “Breakfast first, rookie. Can’t have you fall down dead while you trudge around the city.”
“It almost sounds like you care about me.” Mike grinned at Harvey. The other man only gave him a baleful look before turning and heading towards the kitchen. Mike hurried after him when he heard the word “coffee” being muttered. He stood off to the side, watching Harvey move around his kitchen with purpose inured from countless mornings on his own. First the coffee maker was filled and programmed and then the toaster was filled with bagel halves. Eggs and thick-sliced ham sat in adjoining pans on the stove and were happily sizzling away by the time the coffee was finished.
“Before you make any sarcastic comments,” Harvey said randomly, moving around with plates and grinding pepper, “I’m only doing this because I don’t want to have to hire a new TA when you faint onto a subway rail and electrocute yourself.” Mike opened his mouth to interject but Harvey cut him off. “Do we need to have that talk about you interrupting me again?” Mike shook his head quickly. “Good. Also, if anyone asks, this never happened.”
Mike nodded quickly. “Don’t worry, Harvey. I’ll always respect you in the morning.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It took nearly a week for Mike to find a small studio apartment near the campus that he could afford. Nearly a week of sitting around Harvey’s small table working on homework and grading essays. Nearly a week of breakfasts that Harvey pretended he didn’t enjoy making before both men rushed off, trying to act as if nothing had changed.
Next Chapter
Also on AO3