Suits Fic: promises
Title: promises
Author: smartalli
Count: 4252
Fandom: Suits
Characters/Pairings: Harvey/Mike
Warnings: Sex, if such a thing needs to be warned for.
Summary: This is nearly as much about Harvey as it is about Mike. Mike was tired and drained and needed the vacation, but Harvey missed him in their bed. And seeing him only briefly every day was becoming an unacceptable trend. When it comes to Mike and his attention, Harvey can be decidedly selfish.
Disclaimer: Don’t own it. Not mine. Don’t sue.
A/N: This is a sequel to a previous fic, Interlude. Reading that one isn’t necessary, but it can’t hurt anything.
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Harvey watches Mike a minute from the doorway, leaning into the jam. Mike’s hair is mussed, his shirt sleeves are rolled up to the elbows, and Harvey doesn’t know exactly when Mike’s wretched skinny tie got loosened, but knowing his husband as he does, it was probably about five minutes after most of the staff, including Harvey, went home for the night.
(Six months into their marriage and Harvey still hasn’t made any headway on Mike’s ties. He’s tried slipping some in, tried replacing them in their entirety, but it’s always met with a headshake and a small, vaguely exasperated smile as Mike, once again, flips up his collar and threads a skinny tie around his neck.)
Mike’s back is to the doorway, his hands splayed on his desk, arms wide, as he reads from the file in front of him. It’s been a long, tense three weeks as Mike and Louis worked together to finish up this case, but Harvey knows they’re in the home stretch now. Louis will be meeting with Stern, Rickson, and their legal team tomorrow to nail their asses to the wall, and that means, selfishly, this is the last night Harvey will have to go to bed alone.
It’s truly amazing that Harvey would become so attached to sleeping with someone else beside him after years spent going about his life alone. Amazing that the way Mike burrows into him, the way they fit together, the way Harvey curls around him, would become so natural. So natural that Harvey would forget what it felt like to be alone. And he hasn’t, not entirely, will never forget it, but it’s a ghost of something that used to be now, something so far off that it’s been reduced to a memory he never plans to revisit.
Harvey walks across the office, slides a hand up Mike’s back. Mike turns with a start, blinks in surprise and looks down at his watch.
“Harvey! What are you doing here? I thought you went home.”
Harvey kisses him, sets the paper bag down on the desk and sits down on the edge. “I did. And then midnight rolled around and you weren’t home. So I came back. Bearing gifts.”
Mike grimaces in apology then laughs softly as he opens the paper bag and pulls out a six pack of Red Bull. “Inspiration?”
“How much have you slept this week?”
“I think you mean to ask how much I’ve slept in the last three weeks. Or, maybe the last three months.” He runs a hand through his hair, rubs at his face, and Harvey frowns. “I don’t know. Not enough, probably.”
There’s no probably about it.
“Wasn’t making Junior Partner supposed to mean I got to sleep more? And watch the little minions scurry about, burning the midnight oil?”
“I don’t think we’re allowed to call them minions anymore. I think they prefer “associate”.”
“You sure about that?”
“Pretty sure.” Harvey reaches out a hand, pulls Mike to him. Mike leans into the embrace, slips his hands under Harvey’s untucked shirt, beneath his jacket. They aren’t normally this affectionate at work, but it’s late and Mike is drained and Harvey is tired of not seeing him, and he thinks, fuck it. Fuck it. “The meeting is tomorrow.”
Mike nods, pauses, holds up his watch. “Today, actually. In...a little under eight hours.” He takes a deep breath, steels himself. “But I can’t stop. I can’t stop until I find every little thing they’ve done. I don’t want them getting away with anything. I don’t want them thinking we weren’t smart enough to find it, that we weren’t smart enough to know they’d done it.”
Harvey presses his thumbs into his hips. “I know.”
When Harvey hired Mike it was as much for his heart as it was his brain. Sure, his brain is an incredible, impressive thing, but it’s his heart that drove him to fight for the job in the first place, and it’s his heart that makes him look past the obvious to see what everyone else seems to miss, time after time, case after case. His heart is what makes Mike special. He’s always going to fight for the downtrodden, for the underdog, for the person who was wronged. He will bleed for them and fight for them because they can’t do it for themselves, or they don’t know how, or because they’ve been convinced they don’t deserve to. And Harvey will step back and watch proudly as Mike rips someone else a new one, as he sets one more thing to rights, as he gives someone else back something they thought they’d lost.
But all that fight, all that working with an exposed heart tends to drain him after a while. And if it’s Mike’s job to fight for the underdog, it’s Harvey’s job to make sure he can.
“Grab a minion or two. Abby and Carter, if you can. They’re not half bad. Go over everything twice.”
It isn’t anything Mike doesn’t already know, but Harvey learned long ago that when Mike gets tired, when his brain gets muddied with too much information, sometimes the best thing to do is to give him the clearest path possible. To point him back in one direction and watch him go.
Harvey stands and Mike says, tired smile gracing his lips, “I thought we weren’t supposed to call them minions anymore.”
“Special dispensation.” Harvey gives him a firm kiss. “Nail their goddamn asses to the wall.”
+
It’s an inconvenient time to call, and he doesn’t relish waking her up, but she’ll forgive him. She will, because she’s known him since he was a little boy, when he followed after his dad like an adoring duckling, when all it took was a piece of her apple pie to set a wrong day right. But no matter how inconvenient the time, he’d make the call anyway. This is for Mike. He needs this, and Mike’s needs trump all.
+
When Harvey pulls up in front of Pearson Hardman three and a half hours later, Mike is just walking out of the building, clearly intent on hailing a cab to get home. Harvey has Louis to thank for the timing, and Harvey gives him a thankful nod as he passes behind Mike on the way to his town car. Louis gives him a nod back, and Harvey rolls down the passenger window, leans forward, calls out to Mike.
“Hi.”
Mike leans on the car door, looks in at Harvey. “I don’t remember you borrowing this one.”
Harvey just smiles. “Get in.”
Mike slips into the seat, yanks his seatbelt on, settles back into the seat with a sigh as he closes his eyes. “It’s nice of you to pick me up.”
“Necessity. I didn’t want to run the risk of letting you take a cab home and having you fall asleep in the back, only to wake up somewhere awful. Like New Jersey.”
Mike laughs but his eyes stay closed and he turns toward Harvey, fails to stifle a yawn. “Sorry. I can’t keep my eyes open.”
“You’re crashing. Three weeks without much sleep will do that to you. Did you find everything you were looking for?”
He knows they did, or Mike would never have left the office.
Mike smiles proudly. “And some things I wasn’t.”
“That’s my boy.”
Harvey reaches over, traces Mike’s cheek with his thumb, smiles when Mike turns his face into Harvey’s hand.
Mike’s words begin to slur. “I don’t think I can stay awake.”
“It’s okay. Sleep.”
“Sure?”
“I’m sure.”
“You know how heavy I get when I’m half asleep. Are you going to be able to get me out of the car?”
Harvey laughs softly. “I’ll manage.”
+
When Harvey pulls into a spot right in front of the little café, it’s just past eight in the morning, and Mike is still dozing away in the passenger seat, his body curled toward Harvey, Harvey’s coat draped across him to keep him warm. Harvey closes the door gently, checks to make sure Mike hasn’t woken up, then hops onto the sidewalk and over the snow and quickly enters the café.
A bell sounds above him, and Marianne turns around, gives him a motherly smile as she wipes her hands with a dishtowel. She comes out from behind the counter, looks him up and down, then puts a hand to his cheek, tilts her head and smiles with her eyes. “You look good, Harvey.”
He smiles. “You look better.”
She winks. “And don’t you forget it.” She looks over his shoulder, out at the car. “Is that him?”
Harvey turns to look at Mike, smiles. “That’s Mike.”
“You look happy.” She tilts her head, appraises him. “I don’t remember the last time you looked this happy.”
“I am happy.”
“Good.” She pats his chest, turns around and picks up a plastic bag with containers of food, holds it out for him. “Breakfast. John aired the place out, started a fire for you, stocked the fridge. If you need anything-”
“I’ll call.”
“Yes, you will. And you’ll bring him by to see me before you leave.”
Harvey smiles. “Yes, ma’am. How else will he know who makes the best apple pie in the world?”
“That’s right.” She holds open the door, ushers him out. “Now, shoo. I have work to do.”
Harvey kisses her on the cheek. “Thank you.”
“Shoo, now.”
+
Mike stirs just as Harvey’s removing the luggage from the trunk and he steps out of the car, looks around sleepily at the snow covered landscape as he stretches and yawns. “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”
Harvey walks over, a bag in each hand, and kisses him.
“Hi.” Mike smiles. A few hours of sleep did him good, but it’s clear it’s still not enough. “Can I carry anything?”
“Just breakfast.” He nods toward the car. “It’s on my seat.”
Mike grabs the plastic bag and follows Harvey inside the house.
“Where are we?”
“Saranac Lake.” Harvey walks down the short hallway, deposits their bags in the master bedroom. He walks back into the living area to see Mike running his fingers over some of the pictures on the entry wall, staring at them intently, bag of food hanging loosely in his hand. “This was my dad’s house.” Mike turns, looks at him. “He used to come here to write music, and he’d bring me with him. Sometimes my brother too.”
“I can see why. It seems...peaceful.”
“He always thought so.”
Mike points at a picture on the wall. “Is that-”
“Yep.”
“Seriously?”
Harvey smiles, amused, and reaches down to grab the bag out of Mike’s hand. “Seriously. Now, breakfast.”
Mike begins to protest and Harvey cuts him off with a kiss.
“We’ll be here for a week. That’s plenty of time to ask a million questions and look through every nook and cranny if you want.” Harvey wraps a hand around the back of Mike’s neck, lets his thumb trace the underside of Mike’s jaw the way he likes, in just the right pattern to make him loose, pliant. “But you’ve been running on Red Bull and coffee long enough. So here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to eat, then you’re going to sleep for as long as your body tells you to, and when you wake up, I’m going to take you apart as we christen every room in this house.”
Mike drops his head onto Harvey’s shoulder, sighs as Harvey’s hand threads through his hair, begins massaging his scalp. “Promise?”
“You have my word.”
As if to further prove Harvey’s point, Mike begins to fade halfway through breakfast, the immediate excitement of new and interesting giving way to a bone deep weariness brought on by too many days with too much stress and too little sleep. Harvey herds him to the bedroom, strips him down and tucks him in, then climbs into bed and settles beside him with a book. The fire pops and crackles, Mike’s breath begins to even out, and Harvey curls an arm around him, turning his book to the first page.
+
Mike sleeps for ten hours and fifty-two minutes.
Harvey does not watch the clock. Not at all.
+
“You did this for me.”
Harvey sets his book aside as a naked Mike climbs into his lap, straddles him, kisses him with gusto. Harvey accepts the kiss with pleasure, lets Mike control it, and hums in appreciation when Mike varies the intensity, when his body slides in closer.
Mike’s only half right. This is nearly as much about Harvey as it is about Mike. Mike was tired and drained and needed the vacation, but Harvey missed him in their bed. And seeing him only briefly every day was becoming an unacceptable trend. When it comes to Mike and his attention, Harvey can be decidedly selfish.
“How long was I asleep?”
“Just under eleven hours.”
Harvey strokes Mike’s back with one hand, fondles his cock, strokes his balls with the other. Mike lets out a contented little sigh at the attention and drops his head to Harvey’s shoulder, nuzzles his neck with his nose. Harvey keeps it soft and gentle and sweet, unhurried and just this side of possessive.
It’s ages before he comes and Mike gasps into his neck as he does. Harvey turns his head and kisses him, wraps his arms around him and pulls him in tight.
+
They unpack and Mike practically hangs off of the clothing rod in the closet as Harvey grips his hips and pounds into him. There’s no gentleness this time, and Mike drops his head and grips the clothing rod with everything he has as Harvey sets a furious pace, as Mike urges him on with faster harder more fuck yes fuck more. Urges Harvey to take him for everything he’s worth.
The curtain rod holds on, but just barely.
+
Mike’s back bows as his hips cant faster and faster, as Harvey grips his hips and slams into him, as Mike’s heels dig into his lower back, as Mike’s fingernails dig into Harvey’s arms and make half moon shaped indentations, and Harvey decides counter sex might be one of his new favorite things.
+
Mike falls asleep with a book in front of the fireplace, lying naked on a fake bearskin rug - his father could never stand the real thing - and Harvey would laugh at how cliché it is, if it weren’t such a precious sight.
Instead, he lowers himself above Mike, braced above him on his forearms, and places a soft, open-mouthed kiss on his Adam’s apple. Mike stirs, drops his head back with a soft gasp, lifts his hips to rub his cock along Harvey’s, spreads his legs wide and locks his ankles behind Harvey’s back.
Harvey slips a finger inside Mike, then another. He’s still open, and Mike gives a pleased sigh as Harvey’s fingers start up a soft, steady rhythm. Mike opens his eyes and locks them with Harvey’s and Harvey gives him a smile, kisses him lightly on the nose, adds another finger, keeps working him until he’s a panting, achy mess, half strung and a second away from begging desperately for the grace of release. Harvey slides in then, smooth and slow, and Mike’s arms flop out to the side as he gives himself over to Harvey. His hips meet Harvey’s every thrust, eagerly, the heat from the fire and the heat from their blessed friction making him almost too hot to bear.
Harvey begins to fuck into him with abandon and Mike lets him, takes it more than willingly, screams Harvey’s name when he releases, barely manages to keep his ankles locked as Harvey continues to pound into his over sensitive body. Mike is about to weep from the overstimulation when Harvey slows, gathers him close, claims Mike’s mouth as he spills inside him.
+
They mine the movie collection more than once, and Mike quotes almost the entirety of Clue as he lies on the couch with his head in Harvey’s lap.
They stop paying attention to Dr. No about halfway through, when Harvey’s hand finds Mike’s cock and he begins to play. Mike turns his head to reciprocate but Harvey stops him with a hand on Mike’s hair, locks eyes with him as he slowly brings him up to the apex and watches him fall over the edge, gasping and writhing, fingers searching for purchase as he comes.
Harvey bows his head and kisses him, gentles Mike as he comes down from his high with a soothing hand, sweeping it feather light down his body as Mike’s breathing begins to return to normal.
+
Mike gasps as he rides Harvey in the hot tub on the back deck, his back to Harvey’s chest. Harvey plucks at a nipple and Mike utters words of nonsense and pleasure, speeds up, rising up and down on Harvey’s cock on already shaky legs. Harvey helps him, wraps his arms around him as he bounces up and down, and Harvey tilts his head back and feels a few stray snowflakes land softly on his eyelashes as he breathes out, heavy and happy.
Mike moans and whines, clutches at Harvey’s arms like a lifeline, and Harvey claims his mouth, drops one hand down to smooth over his chest, to score light circles into his abdomen, just above his cock, to reach down and slip his fingers over where they’re joined, to feel Mike as Harvey glides in and out of him, like a claim.
Mike whimpers Harvey’s name, and Harvey thinks hot tub sex might be his new favorite thing.
+
Harvey brings Mike to meet Marianne and her husband John two days before the end of their vacation.
She falls in love with him instantly, which is exactly what Harvey predicted would happen.
She feeds him her famous apple pie, and he gushes over it appropriately, then Marianne and John tell Mike stories of Harvey when he was a little boy, of his brother, of his dad, of the three of them. Harvey never tries to stop them, not that he really could - Marianne bows to no one, a fact Harvey has accepted since he met her for the first time at four years old - and it’s worth it, anyway, to see the new way Mike is looking at him, like Harvey’s just given him something he didn’t think he’d ever get.
And anyway, Harvey knows only Marianne and John could tell Mike these stories the way they should be told, the way they are. Harvey’s versions are colored by later events, by his cynicism. And Mike deserves him the way he was at four, the way they saw him for the first time, just for fighting through Harvey’s shit to become something precious to him, for loving him despite his efforts to keep Mike at a far enough distance that he could claim he didn’t care. It was easier for Harvey to pretend, but Mike refused to accept easy.
+
When they get back to the house Mike walks toward the master bedroom, stripping off his clothes as he goes, and when Harvey steps inside the bedroom, he finds Mike spread out on the middle of the bed, smiling at Harvey with a tilted head as he strokes his stomach. Harvey strips out of his clothes, climbs onto the bed and between Mike’s legs, and Mike willingly spreads them further apart for him.
Mike kisses him, smiles into his mouth. Harvey kisses him back, languidly, then slowly slides his arms underneath Mike and flips them, so that Mike is on top.
Mike laughs. “Okay, old man. You want me to do the work, huh?”
Harvey grins. “Give it your best shot.”
Mike is by far the best partner Harvey’s ever had. He wasn’t at first; he was too inexperienced with men for that. But he was a quick learner, and now he knows exactly what to do to string Harvey along, to hold him at the precipice, to make him see stars in his eyes when he explodes. He makes him work for it, and it’s always worth it.
Mike leans forward, draping himself along Harvey’s body, rests his chin on his hand on Harvey’s chest. His eyelashes flutter as he inserts a finger inside himself, as he begins to work his way open, and his breathing begins to escalate. He rolls his hips against Harvey, seeking friction, and Harvey yearns to touch, to slide his fingers into Mike’s ass, to claim him at a punishing pace. When he tries he’s rebuffed, his hand slapped away before it can make contact.
“If you want me to do the work, you don’t get to touch.”
Harvey slips his hands behind his head in acceptance, lets Mike writhe all over his body, lets him fuck himself open on his fingers until he’s clearly had enough and lifts himself up, impaling himself on Harvey’s cock with a happy sigh. Harvey reaches forward, tugs on Mike’s cock, and Mike is clearly on board with Harvey’s touching this time, because he rotates his hips, fucking into Harvey’s fist as he fucks himself on Harvey’s cock.
He’s a mess, a blissful aching mess, his movements jerky and desperate, but he forces himself to slow to a near torturous speed to, Harvey knows, prolong both their pleasure longer. When Harvey finally surrenders a whine and a moan, Mike speeds up, wraps his hand around Harvey’s hand on his cock, and practically pulls Harvey’s orgasm out of him. Mike comes moments later, spilling on Harvey’s chest and then collapses, gasping for breath. Harvey grabs his hair and tilts his head back, pulling him into a kiss as he lifts his knees and plants his feet on the bed to keep himself seated in Mike for just a little while longer, nudging Mike’s nose with his own.
“Love you.”
Mike mumbles his love back and settles his head on Harvey’s chest with a sigh, Harvey’s cock in his ass and Harvey’s hand running gently through his hair.
+
Harvey wakes Mike up the morning of their last day with a mouth on his cock, and Mike spills before he’s even half awake, pulling Harvey up his body when he finishes to kiss him deep and slow. Then Harvey spends the rest of the day fucking him all over the house, refusing to let him come again, even as he’s bent over the dining room table, laid flat on his back on the kitchen floor, held up against the windows looking out on the snow covered backyard, his bare ass pressed up against the glass, even as Harvey takes him on their sides from behind in front of the fire, Mike’s leg draped over Harvey’s as he’s spread open, vulnerable.
Harvey fucks into Mike hard, his entire body pulled off the foot of the bed, Mike’s hands grasping the bedposts to keep from sliding off the bed at the force of Harvey’s thrusts, and still he doesn’t let him come.
Harvey sits down in the armchair, pulls Mike into his lap and slips inside him, kisses him as he pulls Mike’s hips up and down on his cock, and still he doesn’t let him come.
He fucks him one more time in the hot tub, and one more time on the kitchen counter, just to figure out which one he likes more.
(Conclusion: push. Requires further study.)
And then he pulls Mike into the shower, lifts his foot up onto the bench, slips inside him, and finally lets him come. Mike moans and whimpers as Harvey slides in and out, taking his time, sighing as Mike’s ass clenches around him in aftershocks. Harvey keeps up the rhythm, gives Mike time to recover, to come back to himself, relishes the feel of the water pounding down on them. Harvey builds him back up slowly and when he comes again, it’s with a surprised moan. Harvey turns Mike’s head and claims his lips as he thrusts a few more times before coming, filling Mike up one more time, the water turning cold, washing away the heat from their skin.
+
Harvey shifts gears, turns on the heat, watches from the corner of his eye as Mike shifts in his seat to watch as the house recedes behind them until it can no longer be seen. He twists back around in his seat, turns toward Harvey, gives one more glance out the back window at a house that’s no longer there.
“It’s ours. We can always come back.”
“Promise?”
Harvey looks over at him briefly. “You have my word.” He pauses. “Next time we should come in the spring, when the snow is gone. There’s a full acre of land we can explore, including a boat dock that gets nice and warm from the sun beating down on it.” Harvey’s hand slides over to cup Mike in his pants, and Mike gasps. “I want to spread you out and fuck you slow while the sun beats down on us.” Harvey leans over at the stoplight and nuzzles behind Mike’s ear, gently squeezes his cock. “Did I mention it’s only partially secluded? Just the right angle, at just the right time, and the neighbors across the lake could get an eyeful.”
“Fuck.”
Harvey grins, wolfish, settles back into his seat and accelerates as the light turns green. “Yes, Mike. I think that’s the point.”
{fin}
Author: smartalli
Count: 4252
Fandom: Suits
Characters/Pairings: Harvey/Mike
Warnings: Sex, if such a thing needs to be warned for.
Summary: This is nearly as much about Harvey as it is about Mike. Mike was tired and drained and needed the vacation, but Harvey missed him in their bed. And seeing him only briefly every day was becoming an unacceptable trend. When it comes to Mike and his attention, Harvey can be decidedly selfish.
Disclaimer: Don’t own it. Not mine. Don’t sue.
A/N: This is a sequel to a previous fic, Interlude. Reading that one isn’t necessary, but it can’t hurt anything.
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Harvey watches Mike a minute from the doorway, leaning into the jam. Mike’s hair is mussed, his shirt sleeves are rolled up to the elbows, and Harvey doesn’t know exactly when Mike’s wretched skinny tie got loosened, but knowing his husband as he does, it was probably about five minutes after most of the staff, including Harvey, went home for the night.
(Six months into their marriage and Harvey still hasn’t made any headway on Mike’s ties. He’s tried slipping some in, tried replacing them in their entirety, but it’s always met with a headshake and a small, vaguely exasperated smile as Mike, once again, flips up his collar and threads a skinny tie around his neck.)
Mike’s back is to the doorway, his hands splayed on his desk, arms wide, as he reads from the file in front of him. It’s been a long, tense three weeks as Mike and Louis worked together to finish up this case, but Harvey knows they’re in the home stretch now. Louis will be meeting with Stern, Rickson, and their legal team tomorrow to nail their asses to the wall, and that means, selfishly, this is the last night Harvey will have to go to bed alone.
It’s truly amazing that Harvey would become so attached to sleeping with someone else beside him after years spent going about his life alone. Amazing that the way Mike burrows into him, the way they fit together, the way Harvey curls around him, would become so natural. So natural that Harvey would forget what it felt like to be alone. And he hasn’t, not entirely, will never forget it, but it’s a ghost of something that used to be now, something so far off that it’s been reduced to a memory he never plans to revisit.
Harvey walks across the office, slides a hand up Mike’s back. Mike turns with a start, blinks in surprise and looks down at his watch.
“Harvey! What are you doing here? I thought you went home.”
Harvey kisses him, sets the paper bag down on the desk and sits down on the edge. “I did. And then midnight rolled around and you weren’t home. So I came back. Bearing gifts.”
Mike grimaces in apology then laughs softly as he opens the paper bag and pulls out a six pack of Red Bull. “Inspiration?”
“How much have you slept this week?”
“I think you mean to ask how much I’ve slept in the last three weeks. Or, maybe the last three months.” He runs a hand through his hair, rubs at his face, and Harvey frowns. “I don’t know. Not enough, probably.”
There’s no probably about it.
“Wasn’t making Junior Partner supposed to mean I got to sleep more? And watch the little minions scurry about, burning the midnight oil?”
“I don’t think we’re allowed to call them minions anymore. I think they prefer “associate”.”
“You sure about that?”
“Pretty sure.” Harvey reaches out a hand, pulls Mike to him. Mike leans into the embrace, slips his hands under Harvey’s untucked shirt, beneath his jacket. They aren’t normally this affectionate at work, but it’s late and Mike is drained and Harvey is tired of not seeing him, and he thinks, fuck it. Fuck it. “The meeting is tomorrow.”
Mike nods, pauses, holds up his watch. “Today, actually. In...a little under eight hours.” He takes a deep breath, steels himself. “But I can’t stop. I can’t stop until I find every little thing they’ve done. I don’t want them getting away with anything. I don’t want them thinking we weren’t smart enough to find it, that we weren’t smart enough to know they’d done it.”
Harvey presses his thumbs into his hips. “I know.”
When Harvey hired Mike it was as much for his heart as it was his brain. Sure, his brain is an incredible, impressive thing, but it’s his heart that drove him to fight for the job in the first place, and it’s his heart that makes him look past the obvious to see what everyone else seems to miss, time after time, case after case. His heart is what makes Mike special. He’s always going to fight for the downtrodden, for the underdog, for the person who was wronged. He will bleed for them and fight for them because they can’t do it for themselves, or they don’t know how, or because they’ve been convinced they don’t deserve to. And Harvey will step back and watch proudly as Mike rips someone else a new one, as he sets one more thing to rights, as he gives someone else back something they thought they’d lost.
But all that fight, all that working with an exposed heart tends to drain him after a while. And if it’s Mike’s job to fight for the underdog, it’s Harvey’s job to make sure he can.
“Grab a minion or two. Abby and Carter, if you can. They’re not half bad. Go over everything twice.”
It isn’t anything Mike doesn’t already know, but Harvey learned long ago that when Mike gets tired, when his brain gets muddied with too much information, sometimes the best thing to do is to give him the clearest path possible. To point him back in one direction and watch him go.
Harvey stands and Mike says, tired smile gracing his lips, “I thought we weren’t supposed to call them minions anymore.”
“Special dispensation.” Harvey gives him a firm kiss. “Nail their goddamn asses to the wall.”
+
It’s an inconvenient time to call, and he doesn’t relish waking her up, but she’ll forgive him. She will, because she’s known him since he was a little boy, when he followed after his dad like an adoring duckling, when all it took was a piece of her apple pie to set a wrong day right. But no matter how inconvenient the time, he’d make the call anyway. This is for Mike. He needs this, and Mike’s needs trump all.
+
When Harvey pulls up in front of Pearson Hardman three and a half hours later, Mike is just walking out of the building, clearly intent on hailing a cab to get home. Harvey has Louis to thank for the timing, and Harvey gives him a thankful nod as he passes behind Mike on the way to his town car. Louis gives him a nod back, and Harvey rolls down the passenger window, leans forward, calls out to Mike.
“Hi.”
Mike leans on the car door, looks in at Harvey. “I don’t remember you borrowing this one.”
Harvey just smiles. “Get in.”
Mike slips into the seat, yanks his seatbelt on, settles back into the seat with a sigh as he closes his eyes. “It’s nice of you to pick me up.”
“Necessity. I didn’t want to run the risk of letting you take a cab home and having you fall asleep in the back, only to wake up somewhere awful. Like New Jersey.”
Mike laughs but his eyes stay closed and he turns toward Harvey, fails to stifle a yawn. “Sorry. I can’t keep my eyes open.”
“You’re crashing. Three weeks without much sleep will do that to you. Did you find everything you were looking for?”
He knows they did, or Mike would never have left the office.
Mike smiles proudly. “And some things I wasn’t.”
“That’s my boy.”
Harvey reaches over, traces Mike’s cheek with his thumb, smiles when Mike turns his face into Harvey’s hand.
Mike’s words begin to slur. “I don’t think I can stay awake.”
“It’s okay. Sleep.”
“Sure?”
“I’m sure.”
“You know how heavy I get when I’m half asleep. Are you going to be able to get me out of the car?”
Harvey laughs softly. “I’ll manage.”
+
When Harvey pulls into a spot right in front of the little café, it’s just past eight in the morning, and Mike is still dozing away in the passenger seat, his body curled toward Harvey, Harvey’s coat draped across him to keep him warm. Harvey closes the door gently, checks to make sure Mike hasn’t woken up, then hops onto the sidewalk and over the snow and quickly enters the café.
A bell sounds above him, and Marianne turns around, gives him a motherly smile as she wipes her hands with a dishtowel. She comes out from behind the counter, looks him up and down, then puts a hand to his cheek, tilts her head and smiles with her eyes. “You look good, Harvey.”
He smiles. “You look better.”
She winks. “And don’t you forget it.” She looks over his shoulder, out at the car. “Is that him?”
Harvey turns to look at Mike, smiles. “That’s Mike.”
“You look happy.” She tilts her head, appraises him. “I don’t remember the last time you looked this happy.”
“I am happy.”
“Good.” She pats his chest, turns around and picks up a plastic bag with containers of food, holds it out for him. “Breakfast. John aired the place out, started a fire for you, stocked the fridge. If you need anything-”
“I’ll call.”
“Yes, you will. And you’ll bring him by to see me before you leave.”
Harvey smiles. “Yes, ma’am. How else will he know who makes the best apple pie in the world?”
“That’s right.” She holds open the door, ushers him out. “Now, shoo. I have work to do.”
Harvey kisses her on the cheek. “Thank you.”
“Shoo, now.”
+
Mike stirs just as Harvey’s removing the luggage from the trunk and he steps out of the car, looks around sleepily at the snow covered landscape as he stretches and yawns. “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”
Harvey walks over, a bag in each hand, and kisses him.
“Hi.” Mike smiles. A few hours of sleep did him good, but it’s clear it’s still not enough. “Can I carry anything?”
“Just breakfast.” He nods toward the car. “It’s on my seat.”
Mike grabs the plastic bag and follows Harvey inside the house.
“Where are we?”
“Saranac Lake.” Harvey walks down the short hallway, deposits their bags in the master bedroom. He walks back into the living area to see Mike running his fingers over some of the pictures on the entry wall, staring at them intently, bag of food hanging loosely in his hand. “This was my dad’s house.” Mike turns, looks at him. “He used to come here to write music, and he’d bring me with him. Sometimes my brother too.”
“I can see why. It seems...peaceful.”
“He always thought so.”
Mike points at a picture on the wall. “Is that-”
“Yep.”
“Seriously?”
Harvey smiles, amused, and reaches down to grab the bag out of Mike’s hand. “Seriously. Now, breakfast.”
Mike begins to protest and Harvey cuts him off with a kiss.
“We’ll be here for a week. That’s plenty of time to ask a million questions and look through every nook and cranny if you want.” Harvey wraps a hand around the back of Mike’s neck, lets his thumb trace the underside of Mike’s jaw the way he likes, in just the right pattern to make him loose, pliant. “But you’ve been running on Red Bull and coffee long enough. So here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to eat, then you’re going to sleep for as long as your body tells you to, and when you wake up, I’m going to take you apart as we christen every room in this house.”
Mike drops his head onto Harvey’s shoulder, sighs as Harvey’s hand threads through his hair, begins massaging his scalp. “Promise?”
“You have my word.”
As if to further prove Harvey’s point, Mike begins to fade halfway through breakfast, the immediate excitement of new and interesting giving way to a bone deep weariness brought on by too many days with too much stress and too little sleep. Harvey herds him to the bedroom, strips him down and tucks him in, then climbs into bed and settles beside him with a book. The fire pops and crackles, Mike’s breath begins to even out, and Harvey curls an arm around him, turning his book to the first page.
+
Mike sleeps for ten hours and fifty-two minutes.
Harvey does not watch the clock. Not at all.
+
“You did this for me.”
Harvey sets his book aside as a naked Mike climbs into his lap, straddles him, kisses him with gusto. Harvey accepts the kiss with pleasure, lets Mike control it, and hums in appreciation when Mike varies the intensity, when his body slides in closer.
Mike’s only half right. This is nearly as much about Harvey as it is about Mike. Mike was tired and drained and needed the vacation, but Harvey missed him in their bed. And seeing him only briefly every day was becoming an unacceptable trend. When it comes to Mike and his attention, Harvey can be decidedly selfish.
“How long was I asleep?”
“Just under eleven hours.”
Harvey strokes Mike’s back with one hand, fondles his cock, strokes his balls with the other. Mike lets out a contented little sigh at the attention and drops his head to Harvey’s shoulder, nuzzles his neck with his nose. Harvey keeps it soft and gentle and sweet, unhurried and just this side of possessive.
It’s ages before he comes and Mike gasps into his neck as he does. Harvey turns his head and kisses him, wraps his arms around him and pulls him in tight.
+
They unpack and Mike practically hangs off of the clothing rod in the closet as Harvey grips his hips and pounds into him. There’s no gentleness this time, and Mike drops his head and grips the clothing rod with everything he has as Harvey sets a furious pace, as Mike urges him on with faster harder more fuck yes fuck more. Urges Harvey to take him for everything he’s worth.
The curtain rod holds on, but just barely.
+
Mike’s back bows as his hips cant faster and faster, as Harvey grips his hips and slams into him, as Mike’s heels dig into his lower back, as Mike’s fingernails dig into Harvey’s arms and make half moon shaped indentations, and Harvey decides counter sex might be one of his new favorite things.
+
Mike falls asleep with a book in front of the fireplace, lying naked on a fake bearskin rug - his father could never stand the real thing - and Harvey would laugh at how cliché it is, if it weren’t such a precious sight.
Instead, he lowers himself above Mike, braced above him on his forearms, and places a soft, open-mouthed kiss on his Adam’s apple. Mike stirs, drops his head back with a soft gasp, lifts his hips to rub his cock along Harvey’s, spreads his legs wide and locks his ankles behind Harvey’s back.
Harvey slips a finger inside Mike, then another. He’s still open, and Mike gives a pleased sigh as Harvey’s fingers start up a soft, steady rhythm. Mike opens his eyes and locks them with Harvey’s and Harvey gives him a smile, kisses him lightly on the nose, adds another finger, keeps working him until he’s a panting, achy mess, half strung and a second away from begging desperately for the grace of release. Harvey slides in then, smooth and slow, and Mike’s arms flop out to the side as he gives himself over to Harvey. His hips meet Harvey’s every thrust, eagerly, the heat from the fire and the heat from their blessed friction making him almost too hot to bear.
Harvey begins to fuck into him with abandon and Mike lets him, takes it more than willingly, screams Harvey’s name when he releases, barely manages to keep his ankles locked as Harvey continues to pound into his over sensitive body. Mike is about to weep from the overstimulation when Harvey slows, gathers him close, claims Mike’s mouth as he spills inside him.
+
They mine the movie collection more than once, and Mike quotes almost the entirety of Clue as he lies on the couch with his head in Harvey’s lap.
They stop paying attention to Dr. No about halfway through, when Harvey’s hand finds Mike’s cock and he begins to play. Mike turns his head to reciprocate but Harvey stops him with a hand on Mike’s hair, locks eyes with him as he slowly brings him up to the apex and watches him fall over the edge, gasping and writhing, fingers searching for purchase as he comes.
Harvey bows his head and kisses him, gentles Mike as he comes down from his high with a soothing hand, sweeping it feather light down his body as Mike’s breathing begins to return to normal.
+
Mike gasps as he rides Harvey in the hot tub on the back deck, his back to Harvey’s chest. Harvey plucks at a nipple and Mike utters words of nonsense and pleasure, speeds up, rising up and down on Harvey’s cock on already shaky legs. Harvey helps him, wraps his arms around him as he bounces up and down, and Harvey tilts his head back and feels a few stray snowflakes land softly on his eyelashes as he breathes out, heavy and happy.
Mike moans and whines, clutches at Harvey’s arms like a lifeline, and Harvey claims his mouth, drops one hand down to smooth over his chest, to score light circles into his abdomen, just above his cock, to reach down and slip his fingers over where they’re joined, to feel Mike as Harvey glides in and out of him, like a claim.
Mike whimpers Harvey’s name, and Harvey thinks hot tub sex might be his new favorite thing.
+
Harvey brings Mike to meet Marianne and her husband John two days before the end of their vacation.
She falls in love with him instantly, which is exactly what Harvey predicted would happen.
She feeds him her famous apple pie, and he gushes over it appropriately, then Marianne and John tell Mike stories of Harvey when he was a little boy, of his brother, of his dad, of the three of them. Harvey never tries to stop them, not that he really could - Marianne bows to no one, a fact Harvey has accepted since he met her for the first time at four years old - and it’s worth it, anyway, to see the new way Mike is looking at him, like Harvey’s just given him something he didn’t think he’d ever get.
And anyway, Harvey knows only Marianne and John could tell Mike these stories the way they should be told, the way they are. Harvey’s versions are colored by later events, by his cynicism. And Mike deserves him the way he was at four, the way they saw him for the first time, just for fighting through Harvey’s shit to become something precious to him, for loving him despite his efforts to keep Mike at a far enough distance that he could claim he didn’t care. It was easier for Harvey to pretend, but Mike refused to accept easy.
+
When they get back to the house Mike walks toward the master bedroom, stripping off his clothes as he goes, and when Harvey steps inside the bedroom, he finds Mike spread out on the middle of the bed, smiling at Harvey with a tilted head as he strokes his stomach. Harvey strips out of his clothes, climbs onto the bed and between Mike’s legs, and Mike willingly spreads them further apart for him.
Mike kisses him, smiles into his mouth. Harvey kisses him back, languidly, then slowly slides his arms underneath Mike and flips them, so that Mike is on top.
Mike laughs. “Okay, old man. You want me to do the work, huh?”
Harvey grins. “Give it your best shot.”
Mike is by far the best partner Harvey’s ever had. He wasn’t at first; he was too inexperienced with men for that. But he was a quick learner, and now he knows exactly what to do to string Harvey along, to hold him at the precipice, to make him see stars in his eyes when he explodes. He makes him work for it, and it’s always worth it.
Mike leans forward, draping himself along Harvey’s body, rests his chin on his hand on Harvey’s chest. His eyelashes flutter as he inserts a finger inside himself, as he begins to work his way open, and his breathing begins to escalate. He rolls his hips against Harvey, seeking friction, and Harvey yearns to touch, to slide his fingers into Mike’s ass, to claim him at a punishing pace. When he tries he’s rebuffed, his hand slapped away before it can make contact.
“If you want me to do the work, you don’t get to touch.”
Harvey slips his hands behind his head in acceptance, lets Mike writhe all over his body, lets him fuck himself open on his fingers until he’s clearly had enough and lifts himself up, impaling himself on Harvey’s cock with a happy sigh. Harvey reaches forward, tugs on Mike’s cock, and Mike is clearly on board with Harvey’s touching this time, because he rotates his hips, fucking into Harvey’s fist as he fucks himself on Harvey’s cock.
He’s a mess, a blissful aching mess, his movements jerky and desperate, but he forces himself to slow to a near torturous speed to, Harvey knows, prolong both their pleasure longer. When Harvey finally surrenders a whine and a moan, Mike speeds up, wraps his hand around Harvey’s hand on his cock, and practically pulls Harvey’s orgasm out of him. Mike comes moments later, spilling on Harvey’s chest and then collapses, gasping for breath. Harvey grabs his hair and tilts his head back, pulling him into a kiss as he lifts his knees and plants his feet on the bed to keep himself seated in Mike for just a little while longer, nudging Mike’s nose with his own.
“Love you.”
Mike mumbles his love back and settles his head on Harvey’s chest with a sigh, Harvey’s cock in his ass and Harvey’s hand running gently through his hair.
+
Harvey wakes Mike up the morning of their last day with a mouth on his cock, and Mike spills before he’s even half awake, pulling Harvey up his body when he finishes to kiss him deep and slow. Then Harvey spends the rest of the day fucking him all over the house, refusing to let him come again, even as he’s bent over the dining room table, laid flat on his back on the kitchen floor, held up against the windows looking out on the snow covered backyard, his bare ass pressed up against the glass, even as Harvey takes him on their sides from behind in front of the fire, Mike’s leg draped over Harvey’s as he’s spread open, vulnerable.
Harvey fucks into Mike hard, his entire body pulled off the foot of the bed, Mike’s hands grasping the bedposts to keep from sliding off the bed at the force of Harvey’s thrusts, and still he doesn’t let him come.
Harvey sits down in the armchair, pulls Mike into his lap and slips inside him, kisses him as he pulls Mike’s hips up and down on his cock, and still he doesn’t let him come.
He fucks him one more time in the hot tub, and one more time on the kitchen counter, just to figure out which one he likes more.
(Conclusion: push. Requires further study.)
And then he pulls Mike into the shower, lifts his foot up onto the bench, slips inside him, and finally lets him come. Mike moans and whimpers as Harvey slides in and out, taking his time, sighing as Mike’s ass clenches around him in aftershocks. Harvey keeps up the rhythm, gives Mike time to recover, to come back to himself, relishes the feel of the water pounding down on them. Harvey builds him back up slowly and when he comes again, it’s with a surprised moan. Harvey turns Mike’s head and claims his lips as he thrusts a few more times before coming, filling Mike up one more time, the water turning cold, washing away the heat from their skin.
+
Harvey shifts gears, turns on the heat, watches from the corner of his eye as Mike shifts in his seat to watch as the house recedes behind them until it can no longer be seen. He twists back around in his seat, turns toward Harvey, gives one more glance out the back window at a house that’s no longer there.
“It’s ours. We can always come back.”
“Promise?”
Harvey looks over at him briefly. “You have my word.” He pauses. “Next time we should come in the spring, when the snow is gone. There’s a full acre of land we can explore, including a boat dock that gets nice and warm from the sun beating down on it.” Harvey’s hand slides over to cup Mike in his pants, and Mike gasps. “I want to spread you out and fuck you slow while the sun beats down on us.” Harvey leans over at the stoplight and nuzzles behind Mike’s ear, gently squeezes his cock. “Did I mention it’s only partially secluded? Just the right angle, at just the right time, and the neighbors across the lake could get an eyeful.”
“Fuck.”
Harvey grins, wolfish, settles back into his seat and accelerates as the light turns green. “Yes, Mike. I think that’s the point.”
{fin}