round six prompt post - spoilers
ROUND SIX - SPOILER POST
THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR SEASON THREE IN THIS POST!!IMPORTANT: Please don't forget to warn for any triggers (these can be found in the Rules post), better to warn when in doubt. If a prompt is not warned for triggers and contains them, it will be screened and you will be asked to re-write it with the appropriate warning. ( Read more... )
THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR SEASON THREE IN THIS POST!!IMPORTANT: Please don't forget to warn for any triggers (these can be found in the Rules post), better to warn when in doubt. If a prompt is not warned for triggers and contains them, it will be screened and you will be asked to re-write it with the appropriate warning. ( Read more... )
Most of the time, Harvey likes nothing better than a dog fight. It’s what he lives for; playing the game, making sure you see the whole board, never let your enemy know you have them until it’s too late. Today, though. Today had hit a little too close to home.
Harvey's always backed his own plays; he trusts his instincts, and he knows how to make people tick. He prides himself on his ability to read people, and his failure to read Hardman is going to niggle at his brain, it's going to poke and prod and irritate until he's reduced Hardman to a quivering mess on the floor. Which he has no doubt he’ll be able to do, he’s taken apart stronger, smarter, wilier men than Daniel Hardman.
Part of him can't believe, though, that he was willing to push this hard, to strain his relationship with Jessica - his mentor, his friend, the only person who thought he could be more than a minimum-wage fuck up - for Mike. The lengths he's willing to go to protect the kid unsettle him.
And it’s not just about protecting Mike. Yes, he’s an asset to the firm, for all that he’s not technically a lawyer, and yes he’s going to be brilliant one day and Harvey loves the idea of being the one who makes him that way. But the idea of going to work and not having Mike around, not having Mike quoting Star Trek at him and trying to fist bump him and absolutely refusing to kiss his ass... He really can’t stand to think about it.
Not to mention that he knows how much this job means to Mike. It’s his ticket out of a life he never wanted in the first place, it means he’s able to take care of his grandmother the way she took care of him.
Of course, it’s not like if Mike ever actually lost his job he’d be in danger of having his grandmother removed from her care home, or have to resort to dealing drugs again. Harvey wouldn’t let that happen. Mike doesn’t know that, though, and Harvey’s not sure he wants him to.
As soon as he’s inside his apartment he takes off his suit jacket, tossing it over the arm of the couch and heading for the kitchen. He doesn’t normally treat his clothes with such carelessness but he has bigger things on his mind at the moment. He opens the fridge and stares at it for a long moment.
He needs to be in the office early tomorrow, has to talk strategy with Jessica about dealing with Hardman and he really does just want to crawl into his obscenely comfortable bed. He needs to call Mike first, though, tell him to get to the office. He shudders a little for Mike, at the thought of the conversation he’s about to have with Jessica. Warning him probably won’t help; he’ll just freak out all the way there and be a wreck by the time he’s in Harvey’s office.
Harvey grabs a bottle of water and closes the frige, pulling out his phone and hitting speedial two. Two, for god’s sake, and if that doesn’t say how utterly screwed over he is, he’s not sure what does. Mike’s phone rings in his ear, then, in a weird, distorted echo, he hears a phone ring from the direction of the living room.
He follows the sound, and yes, there he is, spread out on Harvey’s couch and fast asleep. Mike’s totally oblivious to the phone ringing in his office - he must have passed out under the sheer force of his panic. Harvey feels a swell of affection that he doesn’t bother to tamp down, not here, in his own home, with no one to witness the fond grin on his face. Mike’s shoes and tie are off and he looks like he fell over mid-though, face pressed into a cushion, mouth open, legs still hanging half-off the couch.
Mike looks even younger like this, which given that Harvey’s pretty sure he gets asked for ID every time he tries to buy a drink, is saying something.
This is the face that could bring down Pearson Hardman. He snorts. It’s beyond ridiculous. Mike Ross is surely the strangest, most confusing, best, most interesting thing that’s ever happened to Harvey’s life. And he once drank champagne out of the Stanley cup.
He kind of wants to let him sleep for a bit, but Jessica’s waiting and the longer she does, the more terrifying she’s going to be. He forgoes the dropping-water-on-his-face trick in favour of shaking his arm.
“Okay, nap time’s over, rookie, time to play with the big boys.”
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