Cufflinks

By carnifax (originally posted to tumblr)
Suits
Harvey/Mike
Rated T
Romance | General
And then he fished a small black box out of his pocket, holding it out to Harvey. Harvey stared at the box as if it had offended him, and then glanced up at Mike. The kid looked half-pleased, half-terrified. "What is it?"

Prompted by princessariel.

"Um."

Harvey looked up from the files at his desk, surprised to see Mike standing awkwardly in the doorway when he had told the kid not to come back until he was done proofing. It was nearly midnight and the more Mike wasted time, the longer they'd both have to be there.

"What is it," Harvey asked roughly, his eyes dropping to the files again.

"I— Um." Mike took a few long, quick strides into the office and came to an abrupt stop in front of Harvey's desk. For a genius, he seemed to be having trouble saying coherent words; Harvey could hear his mouth moving, his lips smacking, but all that was coming out were Uhs and Ums and Well-you-sees.

Harvey rolled his eyes, leveling his gaze on the kid. "What, Mike?"

"It's, ah—" He checked his watch and swallowed hard. "It's three minutes to midnight, so I'm a little early, but—"

And then he fished a small black box out of his pocket, holding it out to Harvey. When Harvey didn't take it, Mike set it on top of the files and took a step back.

Harvey stared at the box as if it had offended him, and then glanced up at Mike. The kid looked half-pleased, half-terrified. "What is it?"

"A present!" Mike laughed, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. "It's, y'know. It's your birthday. Or—Well, in three minutes, it'll be your birthday. So I'm early, but I'm one of those obnoxious people who always want to be the first to say happy birthday to someone, right at midnight, you know, like with a text or—"

Harvey stopped listening then, barely understanding the rapidfire slew of gibberish coming out of Mike's mouth anyway. He just kept staring at the box— What was it? And, more importantly, how the hell would he have gotten Harvey's DOB information? Donna wouldn't have told him, nor Jessica. It had been years since anyone had mentioned his birthday, let alone given him a present. He figured most people above the age of 16 don't celebrate their birthdays with anything other than drinking copious amounts of alcohol and ending up facedown on a toilet somewhere. It was strange, receiving a gift, but even stranger that it came from a coworker.

Meanwhile, Mike was still talking. "—emailed you the docs and Donna said she'd faxed them and I figured you wouldn't mind if I came in but I'll leave now so you can open that in privacy because I—"

"Wait, wait," Harvey said, holding up his hand. "What about Donna?"

Mike seemed to sober up a little. "I finished proofing everything, and I sent that stack of files to Donna." He swallowed again. "She faxed them to Mr. Miyagi."

"Miura," Harvey corrected idly, then shook his head. "So you're done with everything."

"I still have some stuff that Louis gave me, but—"

"Louis can wait, Mike. Go home." He set his pen on the desk and rubbed his eyes, sighing. "I need you here at seven thirty tomorrow, writing a subpoena for the Carrington records. And Miura's supposed to send over some photos, too."

"But Louis said—"

"Go home. If Louis gives you shit for it, I'll deal with him."

Mike hesitated for a second. Harvey could see the way his shoulders sagged and the glazed look in his eyes. The kid was exhausted.

Finally, Mike nodded and gave Harvey a small smile. He checked his watch. "Happy official birthday, Harvey," he said as he turned to go. "See you at seven thirty."

A minute later, Harvey realized there was still that little black box sitting on his desk. He felt like it was taunting him somehow.

He looked into the hallway, making sure no one—especially not Mike—was around, and then very slowly pried the lid off the box.

He couldn't help but laugh in disbelief.

Sitting in a cocoon of black tissue paper was a pair of cufflinks, shaped like miniature Starfleet communicator badges, the kind that Kirk and Spock and the rest of the Starship Enterprise's crew wore.

Part of Harvey instantly scoffed. Rene would have a fit if he ever saw Harvey wearing them. But even though they weren't expensive, they were... sweet.

There was a note folded up below the cufflinks. 'I got the first season out of the library yesterday,' read the note, in Mike's scrawl. 'I figured it was time to educate myself. Live long and prosper, Captain.'

Harvey stared at them for a little while longer before he decided he'd wear them tomorrow. After all, the look of surprise on Mike's face would definitely be worth it.