A/N: This just happened, I wasn't even planning on writing it. I do love Donna and Harvey in early seasons though. I hope you enjoy!

clusters of freckles

.

Harvey traces her eyebrow and along her temple softly, his fingertips gently grazing her skin. She can feel his gaze on her, sipping her in with tender eyes and her skin tingles. She warns him, "Harvey..." But he doesn't stop his task of mapping out her face. His hand strokes over her pronounced cheekbones and trails down to her jawline before tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and threading his hand into her wavy curls.

It's not what they agreed on. It was never meant to be more than a night of letting go together and she's already had to stop her heart from stuttering in her chest when he'd told her to look at him while she came.

A tear slips out of the corner of her eye without her permission and she turns her head to the side, the pillow soaking in the liquid falling from her cheek, "This wasn't the deal, Harvey."

He doesn't reply, but he also doesn't continue his journey of burning every inch of her skin with his touch. Instead, she feels his arm sneak around her waist to pull her closer to him.

"I didn't know you had that many freckles."

Furrowing her brow, she blinks up at him and he goes on, "You didn't use to have this many freckles."

He's right. Her skin is more freckled now than it used to be, she's completely covered in clusters of them, and her confusion as to why he would bring this up makes her miss the way his eyes widen like he should have had this revelation ages ago.

"What are we doing, Donna?"

The answer should be obvious but somehow it isn't and she fails to come up with a simple reply.

"What are we doing fooling around?"

He regrets it, she thinks, he has finally sobered up and realised that this isn't them. So she does what she does best, catering to his needs while disregarding her own feelings. "I– Harvey, this won't change anything between us. We won't let it."

"Exactly."

Not quite understanding his point, she sits up and leans against his headrest and he does the same.

"This is a waste of time," he says and he sounds annoyed.

She's not prepared for the way it stings, even when he's right. They're walking on a thin line, disregarding their own rules only to go back to work tomorrow and pretend that they were stupid for ever giving in to their mutual attraction.

"You're right," she replies. Her heart constricts painfully in her chest and she doesn't look at him lest he sees the flicker of emotion in her eyes. She gets up to gather the few belongings that got dumped all over his apartment in a reckless hurry when they stumbled in earlier that night but his voice stops her from leaving.

"Donna."

"What?"

"This isn't what I meant."

She cocks her head, confused and wary of what his next move will be. His eyes are unreadable when he gets up and approaches her.

"I meant it's a waste of time not being with you."

Her breath catches in her throat and she looks at him like he's grown a second head.

"Harvey," she says. It's a warning. Don't say anything you can't take back. Don't say things you don't mean. Don't hurt me.

"No, Donna, haven't you ever wondered?"

Oh, she has. Too many times. And it only ever ends well in her dreams, when her rational side makes way for the little girl inside of her dreaming of a house and a dog and a husband.

But that's not them.

"You're tired," she smiles. "We did have an amazing night but–"

He interrupts her, "Just listen to me for a second."

Donna nods and crosses her arms in front of her chest like she needs to brace herself for whatever he's going to say next.

"Don't you ever wonder about us? About what we're actually doing? I mean– Look at us. What happened tonight was inevitable, we've been dancing around it ever since the other time."

It dawns on her then. He's serious; seriously scaring her with what he's saying and she still doesn't know where he's going with this. One thing she can always count on is his preference for her as his secretary rather than life partner so she steels herself for what's coming next.

"What I'm saying is, why are we wasting our time not being together? Because the only thing I want is for this to happen again. And again. Why don't we skip the part where we both pretend that this isn't what we want?"

His words are so unexpected that she feels hot tears sting in her eyes again and she's rooted to the spot, gaping at him in disbelief.

"I want you and I think you want me too." He steps closer, "do you?"

Whatever she expected him to say, it wasn't that. She feels herself fall through the floor, a surprised exhale catching in her throat and suddenly she's bare again, under him, his eyes burning into her as he pushes her over the edge and watches her walls crumble.

"Do we really want to go there?" It's a last attempt to grasp onto sanity, or maybe insanity, whatever they deem to be their equilibrium, but now it's tilting and everything is shifting and she needs him to be sure. Needs to know if he really wants to hear her answer. Because it has the power to destroy them.

"I'm done with irrational decision making. I don't want to waste another decade not being with you when we both know that it'll be us together in the end anyway. Tell me that I'm wrong and we won't go there."

Donna shakes her head and ignores the beat her heart skips in chasm of her chest. "Harvey, why now?"

"Because I've already wasted too many years not keeping track of your freckles." He laughs softly.

His answer is simple and he looks at her like she's everything he's been missing out on and it's all the encouragement, all the honesty and all emotional availability she needs.

"God, I thought you'd never ask. Yes, of course I want you too." And they both hear a fond idiot somewhere in her words.

Before Harvey can reply, her lips crash onto his, grasping at everything he's offering like she's been denying herself for too many years and now that it's all hers to take, she's desperate to have it.

A/N: I know this was a very random piece of writing but it just wrote itself and I thought it's worth sharing. Reviews and critiques are always very much appreciated. xx