A/N: Plot bunnies came back and I am onto a new story line even though I swore to myself I would end this by 7, especially since I slacked. But fear not, here I am.

Thank you for all those who review and refused to give up on me. Thank you for reading.

Enter Donna, stage right.

I still disclaim that I own very little in this story, including all characters from the amazing show we all watch and love.

Chapter 7

"What the hell is that?" asked Harvey, looking perplexed at the bundle of napkins Mike had deposited on the professor's desk.

"It's a hotdog," Mike responded, taking a messy bite of his own and brushing the crumbs onto Harvey's office floor. Harvey just frowned at him, then the floor, before again staring at the hotdog on his desk.

"If this is a bribe," Mike rolled his eyes. "I'm letting you know it sucks and that I've already marked your exam so you're a little late."

"If you don't want it-" Mike stopped as Harvey took a bite of the dog, getting a smear of mustard on the corner off his mouth. Mike licked his own lips, forgetting for a moment why he had came baring gifts. "I got the internship. Not that you didn't already know. I heard Simon Carver call you after I left his office and is it really standard practice to have a senior partner interview a candidate for the law intern position? And ask about non company related interpretations?"

Harvey gave him a look while wiping his face clean.

"Do you always speak in rapid non sequiturs?" Harvey asked.

Mike rolled his eyes in response and stared at the older man.

"Simon seemed to know about me," Mike remarked, finishing off the last of his hotdog. "Started questioning me on privacy rights. I didn't understand considering his firm normally handles contract and civil litigation. Or at least that's all I found about them…"

Harvey just quirked his eyebrows and looked back to the paper he was reading. His red pen moved swiftly to cross things out and making small notes in margins.

"So then he asked about our professional relationship," Mike continued, reading upside down with his professor. "He smirked, by the way, when he said professional. That tipped me off, thought you'd be impressed with thesleuthing skills I've been trying to develop."

Harvey set his pen down.

"Does this have a point, Ross?" Mike pulled his chair over to the desk and leaned in to capture Harvey's lips.

"Thank you," Mike softly said, whispering against Harvey's mouth before leaning back. Harvey cleared his throat and picked up the pen again.

"Don't mention—" Harvey began.

"I just needed to," Mike cut in.

"Don't interrupt," Harvey finished, narrowing his eyes. "And don't thank me, just don't fuck it up. Also, fill out that paperwork about the TA position I sent you and return it to Donna immediately."

"You have the scariest department secretary ever," Mike commented as Harvey went back to grading. Mike fished around his bag and pulled out the paperwork he completed last night and put it down for Harvey to sign. "I don't think she likes me."

"She can smell fear," Harvey remarked without looking up. "You reek of it. Did you talk to Barnell?"

"You're taking this new advisor thing really seriously aren't you?" Harvey finally just tossed the pen down, giving up on grading until Mike was out of his damn office.

"I'm not investing all this time in you so that you can fail," Harvey scathed. Mike's face snapped up to catch the serious expression on Harvey's face. "You've got potential but you need to want it and you need to be willing to work—"

"I got it," cut in Mike.

"Do you really?" asked Harvey.

"I got it," Mike repeated.

"I don't think you do," Harvey stood and walked in front of his desk, propping himself on it. "I think you're a hot shot with an eidetic memory and a little too much sass. You don't need to eat shit to do well but you will learn to crawl before you can walk." He took a breath, "Jesus kid."

Mike frowned in his seat, shoulders hunched and looking every bit like a lost puppy.

"I didn't mean to be so stern," Harvey offered. Mike took that as the first and possibly the only half apology Harvey would ever give him.

"I get it," Mike said softly. "I don't want to fail, but sometimes I can't believe I am here and in these classes and doing so well. And us."

Harvey sits heavily in the chair next to Mike, and they sit in silence for a moment before Mike looks at his watch, curses, crushes Harvey's lips before running out the door for a final that started in ten minutes.

"I've lost my mind," Harvey concluded.

"Of course you haven't," Donna's voice rang from behind him. "You've just lost part of your sanity and good judgment. I'm coming in and closing the door."

"How much did you?" Harvey half asked as Donna took the seat Mike was just in, albeit pushed back a few inches.

"As your favorite assistant both here and at the firm," Donna started in what is going to be a lecture in the way only she could give him. "One who has been dragged to every place you've worked since the beginning, I am honestly concerned. I've heard the rumors and defended you! And you are screwing a 1L behind my back. God, Harvey, you could've at least drafted a memo. I'm honestly hurt."

"It's been a long few months," Harvey sighed, straightening his jacket. "And I didn't need to you coming to gossip every few hours."

"Have some faith," Donna said, reaching out to reorganize the papers Harvey had spread along his desk. Even though she was the assistant to the department instead of his personal one, she couldn't break out of old habits.

"What have you heard?" Harvey asked, snagging his coffee mug from his desk.

"You're fucking him," Donna was never one to mince words. "At first he was passing because of your arrangement. It morphed into his being your protégé and now people are pitying him because you aren't fucking and he should at least get that damn it."

"So people don't think we're," Harvey waved his hand.

"Not anymore," Donna smoothed her skirt. "They just think he's begging for it and you're making him your personal puppy instead. Apparently it's a fate crueler than tax law. Oh, and Craft hates you for stealing the brightest student she's ever had the chance to mentor. Marlow came sniffing around but I told her there wasn't a bone to gnaw on."

"I knew there was a reason I kept you around," Harvey remarked, saying thank you. Donna just made a noncommittal noise in response, accepting the thanks.

"So," Donna stated, making Harvey's eyebrows crease. "What are you planning?"

Harvey took a long sip of his lukewarm coffee as he stalled while gathering his thoughts.

"Mike Ross is an enigma," Harvey began. "He's intriguing. Smart and he disagrees with me in public. But he's young and willing to do whatever I tell him to."

"And when you get bored?" Donna asked. "Don't give me that look, you will get bored eventually."

"Maybe," Harvey put his mug down on the edge of his desk.

"Know what you're doing," Donna remarked, getting up. "He's young and doesn't have a reputation. You're more established and your reputation is widespread. Sending him to Simon was a good start. Just be careful if the kid doesn't come running back."

Harvey stared at her as she softly closed the door behind her, leaving him alone with his papers and his thoughts. Harvey wasn't sure which was worse, but settled back in for some more grading.

Mike finished up his last exam, finally free from the first year of law school and sitting in his mangy apartment going through notes and books to sort what he needed or didn't.

He didn't use his computer for most classes but had the annoying habit of grabbing the wrong notebook, so some of his notes that hadn't been presorted into binders, sat in piles on his kitchen table.

Mike sighed in relief when his phone buzzed, telling him he had a text message.

Harvey wanted to have dinner tomorrow night and since grades were due in the morning, Mike would no longer be his student and just be his teacher's assistant.

Mike quickly typed out that he would be there and jumped on the internet to see what exactly he should be wearing for this dinner. Of course, he needed to get another suit before the month was out, especially with an internship as fine as his.

He flipped through some of the messages he had neglected in his spring cleaning.

Rachel wanted to know how exams were and told him some students were meeting up for drinks in a few hours. He text back saying he would be there as long as she told him where "there" was.

Once that conversation was over, Mike text Harvey to tell him he was going out with some classmates but to text him details about tomorrow.

Mike threw on a light sweater and a warn pair of jeans, knowing the bar Rachel named was pretty low key. He was one of the last to arrive as he looked around at his classmates with half filled glasses in their hands.

"Ross," Rachel called out from close to the bar, standing with a few people from the Harvey Specter Con Law classes. "I thought you'd never make it."

"Well if it isn't the hero of the semester," Greg Kipling smacked him hard on the back in a gesture of friendship, or Mike hoped because God that had hurt. "Specter's star pupil. First drink is mine, Ross, for saving my ass on the final."

"Whatever, man," Mike grinned but gave Greg his drink order anyway. "You would've passed. How did other exams go?"

A few people shrugged but everyone seemed confident they had made it to the next year. The night continued smoothly with Rachel and Mike staying close while other students got progressively more intoxicated.

"Dude," Todd Larson, another Specter student, pulled Mike in close, slurring words as he gripped Mike's arm. "I gotta say that watching you kiss Specter's ass was amazing this semester." Mike tensed while shooting Rachel a concerned look.

"I don't know what you mean," He did, but Mike wasn't nearly drunk enough to be having this conversation.

"Did he finally let you suck his cock?" Larson asked, laughing as he said it, gathering a few peoples attentions nearby. "Or did you just crawl to him and offer your ass?"

"And we're done," Mike pulled himself away from the other man.

"Oh lighten up, Ross," Larson sneered. "Teacher's pet can handle a little joke, right?"

"Fuck off," Mike backed up a step. "Seriously, I don't think you're funny."

Todd took a step closer.

"Well ain't that too friggin bad," Larson breathed right into his face and Mike nearly choked at the smell of whiskey on his breath. "Sorry for offending you're delicate nature. Wouldn't want Specter to come down on my ass, huh? He's saving that all for you?"

Mike was starting to really feel nervous. He shot a look over Larson's shoulder and Greg wandered over to pull Larson away. Rachel quickly grabbed Mike's arm.

"Are you ok?" She asked, biting her lip and looking concerned.

"Yeah," Mike breathed. "But I think it's time for me to go."

(TBC…)

Leave love? Review?