III.

Monday morning came all too soon for one very exhausted Senior Partner. Harvey hadn't slept the night before, his head filled with thoughts of Mike and drugs and quite frankly, sex.

"Ooh, hot date?" Donna whistled at her bosses' semi-disheveled appearance.

Harvey rolled his eyes at the red head and sighed, leaning up against her desk in front of his office. "Something like that."

Donna tilted her head, her interest piqued now; it wasn't often Harvey was ever open about any conquests of his. "Oh? Was this one crazy? She try to steal from you? I told you those one night stands were no good." she chastised.

Harvey scoffed. "More like...sociopath, and definitely dangerous."

Donna arched her brows high up. "Whoa, where did you find this gal'?"

"She found me." Harvey grimaced.

Her eyes widened instantly. "No way, stalker? Oh, I knew this day would come."

"No, no, I mean, yes. But I kind of...stalked her first." Harvey shook his head. A day later and he'd still not made sense of that wild Saturday night.

"Okay, okay, stop there, reverse. Mama's confused. Mama doesn't like to be confused." the red head waved a finger in front of her. "So, explain, from the beginning."

Harvey sighed a second time. He wanted to tell someone. But he couldn't tell his confidant everything, at least not yet. He didn't need to get Donna involved in anything illegal. "Alright, we've been friends for a few months, I always thought she was a little, you know, soft? Needed a backbone, all that jazz. So, I'm out for lunch three weeks ago and I spot her from across the street. She looks like she's in trouble, so I go over to help, but by the time I reach her, these three guys, who were big as football players, are scurrying away, completely terrified, and the front of her shirt is covered in blood. Their blood, I'm sure."

"Okay, this chick is a bad-ass, Harvey," Donna awed.

"She is; which isn't exactly normal, because she doesn't look like like she has a single bad bone in her. I was curious. I dug around a little; I hired Finn-you know Finn, right? P.I?"

Donna rolled her eyes heavenward. "Why didn't you just ask her? Or hell, Facebook her. You know there are way easier ways of getting to know her better than by hiring a private eye." she berated.

Harvey shook his head, "You weren't there. She told me to pretend it had never happened. Of course I looked her up."

"Right right, so what did old Finny find out?"

"She's a criminal, Donna, I can't really say the specifics, but nothing she does is moral, or legal, for that matter." Harvey replied, frowning. "I'm looking over her files last Saturday night, wondering what to do, and there's a knock at my door, I open it and-"

"She was there!?" Donna interrupted, nearly falling out of her seat.

"With a damn gun." Harvey confirmed.

Donnas' eyes nearly bugged out of her head. "Oh my God, are you alright? Did she shoot you? Are you hiding a huge gaping wound under those lapels, mister?!" she went into total mother-hen mode and started patting him down.

Harvey replied in the denial. "No Donna, I'm fine, don't worry."

Donna relaxed a fraction at his reassurance and then pressed on. "So, what happened?"

"She threatened to kill me if I didn't stay out of her business and uh..." Harvey paused, not really sure how to go on.

Donna grinned widely, unable to hide it. "Oh. My. God. Harvey you dog!" then she leaned in close enough to whisper, so that the early risers who were roaming about in the bullpen area didn't hear, "You slept with her, didn't you?"

"And they say men are bad. Did your mind really have to go there first?" Harvey taunted.

Donna furrowed her brow. "Wait, you didn't? What? I'm always right."

Harvey smirked. "Someone's high and mighty."

"You bet your ass. Now tell meeeee." she urged. "What on Gods' Earth happened that night?"

"We were five minutes away from the Big Bang, when her phone started going off, and she had to go." Harvey finished, with an inelegant shrug of the shoulders.

Donna cackled with laughter. "I was so right! If she hadn't had to leave, you guys would've totally done it."

"Don't sound so pleased with yourself."

"Well, anyway, what are you going to do? This woman is clearly dangerous. She knows where you live, she owns a gun, and has the willpower to leave the great Harvey Specter mid-coitus." Donna shook her head. "I don't know if I really want to meet her or stay the hell away from her."

Harvey had been wondering that same thing for the last twenty four hours, himself.

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It was two hours into the work day, when Mike popped his head into Harveys' office, unannounced. "Knock knock, come in? Awesome. I found a loophole in the bonds case I think might totally annihilate the opposing side." he sauntered in and handed Harvey what he'd found on their current case.

Harvey just stared at the associate. The associate who-was he shitting him?-was actually going to pretend nothing had happened? Harvey frowned deeply.

Mike stared back, face going blank. "We can't fuck here, if that's what you're thinking. Even sociopaths have common sense. Glass walls, see-through, you catch my drift here, right?"

Harvey shook his head quickly. "No, Mike, dammit that wasn't what I was thinking about at all." he denied fervently except that he was half lying, to both himself and the younger man. Of course he was thinking about Mikes' perfect ass up on his kitchen counter and-oh God, not here, not here, he told himself harshly. "You can't expect me to forget the fact that you threatened to shoot me just two days ago." he said incredulously.

"I did, didn't I?" Mike sat down. "I told you, though, that I'm not going to, so you can relax."

"No, no, I can't." Harvey persisted. "Mike, you deal coke, and God knows what else! You assaulted some guy on a pier last week, and you stole some random guys' car, to boot."

"I was only borrowing it. I gave it back before he noticed it was gone." Mike said, with a flippant shrug.

"That doesn't excuse what you did." Harvey felt like he was talking to an insolent child, one who refused to understand a single word coming out of his mouth.

"Didn't say it did." Mike started going over the bonds case once more, an elbow propped up against Harveys' desk. He felt Harveys' intense gaze burning holes through the side of his head as he read.

Harvey shook his head and sighed profoundly. "Me neither." he admitted. "I should be turning you in to the police right now." he said, almost to himself, really, as he ran his hands through the thick locks of his hair exasperatedly.

Mike stood and handed Harvey back the files to the bonds case. "I'm coming over tonight so don't bother making plans." then, swiftly, he left the room.

Harvey wanted to slap himself. Why was he suddenly so excited?

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Mike had been asexual for, well, forever. When he'd hit puberty and other boys his age were experiencing random boners and masturbation and raging hormones for the first time, Mike had been busy with more important things. He wasn't at all concerned about the fact that Harvey and he were both males, and as he'd never actually been interested in either sex before, he wasn't about to panic about his orientation, now, in his twenties.

He'd had sex before. Not out of want or need, but because what's-her-name had suggested it, when they'd found themselves trapped in an incredibly small closet, incognito from several large men with weapons and anger management issues. He'd been maybe seventeen, Mike guessed, and she had been a couple of years older, but charmed by his callousness none the less. It started with a peck of the lips, initiated solely by-he couldn't for the life of him remember the girls' name-and then she'd gotten handsy. Mike had been uncomfortable, at best, he remembered. His jaw ached from making out, her saliva was absolutely everywhere, her hands fumbling in his pants did only so much to excite his lower half, and ultimately, he realized how bored he was.

While a tedious and laborious act, he'd attempted it thrice more afterward, twice with different women, once with a man-an undercover cop, to be specific-and had gotten pretty much the same result-sex just didn't hold his interest. Too many bodily fluids and too much heat, and even his climax had only really given him release, not the pleasure he'd read about in romance novels.

Initially, Mike had straddled the Senior Partners' lap in jest, just to mess with him. It had come as a shock when his hands had moved almost on their own accord, unbuttoning the mans' sleep wear. For the first time, in a long time, not entirely sure what the hell he was doing, Mike had decided to let Harvey decide. He'd tossed his firearm aside and given him a choice-which really, hadn't been much of a choice. Mike had been sure that at any second, he'd get pushed away, maybe even punched.

When instead, he felt Harveys' strong arms reach around him and pull him in closer, he'd wanted to run. Losing control and all inhibition was not what Michael Ross did-especially not for something as trivial as sex.

Mike picked Harveys' lock and let himself in, his footsteps naturally light against the floorboards. He found Harvey fixing up in his bathroom, door ajar, looking intently into the mirror, as if it had all the worlds' answers in store for him alone.

"Boo." Harvey, startled, practically cut himself with the tip of his blade, while shaving.

"Shit, Mike." he swiveled around, feeling slightly exposed in just his underwear, mid-shave. He washed off the aftermath and glared at the mirror, where Mikes' reflection could be seen, as the younger man leaned against the doorway. "It's called knocking, or calling ahead of time, for that matter." he complained. "How did you even get in?"

Mike shrugged. "I bought over the bonds files."

Harvey started a second time, this time less violently. "What?" then he paused, "Oh, yeah, bonds case." he nodded, as if it had slipped his mind.

The associate had to suppress the faint urge to laugh. Harvey had naturally been expecting a repeat of last Saturday night-or a continuation, same thing, really. Mike rolled his eyes, as he made his way to the living room and opened the case files, going over what they had to present in the next two days, in court.

Harvey came out of the bathroom a few minutes later, sporting pajama pants and a light grey v-neck.

"I ordered pizza. Put it on your credit card." Mike mentioned casually, half an hour later, when the doorbell rang and he got a questioning glance from the lawyer on the couch.

Harvey was close to protesting when he realized he was kind of hungry anyway.

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"Drugs," Harvey said, out of thin air. "You still..." he left the question hanging thick in the air between them as they ate, twenty minutes later.

Mike continued to chew on his slice for a minute more before replying, in his subtle accent, "I don't snort my own merchandise, if that's what you're implying."

"You won't tell me your real name?" Harvey wondered out-loud not at all surprised when his only response came in the form of silence, as Mike continued to eat, simultaneously rifling through their bonds case files. "How old are you, then?" He tried.

"I'm legal." the associate said vaguely, not looking up.

"Do you deal regularly?" he continued to interrogate, his tone sharper.

Mike blinked, "That's none of your concern."

"The hell it isn't." Harvey glared at the younger man and stood to his full height. "Mike, you're my associate, that means that I am resp-"

"Why haven't you fired me yet?" the blonde interrupted abruptly, his head tilted, brow raised.

"Why...because," Harvey paused. "You're-you threatened to kill me." he gulped, could almost feel the cold butt of the gun pressed against his head again.

"I wouldn't shoot you for firing me, Harvey." Mike shrugged eloquently. "I can be reasonable. If I were in your position, I would have fired me several days ago."

There was a pregnant pause; silence and the aroma of cheese consumed the condos' luxurious kitchen.

"I don't know." Harvey finally uttered, feeling very unlike his usual self around this Mike. This Mike who wasn't his naive, sometimes ditsy employee, but a stranger, sitting atop his kitchen counter. A stranger he'd nearly had sex with two days ago, on that very kitchen counter...

It was only a little past midnight when Mike stood and stretched, rolling his shoulders for good measure, and said, "It's late, I'm going home now, unless you want to fuc-" the last word was lost in Harveys passionate kiss.

His breathe was hot against Mikes' neck, his hands fumbling, his heart beating a mile a minute.

Mike half smiled. "It's strapped to my leg, Harvey." he said, very calmly.

"What?" Harvey paused in his endeavours and looked up.

"My gun. It's what you are looking for, yes?" Mike bent over and pulled his left pant leg up, revealing his weapon.

Harvey stared at his associate, open-mouthed.

"You were patting me down, Harvey." Mike explained easily.

Harvey looked like a fish out of water. He kept opening and closing his mouth to say something, but found that for the first time in his life, words failed him completely.

The blonde took the gun from the holster strapped to his calf and for a second time in the span of three days, aimed it at the senior partners forehead. "Fire me or ignore you ever found out about me, but don't fuck me over, because it will be the last thing you do." Mike stood to his full height, which somehow made him seem so much taller at that moment, and in a single, fluid motion, had Harvey pinned to the wall, hard, the nuzzle pressed against his temple. "You've been good to me, Harvey. So I will give you one last chance. What will it be?"

What startled Harvey was not the gun, not the fact that it was turned towards him, and certainly not the fact that he had at least twenty pounds of muscle on the kid holding him against his will. What startled him the most were Mikes' eyes. Those cold, calculating, and disturbingly dead eyes.

He knew then that Mike could shoot him. Would shoot him without any remorse, and leave him there in his condo to die, without any hesitance. Harveys' heart was beating so wildly inside of his chest that he could swear he was having a heart attack.

"I can't ignore what I've learned, Mike." he didn't even realize it was him who'd uttered those words until he saw Mike shrug his shoulders in a subtle manner and easily cock the gun. "Come live with me."

At this, even Mike started. "My English has become pretty spot on in the last two years, but even I'm not sure I understand what you just said."

Harvey began to speak rapidly all of a sudden. "That's why you sell drugs right? Because of money. It's why everyone does. You live in that shit hole in that shitty neighborhood because you can't afford much else having to pay those expensive bills at the hospital for your grandmother, right? Right? She is your grandmother, right? Or did you lie about that too?" It was only when Mike stepped back and gave him some room that Harvey breathed again.

"Money is not a concern, Harvey." the blonde sighed and gracefully holstered his weapon. "I will see you at the office tomorrow." and then he left.

"Just like that." Harveys' knees gave out from under him and he collapsed on the floor, sweaty and shaking and terrified and so utterly confused.