Hello there! I'm am ecstatic that you even clicked on my story, you have no idea! :D
This is my first story ever, so please be gentle. Though I will always take constructive criticizim.
This story probably wouldn't even exist without the help of the totally awesome beta Oh Moneypenny. I can't thank you enough for helping me!
Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever, own Suits. I do have a suit in my closet though...
Chapter 1 - Memories
Lying in bed, alone and unable to sleep, Mike's thoughts strayed to Harvey. My Harvey. It may have been only two months since that night, but Mike still felt the blush spreading over his neck and chest when those words popped into his head. Like clockwork, his perfect memory brought images of that night to the forefront of his thoughts and also brought a smile to his face.
It seemed like a normal Tuesday. Mike woke up half an hour before his alarm went off, but it didn't bother him like it usually did. Today is going to be a good day. Deciding it wouldn't kill him to get a head start on the day he got up and hopped in the shower. While washing himself, Mike thought of all the work waiting for him at the office. Louis had decided Mike would be his personal lackey for the week, slamming him with files to look over, in Louis' office. He wouldn't even tell him what the case was about! Mike hoped Harvey would need him today; he really did not want to spend another day in that God awful office.
Shuddering at the thought, Mike rinsed off and stepped out of the shower. He quickly got dressed and headed to the kitchen to grab a bite to eat. He finished the bowl of cereal and headed off to work, the same thought echoing in his thoughts. Today is going to be a good day. He weaved in and out of traffic effortlessly, even stopping to let an elderly woman cross the street.
Mike arrived in front of Pearson Hardman with 30 minutes to spare. While double-checking the bike lock, he looked up to see a black town car pulled up to the curb. Harvey got out of the car carrying his briefcase, thanking Ray for the ride. Shutting the door, Harvey noticed Mike at the bike rack.
"Finally decide to show up early for a change puppy?" he asked with a smirk. Mike stood up at the sound of Harvey's voice and smiled back. "You always say punctuality is important." "I do indeed." With that, Harvey walked into the building, knowing Mike would be following close behind.
Both men shared a quiet elevator ride up to the offices of Pearson Hardman. With a ding, the silver doors slid open and both men parted ways. Mike sighed as he went to his desk and set his messenger bag down. He swore the amount of files on his desk had doubled since he left the office last night. Reluctantly Mike sat down and got to work.
Harvey walked up to Donna, a smile tugging at his lips. Handing him his coffee, Donna looked up. "Mike show up early today?" "Yes, he did." Harvey gave Donna a sideways glance, noting the redhead looked almost giddy as he sipped his coffee. Standing up and handing Harvey a small stack of files, Donna grinned knowingly. "Good luck." Harvey simply rolled his eyes and walked into his office, admiring the view out of the windows as he sat down.
Mike was already busy slaving away for Louis, thankfully at his own desk for the time being. He jumped as his ear buds were ripped from his ears, looking up to see an unhappy Harvey staring down at him. "Can you hear me now? Let's go." Confused, Mike followed Harvey to Louis's office. Harvey walked right in, much to the dismay of the lawyer sitting at the large desk. "Ever heard of knocking Harvey?" Ignoring him, Harvey buttoned his suit jacket. "Thank you for dog sitting, but I'll take Mike back now." "What? He's not even close to being done with the work I gave him yesterday! You can't—!" "I can, and I will. Good-bye Louis." Harvey walked back Mike's desk, leaving a sputtering Louis behind.
Mike was quiet as he picked up all the files Louis had given him and deposited them on Kyle's desk, per Harvey's request, wanting to wait until they were in Harvey's office to thank him for saving him from Louis. Kyle glared at Mike as the last of the files were placed on the teetering towers covering his desk. "Stupid goddamn puppy" Kyle muttered quietly to himself as he watched Mike follow Harvey to his office. He continued to grumble to as he started to attack the mountainous amount of paperwork on his desk.
"I can't thank you enough for saving me from Louis. I don't think I would have survived another day if I had to do all that paperwork in his office with him staring at me the whole time. You know what stare I'm talking about." Mike shivered at the thought and sat in a chair in front Harvey's desk. "Don't think I took pity on you." Harvey said as he pushed the small stack of files Donna had given him this morning toward Mike. "Our client, Mr. William Grants, is being sued by Parker Branch Publishing for breach of contract. Mr. Grants is counter suing for more than $50,000, claiming the company did not give the author his entire share of the royalties from the success of his book. In those files are copies of the company's general guidelines and policies, a copy of the final draft of the contract between the author and the company, as well as the financial reports of the profits from the books release. I want you to look it over and see if you find anything interesting."
"Sure. I can have this done by tomorrow." Mike stood to leave, but was caught off guard by Harvey's words. "I need this done today. We go to court tomorrow; 10 A.M." Mike's eyes widened at Harvey's smug smile.
"Tomorrow? How the hell are we going to come up with a good defense by tomorrow?" "Isn't that what I've got you for?" Mike sighed and headed back to his desk as Harvey began typing away at his computer.
"You sneaky bastard." The words filled the quiet office not five minutes after Mike returned to his desk. Harvey looked up as Donna sat herself comfortably in one of the chairs in front of his desk. "Hello Donna." "You know very well that he will be here all night pouring over those pages for you."
"Exactly." Harvey allowed a small smile to grace his face.
"Some days, I swear I have no idea how your mind works."
"I could tell you."
"I already know plenty, thanks to you drunk dialing my cell phone that one night." The small smile dropped from Harvey's face and his eyes hardened at Donna's comment. "I did not appreciate being woken up at 3 A.M. to you going on about how cute his butt is."
"We discussed that conversation" Harvey replied coldly.
"And now we are again. Would you like me to go get him, so you can say in person how cute you think his butt is?" Donna smirked at Harvey.
"Don't you have a job I pay you not to do?"
"Of course, but this is more fun." Smiling, Donna stood up and walked to the glass door. "Don't tease him too bad Harvey. He's just a kid." Harvey watched as Donna went back to her desk, letting out a deep breath he hadn't realized he was holding in.
Mike read the same page for the third time, trying to focus on the words. He only had five more pages of the guidelines and policies left to read. He could do this! Mike looked at the small clock on his desk, and inwardly groaned. I can't do this. Mike put the cap back on his yellow high lighter and stood, stretching his tense back. "Ugh…I need a drink."
"How about a nice scotch?"
Mike turned to see Harvey leaning against the far wall, hands in his pockets and that ever present smirk on his face. "I was thinking more along the lines of non-alcoholic coffee." Harvey shrugged, pushing himself off the wall and walked toward Mike, "What are you still doing here?"
"Someone thinks this puppy is Wonder Dog, and can come up with a viable defense in…" Mike glanced at the clock,"…about 12 hours."
"Whoever that someone is sounds like a dick." Harvey's smirk grew, if that was even possible.
"Totally." Mike smiled; glad to be thinking about something other than publishing rights and regulations.
Harvey felt bad for the kid, and nodded back to his office. "Come on, you can finish that in my office. It's relatively more comfortable, and I ordered pizza."
"Really. And give up all this?" Mike spread his arms out, encompassing his small cubicle. Harvey let out a small chuckle. "Grab your stuff and be in there in 10 minutes." "Aye, aye, Captain." Mike gathered the files, high lighters, and his messenger bag, turning to watch Harvey walk down the emptying hallway. Damn, he has a cute butt.
Mike was sitting on the leather sofa, considerably more comfortable than his stiff office chair, reading through the contract when the fragrant whiff of meat lovers stuffed crust pizza filled his nose. Harvey walked in, carrying the large pizza box. "Oh God, I love you."
The words fell from Mike's lips before he could even register that his lips were moving. Harvey stopped in his tracks, staring at Mike incredulously. Mike blushed furiously, stammering, trying not looking at Harvey. Oh my god, I can't believe I just said that!
"Ha…not love you, I was talking to the pizza." Smooth Mike, he's totally going to believe that! "Sure, pizza, right." Harvey set the pizza on the coffee table and went to pour himself a tall glass of scotch. Mike opened the box and grabbed a slice, shoving it in his mouth before he could embarrass himself anymore.
Harvey downed the scotch, quietly pouring himself another glass before sitting at his desk, staring out window. Mike went back to reading the contract, an awkward silence falling in the room.
Consumed with reading the fine print, Mike didn't notice the quick glances his way from a very quiet Harvey Specter. Taking a deep breath, Harvey reluctantly removed his eyes from studying Mike's face, turning his gaze outside the office, to the pitch black skyline, dotted with specks of light from distant skyscrapers.
Oh God, what am I doing? Harvey let out a frustrated sigh. He had planned everything out; letting Louis think he could have Mike for the week, just to steal him from right under his nose; making Mike work late on a case so they could be alone; getting his favorite pizza. Everything was going great, until Mike said "I love you." Harvey should have known Mike was talking about the pizza, but the way he looked at Harvey, with those eyes. The eyes that took his breath away, every single time Mike looked at him. And he doesn't even know how powerful those eyes are!
"Harvey. Hello, earth to Harvey." Mike waved his hands in front Harvey's face. He had been trying to get the older man's attention for the last five minutes.
"Yes Mike?" Harvey looked up at Mike expectantly. "I think I found something." Harvey heaved an exasperated sigh, turning to give Mike his full attention. "The numbers, they don't add up. So I reread the contract, and someone changed it."
"What do you mean someone changed it?"
"It was very subtle, and probably why no one noticed it. Someone replaced the pages that detailed how the royalties would be divided." Harvey held his hand out for the file.
Mike handed Harvey the contract, pointing out the section in the fine print. "A sentence is missing. It should say that the author receives an incentive of $15,000 from the publishing company's profits if there is a limited early release of his book."
Stealing a glance at Mike, Harvey read the fine print. "This doesn't say anything about profits from an early release." "Exactly. So I double checked the company's policies and guidelines, as well as the financial report for the release of the book. The policies state that if the publishing company decides to have an early release, the author must be notified at least four weeks before hand."
"Okay, so what are you saying, the publishing company didn't tell him soon enough?" Harvey looked up at Mike.
"I'm saying they didn't tell him at all. There was an early release in select and cities, about three months before the book was released nationally. But the author doesn't know about the early release." Mike was beaming, very proud of himself for finding this mistake.
"They didn't tell him about the release at all?"
"Nope, and they apparently tried to hide it. The financial report doesn't say anything about profits from an early release."
"I'm assuming they did it poorly."
Mike smiled. "The records say that in the first week after the national release, the book sold 5.6 million copies, which means the profits from the book totals to more than $127 million dollars."
Harvey looked at the financial report for the first week of the release. "This says it made $135 million dollars its first week." Harvey looked at the papers before him, then up at Mike. "The publishing company hid the profits from the early release within the first weeks' financial report." "You are correct sir. The author doesn't have access to the financial reports for his book, so the publishing company could easily have told him that the book only made $127 million dollars, meaning they would get to keep all the profits from the early release."
"That's $8 million dollars." Harvey was shocked, and a little proud, at what Mike had found out.
"I know! I was thinking we would dro-" Mike was cut off by a pair of lips crushing down on his. Without thinking, Harvey cupped Mike's face in his hands and kissed him fervently. Mike was taken aback, and began kissing the older man back instinctively.
The kiss only lasted a few seconds, but to the men it seemed to last years. When Harvey's brain processed what was going on, he let go of Mike and backed away. Oh my God! What did I just do? Mike kept his eyes closed, trying to remember exactly how Harvey's lips felt against his own.
Wait… Harvey? Mike's eyes flew open, fear coursing through his veins. His eyes landed on the equally shocked eyes of the man in front of him. "I-um...I-I'm gonna…go." Mike hurriedly threw all of his things in his messenger bag and tore out of the older man's office.
While Mike was quickly unlocking his bike, Harvey sat in his office chair with his face in his hands. This is not what he thought was going to happen when he decided to finally make his move. It didn't help that Mike ran out faster than a speeding bullet. Well, it's not doing me any good sitting around the office. With a heavy sigh, Harvey stood and methodically put all the files in his briefcase.
Harvey stood on the curb outside and hailed a cab, having given Ray the night off. Once a cab had come to a stop, Harvey got in and hurriedly gave the driver the address to Mike's apartment.
Mike finished his beer and set the empty bottle on the small table next to the fridge, quickly grabbing another and resumed pacing his small apartment. Oh my God…oh my God…he's going to hate me. There is no way I can face him tomorrow! Especially not in court! After finally being able to get his bike lock undone and pedaling down the street, Mike's thoughts were consumed with thoughts of Harvey. He had decided the kiss was a mistake, and that Harvey was surely going to fire him for kissing him back.
Mike fell onto the couch as he remembered the kiss, how he had dreamed about it almost every night for the past two months. He remembered the feel of Harvey's lips on his own; how, even for the few seconds they touched, their lips molded perfectly together. Lost in his thoughts, it took Mike a minute to register that someone was banging on his door. Shaking his head and wondering who it could be at this late hour, Mike got up and opened his door, frozen in his place as he stared into the eyes of none other than the best closer in New York.
"We need to talk."