"Go away!" Mike mumbled more to himself than whoever had come to his door that afternoon as he pulled the ragged pillow that had laid unwashed on the couch for as long as he remembered over his heavy head. He did all that he could to try and ignore the pounding knocks on the thin door even as it rattled in its hinges and pushed his blotched face further into the cushions as he lay spread-eagled upon the couch. It hadn't really smelled acceptable in several years. The force with which the door rattled hinted at a determined and strong person on the other side. He had let the other man violate his door for minutes on end without saying a word or otherwise letting him know that he was inside, until then.
As the words left Mike's mouth, letting him know that he was indeed inside, the rattling suddenly stopped, and a silence followed. The certainty that had been given to Harvey, that Mike was there, seemed to calm him down or at least convince him it might be a good plan to go for the calmer approach. Mike was uncertain if it had to do with the words he had said, specifically, or not. "Mike," it resounded, eschewed with a sigh but just loud enough for the younger man to hear despite being on the other end of the old door. Its thinness undoubtedly played its part in it. "Mike, let me in. Come on."
Whether it was a near-imperceptible begging undertone to his words as he approached the situation calmly, or Mike's knowledge of Harvey's character and the fact that he knew the lawyer wouldn't let it go – at least, until he had seen Mike with his own eyes – he pulled the pillow from his head and let his body slide off of the couch, until he sat on hands and knees on the carpet. Tiredly, as if he had been awake for days and forgotten what sleep was, he held onto the side of the low table and got to his two feet, feeling unsteady, white noise resounding in his head as he tried to come to himself, to walk to the door to open it, deal with Harvey, get rid of him as soon as possible and return to a state that allowed him not to have to participate in the world, in any way, if only for now. Mike's elevated heart beat buzzed in his ears, raced, pounded. He couldn't say that he had been lucid very often in the past four days, after Rachel had left the place he had considered a home for them, her eyes full of tears as she told him she had had enough, of him finding excuses not to get married, of him not keeping her in the loop about what he was doing, feeling, thinking. She had confronted him with the non-disputable fact that Harvey, a man he had worked for once, seemed to know more about him currently and the things he got up to than she did, the woman he had claimed he wanted to dedicate himself to. A shrill, unnatural laugh escaped Mike's throat; it had to be just that man he had worked for who happened to be at his door right then.
The last time the men had seen each other, it had led to his fight with Rachel and to him being, or so he understood, single again. He had told Harvey at Pearson Specter Litt that he was in for the Bar, tired of being looked down upon because he wasn't a real lawyer, despite having enough knowledge to be the best one there ever was, despite being good enough to fill Harvey's footsteps whenever Harvey would progress to the next step. Rachel had come with a bunch of questions, about what he and Harvey were getting into, exactly, but he had held off any and all implicit obligation – as there was, per definition, between betrothed – to answer, to keep her in the loop as much as he could until he knew more, telling himself and her that that was for her own good.
To upset Rachel or fill her with hope only to have to take it all away as new issues arose, before they could resolve those again, was the last Mike wanted to do. After all, she had been so happy when he had quit at the law firm, just before they had taken him in, and when he had taken the job at the legal clinic despite not being a lawyer. Looking back, he thought maybe that was why she had wanted to be with him: because he was not a lawyer and she was going to be better than him, going for the degree herself. Maybe their entire relationship had been built on her belief that she was going to thrive and stay on top of him. The thought made him sick. Looking back, she had always been elitist in a way, even down to her taste in food. He, himself, had just been a simple man all his life. He hadn't needed or wanted for the most expensive or luxurious.
Dragging himself to the door, he opened it with a sigh, looking down at the light that spilled in from the too bright hallway, his apartment having been dark for the better part of the four days that he had locked himself in it. "What is it you want, Harvey?" Mike asked, mostly addressing his bare feet.
As he caught the movement of a strong, sure hand on the door and its owner pushing past him into the apartment, Mike glanced up to see a look of murder in Harvey's eyes. He seemed pissed. Sighing deeply, Mike simply closed the door behind him and turned towards him, leaning against the door and crossing his arms, waiting for the answer, watching Harvey look around at the mess his apartment was, so different from the lawyer's own condo where everything was always neat and straight. Eventually, he watched how Harvey eventually just gave up on trying to find a clean place to sit in and just pushed a few cardboard boxes aside on the couch he had just evacuated before sitting down, looking up at him. "You come in and tell me you're in, disappear with Rachel. I thought maybe you would let me know something later, but no, you don't. All I see is Rachel coming in close to tears for the past few days and not wanting to speak to anyone. You don't pick up the phone or answer messages from me or Donna, and when I call the legal clinic, your boss tells me you haven't showed up since that day and you've been fired."
"I'm surprised that Donna hasn't gotten it by now," Mike tried to answer coolly, still refusing to look at Harvey.
When Harvey spoke next, his voice seemed a lot calmer, reasonable, caring even. "She has. Hell, even I did when I noticed Rachel's state of mind and noticed that you weren't picking up. It is not rocket science. I just don't understand what happened between you two. You asked me to be the best man at your wedding just last week. Whatever it is, Mike, it's not an excuse to give up on life. People break up all the time. There are plenty of fish in the sea."
Mike failed to see how Harvey was trying to be supportive and helpful. If he was trying to cheer him up, it was not working. As the younger man lifted his gaze and looked at his former boss, anger crackled like lightning in his eyes. "Sure, Harvey. There are plenty of fish in the sea when you're only interested in fucking them for one night, maybe two, and then live your life on your own. I don't know if you've noticed, but that is not the path that results in a happily ever after. It just results in you being a lonely old fool on your dying day."
If anything, Harvey, too, failed to keep his anger in check when the biting words hit him. There was no understanding from him, no trying to understand that this was coming from his charge's own heartache. What made him most angry was probably the fact that it was entirely true, and multiple people had told him so already, years ago. He gritted his teeth together in an attempt to at least stop himself from screaming things in the likes of Mike not having been particularly good at having kept the people he loved close either. That would have taken it too far, and the last shred of his calm kept him from overstepping the boundaries and saying something that would really hurt Mike. He had come there demanding an explanation as to why he had been ignored for days on end, as to why he had been left hanging on, and partially also to see how Mike was when he put the pieces together. He didn't know what he had expected to find, but he was all but ready to deal with the raw emotion of the young man so soon after the break-up, which he, like Rachel, obviously hadn't dealt with yet. He began to realize it had been a mistake for home to come. He said as much. "I shouldn't have come here," he said as he pushed off of the couch and made to navigate between the clutter on the floor towards the door again, when Mike's next words stopped him.
"Sometimes I wish it hadn't just been joke and we had just hopped on the helicopter to Buenos Aires. I don't know how it would have worked, but it can't have been as bad as things are now," he said.
Blinking, Harvey was a bit taken aback by the words, rendered silent, pushed into his own thoughts. He tried to remember when he had said it, and not having Mike's splendid mind, he could at least pinpoint it to before everyone had known Mike was a fraud, just around the time Jessica had discovered. The thought of Jessica and the memory of her leaving the law firm made his insides squirm, still. She had been his mentor more than Cameron had, and despite the fact that Louis and he seemed to be getting along better than ever under their shared responsibilities, despite the fact that he was more than capable, it felt strange not to have Jessica rebut on occasion, or just... there. He had to admit that a lot had happened since he had made that crazy suggestion, one which he had never meant to begin with. Mike had been discovered, Jessica had left, he and Donna had gotten to a point where he didn't know how to turn back or push through, he and his mom had patched things up in a way...
Not all of it had been for the worst, he thought, but some of it he could have done without. If he had to look back on it all, and they had gone to Argentina, he never would have had to see Mike go to prison and do the most horrific of things to get him free. Just that would have been worth it. The fact that Pearson Specter Litt was in tatters now, would have been a very good second reason. Jessica might not have left. Mike might not have been as heartbroken. They could have found themselves some nice Argentinian girls, and if that hadn't worked, they could have gone to the next. The option of escape, though not specifically to Buenos Aires, had coursed through his mind on several occasions. "Sometimes I wish we had gone, too," he admitted as he slid his hands deep into his pockets, looking at Mike and seeing the regret and the heartache building to the brim. He so wished he could have saved the younger man from that. If he had never brought the kid in the firm, things would have happened so differently.
Blinking up at him and looking from under his lashes, Mike just shook his head for a second as a question suddenly popped into his brain. He hadn't thought of it the first time, but he thought of it now. "Why Buenos Aires?" he asked, quite surprised when he saw Harvey smile, and he quirked an eyebrow in request to hear the story.
"I once got an offer from one of my ex-colleagues a few years ago to go work for an international law firm there," he said, his smile disappearing and his expression growing serious, brow crinkling as he thought of the memory. "She was… incredibly talented and all that I've heard since is that she is incredibly successful, away from all of the American bull shit. I taught myself a bit of Spanish during my years in college, and sometimes, I'm jealous of her and I wouldn't mind getting away from all of the Pearson Specter Litt bull shit or the state or country in general."
Eyes widening, Mike spoke, "I didn't realize you spoke Spanish."
Harvey snorted. "Harvey Specter has a lot more talents than you could possibly know about."
Leaning back against the door more casually than strained, his muscles relaxing even visibly, Mike was highly aware of how much more lucid he felt all of a sudden, and he felt his witty side pop up. "I really don't want to hear about your sexual prowess," he said, making the other man release a short, hollow laugh, before he, too, became serious. "How do you see it now, with the firm the way it is? Have you thought about it since you became name partner?"
Briefly looking behind him to check the distance between himself and the edge of the couch, he lowered himself down, balancing carefully so he wouldn't topple the piece of furniture over by resting all of his weight on it. He braced his hands on his knees and sighed deeply, pinning Mike's gaze with his own hazel one. "I have," he admitted. "I've thought about it fairly often since Jessica left. I mean, not about Buenos Aires specifically, but just about getting away. It would mean getting away from all that I've worked for my entire life, but that's gone down the gutter entirely anyway."
"Yeah, the day you hired me for the job that was for an actual Harvard educated lawyer," Mike said in a small voice that barely crossed the distance between them. "How would you envision it?" he asked, curiosity peaking, the idea becoming clearer in his head as well as more plausible, more realistic, for one reason or another. He would do it all over again. Maybe he would take the chance and tell him he wanted to be in when the older man mentioned Buenos Aires, serious or not.
Harvey worried his lip as he thought about the answer he would give him. "Well," he started, "We could put all of our funds together, grab a helicopter and put all we have in starting our own business. I know the Argentinian prices, and I am sure that we could build something from scratch, you and me. No questions would be asked about Specter Ross. We can get a two bedroom condo together to save money until we get our winnings in, since we know we can live in one place without killing each other."
No matter how well he knew Harvey Specter, the look in his eyes was unreadable in that moment as he told Mike about how simple it could be to just pack up and escape and run away from everything. He had never been a runner. He had never not faced an issue if it needed to be addressed. He just wanted to start anew, wanted to have the opportunity to do so. "It is beginning to seem more like a good option every second," he voiced.
For a long moment, Harvey looked at him, his thoughts running through the memories of the past few years, of all the things that had happened, what he had lost, what he still had left to lose. "Let me make a call," he said, nodding seriously, as he reached for his phone.