Set at 810, when Harvey and Donna go out for drinks :) I'm gonna be honest here… this isn't very good, at all hahahah But I've had this accumulating dust in my files for ages so I thought I'd share. Hope you can still enjoy it.
"You two need to get a room or does anybody wanna go out and celebrate?" Donna had asked, and Louis declined, but Harvey didn't even blink, saying good-bye to Louis and following her along.
It had been one hell of a day, a week even, and it came to a conclusion with Louis saving the day by becoming managing partner, to everyone's stunned surprise – except to Donna herself, having plotted the whole thing. But now the resolution, unorthodox as it may be, lifts a weight off of the atmosphere around them. The air seems thinner, a light heartedness spreading around with the hope that the firm will be okay, so maybe, for tonight, it's also okay for her and Harvey to just… relax.
He's looking at her a certain way, she notices. Like he's seeing something else there, and whatever it is that he's glimpsing at below the surface makes him happy. But that soon gets lost in their conversation. She brushes off that impression, figures he had a big day – conceding power in favor of Louis, of all people, is no small thing. Donna simply takes his arm and guides him to the elevators.
She can't remember the last time she did that, but ever since the wedding Harvey's physicality doesn't seem so daunting anymore. It's like the electric pulse of energy that had been Harvey for so long, that used to spark over her skin everytime they so much as brushed shoulders – pushing them away – had transmuted while she danced enraptured in his arms: he became a magnetic force, pulling her towards him.
Before, it used to spark, energy crackling. It seemed dangerous, a fire hazard. Now… It was a pull. Magnetic, skin burning with the effort of staying apart while every particle of her body seemed to be forcibly attracted to every inch of him.
But whatever the nature of the physical force between them, she had practice pretending it wasn't there. So she smiled, and flirted in a genuinely light-hearted manner, no real intention at all as she called him pretty and told him he would be buying tonight's drinks.
They enclose themself in each other in a relatively quiet corner of the dark-lit bar. Music is still loud enough to demand they sit closer together than they normally would but, after drink number three, the truth is they usually would gravitate closer even in the deepest silences.
Harvey's laughing, that giggly, happy, unbridled joy he so rarely allows himself. She's laughing too, a liquid sort of feeling to her limbs. They fight so many battles at the firm and finishing up a round in which everybody comes out a winner puts a lightness in their chests. For tonight, even if tonight only, they don't have a single problem.
She asks about Marcus; he tells her about the new car he's trying out at the club next week, excited about it like a boy with a new toy. He asks for updates on her mom and about the new Yoga place Donna was supposed to try out that week. And then it hits her, how in tune and up-to-date with her life he currently is, in a way he hasn't been in so long, despite them not even working side-by-side anymore.
There was a period of time when they missed a lot about each other – and missed each other a lot, she would willingly admit. But then, eventually, and thankfully not that slowly, they healed, realizing the only way they could do so was together. They got back to normal and over the last couple of months things have been better than ever between them. They're busier than ever and don't have much time together, but they make time, stealing moments during the day and staying way later than necessary just to have a drink together at night.
Something must've transpired in her face because Harvey's smiling gently, his eyebrows popping up at her pause about the yoga place. "What?" he asks.
Donna chuckles lightly, mostly at herself for being so transparent. "Nothing, it's just… You're asking about Yoga."
He laughs, defending himself. "What, I listen!"
"Debatable," she teases. "No, you're just really… well informed."
"About you?"
"I guess."
The corners around his eyes crinkle. "Yeah, I missed that."
Her voice is sweet when she answers, "Me too."
They simply smile at each other for a lingering moment.
"I already knew about the car, by the way," Donna mentions, just to rib him.
"I would never expect to know more about you than you do about me," Harvey concedes.
She hums, amused. "To be fair, I don't think there's that much you don't already know."
Harvey smiles, pleased by that idea. But then suddenly he's looking at her that way again, the same look he had earlier, at Louis' office. She still can't read what it means. She's not even sure whether the look ever really changed, or if she just got distracted, but then she realizes the reality is he's been looking at her like that a lot lately.
She's staring. She knows that. But there's just no way she can break free from the way those brown eyes seem to be begging her to understand something he's not saying; they're glimmering and deep and nervous. Jittery energy emanates from Harvey's body and envelopes her.
She doesn't know what to say to him and the rarity of the fact flusters her more than the way he seems to be gravitating closer, ever so slightly.
Then, he says something – it's just her name, Donna, in a voice so deep she can hear loud and clear despite how low his tone is. Smooth, sweet. And suddenly, just by the sound of his voice saying her name she knows exactly what it is that she had been missing before. She knows exactly what that look in his face means.
She simultaneously can't believe she didn't get it before, for how clear it is now, and can completely forgive herself for the oversight because, even as it's happening, she can't believe that it is.
Her mind gets ahead of herself and, in a fluster of reading Harvey and analyzing his thoughts and his intentions, she almost misses his actions. Until he's so close she can feel his warm breath on her face.
Harvey smells like scotch and the familiar scent of his perfume, faint at the end of the day. He's looking down at her, his beautiful, beautiful lips curved into a small smile and suddenly all she can think about is what they would feel like against her skin.
He touches the curve of her jaw with the backs of his fingers. Just a light brush. And then he's more intentful as those fingers brush her hair back over her shoulder and immediately glide down, wrapping themselves around the back of her neck.
Her lips part. To say his name, to ask a question, to simply catch her breath. But Harvey leans the last breath down and captures her bottom lip between his, then crushes his mouth into hears and breathes her in, consuming her.
Donna hms and tastes him. After the smallest moment, her own hands raise, sliding up over the soft fabric of his white shirt to his chest and shoulders.
Harvey's lips travel over her cheek, kissing her jaw line and right under her earlobe. He breathes her in, the scent of her hair, which he grasps between his knuckles.
"You have no idea how long I've wanted to do this," he murmurs into her ear.
She takes his jaw, guiding Harvey's mouth back to hers, kissing him deeply, reintroducing herself to his taste and discovering it's still her favorite, as her fingers twist the short strands of his hair.
Harvey groans into her mouth and it sends a thrill down her spine, right along with his hand, tracing down her body to the small of her back where he presses, pulling her into him.
He kisses her breathless and when she finds his eyes in the small space between them she considers reason, considers consequences and everything that has stopped them from acting all these years, but she can't stop. She had kissed him and chosen sanity not that long ago and all that did was crush her with all the consequences and none of the pleasure, except for the briefest feel of his lips. So to hell with reason.
Harvey's hands slide down her sides, feeling the narrow curve of her waist and the crease at her hips, pulling her as close as possible until his hand slides along her thigh, pulling her knee over his own. She twists her body a bit, pushing into him, wanting to feel his body against hers just as much as he clearly wants to.
His eyes are closed and he's grinning as she lightly bites on his chin before taking his lips between hers again and, god, he seems happy. So happy.
They kiss for a long time. Wet, deep and sensuous. Then Donna's head rests against his chest and they watch the live band playing for an indefinite amount of time while Harvey holds her against him, until his hand starts snaking just under the hem of her dress, caressing her thigh and lightly scratching her skin in a way that makes something scorching hot twist low in her belly.
She turns her head, kisses his neck, and before she knows it they're in the back of his car headed to her apartment, kissing through corridors.
Harvey cages her into her apartment door, lips looking thoroughly kissed and a hardness pressing into her stomach. "I had a really great night tonight," he says.
"Had?" Donna can't hide the surprise from the way her eyebrows lift.
"I don't think I should come in."
"Oh."
She tries to straighten herself, a pinch of humiliation making her want to get as far away as possible, but Harvey's body's still solidly pressed against her, keeping her in place.
"No, not 'oh'", he says. "I just–"
Harvey's infuriating inability to finish a sentence when it matters the most rears its ugly head again. He tries to escape the search for words by reaching for her lips again, but Donna turns away from him. He sighs deeply at her rejection, but kisses her cheek instead, one time and again, and then he rests his forehead against her temple, whispering in her ear, "I want you so much."
Donna's heart clenches inside her chest and she finds his eyes, slightly shaking her head in confusion.
"Can we… Can we do this again?" he asks.
"What do you mean?"
"I wanna take you out."
"We literally just got back in." She tries for a joke, glancing around the corridor around them.
He smiles. "Donna."
She shrugs. "I really don't know what you want from me here."
He takes a breath, like he's inhaling courage. "I want you to kiss me goodnight, and not feel like I don't want this. I want you to know that I'm going to bed thinking about you. And then, later, I want to take you out… on an actual date."
Her lips part, the air in her lungs turning solid.
"You…" she starts weekly, and before she can get her wits back, Harvey kisses her again. Drawing her bottom lip between his own, sucking, and then sneaking his tongue into her mouth.
She has a lot to process but right now his taste takes up all the space.
"I'm really gonna need an answer here," he mumbles between kisses.
"You haven't asked me a question", she says, breathless and unwilling to part from him.
Harvey places his hands on her hips, putting a half a step distance between their bodies.
He smiles and he seems nervous, but his voice and the look in his eyes are calm and unwavering. "Donna Paulsen, would you like to go on a date with me, which is contingent on you agreeing we're all in and, once we do that, we're done being idiots and we're going to be together forever?"
Her eyes go wider at each word out of his mouth and then she's biting the inside of her cheek to try and keep somewhat of a straight face.
"Did you just call me an idiot?"
His mouth opens, wordlessly.
She laughs and wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him through the start of their forever.