"Harvey, listen to me." And when Harvey looked up from his desk, he didn't look angry, or challenging, or at all unimpressed. He looked expectant, like he was ready to hear whatever Mike had to say. There was something else there though, something that made Mike wonder why he hadn't been kicked out of the office yet – especially since he'd marched right passed Donna who was currently glaring at him from outside the office. "I need to tell you why."
"Why what, Mike?" He sat forward and laced his hands together, seeming utterly unfazed.
"Why I went to Louis."
Harvey just smiled sweetly – that deceivingly sweet smile that would shake even their most powerful enemies.
"Louis was threatening me. He had a plan to get e fired if I didn't go work for him, and he gave me a now or never ultimatum." Mike stared at his ex-boss with wide, scared, pleading eyes. "I swear to god I had no choice, Harvey. I would never willingly leave you."
Harvey's eyes and lips tightened ever so slightly, his anger slipping through ever so slightly until he could compose himself once more. "You should have come to me." His eyes were daggers though his face was calm, and Mike thought he would be in physical pain from the attention until Harvey looked down at his paperwork. The dismissal hurt in a whole different way.
It was then that Mike couldn't bring to mind a reason that he'd ever questioned telling Harvey in the first place. "He found I that I'm in love with you. He told me that he'd tell you and that you'd fire me on the spot."
When Harvey looked up at him, his face was blank. The lawyer, normally so good at reading people, could not get the slightest reading on the associate that was once so important to him. "What?"
"I was too scared to lose you, Harvey. But I can see that I already did. And I can see that I only have myself to thank for it. I shouldn't have let Louis come between us, and I'm sorry that I hurt you, but believe me when I say that was never my intention."
Harvey bit his lip angrily, then shook his head. After cursing multiple times under his breath, he finally locked eyes with the younger man again. "Mike," he started, but could find no other words. What really was there to say?
"You don't have to say anything, Harvey." He walked out of the office – the whole building actually – before Harvey could try to continue. But it was clear that the only things he had to say would have just made the hurt that much more unbearable.
A/N: Short, I know. It had just been so long since I posted that I had to put something! But I'm pretty sure the next chapter will be the last. Let's have a little vote… How do you think this should end? Or should it… lol… Maybe it just gets crazier from here!