AN: So another chapter, yeah! I had a long train ride and therefore time to write this.

IMPORTANT: I´ll have several tests at the beginning of February, the last one taking place on Feb 9th. Don´t expect any updates until then and be surprised if there should be any nonetheless.

AN 2: Again some M-Rated stuff which I removed. Head over to AO3, if you want to read it.

The door clicked open and gave entrance into a light-flooded hallway.

Slowly Scottie entered, careful to not disturb anything with rash movements. Coming back to the house where she had grown up like that wasn't something she had imagined would ever happen. If it was like any other time her father would already stand in the hallway, in his ugly grandpa sweater that she so often had tried to talk him out of, with a bright smile on his face and his eyes glinting with is usual fatherly mirth. He would take her suitcase and carry it upstairs in her old bedroom, even though she protested, saying that she could carry it herself.

Today there was no one waiting for her in the hallway. Scottie had to carry the suitcase by herself. Even though the sun was shining outside and birds were chirping happily, nothing of that happy atmosphere reached the hallway and the rooms behind.

Scottie wrapped her arms around herself. It was cold in the house, colder than usual. Someone had been here and turned off the heating. Maybe one of the neighbours. She didn't really care. Today would be the last time she would be spending here. She already had contacted a realtor who would sell the house as soon as the funeral was over.

She didn't need the house without her father in it. Loneliness could also be found in Manhattan.

Scottie made her way into the living room. The sun was shining through the wide window front and illuminated the whole room in a cold light. At least to Scottie it felt like that. A book was laying on the coffee table; its pages open. Carefully Scottie picked it up. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

There´s always joy to be found in the a small and lonely boy finding friends and happiness in a world full of magic and wonders, her father had answered when she had asked him why he was reading a children´s book. Then he had bought her all seven books for her thirty-third birthday.

He´ll never read how Dumbledore dies, Scottie thought and somehow that thought brought the tears back. She sat down on the armchair that had always been her father´s favourite place to enjoy his books and let the sobs wash over her.

Being here made her father´s death even more tangible. Even though she had known of her father´s day for already a few days, sometimes she could pretend – push away – that nothing had happened. But sitting here in her father´s chair pushed right through that she was now alone in this world. That her father truly was gone and would never come back.

And all the things they had never done, because Scottie had always thought that they would have all the time in the world. They never discussed Harry Potter, because her father had yet to finish the books. They never visited Berlin, the remnants of the Wall, a monument that had stood as symbol of a conflict that had shaped much of her father´s generation lives. He would never toast to her when her name would inevitable make its way up the wall.

Never. Such an ugly word. Scottie had once read a poem about 'almost'. But 'almost' at least meant that you still had the chance to make it. 'Never' did not give that opportunity. 'Never' was cold, unyielding and unflinching, no matter the desperation that it faced.

Never, ever, almost.

Scottie ran her hand through her hair. The funeral would take place the day after tomorrow. The invitations had already been sent out. Even to her fellow lawyers at Pearson Hardman. Courtesy demanded her to invite even those that she would rather not have at her father´s funeral.

But she knew that her father wouldn't want any fuss to be made because of his funeral. She would just say her goodbyes before everyone else could arrive.

Scottie picked up her phone. There was one person that she hadn't sent an invitation. Mainly because she hadn't got any address. But a number she did have. And so she began typing.

It was the messaging tone of his mobile that woke Mike up.

Groggily he lifted his head and turned around to grab the damn thing on his nightstand. Next to him Harvey mumbled in his sleep, but didn't wake up.

So, he and Harvey. Mike supposed they were a thing now. Yesterday had been breath-taking, in more than one way. Mike had never been with a person that he had felt so connected to. He felt like Harvey and he complemented each other perfectly. Like he had finally found the puzzle piece that he didn't knew he was missing.

Well, and the sex was awesome, too, so nothing to complain here.

Looking at Harvey sleeping, Mike found that the man looked much younger and more relaxed when he wasn´t awake. Like he was free pf all sorrows and burdens that darkened his life while he was awake.

That someone as guarded as Harvey would allow Mike to see him in such an unprotected state, filled him with awe and profound respect. It was a sing of trust and Mike felt honoured that Harvey would bestow such onto him. Maybe Harvey wouldn't be averse to take things further as Mike thought he would be at the beginning.

Mike just knew that he wanted to see where this thing with Harvey would lead him. He wanted to experience the highest highs and the deepest lows with the man lying there in his rumbled sheets. It definitely would be an adventure.

Finally, Mike had managed to unlock his phone. There was one new message.

From: Dana

My dad´s funeral´s the day after tomorrow.

Would you come? As closure?

Mike didn't need to think long.

To: Dana

Of course, I come.

Where?

The swoshing sound that signalled the message´s departure had not even faded out when he received the address. Mike confirmed again and was about to put his phone back on the nightstand when a hand wound around his midriff.

"Awake, already?" Mike mumbled. Harvey only made a confirming sound before he began to lace Mike´s shoulders with kisses. It didn't seem as if early morning deterred the older lawyer from administering very effective shows of affection.

"Yesterday was brilliant," Harvey whispered in his ear from behind, eliciting a small shudder from Mike. "And we just blew each other. Imagine what else we could do." Yeah, Mike could imagine that really well. Mike´s mind was made for things like imagining that. His dick also agreed rather enthusiastically with Harvey.

Harvey´s kisses, meanwhile, became more insistent, sucking and biting also taking place.

[M-Rated stuff. Available on AO3]

After Mike had returned the favour to Harvey – albeit it had taken him a little bit longer, but he was rewarded with an expression of ecstasy on the other man´s face and wasn´t that a kind of power as well, to make another person come undone underneath your fingers? – they both went in search of their clothing, which was carelessly thrown all over the room. After all, they both had to go to work.

"Are you free on Saturday?" Harvey asked as they stood in front of Mike´s apartment building. Mike shook his head.

"No," he replied. "I´m invited to a funeral. A friend´s father." He answered the unasked question. Harvey just nodded understandingly.

"Just call me when you´re back," he said and Mike nodded.

"Will do."

For a short moment – a very, very short moment – Harvey was tempted to simply not come into work. Some bullshit-excuse would do. But Donna would know. She always knew. Harvey would just delay the inevitable. So he just steeled himself and marched towards his office.

He would not let that terrible – awesome, terrific, glad-to-have-her-in-his-corner, effective – woman have any effect on him. No, he was Harvey Specter, goddamn best closer this city had ever seen and he would not be browbeaten by even the meanest red-haired secretary.

"Somebody got the booty tonight," said she-demon wolf-whistled the moment she had set her gaze on him. Harvey just rolled his eyes, what totally ruined the suave image he was going for.

"A gentleman doesn´t kiss and tell," was Harvey´s reply.

"Wait, wait," Donna interrupted him and looked him over carefully. "You didn't get the whole booty. You just…traded blow jobs?" Harvey´s eyes bulged and his jaw dropped.

"How I know that?" Donna continued. "You didn't walk awkwardly enough to have been the catcher last night – remember the day after you took off with Terence? – but neither have you made any comments about your sexual prowess which usually indicates that you were the one dealing out orgasms." Her eyes widened. "Wow, Mike truly must be a god in bed when that´s enough to make you come in here like you just stamped Tanner into the ground."

"You know what?" Harvey shot back, more embarrassed than actually angry. "You´re way to invested in my sex life. How about getting one of your own?" Donna just rolled her eyes.

"Now on to more serious matters," she said. "You got an invitation to the funeral of Scottie´s father on Saturday. As well as Louis, Jessica and a few of the other partners." Harvey´s mood sobered up immediately.

"Did you accept?" he asked.

"I waited for your approval," Donna replied and looked him in the eyes.

"Would be the first time," Harvey mumbled.

"Harvey, I know that the topic of dead fathers is a sensitive one for you." He hated how Donna´s gaze softened as she spoke to him. He didn't need pity. Never needed it. "So, yes, I did wait for your approval."

"Just accept the invitation," Harvey ordered his secretary tiredly. Without bothering to wait for a reply, he moved onwards into his office.

Katrina was waiting for Mike when he entered the floor where is office was situated. More like she was ambushing him, Mike mused, when the blonde grabbed him by his tie and pulled him into his office. She pushed him down into his chair and leaned against his desk, her arms folded.

"A good morning to you as well, Katrina," Mike piped up. Katrina didn't even bother to reply. She just kept looking at him with her best Ice Queen™-Gaze which never lost his effect on him and made him feel very uncomfortable right now.

"Where´s Harold?" Mike tried a different tactic, but it seems that – like a hound that got wind of its prey – Katrina would not be distracted from her goal.

"Mike," she started in her sickly-sweet voice that she usually only used on old, white and horny oil barons from the South. "Tell me all about your date last night."

"Well," Mike began, "it was actually pretty great. We went to a Star Trek marathon, but we got thrown out because of public indecency." Katrina´s eyes bulged.

"Oh my God!" she exclaimed. "What did you do?"

"We may have gone a little bit overboard with the kissing," Mike admitted bashfully. Katrina just snorted.

"So, and what happened then?" Katrina prodded further.

"What do you think happened?" Mike gave her a teasing smile.

"I think that someone did the dirty," Katrina shot back. "And can´t wait to do it again." Mike just gave her his most enigmatic smile and didn't comment further. Katrina flopped down from his desk and laid her arm on his shoulder.

"I´m happy for you," she said with a reassuring smile.

"I´m really sorry to destroy this atmosphere of camaraderie we have here," Mike began, "but I have to cancel our Saturday Late Night Bar Tour."

"Why?" Katrina asked.

"I´ve been invited to the funeral of a friend´s father," Mike answered. "I just got the message earlier today."

"I think that can be counted as reasonable excuse," Katrina assured him. "Now, though, I got to go. I think Harold´s finally manned up and is about to confront Angeline."

"Now, that´s something I gotta have to see."

The ringing of the doorbell was what tore Scottie from her slumber. She must have dozed off while she sat in her father´s chair. Groggily she stood up, ran her fingers through her hair to make it look at least a little bit presentable and walked towards the door.

Who the hell would that be? She asked herself. The moment she opened the door, though, she wished that she had just stayed inside.

"Mother," Scottie said curtly.

Elisbeth Scott was a woman of pedigree. She came from a long line of industrials and had been given everything in her life on a golden spoon until she decided to run away with Scottie´s father, who had been so in love with the woman that he even took her last name. Yet their love hadn't been enough and soon Elisbeth found herself wishing for the luxurious life style she had led before which led to a teary-eyed four-year-old girl standing on the threshold for three weeks, waiting for her mouther, until even that little girl had to realize that her mother would not come back.

"Dana," her mother replied. Her once black hair had lightened up considerably, with grey strands every now and then. Her face was penetrated by countless wrinkles that hadn´t been there the last time Scottie had seen the woman. Yet, her brown eyes still shone with the same determination and strength like Scottie remembered from her childhood and she still held herself high and mighty.

"What are you doing here?" Scottie demanded to know. She had no time for her mother´s games. She had no time for their usual fights. She was tired and she just wanted to let everything behind.

"Won´t you invite me in at least?" her mother said in the same voice that always made Scottie feel like a little girl again.

"Answer my question," Scottie replied. Elisbeth just sighed.

"I´m here for the funeral," she answered.

"So, that´s what it takes to make you come back?" Scottie laughed. An ugly and empty sound. "Dad dies and you come back to his funeral."

"Dana, do we have to have this talk on your doorstep? Let´s take this inside," her mother implored, but Scottie would have none of it.

"How is André?" she sneered. "How are Katherine and Annabeth?" The family her mother had built after she had left Scottie and her dad. André, heir to another industrial empire, and their two darling little daughters, bluebloods as fine as you could make them on the East Coast.

"They didn't come," her mother replied tensely. "In fact, I´ve told no one that I´d come here."

"Ashamed of me and dad?"

"No, because it doesn´t concern them," her mother said. "I know that you´ll never forgive me for what I have done and I don´t demand you to do, but I loved Dean once as well and I won´t disrespect him by not attending his funeral. That is something I can still do." With one last look at Scottie, Elisbeth turned around and walked back to her Lexus; chauffeur already holding open the car´s door. The engine flared up and then it drove around the corner, vanishing from Scottie´s sight.

Mentally completely exhausted from that short conversation, Scottie turned around and walked back inside.

The weekend couldn´t be over soon enough.

Mike paid the taxi driver and exited the car. As he stood on the sidewalk he looked around, taking in his surroundings. He was standing, in what seemed to be, the typical American suburb. Well-kept houses, painted in hues of yellow, lavender and white; trimmed hedges, white fences and at least two cars standing in front of each garage.

From behind a few windows he noticed some women watching him, their gazes locked on him like he was about to commit some serious crime – like pissing on the sidewalk. It seemed like there wasn't enough excitements for the Jannettes, Barbaras and Charons that they needed his arrival for new gossip.

He was lucky that he could afford living in Manhattan, Mike supposed, where you could get everything – and he meant 'male escorts for an orgy at 2am who also studied Ukrainian Literature of the 20th century'-everything – whereas here you probably got looked at weirdly when you had Pizza delivered after ten.

Tearing himself out of his contemplation of the typical American suburb, Mike made his way up the small path that was leading to the house he was going to. Mike lifted his hand and knocked. The sound echoed on the other side, then he heard the sound of shoes rustling.

The door opened.

"Hello, Dana."

"Hello, Mike."

Gazing upon the lights from Manhattan, Harvey sipped at his scotch and thought about everything that occupied his mind as of late. The City That Never Sleeps at night was truly awe-inspiring; the lights of thousand buildings and cars lightening up the night sky. It made one feel insignificant, yet also like a part of a gigantic whole.

He had tried to contact Mike, but had only reached the voicemail. Harvey hadn´t left a message, though. He found that quite desperate. It signalled that you didn't have the time to wait for the other to call back, which left said person in a position of power over you. Harvey didn't believe that Mike would see it like that, though.

He had wanted to ask the younger man if he would go with Harvey to the funeral. Dead fathers hit close at home with Harvey and he just needed Mike at his side.

That was a new development. Up until now, Harvey had been completely content with his chosen loneliness; with only Donna and Jessica as confidantes. But Mike had brought something to the surface that he had kept away for very long. The need for companionship, for understanding and love that was inherent in every human being.

If he had been the Harvey of a few months ago, such revelations would have send him spiralling. He would have tried to distance himself from Mike; would have tried to push the other man away, but right now even the notion of doing that, made the bile rise in his throat.

No. No matter what Harvey wanted, Mike was here to stay.

And Harvey was oddly satisfied with that.