"Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes?" Mike grinned as Harvey walked passed him into the apartment, not turning around to face the younger man until after he heard the lock slide into place. He needed an extra minute to compose himself – clearly the internal pep talk he'd been giving himself all day wasn't enough. "Make yourself at home. Can I get you something? Coffee? Beer?"

Harvey straightened his tie as he looked around the place. The rooms in the back were messy, a tell all of the two male inhabitants. The main room that Harvey stood in though, was almost impressive – for Trevor and Mike anyway. Everything looked expensive. Almost tasteful. Harvey smirked to himself before addressing Mike's question. "No thanks, I won't be here that long." He looked away before he could see the sting from an invisible slap that Mike recoiled from.

I deserved that. He told himself.

The lawyer dropped his suitcase on the coffee table – that for his expert eyes was way too far away from the couch – and after grabbing the papers he needed, moved to sit down on a surprisingly comfortable couch.

"He keeps a bike in his living room?" Harvey's eyebrows pulled together in an exasperated way, lips drawing up on one side condescension. Mike only smiled, sitting down next to him. Expression pulling into a tell me you're not an idiot look, he said; "Tell me that isn't your bike."

"No, no, it's Trevor's." He lounged back easily, a comfortable position that Harvey tried not to remember seeing in his own apartment so many years ago; the thoughts in his mind all focused on not missing the way Mike looked when he was so at home.

He scoffed a response, putting a paper clipped stack of paper down between them, facing Mike. For the first time that night, Harvey really looked at him. The kid's eyes dropped suspiciously down to scan the papers, giving the light the perfect change to shine off of the green and purple bruise beneath Mike's eye and on his cheek bone. Shit. Harvey thought to himself. Had Trevor really done that?

"What's this?" Mike asked, voice seeming offended.

"It's an employee contract."

"I can see that."

Harvey rolled his eyes. "I'm hiring you."

Mike's eyes looked into his, betrayed and guarded – an expression that Harvey had never seen directed at him, and he couldn't deny the squeeze his heart gave when he saw it. He never wanted Mike to look at him like that again. "I told you I don't have a degree." He picked up the papers and threw them at him. "Couldn't you just be mad at me? You had to come here and throw it in my face too?" He didn't miss the irony of what he said, too angry to have thought of a better thing to say in that situation.

"You did tell me, Mike. And I'm hiring you anyway." Mike didn't reply, he only stared at him from where he now stood in front of the couch, hands fisted at his sides as if he could fight off whatever hurtful things Harvey had to say. "It'll be our little secret."

Mike sneered, unable to make eye contact; painful memories flooded him, ones that he didn't realize he'd forgotten. Maybe what he'd done hadn't been so bad after all... "I've been your dirty little secret before, Harvey. I'm not doing it again."

"Mike, this has nothing to do with anything that happened before. This is me giving you a shot at your dream now."

He shook his head, looking anywhere but at the man in front of him. "You always did love having a plaything." He thought bitterly, lips curling at the taste of the words.

Harvey felt sick. "You know I never used you, Mike." It came out harsher than he'd expected, and immediately he regretted the words. The man slumped back down onto the couch, elbows resting in his knees, and face buried into his hands. Sighing, Harvey moved to collect the separated papers and put them back down between them. "Come work for me."

Teary eyed, Mike took the pen out of the man's hand and signed the bottom, not bothering to read the contract. Yeah, he was going to make a great lawyer. Harvey didn't seem to mind though. He tucked the pen back into his jacket and put the papers neatly into a manila envelope. He seemed satisfied enough.

"Now tell me about that bruise."

SUITS

They'd fought over Trevor for hours that night – or it seemed like hours anyway. Harvey had still managed to escape out of the apartment before the drug dealer could return home. Apparently, he and Mike had been living together for quite some time now. Almost as long as Harvey and Mike's discommunication period. He tried not to dwell on that though. He also tried not to dwell on the relationship that they might be in. He wasn't exactly sure what their relationship was. It just hadn't come up. Mike had said something saying that there were feelings involved, and if his memory served, he had only seen one bedroom in the place, but Mike had never actually stated whether or not they were together or not. Not that Harvey cared.

He'd expected things to be more tense with Donna that morning, but she seemed perfectly at ease. Either she was hiding her anger at the situation of the new (illegal) employee, or if she was perfectly unperturbed by it and completely trusting and loyal to her boss. Honestly, he didn't know which he preferred.

"Where's the new pup?" She asked pleasantly, handing him his messages.

"Don't call him that."

"Why not? Aren't you going to teach him the ways of lawyering?"

"Get a dictionary."

She rolled her eyes. "You can't be serious. You wouldn't have brought him in here if you weren't going to mentor him."

"I'll do whatever I damn well like." He retorted, choosing to focus his vision on the papers on his desk rather than the fiery redhead in front of him.

"I'm here." A new voice came from the doorway. "Hi, Donna" It said.

Harvey looked up, looking over Mike with accusing eyes. "Nice suit." He muttered sarcastically.

Donna left the room, not replying to Mike, only giving him a blank stare as she walked.

"What's wrong with it?" He checked himself over; he remembered to wear pants, so it couldn't have been that...

"It looks like you bought it for fifty bucks."

"I spent $500 on these things!"

Harvey's eyes widened. On what? "How many did you buy?"

"Five!"

Harvey was anything but amused – quite unlike the highly amused glances he was receiving from his secretary.

"Get some better ones." He commanded, handing a stack of papers across the desk. "Do you know where you're going?"

"Rachel showed me."

Rachel... Was that the paralegal? It must have been, who else would give the kid the tour? "Great, get to work."

Mike didn't move from where he stood, and Harvey didn't acknowledge him further. A minute passed in ignored silence. "That's it?"

Harvey looked up, unsure of what he was expected to do next. "What would you like, Michael?" His jaw flexed reflexively, the anger from last night threatening to bubble beneath the surface.

"Nothing, you're right. You were always an asshole." His steps toward the door were stopped when the voice behind him gave him no option of leaving. Harvey was pissed, and one did not walk away from angry Harvey.

"I have every right to be an asshole." He ground out. "You're the screw up here, not me, and if you're smart enough to be a lawyer maybe you're smart enough to get that through your thick skull. I gave you this job as a favor. I don't have to be nice about it."

The papers were suddenly dropped back down on his desk. Harvey was standing with his palms on the table, a sort of standoff between the men seemed to be taking place, and Donna was berating herself for not having made popcorn for this morning's show.

"Then never mind then. I won't burden you. I quit." Before he left, he turned around at the door. "I can't think of a single reason as to why you would have given me this job. For a second there, I thought it was because you wanted to make amends, I don't know, reconnect or something. Clearly to busy being the same hot head as ever, with your head up your ass."

Harvey was fuming. He walked into the middle of the room, finger pointed accusingly at the almost-associate. "I gave you the job because I worked hard on you in the past, and I wanted to put it to good use. I like your work; you're a pretty smart kid when you want to be. But I don't have to like you."

Even Donna was shocked by the admission. Mike was gone before Harvey could take it back. Not that he would. Not that he cared.