Brother from another mother

Harvey as a dad. [Part-7]

Of course, after they had finished their rounds, Mike having managed to not melt into a puddle of goo, the three of them piled into the town car and headed back to Harvey's condo. Mike came up to the room without really being asked, even though he felt slightly like an intruder in the home. The three of them climbed out of the elevator and then Hunter looked back to both of them.

"I'm going to my room and listening to music with my headphones on." And then he gave them a thumbs up, with a look that was a mix between pained and awkward.

Mike watched Hunter's retreating back and couldn't quite stifle the awkward, pained, confused laugh that bubbled up. "Beer?" Mike asked, because like hell he was having this conversation completely sober.

"Whiskey," Harvey corrected him. A moment later, Harvey retreated to the kitchen, picked up a pair of glasses and a bowl of ice before retreating down the hallway in the direction of his room.

Mike followed, eventually ending up on the balcony outside of Harvey's bedroom. Mike collapsed onto the nearest chair, surprised when Harvey uncapped the bottle and poured them both a rather generous helping of booze. Neither of them spoke as they picked up the glasses, Mike tilted the glass from side to side for a moment before he caught Harvey holding his own glass at an awkward angle, tilted towards Mike. Mike clinked their glasses before they both took a sip, lounging back in their chairs.

Harvey didn't break the silence.

"You totally jumped me." Mike thought it was best to get that out of the way.

"Astounding summary of the facts in evidence."

Mike snorted. "Look, Harvey..." He swung his legs up so he could sit, see Harvey where he was sprawled. Everything about the man radiated tension. "Can we do this with no bullshit? I don't need your typical squish me like a bug response to everything not-quite-right I say."

"Yes." Harvey also sat up, looking across the small divide at Mike. "I kissed you."

"You... like me." Mike tried that, eyes glancing toward Harvey, speculative.

"Prom's not until next month, Mike."

Mike set his glass down on the table and stood, headed to the door. He wasn't going to put up with this bullshit. Harvey's fingers were curled around his wrist before he could get to the door.

"I... sorry."

He sat back down. "Real answer?" Mike prompted.

"Yes, Mike. I like you. I have for a while."

Mike glanced down at his hands before filling them with the glass again, looking across the space between them again. "That's pretty vague, Harvey. Pre-Hunter? Post?"

"Pre." Harvey took a long drink of whiskey before he put it back down. "I never expected anything... but you weren't wrong, your mind wasn't the only thing I noticed the day we met."

The idea was mind boggling. Mike spent a moment to taking it in. He never really considered himself apt at reading interest from another person, but he never thought he was quite that bad as to miss an interest that had been possibly directed at him for months. Either that or Harvey was amazing at keeping that close to the chest. "Damn."

Harvey arched an eyebrow at him.

"We could have been dating for months." Mike looked down at his glass and took a sip. "Alright... It's not simple, though, is it? I mean there's work, Jessica, and there's Hunter. I was pretty put-upon when you dumped your kid on me, weeks ago, but I can't..." Mike trailed off again. "If we fuck this up it could hurt him, badly. It would be just like a divorce."

Mike waited, breath caught in his chest, for Harvey to say something. He didn't. Instead he stood, glass dangling at his side as he walked out to the edge of the balcony and set his glass there, looking out over the city. Harvey at his most introspective and pensive was not something he was used to. He knew Harvey must have his moments, but they always seemed to be where Mike couldn't see. After a few long minutes, Mike finally got up and went over to Harvey, placing a hand on his back before reaching up to pull the jacket off of Harvey. He let himself have the jacket peeled away, and Mike slung it over the nearest chair.

"You'd get him in the divorce anyway," Harvey said.

It had been minutes since Mike had last spoken, he barely caught what Harvey was even talking about. "You're his dad, he's almost fond of you now."

"He's fond of you. He's a good kid, even if his affection for you is unfathomable."

Mike pressed up against Harvey's side, shoulder to shoulder. "I'm irresistible to Specters. They just want to..."

Harvey spun him, pulled him close. The two of them were pressed back against each other, all the way down.

"I... object to being manhandled like a 40s era starlet."

So Harvey leaned in and brushed his lips against Mike's, soft in a way their kiss in the hallway hadn't been. If their first kiss had been the one that fucked you hard against the wall, this one was the one that took you to dinner and held the door, gentle, tender, and slightly awkward. If you'd have asked him yesterday, Mike would have said that Harvey didn't have this in him. But Harvey picked up his glass in one hand, and kept another gently against Mike's jaw, barely directing him as they walked back to the chairs, lips still pressed together.

Mike eased Harvey down onto one of the lounge chairs, and then followed after him, legs straddling Harvey's hips. Mike took advantage of the position to press his lips against the skin of Harvey's throat.

"Mike." Harvey stopped him, and Mike leaned back on his haunches, looking down at Harvey. He looked... cool, and calm, and completely in control, which made Mike feel a bit like an over-eager kid. "You really want... this?"

"You're going to have to be less vague than that, Harvey." Mike frowned over him.

"You're my Associate, you're my kid's co-parent, you really want to be my... partner?" Harvey sounds, if anything, skeptical, as though being Harvey's partner was some amazing burden that Harvey couldn't imagine anyone taking on willingly.

"You're already my Partner, Harvey," Mike answered, just to tweak the man's nose. He couldn't go anywhere, anyway. But he knew what Harvey was actually asking, and he knew his own answer on that front. Here in the chilly night air wasn't really the place for deep, important and meaningful confessions and yet... "It's just like everything else we've ever had."

Harvey prompted him to continue with a single arched eyebrow.

"You have everything I want and I keep wondering why you share it with me." Mike wouldn't have been able to give a kid the life that Harvey had effortlessly given Hunter; Mike hadn't earned his law degree or a bachelors; Mike wasn't rich, didn't have a easy and comfortable life - even with his current salary he never moved out of his ratty little apartment in Williamsburg for fear that Jessica would eventually pull the plug on his career.

"Do you know what Jessica said to me the night she took you to dinner? Before she pulled the rug out from under me." Mike shook his head, he honestly had no idea what went on inside the funny little heads of anyone above him at Pearson Hardman, mostly he got a look into Harvey's because the man was so transparent sometimes. "She said you might even be the best of her and me, the drive, the desire to win, and the..."

"Human touch?" Mike prompted.

"That." Harvey placed a hand warm on Mike's thigh. "You're going to beat me someday."

"Jessica said I beat you the day we met." That Mike remembered; he'd been shocked she'd put it that way, but it wasn't hard to see that now. "Fine. I want it all. You, Hunter, the job, the condo, the PTA, the clients, the suits... everything. And just like everything else I've gotten so far, I'm going to keep it, and I'm not going to be the worst step-dad in the history of everything either."