Work Text:
Harvey normally loves these networking events the firm throws once a month. There’s always someone intelligent enough to keep him engaged, plenty of expensive alcohol and exquisite food, and if he’s really lucky, he does get a lead on more business to lead into the firm. This is a stage he’s good at, excels at even, but all his effort and skill doesn’t matter a damn bit toward making partner because of one persistent issue that Harvey does fail to comply with.
“You do know that hiding at the bar and drowning your sorrows isn’t adorable even when you pout at me so skillfully,” Jessica says, resting one hand on his shoulder as she signals the bartender and orders a drink.
Her posture and touch are deceptively companionable towards him, but Harvey has known her too long to misunderstand. He is her protégé, sponsored by her personally into the firm, and his rejection of what she considers a reasonable societal requirement irks her endlessly. She squeezes his shoulder lightly as she accepts her drink, just enough bite from her nails to make him meet her gaze.
“We all have to accept the inevitable, Harvey. You aren’t special, and if you want to make senior partner, you aren’t going to do it by being defiant.” The smile she gives him isn’t reassuring at all, and most of her usual warmth and amusement toward him has been lost in the frustration of recent weeks. “In fact, I know you don’t pay attention to him at all because you don’t consider him your equal, Louis became eligible for senior partner just this afternoon.”
As she walks away, his gaze lingers on her, baffled that she expects him to be grateful he’s being pressured into a marriage he wants no part of. She blends into the room the same way he does, as in not at all, her expensive clothing custom made to her form, taller than most of the men in the room. The parting shot about Louis was calculated, as most things she does are. He plays up the rivalry between them more than he ought to because it amuses Jessica. The decade plus of one upmanship keeps them both on their toes, and he knows Louis is the only junior partner whose billables actually exceed his.
It hits him then what Jessica had just said. “How in the hell did Louis find someone to marry him?” he asks the empty air in front of him.
“Matchmaking service, if you mean the blustery guy that slipped me a fifty to make sure the glasses he's carrying around are mocktails instead of cocktails. Think someone called him Louis.”
Harvey turns his head to stare at the bartender, who flashes him a lopsided smile as he slides another drink in front of him. The bartender is young and handsome on the pretty end of the spectrum.
“Not sure gossiping about the firm’s partners will get you work at the next event,” he says automatically.
The bartender just shrugs, filling two glasses of wine and having them ready on the bar for a senior partner’s wife as she walks up. The quick service gains him another fifty, and the kid has the balls to smirk at Harvey as he tucks the tip into a box behind the bar.
“Matchmaking services are a ripoff. They can’t actually judge real compatibility from multiple choice tests, no matter how many psychologists study them.” Harvey glares at his drink as if it’s the culprit behind all his problems.
“You won’t get any argument from me.” The kid drifts down to Harvey’s end of the bar again. “But for some people, they do work. Could be a placebo effect or just sheer stubbornness. Either way, those matchmaker marriages are only for a year. Then you’ve met the letter of the law and they can’t make you get married again, right?”
Sometimes, as smart as he is, Harvey can completely miss the loophole right in front of him. Jessica has been divorced for a decade now, and not one person has ever asked her about remarrying. Harvey finishes his drink, grins at the kid, and slides another fifty his way before ambling off to socialize. He’ll find a solution to this particular roadblock tomorrow. No way he lets Louis leapfrog ahead of him with something as simple as a matchmaking service.
It isn’t that simple, dammit.
Oh, it starts off that way. Donna gleans the name of the service Louis used, rolls her eyes at it, and contacts an alternative instead. After an hour of clicking on options on a link she emails to him, he goes about the rest of his day figuring the problem is solved. He’ll just take the first match they offer, if he thinks he could live with them for a year. His apartment has two bedrooms, so it’s not like they really have to even see each other, right?
“I booked a meeting room at the Chilton Hotel for you to meet and sort through your matches,” Donna announces, flourishing a stack of discrete manila folders that could pass for any other office file. “I cleared your schedule for tomorrow since nothing was urgent.”
Harvey doesn’t bother to refrain from groaning. “Can you just pick one out? You’ll have to put up with them as much as I do.”
He really shouldn’t be surprised when he’s smacked with the stack of folders. “No, Harvey, I will not pick out your future wife for you. This isn’t arranging your dinner or sending a suit out to the dry cleaners level of personal assistance.”
“Will you at least come along so I’ve got a second opinion? Kick out any ones that are obviously wrong?”
“You act like you don’t know me at all, Harvey.”
Donna stacks the folders in front of him and struts off to her desk, and for half a second, he considers the easiest solution would be to just marry Donna, before he comes to his senses. Aside from losing the best damn legal secretary in the entire firm since they can’t work directly together while married, Donna has a widow’s exemption. She and her fiancé never made it to the altar, not with his death in a hit and run before she and Harvey met, but Harvey knows it was a love match. As much as Harvey discards the idea of marrying for love for himself, he’s not so crass that he’d ever expect Donna to settle for anything less than the same thing.
He’s honestly not sure they’d find his body if he did propose such an idea to Donna.
Things don’t get any better once they start meeting his potential matches. On paper, they’re all good matches, he supposes. Educated, with careers of their own, but most considerably younger than Harvey because he forgot to check the damn box limiting matches to those in the thirty-to-forty range. He surmises that most women who use matchmaking services must do it well before thirty-five, because he only has two matches over thirty.
He can’t begin to imagine anything he’d have in common with a twenty-three year old, college educated or not. It’s surprising that Donna didn’t weed those out for him just on principle, but when he waves her inside the secondary office, she’s smirking at him.
“How many of them will have me saying to hell with it and moving to Europe by day three?” he asks.
Maybe he should consider it more seriously. Most European countries got rid of marriage requirements years ago. He speaks fluent Italian and French, so he’s got a wealth of options. Hell, Scottie relocated to London for exactly that reason, with no intention of ever moving back. Throwing out more than a decade of work at the firm rankles him too much to just walk away, though, so he eyes Donna warily.
She shrugs, settling into the chair across from his desk and studying him. “All of them, considering you just clicked on things at random on those surveys.”
Harvey should have known Donna guessed he didn’t take the damn things seriously. “Why did you even set the service up?”
“Because you needed a wake up call, Harvey. This is getting serious, and you need to stop blowing it off because you’ve got hangups about your parents.”
Stiffening, Harvey pushes away from the desk and strides over to the window, keeping his back to Donna. There are three people on the planet he allows to comment on the disaster his parents’ marriage turned into. Fortunately for her, Donna is one of them.
“Even if it’s only for a year, you still have to share space with them, and I know you well enough by now to know it’ll be a nightmare if you don’t have some measure of respect for whoever it is.”
“They’re all so damn delicate,” he mutters. The type of woman he’s attracted to really isn’t the type to use a matching service, he knows.
Donna laughs softly. When Harvey turns to look at her, she’s lost the exasperated look in favor of one far kinder. “Have you considered matching with a man instead?”
It’s not that Harvey is opposed to the idea. Donna knows he dated men as often as women before cultivating the ladies’ man persona when he came to Pearson Hardman. Perhaps it might be easier to find someone as mercenary as himself if he considered men and women both. Or if he filled out the paperwork with serious intent, he has to concede.
“Fine. Send the rest of them away while I redo the damn signup,” he mutters.
“Easily done. Except you can skip the extra paperwork.” Donna drops five folders on his desk before strolling out to the waiting area to dismiss the women waiting.
When Harvey opens the first one, he laughs. For all her stonewalling to make him do the work himself, Donna has still gone ahead and fixed him right up. She just couldn’t resist teaching him a lesson first.
Four interviews in, and Harvey has met with three men and one woman, and he’s going to owe Donna something very expensive for having more common sense about this than him. The fifth is late, possibly a no show, since he was supposed to be the first afternoon appointment. Harvey steps over to lean against the door frame and chats with Donna about maybe just calling it a day. None of the four really scream a solid yes, but they weren’t instant nays like this morning’s candidates.
“Mike Ross. I’m so sorry. I was on my way here when they called from my grandmother’s nursing home…”
The new arrival stops speaking when Harvey turns to look at him, and Harvey realizes he knows the man. Mike came across as suave and competent in the uniform the catering company used for their staff, but today he just looks sheepish and a little awkward in a suit that’s seen far better days. Despite his initial knee jerk reaction against anyone running late for something this important, Harvey can’t help but respond to the apologetic smile with a reassuring one of his own.
“And you couldn’t call to let us know because your phone was abducted by aliens?” Donna asks. Harvey catches Donna’s speculative look even as she swings into gatekeeper mode, but ignores it for now. She’ll needle Harvey plenty later.
Mike flushes and squirms, as susceptible to Donna’s chastisements as every other man Harvey’s seen her lecture. He reaches into his pocket and shows an ancient phone with a completely shattered screen. “Um, well, it wasn’t aliens, but screen versus tile floor.”
“How is your grandmother?” Harvey asks, dismissing the lateness for now. Donna hadn’t included photos in the folders, but he recalls one specifically said he was looking for a match dealing with elder care expenses.
He’s rewarded for the question with a bright and charming smile.
“She’s doing okay. They did have to transport her to the hospital for some tests and an overnight visit, but she told me she didn’t want me there hovering over her.”
“Does she know about the matchmaker service?”
“No, not yet.” Mike shifts his weight uneasily, tucking his hands into his pockets and letting his shoulders slump like he’s trying to look smaller than he is. “Look, honestly, things are changing due to this trip to the hospital for her, so what I put in the file isn’t really the situation anymore. I just didn’t want to not show up at all.”
Everyone else Harvey met with was looking to further their education or careers. Mike was the sole candidate who requested something for someone other than himself, so he waves Mike into the inner office and retrieves the file to scan through.
“What’s the monthly cost where your grandmother is now?” he asks, thinking the number looks extremely low compared to work he’s done for wealthy clients with elderly parents or grandparents.
Mike sighs deeply as he tells Harvey the figure. “Medicaid covers most of where she is now, but they’re overworked and understaffed. They told me today that she needs to be somewhere with a higher level of care than they offer.”
“Medicaid should still cover a higher level of care.”
“For a semi-private room, yeah, and typically the nicer facilities don’t have Medicaid openings.” Mike sits down when Harvey waves him to the chair and takes a seat in the other chair opposite the desk he’d used for interviewing. “I found a place a while back that will let me pay the difference and take her, but even working three jobs, it’s barely doable.”
No wonder Mike looks so damn tired when he’s not trying to hide it. According to the file, even now, he’s only asking that his spouse allow him to share living expenses, not help with his grandmother’s. Harvey’s pretty sure that even half of his mortgage is more than Mike spends on everything in a month, not just rent. Technically, they’re a pretty severe mismatch financially, and he’s surprised the system managed it at all. Donna didn’t exclude Mike for a reason, and Harvey figures it’s the grandmother aspect.
Harvey got where he is thanks to luck bending his way with that mail room job while he was working his way through NYU’s undergrad. He can almost hear Donna’s thoughts as she swivels in her chair and stares at him. Pay it forward, Harvey.
“It seems we have a situation we can mutually benefit from,” Harvey says, smiling when Mike startles at the acceptance he obviously didn’t expect. “I’ll have Donna draw up a contract and send it to the matchmaking service. If it’s acceptable, once you’ve signed off, we can get the technicalities taken care of.”
Harvey stands and offers his hand to Mike, who eases to his feet looking both astounded and relieved, and it makes Harvey a little uneasy that Mike asks no questions at all. He doesn’t like the desperation level that means for the younger man. Donna waits for Mike to leave before she comes and surprises Harvey with a hug. It’s rare for her to cross that invisible line between them, even though Harvey considers her the closest thing he has to a friend most days. His drive and ambition have only ever benefited Donna, so she’s not ducked out the way most others have.
“Set up a trust for his grandmother, Donna, for some place that isn’t just bare minimum.”
“Before or after he signs?”
The fond look it earns him when he confirms for her to arrange the trust whether Mike signs or not smooths over even more of his discomfort over having to do this farce at all.
It takes Mike three days to sign off on the contract, and just like that, Harvey is married. They could do something formal, and he debates doing it, but in the end, he tells Jessica he’s danced all he’ll dance. She doesn’t object, so Harvey gets back to what Jessica truly cares about - making money for the firm. He didn’t get to be the best closer in the city by being lazy.
The first time Harvey sees Mike again is ten days after their first meeting when Harvey steps into his penthouse, which smells absolutely delicious. When he rounds the corner to see the kitchen, Mike looks a bit wide-eyed as he freezes and turns from where he’s standing at the stovetop.
“There were keys and everything delivered,” Mike says. “It said I was supposed to move in here by today?”
“Technically, moving in was optional. Your rent did get paid for the year, I hope.” Harvey pauses near the kitchen island and sniffs appreciatively. “You cook?”
“Not extensively, but Grammy taught me a few meals. She insisted I do this one for you tonight, although I told her I didn’t know what your schedule might be like.” Mike turns back to the stovetop and stirs with intense focus before frowning and turning the burner off. “Or even what you like to eat. Just look at this place? It can’t be the kind of food my grandmother makes. She swears everyone likes her rosemary chicken, but you don’t have to…”
“Mike.” Harvey interrupts the ramble, smiling as reassuring as he can manage. “It’s fine. All this? I didn’t start out in a penthouse. If that tastes even half as good as it smells, it’s better than the pizza I was going to order tonight.”
“I felt like it was the least I could do. The place you found for Grammy is amazing, Harvey. She loves it there, and the trust fund…” Mike swallows hard, obviously battling emotion. “It’s far beyond any benefit being married to me for a year could get you.”
“I’m glad your grandmother enjoys the place. Just send Donna flowers if you like, because she’s the one who did all the legwork to find it. She tells everyone her favorite flower is roses, but really it’s dahlias, so if you send her those, you’ll be in her good books for months.”
“I’ll do that, but Harvey? You put three million dollars into a trust fund for my grandmother!”
Years of the sort of law he practices and bonuses Harvey makes have made him a little immune to large sums of money. He knows the trust fund didn’t put a significant dent in his finances, but to Mike and his grandmother, it’s life altering. Donna handled everything, and he’ll let her take all the credit even though he doubled the amount she suggested. Edith Ross may be old enough that a ten year fund should cover all her expenses, but now she’s set for twenty, in a good facility with not just a room, but her own apartment.
“Getting married put me first in line to make senior partner at my firm, Mike,” he explains. “I’ll make back the trust fund money by the end of the year easily.”
Dinner is as delightful as the scent led Harvey to believe it would be. Getting Mike to settle down and not look like Harvey is a heartbeat away from having him tossed out on the pavement intrigues Harvey more than it ought to. Mike is charming in his own right, once he loses the initial nervousness of being in Harvey’s personal space, and in other circumstances, Harvey would probably have seduction in mind. Muddying the waters doesn’t seem advisable, so he keeps the idea at bay. By the time they part ways to sleep, he thinks the next year might not be hard to endure at all.
He’s wrong about that, of course, but not for the reasons he expected before he met Mike. The idea of someone constantly in his personal space, always expected to show up to work social events, and generally just the idea of being married in general after his mother’s repeated cheating on his father were all abhorrent to Harvey.
But Mike is unobtrusive, his hours initially not aligning with Harvey’s since out of his three jobs, he kept the bartending one, although he shifted to a high end establishment rather than moonlighting with the caterer to avoid overlapping with Harvey. When they do cross paths in the apartment, usually for a shared meal from Mike’s growing list of “Grammy taught me this recipe”, it’s comfortable and relaxing. Donna coordinates with Mike for any of Harvey’s work events that require a spouse’s presence, and Mike shows up dressed to the nines thanks to Harvey’s own tailor. Harvey even makes a point of meeting Edith, and their mutual admiration society is as avid as the one Mike and Donna develop.
It doesn’t take Harvey long to realize that Mike is extremely intelligent, genius level, enough that if they weren’t married, Harvey would be figuring out how to recruit him for the firm. He wonders just how much money would be needed to grease the wheels so that Mike could overcome the stigma of his expulsion and at least finish his degree. Law school would be trickier with the ethics violation, but there’s an argument to be had for youthful mistakes to support an ailing family member. Maybe not Harvard or another Ivy League, but despite his pride in his alma mater, Harvey’s met plenty of lawyers who went to state schools and still give him a run for his money.
He makes a few phone calls, and the answers he receives are promising. Broaching the subject with Mike is put on the backburner due to an intense merger negotiation that sends Harvey out of the country for nearly an entire month. Tired and jetlagged from flying from Hong Kong to New York, Harvey’s grateful to have a regular driver who is kind enough to let him sleep during the drive from the airport to his apartment building.
The schedule Donna meticulously keeps has Mike listed as working tonight, and Harvey pushes away the twinge of disappointment. They’ve kept in touch while Harvey was abroad, limited by the timezone differences and their work hours, but that’s only served to remind Harvey of the growing need he has to keep Mike in his life. Donna calls it sweetly possessive, the way Harvey clings to anyone he considers his, like her or Ray or even Jessica. She’s right, and he’d never admit it openly, but even Louis falls under that umbrella, because Harvey benefits from the intense rivalry they’ve cultivated.
To his surprise, Mike is asleep on the couch, paperwork scattered across the coffee table. He looks younger than twenty-seven when he’s asleep, and Harvey feels a surge of desire curl through him that he pushes firmly away. He was firm in the contract that sex wasn’t part of their agreement, and he doesn’t want to lose Mike in the end. Despite sleeping with Donna a few times back in the early days of working together when she wasn’t his assistant yet, they’ve pulled off an amazing partnership. Miracles like that don’t happen twice.
Curious about the paperwork, Harvey goes to scan the top pages, freezing when he sees it’s admissions paperwork for NYU. With the emphasis on his attendance at Harvard for law school, it’s easy to forget he did his undergrad at NYU. Alumni of his stature can pull a string or two, he’s found, and apparently the dean took his inquiries into Mike’s situation seriously.
“Harvey?”
Mike’s sleepy voice startles him, and he turns. The confused blinking that morphs into Mike’s welcoming smile makes the ember of desire fan into something more substantial. Harvey finds himself returning the smile, taking a seat next to Mike on the couch after he sits up and pats the cushion. Mike smells like the woodsy cologne he always wears when he works, but it’s too fresh for him to have managed a shift.
“You didn’t go to work tonight?”
“I was headed that way, but then a packet arrived with a lot of very surprising paperwork. Apparently, I’m set to finish out my last semester of college starting next month, and all my credits transferred. It’s also paid for, and there’s an invitation to apply to their law school.”
“The Dean moves fast.” Harvey’s actually a little impressed, because finishing out the undergrad degree isn’t that hard for the college to arrange, but the law school invitation so soon is unexpected. They must have contacted Donna while he was in Hong Kong, to have confirmed payment of the tuition. “You do have a perfect LSAT score, though. Can’t imagine they’d ignore that or your GPA before the mishap that got you expelled.”
Mike’s gaze on him is no longer drowsy and fond, but as intent as if Harvey’s about to face him in court. “Why are you doing all this for me, Harvey? All I asked was help with living expenses, and I know you’ve said you made senior partner because we got married, but this is far beyond what showing up whenever you need a spouse at work events is worth.”
“I take care of my own.”
Perhaps their contract is only for a year, and Mike still has his own apartment and separate life that Harvey interrupted for his own benefit, but Harvey absolutely doesn’t want to lose either Mike or Edith in six months when their marriage ends. Donna is right that Harvey is possessive, and both Rosses are Harvey’s now, so long as he doesn’t somehow send Mike running for the hills. Being generous with his money and influence is easy enough to gain the sense of family that curls around the edges of Harvey’s senses nowadays.
Being kissed was not the response Harvey expected, and the few times he’s allowed himself to consider it, he always thought he’d initiate it and take the lead. Instead, Mike presses him back against the couch, long fingers framing Harvey’s jawline and claiming a kiss that isn’t chaste in the least. When Harvey responds, reaching up to grip the back of Mike’s neck to encourage him, he’s damn near sure Mike is trying to devour him.
Despite having acknowledged that he’s attracted to Mike, Harvey is astonished to feel himself react as quickly as a teenager to the kiss. He ought to put a halt to it, recalling his own reasons for not crossing this line, but Mike’s lips are on his throat and all Harvey can do is tilt his head back and just allow himself to feel. They can still be friends after this. Harvey will make sure of it.
Harvey hasn’t had a partner take the lead and take care of him in years, and this is bliss he can’t deny. If he were less exhausted and thinking clearly, he might be embarrassed by how easily he melts under Mike’s touch. Instead, he focuses on how good Mike’s hands feel on his overheated skin, and how easily Mike manipulates Harvey beneath him, easing Harvey’s left leg over his shoulder so he can bring them together. It might have been more than a decade since Harvey slept with another man, but his body remembers easily how to yield and accept.
Climax comes with an epiphany Harvey isn’t sure he’s ready for, a veritable flood of intense emotion.
He’s in love with his husband.
Mike leaves the bed to retrieve a damp washcloth from the bathroom, carefully cleaning Harvey’s skin before lying down at his side and idly running his fingers across Harvey’s chest. When he presses a gentle kiss at the base of Harvey’s jaw, just under his ear, Harvey allows himself to grasp that this might not be one-sided.
“You’re thinking too damn hard for a man who just had really good sex,” Mike says, propping himself on his elbow. He looks curious, not offended, and even better, he doesn’t stop tracing paths on Harvey’s chest. “What’s going on in that tricky mind of yours?”
“Marry me.”
That gets him an arched brow and a laugh, but Mike also looks concerned. “We’re already married, Harvey. Pretty sure you don’t have to propose again.”
“I don’t recall a proposal at all,” Harvey says, and for some reason, that makes the amusement flee Mike’s expression. Impulsively, Harvey drags him down for a lingering kiss that almost distracts him from his purpose. When they part, he keeps a hand cupped against Mike’s face. “It was a cold, clinical contract, Mike. A year and done, no further strings. I want you to marry me without an expiration date stamped on it.”
Mike frowns, and Harvey has a split second of panic that Mike is going to say no, but instead, Mike drops his forehead to Harvey’s shoulder and starts laughing.
“What is so damn funny?” Harvey demands.
“Proposing while naked in bed is so cliche, Harvey. You’ve been watching soap operas with Grammy, haven’t you?”
Harvey has, not that he wants to admit it right now. He likes mocking the storylines with Edith, who suggests plenty of outlandish alternatives. Since he doesn’t usually visit with Mike, he actually wasn’t sure Mike knew what they did when Harvey drops by every Sunday evening while Mike’s working to make sure Edith is set for the week.
“Is that a no?” Dammit, he sounds like he’s pouting.
Mike leans in for a teasing kiss before smiling impishly at Harvey. “It’s propose properly if you want a yes.”
They don’t settle down to sleep, because the implied yes gives Harvey ideas on how to celebrate. When they’re exhausted and tangled together, with Mike spooning Harvey and pressing affectionate kisses to the back of his neck, Harvey takes a chance.
“I think I’m in love with you.”
“That’s usually a good thing between spouses, Harvey. Try not to sound so tragic.”
Harvey considers if he can get a good smack in on Mike’s bare ass at this angle and decides to wait for another time. “Not sure I love the sass.”
“Yes, you do.” Mike links his fingers into Harvey’s and settles both their hands over Harvey’s heart. “I love you, too.”
Harvey does propose properly, but not over an expensive dinner. Instead, it’s after pot roast at Edith’s, with her and Donna as an audience, and Mike accepts with a look that promises Harvey all the world for including his grandmother. Their wedding is equally simple, just the four of them at city hall, because Harvey may have married Mike the first time for his career’s sake, but Jessica and the firm get no part in making the marriage a reality.
For the first time since Harvey’s father died, he feels like he has a family again, and while he’s not exactly grateful for the antiquated marriage requirement, he does know just how damn lucky he is at how it all worked out. He’ll just spend the rest of their lives making sure all three of his loved ones know he’s grateful for them instead.