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1.
The first time- well, actually the second time, but if Harvey is counting Mike’s tragic attempt at being a drug dealer then Mike will never hear the end of it. So, the first time Harvey witnesses him do something mildly illegal that the average person won’t do, they are working on a case.
It’s not going amazingly, the opposition doesn’t have much to stand on, but neither do they unless they can get a witness. The problem is, they’ve just been denied entry to the man’s workplace and they don’t know where he lives.
They’re standing next to the fence that is separating them from the airport and Harvey would be sulking if that’s something he did. H e gets pulled out of his thoughts by Mike, who asks: “Are you attached to this suit.”
Harvey looks down to his suit, it’s pinstriped and one of Rene’s masterpieces. He could live without, but he’d rather not. “Why?” he replies.
“No, not your suit, my suit,” Mike clarifies, while still being very confusing.
“Why?” Harvey repeats.
“Well, if this is one of the few suits you can stand then I’ll ask you to turn around, so you won’t see what I’m about to do to it,” Mike explains, though it doesn’t exactly assure Harvey.
“What are you planning, Mike?” he asks in a warning tone.
“I’m getting us a witness,” he grins, shaking out of his suit jacket and throwing it over the barbed wire on top of the fence, as if to cushion it.
Harvey begins to put together what he’s doing and hisses: “You can’t do that Mike. They will sue you for trespassing at best, breaking and entering if they’re smart. .”
“And then we sue them for intimidating witnesses,” Mike shrugs. “Come on, we got a good offer to make this guy. I’m okay if he says no, but he should at least hear it.”
“I can’t believe I’m allowing this,” Harvey mutters, which makes Mike grin, because it’s as much permission as he’s going to get. “If you break your leg, I’m leaving you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Harvey,” Mike rolls his eyes, taking a small running start, before smoothly launching himself over the fence. He doesn’t even have to roll to break his fall, instead he makes a perfect landing, after which he turns around and grins smugly at Harvey.
“How did you…?” Harvey asks, stopping halfway through as he wonders if he wants to know.
“No street has to be a dead end,” Mike replies mysteriously, before telling him to watch his jacket until he gets back.
Moments later, he comes back with a grin, rolling up a piece of paper and handing it to Harvey through the fence. “He’s going to testify, even got it on paper this time. Throw me my jacket.”
Harvey does as he says: “Nice work, rookie,” and watches Mike effortlessly climb back over the fence. No one has seem them, no one will know. Except for Harvey, who is wondering what other tricks Mike has up his sleeve and what problem s he will have to solve that come from it.
Still, he can’t say he never toed the line and this will win them the case.
2.
The second time, the surprise of it all prevents Harvey from thinking about it too much in the moment. They’re walking down the street, eating a hotdog and talking about their latest case when Mike’s eyes grow wide.
“Mike?” Harvey questions and Mike whirls around, flashing him a tight grin that doesn’t reassure him one bit.
“Act inconspicuous,” he says, before he removes his suit jacket and tie, forcing them into Harvey’s hands as he pulls a cap out of his messenger bag. He sets the bag down quickly and untugs his shirt from his pants, unbuttoning it all the way.
Within less than ten seconds, Mike is a whole different person. He steps back a few times and pretends to study a display as he casually chews on his hotdog.
Harvey wants to ask what he’s doing, but Mike told him to be inconspicuous and while he doesn’t take orders from Mike, he also doesn’t want to ruin whatever it is Mike is doing. The fact that whatever he saw requires such a reaction worries him, so he’s not interfering.
Instead he leans against a pole and finishes his hotdog, while semi-hiding the clothes Mike pushed into his arms earlier. He also looks around, but can’t spot what Mike had seen.
Nothing on the street pops out to him
So, he stands there like an idiot for a moment, before the apparent threat passed and Mike turns back to him with a sheepish smile. He takes back his clothes and redoes his make over until he’s Mike again.
“You always carry a costume change with you?” Harvey asks, raised brow.
Mike shrugs: “Doesn’t hurt to be prepared.”
“Prepared for what?” Harvey says. “What did you even see?”
“More like who,” Mike tells him. “The guy that just passed, not exactly friendly. Definitely not after what Trevor and I did to him, even if I was in the background. Now suits or shabby clothes call attention, but upscale casual is glided over. He doesn’t really know my face, but a cap never hurts.”
“Am I not even going to ask what you did to that guy,” Harvey says, mildly worried about other aspects of Mike’s past coming to haunt him, though slightly reassured that Mike can handle himself if needed.
“I would plead the fifth anyway,” Mike grins cheekily, stuffing the last of his hotdog into his mouth, before heading back to the office.
3.
They say at three it’s a pattern and Harvey isn’t sure if he should be concerned as he watches his associate bullshit himself into a place he really shouldn’t be.
Currently, they’re working a pro-bono case, so naturally Mike has gotten way too attached to the client and her sob story. Yeah, so Harvey thinks she stole the money from the company, no big deal, he’s still going to try and get her out of this.
However, Mike believes her and has made it his mission to prove that to Harvey, so here they are at one of the locations of the company they’re being sued by. He claims the records will show something else is going on, but their subpoena to get those records has been denied.
The two heard that moments earlier, in the office above where they were meeting with the opposition about it. God, Harvey hates how smug that other lawyer is (and does not see the hypocrisy in that at all).
He wanted to get out and work on their game plan, but Mike had said: “Wait here for just a second, alright. We might not be able to submit them , but they will help,” before walking over to the front desk, disheveling his appearance in a similar way Harvey recognizes from the time on the street with the hotdog.
Sliding up to the desk, Mike grins sheepishly and greets the guard: “Hi, I’m so sorry to bother you, man. I’m a messenger and I left a package for another client upstairs, would you mind giving me a guest card or something?”
The guard raises a brow and looks over Mike’s suit. “You’re a messenger?” he repeats, sounding like he doesn’t buy it for a second.
Harvey wants to step in and haul Mike out of there, before he can do something stupid. H is whole shtick obviously isn’t working and they have no second to loose.
“Yeah, I know,” Mike rolls his eyes and changes his posture, no longer leaning in, but instead opening up like Harvey has seen construction workers do. When Mike speaks again his Brooklyn accent shines through a bit. “My boss said I had to look more professional if I wanted to get out of Bucktown.”
“You from Brooklyn?” the guard asks, delightedly surprised and suddenly more willing to talk to Mike.
Mike in turn grins like he’s equally pleasantly surprised, though Harvey remembered him noting the logo on the graduation picture on the man’s desk looking familiar when they walked in. Still, he plays it well. “Yeah, man, born and raised,” he says enthusiastically.
“Your boss really get mad at your for dressing normally? Whack,” the guard asks, changing back topics after Mike’s confirmation.
“He was being all like ‘you’re making this company look bad’ and this, that, and the third about it, yeah,” Mike tells him. “And I was standing there, like ‘you know we just deliver packages, right, man?’ I mean, come on, no one is that passionate about work.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” the guard nods. “What did you forget?”
“Documents for my next delivery, I have to go to Manhattan, big business sort,” Mike groans. “Not really looking forwards to my boss yelling at me about that and that’s if those fucking suits don’t rip me to pieces.”
“You’re aware you’re wearing a suit, son?” the guard grins.
Mike laughs. “You know what I mean. Can you help me out, man?”
The guard looks around and Harvey can’t believe what he’s seeing when the man doesn’t notice him and leans in as he hands Mike a card. “Don’t tell anyone, this will get you back in there. J ust make sure to be back in ten.”
“Fuck yeah, you’re a lifesaver,” Mike fist pumps and takes the card walking back to the elevator where Harvey is standing right out of view from the front desk.
“What were you thinking?” he hisses when Mike returns.
“Lying is only an offense if I’m impersonating a real person or a public official,” Mike informs him, unimpressed. “Look, I know we can’t submit it, but we can find the smoking gun and pressure whoever is hiding it.”
“And if there is no smoking gun?” Harvey points out, not forgetting that their client is likely guilty.
“Then we’d best have a backup plan,” Mike says with a smirk as he walks into the elevator.
A s Harvey watches him go, he wonders yet again what he’s going to do with his dumbass associate, but also how many times Mike talked himself into somewhere. With his history of taking tests for others, this must be a normal Tuesday for the kid.
Mike will never cease to surprise – and amaze, even if he’s not admitting that yet – him.
4.
He swears the fourth time that he’s going to say something about it, if it weren’t for the fact that he’s too shocked to do so. Something that does not happen often to Harvey Specter.
They need a man, Dean Jones, in to talk to someone, but the guy is slightly paranoid and isn’t willing to listen to stranger stopping him, especially not lawyers. Harvey doesn’t want to make a move on him until he has a way to force him to listen, because what they’re offering is better than he’s going to get otherwise.
So, here they are. Standing outside a man’s work. Waiting for him.
Mike suddenly says: “If he’s paranoid like you say, isn’t it stupid to show up at his work. What if he thinks we’re following him.”
“We were.”
“That’s not really helping, Harvey.”
“Well, then what do you suggest, Mike,” Harvey snaps. He knows this is stupid, but it’s a last ditch effort and the two of them know it.
“Let me try first, okay,” he requests. “You can swoop in if you think I’m blowing it.”
Harvey gives him a look and thinks it over. Mike can deliver, he knows that, especially when it requires people skills. However, he has no clue what the kid is going to try and Mike is also known to pull some stupid crazy shit. Then he sees Dean walk and groans: “Go try.”
“Fuck yeah,” Mike cheers, before walking to where Dean is.
For a second Harvey thinks Mike is just going to walk up and do what the two of them had already planned to do. Then, Mike brushes past Dean, bumping into him slightly. He watches as Mike grins victoriously to himself and procures a wallet in his hands.
It doesn’t compute for a second.
He usually doesn’t do shock.
But Mike usually doesn’t casually pickpocket a man in broad daylight, even if no one noticed. He wonders why he never knew Mike could do that, until he realizes that, of course Mike isn’t going to admit to being even more of a criminal.
Then Mike pretends to pick something up and frown in confusion. Harvey admits, he plays the part well as he checks the inside of the wallet, before looking around as if he’s searching.
When he ‘spots’ Dean, he hurries after him and gives him the wallet. Harvey has to strain, but he can hear Mike say: “I think you dropped this, sir.” He smiles innocently. “You at least look like the picture, maybe a bit younger.”
Dean smiles warmly at Mike and thanks him. The man is on the older side and has kids himself, Mike knows how to play into that.
Mike sheepishly rubs the back of his head, seeming younger than he is, before saying: “Dean Jones, that name sounds familiar. Aren’t you involved in that suit against Lemmin Inc.? Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to pry- I-” he stumbles, as if it was a slip, instead of deliberate.
In turn, Dean blanches and asks: “How do you know about that?”
“It’s been turning in the rumor mill all over the sector,” Mike bends the truth as easy as breathing. “I work up town, heard about it from a co-worker.” Harvey smirks at the half-truth. “I’m sorry about bringing it up. It’s not my business. My apologies. Have a good day, sir.”
“You as well,” Dean calls out distractedly as Mike walks off, giving Harvey a look that says follow and for once he listens.
Harvey had noticed Mike never flat out lied and never let Dean see his face. The kid is good at this and that should be more worrying, except Harvey can’t be mad when he says: “I think if you go up to him later, he’ll be more willing to listen.”
“Punk,” Harvey grins and ruffles Mike’s hair roughly, before walking off. They have a case to win.
5.
The fifth time Mike pulls out a street kid skill, they’re working a whistle blower case. The company they’re working for had an employee coming forwards to sue them for endangerment. He claims that they knew about faulty wiring and did nothing until one of the factories burned down.
Harvey wants to figure out what exactly it is that the man knows. So, they are tracking him down at his house in one of the worse parts of New York.
They’re going there on a Saturday, Mike told Harvey to dress casual as to not attract attention. For Harvey that means a suit, though no tie or vest, which is the opposite of what Mike was hoping for when he said that.
Mike himself is wearing some old jeans, a shirt and a flannel over it. When Harvey sees, he smirks and greets: “Hey there, hipster.”
In turn, Mike sends him a withering look and says: “Hello, person who can’t listen to simple instructions.”
“I feel like that’s my line,” Harvey shoots back and Mike rolls his eyes as he mutters: “And I feel like I’m going to regret today, but we can’t all be winners,” before starting to walk in the right direction.
Of course, he’s right in the end.
They’ve gotten the information they need and a semi-deal out of the man. They’re currently walking back when they are suddenly stopped by a three young men, all looking tough and circling them like they’re prey.
“Would you look at that,” one says, eyeing Harvey. “A fancy boy in his Sunday best. Bet you have a lot of money on you, don’t you.”
The one that talked is obviously the leader and the other two snicker at his words. Harvey sees Mike check on him, which should be laughable, except that Harvey hasn’t been in this situation in a long time, having moved to the better part of town over a decade ago.
Still, he feels like he has to take charge in this situation, but the only thing he can think to do is give in and roll over. Not very Harvey Specter of him, he knows, but they are outnumbered by guys, one with a gun, the other with knives.
“So, why don’t you hand over your wallets and watches and we both can go on with our day,” the leader tells them casually. “And your phones,” he adds.
Harvey is already reaching for his wallet, but stills at that command. His phone is very important, it is filled with numbers of important and powerful people. Having to explain why those numbers are suddenly in the hands of street thugs will not help in any way.
Naturally Mike picks up on his hesitation and immediately goes to nearly get himself killed.
It all happens in a blur.
One moment Harvey is stilling as he reaches for his wallet, the second Mike has stepped forward and grabbed the gun of the leader, which is in his waistband. He doesn’t pull it out like Harvey expected, just flips the safety off.
The leader squeaks: “What are you doing, man?”
Mike quirks a brow in return and answers: “You think having a gun makes you the man, you’re not. There is a reason people have holsters.”
“You’re outnumbered,” the leader protests.
“We are, sure,” Mike agrees, though he sounds like he can’t be bothered to even fake interest. “But we both know that loyalty here depends on power and right now, your dick is my hands, literally. I can shoot, you loose your dick, maybe bleed out. If you’re lucky one of them will stab me, but we both know that after you go down nothing is stopping me from shooting them too. After that I can call the cops, claim self defense and you go to prison.”
At this point the leader looks terrified and Mike grins like a shark as he coolly offers: “Or you can tell you r guys to walk away right now, you let us go without taking anything. And you get to keep your freedom and your dick.”
“You’re crazy, man,” the leader exclaims as he pales.
Mike just raises a brow and shifts to gun, almost as if he’s aiming. Immediately the leader swallows, then orders his henchmen to walk away.
When they’re gone, Mike leans in and hisses: “I’m taking this gun with me, I’m licensed, the cops can’t do shit to me. You try anything, I’ll know and I’ll ruin you. You got that?”
The man nods frantically, before practically running out of there, leaving Mike with a gun in his hands, Harvey stunned next to him.
He wants to properly freak out about the whole thing, about Mike, but he can’t. He doesn’t want to admit that he was scared, doesn’t want to admit that he worries about Mike, about his past and how it affected him. All he wants, is to hide behind walls that have become so comforting to him.
“I didn’t know you were licensed,” he decides is the best comment, better than demanding what the hell Mike was thinking, better than pulling him into a hug, feeling that he’s okay, showing how much he cares.
Mike grins and shrugs: “I’m not, but he doesn’t know that,” as he disarms the gun. “I’ll have to give this to the cops at some point.”
“We’ll swing by right now,” Harvey says. “We can file against those asshole while we’re there.”
“No, we’re not,” Mike tells him, before clarifying. “We’re not filing against them, I mean. We are only handing over the gun.”
“Why not?” Harvey demands, not denying his voice is a bit shaky.
“Because honor is everything in these parts,” Mike explains. “And you never know the benefits of having a gang leader owe you their life, even if it was because you spared him.”
Then he sets off on their walk and Harvey follows after him, hating that he’s not the wise mentor in this whole situation.
+1.
When it finally comes to a head, both of them should have seen it coming, yet they a re equally surprised when it happens.
Naturally, they are working a case, again. And they’ve hit a roadblock. Again.
Harvey wants to punch someone in frustration, but settles for a long groan after the place they need to get into just shut the door in their faces and locked it. He’ll have to rethink their entire strategy right now and his previous plan was so much better.
Next to him, Mike looks equally put out, his hands in his pockets as he inspects the door. He casually comments: “I should probably work on my lawyer skills and try and find a way to subpoena those documents instead of offering to pick the lock and get them, shouldn’t I?”
“You can pick locks?” Harvey asks, surprised, not really registering the meaning of the sentence just yet.
“Yeah, how else did you think I got into your building that first time?” Mike shrugs.
“Y- You broke into my building!” Harvey hisses.
“I mean, you weren’t answering your phone or the buzzer,” Mike tells him as if that makes it okay.
“Mike, you can’t keep doing this,” Harvey sighs.
“Doing what?” Mike asks and Harvey isn’t sure whether he’s actually that oblivious or just playing dumb.
“Illegal shit,” Harvey snaps.
“I don’t know if you noticed, Harvey, but we do illegal shit everyday,” Mike says.
“Yes, one major thing, not a hundred minor felonies,” Harvey replies.
“You didn’t seem to mind when it won us our cases,” Mike sounds hurt and Harvey would feel bad except for the fact that 1) doesn’t care and 2) is pissed off in general and Mike is a good target.
“It’s not like you stopped and asked for my permission,” he exclaims.
“And you’re going to stand there and swear you wouldn’t have given me permission if I had done that?” Mike shoots back. “Please, Harvey, don’t kid yourself.”
“I’m not kidding myself, Mike,” Harvey says, stepping closer. “You run around like nothing you do has consequences, like you can get away with anything. You think you can just keep breaking the law and no one will ever catch you, but they will. And until then I’m the one who has to stand around and wonder what the fuck happened that made you learn those things. I can’t keep doing that, Mike.”
It’s silent.
Harvey is still breathing heavily after his rant and Mike blinks like he can’t believe his ears. His eyes wide in confusion, yet innocence that shouldn’t be there with what Harvey has seen. Then his own words catch up to him.
“I didn’t-” mean to make it sound like I care, he wants to say, but he can’t bring himself to finish the sentence. He can’t stand there and lie. Mike has grown on him. At the start it was amusing and surprising to see the lanky kid pull of shit he really shouldn’t, but after getting to know him the implication of what had taught him those skills sunk in.
And that implication hasn’t left Harvey alon e since.
So, now he’s here. In the street. Yelling at Mike about being worried… The great Harvey Specter everybody.
“What?” Mike chokes out when it becomes clear Harvey isn’t going to say anything more. He sounds shocked and Harvey can’t really blame him.
“Just drop it, Mike,” Harvey sighs. “We still have to rework our strategy now that this is a dead end.”
“No, you can’t- I-” Mike squares his shoulders. “You can’t just tell me that and then walk away.”
“What do you want to hear here?” Harvey asks rhetorically. “That I joked about you being a terrible criminal and you seemed to have set out to prove me wrong at every turn? That it was amusing at first and the more I thought about it, the more it worried me? That I know you’re not actively committing crime anymore – aside from our thing – but that it still makes me mad that you had to and that I wasn’t there to help. What do you want, Mike?”
Mike is stunned into silence for a second. He stares unblinking, a thousand emotions flitting through his eyes. Harvey’s heart pounds loudly in his ears and for once he has nothing to say, no deal to offer, no move to play.
“It was never that bad,” Mike whispers after a second. “Most of it I learned while taking test, the rest- the rest was just back up. You know, just in case. Or to protect Trevor. I’m sorry about worrying you.”
The sheer honesty is too much for Harvey, so he just looks away and mutters: “It was stupid anyway.”
“Yeah, it was,” Mike agrees and Harvey’s eyes snap back to see him grin cheekily. “You’re never allowed to claim you don’t care again.”
Harvey rolls his eyes and huffs: “Of course you’d go there the second I was nice to you, you asshole.”
“Uhm, that is your friend, you’re talking about. Don’t be rude,” Mike corrects him smugly.
And Harvey bemoans the days when Mike would wither under the scathing glare he sends his way, before pointing at him and saying: “If Donna ever hears about this, you’re fired,” before walking way.
Mike naturally follows him immediately, grinning: “Like I couldn't break into your office.”
“Not funny, Mike,” Harvey warns. “No more crime.” Mike gives him a look. “No more extra crime,” he amends.
“Alright,” Mike shrugs like it can really be that easy. And maybe it is. Mike looks at him, then says: “I think we can bluff our way to getting Thomas to break. I’ve already seen a bit of their internal emails, I’m pretty sure I can fake a few. We don’t need the real ones.”
Yeah, okay, maybe it can be that easy.
“You’re gonna be an okay lawyer one day, kid.”
“I already am I great lawyer.”
“Don’t get cocky, you little shit. Just take the compliment.”