Work Text:
Harvey’s office had to be one of the only lights still burning in the tower. The city outside the glass was like Atlantis, dark in the ocean depths. It was past 3am and time was no longer behaving normally, the long liminal stretch of minutes like a corridor that never ended.
Mike rubbed his fingers slowly into his eyes, his head slumped back. He lifted his skull up again with an effort and blinked gritty eyes at the files spread across Harvey's desk. There were files spread on the carpet.
Harvey had gone for a walk over by the windows.
Mike let his chin drop to his chest as he directed his eyes once more along the same sentence on the piece of paper propped on his thigh.
"We go outside," Harvey was saying. "See it from upside down. Stand on our heads."
"Okay," Mike said slowly, punch drunk. "Diana Ross." He pointed at Harvey. "Up. Side. Down... You're turnin' me. In. Side. Out..."
"Stop."
Mike put on a small wounded look. "No?"
"If Prince didn't work, that's not gonna do anything." Harvey returned to his chair. "Be awake in court, or be awake now, this is unacceptable—" He gestured in Mike's direction.
"What? It's three a.m.!"
"Your head wasn’t in the game today."
Mike tried to work up some indignation, but he felt bleached out, like a jawbone washed up on a beach. "You’ve been saving that one all night?" He looked at his watch. "It's like Waiting For Godot in here. Are we just gonna sit around and take turns tearing each other apart until the sun comes up?"
"Waiting For Godot?"
"What? I partake of...the theater. From time to time."
"No, you don't."
"A girl I dated in high school dragged me to it." Mike yawned through the sentence. "Worst two hours and eighteen minutes of my life. Would not recommend."
"My point is, wherever your head's at, I need it back here."
"My head was on the subject of lying."
"Christ," Harvey muttered, his eyes on his papers. "You’re still stuck on the part where our client admitted to taking bribes?"
"What do you think lying does to a person?"
"Who exactly are we talking about here?" Harvey glinted a look up at Mike.
"I mean..." Mike pursed his lips. "It wasn't me up there lying for the guy."
"I wasn't lying," Harvey said. "That was me defending my client."
"Right, and your client needs you to lie to keep him out of prison, so...you lied." Mike nodded. "Maslowski told us he did it. He took the money, he secured the bid. He’s corrupt. You know it, I know it—"
Harvey held up his hands like the scales of Justice.
"What someone says happened." He indicated one hand. "What you can prove happened." He indicated the other hand. "Is this baby's first trial? The truth isn’t what you know, it's what you can prove."
"Persuasive narrative over objective reality, in other words," Mike murmured. "That's our justice system."
"I can see you're in a very philosophical mood tonight—"
"You don't think there's some price you pay? For lying?"
Harvey pushed slowly to his feet with a noise of exertion. "I already rejected that characterization." He came around the desk, propped his hip against it, composing his hands on his thigh as he looked down at Mike. "You’re not talking about law, you're talking about you."
"What?" Mike said.
Harvey gazed down at him, benevolent.
Mike listed a little to the side in his chair, dropping his document onto its file on the floor, then he got up and stretched, his hands clasped behind his head, stretching his spine. He relaxed down with a long exhale. He smoothed his hand down his tie.
"Ah. This falls under 'personal life'," he said.
"Oh." Harvey's benevolent look switched off like flicking to a different tv channel. "In that case, nevermind."
"It's—kind of about Rachel."
"Did you hear me say 'nevermind'?"
"Fine. Forget it." Mike said, then a moment later, "I'm just going in circles, you can't you hear me out?"
"No."
"I think I want to...you know. Tell her. About my...designation. She thinks..." Mike had started to pace. "She thinks I'm a guy-guy, okay? And I am. That's—exactly what I want, with her." He looked back at Harvey who was still in his pose, leaning against the desk, and this was the same thing they'd done a few times tonight, one or other of them pacing, spitballing, while the other sat and acted as sounding board.
"If I tell her..." Mike shook his head. "It could ruin everything. She sees me...a particular way. Do you get what I'm saying?" He glanced at the other man's patient, watching face. "No, obviously you don't, you've never had to deal with anything like this— God, why am I even coming to you for advice on this?"
"I mean, that question was in my mind—"
Mike stopped suddenly and stared at Harvey, trying to do Harvey's thing: read him. Mike narrowed his eyes, watching for any subtle microexpression.
Harvey raised an eyebrow.
"You don't think I should tell her," Mike said.
"What's the worst that could happen?" Harvey said.
"She stops feeling attracted to me? She's pissed I lied to her this entire time about being a—" He gestured to Harvey: alpha. "She tells everyone at work?"
"You want to sleep with her," Harvey said bluntly.
"Okay, there's a little more to it than that. I care about her. It's killing me...that I'm lying to her. I'm deceiving her. I can't build a relationship on a lie."
"A relationship, now. Okay." Harvey made a face like he was running a quick math calculation. "Wasn’t it just the other week you were with some other girl? And then a different one after that because you couldn't get with this one... It's just a little hard to keep up."
"Sorry, this is coming from you? I don't think I've seen you with the same woman twice! I’m working with a completely different set of rules here. You’re playing this on Easy Mode—"
"Easy Mode?" Harvey straightened up. "I don’t do anything on Easy Mode."
"Look, I'm not denying you've got game—"
"Damn right I've got game," Harvey said, gleaming.