Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. I am in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of Suits. No copyright infringement is intended.

Author's Note: Inspired by a prompt over at suits meme by phreakycat, which I will post at the end. It's is an excellent prompt and I know at least two other authors who are planning on writing their interpretations of it. Windscryer and I got a good chuckle out of reading each other's as apparently we were very much on the same wave length on certain aspects of the story. Many thanks to her for giving this a read through and providing me with much flailing and cheering. Make sure you all check out her version when she posts it as it is awesome.

Thanks to all who read. As always, reviews are appreciated.

WARNING: As part of the fill for the prompt, this story deals with extreme bullying and sexual assault. It is not graphic, but please proceed with caution. I will be placing this warning at the beginning of each section in case anyone should happen to miss it.

Mike disappears at lunch, is gone over an hour before finally showing back up, face red from the cold. Harvey overlooks it because for the past three days they have been working on a new case and he is already planning on making his own brief getaway lest he strangle the next person that enters his office. When Mike shows up late, Harvey gives him an abridged lecture on keeping his phone on at all times before ducking out of the building to clear his head, thankful for the brief respite from having to plow through yet another box of files. It will be another mind-numbingly long night ahead for both of them and he is already dreading the sight of his own office.

At the time, he thinks nothing of his associate's behavior because Mike, while brilliant, has shown to be scatter brained; fifteen minutes late and a dead phone are not, annoyingly, odd occurrences. Later, Harvey will look back on this moment and wonder if Mike's cheeks were only chapped red from the cold, if the subtle sniffle he tried to hide signified something else entirely.

Harvey stretches slowly, back cracking pleasantly and muscles groaning. His mind feels uncomfortably hazy, too many nights with only an hour or two of sleep followed by cup after cup of coffee leaving him feeling like he's pulled a little too thin, nerves twitching and twanging. The only consolation is that he managed to finagle their way out of another late night at the office, choosing to relocate to his apartment. His back is grateful; the couch is infinitely more comfortable than his office chair. He stands, barely covering a yawn, before tossing the stack of papers he had been reading onto the coffee table. "Look those over. Make sure I didn't miss anything."

Mike raises his head as if it weighs about fifty pounds, eyes bloodshot and ringed in purple. "The great Harvey Specter thinks he missed something?"

"Let me rephrase: I didn't miss anything. Check it anyway." He turns, fingers already starting to unbutton his rumpled dress shirt, mind focusing on the pleasant idea of curling up under his soft bed sheets.

"Wait. Where are you going?" The question gets swallowed in a jaw popping yawn, but Harvey is able to decipher its meaning.

"Bed."

"Oh, right. Okay." Mike begins shuffling papers together, destroying any order that Harvey had created. He fumbles for his bag, dropping more papers than he actually manages to get into the satchel. "I'll just head home. See you at the office later."

"You planning on walking home?"

Mike pauses, hands stilling their frantic packing, brow furrowed.

"You came here in the car with me, Mike." Harvey shakes his head, marveling at the way his associate can remember a book word for word he read in the fourth grade, but somehow still manages to forget what he did earlier this evening. "I think that tells me how well your mind is actually working right now."

"Mind is fine. I just wiped the memory of you being nice to me, ya know, actually helping me out with all this reading instead of leaving me to it."

Harvey rolls his eyes. "Right, because I am obviously the worst person in existence. How dare I actually insist that my associate pull his own weight?" He walks over and snatches the papers out of Mike's hand and drops them back down onto the table. "Get some sleep, kid. The couch is pretty comfortable. You can worry about calling a cab in the morning to take you back to your place. Turn the lights off before you head to bed." With that, he heads into his bed room and, after carefully folding his clothes and hanging them because even exhausted he wouldn't dare just toss one of his suits onto the floor, falls into bed, quickly slipping into a blissful slumber.