"Mike. This your last warning. Drop it. I don't want to hear another word about this."

Mike scowled heavily. He sat on the other side of Harvey's uncharacteristically cluttered desk late at night. The office around them slept, even the maintenance crew had long since called it a night. Carding a hand through his hair in frustration, he looked momentarily demonic with his crumpled shirt, open at the neck and his tie askew. The case they were working was substantially more frustrating than usual and Harvey's unyielding, seventeenth century approach to resolving it was driving the genius around the twist.

"But Harvey-"

"But Harvey, nothing," the older man snapped. "You asked and I answered. The answer is no. There is nothing further to discuss. Get back to work, Mike. It's late as hell, we still have a mountain of work to get through and you're working my last nerve with this. Got it?"

Mike's brow furrowed as he slumped in his chair, glaring mutinously at the file in his lap.

"Got it," he answered grudgingly. "I won't offer any further opinions. I'll just do the donkey work quietly in the background like the dutiful little second year I am. Is that ok? Would that be sufficiently suitable for you?"

Harvey shot him a molten glare.

"Watch that lip, Mike. You remember what happened the last time you got that lippy? Going on your vacation to Louis' side of the house? Because I have no hesitation in handing you back over to him if you keep this up. But for a month this time, not a week. That ought to be long enough to knock the attitude out of you."

With that, he went back to his contract review.

Staring at the top of Harvey's perfectly coiffed hair, Mike fought down the urge to slap the man upside the head with his file. He knew his play would work if the man would just let him pitch it uninterrupted. They had been working late into the night, every night, for three weeks straight and they were no better off for it. The case went to hearing in two days and they were going to get their collective asses kicked. He knew it, Harvey knew it, the dog on the street knew it. The only people who didn't know it were Jessica and the Client. The Client, neither he nor Havey cared about, they were a Fortune 500 company and the fines that currently had a ninety-nine percent chance of crashing down on them were an irrelevance. Jessica on the other hand… would be apoplectic with rage if they didn't bring the case home… not least because Harvey the Heretic had promised the Client and Jessica he would do just that.

Hell hath no fury like a Jessica Pearson wronged.

An hour or so trickled by before Harvey looked up from his computer, rubbing his hand across his tired eyes. Sighing, he tossed the file in his lap shut and threw it on the tottering stack to his right-hand side. Flicking off his computer he stood and stretched before glancing at the clock in front of him. Wincing when he saw it was gone three a.m., he slung his suit jacket over his shoulder and looked pointedly at his young protégé who, just as pointedly, ignored him. Rolling his eyes with a sigh, Harvey walked around the desk and yanked the file out of his Mike's hands.

"We're calling it a night. We both need some sleep. Be back here for nine-thirty a.m., not a minute before. Understand?"

Mike looked up at him balefully.

"We could stay here, awake, for the next forty-eight hours and it wouldn't make the slightest bit of difference. We need to consider a different strategy or we are going to lose this case. Hard. Would you please just let me explain my idea in full and-"

Harvey held up a warning hand.

"Enough!" he growled, his patience much thinner than it would otherwise normally be due to lack of sleep and an unhealthy amount of caffeine consumption. "It is not your job to dictate case stratagem to me, it is my job to dictate it to you. I have told you no on multiple different occasions and in multiple different languages at this stage. You're teetering dangerously on the line of insubordination here and I am telling you Mike, today is not the today to test me. Not now, not on this case. Go home and get some sleep and be back here with a better attitude tomorrow morning. Is that clear?"

A fleeting expression of hurt flitted across Mike's face and Harvey relented a little.

"Look," he sighed "I'm not trying to be a hardass here. I'm tired and my patience isn't what it normally is. However, I have listened to your idea and I am telling you that whilst it makes sense in theory it will not work in practice. This is where you need to trust me and my experience over that big brain of yours. Sometimes, Mike, what's in the books isn't reflective of how things are done. Your idea will work on another case, I'm sure of it. Just not this one. It would tank this case and our client would face punitive damages instead of general damages as a result and I am telling you here and now… I am not facing Jessica if that happens. So, it's not going to happen."

He picked up Mike's jacket from the floor where it had fallen and held it out to him.

"C'mon. You need some rest. You look like hell. We'll pick this up fresh tomorrow."

Mike shook his head.

"I'm going to keep going. If you're not going to listen to my idea, I need to find something incriminating in this Discovery dump or we might as well not bother showing up for trial. You go home. I'll let you know if I find anything useful."

Harvey suddenly yearned for his protégé-free life.

Things had been so much easier then.

"Mike," he said slowly. "You need some rest. We have been holed up here for over ten hours. Even geniuses need sleep. Get up. We're leaving."

The kid shook his head, the all too familiar stubborn line of his mouth setting in hard.

"I don't need sleep. We're not all as old as you, Harvey."

Biting back both a chuckle and an intense rebuke at Mike's absolute brass balls, the older Lawyer took a deep breath. Jessica would be angry if he murdered a colleague in the office. It would be bad P.R. The cops would get involved, the Partners would eventually call for a vote, it would be mayhem. He must not kill the kid as much as he felt like it in the moment.

"Noted," he said dryly. "However, even twenty somethings need sleep. So, for the last time, get up. I'm not asking you, Mike, I'm telling you. Move it. If I don't get some sleep within thirty minutes from now I'm going to choose violence."

Mike looked up at him and rolled his eyes.

"Go home and put on The Spinners, Harvey. I'm fine."

Closing his eyes for the briefest moment, the infamous Closer felt exhaustion dog him.

"Last time you mocked The Spinners didn't work out all that well for you, don't you remember? Because I was serious before. You keep this up and I will hand you back over to Louis without a second thought for a month or two."

Mike sighed as he tossed his eyes up to heaven.

"At least Louis might actually realise when he's flogging a dead horse. Like we are. Here. Now. With this pointless case strategy. Harvey c'mon, just sit down and listen to me. I know you think it won't work but it will, I know it will-"

"Enough!"

Harvey rarely raised his voice above a warning growl but his voice bounced around the room. His brown eyes were now brimming with temper as he glared at his recalcitrant charge. As ballsy as he had been as a rookie, even he would never have dared question Jessica like Mike was questioning him right now. He usually admired the kid's ability to fight his corner and produce creative solutions but this… this was flat out insubordination.

"One more word out of you that isn't goodnight as you walk out of this building and you're going to regret it, Mike," Harvey growled, his patience well and truly gone. "You do not assume to know better than I do. I do not have to justify myself to you. You justify yourself to me. That's how this works."

He held up both hands, one slightly higher than the other. Gesturing to the higher hand before the lower hand, he reminded Mike of the organisational structure between them.

"I'm here and you're here."

Far from being cowed, Mike looked at the show and tell display with outright disdain.

"I didn't realise we were so attached to the proper reporting structure of your standard law firm," he drawled. "I must have missed that day at Harvard."

Harvey's eyes bugged but the kid wasn't done.

"Goodnight, Harvey. We can pick this up tomorrow when you're in a more reasonable mood."

It was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Sighing, Harvey placed Mike's jacket neatly back down on his desk chair. Moving swiftly, he reached down and unclipped the expensive cuff link of his right sleeve adorned with his initials. Placing it softly on the desk, he rolled up his sleeve to the elbow to the backdrop of the kid's spluttering sounds of indignation. Ignoring those sounds with an ease borne of far too much experience, he pulled open his bottom desk drawer and extracted from the miscellaneous Dictaphones and cables an old fashioned and unusually thick wooden hairbrush. Closing the drawer shut with a snap, he picked the brush up in his left hand and crossing around the desk, used his right hand to carefully grip Mike's upper arm and guide him to his feet.

"Harvey!" Mike spluttered. "No. I'll go home now. Ok? I'll go home and go to bed-"

"You will," Harvey agreed in that quiet voice he reserved for when his mentee had finally gone too far. "But you will be sleeping on your stomach. That, I can promise you."

He corralled the protesting Mike over to the black leather couch they were both all too familiar with and finally released his arm. Sitting down on his usual spot, he looked up at the horrified genius with a raised brow.

"I gave you chance after chance to listen to me. In response, you gave me lip after lip. There's a limit to my patience and you know it. You know it and you pushed it anyway. You clearly need a refresher course in recognising that when I say no, I mean no. You might think you know it all, and you do know a lot, but you don't know it all. I am where I am in this firm for a reason and you are where you are for a reason. You need a reminder on what that reason is and the appropriate attitude to have around your superiors."

He patted his knee with the back of the hairbrush pointedly.

"Over my knee. Now."

Mike looked at him pleadingly, knowing he had gone too far but not knowing how to get out of it without a smarting behind. There wasn't trace nor tale of his former attitude and snark. He had been in his current position often enough to know that was tantamount to suicide.

"Harvey, no. I'm sorry, ok? We'll do it your way and-"

"Over my knee, Mike. There is no way out of this. Accept that and it'll be easier for you."

"Harvey, I-"

"Over my knee or I'll put you over my knee. Your choice… but you know the consequences of my having to do it for you, right?"

Mike's face crumpled somewhat as he realised his fate was sealed. Looking at his mentor pleadingly one last time and getting nothing but a stern mask back, he resolved to bite the bullet. With all the grace of a hippo in a tutu, he bent over the awaiting knee and buried his face in the all-too-familiar black leather underneath him. Harvey's left arm immediately snaked around his waist, holding him tightly in position. To his credit, the older man never drew his punishment out when it wasn't necessary. The first crack of the brush therefore landed within a millisecond of him settling into position. Closing his eyes at the familiar sting, Mike wished he had worn thicker slacks to work.

Harvey sighed as he laid down the first swat. The kid just never did things the easy way. Hating this part of the job that was more than just a job, he peppered the upturned behind over his knee with unforgiving licks. He worked quickly but methodically, allowing the sting from one swat to reach its highest point before laying down the next. The room sang with the sound of hard wood to the hard headed kid's behind. Mike's intermittent yelps and yowls permeated the thorough spanking before the room suddenly fell silent.

"Ok, up you get."

Harvey's voice was much gentler than it had been three or four minutes ago. Mike slowly stirred and roused himself to his feet. His face was flushed but his eyes were dry. He winced as his well spanked sit spots stung in protest at his movement. With a small sniffle and a puppy dog look shot in his mentor's direction, he moved to unbuckle his slacks and pull them down to his knees.

"No."

Mike looked up at Harvey in confusion.

Tossing the brush to the end of the sofa, Harvey stood up and rubbed a quick, forgiving hand through the boy's hair.

"You needed and deserved a short, sharp shock and that's what you got. You're passionate about your cases and clients and I'm not trying to discipline that out of you, Mike. I'm just trying to get you to find a balance between obeying me and challenging me. I don't like having to do that but you need to learn that no means no. If I have cause to put you back over my knee during this case then you will be taking your pants down and I will be blistering your bare behind. Is that clear?"

Mike nodded gratefully.

"It's clear. I…"

He shrugged bashfully.

"Sorry, Harvey. Won't happen again."

"Uh huh," the elder man said dryly. "If only you'd remember that feeling for more than seventeen minutes at a time, I wouldn't feel as old as you seem to think I am. Now, grab your jacket and let's get the hell out of here. You hungry?"

Mike's stomach answered for him with an eager rumble and he looked hopefully at Harvey.

"Hotdogs?"

Harvey rolled his eyes as he flicked off his office lights and shepherded his incorrigible protégé out of the glass door, a comforting arm slung over Mike's slender shoulders.

"Fine. Hotdogs. Christ you really do eat as much crap as you spout and that's saying something."

Random drabble x