Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The first official documentation of a little had been recorded around 1120, coming from the Song Dynasty in China. While the exact context surrounding the document had never been figured out, and much of the writing had been lost to time, a couple hundred years later was when scholars first discovered the text's true meaning.

The old scripture described the first of millions of people around the globe that would later be given the term: Little.

Flash forward to the 21st century, the well-known classification system was set firmly in place all around the world. At the age of 18, this system would separate people into three main categories: Neutral, caregiver, and little.

Neutrals made up around 64% of the world's population. They, unlike the other two classes, neither had too much or too little production of a set of the body's hormones which helped to distinguish a person between little and caregiver. They were basically just normal. They could act as caregivers to others if they wanted to, but they never sensed the same caregiver urges that a person with that classification would feel when caring for a little.

Caregivers, on the other hand, made out roughly 20% of the population. The first documentation of a caregiver had been recorded shortly after the first documentation of a little, the text having been discovered where  France lay. The document was a bit more intact compared to the other one, and it described how a young man had gone practically frantic after hearing the wails of a nearby "bébé adulte," and wouldn't stop coddling said little until they had calmed down and fallen asleep in his arms. After thousands of similar cases had begun to spread around after this, these frantic adults would eventually be given the term: caregiver. Caregivers acted as guardians to littles, although their comforting nature often extended to others around them as well. Professionally, caregivers were much like neutrals. They were able to run for practically any working position, although their coddling nature did come as a bit of a challenge in certain jobs. For example, lawyering.

Finally, there was the classification of the little, which made up the remaining 16% of the population. Littles described the people in the world that regularly fell into a mindset where their age was younger than they were physically. This was known as their headspace. While headspace ages could differ, most of the little population had a headspace of fourteen or younger. When a little was classified at the age of eighteen, they received a slip of paper that included details such as their headspace age, and how regularly they should drop to remain healthy. Generally, the younger the age-range, the more time needed in headspace, with once a week being the minimum overall. After receiving their classifications, necessary adjustments were made so that the little could have the most comfortable life possible. For most littles, that meant finding a permanent, or at least temporary caregiver. It was the law, and littles who were found without a caregiver after the age of 21 were brought to a large nursery facility where they would be paired with a caregiver who best matched them. Littles who had a caregiver were able to work and contribute to the professional part of society. However, in general, littles could only work up to 30 hours a week-that number differed on the headspace range. Also, stressful and demanding jobs were off the table for littles with a headspace under ten, and older littles needed strict supervision when working in those fields. Exceptions could be made, but they were fairly rare.

Overall, the classification system was fairly successful. It allowed for society to be kept in an orderly manner, and there were rarely and mishaps with the system.

Harvey Specter was an example of a mishap.

On the morning of Harvey Specter's big 18, he ran over to the classification center to get himself tested. He was more than ready to move out of his cheating mother's house and get started on his journey to the big apple of New York.

He had walked into the testing zone expecting to be classified as a neutral. Afterall, he hadn't been showing any of the early tell-tale signs of being a caregiver or a little, such as bedwetting or being overly protective.

So it came as a bit of a surprise to him when, after an hour of waiting in the waiting room, one of the doctors came into the room holding a light green wrist band, a sweet smile plastered on her face.

Light green was the color of a caregiver. As part of the law, when a person was classified, they were given a wristband with a designated color that they were required to keep with them at all times; it was kind of like a driver's license. Light green was for caregivers, yellow for littles, and orange for neutrals.

While the classification definitely had come as a surprise to him, Harvey had accepted the bracelet and the subsequent textbook and DVDs that would teach him how to be a proper caregiver, with the promise that he would review all the material and attend the required month-long caregiving class once he moved and got settled in his new home.

And he kept true to his promise. He moved to New York City, found himself some suitable housing, and attended every single caregiving class, all while trying to make a name for himself in society.

It took a long while to find his place. First working in a mailroom while getting his undergrad at NYU. Then meeting Jessica and being allowed to attend Harvard simply because she had seen something "special" in him. Afterwards, working at the DA's office for a little more than two years, before finally ending back up at Pearson Hardman, where he would eventually build himself up to be equal with Jessica herself.

In the end, life had worked out. With his name on the wall of a firm that he was basically the boss of, nothing could be better. He could ignore the fact that his family had been ripped apart, or that he was slowly forming into a small ball of panic attacks and insomnia. It was all okay.

Except for one thing.

---

It had been about his 2nd or 3rd month officially working under Jessica at Pearson Specter when he'd finally hit the jackpot on a case, blowing the prosecution out of the water and earning their firm a lofty check of 15 million dollars. He had been ecstatic; everyone in the firm had congratulated him as he walked into work, and even Jessica had spoken about how proud she was to have dragged him out to Harvard. He was on cloud nine.

Later that evening, him and Donna had went out to a nearby restaurant for a late dinner and celebratory drinks.

It had been a great dinner, full of laughter and lots of boasting as Harvey recalled how he had made the main prosecutor go practically beet red when he'd revealed to the jury that the opposing side had forged a major piece of evidence.

"Oh, you should have  seen  his face! I've never seen a man's smirk fall so fast!"

Donna had simply laughed and taken another bite of her prime rib steak. "I can't even imagine! I'm so glad you put that man in his place; I can't ever imagine a little having to deal with a caregiver like him!"

Harvey had hummed in agreement as he sipped his red wine. The prosecutor he had pummeled to the floor had indeed been a caregiver, like himself. But the man had already been charged with more than three cases of  sexual assault  of a little, something that should have put him in prison a long time ago. And yet, there he had been, still with his lawyering license, looking as repulsing as ever; men like that prosecutor made Harvey sick.

"Do you want a little? I know I do."

Snapping out of his intense thoughts, Harvey had lifted his eyes to look at Donna, offering her a small smirk. "Where did this come from?"

She laughed. "I just wanted to have a little heartfelt talk, caregiver to caregiver. I've been seriously thinking about caring for a little of my own recently; just acting as the cool aunt to my friends' littles hasn't really been cutting it. So how about you? Does the mighty Harvey Specter want to have a little boy or girl of his own to love?"

The way Donna's eyes had glimmered as she spoke made Harvey offer a genuine smile. Maybe we can both get a little together, is what he wanted to say, although he knew that they both had a thing against office romances. So, instead he had simply replied: "maybe one day."

Those words seemed to be enough to satisfy Donna, as the woman had gone back to talking about other miscellaneous things, leaving Harvey to ponder what he had just spoken. Did he really want a little of his own?

That question was answered for him a couple weeks after that night out when, after arriving home late from work and crashing into his bed, Harvey had first fallen into headspace.

----

A late bloomer is what the internet had called him. Harvey Specter was one of only 2% of people in the entire world who had been misclassified. Or, to put it differently, Harvey's body had matured later than the rest, causing his first classification test to have been faulty.

This was bad.

Re-tests were available, so technically Harvey could have gone back to the doctors to get his proper classification revealed. But he didn't want to. He already knew what he was.

He was a little.The classification that he had been trained to care for, was suddenly the classification he was biologically supposed to be.

He didn't believe it at first. Afterall, he had never shown any little tendencies of any sort; he had been a model caregiver. But, from that brief night when the world had gone fuzzy, and he had felt like a stranger in his own body, he knew what he was. He was a goddam little. Fuck him.

He loved littles, don't get him wrong. But his late classification status could not have come at a worse time. Littles were rarely allowed to work in positions  as stressful as his line of work. Not to mention, Jessica had promised him junior partner if he could keep his act together, and he was not letting all his hard work go away just because of some dumb classification.

So he never told anybody, not even his family knew what he truly was. He found out a way to obtain a steady supply of little suppressants (through sources he'd rather not specify), and he relied on the drug very heavily to push away any upcoming drops or headspace spasms he would occasionally have. The medicine would also help to suppress any little tendencies he would later develop, although it couldn't take care of the occasional bet-wetting problem.
He never dropped into headspace again after that one night, and he was determined to never drop in the future either. He knew from his own experience of being a caregiver how awful not dropping could be for a little's physical and mental well-being, but he assured himself that, if he had been a caregiver before, then he could stay a caregiver now.

He would never let anyone know what he really was. His life depended on it.

----
A couple years later..

Harvey sighed as he slammed shut the computer on his desk and spun his black chair around to face one of the many tall windows of his office. The sky was pitch black, although all the light pollution coming from the other large buildings and signs in the area still let him see a perfect view of New York.

It was around two in the morning. A couple hours ago Harvey had finally been able to smash down this large corporation, which had been sucking on them like a leech. The company had been scamming its customers and forging documents and data to keep afloat. The crazy thing is, they had been so good at it, that even with the entirety of Pearson Specter Litt working overtime to crack down the company, it took them almost two weeks to find a good piece of evidence.

Harvey himself had actually found the leak in the company's security system during a long search through any material they could find on them. After discovering it, he had immediately scheduled a hearing and busted all their asses. Finally, the firm could breathe a sigh of relief, now that those money launders were out of business.

Well, everyone could except Harvey.

Around 10 in the evening, after the case had ben concluded, many of his partners went out for celebratory drinks. Even Jessica went, which had been a surprise considering she rarely went out to party with the others.

But Harvey didn't attend, which was something very unlike him. He had made a feeble excuse of having some personal matter to attend to, and had made his exit before anyone could question him. It wasn't exactly a lie though, as the reason he was skipping out on the celebration was very much personal.

He had been feeling odd the entire week. And by odd, he meant fuzzy, and tired, and clingy. He knew by now that all of those feelings could only mean one thing: he was getting close to a drop.

While Harvey had never dropped into his headspace since that one night, there were a couple of times every month or so when he could feel the waves of his headspace flowing through him more than usual, trying to tug him under into that other side of himself. Usually, when this  happened he'd just double up on suppressants for a couple days until the symptoms went away, or until he ended up barfing the medication out of his system.

But this time was different. This time, no matter how much medicine he swallowed, and how much he distracted himself with work and other things, the fuzzy feeling just wouldn't go away.

The tipping point however, had been when he had almost started bawling when the prosecutor on the other side of the big court case had poked fun at their firm. He had managed to keep a straight face and win the whole thing in the end, obviously, but the fact that he had almost cracked during his job had terrified him. It was part of the reason he had excused himself from the prying eyes of the others and made his way over to the office afterwards. He had had some business to finish up, and he knew that he wouldn't end up doing any of it if he just went back to his luxurious apartment. So, instead he came back to the office, which had been unlocked by the cleaning crew, and made it over to his desk, where he proceeded to sit for the next couple of hours.

Finally though, his body had endured enough, and he couldn't seem to focus on anymore of the documents he had been proofreading. He rubbed his eyes with one hand, reaching over to grab his phone with the other. It was late, and he was finally ready to retire for the night. However, he still had to catch a cab and get himself home; there weren't many cabs at this time of night.

He groaned and pushed himself to a standing position, his back popping from how long he had been sitting still. Shit. He felt like shit. He had experienced a couple close headspace calls, but it had never been this bad.

He stumbled over to the glass door, before coming to a stop. He turned his head to the side and glanced at the small couch that he had resting in the middle of his office. It was probably big enough for him to lay on if he curled up tight...

Don't even think about it. 

The fact that he even thought about sleeping on the couch was just testimony to how messed up he was feeling. He couldn't even imagine someone walking into the office tomorrow to find him, the great Harvey Specter, the golden caregiver, best closer in all of New York, wrapped up in a sad ball on his couch.

He scoffed and dismissed any idea of spending the night in the firm out of his mind. There was no way he'd stay here; he'd just ignore the fact that the world felt like it was spinning, and get himself a ride home, where he'd take a nice shower and fall asleep in his large, comfy bed.

Yeah, that sounded much better.

A couple moments later, Harvey turned around and collapsed into his couch.

He didn't take any suppressants that night.

-----------

"--ey?"

"--vey?"

"-wrong with him?"

"-don't know but I'll take him home."

"-ell Jessica."

Harvey was startled awake at the sound of loud conversation coming from around him, and opened his eyes, only to be blinded by the bright early morning sun.

Whining, he rubbed at his face with one hand and tried to blink away his sleepiness. His head was hurting and his back was aching; he felt like he was drunk or something. The conversation he had been hearing seemed to die down at the sound of his shuffling, and after a bit of a struggle, he was finally able to crack open an eye again to see what was happening. He was in his office, he remembered, curled up on his couch. And in front of him, both with perplexed faces, were Mike and Rachel.

He rubbed at his aching forehead again, and tried to push away the wave of sleepiness he felt. Something seemed different, and it wasn't just because he had passed out in his office. All the pressure that had been building up in his head the past week or so, seemed to be replaced with this large bubbly feeling that he couldn't name-although it felt oddly familiar at the same time. He sat up and leaned his back against the couch, bringing his hands to run  over the wrinkles on his expensive gray suit. His hands felt hard to control, and some deep part of him was wondering why he didn't feel the slightest bit annoyed at how he had probably just ruined a thousand dollar set of clothing. As he looked back over to Mike and Rachel, he noticed them speaking to each other in hushed tones, both their eyes taking occasional glances at him. However, for some reason, they were speaking so quickly that he couldn't process a word they were saying. He noticed that Rachel was holding a shiny glass bottle, which looked to be full of red wine. It was one of Harvey's favorite celebration drinks. He dully concluded that they must've came in here to congratulate him on the victory last night, but that's all his brain could think about before turning everything back into mush. He also was aware at the fact that he was being uncharacteristically quiet, but he couldn't think much about that either.

Finally, after a minute or so of conversation, Rachel turned to him and offered him a small smile. It looked much more worried than reassuring, but at the moment Harvey felt too out of it to tell the difference. The cocoa-haired woman gently placed the wine bottle on the desk before speaking some  gibberish, that he assumed was meant for Mike, and walking quickly out of the office.

Once she was gone, and the glass door closed behind her, Harvey turned his tired eyes over at his protégé. The man was in an emerald green tux today, and, by the choice of his tie and perfume, he suspected the man must've been in a great mood. After all, he had also finally wrapped up the strenuous case.

Mike crouched down in front of the desk so that Harvey was eye level with him. His previous perplexed expression was replaced with a knowing smile now as he looked over his friend.

"Hey there Harv, did you have a nice nap?"

Almost instantly, Harvey was aware of the soft tone Mike was using on him. It wasn't the normal one he would use to address his boss.

It was like he was speaking to a child.

For some reason though, Harvey found himself nodding to the sweet voice without control. It felt right.

He watched as Mike's eyes creased with a smile. Then, the man reached over and gently placed a hand on his knee.

"I acted confused in front of Rachel because she doesn't have that knacky sense that us caregivers have...or that apparently only I have."

Harvey blinked slowly, not comprehending what Mike was getting at. He rubbed at his eyes again, feeling as though the world was covered in a thick layer of honey.

Mike's hands reached up and tugged away his hands though, pulling them to his chest.

"Are you a little, Harvey?"

It took another moment for the lawyer to process what his partner was saying. Mike had just asked if he was a little. He hadn't said it as a joke, and it had barely even sounded like a question. No, it was more of a direct statement.

Mike had figured him out.

His entire frame tensed and he looked up at Mike with mortified eyes. Suddenly, he understood what was happening. It all made sense. He had been feeling awful this whole week. And he had forgotten to take his suppressants last night. No wonder why the fuzzy feeling felt so familiar.

He had slipped. For the first time in his life since that day. And he was so deep in his headspace that he couldn't pull himself out.

He remembered when Mike had confronted him one late night a year or two ago. Both 'caregivers' had decided to meet for dinner after another successful meeting, and during the midst of it all, Mike had cued Harvey in on a little secret. He was on the search for a little of his own. Rachel, who had been his girlfriend at the time (they had mutually broken up a couple months later), was a neutral, but still envied the idea of caring for a little of her own. So they had made a plan that, if they got married, they would try and find one to make a little family. But finding the perfect little was proving to be very difficult, the man had said. He and Rachel couldn't connect with any of the littles they met, and Mike was worrying that they would never find the one.

Harvey, of course, had supported his friend and made his typical corny jokes, easing Mike's worried mind. He had acted like any other caregiver and friend would have, even though he was panicking inside at the possibility of Mike finding a little of his own. What if he found the perfect one and decided that he wanted to move somewhere else to be happy with them? Or that he didn't have time to be Harvey's wing man? He couldn't let that happen. 

"Oh buddy, it's okay. No one knows but me. Just breathe darling."

Harvey flinched as one of Mike's hands came up to wipe away at a tear that was rolling down his cheek. He hadn't even noticed the fact that he had started crying, or that his body was now starting to  tremble like a leaf on a windy day.

More tears began to fall as the realization hit him. Here he was, one of the owners of the whole goddam firm, crying his eyes out in front of a partner on his tiny consulting couch. He was wearing the band of a fucking caregiver, and yet he was acting like a baby. He glanced out of the large windows that covered his office, the world looking like it was spinning. The lights were too bright, and the room was too hot, and he suddenly felt like he couldn't breathe. He tried to form a sentence, but all that came out of his lips was a pitiful cry.

His eyes snapped back to Mike as the man leaned towards him, wrapping his arms around his lower back. He felt himself being lifted from the couch and into the man's arms easily, as if he weighed almost nothing.

He let out another chocked sob as Mike pressed his face into his neck. He tried to shove away, but all his movements felt sluggish and weak. He was delirious with fear and pain. All of the years of fighting back his headspace had come crashing down on him in this moment, and he couldn't do anything to push him away. He dully remembered learning about something similar to this in his caregiving class before. Some sort of panic reaction that a little could have when under intense stress or...after spending too much time out of headspace and then suddenly crashing into it. 

Shit. 

Mike started to rock him gently, and he bit his lip in an attempt to stop all of his sobs. He was sure someone else would hear him and come running in. The last thing he needed was for him to be caught acting like a baby, and have his life torn apart more than it already was. 

But of course, all biting his lip did was make it start bleeding. He was too far gone to even try and hold anything back. His mind had broken the dam, and now everything was just flowing out.

He distantly felt the presence of Mike's recognizable sea breeze cologne around him. It made him smell like a tropical vacation, and Harvey tried desperately to calm himself down with that thought. He wished he was on vacation, far away from here. 

"It's okay Harvey," the man spoke up after a while. Or at least, those were the first words Harvey was able to actually hear.

"I promise it is all going to be okay. I know you must be so scared right now, and everything must look so big, right?"

Harvey managed to nod with a sniffle, barely able to hear Mike over the sound of his beating heart. He was breathing in whiffs of Mike's smell, his little side practically melting over having a caregiver so close by. He let out another small cry, although the majority of his wails had begun to diminish. The world still felt like it was caving in, but now there was Mike too, serving as a grounding rock for his mind. He was feeling more and more tired by the second, unconsciously leaning deeper into Mike's warm arms. He felt like he was going to pass out.

"It's okay little one, I'll take good care of you."

His quick breaths caught in that moment. The way Mike had just spoken to him...no one had ever had so much admiration and love in their voice when speaking to him.

"little one."

Just hearing those words made his chest tingle in a way it never had before. It made him feel so warm inside, and in that moment he realized why littles and caregivers needed each other. He felt Mike squeeze him tighter, still swaying his body back and forth softly. His eyes fluttered and his breathing began to slow.

"I'll take good care of you," was the last thing Harvey was able to comprehend before the world went dark.

-----------

Harvey's eyes cracked open again to find himself in the back of a car, which looked to be Ray's.

He was in the back, sitting in between Mike's legs, with his back pressed against the other's chest. There was soft music playing, and he found himself unable to keep his eyes open for much longer, glancing around as his vision grew blurry again. His head was still aching; and now his nose was all stuffed from crying, and he was undoubtedly still little.
But none of that mattered as long as he was snuggled in Mike's arms. His eyes fell shut, and he drooped further into the young man's arms, hearing one soft hum come from Mike in response before he faded back into unconsciousness.

——-

The next time Harvey opened his eyes, he found himself out of Ray's car, and in Mike's surprisingly strong arms as he carried him down a familiar hallway. Mike didn't seem to realize he had woken up, walking around in silence for a bit before he reached a door. Even through his fuzzy mind, Harvey recognized the dark oak door, and the number 100 written in gold blocks at the top.

He was home.

He breathed a tiny sigh of relief as Mike pulled out a spare key from his pocket and twisted open the lock—he had given Mike and Jessica keys to his place in case of emergency, but he had never expected them to be used like this.

He felt the cool, dry air from his apartment hit his skin as Mike pushed open the door and walked inside. He snuggled his face into the man's neck as he was carried past the kitchen and through the small walkway next to it, until he was finally brought to his room.

Sadly, the comfort of Mike's arms ended when he felt himself being placed on a soft surface, and the man's hands unwrapping from his waist.

His eyes, which he hadn't realized had drifted shut again, opened suddenly, and he found himself sat on the edge of his bed. A whine slipped between his lips as he rubbed his eyes and watched Mike walk away to open his closet and push around some clothes. Adult Harvey would have had a heart attack at the way Mike casually shoved through thousand dollar clothing...but all little Harvey could think about was how he wanted to be back in Mike's arms.

"Harv," Mike spoke, turning back to his friend. "I can't find...do you have any...small boy things?"

Harvey flushed and looked down, his current predicament coming back into his face with full force. As someone who never fell into his headspace, and actively tried to suppress it, Harvey didn't really have little things. He had considered buying something, maybe once a couple months ago, when he was in a bad state of mind; he had walked into a wall of little items at a small convenience store one night after a hard day of work, and had debated on getting a pacifier. Part of him had wondered if the insulting object would actually help calm his nerves, like the caregiving class he took had mentioned. But shame had quickly overcame him when he had seen a little and their caregiver walking into the isle, and he quickly left, not stopping to think about it until he was all the way home. Since then, he hadn't tried to buy any more things for his headspace...he didn't need them anyway. He was a caregiver after all.

Mike seemed to understand Harvey's silence, because he turned back to the closet with a small sigh, returning to the boy's side a moment later. He placed a pile of clothes on the bed next to him before turning to face his boss. "We'll need to get you some proper little boy clothes next time, but for now lets just get you into something comfy."

Harvey's eyes widened just a hint. Mike had said 'next time.' Harvey swallowed. Did that mean this wasn't just a one time thing? Mike wasn't going to just drop all he had seen today, was he? Well, he supposed it was reasonable that his friend wouldn't drop the fact that he, a caregiver, was now acting like a total—

His thoughts stopped when he felt a hand tug at his sleeve. "Come on baby, let's get these clothes off." Mike's sweet words seemed to coax him deeper into his headspace, so much so that it took an extra couple seconds for him to comprehend what the caregiver had said. By the time he had, Mike had already lifted up his arms and was carefully lifting the little's white-collared shirt over his head. Harvey blushed hard and quickly covered his bare chest once the shirt was off. His breathing began to pick up a bit again, as he was still overwhelmed from everything that was going on. It's not like others hadn't seen him naked before-in fact others often said that he had a perfect pack of abs-but for some reason anyone seeing him shirtless for any other reason than sex or a pool party made him deeply embarrassed. 

"Aaba" slipped suddenly through his lips and he blushed even more. One thing he could never get over was the fact that his headspace age was so young that forming words was practically impossible. Although he had obviously never taken the test to confirm his age, from the single time he had dropped into his headspace, he concluded that he was on the younger side. How fucking great.

Apparently though, Mike didn't think the babble was as humiliating as Harvey did, as his face brightened in a way that could only be described as absolute bliss.

"So you do have a voice," the man chuckled, reaching out to ruffle the little's hair. "You are so cute, I can't believe I couldn't tell you were a little sooner. I would've had you wrapped up in my arms years go."

Harvey let out another shallow breath at Mike's statement. He knew that it was pretty obvious that the cat was out of the bag, but Harvey had expected to be greeted with much more anger and frustration than Mike was showing. No, the caregiver seemed almost...happy? He couldn't figure out why.

Maybe his attitude would change once Harvey could manage to rip himself out of this awful drop...

He let out an embarrassed squeak and tried to scooch away as Mike reached for his dress pants. "Come on wiggly worm, help me out here" the man soothed in response as he struggled to pull down the little's trousers. Harvey bit his wobbling lip, still sore from earlier, and continued to push away. He knew Mike wasn't doing anything wrong, but all of this was just too much.
He felt Mike stop tugging at his bottoms after a little while. When he managed to take a breath and look back over at the man, he saw his eyes looking back at him with a soft expression. "Remember what I said? I said I would take care of you, right? Don't worry,  just let me help you out and we'll deal with everything else later, okay?" Mike made sure Harvey was watching as he brought forward one of the little's palms to plant a soft kiss. 

In the end, Mike won and was able to successfully grab and pull off the little's pants.

Now in nothing but his dark grey boxers, Harvey looked up at Mike with a look of embarrassment that was mixed with worry and sleepiness.

"I know, I'm sorry buddy," Mike spoke, once again dragging his hand through the little's hair, and Harvey hated to admit just how nice it felt. The caregiver pulled away after a moment and reached over to grab the clothes he had pulled from the closet. "These were the softest things I could find," he spoke, unfolding a dark blue sweatshirt and some grey sweatpants.

"Hands up," he spoke, and at that point Harvey was already too worn out from all the previous events to even pose a fight. So instead, he let out a tiny yawn and raised his arms like Mike had told him to. 

"Good boy," Mike cooed as he slid the sweatshirt over the little's head and then helped him slide his arms through the holes. For the pants, Mike had Harvey dangle his feet on the side of the bed so that he could slide them up the man's legs.

When Harvey was dressed, Mike got off the bed and took his boss's old clothes into the bathroom where his laundry basket was. However, the man returned before Harvey even had time to process much of what was going on. 

Mike sprawled himself out on the bed, this time pressing his back against the headboard. His arms reached forward and grabbed Harvey's waist, pulling the little towards him to lay in between his legs again, his back to the caregiver's chest.

"Rest now," the man spoke softly. "We'll talk about it all once you wake up."

Harvey knew he shouldn't be liking this. The way Mike's arms held him tight and kept him warm made him feel all bubbly inside, and he hated it. He also didn't know what he would say to the man once he was able to push himself up from the depths of regression; he was scared of having to face the reality of his situation, which he had been avoiding for years. 

However, he found it hard to focus on important matters. No, the little part of him was melting into Mike's arms and craving the man's soft touch and sweet voice. He sighed and brought his thumb to his mouth, practically unaware of what he was doing. He heard gentle humming noises start to fill the room, and closed his eyes when Mike wrapped his arms around him tighter. His thoughts started to fade away as Mike's slow rocking lulled him into sleep, and at last his body went limp and completely fell into the caregiver's embrace.

Chapter Text

When Harvey woke, the first thing he was met with was an awful headache. His lips were chapped and his throat felt dry, and he couldn't help but let out a small groan as he flipped over from his back to lay on his side. 

"Here, drink this," a soft voice spoke up through the haziness that surrounded him, although he was too out of it to realize who it was, or realize that someone was actually speaking to him. He felt something being pressed to his lips, something plastic. He opened his mouth and accepted whatever it was, already dozing off again. 

"Come on baby boy, drink."

Those words ripped him from his half-awake state and his eyes snapped open instantly, his body automatically pressing itself up to a sitting position while whatever had been in his mouth was pulled out. As his tired eyes adjusted to the brightness around him, he first realized that he was in his bed. He then realized that Mike Ross was sitting on the side of it, holding a sports bottle of what looked like water in his hands. 

"I see someone's up now," Mike laughed, reaching over to softy rub Harvey's shoulder. The name partner flinched in response and pushed the man's hand away.

"What's going on? What happened?" he asked through a groggily voice, searching through his mind for details from the night before. He remembered going to his office, and trying to distract himself by flipping through paperwork. The next thing he remembered, was waking up to see Mike and Rachel's faces, and then Mike wiping away his tears once Rachel had left, and taking him home and-

"Shit," Harvey murmured as he brought up a hand to run through his tangled hair. He kicked his legs from under the covers and off of the bed suddenly, pressing himself to a standing position.

"Please, forget you saw anything," He spoke urgently, already making his way over to the bathroom to splash water on his face. No way all of that had been real; this had to be a dream. He had always been so careful with his classification, what had happened?

He heard the bed creak behind him as he walked, and a moment later his hand was caught before he could reach for the door handle of the bathroom. He tried to pull it away, but the Mike's grip was surprisingly strong. 

"You know I can't do that Harv."

He sucked in a breath and stopped tugging his hand away at the sound of Mike's voice. It contained the usual snarky but polite tone. However...there was also a bit of pity, and something that sounded an awful lot like firmness. 

He turned to look at the man who he had once plucked off of the street and made his associate. Mike had always been his friend and his protégé...but the way the man was looking at him suddenly made him feel like the smaller one of the two.

Snapping out of his momentary silence, Harvey once again yanked his hand, managing to finally ease it out of Mike's grasp as the man had loosened his grip. He brought his now free palm up to his face to rub at his eyes again, hoping this was all one big, awful dream, and that he would just pinch his arm and wake up in bed. 

"It's not what it looks like," he managed, although he knew it was indeed exactly how it looked like.

He heard Mike sigh softly, and lowered his hand to look at the man's face. "We both know you're lying," Mike responded, giving him one of the looks a parent would give to their child after they had been caught doing something wrong. It made his stomach churn.

"Go ahead and go potty real quick, but I'll be waiting right here on your bed so we can talk about last night," the man spoke, and Harvey almost wanted to gag at the childish words he had used. However, instead of bringing it up, he turned around and opened the bathroom door, walking in and slamming it shut. He locked it and then leaned his back against it, trying to calm his breathing that had started to become erratic. He heard Mike's feet shuffle around in the other room, and then the small creak of the bed meaning he had probably sat down.

He swallowed and closed his eyes, listening to the loud thumping of his heart in his chest. Here he was, hiding in the bathroom, while his partner and friend, who was a caregiver, was waiting outside to talk about why he had hidden the fact that he was a little. 

He still couldn't believe that this had happened; this all felt like some sort of hallucination. He had hid this side of himself for years. He had taught himself how to suppress the sides of himself that always wanted to come out, and he had been so good at hiding the truth that even Donna of all people hadn't known. 

And yet, for some stupid reason, he had forgotten to take his pills, and had managed to screw up his whole life in a matter of hours. 

Feeling like he was choking, Harvey opened his eyes and stumbled over to the sink, already recognizing the spinning world around him as signs of a panic attack. He twisted the faucet handle and cupped his hands under the cold water, bringing them up after a second to splash his face, completely ignoring the fact that he had soaked his sleeves in the process. There were too many things to think about right now, and it was giving him a massive headache. And the fact that he felt all dizzy and fuzzy, what he had learnt to be a symptom of teetering headspaces, wasn't helping. He splashed his face a couple more times, the ice cold water helping a little to settle his erratic breathing, and then he stopped the faucet, grabbing a small towel to wipe himself down. 

Still feeling his heart thumping in his ears a bit louder than normal, he stumbled over to the toilet and nearly collapsed into the wall behind it before catching his bearings. Taking another deep breath to try and steady himself, he pushed himself to think about any hopes to his horrible situation as he sat down on the toilet seat and did his business. It was possible that he could get Mike to understand where everything that made him hide his classification had been coming from. Maybe he could prevent, or even force the man to keep his lips shut. He scoffed at the thought, trying his hardest to trick himself into believing that he could easily twist Mike's mind around. He was the best lawyer in all of New York after all, and Mike was his puppy; puppies always listened to the one in charge. 

Although, as he went about his business on the toilet, realizing exactly how close he had been to wetting the bed again, and in front of Mike too, his small bit of confidence quickly started to crumble, and was instead replaced with a large amount of embarrassment, and a bit of fear and frustration as well. He couldn't believe that the man he had hired had placed him on his lap to calm him down, carried him out of the office and all the way into his house, gotten him changed and tucked into bed, and had now told him to go potty before they spoke. The whole thing made him want to gag. 

He swallowed and finished his business, flushing the toilet before walking over to wash his hands. Once done with that, he looked at his disheveled appearance in the mirror and sighed once again. He wondered what time it was, if it was day or night. Maybe he had slept through the whole day, he wasn't sure. What he was positive about, was that his phone was most likely blowing up with messages and missed calls from the office. He wondered if it would even be his office anymore after all that had been seen.

Now that he thought about it, him being pulled out of his office in the early morning couldn't have happened without someone knowing the real reason behind it. He couldn't remember much from waking up there, but he could have sworn Jessica's name had been mentioned. He felt a tremor radiate through his body and his breath picked up again at the thought of his mentor knowing that he had hid this side of him from her for years. Although he wanted to deny it, deep down he knew that Mike wasn't going to let what he had seen the night before just slip away. And, as much as he hoped the man would just keep it between them two...he also knew that his friend was stubborn and would want to make sure Harvey was as healthy and cared for as possible, which definitely involved revealing the news about his classification into the official records.

So many things in his life were about to change, and he was terrified...

knock knock

"Harvey, you okay? You've been in there for almost 30 minutes."

The sound of his friend's voice ringing through the bathroom made him jump. He realized that he'd been staring at his stressed visage in the mirror for a little while now. Clearing his throat, he called out a small "I'm okay," praying that his voice didn't sound as wobbly as he thought it was. What he really needed right now was to down a handful of his suppressants. However, the closest bottle he had was hidden in the back of his medicine cabinet by his bed, and he'd first have to get through Mike to reach it. 

Swallowing his thoughts, he ran one more shaky hand through his disorganized hair and began to stumble his way towards the bathroom door. He unlocked the door and twisted it open, pushing it forward just a bit to see if Mike was waiting for him. He nearly blew a loud sigh of relief when he realized that there was no angry caregiver sitting on the bed, and that his room was empty. He heard the soft sound of pots clanging in the other room, and quickly walked over to the side of his bed and over to his bed side table. He knelt down and reached to pull open the small cabinet, his soaked sleeves dripping water onto his dark wood flooring as he did so. His heart continued to drum faster in his ears as he quickly searched through all the medications, looking for the familiar dark blue bottle that held the pills he needed. 

It took longer than normal to locate the medicine in the mix of all of the other items, but at last he grasped the familiar bottle, pulling it out of the cabinet and wasting no time in unscrewing the top and pouring a good amount of pills into his left palm. He normally took two or three per time, but now, at least six of them were ready to be thrown down his throat. 

But, all too late, he realized that the sound of pots clanging from the other room had stopped, and in one quick swipe the bottle was out of his hand, and the pills in his palm were smacked onto the floor. 

He gasped, blinking out of his trance. "What the fuck Mike!" he yelled, feeling his chest rise and fall quickly as he reached down to the floor to grab the medication that had fallen from his grasp. Everything was too much; he felt like a hormonal teenager all over again. The suppressants always numbed down his emotions and gave him his snarky lawyer attitude, but without them he could feel himself falling deeper and deeper into the pit that he had dug himself. 

Every pill he got close to was kicked away by Mike's feet, and after another moment two hands were hooked under his armpits and he found himself raised up into the air and then pressed against Mike's cotton shirt.

"Breathe, breathe Harvey," he heard as two hands pressed against his back and bottom, rocking him back and forth slowly. 

"Fuck," he breathed out, his ears ringing and his eyes starting to pool with tears. His hands went up to push away Mike, but the partner simply held him closer. "Fuck," he repeated, his voice sounding croaky and raw. 

"It's okay, I know," Mike soothed as he held his shaking friend in his arms. He had come walking into the room upon hearing the bathroom door open, only to see Harvey knelt next to his bed, looking close to a panic attack and about to down a whole handful of medication. He had ran over and swiped it away without a second thought, taking a second to get the image of the label stuck in his head before he had stuffed it in his pocket and lifted the man off of the floor. He thanked his caregiving muscles greatly as he cradled the lawyer towards him, his mind still whirring from everything that was going on. 

Harvey was a little. The man he had known for years, New York's best closer, the supposed 'golden caregiver' that all had looked up to, had actually been a little this whole time. And the suppressant bottle that he had just shoved into his pocket was no doubt the reason that he was able to hide it all for so long. 

The question he had was why. There were some theories he could come up with right away, for example he knew that the lawyering business wasn't exactly full of littles. But the thing that gave him the most concern, was the fact that every single one of Harvey Specter's record's had him labeled as a little; in order to get his job officials would have had to had looked into all of his stuff. No amount of altering and illegal encrypting could change the decades of information that all labeled the man as a little. As far as everything added up, it'd be more believable to say that Harvey had suddenly switched classifications the other day, than to say that he'd been a little his whole life. 

However, he pushed all of his questions aside for the moment, as the quick breaths and tremors of his mentor had him pulled into full-on caregiving mood. 

"It's okay man, it's just me, breath sweetheart." The pet names had been rolling off of his tongue since the moment Mike had found Harvey passed out in his office. But he couldn't help it. He wasn't even sure of the full story yet, or how everything had come to be, but some big caregiver part of his mind was already acting as if Harvey was his own little. And, it's not like the man actually had a caregiver, which was evident from the fact that no one, at least no one he was aware of, actually knew the true classification of the lawyer. It was all so confusing. 

"Here, just copy my breathing, okay?"

Harvey flinched as he felt Mike's chin rest against his head, which had been buried into the man's shoulder. He heard loud breathing noises through the thumping of his heart, and as freaked out and angry as he was, he tried his best to copy. He needed to get himself together so he could talk to Mike man-to-man; he needed to stop acting like a child, or any hope of this whole situation being thrown out of the window would be lost. He tried to focus on the things that had calmed him down back in the office. Breathing in as deeply as he could, he noted that Mike's sweet fragrance was still there, although very dim. It signaled to him that the man must not have gone home, and that Harvey had probably been asleep for more than just a few hours. Nevertheless, he focused on the faint smell, his breathing beginning to slow down as his body seemed to comprehend all of the caregiver pheromones wrapped around him. He closed his eyes and, for a moment, seemed to slip into his own world, all of the events of the day disappearing into thin air as he was held tight. 

However, all too soon Mike was pulling away from him, and he found himself looking up into the man's eyes as Mike still softly bounced him. 

"You feeling better?"

He shuddered.

"Jesus-put me down Mike."

The caregiver nodded, and after a second or two Harvey found himself being lowered back onto his bed, Mike's warm arms unraveling from around him. He almost had to bite back a small frown as part of him missed the nice comfort the contact provided. However, a moment later the man was sitting next to him, and he was close enough that some of his nerves began to settle again. 

"...So" Mike began after a couple seconds of silence. 

Harvey couldn't help but let out a pitiful scoff, raking his wet hands through his hair. "I don't want to beat around the bush. You saw what you saw. I'm a little. Please just forget everything that just happened."

He stuttered through his words, biting his lip painfully when he finished. He could practically hear the gears slowly twisting in the younger man's brain as Mike just stared at him, the caregiver's gaze falling down to where a green caregiver band rested wrapped around his wrist. Harvey pulled said arm behind his back when he noticed Mike staring; he felt a bit ashamed to be wearing it right now, given the situation.

At last, Mike's mouth opened. "You don't think I'd actually just forget about all of this right? What good of a friend and caregiver would I be?" Harvey instinctively dipped his head down a bit at the man's sweet but also stern words. It was pretty obvious that Mike was freaking out and that his caregiver instincts were taking over. However, the relaxed attitude he was still giving off proved just how hard he was trying to speak to Harvey as a friend and not a pestering caretaker.

"So," the younger man continued. "I'm not dropping this, and I have lots of questions. I have some theories. You're definitely breaking hundreds of safety laws right now. But I'm wondering if you did what I did and forged all of your documents? Or maybe you found a way to mess with your classification exam? Did you pay off the test taker? I  mean, maybe that would work. But I don't get it. How can you act and...how can every part about you scream caregiver, and yet you're a little? I mean, now that I know it seems practically obvious, but-"

"Just shut up Mike," Harvey interrupted. "I hope you're not expecting me to suddenly come clean about my whole entire life just because I did something stupid and you saw something you shouldn't have." Ignoring the way his body fought to stay next to Mike, Harvey pushed himself off of the bed and stood tall and mighty in front of his partner. He knew what Mike had wanted to say at the end of his rant before he had changed his words. He had meant to say that he didn't look like a little. And that was true. Most littles were naturally smaller and softer looking than neutrals or caregivers. However, he was basically the opposite. He didn't have much body hair other than his hair and occasionally face, like other littles. But that was basically the only thing he had in common with them. He was tall and muscly with a wide collarbone and overall domineering look. His voice was much lower than most littles too, and his skin wasn't the beautifully soft type that others of his classification had (Although that could be because he never cared to moisturize). All in all, he was not little material, and maybe Mike would realize that he was better off as a caregiver anyway-he hoped he realized that.

"I'm glad it was you who found me in my office that morning, whenever that was," he spoke at last, clearing his throat and hoping that the few tears he had shed a little while ago were all dried up. "And thank you for taking care of me and not completely flipping out over this whole thing. But you need to drop it and leave; no one should have ever found out."

Sighing, he closed his eyes and turned away from the bed, prepared to storm out of his bedroom and even out of the house in his pajamas until Mike gathered his senses and left him alone. He needed his phone too, which he had no idea where it was, to see how many work calls and emails he might have missed due to his sudden leave. Damn it, he really needed his pills.

However, just as he took a step forward, Mike grabbed one of his hands and tugged him back. 

"I'm sorry you feel like you made a mistake for dropping in the office and having me see. But I am not leaving your side until I get a good answer for everything that has been going on. And then me and you are going to get a check up at the hospital, I've already made a reservation for a couple hours from now." The slack-eyed look on Harvey's face in response to the caregiver's statement almost made Mike crack a smile. However, he willed himself to stay in control, focusing on the little's wet sleeve wrapped in his hand. 

"What the fuck Mike, you can't just do that!" Harvey yelled in response after a momentary silence, trying to rip his hand away. However, the caregiver held it tightly. "I can't go to the doctor's, my entire life would be done!"

"You can and you will," Mike declared in response, taking in Harvey's reactions very carefully. The man was yelling with an angry voice and his tugging on Mike's arm was rough. However, his face seemed to be more freaked out and worried than angry. 

"You don't-agh-you don't understand! Goddamn it Mike, where'd you even get this strong of a grip?!" Harvey tugged with all his force again, managing to pull his hand free from Mike's for just a second until it was grabbed tightly again. His vision was growing hazy and he was totally sure he was freaking out again. However, all of his therapist's advice on what to do when he was in the state he was in went out of the window as he could barely think.

"Then help me understand Harvey, tell me what's going on. Because right now all I see is my best friend, who is supposed to be a five star caregiver, experiencing panic attack over panic attack because he's actually a little who has been hiding his classification from the world and had been found out. So get a grip of yourself for one second and tell me why so I can help you!"

"..."

The caregiver was driven into stunned silence as he watched Harvey stop tugging and practically freeze suddenly in response to his raised voice, all fight in his body evaporating. The little was looking at the floor again, his hair blocking Mike from seeing his eyes, and his lip dangerously close to wobbling. 

Mike breathed in slowly, suddenly feeling beyond guilty for his horrible control over his emotions. "Shit Harvey, I'm so-"

"I didn't forge any documents or anything Mike," came Harvey's quiet and noticeably strained voice, cutting the caregiver off mid apology. 

"I was classified as a fucking caregiver, honestly. But-it's just that I was one of the special cases. I matured to-too late, and it caused my first test to be faulty."

Mike heard a soft sniffle, and then watched as a tear fell from Harvey's hair-hidden face and onto the wood floor. The man's hand was trembling in his own now, and he was hit with an even greater wave of guilt for having set his friend off. He wanted to pull him close, but he also didn't want to interrupt Harvey from giving the explanation that he so desperately needed to know.

"I figured out that I actually was a little after a couple months of working with Jessica," Harvey continued, bringing up the hand that Mike wasn't holding onto to wipe the tears from his face. He hated how emotional he was being, and part of him wanted to crouch down and see if he could find any of the kicked away pills under the bed. But he took a shaky breath and continued speaking, knowing very well that Mike wouldn't react well to him trying to shove dust-covered medication into his mouth-he'd have to wait until the man left the room. 

"I never went to fix my classification, which is why every single document has me labeled as a caregiver," he spoke. "I just take suppressants, and I end out okay."

As he finished speaking, he felt his other hand being grabbed as well, and he raised his head to see Mike's both surprised and worried facial expression. 

"Why?"

For some reason, the simple question got Harvey's blood boiling again.

"...Why?" he ask, repeating Mike's question as his panicked gaze bored into the caregiver's suddenly feeling much more brave than a second ago.

"Because if the world knew, then all of my life's plans would have gone to shit!" he yelled, ripping his hands out of Mike's to run them through his hair again. Mike stood up to grab him into some sort of hug, but he pushed away. "You don't get it Mike!" he continued. "I was on the path to be one of the best lawyers New York has, and you know as well as me that being a little in the lawyering field is tough as hell. My life was already in shambles because of my family, and I was finally finding a path and-and if I had gotten reclassified I could've lost my job, and I would've been put in one of those little orphanage systems and...God damn it Mike, no one can know..."

As he finished ranting out his heart, he was well aware of the fact that Mike  was now reaching out to him again, and this time he allowed the man to grab his shoulders and pull him close. He felt angry, but not really at Mike. More of at himself for being so stupid, and at the world for believing that littles weren't as capable as the other classes.

"I'm sorry," Mike said at last as his arms wrapped around Harvey again and held him close. He felt the man tremble in his grasp, and he hated himself for how much me had managed to make the man cry in such a short amount of time; he hadn't expected everything to go down like this. It was clear that Harvey's classification had been causing him a great deal of stress his whole life, and he longed to change that; to show him how being a little wasn't all bad. 

Still, he understood exactly why Harvey was freaking out. From the moment he'd met the guy, he could tell exactly how much Harvey loved his job, and how big of a part of his personality it was. In fact, other than attending therapy, early morning runs, and the occasional fling, Mike rarely heard of anything revolving the man's out-of-work life. But, if Harvey's little classification were to get out, he'd have to go through a lot of hoops to keep his job, and even if he could, the reality was that he needed a caregiver to care for him, and based on his classification age ( which he'd already assumed to be pretty young), he would need a special schedule to help satisfy his headspace needs. He'd probably be placed in the little care system, and could end up with who knows where and with what type of caregiver.

Sighing, Mike brought a hand to rub the top of Harvey's head. There was no way Harvey was going to get out of going to the doctors and getting checked out. and there was no way that the office-and probably all of New York- wasn't going to hear about the man's actual classification. But there was also no way Mike would let Harvey lose his job or get stuck in the little foster care system; he'd make sure of it. It had been less than 24 hours since he had found Harvey little in his office, and already he had a whole new respect and love for the man. He had been on the search for a little of his own for years, and all of a sudden it was like he was complete; he had found the perfect one. 

"I promise you Harvey," Mike spoke as Harvey's breathing started to slow and the man grew slacker in his grasp. "You're not going to lose anything by being re-classified. Sure, things will probably change, but I promise you will keep your job, and I will not have anyone take you away from m-from us."

"..."

Mike felt Harvey press closer without him forcing it. 

"...How do you know that?" came his shaky voice. The question was full of so much pure innocence that Mike had to swallow a coo. It was unlike Harvey to sound so vulnerable. But then again, nothing he'd seen in the past couple hours was typical Harvey behavior.

"'Cause I'm a lawyer, and I've been taught by one of the best lawyers there are. I know how to defend my ground. And I'm crazy smart."

Mike's voice drifted off as he heard a small snort come from the face buried in his chest. "You're not that smart," he heard Harvey say, and he breathed a large sigh of relief, glad that the man's usual spunk had come back, a sign that he wasn't full-on panicking anymore. He felt the caregiver part of him flourishing as he rubbed his hand through Harvey's hair, and then wiped away the tears on his cheeks when the little looked up. He hadn't gotten to really care for a little in so long and, despite the not exactly pleasant circumstances, he felt better because of it. 

After staying wrapped up in his arms a little longer, Harvey pulled away awkwardly and looked off to the side. "Sorry," he whispered, his face flushing as he realized that all he had been doing since he had woken up was act like a baby, which had been the exact thing he had tried to prevent. Mike's soft laugh made him bubble inside though, and he looked back at the man. 

"There's nothing to be sorry for," Mike soothed. "If anything, I should be the one apologizing. I'm the one who barged into your house, and basically did whatever I want. I also pushed you way too far, way too quickly."

Harvey couldn't help but crack a small, quick smile again. No matter the severity of the situation, Mike could always manage to make him a bit less gloomy. "It's okay...you had a good reason for doing so."

This time, the smile on Mike's face was much more sympathetic as he gently placed a hand on Harvey's shoulder. 

"We'll talk more about the appointment and everything over brunch; I made us some food. Change into a new top though, this one is all wet."

Harvey watched as Mike lowered his hand and then walked back over to his closet, opening it and looking around. He probably could have said something about being able to pick his own clothes, but part of him naturally followed the caregiver's instructions, quietly nodding a thanks as Mike handed him a soft black top a few moments later. Then, the caregiver bent down to the floor and picked up the remainder of the pills that were still strewn about. Harvey just watched him silently, part of him realizing that he'd briefly forgotten all about the medication, and that he really needed to take it soon, otherwise it would all be out of his system by tomorrow and he'd be an even bigger mess than he already was. But the thought of Mike's disappointed face in his mind made him hesitate on that thought for a bit.

It looked like Mike wanted to say something as he stood back up, but after a second the lawyer just flashed him a smile, walking out of the room and leaving the door half open and a very flustered Harvey Specter all alone.

Chapter Text

 Harvey heard the sound of sweet, soft humming as he slowly made his way over to the kitchen where Mike had told him to meet up. The black long-sleeved top that he had taken his sweet time dressing into felt a lot nicer than the slightly damp one he had been in earlier. 

He was feeling anxious, like really anxious. Although Mike had truthfully managed to calm him down more than he thought was possible, his mind was still spinning with the reality of his current situation. Mike knew he was a little. And, surprisingly, the man hadn't bit his head off about keeping his classification a secret from him. True, he could tell that Mike was a bit disappointed, but the man seemed more worried for him than anything else, which felt oddly...comforting? 

However, the biggest thing that was bothering him at the very moment was the fact that Mike had booked him a doctor's appointment, which meant that, in the next couple of hours, his classification could very possibly be made public information to the world to see. Basically, he was about to lose his job, get stripped of any sense of dignity, and get sent off to a little orphanage to be paired with strangers unless he could find someone to take care of him. Great.

As he entered the kitchen, he immediately saw that his island bar table was stacked full of breakfast items. He could see pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, fruits, buttered toast, and more. It looked like a five star meal, and instantly he was wondering if Mike had actually made all this food for the two of them. 

Speaking of Mike, the man was sitting in one of the bar seats, staring at him with a sweet smile on his face. "Hey there," the caregiver spoke, "come sit down and eat while the food is still warm. Hopefully you'll like it." Harvey noticed Mike pat the seat right next to him, so he took it as a cue to sit there. 

Resting himself down on the chair, he was slid a cup of what looked to be orange juice, and he heard the clinking of silverware as Mike started piling food on his plate without his consent. "Don't look at me like that," Mike half-laughed, probably noticing the small glare he was giving him. "I promise I'm not going to poison you; I'm not that bad of a cook." Giving a small eye-roll in response, Harvey reached out to the cup of orange juice in front of him, taking a sip as he watched Mike finish filling up both of their plates. He could tell the man was hiding his deep concern and confusion with a small smile, and he could also understand why he was acting weird. Afterall, how was someone supposed to act when their boss and closest friend suddenly seemed like a whole new person? 

His eyes subconsciously darted quickly to Mike's pant pockets, where the suppressant pills had been stored away. Earlier you could see the faint bulge of the pill bottle through the thin fabric of the man's bottoms. But now, it looked as if his pockets were empty; Mike must've hidden or thrown away the pills. He glanced toward the kitchen trash can briefly as well, wondering of he should look inside to see if they were in there. But then reality hit him and he realized that Mike wouldn't be dumb enough to put the medication in such an easy spot. That, and the man would long stop him before he tried to dig his hands in the filthy trash.

"So..." Mike spoke up, and Harvey's eyes snapped back over to look at the man who seemed to understand almost instantly why he had been looking at the trash can. "About the appointment," the caregiver dragged out, picking up a grape from his plate and tossing it in his mouth. 

"I'm getting reclassified?" Harvey asked, with original intent to sound somewhat annoyed, even though his words instead came out awfully shaky. Cringing a bit at himself, he breathed out softly and reached for a piece of buttered toast on his plate, taking a large bite. He felt Mike's eyes linger on him before the man sighed softly. "Yes, I called and told the people that we were going to come in and get you to retake the test. They had lots of questions, but I didn't answer much."

Harvey simply nodded, eyes directed towards his plate as he continued to chew on the food in his mouth. This whole situation was awful. But then again, he knew he should be lucky that Mike was the first one who had found out, not some stranger, or someone like Lewis. Mike seemed to understand how much he had at stake here, and it showed through small acts, such as how the man hadn't immediately told the office about his classification, or how he had given the doctors only the information they needed, and no more. It was sucky that the man had even called for a doctor appointment in the first place, true. But then again, he could understand why; it was perfectly reasonable. So he guessed he could suck it up and go...he had no choice but to do just that.

Even though he knew by the end of the day, there was a chance he could lose everything he'd built himself up to be. 

"Harvey?" Mike spoke up after a moment, his voice suddenly much softer. Harvey looked up in response to meet the man's eyes, sensing nothing but worry. "You okay? Or, er-  at least as okay as you can be right now?" He thought back to just a couple minutes ago, where he had been practically having a tantrum while Mike tried to keep him from running away and overdosing on medication. "All of this fucking sucks, Mike." 

He heard a small scoff come from Mike as the caregiver reached forward to place a consoling hand on his shoulder. It made his mind grow fuzzy for a second, and he had to bite back a comment about how Mike had probably just destroyed hundreds of dollars of suppressants that he really needed right now. "I know, I know," the man soothed with a small smile, and he knew that it was clear he wasn't acting like the adult he should be. "But, like I said, I promise we'll figure this all out, and one of these days you'll be feeling better than ever before."

He simply let out his own small scoff, grabbing his fork to carefully pull off a piece of pancake on his plate when Mike let go of his shoulder. He could see the man's eyes darting from the way he sliced parts of his pancake with a fork, to the knife that laid next to the plate, and he quickly pushed the unused utensil aside before the caregiver would decide to take action and cut up his food. That would just make everything a lot more embarrassing.

"What's going on with the firm?" he asked instead, in between bites of pancake. "What bull shit did you and Rachel say to excuse the fact that I just left work uncalled for? And where's my phone? It's probably combusting with however many calls and texts I've gotten by now." He watched as Mike ate a large spoonful of scrambled eggs before speaking. "As far as I know, all Rachel told Jessica was that you had passed out and looked pretty sick, so I took you home and was watching over you. Jessica called me at some point yesterday to ask for details, but I told her we'd stop by today after the doctors to clear things up. She wasn't too happy about that, but this conversation is one that should happen in person." Mike put down his spoon and reached for his cup of juice. "Also, I took your phone, and I have no intention of giving it back until after the appointment because I know if you see it you're just going to get overwhelmed and distracted, and try to push away everything that's happened." 

"...Jeez," Harvey quietly stated after a moment of looking at Mike's protective expression. "Someone hasn't gotten their caregiver time in a while, have they?"

It was common knowledge in society that caregivers, along with littles, could experience difficulties with a lack of headspace time. Caregivers flourished by caring for other littles and drinking in the hormones that they produced naturally, and while often just being near a little was enough, some caregivers needed to have prolonged time with one in headspace to satisfy their needs. Otherwise it could leave them overly stressed or clingy, and very protective to those around them, even other caregivers. For the couple of years that he'd fully believed he was a caregiver, Harvey had often scheduled visits to little daycares or orphanages once a week or so to play, or simply interact, with whatever littles were there. He'd always noticed how being near a little in headspace did the opposite to him than what it did to other caregivers-it made him oddly tingly-but he'd never realized why until later, so instead he would gravitate towards the littles who were out of headspace and helping with tasks around the facilities, and just tag along with them.

"It's called being a caring friend," Mike huffed in retaliation as he continued to eat his eggs. "I have all the right to be worried about you, and the last thing you should be doing right now is caring about how many times Lewis or Donna spam-called your cell."

"So they did call."

Mike gave him a pointed look before sighing with a soft smile. "Just finish your food you brat. We need to get going soon."

"I can't believe that you would call your boss a brat."

"I can't believe you would hide your cuteness from me."

"Shut up."

"No."

--------------------

"Alright, we have arrived. What time should I be back by?"

Mike turned his attention from the scenery outside of the car's back window to look at Ray. "In about two and a half to three hours would be great. We can message if anything changes." Mike could see Ray nod with a smile through the rear view mirror before the man's gaze shifted towards Harvey. The lawyer looked really zoned out, probably not even realizing that the car had pulled into the parking lot in front of the hospital building. He'd been like this ever since entering the car, whatever spunk shining through at brunch earlier evaporating back into nervousness and worry. It pained him to see his friend like this, but he also knew that they needed to get this appointment out of the way before Harvey could start actually fixing his life for the better. The way he was living right now was not healthy in the slightest, and it was honestly surprising the man hadn't already dropped dead from the mental and physical strain of denying his classification months ago. 

But never mind all the things that could have gone wrong; right now, they were here to start fixing it. 

Reaching over slowly, Mike gently rested his hand on Harvey's closest shoulder, making the man flinch a bit. The little's eyes turned towards him and he offered a sweet smile. "We're here," he spoke, "ready to get out?" He watched with mild amusement as Harvey quickly looked out of the car, seeming a bit surprised to find it right next to the hospital. Then, the lawyer turned back to him and shrugged off the hand on his shoulder, mumbling something that sounded like a "yeah," before opening the car door. Harvey pushed himself out of the car, giving a thanks to Ray before shutting the door and standing outside. Mike followed and did something similar, thanking Ray and promising to take care of the older man, before he too got himself out of the car. 

He walked over to Harvey who was staring silently at the entrance to the hospital building with a look of hatred plastered on his face. It made him stifle a small laugh, before he forced himself to gain his composure and start walking, Harvey eventually matching his stride. This was serious, and no amount of attempting to lighten the mood would help the fact that, once Harvey got his classification, his world would change completely. Past the part of them being the best of friends, it really pained him to see a little in need, one so desperately pushing away their classification. It was sickening, and the thought of it all made him want to grasp Harvey's hand tightly. He restrained himself though, instead walking silently alongside his friend as they made their way into the hospital and towards the classification wing. 

Mike eventually stopped at the welcome desk, where a cheery lady who looked to be in her late 50's sat to greet them. "Hey there!" the lady spoke, and Mike could instantly sense the caregiver waves she was giving off. He wondered if the caregiver's energy would be affecting Harvey like it did other littles-by making his head feel fuzzy-but he glanced over to the man quickly and saw no emotion other than compressed anxiety on his face. Maybe the medication he had been taking was suppressing his reactions. Or maybe it was because all of his time believing he had been a caregiver had gave him a sort of immunity to caregiver hormones. "What can I do for you fellas today? Picking up a patient perhaps?" Mike shook his head in response. "Hello. Uh, no. Actually, we're here to get the classification test readministered? I called the other day and you guys said something about fitting us in?" 

The desk lady looked over the two of them in thought for a moment before nodding. "Oh yes, I remember! It's hard to forget when someone asks for a reclassification exam, especially so many years after their original one; It's very rare to see." Mike nodded along, glancing again at Harvey, who was doing the opposite of what normal Harvey Specter would be doing: cowering behind him instead of stealing the spotlight. 

"So, which one of you fellows is here for the test?" The lady asked, although she seemed to already be staring down Harvey. "I am," Harvey spoke up after a moment, his voice sounding oddly causal considering his body language was giving scared cat.

"Okay," the lady spoke, pulling something from under her desk. It was a stapled sheet of papers. She also pulled out a blue pen before turning to her computer. "I'm going to have you fill those out in a moment," she spoke, probably directed at Harvey. "I just need some quick verifying info real quick. What are your names?"

"Mike Ross and Harvey Specter," Mike spoke up after a moment, when it looked like Harvey had gone mute again. "M'kay, and can I see both of your licenses and classification Id's?" the lady spoke up again as she typed away on her computer. Mike nodded and pulled out his wallet to take out his cards, watching through his peripheral vision as Harvey did the same. They both handed them over, watching as the lady took a minute or so to look over the data and type some more things in. 

"Okay, all done. The doctor should be here shortly," she finally said as she handed back their cards. "In the meantime, just fill out the information in that packet, and then bring it back up here when you're done!"

"Thank you," Mike spoke, listening as Harvey also spoke his thanks and picked up the paperwork and pen, before they both turned to walk away. However, the woman stopped them with a quick question before they could go anywhere. 

"Mr. Specter, I see that you've been labeled as a caregiver. Do you think you might be a neutral because you haven't gotten any attachment to a little yet? Because, friendly advice, I assure you that it is completely normal for some. It just means you haven't found the one yet. Don't lose hope if this reclassification doesn't change anything."

"Thanks, I'll be sure to keep that in mind," Harvey spoke, and when Mike saw the man's face as he turned back around to walk away, he could see the flash of pain in his eyes. It made his heart ache.

-----------

"Harvey Specter?"

Said man looked up upon hearing his name called. He had been sitting next to Mike silently in the waiting room for almost an hour now, and his nerves were boiling over. Truth be told, he had seriously considered getting up and walking out of the goddamn hospital many times, especially while he was filling out that tedious packet. But every time he started to stir, Mike would speak up with some small reassurance, reminding him of the reason he had ended up here in the first place. So yeah, he had ended up staying. 

"He's right over here," Mike spoke towards the doctor at the door, pushing his back slightly. Apparently he'd been too zoned out to answer the man with the white coat and large smile. Pushing himself up to a standing position, he adjusted the sleeves on his shirt, realizing that he was wearing the same pants that Mike had dressed him into earlier. He pushed the thought from his head when he felt his face grow warm, walking towards the smiling doctor and only stopping when he realized that Mike wasn't beside him. He twisted around to find the man still seated, looking at him with his own soft smile. 

"Mike?" he spoke up softly, not realizing he'd even spoken until he heard shuffling coming from behind him and suddenly the doctor was standing next to him, telling Mike he could come along if he wished. Mike seemed to be pleased at that, pressing himself up and walking over to them. Meanwhile, Harvey turned his attention to the doctor man, looking him over. He was similar in build to himself, and just a bit taller in height with black hair and tan, olive skin. The coat he wore was white and covered with small stickers and smiles, making it obvious as to what type of doctor he was. The nametag on the top of the coat said Tristian. 

"Follow me this way, gentlemen," the man said as he opened the door out of the waiting room and held it open. "My name is Tristian, and I'll be administering the re-classification exam today."

Harvey hummed in acknowledgement, following Tristian as he walked through the building, Mike close by his side. It was embarrassing to admit it, but he was glad Mike was allowed to come with. He already knew what the results of this retest would be, and he would like the man to be there to hopefully prevent him from completely falling apart. He sighed as they entered a room. He shouldn't have gone along with this; there must have been some other way for him to get Mike off of his back without it ending in wrecking his life. 

He took a seat on the medical bed in the center of the room they entered as directed, watching as Mike gave him another warm smile before sitting himself down in a chair against the wall. "Okay, this exam is basically the same as the one you first took when you were classified," the doctor began. "We will take some body measurements, and then a blood sample. Then you guys will wait here for a bit while I collect the results and we'll see if your classification was faulty or not. First though, I have some questions, just to make things a bit easier." Harvey nodded, watching as the man picked up a clipboard with paper and a pen before continuing. 

"First off, I want to know how sure you are that your classification has been wrong, and how long you've thought this for."

Harvey cleared his throat, mustering his lawyer confidence, which seemed to be getting harder and harder to do by the minute. 

"I'm pretty positive that It's wrong and...well, I've thought so for a while." He watched as Tristian scribbled something down, probably noting how he hadn't given him a specific amount of time, before looking back up. "You know the smart thing to do would have been to come get retested the second you felt something was off," the man said softly, and his eyes looked at him almost knowingly and full of worry when he asked "...and what class do you think you are?"

He swallowed, his throat suddenly feeling too dry at the man's question. Glancing over to Mike again, he saw him give his most encouraging look, and he felt his body start to tremble slightly before he willed it to stop. He could feel his heart starting to thump louder in his chest, but he forced himself to push back the wave of fear and speak. "I..I..um...". He cleared his throat, feeling his cheeks grow pink in embarrassment. He'd never been at such a loss for words before. He managed to take a breath before continuing. "I'm a little."

He exhaled loudly once he finally said it; once he finally spoke the words into existence. He knew there was no going back now, and soon his 'Golden Caregiver' status would be a thing of the past.

He heard the doctor let out his own breath, seeing the poorly concealed look of pity in his eyes. He glanced over to Mike and saw he had a similar expression, although his was partly hidden by a smile. "Well then," Tristian said, "I say we get on with this test fast! You don't want to be stuck with the wrong classification any longer than you should be." Harvey simply nodded, catching onto the slight change of the man's voice from earlier. It was still as sweet and welcoming as it had been, but now there seemed to be a hint of protectiveness as well, probably because the man's caregiver side was now realizing that there was a little in the room as well. 

Doctor Tristian walked over to the wall next to the door, and pointed to a scale, which he instructed Harvey to stand on after he had taken off his shoes. He did as he was told, and the man got his height and weight before he was instructed to sit back down so they could get his blood pressure.

After getting his arm strapped up and then doing a couple other basic checks, Harvey eventually found himself nervously waiting for the doctor to prepare a needle. He could feel hot sweat dripping down his back, and the tourniquet, which had been tied on his upper right arm, was getting more and more annoying by the second. His heart had been racing since the whole exam started, and it continued to do so, if not faster than before. He glanced back over to Mike when he saw Dr. Tristian rip open an alcohol wipe to disinfect the area on his arm where the blood was going to be drawn, and he saw the man smile at him. The same tight-lipped, nervous smile that the man had been wearing this whole time. Mike had been largely quiet since the exam started, but he seemed to keep his eyes trained onto to him, something that both creeped him out and comforted him. 

"Okay, you ready for the needle? It's just gonna be a small pinch and It'll feel weird for a couple of seconds, but then you'll be all done." 

Harvey swallowed loudly again when he finally saw the size of the needle. It wasn't that large or anything, but he hadn't gotten his blood drawn or recieved a shot in a while so he was kind of tense. When he looked at the doctors eyes, he saw the man giving him a sympathetic smile, and he forced himself to get it together. It was harder to control his emotions without the surpressants, but he'd try his damn best. 

"Yeah, go for it," he muttered, his left hand clenching the protective paper wrap covering the bed that he sat on. He watched as the doctor knelt down to get a better angle for the shot, and he was so focused on the needle that he didn't realize Mike had moved until suddenly the man's hand pulled his clammy one off the paper and into his own. He turned to look at the younger man, the surprise probably evident in his gaze, because it made Mike chuckle despite the tense atmosphere. "Don't worry, squeeze my hand instead of the paper," the man spoke, and he felt his face warm up again. Gosh, he was acting like such a dumb-

He willed his body not to jump when he suddenly felt something prick his right arm-the one that the needle was supposed to go in-and he turned his head sharply to the side to see that the needle had in fact already been pushed into one of his veins. He watched as red slowly filled up the blood vile, too shocked that he'd been tricked to notice Mike's small giggles, or the fact that he was squeezing the man's hand tightly. In fact, he'd only realized he was a little bit too tense when he felt Mike's free hand come to mess with his hair, and his soft voice telling him to relax and that it was almost done. He forced himself to release Mike's hand slightly at those words, mentally telling himself not to be a coward. 

Luckily though, after a couple more seconds, Tristian said he had collected enough blood and, before he could even think to prepare himself, the needle was pulled from his arm, and a small cotton ball replaced it. He really did jump at that part, not that it hurt or anything, watching as the doctor held the ball in place as he grabbed a bandage from his pouch-he tried not to notice how the man got one that was covered in yellow stars instead of one of the plain ones-and then quickly replaced the cotton with the bandage before pulling the shirt sleeve back down.

"Good job, we're all done," Tristian hummed, and Harvey tried not to frown at the obvious caregiver tone in the man's voice. He was pretty sure the way he had acted with the needle all but confirmed the doctor's suspicions of him being a little. It was normal for people to be afraid of needles, but it wasn't all that common to see a caregiver holding onto another caregiver for dear life like a little would. He simply nodded in response, awkwardly grabbing a lollipop out of the doctor's hand when he offered them for the sugar. 

Tristian stood up, adjusting the nametag on his coat. "Alright fellas," he spoke, "I should be back in about half an hour with the results, so just get comfy here in the meantime. The bathroom is out the door to your left, and the welcome desk can help you if you need anything." 

"Thank you," Mike spoke for the both of them while Harvey awkwardly fiddled with the wrapping of the lollipop. He tore off the wrapper and curled it in his hand, sticking the grape-flavored dummy in his mouth. He might have been trying to avoid acting childish, but, sue him, lollypops were good, and he tried to distract himself from everything that was going on while he sucked on the sweet candy. 

When the doctor left the room, Mike let out a soft sigh, and turned back to Harvey. "Give me the wrapper," he spoke in an obvious caregiver tone, and Harvey uncurled his fist, letting said wrapper drop into the man's hand without a complaint. He watched as Mike stood up to throw it away, and tried to hide the nervousness on his face when the man turned back around and pulled up a chair next to him. 

"How was it?" Mike asked, and Harvey wondered if he was referring to the needle, or the whole visit so far. He simply hummed while he quietly sucked on the lollypop, not exactly cluing the caregiver in to his internal panic. He heard Mike sigh again, and suddenly he felt a hand in his hair again, rubbing his head softly. It was a bit awkward to have his subordinate treat him like this...but it wasn't exactly bad so he stayed put. 

"It's okay to be freaked out man," Mike continued, and it made him realize that he might not have been as good as hiding his emotions as he thought. "I mean, your entire world has just been flipped over all in a matter of hours," the caregiver went on, almost as if he was trying to get a rise out of him. Maybe to help him blow off some steam instead of keeping it all bottled in, he didn't know. Truthfully, he could feel the waterworks churning, and his eyes just waiting to fill up with tears. But he couldn't cry just yet. Not in a hospital, where everyone could see him. He'd try his hardest to keep the pain at pay, at least until he could be alone.

"What do you want me to say Mike?" he countered when the younger man went silent. By now the lollypop in his mouth had halved in size, and he bit down on it, breaking the candy to pieces and chewing on the rest. He kept the stick part of it in his mouth though, continuing to bite the plastic after the candy was gone. "I'm fucking terrified, and fucking pissed, and fucking tired. But I'm trying my damn hardest not to show it." He went quiet again after that, believing that his string of cuss words had gotten the memo across.

He heard Mike sigh again, and the hand in his hair started to massage slower and deeper.  "Harv...". Mike stopped speaking after that too, and he understood why. He knew the man had things he wanted to say, lots of them. But the man also knew that nothing said now would calm his nerves. He just had to hear the results for himself, and then Mike could focus on helping him through the outcome. 

He let his eyes fall shut, head slightly falling into Mike's warm hand as he tried to calm his racing heart, mentally counting down the minutes until the doctor walked back through that door and his life would change forever.

He remembered part of what Mike had told him that morning when he had fallen into his headspace; the caregiver said that he would take care of him. It was a tall task, but part of him hoped that he hadn't been bluffing when he'd said that. 

Because he really didn't know if he could make it alone anymore. 

Chapter Text

He hadn't noticed that anyone had entered the hospital room until he heard a small hum come from Mike as the man stopped running his hand through his hair. His eyes, which had been shut, cracked open, and he forced himself to stop leaning against Mike's hand as he saw two figures enter the room. One he recognized instantly to be doctor Tristian from earlier. He came in first, holding a clipboard and something else wrapped in his free hand. A large smile embroidered his face, although it looked a bit forced. Another person came in behind him-a woman with black square glasses and brown hair in a bob. She also held a clipboard, but she lacked the large smile Tristian wore, her face instead resting neutral. 

"I hope the wait wasn't too long," Tristian spoke as he walked over to stand in front of him and Mike. "You're results are ready though. Could I please see your arm? The one with the band?"

Harvey blinked slowly, his mind still catching up from his semi-dozed off state as he slowly raised his right arm up towards the doctor. Tristian hummed, placing down his clipboard and reaching forward to roll up his sleeve, revealing the light green caregiving band that had been there since he was 18. He watched as the man slipped a pair of scissors from his coat pocket and, in one quick snip, the green band on his arm dropped onto his lap. He blinked, looking at his bare  wrist. There it went, his caregiver status gone in just a second; his reputation as the perfect caregiver thrown out of the window. 

He watched as Tristian put away his scissors and uncurled his palm, revealing the item that had previously been hidden. It was a yellow band. A little band. Somehow, seeing it now in person made everything that was happening all the more real, and he couldn't help but flinch as Tristian brought said band up to his hand. It was slipped on his wrist and twisted around a bit before the man let go, and he continued to stare at it long after. 

"Harvey Reginald Specter, I, Tristian Stranov, officially classify you as a little." 

Through the buzz growling in his ears, Harvey listened to the doctor speak as he picked up his clipboard. "Mr. Specter, your suspicions were right; your classification was wrongly assessed. You are a little, with your headspace age ranging from eight months to about two years. Because of your young headspace, you are in the category of littles that require a greater time in headspace than most. Also, saying it lightly...your vitals are not healthy. You are severely headspace deprived, and-"

"So basically I need little time," Harvey cut off after a moment, his head racing too much to try and comprehend all of the specifics the man was bringing up. "...Yes" Tristian responded, sounding a bit worried as he pulled a stapled stack of paper off of his clipboard. "It's really not good at all. This sheet has a breakdown of it all, as well as a name for a prescription that you will need take to aid in restoring the vitals your body is lacking. You'll also need to come into a hospital, or at least have a general clinic checkup, twice a month for the foreseeable future."

Harvey watched as Tristian handed the sheet of paper to Mike instead of him. And when he glanced over in his friend's direction, he saw Mike looking at the doctor in concern. "Is it really that bad?" Mike asked, his eyebrows knitted together. "I mean, we all knew he wouldn't be exactly healthy, but It's so bad that he needs medication and checkups?" Harvey frowned when the doctor nodded almost instantly. "To be honest, with this level of headspace deprivation, It's a miracle that Mr. Specter here is even...even functioning normally. What he really needs right now is time to drop and explore his headspace, as well as a loving caregiver to help him."

"Which brings us all to the reason why I'm here."

Suddenly the brown-haired lady who had been standing silently in the back walked forward, her eyes gazing over Mike and then landing on him. She stared into his eyes with that neutral expression on her face, and Harvey felt like she was pulling him apart from the inside. He looked away to instead focus on the new band on his arm, feeling his chest grow tight as he did so. He was a little now, a little by the law. He was a young one, and in very bad shape. He didn't have a caregiver, and he was currently working in one of the highest of risk jobs out there for littles. Basically, he was done for. He felt his breaths grow shorter and quicker as he mentally yelled at himself to get his shit together. But he was scared. He was so scared. 

The woman-Tamela or something-continued to introduce herself, but he could barely hear her. All he could feel was the intense glare of her eyes pricking his skin as she bore into him. He was too scared to look, his eyes drifting off to look at his lap.

"I come from high ranks in little protection services," the woman spoke. "It's very unordinary, practically unheard of, to have a situation like this one, so I am here to initiate the little paring process directly."

He felt realization sink in more at her words. She was here to take him away to a little facility; he was about to be taken away from all his friends and matched up with strangers who, most of, would treat him like he was just a baby and not the most successful lawyer in all of New York.

He was so fucking screwed. 

"Harvey," came a sweet, soft voice from his side, and he suddenly remembered that Mike was still in the room with him. He dared to glance over at the man, and found him looking back at him with worry. "You're okay, you just need to calm down, alright? You're breathing too hard." He watched through blurry vision as Mike looked over towards Tristian and the lady, giving them both a look that said 'give us a minute,' before the caregiver reached out to put his hand in his hair again. Mike rubbed through it deeply like before, and Harvey exhaled loudly, realizing that he really had been breathing quickly. It was insane how fast Mike's touch was able to calm him down, and he once again found himself wanting to be wrapped up in the man's arms-which is something he'd never tell a soul. 

"You remember what I told you?" Mike asked after a moment of silence in the room. Harvey nodded, knowing what the man was talking about as he pictured their conversation from earlier. Mike had told him that he would make sure no one took him away; he told him that he wouldn't let him be taken away to a little orphanage or facility. 

Even though he had a large amount of doubt, part of him chose to believe in his friend's words, and he found his breathing begin to steady a little at the thought. He was nowhere near stable or okay, but at the very least he wasn't hyperventilating anymore. He could trick himself into believing that Mike would keep him safe for a little while if it meant he wouldn't have a major freak out in the hospital. "I'm fine, Mike," he managed to push out after a moment, although he felt quite the opposite.

Eventually, Mike nodded, and he realized it must have been a cue for the grim-looking lady to continue, as she cleared her throat to acknowledge herself. 

"Sorry, we know this must all be a lot to take in," Tristian spoke up before she could say something, and Harvey was grateful for his words, even though it seemed like the woman didn't exactly care all that much. 

"So Mr. Specter. To cut to the chase...you are a special case, so the caregiver process will be a bit different for you." Harvey simply responded to the woman's words with a small nod, Mike's hand in his hair and the knowledge that the man was still there being the only reason he hadn't gotten up and left already. 

"Normally, littles are given about three years, from the time of their classification until they are 21, to find a caregiver of their own and get settled. If not-and this rule is directed towards littles with younger headspaces like yourself-they must go to a little adoption agency where they will be paired with caregivers until they find the perfect one. The process of a caregiver and little officially becoming a pair takes up to months, and requires consent from both sides to make the bond official.

"However, you are in dire need of a caregiver and can't afford to go through the extensive process. For this reason, the rules have been altered. In your case, you will be taken directly from here to the agency today to get signed in, and then you will be moved into there within a week if you cannot find a person you know to be your caretaker. From there, our goal will be to match you with a full-time caregiver as soon as possible. Do you understand?"

"..."

Harvey blinked slowly. He could barely feel the way the hand in his hair froze, or hear the sounds of Mike calling his name. All he could focus on was one thing.

"I-I'm gonna be taken away...?"

He knew that all of this had been coming, but the pure rawness in his voice stunned even himself. Even the woman's firm neutral expression seemed to break a bit as her eyebrows twisted in a look of sympathy. His head drooped down a bit unwillingly as he swallowed, wondering if he could play off the weak tone of voice as it being due to something in his throat.

He felt Mike's hand pull away from his hair, and suddenly the man was grabbing his shoulder in a firm way, but one that was meant to deliver comfort. "Do you have papers to sign with you right now? For if someone was willing to be his caregiver?" Mike asked, looking at the woman expectantly. She adjusted her glasses, her eyebrows resting back down into a stone cold expression before she nodded. "Yes, I have them right here with me. But unless someone was willing to sign off as his caregiver right now, Mr. Specter would have to wait to find someone until after he got checked in at the care facility-"

"Perfect. Hand them over."

Harvey was sure he and the other two people in the room all shared the same look of surprise. He lifted his head to look at Mike. "What do you mean? Are you saying that you're willing to become his official caregiver right now?" Doctor Tristian spoke, and Harvey watched with a feeling of both relief and panic as Mike quickly nodded his head. "Yes, I'm aware, and I am perfectly prepared."

"Mike..." Harvey stretched out in a warning sort of way, like how a parent would warn their child not to do something dumb. Although, he supposed the roles were quite switched right now. "You can't do that." Mike turned to face him and, to his slight shock, he could see no look of doubt on the man's face; just a determined look that would make it obvious to anyone that Mike was a caregiver.

"Why?" Mike asked. "Would you rather be taken to the little center? We both know there's not many people you know who'd be able to care for you full time. And," Mike spoke, lifting up the packet Tristian had handed him earlier, "You're my exact age range, which means we'd be a perfect match." 

Harvey swallowed. All that Mike had said was true. There weren't many people he could think of that would be able to come to his rescue in the short time limit that he had to find a caregiver. The only person he could think of was Donna, and he didn't even know if she'd be able to. Well, not so much that she wouldn't be able to. Although the woman had a strict rule of no deep personal relationships with anyone she worked with, Harvey was pretty sure she'd alter the rule for him, given his situation. It was just that...well, he and Donna had a different kind of relationship than a caregiver and a little would have. He once thought they could get married and have a little or a kid to taka care of themselves. And, while it was very possible and common for a little to be in both a parental and intimate relationship with their caregiver, he could never imagine Donna as being his 'mommy' or something like that. And it wasn't like it was any easier for him to imagine Mike as his 'daddy' or something, but it was the best option he had right now.

So he supposed it really was either Mike or a bunch of random strangers. He knew Mike had promised he'd keep them from taking him away, but he'd never imagined like this. Even though he guessed he should have seen it coming.

Despite rationalizing the idea in his head and being paranoid about having to leave his home and everyone he loved, Harvey still found himself shaking his head with a small "No, Mike," at the man's offer. He couldn't let Mike become his caregiver; he couldn't mess up his friend's life all because he had been selfish and screwed up his own. He wouldn't let Mike sacrifice his dreams of finding the perfect little and building a family of his own just because the man felt a moral obligation to do so. 

"What do you mean no? Am I really that bad of a caregiver?" Mike asked with a mix of laughter and seriousness. However, as Harvey's eyes began to fill with tears, the man was suddenly back on alert mode, leaning forward to wrap his arms around the little in an awkward sort of side hug.

"Mike," Harvey tried to speak, although his voice came out in an embarrassingly pitiful whine. He watched from the corner of his eyes as Tristian moved around the room to grab tissues, while the woman stood by the door awkwardly. 

"What is it Harvey? Why can't I just be your caregiver?" Mike pressed again after a little while, but in a much gentler way than before as he continued to hold Harvey tight. 

"You-you can't do this," Harvey spoke as a few tears finally rolled down his face and onto Mike's shirt. He tried his hardest to not give into the fuzziness that was engulfing him though; he needed to say his piece before it was too late.

"You have the whole world ahead of you, Mike," he finally managed, clearing his throat a bit as he swallowed pitiful whines. "You deserve to find the perfect little for you; the one that makes you happy. You can't just drop it all to help me. I'm not worth that much. This is all the result of my actions, and I need to suck it up and take it. I will not mess up your life too."

"What the fuck Harvey?"

The reply was almost instant, and Harvey's temporary resolve crumbled. Even though he knew his words would upset him, somehow hearing Mike's disbelieving voice made his whole body tremble. He could hear the way his breaths grew short and quick again, trying to hide them in Mike's shirt so that the caregiver wouldn't go into panic mode. 

"Did you ever stop to think that maybe you're the perfect little I've been looking for?"

Well shit. He was not expecting that.

Instead of Mike's hands pulling away like he'd expected, they adjusted to where one was wrapped around his lower back and the other near his shoulders. Suddenly he was lifted off the bed and seated back down on Mike's lap, his legs straddling the younger man's. His face darked to a crimson color very quickly, and he looked up at Mike with a look of confusion. 

"Mike-".

"No Harvey," Mike cut him off. "Listen. I am not choosing to become your caregiver just because I am your friend and feel like I owe it to you or something. This isn't altruism or any of that shit. You are the perfect little Harv. From the moment I met you I knew that you were different to me than just any old boss or friend. And after finding you in your office the other day and getting to care for you, I realized why. You are my dream little Harvey. You are such an amazing person, and such a perfect little boy, and I'm ashamed to say I was glad just now when I found out all it took was a couple of  signatures for me to be your caregiver. I care about you, and I want this. I'm not pitying you; I need this too."

"...Come again?"

Mike leaned down slightly to press his lips to Harvey's forehead, looking at the little's tear-stricken face. He looked adorable. "I promise you, I will care for you so well Harvey. I will never hold you back from the things you love; I will help you reach all of your goals and more. That is...if you'll let me?"

For some reason, despite the whirlpool of emotions going through him, as Mike looked lovingly at him with those soft, comforting eyes and continued to hold him close, Harvey found that his breathing began to settle. Mike wanted him? He thought he was the one? Despite the way he had epically fucked up his life and was by far the least little-like little on the planet, Mike thought he was perfect?

"Okay," he finally gave in, his voice quivering as he hid his face in Mike's shoulder. He didn't know if he would come to regret his decision later or not, but Mike was giving him a lifeline right now and he was going to fucking take it. He knew there was still a chance that Mike was just lying to him right now so that he'd cave, but he wouldn't think too much of that right now.

He could practically see the large smile that creeped up Mike's face as the man calmly asked: "So you'll let me sign up to be your caregiver? Is that right sweet boy?"

Mike's warm voice and the pet name he'd used had Harvey's body tingling all over as he melted further into the man's arms. He was embarrassed for acting like this, especially when he had promised he wouldn't do something like this just minutes before. But being in Mike's arms felt right. And if Mike really thought he was his perfect little, then he would try his hardest to not get the man to rethink his decision. 

"Yes, please," he mumbled through Mike's shoulder, feeling the arms wrapped around him move as Mike slowly stroked his back. 

"Okay then, I guess It's settled. I'll sign those papers now." 

Harvey felt Mike's arms lift off of his frame, most likely to grab whatever papers the woman needed him to sign. He admittedly missed the little bit of contact, but at least Mike hadn't moved him from his lap, meaning he could hide his teary face from everyone in the room and breathe in Mike's homy scent to calm him down. He definitely wasn't little right now, but he could tell he was treading the fine line between headspaces. 

Mike signed papers for a while, and a bit of conversation lit up between everyone in the room as they most likely discussed what was going to happen next. Harvey didn't bother to listen even though he knew he should've, instead taking his time to settle down and calm himself. Luckily Mike and the others didn't speak to him for a while, most likely giving him space, although he heard his name brought up many many times. 

In the end, Mike finished the paperwork and became his official guardian. He could hear the sound of the room door being pulled open, and then tuned out the small bits of remaining conversation until, finally, the door closed and the room was silent again. 

"They're gone now. You don't have to hide anymore, Harv."

Feeling Mike push the front of his head softly, he allowed his face to be dragged out of his shoulder so that Mike could see him. He looked quickly at the spot where he had been smushing his face into the younger man's shirt, feeling a bit guilty when he saw the spot was now all wet with his tears and probably snot as well. Mike must've been disgusted, why didn't he say anything? He forced himself to look away though, instead turning his gaze back to Mike.

"Oh darling," Mike practically cooed as he reached over one hand to wipe away the streaks of tears on Harvey's face. Harvey let him. "Your eyes are so puffy. Are you okay?"

He let out an embarrassing whine in response, pulling away from Mike's touch only for the man to hold him closer and coo again. "M' not little, Mike," he huffed, "you don't have to speak like that."

Mike simply tutted, pulling away to grab one of the tissues Dr. Tristian had laid out earlier. "And why does that matter? I think I should be allowed to coddle you any time I see fit." 

Harvey's lips stuck out in a small pout at he allowed Mike to run the tissue over his face. He sighed.

"Thank you, Mike," he mumbled, taking a breath of relief as he realized how he'd just gotten out of having to worry about getting stuck in a little care center and finding a stranger to be his caregiver. Mike really was a miracle worker like he had said, and he was so very grateful-even if he couldn't exactly show it. "Thank you for not letting me get dragged off."

"I'm the one who should be thanking you," Mike countered as he finished up wiping Harvey's face. "I dragged you here and, even though you were so scared, you toughed it out and got yourself reclassified. And, the best part of all, I got my perfect little boy out of it."

Harvey could feel his face burning hot as he allowed Mike to fix his hair and adjust his shirt. 

"Sadly," the caregiver continued, "we have one more stop to make before you're completely done with all this legal stuff."

Swallowing nervously, Harvey nodded, instantly understanding what Mike was talking about. They had to go back to the firm and explain all of this stuff to Jessica. And, even if Mike had managed to get him out of one thing, the reality was that keeping his job would be much harder. Even if Jessica wanted him to stay, they had to find a way to address all of the legal concerns so that he'd be allowed to work. Mike must've noticed the way his face fell as he zoned out, because the man kissed his forehead again-which would've been a lot more weird if he wasn't technically his caregiver now. 

"Don't worry, everything will be fine. It shouldn't take long; we just need to go in and spill the facts. You don't even have to come if you want. But, I promise you that you wont lose your job. And, so far my promises have all been staying true, so you best believe this one will too."

"Okay," Harvey said, sniffling and starting to feel a bit uncomfortable as he realized he was still sitting on Mike's lap. In his defense, Mike's lap was surprisingly comfortable, and he felt all safe and secure wrapped up in the man's arms. In fact, it almost felt like he and Mike were connected in other ways that weren't physical. It was like he could feel Mike's love and determination coursing through his veins. It was probably another example of little biology coming into play that had previously been blocked off by his suppressants. 

"Can we just go right after this?" He asked Mike, wanting to get the visit to the office out of the way as quick as possible. 

"Oh-uh, we can," Mike responded, sounding a bit hesitant. "We have to go do it today anyway. But don't you want a little break? I know all of this has been a lot. The firm's open until ten tonight anyway, so we have a good amount of hours left."

Harvey shook his head. "All of this sucks," he agreed, "but I think if we don't do it right now, then I'll run away before it happens."

Mike hummed in response, starting to softly sway back and forth with Harvey in his arms. Harvey's anxiety had been shooting through the roof this whole day-and for good reason. While he knew that they had to explain to Jessica what was going on before the end of the day-she had said if they didn't then she would bury them both in legal work to make up for their unexcused absences-the more understanding part of him knew that no one should have to go through so many big life changes all at once, and he was scared for Harvey's sake. The man had already been on the verge of so many panic attacks today, and what happened if he fell into one and he wasn't able to help him out of it?

Still, he reasoned that Harvey had taken the doctor's visit a lot better than he thought-part of him expected the man to blow a fuse and sue the whole building before he'd willingly get his classification test retaken-so he supposed he was stable enough to do one more big thing.

"Okay," Mike blew out, "how about we go straight to the office after this, but while Ray drives you try and destress in the car? Maybe a nap or something? That sound okay?"

Harvey nodded into his chest. "You still haven't given me my phone back, so It's not exactly like I can do anything productive anyway." Mike smiled. "Yeah, maybe I'll let you look at it tomorrow."

---

Harvey shuffled the paper's on the table before him before he stood up and walked into the open floor preparing to state his claim to the jury. "Mr. Stike has already been accused of auto theft and burglary, so what makes it so hard to believe that he was the one responsible for the sudden loss of over ten million dollars in his company? Afterall, records say that he was trained to operate the system that controls the company's money inputs and outputs, so it would have been fairly easy to 'accidently' forward a bunch of cash into an unlinked line."

"Objection, assumption," the lawyer on the opposite side spoke up.

"No shit It's an assumption," he retorted. "All I'm saying is that right now my client has virtually no proof or justifiable claims that could make someone possibly believe she was guilty. Meanwhile, your guy was basically caught with a hand in the cookie jar."

The lawyer scowled and spit in his direction. "Well, wouldn't you know a thing about hands in cookie jars, hm? How many times has your daddy caught you being a naughty baby?"

"Objection, foul play."

"Oh shut it you sissy-"

The judge's gavel banged loudly on the sound block in front of him, interrupting the lawyer in the middle of his heated comment. Harvey turned to look at the older, white-haired judge, expecting him to chastise the other man for his degrading remarks. The judge looked at him and opened his mouth to speak, but for some reason the voice that came out of his mouth was that of a completely different person.

"Harvey? Harvey, wake up."

Suddenly the court room he was standing in faded away into darkness, and he instead found himself waking up back in to the real world, all if his thoughts recollecting themselves. Although he didn't open his eyes, he could hear the quiet roar of an engine, as well as the sound of soft background music, making him realize that he must be in Ray's car. Also, the voice that had just spoken had been Mike's, and he quickly concluded that the warm surface he was leaning against must be the caregiver's chest.

"Maybe I should just go in without him, you'd stay with him right?"

He could feel the hair on his head bristle a bit as Mike spoke to Ray, and he willed himself to start moving as he brought one hand to rub at his eyes, his brain understanding exactly where they must be parked right now. At the firm.

"No..." he spoke sleepily. "I wanna come with."

"Oh," Mike responded, sounding a bit surprised. "When did you wake up sleepy head?"

"How long have I been out?" Harvey responded, asking his own question instead of responding to Mike's corny one. He could feel the vibrations of Mike's laugh as he started to chuckle, and he blushed a little, thinking about how weird it must look for a large man to be sitting on a smaller man's lap. Not that Mike was tiny; they were almost the same size. It's just that he was the tiniest bit taller and had a more muscular build than him. But, if he'd learnt anything from recent events where Mike had picked him up and carried him around as if he'd weighed nothing, it was that the man must have a lot more muscle than he let on to. Although, it was true that caregivers had a natural strength that allowed them to lift littles (he always thought he'd had it too, but apparently all of his strength really was just from him working out).

"You passed out like five minutes into the drive," Mike chuckled. "The drive was about 30 minutes, and we've been parked on the side of the road for another five, so it was enough for you to get a quick nap in. I moved you to my lap so you could rest more comfortably."

Harvey nodded. Truthfully he did feel refreshed, although he also felt like he could easily fall asleep again. Mike was so damn comfortable. 

“So,” Mike spoke, "do you wanna come? It’d definitely be better that way, but I can understand if-".

“Mike, I’m coming; I have to be there for this,” Harvey cut off. He let out a small yawn and leaned forward, off of Mike’s chest. He glanced at the yellow-colored band that was slightly peaking out from under his sleeve, and he tucked it back away. “I just hope I still have a job by the end of this,” he mumbled.

“Harvey, there is no way I-or Jessica for that matter-will let you lose your job. Things will definitely change, but you have earned your place as a lawyer, and nothing will change that.”

Harvey nodded slowly again, although he was sure his face displayed exactly how pessimistic he was. He watched as Mike raised a hand up to the car door handle and pushed it open, giving them perfect access to the sidewalk right in front of the firm. Going beet red with surprise, he quickly pushed himself up and out of Mike's lap before anyone walking by would see. Even though he knew that, by the end of the day, the world would likely know of his true classification, he wished to preserve his dignity for as long as he could. Mike also got out of the a car a moment later, after he had said something to Ray.

"I told him we wouldn't need him anymore today," Mike clarified as he walked up next to him. "I said he could go home, and we'd get a cab."

Harvey gave a small hum in agreement. He really appreciated Mike for taking care of all the small things he had been missing today-he was more humiliated than anything, but it was still nice. He'd meant to tell Ray himself to take the rest of the day off-the man had worked hard enough having to deal with him and his every need-but It'd completely escaped his mind. 

"Come on, let's get this over with," Mike spoke from behind him as he felt a hand pat his back. He sighed and adjusted the little band on his wrist again, making sure it was out of sight. 

Here we go.

---

Harvey had never felt this way when walking into the firm in his entire life. Even before when he was no more than a low-level associate, he had walked into the building like he'd owned the place. He’d always known he was a good damn lawyer, and he most definitely flaunted it. Especially now as managing partner and someone who had their name on the wall, when he walked into the building he turned many heads. While some people were too intimidated to speak with him-and a small bit hated him out of jealousy-most of the workers in the office always greeted him with open arms as he walked through the hallways and towards the elevator. He was regarded as a king here. 

But, as he walked in with Mike, he felt the complete opposite of a king. People gave their usual greetings and hellos as they passed by, but he was much too nervous to acknowledge any of them. He suddenly became way too aware of the fact that, while everyone around him was in professional attire, he was literally in the clothes he'd normally wear as pajamas. Even Mike looked more put-together than him; at least the man's hair wasn't sticking out in random places like his was. 

As they continued to walk, he could feel himself slowly starting to cower behind Mike again, and he had to practically run to match and keep his stride with the younger man as they made their way over to the elevators. 

Luckily, they managed to get on one with just the two of them, and as soon as the doors closed he let out a large breath of air, realizing that he must've been holding it the whole time they were inside. He nearly flinched as Mike rested a hand on his shoulder-an act of comfort that wouldn't look too out of place on the security cameras-and he faced the caregiver who was standing tall and fidget-free, probably trying to look confident. 

"Just stay next to me," Mike spoke up as the elevator neared their floor. "I promise It'll be okay."

As soon as the younger man finished speaking the elevator doors opened and Mike slowly dropped his hand from Harvey's shoulder. 

The firm was busy with the normal bustle of employees, but Harvey felt like he was walking through a zoo as they slowly strolled down the aisle. He averted his gaze from the people who looked at him, but he also kept an attentive lookout for anyone like Donna, Louis, or Rachel, whom he didn't want to speak with right now. No offense, he loved them, but he didn't know how he'd manage to explain everything to them without starting to bawl like a baby halfway through if they came up to pester him. 

Luckily, Mike also seemed to be on alert, because they took a different way to Jessica's office (one that didn't pass by Louis or Donna's offices, and he made extra sure that Rachel was busy in her own before walking past it. They saw Katrina walk by at some point as well, but she was on a call and zoomed quickly by, so she didn't notice them. 

When they finally made it to Jessica's office, Harvey felt like he'd just made it to the end of a video game. He could tell that he had scrunched into himself as they walked, and he rushed to correct his posture without making it too obvious. But then Mike pulled open Jessica's glass door, and the woman looked up from her desk to meet his gaze. Instantly he felt himself shrink down again. 

Mike took the initiative to walk in first and he slowly came in after, starting to shake a bit. Jessica's eyes hadn't left his, and he knew she was probably wondering who his Harvey look-alike of a man who looked like he was one step away from vomiting on the floor was. 

"So," Jessica began, her voice sharp and unemotional as usual, making Harvey's Adam's apple bob nervously. "I assume you two are here to tell me what emergency made you believe it was okay for you two to suddenly leave from work without permission and not pick up any of my calls?" Harvey knew the last part of that was directed at him, considering Mike had taken his phone and wouldn't let him look at it. "I know you are very relaxed when it comes to breaking the rules...". That was again directed at him. "...but leaving work announced is quite odd, even for you. Especially you, Ross."

When Jessica finished, her monotone voice had shifted to something a little different. Irritated? Worried? Harvey couldn't tell. "I promised you an explanation here today," Mike spoke up for him, getting Jessica to raise a brow at the fact that he had spoke first. "So here we are."

Harvey softly chewed his lip as Jessica's eyes moved to rest on Mike's, probably telling the man to hurry up an explain why her prodigy lawyer had suddenly gone mute. He knew he should be speaking or something right now, but he felt like he had ran out of energy to do so. This whole day had been so emotionally draining, and, even if he wanted to, he didn't think he could muster up his usual Harvey spunk right now. So, instead he listened to Mike as the man explained to Jessica that Harvey had had some sort of emergency the other day that had caused him to need to go home right away, and that he had come along to help care for him. 

That had definitely gotten Jessica confused, as the first thing she asked was "Why does Harvey Specter need his puppy to watch over him?" Surprisingly though, Mike hadn't even looked derailed in the slightest by the comment as he turned to him and rested his hand back on his shoulder. 

"You wanna tell her what happened? Or should I?"

If Jessica hadn't been completely surprised before, the way Mike's voice sounded all sweet like honey as he spoke to Harvey, and the way the older man had blushed in response had definitely shook her. 

"What the hell is going on? Is this some sort of weird kink you guys are telling me about? Because if so, I am not interested."

"No," Harvey spoke up quickly to defend the two of them; it was the first word he'd spoken since he'd entered the office. Jessica raised her eyebrow at him in return and he could feel his insides churn. Why was it so damn hard to stay put together?

"Alright, I wanna hear it. And it better be good."

Harvey glanced over to where Mike was standing next to him, and he watched as the man nodded with a reassuring smile. He turned away, instead focusing back on Jessica as he tried to get his voice to work. He could imagine the words he wanted to say, and yet he couldn't open his mouth. He raised his arm to wipe the forming sweat off of his brow, feeling like he was burning up under his boss's glare. "I um..." he trailed off. Shit. There was no way he was going to be able to say this. He'd never been at such a loss for words ever in his life. What had happened to him? The smart and witty Harvey Specter had been reduced to nothing. Maybe it was because he was revealing a part of himself to people that he'd never shown before. Or maybe this was his true self without his medication. Maybe he really was just a pathetic little baby...

Suddenly Mike's hand was on his back again, and he felt small circles being traced up and down his spine. No doubt the man could see the gears turning in his mind and the concealed look of agony on his face. Still, despite his depressed state of mind, Mike's touch managed to bring him to reality in the slightest bit, and he was able to stop spiraling. He was just acting like this because he was scared and because his body was going through the developments it never had before. He was still the mighty Harvey Specter. He was just a bit...different now. 

Sighing, Harvey raised his arm towards Jessica and rolled up his sleeve, revealing the small yellow band wrapped around his wrist. He took a deep, controlling breath as Jessica looked down at the bracelet, and it seemed to take her a moment to realize what it actually meant. When she did realize, her eyes doubled in size. 

"You're..."

"I'm a little," he clarified, feeling a weight lift off of his shoulders as he said it, even if it meant he had to acknowledge the truth. 

"No. Fucking. Way."

Everyone in the room practically jumped as a loud, disbelieving voice came from the doorway. Harvey jutted his face in the direction of the exclamation, finding no one other than Louis Litt standing there, looking like he'd just seen something otherworldly. 

"There's no way the man I've known for years suddenly shows up as a little. There's actually no fucking way."

Harvey felt himself start to cave in again, his momentary composure evaporating upon having another person in the room, and Louis Litt of all people. Luckily, Mike seemed to understand that he was done talking for the moment, because he took the reigns.

"Haven't you heard of knocking?" The man sniped.

All Louis could do was gawk at him, seemingly still too shocked to comprehend that Mike had kind of insulted him. Mike sighed, shifting closer to Harvey so that part of the little's body was Infront of him and he could wrap an arm around him. 

"Yes, Harvey is actually a little," he confirmed, turning from Louis to Jessica, whom he'd never seen looking as surprised as she did now. "It's not my place to get into all the details, but he was a late bloomer in the classification test. Although, he's still known he was a little for a couple years; he just hid it very well."

He stopped there, giving it a moment for his words to sink in, turning his attention to Harvey again who looked so scared that he wanted to scoop him up into his arms and take him away from all of this. Instead, he settled for tightening his arm around the man, giving Jessica and Louis a look that warned them not to start bombarding them with questions now; Harvey looked like he would pass out if they did. He hoped that the other two managing partners were smart enough to grasp what Mike had implied when he spoke. It didn't take a genius to realize that the only way Harvey could've kept his classification a secret for so long...was if he had relied on some sort of drug to help him. And both Jessica and Louis, despite their classifications, should know that Harvey's actions hadn't been exactly healthy. 

At last, Jessica seemed to compose herself a bit, as she opened her mouth to speak. Mike really hoped it wasn't some stupid, antagonizing sort of question. He knew all too well that lawyers, including Harvey and eve himself at times, had a habit of just asking or doing whatever they wanted, paying no attention to the other person's emotions. 

"Harvey, are you okay?"

The question, as well as the soft tone it was delivered in, was something Mike was not expecting to come from Jessica, and he nearly smacked himself as he suddenly remembered that the woman was a caregiver herself. How could he forget that? She should know better than anyone how to deal with a frightened little. And yet the way she had spoken to Harvey wasn't like a caregiver speaking to a little, it was more like as a friend worried for their friend. It was pretty common knowledge that Harvey and Jessica had known each other since the stone ages, and he couldn't even imagine what must be going through his boss' head right now. The fact that the man she had mentored and kept beside her for years, someone who she'd thought she'd known everything about, had suddenly revealed something unbelievable that was enough to get anyone's head spinning. And yet, Jessica looked surprisingly...calm? collected? Understanding? Mike couldn't tell. 

"Harvey?" Jessica repeated after a moment of quiet amongst the group, and Mike glanced over at the little, finding him with the same confused expression on his face that he probably held. 

Harvey cleared his throat. "Um-I'm okay..." 

The little trailed off, still looking lost and very nervous. Mike resisted the urge to press a large kiss to his forehead. 

"You sure? All of this is probably very overwhelming, hm?" Jessica continued, and Harvey nodded in response, mumbling a small "yeah."

"So, when did you get reclassified? Yesterday evening?"

"No...just a little bit ago."

Harvey's response was practically a whisper, but the fact that he had even managed a full sentence was surprising. Suddenly, Mike understood what Jessica was doing; she was carefully getting Harvey to calm down and lower his nerves. 

"Were the doctors nice there?" Louis spoke up in an equally soft voice, which Mike honestly didn't even believe the man was capable of. Although Louis and Harvey had grown past their petty feuds to understand each other more(sometimes), he had still never expected to hear such a caring voice come from the other managing partner. "Hopefully they were." 

"Yeah," Harvey quietly answered again, starting to fidget with his fingers. He leaned slightly against him, and Mike moved around a bit so that he was fully behind Harvey, supporting him. 

"And did Mike come with you?" Jessica asked with a small smile, Louis matching it. 

"Mhmm."

"I see. Was he nice to you?" Louis spoke with a small joking tone to his voice that made Mike smirk a bit and role his eyes.

"Yeah," Harvey mumbled a little louder, pressing closer into him. "He saved me."

So damn cute.

"Oh I did, didn't I?" Mike finally stepped in, practically cooing at Harvey's words as he gave in and pressed a kiss to the little's forehead, causing Harvey to blush. It was very obvious to him, and no doubt to Jessica and Louis too, that Harvey was sliding into that in-between headspace. It was probably why he had let his guard down enough to snuggle into him, and definitely why he hadn't attacked him for kissing him multiple times in the office. 

"Oh, he saved you?" Jessica spoke, chuckling a little. "How'd he do that?"

"'Cause he didn't let me get taken away," Harvey mumbled, clearing his throat. When he turned away from Jessica to face him, Mike's little grin dropped as he noticed noticed him fighting tears. "He signed up to be my caregiver so I wouldn't be taken away."

At the brief shocked silence in the room as Jessica Louis processed what had been said, Harvey seemed to crumble. 

"Oh sweetheart," Mike crooned as he twisted Harvey around and pulled him into his chest, pressing the little's head into the crook of his right shoulder. A second later he could hear small whimpers and cries start to come from Harvey as he broke down. "I want you as my little Harvey," he reassured as he glanced at Louis, giving him the signal to go lock Jessica's door and lower the blinds to cover the glass wall. "You saved me too." He tried to ignore the way Jessica's eyes bore into him in a sort of analyzing way.

"M' sorry," Harvey stuttered, his voice muffled, but Mike could still hear the rawness in his voice. "I tried not to-to cry... I don't know why I'm acting like this."

"There's no need to be sorry Harvey," Mike hummed, slowly rocking back and forth, momentarily forgetting about the other people in the room. "I know today must have been so hard for you, and yet you've been so brave. It's good to cry though; let out all of your feelings. You're going to feel a little unstable until we can get your headspace under control, but then everything will feel so much better." Harvey nuzzled his face deeper into his shirt, and Mike could faintly feel the man's quick heartbeat as his chest rose and fell. "Everything hurts Mike," Harvey cried in dismay, and he felt his heart strings tug. 

"I know it does, darling. But it's all going to get better soon, I promise."

Harvey momentarily pulled his face from his shirt to look at him. There were tears all over the little's face; the look was a strong contrast to the look of composure he was always used to seeing on his friend. "I'm sorry for being such a baby right now," Harvey sniffled, trying to articulate what he was feeling, " but please stay with me."

"Stop apologizing," Mike chided in response as he pulled Harvey's head closer to press a kiss to it. "I'm not leaving you and I promise I never will. Besides, It's okay to feel like a baby sometimes, because you're my baby."

"Mike..." Harvey whined, pressing his face back into the caregiver's chest. Mike gave a smile in response as he hooked his hands under the little's armpits, lifting Harvey up and resting him on his hip. Another muffled whine came from his chest at the action, although Harvey also didn't freak out and immediately yell to be put down which was a good thing. He chuckled softly and breathed a sigh of relief at the same time. Harvey wasn't okay right now, true. But the little also had trust in him to help him get better. And he planned to do exactly that. He'd protect his boss, friend, and little boy with all he had. 

"It's okay baby, I'm right here," he cooed, feeling more tears soak into his clothes. 

Only after hearing a small hum did he finally remember the existence of Jessica and Louis. "Sorry," he spoke, looking up while he softly bounced Harvey on his hip. "I think everything is just now catching up to him."

"It's alright," Jessica responded, her voice sounding much sweeter as she gazed at the no doubt atypical view of Harvey cradled in his arms. "He needs to let it all out of his system; I'm sure this has all been a lot for him." She leaned forward in her chair. "So, is this why you both left that morning? Did he drop in the office?" 

"Yeah," Mike confirmed. "I think it was some sort of exhaustion drop...from what I know he could have never fallen into his headspace before that." Jessica and Louis both acknowledged his words with a nod, and he glanced down at the little in his arms again, wondering just how many years of struggle he must've gone through. Harvey let out another small sort of whimper, no doubt listening into the conversation and getting embarrassed.

"It sounds like you guys will need a little while to figure out this new system of yours then," Jessica concluded after a minute. "Although, from the looks of it, I'd say you're already doing a pretty fine job of caring for Harvey, Ross." All Mike could do was blink as he waited for the lady to continue speaking. That was probably the only compliment he'd ever received from Jessica that hadn't been a back-handed one. 

"I'm thinking six weeks or so of paid time off while you guys settle down and I get all of this information into the board. Then, when you come back we'll go over some likely work modifications."

"Wait..." Mike interrupted, wanting both clarification for himself and for Harvey. "So, Harvey can still be a lawyer? Even with his age range?" He looked Jessica over with a protective gaze, preparing to fight for Harvey if needed, but all the woman did was nod. Thank goodness.

"Well of course, I would never just drop him. No doubt things will change, and I'm going to have to share this information with the press and board by tonight before someone starts getting nosy and accusing us of purposely hiding his classification or something. And, I know we all understand that it is very rare for younger littles to be allowed to work in such high stress jobs, so we'd all have to deal with the legality of it all. But. Harvey has more than proven himself as an exceptional lawyer, despite his classification, and since he now has a full-time caregiver who works with him, it should be much easier to get the bar to make an exception for him. Plus, as I've mentioned, we will put safety rules and modifications into place to prevent anything unsafe from happening in the future."

"Thank God," Mike sighed in relief. He knew he had promised Harvey that he wouldn't let anyone take his job away, but he hadn't exactly been so sure of himself on being able to keep that promise until now. The brief choke in Harvey's cries seemed to prove that the little had also heard what Jessica had said. A moment later the cries picked up again, and they grew a bit louder and more vulnerable; Mike could only assume they were cries of relief.

"However," Jessica continued looking over Harvey like a mother would gaze at her children, "Harvey needs to be in good health in order to continue his work as a lawyer here; I'm sure you've already covered everything with the doctor. I want all the documents sent to me when you leave."

"Yes," Mike nodded, "I will do my best to bring him back to his full health, and he will be even better of a lawyer than before."

"Looking forward to it," Jessica hummed as she continued to stare at Harvey, who was still hiding away in his arms. "I think all he needs right now is his caregiver and a nice rest. I'd get him home if I were you. I'll put in the paperwork and message you the confirmation details, but you two should both be getting a well deserved time off."

"Thank you," Mike sighed. "I can still do the online work if you send it to me, but I'll keep Harvey away from it all." 

"Don't worry, we'll handle it; there's not much now anyways after that large case Harvey and you all cracked. Just keep all your attention on him-we both know how stubborn he is."

"And, just because you two won't be at the firm, doesn't mean we won't come visit," Louis spoke up, making his way back into the conversation-Mike had almost forgotten his presence again. "I know for a fact that me and Sheila will be getting so much stuff to spoil him with." Smiling and looking down at Harvey was actively trying to press himself even deeper into his clothes Mike chuckled. "Of course, wouldn't have it any other way."

Feeling like the conversation had reached a good stopping point, Mike knew it was time to make his exit. He turned towards the door, adjusting Harvey on his hip and wondering how the hell he was going to get him out without forming a wave of nosy coworkers around them. Luckily, Louis came up with an answer before him. He had already walked over to Jessica's desk, and was now pressing the button that the lady had which contained access to all the speakers in all the rooms of the firm.

"Attention everyone. I, Louis Litt, your amazing managing partner, need everyone on this floor to gather with me in the mock trial room to go over an important case right now. And by now, I mean right now."

Instantly after Louis finished his announcement, Mike could start to hear the clamor of employees as they moved about the office-probably scared for their jobs knowing Louis' reputation- and he was pretty sure he could pick out Donna's voice complaining about how unusual this was among the crowd. Walking over and peaking through the wall blinds after a little while, he found no one in sight. Perfect.

"Thank you, thank you both," Mike spoke as he turned back once more to Jessica and Louis. Harvey was still crying in his arms, although luckily by now he had started to calm down a bit. "I promise I'll take care of him, and you guys are welcome whenever."

Louis nodded and Jessica smiled before speaking. "Stop by the supply room on the way out and get him something from there until you can buy more things. From what you've said, I'm assuming Harvey doesn't exactly have little things of his own."

Mike gave his own nod in return and turned towards the door, reaching through the blinds to push it open. Then he walked out, although not before hearing Louis yell something about telling Harvey that, even though he was a little, didn't mean he now had the upper hand on their ever going battle for dominance in the office. It made him roll his eyes. 

“you alright Harvey?" Mike spoke to the ball in his arms as soon as they were out of view from Jessica and Louis. "Everything turned out okay, right?"

He felt Harvey shift a bit, and tilted his head down to meet eyes with a puffy-eyed little boy. He never thought there'd come a day when he would think of his boss as being adorable, but the sight of Harvey in his arms right now, with tear tracks streaming down his pinkish face and his lip unconsciously jutted out in a small pout, make him look so. Fucking. Cute.

"I can keep my job?" Harvey whispered, looking at Mike with glossy eyes. It appeared as if he was just one second away from starting to bawl again, and Mike rose a hand up to rub his head in a comforting way.

"Yes, sweetheart. You'll keep your job."

Harvey's lip quivered as he rested his head back down on Mike's chest. He breathed a shaky sigh of relief before pooled tears started to fall from his eyes again. "Thank you," he sniffled. 

"you never have to thank me, baby," Mike cooed as he pressed a kiss to Harvey's sweaty forehead, whishing so desperately that he could get rid of all his aches and pains. "Now how about we stop by the supply room real quick, hmm? Maybe get you some things for the night?"

"I don't need anything," Harvey mumbled through the shirt's fabric, although the little put up no fight as Mike began to carry him towards the storage area.

They walked (or, at least Mike walked) in silence for a little bit until they came across the supply room. It was a fairly large room located down the floor's main hallway, in the middle of the restroom and the break room, and it basically had everything. It could be pretty overwhelming to be in there at times if he was being honest, but the room was perfectly divided into sections, including snacks and utensils for the kitchen, sanitary products and supplies for the bathroom, and lots of rows of just paper and other supplies for the firm. 

Luckily for Mike, the supply room also contained a whole section designated to supplies for littles, in case they ever had some. It didn’t get used much, but it always looked good for the firm if they regularly restocked the supplies-they often donated them at the end of the quarter to those in need, with made them look even better towards the public.

Mike made his way over to the little section, located near the back wall, softly humming as his eyes gazed over all the selections. There wasn’t a lot of different stuff, but there were a lot of the same things in different variations. For example, at least 50 styles of pacifiers in different colors, containers labeled with sizes of protection ready to grab, different designs of sippy cups and bottles, and much  more. 

In a bit of a rush, he simply grabbed whatever pacifier he could get his hand on 1st (it was a bright orange one) and then stopped to look over at the containers of pull-ups and diapers. He knew Harvey was very well in the headspace range where protection was necessary…he just didn’t know how the little would react to anything. Deciding to be cautious, he eventually reached to grab two pull-ups, settling on size medium. Tomorrow they’d go shopping and get Harvey all the stuff he needed, but at least for tonight it’d be good to have some stuff-not that Harvey would admit he'd need it.

After taking another moment to think if he needed anything else urgently, Mike made his way out of the supply room and towards the elevator. By now his shirt was clammy and sticking to him uncomfortably due to all of Harvey's tears, but he didn’t mind. The good news was that, although still heavy, Harvey’s breathing wasn’t rapid enough to signal a panic attack. Although, every little sniffle and hiccup that came from the little was like a punch to the gut for him.

Harvey had settled into his arms and wasn't answering him when he tried to get his attention. So, he settled for patting his back softly as they made their way to the bottom floor of the firm and walked through the few people present, ignoring their stares. 

When they finally left the building, Mike raised his hand up to wave over one of the Taxis driving by, thanking his lucky stars as one immediately pulled over. Calling Ray back probably would've been the best idea, but he really didn't want to take back his promise of giving the man the rest of the day off. He walked over, opening the door and sliding in with Harvey on his lap. He then placed the stuff he had gathered from the supply room next to him as he told the cab driver the address to Harvey’s apartment. 

Said driver nodded as he looked in the mirror at him and Harvey, giving a sympathetic smile as he started some calming music on the radio and began to drive.

——- 

Harvey whined as his personal pillow suddenly started to move. For a split second he had been unaware of where he was or what was happening. That is, until he opened his eyes and found himself once again on Mike's lap, in a cab car. Suddenly the day's events came back to him, and he realized he must've dozed off for a bit (the last thing he remembered was Mike talking about some supply room). 

"Mike," he mumbled, realization hitting him as he raised his head from the man's shoulder to face him directly. His eyes were burning and his nose felt annoyingly stuffy, but all he could think about was what had just happened. 

"Oh, you awake?" Mike asked, his eyes darting from the scenery out of the car's window to look at him. "Hey, what's wrong buddy?"

Harvey felt his face heat up at the pet name, but he didn't acknowledge it-it was probably the least embarrassing thing about this whole situation right now. Also, he could feel the familiar warmth and fuzziness webbing itself around his brain, and he knew he wasn't far from a drop.

"Did I fuck it up? With Jessica and Louis?" he asked, remembering how he'd ended up crying in Mike's arms for half of the meeting-the one thing he'd been trying not to do. 

"No, why would you think that?" Mike asked, his face showing a bit of worry as he gently rubbed through Harvey's hair.

"You know why." Harvey claimed, sounding a bit heated. "I tried to keep myself cool, but I couldn't Mike; I couldn't control my own damn emotions. I started crying in there and showed them just how much of a baby I really am. What if that happens again? Jessica said she'd fight for me to stay at the firm, but what if I do something stupid like that again and she changes her mind?"

Harvey suddenly felt Mike's hands wrap around his own. Apparently he'd been squeezing his fists so tight that he'd almost drawn blood with his nails. He could feel his eyes water again at how helpless he must seem right now, and then he felt them grow even glossier when he realized he once again couldn't control his spiraling emotions. 

"Calm down, Harvey," Mike spoke, pulling him closer. "You know neither Jessica nor Louis would ever do that to you. They already said that you're staying, and nothing will change that." 

"Mike" Harvey whispered, unsure why exactly he'd called out the man's name. He just couldn't think of anything else to say; he really hadn't been able to think straight since all of this started. 

"And, it's normal to have a hard time controlling your feelings," Mike continued, seemingly understanding that he just needed reassurance. "You've been suppressing so many bit emotions for so long, and now they need to take their time and come out. You won't feel like this forever. I promise. But also, sometimes you'll have bigger emotions that you can't control; you'll feel something so strongly but be unable to do anything. That's what I'm here for. 

"It's hard for such a little boy to deal with such big feelings, but that's why you'll have your amazing caregiver there with you. Okay? Wouldn't you always be there for your own little?"

Mike let go of his hands and reached up to wipe the tears rolling down his cheeks, and he could feel the way his lip quivered as he whispered "yes."

"And you know that sometimes littles need a little more help with things, and might have a harder time than others?"

"Yeah..."

"And so you also know that very little boys like yourself might need extra help and care to stay healthy, right?"

"Mikeee" Harvey huffed in annoyance, his face growing red as he shoved it back into Mike's cold, wet shirt. "Stop being so embarrassing."

Mike chuckled in response. "I know, I know, I'm the worst," he cooed as he stared at the adorable sight before him. It was clear that Harvey was going to have a hard time with all of this, which was to be expected, but he was glad he managed to deescalate the situation, at least for now. One day in the near future, everything would work out and both him and Harvey would finally be able to live the life they both deserved. But, baby steps. 

"Here we are," the taxi driver spoke gruffly from the front of the cab as the car pulled to the side of the road in front of Harvey's home building. 

"Okay Harvey, let's go home."

Chapter Text

Mike woke up to the smell of bacon. 

Grumbling, he lifted his head slightly, pulling his face out of the now spit-covered pillow he had been buried in. He yawned as he pulled himself further up towards a sitting position, his eyes blinking away small tears as he adjusted to the bright light shining through the room.

He had crashed on Harvey's couch late last night, and apparently the sleeping arrangement had been comfortable enough, as he'd been dead to the world until this morning. 

Raking through his disheveled hair, Mike pushed himself up on his feet, his legs walking in the way of the savory bacon smell with a mind of their own. He made his way to the kitchen, where he found Harvey still dressed in his sleeping clothes, sitting on one of the bar stools with a piece of bacon in his mouth, scrolling on his phone quickly and with a concentrated expression. 

"Hey," Mike spoke, making Harvey jump a bit, "how'd you get that phone?" He'd hidden it from the man the day before, and yet Harvey had found it.

"You don’t hide things very well,” Harvey sniped tiredly in response, and suddenly Mike found the phone screen pressed towards his face.

"Look, I’m all over the daily news,” Harvey stated blankly, although Mike could hear the unease in the little’s voice. He squinted through the bright light at the screen Harvey was showing him, finding a list of new news articles on the lawyer, news feeds talking about his little. There was even an article written by a major news station in New York, suggesting that Harvey's classification predicament had been more than just ordinary news.

"Wow..." Mike slipped out before he gathered his composure again and sighed. He wanted to rip the phone out of Harvey's hands, but he was sure the man would implode if he did so. 

"Harvey, you're supposed to be resting up and taking this time to go through all these new changes; you should absolutely not be looking into all this media crap, It's bad for you."

"Well, sue me for wanting to know how fucked up I look according to the world," Harvey huffed as he stabbed another piece of bacon off of his plate and shoved it into his mouth. "Besides, for your sake, I didn't even open any work emails or answer any of the 3,431 missed phone calls that I have."

Mike resisted another tired sigh as he walked over to the counter top where a plate full of bacon sat, taking it for himself. Clearly, despite yesterday's crazy events, Harvey hadn't lost his spunk. He also poured out the remains of a pot of coffee for himself-another thing he needed to start moderating as littles weren't allowed to have much of the beverage.

"Well, I guess that's good," he murmured as he slipped into the seat next to Harvey. "Anyway, thanks for making breakfast. I thought you'd be sleeping longer, and I was planning on cooking."

Harvey bit down hardly on a piece of crunchy bacon. "Why, 'cause you're my caregiver and are supposed to do everything for me now?"

Mike paused, looking into Harvey's stern facial expression.

Ah, that's what felt off. 

It was clear that Harvey had been acting much differently since the last time Mike had spoken to him a couple hours ago, but now it made sense. Harvey was upset. 

"Did the bed bugs bite you while you slept?" Mike joked in his best teasing-but-serious manner. Luckily, Harvey seemed to get the memo, as the second their eyes met again the man seemed to deflate. 

Harvey sighed. "Sorry..." he spoke, all the early morning sarcasm and spunk suddenly vanishing from his voice, leaving it surprisingly shallow and quivery. It surprised Mike and he leaned forward. 

"Hey, you okay?"

Harvey successfully managed to keep his composure for about five seconds before it started to fall apart. Mike watched as Harvey's eyes twitched, and then he saw the glistening of faint tears forming.

"Mike, this is all so hard," Harvey whispered, and suddenly the little looked so tired. Mike leaned even closer.

"Hey, I know how hard everything must be on you right now; everything feels so confusing, right?" Harvey gave a small nod in reply, and he placed his hands on the little's shoulders. 

"Did something else happen between yesterday and now though?" he questioned, as Harvey's behavior seemed extra on edge considering the way they'd left things off the night before. He'd expected Harvey to feel more refreshed and level-headed after a good night's rest, but it instead seemed to be the opposite. 

Harvey sighed and shook off Mike's hands so that he could lean against the counter and cover his face with his own. 

"I wet the bed again."

"...Oh."

Suddenly it all made sense to Mike. The fact that Harvey had woken up forever before him; the sour mood his friend was in; he hadn't even noticed until now, but Harvey indeed wasn't wearing the same bottoms he had gone to bed in. 

"I've wet the bed before," Harvey admitted through his muffled voice, "but the timing of this, it's...it's just so...embarrassing." He groaned in annoyance, although Mike could hear the slight tremble in the man's voice. 

"And I even made extra sure I didn't have to go to the bathroom or anything before I went to sleep," Harvey continued, mumbling quietly. "I just don't get what's wrong with me, Mike."

"Harvey, you know I don't like it when you talk like that," Mike scolded, reaching over to pull Harvey's hands from his face. When the little met his gaze again, Mike noticed his eyes where growing glossier. "There's nothing wrong with having an accident, everyone has one once in a while, and there's absolutuely no shame in needed some extra protection. You're at the age range where it might be hard to control these things, but that doesn't mean you're broken or anything Harv. I wish you would've woken me up though, it must have been hard dealing with everything by yourself."

"But why do I have these problems when I'm big too?" Harvey huffed again, his voice growing more wobblily. As Mike watched the man's eyes slowly fill with more and more tears, he realized that, to Harvey, the accident had been much more than a simple accident. 

"Because, even if you may not feel little at the moment, your body is still the same as when you are little, which is why you may have some challenges when you're big too. But again, I promise that you're not "wrong" Harvey, you're perfect, you just have to grow to realize that."

Harvey cleared his throat and tried his best to give an understanding nod after a moment, but Mike could still see the slight wobble of the man's lip and the tears threatening to slip down his cheeks. 

"Awe, come here Harv," Mike cooed, reaching forward to carefully scoop Harvey off of his chair and into his arms. "I know, I know," he shushed, hearing the small sniffles start to come from where Harvey had buried his face into his shirt. He gently rubbed a his hand in circles on the small of the man's back, a little bit surprised at how protective he suddenly felt over the little. Just a couple years ago he would have never imagined becoming this close to Harvey-especially in a way like this. Seeing Harvey act any other way than the dominant, powerful caregiver lawyer he was would have sounded like crazy talk. 

And yet, having Harvey wrapped up in his arms, willingly accepting Mike to comfort and protect him, made him so damn happy. He raked a hand through the little's hair, pressing a firm kiss on it. "You're alright my sweetheart," he consoled, the pet name slipping off of his tongue automatically. 

They sat like that for a while, Harvey cuddled up on Mike's lap while the caregiver continued to rub small circles into the little's back. Mike's bacon and coffee had probably gone cold, and his back was hurting uncomfortably from his position on the chair, and Harvey's phone kept buzzing annoyingly on the counter with hundreds of calls. But Mike couldn't have cared less, his whole attention on his little. 

At last, not that Mike had been complaining, Harvey moved and pulled his face out of his shirt-looking up at him with slightly puffy eyes. "I'm sorry I cried into your shirt," Harvey whispered, before quickly averting his gaze with embarrassment. 

Cute.

"Stop apologizing, it's just some tears; no harm done. Besides, these clothes are dirty anyway."

"Oh," Harvey blinked, suddenly perking up as if he had remembered something. "Right, I forgot you haven't been able to go home at all. Sorry, I can give you some of my clothes-".

"What did I just say about the sorry thing?" Mike gently reprimanded, leaning into press another small kiss to Harvey's face. In response, Harvey blushed in a way that Mike used to think could have never been possible for the lawyer. "Clothes does sound good though, I'll have to stop by my flat and pack soon."

"Pack...?" Harvey questioned slowly, rubbing some of the remaining tears from his eyes before it all seemed to click.

"Oh."

"Yeah," Mike smiled softly. "We can work something out if you're not comfortable with me staying but-"

"Bullshit," Harvey huffed, "You can take the spare bedroom I have. You're my friend and my caregiver now, obviously we should live together. And I'm not living in your tiny little apartment shack."

"Hey," Mike giggled softly, internally happy to see Harvey slowly returning to his normal spunkiness, "I do not live in a shack."

"Compared to my penthouse you do," Harvey retorted, letting out a small groan as Mike peppered his face with more small kisses. It was shocking how used he'd already gotten to them.

"I can get you some new clothes while you eat," Harvey finally managed, embarrassment vivid on his face as he tried to shift out of Mike's lap. Mike let him off but kept his hand wrapped around Harvey's. "No, you finish eating too, and then we can both get dressed to go shopping."

"Shopping?" Harvey questioned dully before his face glowered in realization. "Oh come on Mike, you know I don't need any of that stuff, honestly."

"Maybe," Mike hummed, choosing to ignore how just seconds ago Harvey had been wrapped up in his arms because he'd had an accident. In hindsight, it was all Mike's fault, he should have gotten Harvey into one of the pullups he'd gotten from the firm last night, as the lawyer had clearly been in between headspaces. He'd just been thinking of so many things at the moment that he'd forgotten. "I wanna spoil you though. Now that I have my own precious little and a whole bunch of little care money to spend, I'll buy anything you want. So how about we get ready and go shopping, and then we can stop by my place to get some things before you lay down for a small nap-you definitely need it."

Harvey sighed, siting back on his bar stool and facing Mike with a cute pouty expression. "You're not going to negotiate this, are you?"

"Nope, now eat up," Mike smirked, reaching towards his cup of coffee to take a large sip, pretending not to notice the holes burning through the side of his head.

----------------

As they approached the doors to the large, colorful building, Harvey blew out a large breath of air. "Wow, I never though I'd be here not shopping as a caregiver."

After finishing eating and getting ready, he and Mike had inevitably made their way to the largest and most popular little store in all of New York: LittleMArt. The store was part of a large chain of little stores all throughout the nation which claimed to contain just about every single thing a person's little could ever need or want. While some of the items and toys could be suitable for actual babies and small children as well, the vast majority of everything in the store had been crafted exclusively for littles-proof of the many feats of manufacturing. He'd been to the store many times; a couple times to collect a few items for a friend's little or one he had been watching; many times just to browse the endless isles-he supposed his little classification could explain why he'd been so attached to this store. It had closed down for a while during a large remodeling a couple months back, and he had been meaning to go in and check out the new layout.

But right now Harvey felt less than excited to be doing so. 

The only things on his mind as Mike dragged him through the doors, out of the slightly chilly air and into the fresh-smelling store, were work and the idea of being seen. 

Even though Jessica had claimed she'd keep his job for him, the reality was that there were many little protection laws and ordinances getting in the way of him keeping his top lawyer position. And even though he had the pluses of having an approving boss, a good track record, and a caregiver that worked full-time with him, the odds still weren't in his favor. He suspected that he'd likely be able to keep his position, but not without some serious changes in working hours and assignments. While most would dream about the day when they'd get paid full time for half the amount of work and twice the amount of comfort, his workaholic nature made it hard for him to accept that. 

Also, now that his story had been leaked to the other firms and had even spread to large news platforms-he'd found more articles written about him while on the ride over to the store-he was terrified of someone in the shop recognizing him or-even worse-calling him out. He'd already had just about every single contact in his phone spamming his number today and filling out his voicemails; even people he worked against were calling him. At least those he could avoid with a blind eye. But it's a lot harder to ignore someone when their standing right in front of you.

Harvey nearly jumped as Mike's hand landed casually on his shoulder. "Look at all the isles of stuff!" Mike exclaimed, "exciting right?" Upon hearing Harvey's loud sigh, Mike only seemed to laugh louder.

"It's okay bud," Mike soothed, "this'll be quick; were just here to get some necessities (the biggest lie ever as Harvey would find out), and maybe you'll find a couple things you like while we're at it."

"Do you really think I'd find anything I like here?" Harvey practically scoffed, only to have Mike's hand on his shoulder shift to bring him closer. "I'm sure you will." Mike spoke, "but I want you to stay next to me the whole time, and tell me if anything gets overwhelming okay?"

"Yeah yeah," Harvey mumbled, feeling a weird tingly feeling form in his gut at the way Mike was treating him and trying to keep him safe. Mike's hand fell off his shoulder after a little and a second later the younger man was grabbing onto his hand. He allowed him to intertwine fingers, his face growing red as they walked past the groups of people. They stopped by a collection of carts at the front of the store and Mike grabbed one, still holding onto Harvey's hand tightly as they made their way up to a small isle navigator board. Harvey peered at it. They had made lots of changes since he'd last been here.

"Okay, we're right here," Mike spoke, pointing to the light blue star icon on the map before dragging his finger to the nearest isle. The toiletries section. "How about we start off with the boring stuff, and then we can end up at the toys later?"

"Can we skip this whole trip?" Harvey begged, a last, futile attempt to get Mike to have mercy on him and let him go home. Mike just gave him a coy smile in response though. "Come on, I promised you some little boy clothes, and I plan to deliver."

—-

“Wow, look at all these choices,” Mike spoke astonishingly as he searched through a large rack of intricately organized little clothing sets. He flipped through a collection of cute shirts, stopping when he found a yellow one that had a sun with shades on the breast pocket. “Isn’t this one cute?”

"I thought we were here for essentials,” came Harvey’s response from all the way at the end of the isle where he pretended to not be associated with Mike. “You’ve already picked out like 10 outfits.”

"I did say I was gonna spoil you, right?” Mike teased, taking the shirt and another soft blue one next to it, placing both in the already overflowing cart. Harvey stalked closer, glancing into the mountain of supplies Mike had already gathered in the hour they’d been at the store, his face feeling hot. There was a large selection of clothes, and even more sets of sippy cups, bottles, and pacifiers. Harvey had insisted they get the most basic design of everything…but Mike had somehow convinced him to pick a set of race car and cat themed binkys as well. He glanced down to the bottom of the cart, his face growing even redder when he saw the two boxes of pullups and diapers sitting there in all their glory. He’d honestly fought as hard as he could with Mike over them, especially the diapers. He’d caved into accepting the pull-ups after Mike pulled up the logistics of his bed wetting habits, but the diapers were still something he’d rather not be associated with.

He sighed as he watched Mike walk back over to the clothing rack, the man giving him a cheesy grin before sticking his face back in the plethora of clothes. 

“Sorry, I’m in my element right now,” the younger man spoke. “I don’t want you to go far, but if you want maybe you can go look at the toy isle nearby and find some stuff you like!”

Harvey sighed again. "Something I like?" he probed sarcastically, but Mike seemed to pay his tone of voice no mind. 

"Yeah," the man replied, still digging through clothes. "We'll both go check out the other isles in a bit anyway, I just wanna get a few more stuff from here first." Harvey began to complain, but as he watched Mike pull a purple looking onesie from the rack after a moment, he quickly decided that yeah, maybe he would walk around. 

He slowly made his way out of the clothing isle, taking a left and looking up at the isle signs. He passed by the toy isle that Mike had told him to go visit originally, trying to find a part of the little store that wasn't so, well, little-centered. He strolled through the shop, catching the attention of many individuals and families who watched him walk by, almost as if he recognized him-which he hoped wasn't true. He avoided their gazes, eyes trained to the signs until he found one labeled 'bed decor' and decided he would be entertained enough by looking at pillow covers. 

The isle was empty as he walked in, and he instantly caught sight of all the fairy-tale, car, animal, and more bed-set themes. He looked them all over, wondering if any of the sets would even fit on his gigantic ten thousand dollar mattress and bedframe. He stopped at one of the red car bedcover sets, picking it up and wondering if they had any other sets here besides these typical sports car sets. Maybe a set molded after an Aston Martin or Ferrari car. Or maybe they had a baseball or boxing-themed set. He flipped the package around in his hands, staring at the labels until something in him snapped and he shoved it back onto the shelf suddenly, his face turning red. How embarrassing of him. 

He sighed and walked a little farther down the isle, before a collection of blankets started to appear. And damn, did they look comfy. He brushed his hand across a stack of dark blue blankets, feeling the softness they gave off. Maybe it was because of that special fabric that they used to sooth littles' sensitive skin, but it felt great (not that he'd admit his skin was anything other than rock hard). 

Continuing to look through the variety of fluffy blankets, his eyes suddenly locked onto one in particular, and he grabbed it off the shelf. Well, fuck him. He had just been talking about if they had any fancier items, and here there was, a tan-colored blanket with a pair of extremely detailed boxer gloves embroidered in the middle with shiny gold accents. He held the blanket close to himself, admiring how detailed the design was, and how soft the material seemed to be. As he looked at the other blankets farther down the aisle, he noted that they got more and more geared towards older littles and children, with things like basic floral patterns and cool map designs. However, he couldn't bring himself to put down the boxing blanket he held in his hands to go look. The gloves on this one seemed to look practically identical to the first pair he'd ever gotten, and the tan color of the material would pair nicely with his room. It was epic.

He clutched the blanket in his hands, feeling less and less embarrassed about liking it by the second. Mike had said he could pick out whatever he wanted, and he found something he liked. Surely there was no wrong in that right? Plus, the blanket would be an aesthetically pleasing pop of pizazz to add to his room.

He stared at the blanket for a little longer before deciding that he wanted to take it. He spun on his feet, turning to walk back over to Mike when he ran into something hard. He heard a thud as he stumbled back, and when he caught his bearings he realized he had run into a man with caramel skin and similar colored hair, who had fallen to the ground. And when he realized the overalls with small little pandas everywhere that he was wearing, he sucked in a breath. 

“Shi-Sorry, I didn’t see you,” he fumbled, gathering his own bearings and reaching out a hand to help the man up, one hand still clutching the blanket to his chest. He really didn’t want to be the cause of an epic breakdown right now, so he needed to play his cards carefully.

What he wasn’t expecting was for the little to take his helping hand up and then immediately shove him to the floor as well. 

He fell with a similar thud, wincing as his tailbone hit right against the hard tile floors. The blanket slipped from his grasp, falling next to him. He looked up in shock at the little who looked just about his height, his mind processing the sudden retaliation. Then a moment later his back started to throb and his brow furrowed. But he swallowed his complaints, tying to go into his golden caregiver state of mind as he carefully stood back up. 

“Hey, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bump into you-". 

“Suck it you meanie!” The other man responded, and suddenly Harvey was more worried about a punch to the jaw then dealing with a couple tears. 

“I’ve been looking at that blanket all day, it’s the only one left, and my mommy finally said we could come back here and get it, but you stole it!”

Harvey blinked. “Uh-"

"you stole it, you stole my blankie!” The little screeched, “you’re little’s not even here, why would they care over what blanket they got!?”

Harvey went silent for a moment as his brain tried to piece this sudden interaction together. Clearly the little was upset at him, although not because he had been knocked to the floor. He wasn’t exactly sure what had set the man off so much, but he cleared his throat and tried to give the little a small smile. Clearly the guy thought he was a caregiver after all.

"Here, here, I’m sorry I think there’s some miscommunication happening, but you can have the blanket. This is the one you want, right?” Harvey reached down to grab it off the floor. “Here y-"

He was pushed again suddenly, the blanket ripped out of his hands as he fell back down on the floor, hitting it hard again. He let out a small gasp as he could feel his body ache, gawking with wide eyes after a moment to the boy who looked absolutely furious.

"It’s broken! You broke it!” the little yelled, stomping his feet and growing red in the face as he held up the blanket which now had a nice stretched out rip on the side of it. The boy threw the blanket at his face and it slipped down into his lap. Harvey could feel his breathing begin to shallow. He didn’t know why, but right now the little screaming at him made him scared. 

“You meanie!” The little yelled and stepped forward, tears pouring from his eyes. Harvey could feel his lip start to wobble as he flinched back, feeling frozen in his spot. The little looked furious, but at the same time he looked so sad that it even made him feel bad. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispered out although he knew there was nothing to be sorry for. “You can have I-it, or I can fix it and gift it back."

"You meanie, I hate you! You’re a horrible caregiver! I hate you I hate you!-“

"Jackson Edward Peters come over here right now.”

Both he and the little stilled at the sound of a stern caregiver voice coming from the end of the isle. A woman with dark brown hair and amazing style sense walked forward from behind him, grabbing the little by the arm. 

“Mommyyyy-!” The boy yelled but was cut off. 
“What have I told you about acting like a brat! I know you wanted that blankie but you can’t act like that, baby!” 

Harvey watched from his spot on the floor as the lady pulled the little aside for a second, and when the boy turned back his face was covered in snot. 

“I-I’m sorry,” the little spoke with a shaky voice, although he could still hear the resentment. Nevertheless, he staid still and quiet on the floor, feeling his own tears forming in his eyes. This was such a sucky store trip. All this drama over a dumb blanket. And he was still at a loss for what exactly had happened. There had been no one in the isle when he'd got there, and yet the way the boy was looking at him made it seem as if he'd been watching him from a far for a while.

“The b-blankie just loo-ks a lot like th-e one I lost an-and I really wan-t it.” The little sniffled again, looking at the caregiver lady who was frowning at him and then quickly looking back. “I’m sorry.”

Harvey stayed quiet, his body feeling like stone as the woman took the blanket out of the little’s hands and walked over. 

“I’m sorry, the blanket's all messed up now. But if your little really wants if then I promise I’ll pay for it and I know someone who is good at stitching things up.”

Harvey swallowed, feeling mute as the lady and her little started at him. Even though the lady was much nicer than the little, he could hear the exasperation in her voice when after a moment she asked “Are you going to get up? You need a hand?”

He cleared his throat and scrambled to press himself up. “U-h no-no I’m f-fine,” he stuttered out, his face turning red as he could feel the tears forming in his eyes. He couldn’t start crying now, not in front of these people. The first time he tried to get up his left shoe stepped on the blanket and he hit the floor again. The woman gave out a barely audible sigh, and Harvey immediately pressed himself up again, full of shame.

At last he managed to stand up fully, the blanket clutched shakily in one of his hands because he had unconsciously grabbed for it as he stood up. The woman looked at him, her eyes creasing for a moment in a peculiar was that made him feel like he was being dissected. He bit his lip as he could feel it start to wobble, and he felt uneasy on his feet. His back throbbed more and more each second and he wondered if it was bruised.

But then the woman’s eyes widened a bit and she stepped closer, a look of recognition on her face. “Hold on, wait are you-“

Harvey flinched as a strong hand landed on his shoulder suddenly, followed by a “Harvey, I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

Turning around he found Mike standing there behind him with the cart. The man looked a little panicked and even upset at first, but as soon as they had made eye contact all he saw was worry. 

“Harv, what happened? You okay bud?”

Harvey took a shaky breath as he twisted his lip between his teeth. Then he blinked a couple times and his vision grew blurry. And then he could feel the familiar sound of a wine building up in his throat. He reached forward, his voice managing a small “Mike” before he couldn’t control it anymore and started sobbing, even though he didn’t know why he was. His back ached and his feelings were hurt and the blanket he had wanted was ripped, but compared to everything he’d experienced and done as a lawyer, crying over something as stupid as a sore bum was humiliating. And yet, as he pressed his face into Mike's shirt and cried, he felt like he had the biggest heartache in the world. 

Zoning out, he couldn't focus enough to hear or comprehend what the caregiver lady behind him had started saying. Luckily after a couple moments he felt strong arms wrap around him and lift him into the air.

“Oh buddy,” came Mike’s soft coo as he was brought to sit on the man’s hip, his face pressed into Mike’s shoulder and the blanket squeezed in the middle of them. He whimpered, taking in Mike’s soothing scent and letting it engulf him as he tried to calm his stupid breakdown. “What happened baby?” Mike spoke softly as he rocked him back and forth. He couldn’t even think of an answer, too caught up in his tears. It dimly registered to him that he'd felt just like this in the office that night before he'd dropped and was found by Mike, but he lost focus quickly, losing his train of thought. 

He could feel Mike's warmth around him as the man left him alone for the moment and began conversing with the caregiver lady. At some point he heard a new voice join the conversation, but his face was still buried in Mike's shoulder so he couldn’t tell who it was. When Mike’s hand drifted down to his lower back he could feel himself tremble, as the ache made itself more prominent. He sniffled and glanced down at the blanket that was crushed between him and Mike. He felt so stupid for even taking an interest in such a thing, and he felt even worse for how upset he felt that it was ripped. The other little just missed their own blankie, they deserved it more than him. But still it was so comfortable and he found himself bringing the ripped part closer to his face.

Mike brushed a comforting hand through his hair while he and the other voices talked for a while. He could pick up a few words every once in a while, but for the most part it felt like he was wearing headphones and they were talking far away. He continued to cry, but after a while he managed to settle to just quiet tears, his thumb somehow finding its way into his mouth as Mike slowly bounced him on his hip. 

“Hey baby can I see your pretty face for a second?” Mike’s voice finally rumbled to him, and he felt the man taking small steps. His body let out an involuntary whine as suddenly Mike’s hands were back around his sides and he was being softly placed onto the little holder on the shopping cart, his legs sliding through the holes and Mike quickly clipping the belt on his stomach. 

“N-no,” he whimpered, his thumb sliding out of his mouth as his hands instantly reached for Mike to hold him again. He could still see the lady and her little farther down the aisle, and there also appeared to be an employee there talking to them. He felt so embarrassed, and his eyes quickly welled up with more tears as Mike carefully adjusted the ripped blanket to wrap around him. 

“It’s okay lovely, I just wanna get something to clean your face,” Mike cooed as he produced a packet of wet wipes from his pocket. “What happened sweetheart?” The younger man spoke, bringing the wipe to his face and carefully cleaning the ickiness he felt. He didn’t think he could or even wanted to explain the whole situation to Mike-he was sure the man had already heard it all anyway and was just trying to calm him down- so he simply sniffled and bit his wobbling lip, reaching to clutch the blanket around him. 

“Owie,” he managed to whine out, his vocabulary very limited in his current state. His stupidity only made him cry more, wondering how he had gone from being such a perfect caregiver to being the type of person he’d normally care for in just days. 

Mike paused wiping his face, leaning forward to brush the hair from his face. “You had an ouchie? Did you get hurt somewhere?”

"Based on the camera footage your little had been pushed to the floor a couple times,” came a shout from the employee in the back, and Harvey could see the small moment in which Mike’s face turned furious, before he looked back at him with the most sincere expression. 

“I’m so sorry baby, I should’ve been paying more attention, Mike said, pressing a kiss to his forehead before reaching behind him.

Harvey wanted to say something like that it wasn’t Mike’s fault or that he was just overreacting, but he couldn’t form the words and all of a sudden Mike was handing him a small plush. He looked at the small otter with a white bow on its head as Mike placed it in his lap, picking it up shortly after. It was almost as soft as the blanket, and he looked back up at Mike questionably. 

“I thought you could use a little friend,” Mike cooed fondly, before in a more stern, protective tone speaking “give me one more moment lovely, I need to talk to these people.” Mike gave him one more kiss on the forehead, and Harvey watched with still blurry eyes as his friend made his way back over to the caregiver and worker. The other little had long since gone back over to sit in their own cart, and when they made eye contact for a moment the little gave him what could only be described as a stink eye. Harvey quickly glanced away, feeling shameful yet again for having the blanket the boy had wanted so badly wrapped around him like they’d already bought it. But he clutched it anyways, and held the baby otter Mike had given him close to his chest, which oddly made him feel a lot better. He couldn’t hear whatever conversation was going on between Mike and the other adults, but he found himself sucking his thumb again and holding his fluffy blanket and otter comfortably, watching them talk as his vision slowly cleared. 

Mike didn’t take long to talk, but by the time he had walked back over, Harvey's eyes were red and puffy, and he felt extra sleepy wrapped up in all the warmth. Mike gave him another soft smile before reaching for something else in the cart. He heard the sound of plastic being ripped open and then Mike pulled a second wipe out his pocket and a moment later the thumb in his mouth was being pulled out. 

A whimper built up in his throat, his eyebrows furrowing as he prepared to tell Mike to ‘fuck off’ in babble terms, but then a cold rubber nipple was pressed through his lips and he instantly latched onto it. He blinked and sucked on it for a second, before looking back at Mike with heavy eyes. 

“paci?” He blubbered behind the chewer and Mike started at him like he was the most precious thing in the world.

“Yeah baby, that’s a paci. They’re nice, hmm?”

Harvey gave the piece of rubber a couple more tentative sucks before nodding his head. Yes. They were nice. 

Mike gave him another sympathetic smile before he started to push the cart out of the isle. The caregiver woman and her little also started to walk away, so Harvey figured some sort of truce had been made. The worker from earlier though, a young lady with curly brown hair, followed next to them in the cart, and he could finally tune into the conversation that Mike and her were having. The lady explained the companies' policy towards small infractions like what had happened, and started listing out the basic amenities they could receive as compensation-the typical business stuff. However she seemed like a nice lady, occasionally turning to give him a sympathetic smile. 

He felt very shy as all of the shoppers stared in their direction while they passed. Luckily he'd had the smallest sense of logic to wipe his tear-stricken face with one of the wet wipes Mike had rested next to him before shoving his face in the ripped blanket to hide. He felt embarrassed, and guilty, and his back hurt. But, every time he felt Mike's hand brush against the top of his head-which was all hidden under the blanket, he couldn't help but also feel so safe and loved. 

He could hear talking around him for a little while, then the sounds of doors opening and the cart being pushed onto asphalt, but he focused on nothing more than cuddling with his little stuffed animal and biting the paci between his lips as he slowly began to calm down. 

It was then, under the blanket, that he felt something snap in his brain, and suddenly his adult mind broke through the layers of cloudiness in his head. He took a deep breath, his mind recollecting the entire ordeal of what had just happened as he was teared out of his little space.

“Fuck,” he whispered, the cuss word muffled by the pacifier resting on his tongue. Apparently Mike seemed to hear it though, as the cart slowed down to a stop and a moment later the blanket was being lifted from over his head and off of him. The sunlight hit him hard as he squinted his puffy eyes to meet Mike’s gaze. 

“Hey buddy,” Mike spoke, running a hand through Harvey’s now disoriented hair. “You’re…you’re big again?” Harvey could hear the confusion in Mike’s voice for a moment, before the man gave him a small smile and reached back over to grab some more wipes. The doctors had told them that he’d most likely have trouble staying in his headspace, or that he’d go down and be stuck in it for a while, so he supposed it made sense as to why he was suddenly being whipped out of the fuzzy feeling he had been so engulfed in not even a moment before.

"Yeah…” he mumbled, the pacifier still wrapped tightly around his lips. Despite being 'big' for some reason, he didn't want to take it out, and he couldn't make himself grab for it. Mike reached up to wipe his face, gathering the remaining tears and snot that he hadn't already rubbed off. His face felt much cleaner now, although his eyes felt irritated and his back still throbbed dully. 

"It's okay, the doctors said it would probably be like this," Mike consoled, although Harvey could still see a little bit of worry in the man's eyes; for a little to go from full on freakout to out of their headspace in a matter of minutes was definitely not a good sign. "Our job is just gonna be to keep on trying to get you down, until it happens for real, and I promise you'll feel so much better when we get you on an actual schedule."

Harvey simply hummed his acknowledgment, realizing that Mike had stopped the cart in front of Rey's parked car in the lot. The driver came out of the front and gave him a reassuring smile before opening the trunk and beginning to load stuff in. The whole cart was piled with miscellaneous items, and he had the smallest moment to ponder exactly how much Mike had probably spent before he was being unclipped from the cart and lowered to the floor. He startled, but Mike quickly wrapped a supportive hand around his waist. 

"Here baby, hold my shoulders, I just wanna check your back real quick," Mike mumbled, and Harvey's face heated up red as he quickly grabbed onto the caregiver. He could obviously stand by himself right now, but Mike was still being extra carful as he held him steady and gently lifted up the back of his shirt-in the dammed parking lot of all places. He quickly shoved his face into the man's shirt, praying that none of the passers would recognize him. "Mike, can we-this is embarrassing," he whined, feeling as Mike carefully prodded at the skin on his lower back. 

"It's alright darling, no one will pay any attention to us," Mike consoled with a small chuckle, although Harvey could still hear the faint worry in the man's voice. "I don't see anything here, where exactly did you fall? Any ouchies when I press?" 

"Don't say that word," Harvey faintly complained before whispering "...my tail bone hurts a little."

He let out an actual squeak as Mike pulled the top part of his sweats down, leaving the ass of New York's top lawyer in display for the world to see. "Mike! What the fuck!" he startled, quickly jumping away and pulling his pants up, face beet red and his pacifier slipping from his lips. He glanced around, glad to see no staring shoppers nearby. "Don't do that," he complained, although much more whiny, and Mike quickly walked back over to him. 

"Awe, I'm sorry baby, did I startle you?" Mike cooed, in a tone that was both soft and loving and a bit teasing, showing how their teasing manners were still very evident in their new dynamic. Harvey huffed, but the complaint in his throat quickly dissipated as Mike pressed a kiss to his hairline-it was weird how Mike seemed to be able to control his emotions. 

"When we get to my place I want you to lay down with an icepack for a little, okay? It doesn't look bad, but I can see some bruising on your cute little bottom, and I don't want it to get any worse."

Harvey turned even redder. "Don't you know I'm still your boss," he chided, but remained compliant as Mike led him with a hand on his back over to the right passenger door of the car. Mike opened the door, and he saw the baby seat all set up and ready and he paled. "Maybe", Mike hummed, "But, as we established, I'm also your caregiver, and therefore I can coddle you and use cutsie little words as much as I see fit."

"Oh come on, there's no way I'm sitting in that," he practically scoffed, his brows furrowing, "I'm not even little right now!"

"Maybe, but you were little just over three minutes ago and are arguably still feeling a little drowsy. Besides, the seat is extra soft and perfect for your back. Unless you wanna sit on my lap again."

Harvey gawked at Mike, before turning to look at Rey who was obviously minding his own business while finishing up the loading. "You can't be serious."

"Lap or car seat baby, whichever you want."

"Ugh Mikeee."

"Come on baby, I got something yummy for you to snack on, don't make me save it until later."

Harvey's stomach quickly perked up at that offer, and the little growl it let out made him want to die. He sighed loudly and exaggeratingly, looking back at the car seat, which faced the back of the front seat-as car seats made for littles were too bit to face the other way- and was dark blue in color with little white clouds hanging above in a mobile. He glanced back at Mike once, before huffing and looking back at the seat. Mike was way more comfortable, he didn't want to fall asleep again. 

"...I'll sit in the damn car seat then."

Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, Mike was lifting him up and resting him into the-damn-really comfortable seat, strapping him into the chair and then spinning the mobile above him. "Good choice lovely, I'll be back in one sec," Mike spoke, and then he left-presumably to go help Ray. He huffed, feeling silly as he pulled experimentally at the straps on the seat, watching as they didn't budge. He tried to get to the lock of the harness, but it was covered with a small black seal-the infamous caregiver seal that he had heard about and even used before on other littles, something that could only be opened by someone not sitting in the seat. He never knew really how it worked, something about the littles not being able to get a hand of all the sides that needed to be pressed because they were sitting in the chair, but now he wished he had paid a little more attention. 

The sound of doors closing made him jump, and when he looked up he found Ray in the driver seat fastening his seat belt, and Mike sitting next to him, handing over the blanket which he had been holding onto earlier. He barely hesitated before grabbing it and bringing it to his chest-he'd forgotten about it when he'd snapped out of his headspace. Mike gave him a smile, and then reached forward under the blanket to clip something to the top of his shirt. A new pacifier. "I got the other one off the floor, but here's a new one that won't go anywhere if you drop it," Mike hummed, and he almost found himself grabbing for it before reality hit him and he frowned. Mike followed by placing the stuffed otter on his lap, and he did grab that, bringing it close to his face to snuggle with.

Mike smiled at him and turned to clip on his own seatbelt as the car started, before reaching for something else and ripping it out of its small rapper. Harvey's stomach growled. 

"Here cookie monster", Mike giggled, "I got you a little chocolate chip cookie to much on." 

He didn't react as Mike reached for one of his hands and rested the cookie in it. Suddenly, the waves of embarrassment and frustration left him as he looked at the cookie and then back at Mike. All Mike had been doing today was being the best caregiver he could be, and even with Harvey's pissy attitude the man was still as bright as the sun. He looked back at the cookie, realizing Mike had must have thought of him even while thinking of him during their shopping spree. He felt himself grow warm, though not with embarrassment. His chest expanded, and he could feel his heart pounding throughout his body.

He smiled. Mike was so nice. 

"Aweee, there we go!" Mike exclaimed, making him jump again as the man brushed a hand through his hair, "I knew I could get a smile out of you at some point!" Harvey's said smile dropped promptly, replaced with another frown, although the look had no heat to hit. He felt loved as he broke a small part of the cookie off and handed it to Mike (who responded with even more coddling) before bringing it up to his mouth and taking a bite. Delicious. 

Glancing out the window as he ate, he watched the buildings and cars fly by. But he couldn't bring himself to think about anything other than Mike, his caregiver, and the yummy cookie in his hands. When he finished it, he brought the soft blanket under his chin, forgetting all about its large rip and why it was there as he continued to stare out the window, dully listening to the small chatter between Ray and Mike that they knowlingly seemed to keep quiet and collected. 

And after a while, as the smooth driving of the car and the admittable comfortableness of the seat got to him, he found himself barely taking a moment to think about what he was doing before he popped the pacifier Mike had given him into his mouth and suckled softly, looking back at the sky and watching as little imaginary cloud people and animals chased the car. He let his eyes flutter shut shortly after. 

He could definitely get used to this. 

Chapter Text

Harvey's eyes snapped open to the sound of a loud bus horn blaring through the streets. Gazing around slowly, he realized that Ray's car was parked on the side of the street right in front of Mike's apartment complex. Mike on the other hand, had already gotten out of the car and was standing on the sidewalk outside looking aggravated. Ray was standing next to him sipping a cup of coffee, and the two appeared to be making quiet small talk from the way they spoke in hushed voices until people would walk near them and they would switch to more ordinary banter.

"God damn horns, they could blow your ear drums out," Mike complained to Ray who gave a small chuckle as a small group of teens walked past before their conversation grew hushed once again. He heard his name once, but then the conversation grew too quite for him to hear through the car walls, and he was sucky at lip reading. He wondered what they were gossiping about, trying to sit up to see better when the harnesses strapped around him reminded him that he couldn't exactly go anywhere. 

He glanced at his lap, fiddling with the small rip in the blanket that he just now remembered he was holding. It was starting to stretch out more, and pieces of the string where sprayed around in different directions. He wondered if he could give it to the dry cleaner and have them sow it back together; He could probably get a new blanket, but after going through such a panic for this one, he felt much too attached to it. Then he reached over and grabbed the small grey otter Mike had handed him earlier, brining it up to his face to observe it. He hadn't really taken the time to adore it earlier, but the small shine of the animal's eyes matched perfectly with the pearly white bow that rested on its fluffy fur and made it look so perfect. He'd never really had a stuffed animal, even when he was young; he'd been more into collecting baseballs, basketballs, toy cars, and other things of that nature. Well, it could have been because his parents had never exactly given him any sort of stuffed animal to play with other than maybe as a baby. Being not only a boy, but reasonably not expected to be a little had meant that his parents-both neutrals-did not really see the point in getting him anything so babyish past the age of three. Not that stuffed animals were for babies, but in his household they were. 

He'd given countless toys to littles and young children around him that he watched during his caregiving classes and even after with donations he made on the firm's behalf. But now having one that Mike had specifically given to him made him feel bubbly inside. A dim corner of his brain proposed the idea that he should give the otter a name so that he'd stop referring to it as 'the otter,' but he didn't know if he was at the level of humility yet to give it one himself. However, luckily for him after a moment of fiddling with the stuffy he looked on the back of its small tag and found that it had a name. Roo.

Somehow the name made him smile. Roo was a perfect name. Sounded like it would be more for a kangaroo, but it fit his stuffy perfectly. He brushed back the soft fur on Roo's head, feeling oddly proud of himself even though he hadn't actually picked out the name. He was starting to like his new friend, and he played softly with the small bow in Roo's hair as he turned to look back over at Mike and Ray.

He would have jumped five feet back if he could when he found Mike's face pressed into the window next to him, looking at him with sparkly eyes and a doughy smile. 

"Hi darling, when did you wake up?" Mike cooed as he stepped back and opened the car door. Harvey looked past Mike and saw Rey giving his own soft smile, before the man turned to finish his coffee and walk towards the nearest trash can. He then glanced back at Mike after a moment, realizing he'd left the caregiver on read. However, Mike didn't need to hear any response, instead leaning over and lifting the blanket off of him to unclip the straps of the car seat that he had struggled to do earlier with ease. Then Mike smiled, brushing a hand against Roo. 

"Isn't your friend so soft? Matches you perfectly."

 Mike's hands rose towards his face, and Harvey nearly gasped as Mike tapped something plastic. The pacifier. He still had the pacifier in his mouth. He'd been chewing on it absentmindedly this whole time, hadn't paid a though to it. He quickly let it drop from his mouth, although it didn't go far as it was connected to his shirt. His face tightened with slight embarrassment, although he honestly couldn't care that much anymore; these past days had humiliated him enough. Besides, Mike's soft smile and bright puppy dog eyes as the younger man continued to remove the straps of the car seat made him feel a lot more comfortable.

“You’re so cute," Mike complimented. "Come on, let’s get some ice on your bottom while I pack some stuff. Then I'm thinking a yummy lunch and maybe another nap for my sleepy boy.” Not expecting a response, with those words Mike slid his arms under Harvey's armpits and lifted him up into the air quickly. Harvey let out some sort of squeak as he was rested again on Mike's hip, his face really burning up this time because they were standing right out in the streets for everyone to see. He opened his mouth with a prepared protest to be put down, but all that came out was an incredibly whiny and dragged out "Mikey," that caught both him and said man off guard. Harvey clamped his mouth shut, glanced over Mike's shoulder to see some groups of pedestrians walking by, and promptly shoved his face into Mike's chest. Apparently Mike had been right. He was still in some weird in-between headspace area.  

After a brief moment Harvey could practically envision Mike's beaming smile. "Mikey, eh?" Harvey groaned from inside the man's shirt. Kill me now.

"Haha, I love you so much sweetheart. I'm sorry Mikey is being mean, I promise he'll leave you alone when we get inside." Harvey grumbled as he felt Mike's soft hands brushing through his hair as the man gently bounced him on his hip-he'd also gotten embarrassingly used to being held by the younger man. 

He let out another huff, about to pull his face from Mike's shirt and send the man a hard glare, when he heard a small collections of 'awes' and 'ooes' coming from nearby and he dove right back into his caregiver's chest. 

"Awe, what a dear he is," came a small, kind of shaky but yet super sweet voice of an older woman. "Such a lovely little boy you have," came another voice-a woman but a little younger-sounding. From the hums of agreement he could hear around him, he judged that there were at least two other people present too. A small whine built up in his throat as he tried to dig his face deeper into Mike's shirt. Even though he hadn't been directly called out at the store for who he was, he could bet that a big, non little-looking famous lawyer man sitting on the hip of a second smiling lawyer with his own  noticeable reputation would drag a lot of attention. He just hoped that at this time of day one of the thousands of people he'd done business with didn't decide to take a walk down this same sidewalk. 

One of Mike's hands started rubbing circles on his back, bringing him out of his mental spiral. "Yeah, he's perfect isn't he?"

Harvey suppressed a grumble. He surely didn’t feel perfect. How could Mike possibly find having a little that was no other than a snarky, millionaire lawyer and lost-case little perfect? However, every time Mike pressed a kiss in his hair or shifted to hold Harvey on his hip with just one secure hand under his bottom, he couldn’t help but forget about everything and instead just lean into the man’s warmth.

“You’re doing such a good job with him, he seems to love you to bits,” he heard one of the ladies say, and then there was a softer voice up next to where he was hiding his head. 

“Isn’t that right buddy? Don’t you love your dada?”

He grew red at the title, his face immediately raising out of Mike’s shoulder to make eye contact with the older woman, who was wearing all pink and sporting a very welcoming smile with beaming eyes. 

“Awe, I knew I could get you out of hiding!” She cooed. “Isn’t he just adorable? I’m surprised no one noticed such a cute little one earlier! If only my own son had a little as cute as yours.”

The woman and some of the others-a group of 4 apparently- continued letting out small praises and flattering comments towards Mike, but Harvey’s gears were turning in his head as he sat securely on Mike’s hip. It didn’t hit him for a while that the woman who had spoken to him must have known about his past and his story. 'I’m surprised no one noticed such a cute little one earlier', she had said. And yet, without disgust or even any weird looks, the woman and her friends had continued to talk with Mike as if he actually was like any other little, not some interesting case.

By the time he had realized all this, they were at the door to Mike’s apartment. Mike unlocked and pushed open the door, once again holding him in that one-handed way that made him feel so small, and walked into the chilly apartment.

"Brr, I must've left the AC running on low last time before I left," Mike noted as he shut the door and proceeded to slide his tennis shoes off with his feet, all while using his hand to gently remove Harvey's own sneakers before he even thought about doing so. Mike dropped the shoes next to the door mat and then walked them over to the back of the apartment, towards the living room. Mike brought him up to the room's brown couch and moved aside a small decor pillow before he felt himself being lowered down. "Here, lay down on your tummy for me, Mike instructed as he was placed onto the soft couch, a pillow quickly being placed where his head would lay. "Huh?" He questioned as Mike's hands left him and the man walked away. However, before he could press himself up off the couch Mike was back and was holing a thin blue towel and an ice pack. 

"Here, let's get this on your ouchie," Mike murmured as he knelt down by the couch and placed the items on the floor. A moment later Harvey felt himself flush up as Mike carefully shimmied down the top part of his pants that were covering the forming bruise. Mike then laid the thin towel over his bruise, and a second later Harvey flinched as a cold icepack was rested over the spot. 

“Aghh,” Harvey cursed at the sudden spike of cold on his sensitive skin. “It hurts,” he found himself whining, once again realizing that he must be between headspaces still. 

“I know baby, I know,” Mike cooed, and a second later he was being handed Roo—he didn’t realize he had left the otter alone—and he quickly brought it into his arms. He also realized that Mike was holding his blanket, but the man didn’t hand it over to him when he reached out a shy hand for it. “My nana had some sewing supplies and she taught me the basics, so I think I can get this blankie patched up real quick for you,” Mike commented instead as he examined the rip in the blanket before looking back over to him with a smile. 

“You want to watch anything?” Mike asked, reaching for the remote on a small black coffee table nearby and switching on the tv across from the couch. The first thing that appeared on the screen was the daily news, but before Harvey could even glance at the title of what was on Mike promptly switched to another channel. This one had Curious George on. 

“Oh I love this show, don’t you?” Mike exclaimed happily, and Harvey failed to repress a glare. Clearly by ‘what he wanted to watch’ Mike meant what kids show. 

“Can you turn back on the news?” He asked although with not much energy. In response Mike just gave a small chuckle before placing the remote back on the coffee table and coming close to brush a hand through his hair. “Trust me,” he spoke, reaching down to grab the pacifier clipped to Harvey's shirt, “I think you’ll like this much better.” Harvey frowned as the binky was pressed towards his lips again, although he barely hesitated before opening his mouth and accepting the soother. He was already being treated like a baby, what more was this?

 Mike stared at him with puppy dog eyes and a quivering smile as Harvey sucked experimentally on the binky and adjusted Roo in his arms before pressing a kiss to his cheek and standing up. 

“Ok darling, just rest here for a little bit while I pack some small things, and then we can get some lunch, kay?” One last air kiss was blown in Harvey's direction—which made him a little red—and then Mike made his way into another room. Harvey huffed, sucking on the pacifier as he turned his attention to the TV. 

He actually used to love this show. He watched it with his brother a lot when he was young, and as a caregiver he loved to put it on for the littles he'd babysit. Yet, he supposed now he was the little who was watching it. What a coincidence. 

The familiar intro of the show went by before the episode began at the man in the yellow hat’s country side house. However that was all he got as for a little while he focused his mind on other things, like when he needed to and how he would talk to Donna and the others about this all—he definitely owed them an explanation. He wondered what the bar was gonna do to him now, what his rivals like Daniel Hardman must think, what people like Scottie must think. 

But after a while his mind slowly stopped whirring as he tuned back into the show in front of him and watched the little monkey George play on the beach with his friends and later taking the subway all across the city, and one by one all the adult pressures in his head began to slip away. 

————

Mike came to check on him periodically over the course of an hour, at one point removing the ice pack for about ten minutes to let his skin breathe before placing it back on. However the longer time went by the more absorbed Harvey got into his show. He wouldn’t admit how engrossed he’d gotten into George’s adventures or how he’d even giggled a couple times, but before he knew it he’d watched at least five episodes and had tuned the world out in the process. 

Or, at least he’d been distracted until he felt a grumble build up in his stomach and realized that he was starting to get hungry. And also that he had to pee, really badly. 

The twinge in his bladder caught him by surprise, and in less than a second he sat up, the ice pack that had been on his back rolling onto the couch and Roo left on the pillow beside him. He could feel the bruise on his back ache a little as he moved, but luckily the ice had calmed it down a lot. 

Pacifier still in his mouth and in a little bit of a panic, he pressed himself up off the couch and instantly could feel his legs shaking as he put his weight on them. He took a shaky step forward, his back burning slightly as he did so, and he dully realized that he hadn’t walked on his own two feet since he’d gotten out of bed to make food this morning. Still, he wasn’t sure exactly why he felt so off balance, taking another small step forward as he tried his hardest to rush to the bathroom. 

However, when he made it to the doorway leading out of Mike’s living room, he turned back for a second to look at the tv and watch George run around on screen. He had a little tingling in the back of his mind that told him he shouldn’t have gotten up without telling Mike; he should have waited for Mike to help him. Standing here right now on wobbly legs with a fuzzy brain and a pacifier stuck in his mouth, he not so excitedly noted that part of the reason he might not be feeling like normal was probably because he wasn’t feeling exactly big either. He huffed. He hated to admit it, but Mike had been right.

Speaking of Mike, as he turned back around to rush his way to the bathroom due to another twinge in his abdomen, using the wall as his support, he heard Mike call out to him. 

"Harvey?" The voice rang out from the other room, and he paused at the slight panic in the tone. Turning back around he saw Mike from afar make his way over to where he had been laying perviously and pause the tv. 

"Sweetheart, where did you go?" Mike called out again, noticeably more frantic, and Harvey blushed not only at the pet name but at the fact that Mike was panicking as if he where some sort of little baby that had crawled away while their caregiver was distracted. But then he became all too aware that he was leaning against a wall for support and still had a pacifier in his mouth, both of which only served to add flame to the fire. He unconsciously sucked once more at the chewer before opening his mouth to call out for Mike-the man's panicking was a little unecessary-but when another twinge hit his bladder he found himself letting out a small whine. 

It was small, very quiet. And yet the second the humiliating sound left his lips Mike's head snapped towards his direction and made him flinch. Mike caught his gaze, and not even a moment later the man had jogged over and was scooping him up. He gasped as his feet left the floor and he was pressed into Mike’s warm body, the man’s arms wrapping back around him to keep him steady. 

"Hey sweetheart, where are you going?" Mike cooed at him and Harvey felt his blood burst. His eyes met Mike’s, although the man's still surprisingly sweet, soft voice caused him to momentarily blank out. Suddenly, with the way Mike was looking at him, he felt so much smaller and he couldn't help but wonder if Mike was doting on him extra lovingly to get him to drop. 

And if he was then it was working. 

It was only when Mike let out a small hum and bounced him on his hip that his body reminded him what exactly he'd gotten up for.

"U-um I have to-to..." he trailed off, realizing that he didn't even know what to say. Or, not that he didn’t know what to say, but that he didn’t know how to say it. He took the pacifier he'd been sucking on out of his mouth and tried to formulate his thoughts into words again, but he felt a wave of panic upon realizing that his mouth just wasn't working. Even though he knew what to say, the words weren't forming right. He squirmed in Mike's arms, his bottom lip unconsciously jutting out and starting to wobble a little as his stomach cramped up in pain and he mentally scorned himself for not being big enough to use his own words. He'd never had this problem in his life until the past couple days. He'd had his fuzzy moments and all when on his medication, but other than that he largely lived his life like any other caregiver or neutral-minus the supposed health drawbacks. This was horrible, having his dignity torn away from him, just because that's how it was "supposed to be," and deep down he wondered what would have been happening now had he not fallen asleep in his office that night like an idiot. That was a poor move on his part.

But then Mike's warm hand came up to caress gently at his face and he remembered that, while he might have lost some parts of his old life, he had an actual caregiver now. A person who’d walked into his office one day with weed, now his best friend, who decided to step up and be something more to him. And as much as he would admit his life was being kind of shitty at the moment, he could never bring himself to regret the decisions that brought Mike to him, even if they were still getting used to each other. He’d barely been with the man for 3 days, but he felt like Mike had been his caregiver forever. 

"It's okay lovely, I know," Mike cooed. "This is all normal, you're just slipping the right way this time, m'kay? Now, what do you need to do? It's okay, you don't need to use big boy words, just tell me."

Harvey was pretty sure what he needed was obvious from the way he was crouching over even in Mike's arms. But he also knew that Mike wanted him to say it—breaking some walls or something like that. 

So he listened to the caregiver—his caregiver— and searched in his brain for the best way he could express his needs. And when he finally did, he pressed his face into Mike's clothes so that the man wouldn't be able to see his watery eyes. "Wan' the potty."

Even though he was making an effort not to look at Mike, he could feel the man's smile through his words. "Oh my, you need to go potty? Why didn't you let me know sooner, come on lovely let's go!"

Harvey jumped a little as Mike started to jog towards the restroom-it was pretty impressive considering he was carrying all 170 something pounds of him- and he lifted his head to watch as they made theri way through the small apartment and towards Mike's bathroom. Harvey didn't know what he was expecting-maybe Marvel-themed towels and a car-styled bathroom set with various colones and other products strewn about on the counter top. Yet, when Mike opened the door he was mildly surprised to find not only that the man's bathroom wasn't designed like an eight year-old's dream, but that it was surprisingly very orderly. More orderly than his own. Qualities of a caregiver he supposed. 

Harvey sniffled as Mike walked them over to the toilet, unsure about what the man was doing. But then Mike slowly lifted him off of his hip and placed him on the floor, holding him steady by his hips before he could even think about if he was going to fall or not. Mike then crouched down in front of him, still holding him steady with one arm as he reached for the dark sweats Harvey was wearing, and Harvey failed to stifle a squeak as his pants were pulled down fast. He thought Mike was going to leave him alone. No, this was weird. He didn't need Mike to help him to the potty. He was a big boy. 

Wait, big boy? Seriously? There's no way he just mentally said that. 

But none of that mattered as he suddenly felt his bladder give a large and last warning sign, and he blanched as he could practically feel a small bit of wetness beginning to form in his briefs. He filched and quickly reached to tug off his boxers, almost forgetting the embarrassment of Mike being there until he went to turn around to pee and the man gently pressed him to sit on the seat instead. Mike, to his credit, turned away to save him even more of the embarrassment as he sat on the toilet and went about his business, staring at his boxers—which were thankfully still visibly dry—and and feeling oh so ashamed. Like he'd mentioned before, sleeping accidents had been a thing even in the past for him, but having close calls like this while he was awake was a whole new thing. He could feel his lips start to quiver again as he thought about it all, quickly wiping himself with shaky hands when he was done so at least Mike wouldn't end up doing that for him too. 

But he noted with a saturnine attitude that he probably wouldn't be able to get up on his wobbly legs long enough to pull up his bottoms. He didn’t feel nearly strong enough right now.

"M-Mikey?" he asked, trying to control the wavering of his voice as he tried to console himself with as much force as he could that this was all okay; Mike was his caregiver so he was there to help him. Still, it was a little hard for him to admit it. 

"All done baby boy?" Mike hummed as he turned back to look at him, and Harvey never knew that the man had such sweet words reserved in his vocabulary for him until these past couple of days. "Oh lovely, why are you sad?" Mike questioned softly, frowning a little as he offered his hands to Harvey. Harvey took them and stood up, holding on to Mike's shirt as the man made quick work of pulling back up his briefs and sweats. Harvey reached up to wipe his eyes, but Mike did it for him, wiping his thumbs along Harvey’s cheeks to clear away the forming small tear tracks before grabbing him by his hands and gently leading him over to the sink. 

"Harvey, what's wrong?" Mike repeated again after a little, squirting soap onto the little’s hands and then rubbing them with his own. "I'm so proud of you, darling. You did so good making it to the bathroom all by yourself, and you're doing so so good at falling into your headspace. Don't worry, when we get back to your place we'll get you changed and you wont have to worry about stuff like this anymore."

Harvey sniffled, watching as Mike continued to rub the soap into his hands before turning on the sink water and washing them thoroughly. He didn't know how he felt. He didn't like feeling like this, feeling weak, and small, and in need of help. Yet at the same time he liked how Mike doted on him, treating him as if he was something special. But he still frowned at Mike's last remark. 

"B-but, m' a big boy," he practically whimpered, a small part of his mind in disbelief that he'd just said that out-loud, and the rest of himself barely even noticing the childish diction slip. Mike let out an audible coo before turning off the sink and reaching for a towel to dry their hands. "Hm, yes you are a strong big boy,” Mike soothed, pressing a kiss to the back of his head. "But right now, I think you're more my sweet baby boy, and sometimes little boys need extra help." Another small whine left Harvey’s lips as his face heated up a little but he still kept it pressed into Mike's arms. Mike was right…he definitely didn't feel that big right now. And part of him liked the idea of letting go and having his caregiver coddle him. 

When Mike finished drying their hands, Harvey was lifted back onto the man's hip, somewhere he felt like he'd already gotten used to being. "How's your back baby?" Mike asked as they left the bathroom and he rose his head to look around. Instead of going back to the living room, Mike carried him into the bedroom where Harvey saw two suitcases packed and sitting on the bed. 

"Is 'kay," he mumbled and whined a little as Mike placed him down on the now bare bed matress. Mike smiled sofltly at him, wiping the remaining tears from his eyes. "I'm glad to hear that, darling. I’m almost done packing so why don’t you stay here and relax a little bit, and then we can go get some yummy food. You want your little friend from the couch?”

Looking into Mike’s bright, loving eyes made him feel like he was melting into the bed, and at the mention of his otter he couldn’t help the babyish noise that slipped past his lips. “Roo,” he cooed softly, and Mike’s subsequent ‘awe’ felt so thick with adoration. 
“Of course lovely, is that your friend’s name? Roo? How adorable.”

Harvey couldn’t help the bubbly smile that formed on his face, despite feeling so horrible just minutes before. He felt trapped even more in the fluff that was surrounding his mind as Mike pressed a kiss to his nose and walked away for a moment to grab Roo. 

And when Mike came back with not only Roo but his newly patched up blanket, he could only smile wider, staying complaint for Mike as he was wrapped in his blanket, pacifier pressed back through his lips before Mike stumbled away to keep working. 

“You’re doing so good for me,” Mike cooed as he headed over to his closet to clean stuff up. “You’re almost there baby, I can feel it.”

And Harvey could too. He could feel it. And by it, he meant his headspace, creeping up on him and swallowing him whole. But it wasn't in a bad way, in fact right now, laying here on Mike's bed with the blanket Mike patched up for him, and cuddling the stuffed animal Mike chose for him and sucking the binky Mike bought for him, he felt like he actually wanted to be little. Part of him wished he'd never hidden his little identity from the start, and instead had let someone as nice as Mike be there to care for him and let him enjoy life like his biology wanted him to since the beginning. Of course, the other larger part of him was well aware that he likely wouldn't have been where he was now had he given into his instincts and let others treat him as a little. But he would ignore those realities for now. 

Wrapped up in his blankie on Mike's bed, he felt so much smaller than his body. All the toned muscled from his years of sports and carrying the firm on his back seemed much to big for how small he was feeling inside, and he found himself huffing and sucking a little harder on his paci as he watched Mike stroll throughout the house with hazy eyes, wishing he looked a little more like an actual little. 

But soon all those thoughts were burned away, leaving his mind—usually crowded with mental work lists, and arguments, and snarky remarks—practically empty and relaxed. A few minutes later and he had tuned out everything except the small rumbling of his tummy and Mike’s low humming radiating throughout the small apartment. 

However, out of nowhere a different sound interrupted the peace of him and Mike. It was a song, muffled and coming from the other room but playing on repeat once, then twice, then three times. And Harvey knew the song, taking in the familiar beats as the comfortable fuzzy feeling in his brain began to seep away, leaving his head aching and him frowning. The song played for a couple seconds, stopped for a moment and then repeated again not even a beat after.

He knew that song. Because on his phone, even though it was on silent and his call box was  jammed full with people trying to reach him, there were a small group of select people who had the ability to bypass his silencing—Mike was one of the lucky few—and each of those people also had their own custom ring tone. 

And as his brain slowly switched back into focus mode and he comprehended the song he was hearing, he found himself calling out for Mike in a shaky voice before he could do anything to stop it. 

Because it wasn't just anyone spamming his cell. 

It was Marcus. His little brother.

Chapter Text

Mike came jogging into the room not even a moment after Harvey called out to him. The man was holding what appeared to be likely one of his grandma's old tote bags—it was light green with floral patterns—on his right hand, it full of miscellaneous items. However, Mike was also holding a phone that was now ringing loudly and clearly throughout the bedroom. It was his phone. 

"Harvey," Mike approached, placing the bag and phone down on the bed before leaning over him to brush a hand through his hair. But as Mike analyzed the slightly panicked look on his face and the ringing of the phone continued nearby, Harvey saw the moment Mike pieced things together and how his brow furrowed a little in worry.

"Harvey, sweetheart, are you maybe...feeling a bit bigger right now?"

Harvey glanced towards Mike’s eyes, which, despite the man’s small smile, clearly showed Mike’s sadness over the fact that he’d once more gotten so close to slipping only to snap back out of it. True, he didn’t feel exactly ‘big’ either, but compared to how cozy and plaint he’d been feeling moments ago, he could definitely tell his brain had whirred back into adult mode. 

He didn’t answer Mike’s question, didn’t need to, instead softly pulling the chewer from his mouth and letting it hang from his shirt as he pressed himself up more. 

“Mikey, my phone,” he found himself calling out as he pointed towards the device, the childish nickname still slipping off his tongue with ease. The familiar ringtone of his younger brother’s number had been playing out for minutes on end, and even in his barely functioning state he was worrying. 

“Oh, Harvey,” Mike murmured softly, leaning back to pick up the phone and bring it towards him but yet not directly handing it over. Still, Harvey could see clearly as his brother’s caller id flashed on the tinted screen before vanishing, only to pop up again a moment later. “Do you really want to answer it? I feel like we should leave it alone…”

“But it’s my little brother,” he replied slightly urgently, pressing forward to grab at the phone. This time Mike didn’t stop him, and the hint of surprise on the man’s face told him that Mike probably hadn’t even known he had a brother. 
“Brother, huh?” Mike questioned softly as Harvey took the phone and hovered his finger over the answer button. “You sure you’re feeling up to a phone call right now though, baby?” 

“Do you think word of me on the news spread all the way over to him already?” Harvey questioned out loud instead, knowing that he was never fully ready to talk to his family about important matters like this. But he also knew that he couldn’t just ignore the calls any longer—he was sure his brother would find a way to get a hold of him somehow.

Mike hummed, reaching to grab Harvey’s hand which wasn’t holding the phone and massaging it reassuringly. “I mean…your case is kind of big talk. I wouldn’t be surprised if it spread past the main news networks here. Plus, he’s your family; Marcus is probably always in the loop of what’s happening with you somehow. Does he live close by?”

“In Boston,” Harvey mumbled, still staring at the caller screen labeled Marcus Brat 🫥 as it flashed on and off with music. He wasn't exactly eager to answer, but at the same time he never got many calls from his brother so ignoring one now seemed so wrong to him. Still, the thought that Marcus was likely calling over hearing the news about his classification—which was definitely going to turn into some sort of argument—was something he didn't think he could deal with right now. After all, up until now he supposed, he'd been a presumed caregiver to his whole family. He'd grown up as the responsible big brother and—when his mother and father had separated—he'd been there in the corner supporting his brother, even if he wasn’t exactly there for all of it. No one had been surprised that he'd classified as a caregiver; it would have been more of a shock to his family if he had been a neutral. But, to his little brother who was a neutral with caregiver tendencies himself, opening the news one morning to find out that your older brother had been keeping a life-changing secret from you was probably not something that would be taken lightly. He wondered if his mother had heard the news yet—if any of them had that is. 

He sighed and swiped to answer the call before he could think about anything else, putting the phone on speaker and resting it on the bed. For a moment the call was silent, and Harvey took a breath, glancing over at Mike who was still holding his hand and staring at him with vivid worry, before he decided to speak. 

"Marcus?" He spoke quietly towards the phone, before he cleared his throat and, in a tone more like him, "What's up? You don't call often."

That seemed to wake his brother up, because all of a sudden Marcus was shouting over the line. 

"Harvey what the hell!! What the hell did I just find on the news!!" Harvey remained silent, not that his brother would have given him time to say something anyway. "Explain to me right now why I was scrolling on the news just now and I see the face of my big brother all over the headlines?! And it wasn't because of that lawyer shit your always up to. No. It's because my caregiver brother is apparently a LITTLE?!!!!!"

"Marcus," Harvey tried to reply, flinching slightly at his brother's tone over the line. But before he could continue, he was cut off again. 

"Don't 'Marcus' me, Harvey! I need to hear this from your mouth right now! Tell me that this is some New York lawyer attention-seeking promotion stunt and that me and mom haven't been lied to our entire lives!! Tell me this is all some fucking prank and shit because there's no way someone like you-"

"Now what the hell is that supposed to mean?" 

Harvey could feel the resentment bubbling up in Mike, who was staring at the phone with such frustration as if he was looking right at Marcus. He swallowed, feeling the way Mike's hand tightened around his own and hearing the way the man let out a deep sigh.

"Harvey," Marcus asked after a moment, "who was that?"

"I want to know what you just meant by that comment," Mike deadpanned in response, firm and direct. Harvey frowned a little, an anxious but also fluttery feeling forming in his chest at the way Mike sounded so...protective over him.

"..."

"...So it's true...you're a little?"

This time when Marcus spoke, the man's voice lacked the angry, frustrated tone from a second ago. No, now his brother sounded so quiet and disbelieving, with a hint of worry. All Harvey could do was remain silent and shift uncomfortably; he didn't think he needed to say anything for his brother to understand. 

He heard Marcus take a deep breath in, undoubtedly interpreting what his silence had meant. Then, all of a sudden the call ended and Harvey's phone returned to his lock screen. 

"What the," he whispered at the same time Mike mumbled "fuck this bastard,"  but then all of a sudden his phone was lighting up again with another call from Marcus. A video call. 

He reached back over towards the phone, although this time with much more hesitance. It was one thing to hear his brother's feelings of betrayal over the phone. But to have Marcus' eyes staring through his soul was a whole other thing. He momentarily glanced down at the thick sweats he was wearing, with his blanket and Roo bundled next to him and a pacifier hanging from his ruffled top. He probably looked like a mess. Not just a mess, but a little mess, and he wasn't sure he was comfortable with anyone but Mike seeing him like this right now. 

Speaking of Mike, as he was stalling answering the call, the man had let go of his hand and stood up to walk over next to him. Harvey felt Mike's hands wrap around him and gently push him forward on the bed off of the bed rest where he'd been previously leaning. And then the man proceeded to slip in right behind him, sliding his legs on either side of him and wrapping his hands securely around his waist. Great. Now he felt even more embarrassed. 

However, at the same time Mike being there and holding him gave him just the right amount of confidence he needed to muster up the tiniest bit of willpower to answer the call, resting the phone down on a pillow in front of them as the lines connected, and trying to console himself by listening to the sound of Mike's slow breathing. 

When the FaceTime finally loaded, Harvey willed himself not to freeze as he met eyes with his brother, who had his face zoomed into the camera. 

“Harvey,” Marcus spoke with a slightly shaky breath, the man’s eyes gazing up from his frizzled bed hair down to the pacifier on his shirt and then back up to Mike who was staring intently. 

"How?"

Harvey looked away. 

"Does this mean you were never a caregiver to begin with? You lied this whole time?"

 Harvey felt a punch to the gut at his brother's words, even though they were mostly true. "Marcus...I was a late bloomer. My real classification didn't present until after the-the test."

"When?"

"Uhm when I-when I started working with Jessica."

"So you mean you've been hiding this shit for years, Harvey?"

"...Maybe."

"How?"

"Suppressants and some...other stuff."

"And where did you find these illegal suppressants and 'other stuff' exactly?"

"Um I..." Harvey couldn't help but start to squirm where he was seated as his brother grilled information out of him in an eerily serious voice. "Lots of places." He brought his eyes back to Marcus, finding it so hard to maintain eye contact and watching the way his brother's own face displayed both frustration and betrayal, but yet also a hint of sympathy. He wondered where his brother was right now, or what he was doing. From the little background he could see in the call, it looked like he was sitting on his couch. He hoped his family wasn't around for this. Or worse, mom. He felt waves of guilt crashing through inside of him and rasping at his heart now that he was as close to his brother as he could get right physically now. How had he let it all come to this? Becoming a stranger to not only his friends but his family as well? And for what? In the end, he was already finding it nice to be treated so preciously by Mike, something he had always believed he'd be disgusted by. So why had he gone and created all this drama for nothing?

"Why, Harvey? Why would you do this to yourself?"

Why? Of course he knew why. Questions involving the word 'why' were always so stupid to him. Everyone always has a reason for what they do; whether it be conscious or more innate, people make choices and interpretations, and they always have some sort of reason as to why. And Harvey knew exactly why: his job, his future, both things he thought would be unachievable at the time had be revealed his designation. But now he was starting to realize just how stupid he must have been back then. Still though, Marcus' shallow question still chipped away at a little bit of the guilt he had been feeling replacing it with the same frustration he'd felt back when Mike had asked him the same thing. But then the arms around his waist tightened just a little as Mike rested his chin on the top of his head, and Harvey sighed into the touch. 

"We both know I wouldn't have made it where I am today had I told the truth. By the time I presented I was already well on my way to becoming a respected lawyer, and I just couldn't lose it all."

"Oh my gosh, Harveyyyy," Marcus replied in response, leaning back on the couch and running a hand through his hair. "Is your job really worth fucking up your health? My God, it was all just a job."

'But it was never just a job', he wanted to say. Hearing his brother dismiss his life long dream felt the equivalent to hearing that your soulmate had cheated with another person and ran off to another country. He felt his brow furrow a little in anger, although the way his lip started to wobble betrayed his fierce look. 

"My job is my other family, Marcus," he managed, feeling the way Mike seemed to hold him closer. "It is one of the most important things in my life, and without it I'm not sure I would have met the people I love so much today." Harvey noticed how Marcus' eyes darted towards Mike. "I don't know exactly how things are going to work out with my job right now—I know Jessica is going to fight for me to keep my position. But I wouldn't even have been able to be where I am today if I had gotten reclassified. And now I'm off the suppressants and Mike is helping me out, okay?"

Marcus' loud sigh rang through the cell phone, and Harvey heard a couple strands of heated mumbling before his younger brother finally spoke up again. This time he spoke a lot more calmy, although with clear hints of sadness. 

"I'm sorry for the freakout man, I just—It's all fucking crazy, y'know. All this time growing up with my big brother and I never even knew that I had a little brother as well. It's throwing my mind for a loop and I just can't believe you're even still functioning properly. I mean mom is probably going to have an aneurism when she finds out about all of this if I don't calm her down."

"I'm sorry," Harvey replied quietly, his momentary frustration dissipating and replaced again with that strong feeling of guilt for putting his brother through something like this. All because he decided that he couldn't succeed by being himself. What a load of bull. 

"Don't be sorry, Harv," Marcus consoled after a moment and Harvey found himself brining his eyes—which had darted off at some point—back to face his brother. He could already feel the waterworks brewing, but seeing the way Marcus' own eyes glossed up a little made it a heck of a lot harder to control himself. 

"I know you had your reasons, you always do. I'm sorry that you felt the need to hide it all from us, although thinking on it now, that might have been a good call. I just want you to be healthy, okay? Fix up all that crap that all those illegal medications probably did to you, learn to relax a little. I hope you know I'll be booking a flight the next time I can get time off to come see you for myself."

Harvey nodded his head a little, sniffling as he felt the tears pour down his face all at one moment and realizing that he couldn't keep himself together like he would like. He hadn't been to see his brother in so long, but now he really wanted to give the man a hug and be in his scent. Despite how utterly embarrassing even the thought seemed, right now, he felt like it would be nice to have a big brother's shoulder to cry on—not that he would ever acknowledge that.

Marcus gave him a small smile, the first one of the whole call. "Don't cry Harv, you're gonna make me tear up," his brother said, sniffling. "Now then...can I ask how low you drop? And also who that man sitting behind you and staring daggers into me is?"

"Hi, I'm Mike Ross. I work with Harvey and am his official new caregiver." 

Harvey huffed a little as Mike's palms came up to his face to wipe away his tears, small pink creeping up on his cheeks at the way Mike had so protectively spoken about him. 

"He's my best friend," he clarified, turning back to his brother. "He's definitely not just a coworker; He's helping me more than you can imagine." This time Mike's little stern visage seemed to crack, as the caregiver lowered his head to pepper him with kisses, surprising him for a moment and then making him whine embarrassingly while his brother watched from the phone. 

"So, I guess this is the Mike you always talk about," Marcus commented bluntly, the man's eyes gazing over him and Mike's interaction like it was something unbelievable. "It's nice to meet you, and to know that my brother has someone there for him right now." 

"I'll always be there for him," Mike responded pointily, and Harvey could feel the red in his face worsening. "Even if he wants me there or not I'm here now."

Marcus smiled again, and Harvey could feel the way his brother was practically staring through his soul. "Cute, I'm glad. You better take good care of this idiot. But anyways, how low does my little brother drop exactly? I need to know so I can shove my suitcase full with proper gifts."

Harvey pursed his lips at his brother's smug look. He couldn't believe he was talking about all of this with his own little brother. He couldn't tell if it all felt degrading, humbling, or like a weight was lifting off of his shoulders. "I-I don't need anything Marcus, slow your roll—"

"He's about the youngest class you can get, and, as of now, I know he loves fluffy things and his pacifier. Oh, and also fancy cars."

"MIKE!” Harvey squeaked almost instantly, face going beet red at the younger man’s words as he practically vaulted off of Mike's lap, knocking over his phone in the process. He scrambled to the other side of the bed, frowning pointedly (i.e: pouting) as Mike and Marcus both released rhythmic chuckles. "what, it's true," Mike continued to laugh between words, reaching over hands of truce as Harvey kicked them away. 

"Don' say stuff like that," he mumbled, feeling his brain fog up in that misty way again. "It's embarrassing."

"Oh my sweetheart," Mike cooed with a smile, lunging forward and capturing Harvey in his grasp, resulting in a couple shrieks as the duo tangled up together on the mattress frame. "None of that is embarrassing, It's just what you like. And I think you're adorable." Harvey whined a little as Mike once again started pressing his slobbery lips all over his face, but eventually his whines turned into hints of giggles as he struggled to push the man away. So much for years of boxing, because apparently all it took was one over-hormonal caregiver to keep him pinned down. 

"There's my happy boy," Mike fawned at last as he started to giggle a little louder, "I missed you, silly. I've been stuck with a frowny baby for a little while now."

"Stoppp," Harvey tried to complain through his giggles, still trying to push Mike's face away. "M' not a baby," he complained, although in reality these two minutes of play fighting had just about dropped him down to the teetering headspace area he had been in earlier. He didn't know how Mike could do it. Take him, a stubborn, defensive, almighty man who'd never gotten even remotely close to his headspace in years, and somehow in the span of just a few seconds make him feel so—

"Harvey...you feeling a little small right now?"

Harvey suddenly gasped again, going quiet as he remembered just exactly who else was still technically in the room with them. Mike—who still had his arms wrapped around his frame—pulled the both of them up and shifted them back over to the facetime call, which was facing down on the bed. "Whoops, sorry man," Mike teased softly as he lifted back up the phone to face the two of them, and Harvey was surprised by the intense look of curiosity and even adoration that was blatantly present. 

"Well baby," Mike prodded after Harvey didn't answer, "you maybe feeling a little small right now?"

Harvey swallowed. Clearly Mike wanted him to say yes, and clearly the answer was yes. But, looking into the eyes of his little brother suddenly made him feel so...shy. He tried not to cower like a baby, but instead the smallest whimper escaped his mouth as his face heated up and he twisted around quickly to hide in Mike's shirt. God, he was so fucking stu-

"Oh, you're so adorable."

Harvey had never heard Marcus' voice sound so...sweet. He felt Mike's lips press onto his hair and then the man was whispering softly for him to show his face, and when he finally did he was sure he looked like a tomato. 

"Oh my, so cute," his brother fawned again as he eventually twisted back to the screen, making him pout even further. "My baby brother looks so so cute."

"M' not little," he practically whimpered again, his heart beating in such an erratic way with an emotion he didn't know how to place. His little brother, treating him like he was the little one? His younger associate treating him like he was an angel baby? 

"But you are feeling a little small, yes?" Mike negotiated, smiling when he nodded shyly. There was no use denying it, not now. "That's my boy," Mike cooed. 

"Wow..." Marcus trailed off for a moment, watching the two of them intently. "Well, this has definitely been an enlightening call. I still have a hell of a lot more questions to ask but..." the man trailed off again before clearing his throat and giving a small smile. "I can tell you two still have some things that need to be worked out. I hope you know though that I will be flying over there as soon as I can, and that I can't stop mom from bombarding your phone either when she finds out. Also, Mike, I want your cell number to go more over the, er, details of all of this later."

"Of course," Mike affirmed, and the caregiver's hand came absentmindedly to pick up the pacifier that was still resting on Harvey's shirt and press it through the little's lips. Harvey accepted it with a little embarrassed huff. "My number is..."

Starting to suck rhythmically on his pacifier, Harvey chose to tune out the little information-sharing going on between Mike and his brother. The duo exchanged numbers, verified them, and then began to speak in more hushed conversation for another five minutes or so. Considering Harvey was laying nestled into Mike's chest, it shouldn't have mattered how low they kept their talk, because he was right there to hear it. However, it seemed that both of them knew just how dazed out he was starting to feel, as they kept up a soft conversation as if he wasn't even listening. Well, he supposed he wasn't anyways so...

But then all of a sudden he heard Marcus calling his name, and he zoned back in to see his brother telling him goodbye in the most light-hearted voice he had ever heard from the man. 

"Come on, baby boy," Mike cooed when he didn't immediately respond, "tell your big brother bye bye." Mike gently pulled the binky from between his lips and suddenly Harvey felt himself shy a little bit away once more at the realization that he probably looked like an absolute spectacle to his brother at the moment. 

"Bye bye," he whispered, not feeling aware enough to recognize his childish speech, or the fact that he'd just been referred to as the little brother. 

"See you later, you little cutie," his brother teased over the FaceTime. "Make sure to listen to Mike, kay?"

"Mmm," Harvey mumbled in response as he leaned back into Mike's hold and pressed his chewer back through his lips. Marcus had already seen him use it, so why not just enjoy it?

"Awe, I love you, Harv. See you soon." And then Harvey's phone went dark. 

----------

"Thank you so much," Mike spoke as he caught open the door to the small street-side lunch place that a lady had been holding open for him—having someone hold the door for you was always a rare sighting in New York. 

He took a sigh of relief upon entering the small restaurant and finding it mostly empty and largely peaceful, likely because they were showing up a little later than the normal lunch crew. This would be perfect for Harvey. 

“Come on baby, we’re here! Time to eat something,” he spoke towards the bundle of shy baby in his arms.

Harvey let out an adorable huff, and Mike could feel the press of the baby’s pacifier against his neck bob rhythmically. The little had let out more than a little complaint earlier about being carried around by him everywhere, babbling about how he had working legs and all, but soon the protests had died out as Mike had explained that it wasn’t a baby’s place to do anything other than relax and be loved. Because what kind of caregiver was he if he were to let his obviously-slipping little wonder about by himself? True, he was probably being a bit much right now—it was Harvey after all— but sue him for wanting to pamper his baby who’d never gotten this treatment in his life.

Aside from the complaints about being held, Harvey really seemed to sink back into that thick in-between state after his brother had ended their call. The little hadn’t even put up any protest about using the pacifier in public or being called every single baby name under the sun. And when Mike had deliberately changed Harvey into one of his own large sweatshirts so that the little could be surrounded in his scent, Harvey only seemed to drop closer and closer to his headspace. 

Of course, Mike could tell from the slight stiffness of Harvey’s frame or the way that the little’s eyes still looked so calculating as the two of them walked out of his flat and over to a nearby lunch place that his baby was still feeling a little big. But yet he felt like he was making monumental progress, and that all it would take was a little more coddling to get the man down for good. 

Well...he hoped at least. Because Harvey really deserved to just let all his worries wash away.

Mike made his way over to a tablet on the side of the restaurant's entrance, deciding that it would be easier to just order what they wanted on there than ordering at the front desk. He clicked to turn on the device, entering the phone number he had with the system to get access to rewards—he came here a lot on his days off although he didn't think Harvey had ever been here before. Making his way over to the menu, Mike pressed a soft kiss to the top of Harvey's forehead as he softly bounced the little to get his attention. "Baby, why don't we look at something yummy to eat," he cooed, gently pushing the little's head out of his neck. When Harvey did finally lift his head up, the little looked like he could barely keep his eyes open, mumbling something behind his chewer that Mike couldn't place. Adorable.

"Look sweetheart," Mike said, turning his attention to the digital menu and pointing things out for Harvey. He had deliberately selected the 'little menu', but he felt that Harvey was feeling too dozy to even notice or care if he did. "Do you want some mac and cheese? Or maybe just some pasta? They also have fries and pizza," Mike listed out, scrolling down the large array of options. "Ooo, there's a lot of soups and sandwiches too. Maybe a turkey sandwich? Or ham? Oh, or a grilled cheese or-"

"Gi'ld 'eese?"

The words were very quiet and very muffled, and sounded so freaking cute that Mike did a double take to see if Harvey had just spoken. The little was looking at him shyly, and radiating such a bubbly baby smell that he just wanted to wrap him up and smother him with kisses. He was absolutely amazed, astonished even, that he'd never had the slightest clue that his boss—the man he'd spent the past couple of years practically living with—was such an adorable little. He hoped he could do his part to get Harvey comfortable with not only his own self, but with him as well. He could tell he was making good progress though, considering the way his little boy was snuggled comfortably in his arms. 

He pressed another kiss to Harvey's head as he added a grilled cheese to the cart as well as a bottle of apple juice before adding his own order. "Grilled cheese it is baby."

The two of them then made their way over to a small table in the back of the restaurant where Harvey wouldn't feel as embarrassed. Although to be fair, Mike was sure the way he coddled and hand-fed his little was more than enough embarrassment for Harvey's lifetime. 

But by the end of their small lunch time, when Mike was walking out of the restaurant with a limp baby who'd fallen asleep after being convinced to be fed a bottle of apple juice, he was convinced that he'd done it.

Convinced that he'd finally gotten his Harvey to just relax. 

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