Chapter Text
Harvey sat back against the couch, trying not to feed the anxiety in his own body. “When you're done with your drama, you definitely owe me an explanation now. Right to know and all that.”
The alpha swiftly moved to the kitchen and pulled a phone out of a drawer. He pulled up his contacts and put the phone to his ear.
“Aren't you on leave, Nolan?”
“You motherfucking lying sack of shit.” Mike snarled at the confusion. “I just marked my omega.”
“Jesus, dramatic much? If you get yourself under control, you'll be fine.”
“Aiden, I'm going to tear out your goddamn throat. ” Mike growled into the phone as he turned. “I would have never fucking agreed to this.”
“..Weird they didn't tell you.” Aiden said sarcastically. “Look, it's to help you. You weren't really meeting the time schedule, if you don't recall. You're too emotional about your omega. This way, your omega will have.. more understanding on why you do what you do.”
“It's slavery Aiden. You've made me apart of the fucking problem!”
“Again with the dramatics..” Aiden groaned. “Jamie is an omega. Her alpha went through the same thing as your omega. You're not special, you're just the bonded type. And we needed security, you weren't giving us that.”
Harvey listened to Mike debate with whomever on the phone. Sounded like the CIA did have something to do with the situation at hand. The anger rising in the alpha was another new emotion that Harvey could actually see again. He could however feel it in him too. The omega's shoulders twitched as the irritation built with the urge to attack.
“Fucking what?! Don't give me that bullshit! You'd have-”
“Mike.” Harvey half snarled as he had to stop himself from kicking the coffee table in front of him.
Mike whipped his head over to Harvey.
“If that person can't fucking fix it, get off the phone.” Harvey snapped.
“Check and point. You just got mated and you're on leave. Enjoy it asshole.” Aiden hung up.
Tossing the phone on the counter, Mike held a breath and forced his body to neutralize. He let it out and held his breath again, trying to focus on the need to breathe in. He allowed the pressure to become a dominant feeling in his lungs and stomach, then breathed normally. His mind eventually followed his body as it was trained to do. As if he trapped his emotions and thoughts behind a thick black curtain.
Harvey felt the pressure in his chest lightening. The anger was getting more mild, but nothing was replacing it. The omega breathed in the air to try and get a better sense, but nothing changed. It was beyond unsettling to know that the alpha could manipulate his emotions into almost nothing. “Mike, what are you doing?”
“Calming down.” Mike told him honestly. He took a breath and moved into the living room. He sat down on the arm of the couch. “I'm sorry. I..” The alpha had no idea what to say. “I'm sorry.”
Harvey studied the alpha's face, trying to figure him out. “Are you suppressing right now?” The omega asked, confused. “How?”
“Emotional memory has physical reactions, physical reactions have emotional memory. Practice makes perfect.” Mike scoffed, despite it not feeling humorous in the slightest. “I'll get it figured out.”
“I'd rather get used to you being a basketcase than you cut me off, if those are my options.” Harvey wasn't going to help Mike fix this so he genuinely didn't care. The alpha was hiding enough with or without Harvey having the extra privilege.
“Harvey this isn’t a joke!” The alpha snapped.
“I didn't say it was, but you're acting like I have to give up my firstborn. I already know your ball of drama, this isn't new Mike.” Harvey slowed his sentence down, “It is not the end of the world.”
“The entire point of this was to make me get more self control. I was too emotionally connected and that made you a security risk.” Mike hissed.
“Cute story. I could have told them that.” Harvey pursed his lips and sighed. “Mike.. I feel better knowing that you're still you. I'd rather know that, because I don't see you when I look at you.”
“I did this so you'd be your own person. This is the complete fucking opposite of that.”
Harvey rolled his eyes and looked back at the TV in front of them. “I don't want it to be fixed.”
“Harvey-”
“So if you fix anything, don't tell me it was for me.” Harvey cut him off. “I'd think the CIA has more real science in this than you do in the few months you studied computers and not biology.”
“I can't know that without knowing how many people have actually gone through it.”
“Well, I'm not dying. I have zero interest in fixing it and I still think you're a dick for leaving.” Harvey stared the alpha down, “If the CIA wanted to give you a slave, they gave you a pretty shitty one.”
Mike blinked, “You know you could just have the information without it being the main stuff right?”
“Since I can barely tell now, with as much as your burying, no. I don't think I'd get anything if you fixed this.” Harvey tilted his head, “I don't know if you can't stop or just won't, but either way I don't believe you'll stop.”
Mike's face shifted slightly in thought, then resignation. Harvey was right about some things, it wasn't safe to let everything out. The alpha also felt Harvey had the right to acess his alpha. “If they are practicing this process, they have a way to reverse it. This can't go perfectly every time.” Licking his lips, the alpha reluctantly offered another choice. “I'll find out everything I can about this, if it's as.. safe as you feel it is, fine. For now, we have to keep it as is anyway because my chemist is in D.C.” Alpha had one in mind, but it required an in-person conversation to be sure he was trustworthy.
“Don't get stupid. Are you going to get in trouble?” Harvey questioned.
“Are you a security risk?” Mike returned. “The only reason they'd care is we give them a reason to care. They aren't going to help me, but.. they don't give a shit unless they have to.” Mike looked up at the ceiling. “I had pictured seeing you again and I thought of so many different situations. Yelling, I assumed. A punch or two, total possibility. But I didn't think of this.”
“And the angry tango?” Harvey asked with his eyes flicking to Mike's room.
“Did you seriously..” The alpha cracked a smile pulling his eyes from the bedroom over to Harvey.
“Just curious if you planned that too.” Harvey breathed a little more comfortably feeling the air turn around. He could feel a delight that didn't belong to him start to flicker awake with each inhale.
“More like fantasized than planned.” Sliding off the arm and on to the couch seat next to Harvey, Mike looked at his mark. “You're gonna tell Donna.”
“I won't if you don't want me to.” Harvey told him softly. “I can wait for Rand's announcement.”
Mike shook his head, “I uh, I trust I Donna. She just has to keep to herself. It's.. different now. You might want someone who understands the situation.”
The omega wanted to defend himself, that he would be fine. It was less than two weeks, but he wanted to talk to Donna. Mike was back and leaving again. The bond was here now, Harvey didn't handle it well when Mike left before it. Was this going to be better? Worse? The omega had no idea. He didn't want to dodge all of Donna's questions of who either. He didn't want to lie if he had to step out and talk to Mike. “Thank you.” Harvey said instead and he meant it.
“I feel awkward, but I don't know what to do from here Harvey. I uh, as you can see my little date kinda fell flat.” Mike admitted, because he didn't want to try and force anything now.
“You’ve always been an awkward date, Mike.” Harvey smiled as he scanned the alpha. “Atlantic City might have looked sexy up there, but who had to teach how to wear your clothes?”
“I didn't need a tux then!” Mike laughed. “I have one now. I have a few even.” He felt the need to add that it wasn’t the suit that he struggled with. “And it was the bow tie. Which I know how to do now.”
“Aww, look at you all grown up. Got your big boy clothes and everything.”
Mike fell back against on the couch with a smile and shake of his head. He looked down at the coffee table, the cupcake had barely been touched. “You have to get some calories in you. You burnt a lot of energy with that transition.”
Harvey couldn't help it, he laughed. Heartedly. “Transition. Wow.” He leaned forward and picked up his cupcake. He stretched his legs, crossing his ankles under the table as he sat back. Looking at Mike's bedroom again, the omega had a thought cross his mind. If Mike wanted to play it cool, then Harvey wanted to trip it up. “Always been curious about what you guys felt when you knot.”
The alpha found himself dumbfounded.
“Not curious, Alpha?” Harvey smirked a little when the scent in the air changed again. It gave his arms goosebumps and made the back of his neck tingle. “Most people do their markings in bed.”
Mike swallowed a growl. He was not the one who caught a mood as soon as touching started. The plan had been to eventually end up in the bedroom, but Harvey wanted to be marked before everything. Showing his expressions freely was a dangerous game to bounce back and forth from. He'd have to try consciously to show emotion with Harvey, in order to keep closed off the rest of the time. So the alpha gave in, he gave Harvey his mark. So his omega would have access to knowledge the he deserved to have; if he wanted it.
Harvey could hardly even tell there was a shift in Mike's face. Harvey was surprised to find out that he was actually turned on by it all now. Harvey might not be able to look at his alpha and read him like he used to; but that also meant nobody else would be able to. The omega really liked being the only one who would know just by a sniff of the air around the alpha. “You got good security around your emails if they got interesting?”
The amusement tickling his body with building excitement, clued the alpha in. Harvey was trying to tease his alpha to come out, but Mike could only smirk a little. As they've cleared up, Harvey was a little more sensitive. Harvey was almost teasing himself. The alpha turned his lazy smirk over to his mate. “We have all night and tomorrow.” He looked down at the cupcake. “Eat, omega.”
Harvey felt like the layers of his body get lighter as each word fell from the alpha’s mouth. Instinctively, Harvey brought the cupcake to his mouth. The explosion of flavor snapped his brain back into focus, and he put his other hand up to keep from dropping crumbs.
The alpha leaned over and kissed Harvey's shoulder, kissed upward; moving his mouth closer to his mark. “You're a tease Harvey.” Mike whispered in the omegas ear.
Harvey had to tighten his lips together, feeling stuck. He couldn't swallow with the pressure in his throat and he couldn't open his mouth to respond.
“Swallow.” Mike growled quietly under Harvey's jaw line.
The omega thought he was going to choke as he did. He took a deep breath through his nose, trying to regulate again. The alpha shifted, gently pushing Harvey's wine glass into his hand. Harvey snapped his eyes down to the wine and realized he really did need moisture. Mike's hand dropped to his knee once he took the glass; pulling away as Harvey brought the glass to his mouth.
Harvey exhaled after the wine, he could feel a tingle over his skin as he moved his arms. Breathing lightly to get focus back in his brain, this wasn’t something Harvey really ever imagined he’d be dealing with. He wasn’t anti-alpha, but he never saw himself having a full bond. Mike was the only alpha that Harvey ever tolerated for long periods of time, they had found a good balance between them. Then Mike disappeared. They hadn’t been romantic, Harvey hadn’t even thought of him romantically. He just knew he needed the younger man around, he needed him around to feel grounded.
As he got his wits about him, Harvey looked at the alpha. The small smile as he waited for Harvey to make a choice to continue or take a step back, Harvey really did appreciate that Mike was moving at his pace. Setting the glass down, Harvey moved closer to Mike. The alpha’s hand moved up his back as he wrapped around the younger man. “Alpha..” Harvey whispered still a little dazed.
“Yes?” Mike nuzzled his nose into Harvey’s neck as the man moved closer around him. He didn’t think he’d ever get used to having that scent so close. It was a peace that the alpha, at times, had lost faith in ever having again. The natural confirmation that his omega was indeed safe and alive, was something the alpha knew the pain having to go without. Mike hated how other people were taking this small perfect thing and making it so ugly.
“Please don’t take my alpha away from me.” Harvey didn’t know what to say to the alpha, because he’s tried the lawyer way. “I lost you once. Don’t leave me in the dark right next to you.”
Mike’s lips gave the smallest tremble, he pulled Harvey tighter. “If I let you in, I need you to stay safe Harvey. I’m doing my best to make sure you’re okay, but I can’t let you put yourself in danger.”
“Please, Alpha.” Harvey said again. “My alpha is under me and I still feel like I miss him.”
That broke Mike’s heart. “Okay.” He took a breath. Then another. Slowly, he just took in the scent of his omega and listened to the small noises around him. Letting down the mental walls of darkness fade away, he could feel his anger rising and his fear accelerating. He felt Harvey’s arms tighter around his shoulders and pull him in.
“I’ll be okay.” Harvey told him. “Don’t worry so much about me.”
“Anything could happen.” Mike told him. “The worst shit is never released to the public.”
Harvey nodded, he answered carefully because that wasn’t a surprise to him. Mike was working high security, Harvey was more concerned about what that was doing to the do-gooder alpha he knew. “Anything you can tell me?”
Swallowing, Mike didn’t answer for a minute. He appreciated that Harvey wasn’t rushing or pushing anymore, but waiting for Mike to find the right way. He pulled back, so he could say this easier with some space. “Half way through July, we started getting reports about omegas going missing. Within a few weeks most turned up again, registered. They’d be mated and claim things were fine. Willingly left, willingly mated. The thing with most of these omegas who came back, they fall into more well off families.” The alpha hesitated, “Families are selling their omega family members to keep their assets safe. Some of these families saw how much money they made by doing this and are now outsourcing.”
Harvey wasn’t thrown by the information, so he just nodded again. “I’m already registered. You don’t have to worry about me.”
“I’m notified if anyone even runs your name, Harvey.” Mike shook his head, “Over the last two months, transfer registrations have picked up. Within a few days of a transfer, omegas have been seen dragged out of their homes. When they resurface, usually within a week, they’re agreeable to their new registration.”
“Their alpha has to agree to the transfer, it can’t just happen. You’d never agree to something like that, so why are you worried about it?” Harvey asked.
“We.. have suspicion that APP events are being used as a status run to find these omegas.” Mike finally shared. “You cannot attend these events Harvey. You can’t get on their radar. Right now, your alpha showed up and took you away. I, as the IT guy, erased your name from their system. So anyone who saw you and wants to know anything about you, is going to have to ask your date or hope the guy who ran your ID remembers your name.”
“Or the cops that brought us in.” Harvey said more to himself.
“I’m not as worried about them. The one who brought me in, he checked me out and told me he wasn’t letting me in the room if you didn’t want me to.” Mike half smiled. “You didn’t get defensive until you saw me, so I assumed the guy in the room with you didn’t give you any problems.”
Harvey moved down on Mike, relaxing his body. Mike laid back to help them get comfortable, his back propped against the arm of the couch with Harvey tucked into his side. The omega’s arm was around the alpha’s torso and alpha wanted to live in this moment. Mike ran his eyes over the omega, feeling overwhelmed with pressure and happiness.
“They didn’t give me any problems.” Harvey told him. “The alpha I went with, he’s clean clean right?”
“The bank investor?” Mike snorted. “I don’t think he was trying to kidnap you, no. I think he just thought you charming and attractive.”
“He was right.” Harvey smiled when the alpha laughed. “I won’t go to another event.”
“Thank you.”
“You should have just told me.”
“It’s confidential Harvey. You’re not supposed to know.” Mike told him. “Word gets out that we know, they’ll go further underground.”
“I won’t tell anyone, Alpha.” Harvey eased. “Feels better now that I know, doesn’t it?”
Mike didn’t think Harvey would say anything. The only reason why Harvey would even be questioned was if they thought he was connected and his only connection was Mike. If Harvey was caught up in something like that, it was better he knew what was going on. “Yes.” He admitted. “I missed you, Harvey. So much.”
Harvey leaned up and kissed the alpha, he could almost taste sadness on his lips. He thought about the things Mike had told him as he ran his hands over Mike’s body. He admitted to having security on Harvey, but he also said he didn’t have time to just look at footage. Sometime before April, Mike was injected with his DNA. Harvey had missed Mike, he wanted his alpha, but that was just the beginning. Mike missed his mate. Harvey pulled back and looked down at the alpha. “Alpha..” Harvey wanted to apologize for getting angry, but he didn’t know how to get Mike to hear him.
Mike scrunched his eyebrows, the growing unsettlement made his own shoulders shift slightly. “What’s wrong?”
Harvey almost explained, but he could feel it in his bones. The alpha was going to downplay the separation, tell him that he was okay. The same thing he does with his training. Same thing he does with his job with the CIA. The omega changed course, he shook his head. “I want you to know I forgive you.”
Grabbing Harvey fiercely, Mike kissed him hard. The alpha hated that he lied to Harvey, he hated that he just left. The fear that he’d see Harvey again and the man would hate him was the hardest emotion to stuff down, the walls that could never stay. Thus the reason why Mike got his injection. “Thank you.” He whispered just barely. Feeling the omega’s hands slide under his shirt, on his skin, the alpha couldn’t stop the growl that came out.
Moaning quietly as a shiver ran over his shoulders, Harvey was grateful he’d never have sex again without Mike’s alpha. As the alpha moved in, pushing him into the back of the couch, Harvey gasped quietly. Harvey tugged on Mike’s shirt as the alpha moved his mouth to his neck, “Alpha.”
“Missed you, so much.” Mike said just under Harvey’s ear. He moved his leg between Harvey’s and pulling off his own shirt; getting the hint from his omega. The alpha growled quietly when his omega whined, he couldn’t think with Harvey being so responsive. Undoing Harvey’s pants as he kissed him again, he growled again when Harvey wrapped a hand around the back of his neck. “Harvey, you are beautiful.”
Harvey couldn't stop his nails from digging as the heat from the alpha’s hand moved over the cloth of his boxers, “Alpha..” He moaned. They had sex last night, but this was different. There was stimulus in the air, in his blood, in his whole body. The desperation and longing from their first time was magnified in the smallest moments now, he felt enclosed by the alpha. It was filling a hole inside Harvey had he been trying to ignore for months. He moved his hips into the alpha as he pushed his boxers out of the way. Instinctively, Harvey found his face on the alpha’s chest with a moan as a hand wrapped around his dick.
Mike felt like he was drowning in his omega’s scent, it was everywhere. It was the most amazing feeling. Slowly he stroked his omega, pinning his leg a little tighter, pushing his body a little harder. “You smell like home.” Encouraged by the sounds beneath him, the alpha moved his hand faster as Harvey's hips rubbed back into him.
Tightening his leg around the alpha’s, Harvey bit his lip as he felt his orgasm approaching. Mike’s hand picked up and the omega’s eyed rolled closed as he came with the alpha’s strokes. He didn’t let the high die as he moved down, undoing the alpha’s jeans.
“Harvey- Oh fuuck.” The alpha’s head pressed against the arm of the coach as Harvey took his hard dick in his mouth. His clean hand tugged gently on Havey’s hair, thrusting lightly into his omega’s mouth. His fingers curled as a shiver ran up his spine and growled. “Harvey..” The omega didn’t pull up and Mike’s mouth fell open as Harvey swallowed the alpha’s orgasm. Mike’s head fell back against the couch again, wanting to melt into the couch.
Mike slowly reached behind him for the tissue box on the side table by the lamp. He pulled a handful out to clean off his hand then gave the box to Harvey. “We can find clothes later.” Mike told him and kicked his jeans off the rest of the way.
Harvey wanted to change his clothes, but he could compromise with laying naked with the alpha. He tossed his bottom clothes on the floor, he used his boxers to do most of the clean up. He dropped his body back around the alpha, while Mike used his foot to pull the thin throw blanket over them. “Fuck, this is why omegas are always horny.”
Mike had to pull back as he laughed, looking away for a moment. “I didn’t say it.”
Harvey smiled and laid his head down on the alpha’s chest, “You’ll be home more, in the future you said?”
“I’m set up to be stationed here in New York by December. I’ll still have to travel out from time to time, but it won’t be as frequent.” Rubbing a hand down Harvey’s back, Mike asked as politely as he could. “Don’t ask me any questions about that, please. I can’t answer anything and I don’t want to go backwards with you.”
Harvey pursed his lips to the side, “Can I ask one? If you can’t answer it, I won’t push.”
With a look of hesitation, Mike slowly nodded. “Okay.”
“Will TNA touch your CIA stuff?” Harvey wanted to know if Mike was going to have a clean fall back if he did ever want to get out.
“The CIA is involved in everything I do.” Mike played into the middle, because that was the truth. There was no reason for Harvey to know if or how the CIA was involved with TNA, that wasn’t information most people in the CIA had.
Harvey nodded. “Do you have a clean fall back or not?”
“I don’t.” Mike confirmed in the least.
“So happens after the CIA?” Harvey asked. “Plan to retire from there?”
“When the laws are different, ask me again.” Mike had no idea what was going to happen as the weeks went by, let alone what his life would be in forty years. “I plan on you retiring from the firm, however that needs to happen.”
“Could you leave today, if they did change?” Harvey asked. “If everything got reversed in the morning.”
Mike raised an eyebrow, "Over a hundred million people lost ownership of their lives almost instantaneously. You saw the riots in D.C. Even here in New York. It was mostly omegas and majority of them were arrested on spot. Some still haven't been released." With a heavy sigh, Mike wished this things were different. "If the laws reserved tomorrow, it would be complete chaos. Omega deaths would skyrocket before they could get armed again. That anger and that mourning will spread like fire and entire cities will burn. The laws will get better, but they will never go back Harvey."
Harvey remembered the brutal arrests that went on for days in D.C.after the law changed. It was all over the news for weeks. Alphas got arrested for arson and battery, and allowing their omega to carry unregistered guns. Omegas weren’t allowed to own property the second the APP was put in place; so any omega who had been a registered gun owner, wasn’t any longer. Trials were still going on with omegas who were being prosecuted and a lot of alphas weren’t able to keep up with the financials to keep fighting. Which bumped them out of the class of being able to keep their omega, unless they had children. “Omegas were out numbered. Alpha didn’t let their omegas fight.”
“I wouldn’t have let you.” Mike said. “Even as a civilian, I wouldn’t risk you for hope. As someone a little more informed, I knew it was pointless.”
“You didn’t show up to stop me. You said you were in freaking Ireland.” Harvey argued.
“I trust my security team.” Mike smiled a little. “And I sent everything directly to Jessica to make sure your mind was busy.”
Harvey pinched the alpha who just laughed. “Stop using Jessica. First the registration, then my associate.” With a pause, the omega smiled with a thought. “I can’t wait to see her face she when finds out it’s you.”
“Sadist.” Mike told him.
Harvey laid his head back down, feeling a little stung. He brushed off a mixture of irritation and hurt. “She’s just not as smart as she thinks she is.”
Mike didn’t know what he did, because he had been kidding. He felt like Harvey should know that. Carefully, he ran his fingers over Harvey’s spine. “What’s wrong?”
“She thought you were gone.” Harvey simplified. “And she was wrong.”
“Harvey..” Mike tried to push gently, because most people probably assumed he wasn’t coming back.
Muscles tensing in annoyance, Harvey thought of all the times Jessica pushed for an associate. All the knowing looks when Mike’s name was brought up. She acted like she just expected him to up and leave, like she was just waiting for Harvey to be over being surprised about it. He wasn’t angry with the alpha anymore about it, but Jessica didn’t have to be so blatant about it. “I’m glad you're back, Mike.”
“Me too, Harvey.” He moved his hand up Harvey’s back to his hair, gently pulling the strands between his fingers. The alpha offered some soft comfort, if Harvey didn’t want to talk about it. He felt Harvey sigh more than he heard it. Mike knew Jessica and Harvey had an back and forth relationship, but they usually worked it out. “You’re okay right?”
“I’m okay, Alpha.” Harvey echoed back softly, because Jesscia wasn’t dangerous. Just arrogant. “Can I tell you something without you being a smug dick about it?” His body was finally able to let go of all the tension it had been holding on to for months; no longer wondering. Worrying.
Mike was tempted to make a joke, but he didn’t think that was what Harvey was looking for in the moment. He just answered honestly. “Yes.”
“I like my name in your alpha voice.”
Mike smiled so hard, he turned his head to contain himself. He continued running his fingers slowly through Harvey’s hair, pieces still damp from his shoulder earlier.
"Silence isn't better."
"Shut up." Mike snorted.
Harvey just smiled.