One More Sleepless Night (Marvey, NC-17)
@suits100 - prompt #76: Soul Bonds are one-sided ā thereās usually mutual affection, but only one party feels the crippling need to be together as often as possible. If separated at length from their love, that party becomes crushed by longing, panic, and sheer hopelessness, and so it is illegal to forcibly keep Soulmates apart.
Some days, Harvey Specter hates the Bond that skews his judgement and weakens his resolve, and he fears what would happen if anyone in his world ever discovers he is so compromised. He certainly never planned to disclose the Bond for the first time in the middle of Anita Gibbsā office, in a last-ditch attempt to invalidate the deal sending Mike to prison.
The Prime Amendment (Amendment prefacing the Bill of Rights, ratified on Dec., 15th, 1791):
The right of Bonded Soulmates to be secure in their intact and unsevered Bonds shall not be violated, their right to convene and consummate their bond shall not be infringed. No Compromised shall be forcibly parted from their Bondmate under any circumstances. There shall be no exceptions made to this rule.Ā
Harvey can still feel where Mike hit him, even though the fight happened a couple of days ago. The bruises have almost completely faded, and on the outside his face is nearly as unblemished and as perfect as it has ever been. When he looks at his cheekbone in the mirror, he canāt really see anything anymore. But what he can feel, what he can still feel there underneath the now only slightly yellow-ish hue is a completely different story.
Mikeās fists still tear his skin and crash against the bone it just thinly covers, they still split his lip and cut his brow over and over again.
Harveyās arms rise in defense against those blows when nobody is watching, his fists almost reluctantly trying to cover his face, just to keep up the pretense and to keep Mike going. He needs to allow Mike the maximum access without him even noticing what is really going on.
Only, the hits donāt come anymore, not in broad daylight anyway and not when Harvey looks at himself in the mirror.
Mike is in Danbury now, his hair cut short, and the name he is known by behind those bars is nothing but a mere number ā and Harvey, Harvey finds himself in the gym every free minute he has in the midst of the chaos that both his professional and his private lives have become, every minute he is not there, he is not in there with Mike, and every minute he is not fighting to get Mike out. They arenāt many minutes like that.
His defense is weak and always a little half-hearted, and every blow to his body one of his sparring partners manages to land makes him feel numb and dizzy for a few precious moments. They never go for the face though, no matter how hard he tries to lure them into it, and he detests them because of that. Their cowardice leaves him too much space to think.
For the first thirty eight years of his life Harvey can safely say that he has been happy. Or fairly happy or maybe even just what passes for happy at times, but for the most part, he has been at least okay. Good even, with Jessica sending him to Harvard and then giving him a job and chance after chance after chance and, not to forget, a new family of loyalty and trust.
For the first thirty eight years of his life Harvey has assumed that, if he should ever meet his Soulmate, heād not be like his father. For thirty eight years he has felt as safe and as untouchable as his mother must have felt back then when what sheād done to his father had almost killed the man.
For the first thirty eight years of his life Harvey has been sure that heād be the other one, the one whoād have it easy, the unaffected one. He had thought that he would be like his mother, that he would be able to distance himself and able to put an end to things, at least an end of sorts, just like her.
Never in a million years, let alone in thirty eight would he have thought that heād be the Compromised.
(Continue reading on AO3ā¦)
