#and when harvey punishes him for that...oops who said that???

[butdaddyilovehimmm]

SUITS 1.08

[queen-scribbles]

Worth It

Merry Christmas, Alex! :D Partially inspired by this from Christmas a couple years ago, partially by the ugly-Christmas-sweaters-everywhere thing. They took forever to give me an ending, hence the silence about its existence. I wanted to be sure it wasn’t going to stay a WIP. xD

“C’mon, Harvey, we’re leavin’ in, like, ten minutes for my house; you need to get ready.” Trinne leaned over the back of the couch to kiss him on the cheek and playfully reach for his book.

Harvey absently leaned into the kiss but moved the book out of her reach. “I am ready.”

“Um, no, sweetheart.” She smiled almost apologetically as she dropped a pile of (mostly) green and brown wool next to him. “You hafta wear the sweater Mom sent you.”

He looked at her and raised an eyebrow(Trinne wasn’t sure if it was skepticism or reluctance. Maybe both. She couldn’t blame him). “Really? I have to?”

“Why the hell do you think I’m wearin’ mine?” Trinne retorted, tugging at the scratchy blue wool

Harvey shrugged and closed his book. “I figured you were being nice and trying not to hurt your mom’s feelings. You’re like that with your family.”

“Pfft, no,” Trinne snorted. “I’m not that nice, even with them. It’s Amell family tradition, trademarked when I was about.... five.”

“It’s not really cold enough for sweaters,” Harvey pointed out. “Everyone will melt.”

Trinne shook her head, grinning with extra (fake) sweetness. “Not if Dad turns down the heat. And you and I are serious enough, Mom considers you part of the family, so that argument’s no good either.”

“...Can we say Queen chewed on it?”

Another shake of her head. “You don’t wanna do that, trust me.” She climbed over the back of the couch to sit with him. “Two things will happen: she’ll bug Aed for a week minimum about has he taken his dog to the vet, is she okay, eating yarn is bad for dags, yada yada. And she’ll pull out the back-up sweaters for you to pick from.” Trinne made a face and raked her fingers through her hair. “This is a big deal for her and Dad.”

“Obviously, if there’s a box of back-up sweaters,” Harvey muttered, probably wondering what the hell he’d gotten himself into dating her.

“I mean, these sweaters are, like, twenty or thirty years old,” she explained, raising her hands in a gesture halfway to a shrug. “From when Mom and Dad were our age, so they smell like mothballs and are legitimately ugly. They’re awful. So we wear the newer cheesy-bad ones Mom gives us cuz the alternative is scare-off-your-date levels of ugly.”

“Okay, there’s a story these. Just not sure it’s one I want to hear.” He eyed the green and brown sweater and set his book down on the coffee table.

Trinne laughed, moving the sweater to Harvey’s lap so she could scoot closer. “Long story short, when Jowan was... seventeen or eighteen--I forget which exactly, but not long after he officially became part of the family--he tried to convince Mom the washer or dryer had mangled his sweater cuz his new girlfriend was comin’ and he didn’t want to wear it in front her. And I’m talkin’ new girlfriend; they’d only been goin’ out a month, tops. Her family was really “proper” and kinda classy and upper-crust-ish an’ I’m still not sure how Jowan got her to go out with him-”

“Trinne, this isn’t short,” Harvey interrupted, half-smiling as he nudged her shoulder with his.

“Right, right, sorry. So he tries to get out of wearin’ it by saying it got ruined, Mom goes ‘It’s okay sweetie’ and gave him one of the backup sweaters to wear. Didn’t let him pick, mind you, just handed him this monstrosity that looked like a Christmas tree ate a reindeer and threw up all over the damn sweater-”

“Descriptive,” Harvey said dryly, running his thumb over one of the santa hats that decorated his sweater.

“Yeah. I’m pretty sure he had a few seconds where he almost wished we hadn’t adopted him. But only almost, b’cause, I mean, he got me for a sister, so that’s worth it, right?” Trinne joked. “Anyway, he and this girl were broken up before New Year’s. Not sayin’ it’s just because of the sweater, but I’m pretty sure that was a contributing factor. Course if she scared off that easily, she wouldn’t have fit in anyway...”

“Mm.” Harvey shot her a look. “Sounds like your parents use this to gauge the people you or your siblings date.”

“If it is, you’re afe,” she promised, poking his side teasingly. “Mom loves you. And, I mean, one good thing about this is she says it counts as her Christmas present, so we don’t mind doing this to make her happy. An’ that girlfriend is the only significant other who got scared off. We just don’t let Jowan live it down, ‘cause where’s the fun in that?”

Harvey shook his head with a small laugh. “You’re terrible, you know that?”

“Yep. It’s part of my charm,” she grinning, extra cheesy on purpose. “And if you really don’t wanna wear your sweater, I can turn said charm on my parents, try an’ talk ‘em out of making you wear one. I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable...” She rested one hand on his shoulder and absently ran her fingers through his hair. “Or we can not go and I’ll apologize later.”

“No, that’s okay,” he assured her. “If it’s important to you, I think I can manage to wear a somewhat ugly sweater for a few hours. Besides, what’re you going to tell them for why we can’t come? It’s not like I have family parties to worry about.”

She nodded concession of that point. “Are you sure? I really will try and talk my folks down if you want me to. It’s not that big a deal.”

“Yes, it is,” Harvey contradicted, smiling fondly as he pushed to his feet, taking the sweater with him. “You gesture a lot and get all... rabbit trail-y when you’re talking about something that’s important to you. You’ve done both over the course of this conversation, so I will wear the sweater. It’s okay.” He picked up the offending garment and headed for his room.

“You could just change out here, y’know,” Trinne called after him, grinning as she slouched down on the couch and put her feet on the coffee table. “Nothin’ I haven’t seen before.”

“Clothes stay in the bedroom,” he returned, voice briefly muffled as he pulled on the sweater. “Or Aed’ll never let me hear the end of it.”

She frowned. “That doesn’t sound like him...”

“Because I always give him grief about how often he leaves his clothes everywhere,” Harvey clarified as he emerged from his room, dark green button-down exchanged for the sweater.

“Ah. That makes a little more sense,” Trinne laughed.

“It doesn’t have to be spotless or anything,” he said, offering her his hand.  “Just... the couch is for people, and occasionally large slobbery dogs. Not dirty laundry.”

She giggled as she accepted the help up. “That’s fair. And that sweater doesn’t look that bad on you, by the way.”

Harvey wrinkled his nose. “You’re just saying that-”

“Because it’s true,” she cut him off. “And cuz I know you’re wearing it for me.” She kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you.”

He smiled. “You’re welcome.”

“We can count this as my Christmas present, too, if you want.”

“No, I already got you something. This is just one of those boyfriend things.”

“That you do with far less complaining than some, if any at all, because you’re a wonderful person,” Trinne finished for him, sliding her hand in his and trying very hard not to think about the last (only other) boyfriend she’d dated long enough to take to the family get-together. She mostly succeeded. “And I appreciate it so much, seriously. But we need to get going or we’re going to be late. Which is almost as bad as not wearing your sweater.”

“How many rules are there to this gathering, dare I ask?” Harvey said as he opened the door.

“Not so much rules as traditions,” she replied with an almost sheepish shrug.  “Like, there’s no real punishment beyond copious teasing. And those are the only two big ones, but Isla’s probably gonna throw mistletoe at me at some point--cuz that’s more fun than tricking us into standing under it--and various other things that... well, let’s just say if you wind up wondering what you’ve gotten yourself into with me, I won’t blame you.”

“Trinne, I’ve already done that at least once a month since we started dating,” he laughed on their way down the hall. “The answer’s pretty much always the same; nothing that isn’t worth it.”

Trinne felt her face heat. “Cousland, if you don’t stop being so damn sweet, we aren’t going to make it to my house. Even if it means I’m the one who gets razzed now instead of Jowan.” She grabbed the front of his sweater and tugged him down into a kiss. One that only ended because they sort of veered into a wall. “Oops..”

“Is this going to turn into one of our holiday traditions?” Harvey mumbled, only half joking, free hand still braced against the wall.

“What making out on the way to the car?” Trinne whispered, grinning mischievously as she released her grip on his sweater to rub the back of her head. “Shit, Harv, I’ll do that year round and you know it.”

“True,” he conceded with a small smile, pushing off the wall and tugging her with him. “I was thinking more along the line of us being late to this party because you can’t keep your hands to yourself,” he teased.

“Oh, that.” She paused to consider a moment. “Yeah, probably. ‘Specially if you’re this sweet about it every year.”

“Good to know. I’ll keep that in mind,” he said, holding the door for her.

“So you can do it more or less?” Trinne needled with a laugh, unlocking’ the car.

Harvey smiled as they climbed in. “You’ll just have to wait until next year to find out, won’t you?”

“Jerk,” Trinne huffed and glared at him, but that just made him smile wider. “It’s a good thing you’re cute, you know that?”

He laughed. “That much of a handful, am I?”

“Don’t worry,” she smiled, leaning over to give him a peck on the cheek as she started the car. “You’re worth it.”

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Ugh, I’m so rusty on these two I’m a little irritated at myself. :P Hence the modern AU; they’re a little easier there than in canon. And oh the irony of Trinne implying Harv’s the handful in this relationship. You’re lucky he loves you, you dork.

(for newer followers, bc GOD it’s been that long since I wrote them, Trinne Amell is mine, Harvey Cousland belongs to @errantgoat)