SOLAR ECLIPSE - stranger things

-005-

"So why do you care?" 

Hopper had finally decided to break the silence in the car. Neither of them were very talkative people,  but Luna didn't mind. She assumed Hopper felt the same but from his sudden outburst, she realised she may have assumed incorrectly. 

Realising that the girl wasn't going to respond anytime so he continued. "I mean about helping this kid?" 

"I'm friends with his brother, he's a good kid. I shouldn't need a reason to want to help a missing child" Luna stated without even looking away from the window. 

"Yeah but I feel like there's a reason for you to threaten illegal activities to help search for him"

Luna was quiet for a bit. "I saw him that night, I waved at him as he rode by" 

"Kid there is no way you would have known that something was going to go wrong that night"

"But I know the Byers. Even if Will didn't go missing I should have stopped him from riding at night, I knew he would be riding by the forest. And now I'm not hanging out with Jonathan, I feel like I'm....... failing the family"

The two sat in silence for a bit. Luna hadn't expected to open up to Hopper, she rarely opened up to the people she was close to. So much had been happening that she must have felt overwhelmed. 

"Well, that's bullshit" Hopper finally stated. 

Luna turned to him confused. 

"I mean your in this car right now driving around with the police, when you could be at home doing.... whatever teenagers do" Hopper struggled to relate to the teen. "Your not a failure". 

"Thank you" 

Hopper gave a nod as he pulled up to the library. "We're here" Hopper stated parking the car. 

"Why are we at the library" Luna perked up confused. 

"Ha, did you actually think I was gonna let you search in the forest? Fat chance. You're doing research with me" And with that Luna followed Hopper into the building. 

---

"You have a lot of nerve showing up here" 

Luna slightly raised her eye-brow in hearing the librarian's reaction to Hopper.

 "What?" Hopper asked obliviously. 

"You could have at least called and said, Marisa hey it's not going to work out, sorry I wasted your time of day". There was a moment of silent tension between the two. 

"It wouldn't be a call, but he could say that to you now" Luna suggested, trying to use the "negation" skills her brother had taught her. 

Hopper turned to tell her off but was caught off guard when he saw she was completely serious, just trying to make a suggestion. 

"Yep, I can say.... I'm sorry" Hopper mumbled "Maybe we could go out again next week" The Liberian faced Luna with a raised eyebrow, who only shrugged.