Fell for you (but I shouldn't have)

Oh shit, feelings

That was only the first of many times Hopper had picked me up, usually, he'd take me back to the station to fill out some papers, and if what I'd done had been really bad, he'd throw me in a cell and take me home in the morning. I'd never spent more than one night in a row cuffed, if someone else had been my arresting officer then Hopper got me out as soon as he heard about it.

At first, it had just been him wanting to protect me from my dad. But since I'd never file a report or ask Hopper to arrest him for child abuse, he couldn't do much to protect me except for keeping me out of juvie. I always had a fresh bruise, and every time he saw me, he'd put a little bit of arnica on it and tell me to take care of myself, to call him whenever I needed help, the same old shit.

But as I got older it turned into something more than him just protecting some kid from the trailer park. He started to care about me. More than he should. He'd crash parties I was at, drag me out of drug deals, and once he even pulled me out of a Saturday detention saying there was a 'family emergency' and I needed to come with him immediately. When we got to the car, he just asked where I wanted him to take me. I laughed for a second and asked if he was serious.

We became friends, as unlikely as it was. Sometimes, on really bad nights he'd take me back to his house and let me sleep on his couch till things blew over with my dad.
All my friends said it was weird or creepy, but I cared about Hop, and he cared about me. It was a little weird, I'll admit that, but it was what I knew, it was my normal.

One day, after Hop had dragged me out of yet another deal with Reefer Rick (who was the only person in town that would sell to me because everyone knew about my situation with Hopper) he had me sitting in his Cheif's office, not my first time being in there seeing as he'd been Chief for almost a year now, as he filled out yet another form to add to my file. I sat there taking in everything he'd moved in. A customized nameplate was sitting on his desk. I picked it up to have something to fiddle with and read it. 'POLICE CHIEF JIM HOPPER' I looked over at his uniform and noticed that his nametag now read 'CHIEF HOPPER' not just 'HOPPER' anymore. He stood up with the form he'd just filled out and walked over to a filing cabinet. He crouched down to grab my folder out of the bottom drawer labeled D-F.

I admired how his khaki pants hugged his legs, which I always knew he looked good in, but never really noticed how much they really fit him. After he'd put the form away, he turned around and looked at me. Has his face always been so gorgeous? I knew I had some sort of feelings for Hop but I'd just brushed them off as a silly teenage crush, but I'm not really a teenager anymore. I'll be 20 in a couple of days. I know that I had a serious problem on my hands now.