Coffee Please. (Hopper X Reader)

~°°Chapter 1°°~

When someone says after school job, I would like to think 'Yay! Scoops ahoy with Steve!', so tell me why I'm awake at six in the morning figuring out which shirt to pair with my plaid pencil skirt. Which felt a little too much like a school uniform. The birds haven't even started chirping but the coffee machine sure has. I cannot believe I'm back to this routine. Wake up. 5, sharp. Get dressed. Coffee. Cookies. And contemplation. Grabbing my house keys, leaving a note for my mom, i run out trying to walk the tiredness off my, everything really.

Today's first day at Hawkins Pd for me. My dad who's quite close with some people there thought it would be best if i got myself a job and seeing how the real world works. Yet somehow in this very real big girl job, I'm not getting paid. I cross the usual market square, passing by some familiar faces. My Biology teacher with her huge glasses falling off her nose as she reaches down to pull her tiny dog before seeing me. I wave at her and she smiles back. Ms. Darlington was my homeroom teacher three consecutive years in school, she knows me more than my mom. Through friends and crushes, frozen nuggets and rotten pudding, bruises and paper cuts, she's always been there, with her bandaids and glasses. Soon I reach the park and my lungs feel like they're closing up, just a little anxious. I see Mike's little sister climbing the monkey bars with her friends and stop to get a 50 cent lemonade from the stand they seemed to have set up. "Good sales today chels?" I ask one of the girls, "You have no idea (y/n)!" She said bouncing across the grass running back to the swing set. And soon enough that ugly building arrived. But this time, it wasn't school. It was the station.

I pushed the brown door, the bell jingled. You've got to be kidding me. Oh how I hoped I could quickly slip in, talk to Flo for a while and leave but. The jingle echoed and suddenly that was the only sound bouncing around the walls. I shuffled in, eyes stuck to the floor, one tile, then a crack, another tile, then a crack and one more and a crack and then a pair of shoes and no crack on the floor, but a thud, as I walked into what I was hoping to be a wall.

It wasn't a wall.

"Jesus, watch it." A rough familiar voice said. I hate life and life hates me! This is so much fun! Real world job! "Maybe you should pay attention to your surroundings and not stand in the middle of the hallway like a baffoon" It's too early in the morning to be candid and sweet to my job. Real world job call for real world reactions. A grunt and he turned around.

"Morning kid.", "Good morning Hopper." And silence. The sound of the barely functioning air conditioning feeling louder than it probably is. "(Y/n)! Oye my sunshine." I heard from the back and a sign of relief left my body as a pair of freckled hands wrapped around my shoulders. The heat of the body barely warming me before letting go in a blink. "Morning Chief.", "Good morning....." His voice faded out, "Tristen." I said, "Tristen." He said. And Tristen's face said enough, the joy screaming behind his eyes and confusion behind mine.

"Chief if you'll let me, I'll show (Y/n) around?" His soft voice said now from beside me, Hopper's jaw ticked, after a bit of silence he answered "I was hoping she'd make me a coffee first." No. I grabbed Tristan's hand and pulled him out of the hallway.

"So..... You don't seem to like Hopper?" Tristan spoke, his mouth leaving a puff of fog, "Yeah... It's complicated.", "We have time?" His persuasive voice said, his cheeks red and eyes bright in the winter. "Well uhm, I don't know. We were fine until a little over an year ago when suddenly everything changed." My statement sounding more like a question. " Is that a question or a fact?" Tristen spoke as a chuckle left my mouth, he knew me well. "I don't know, at this point you and I have the same amount of information about the dynamic." He walked a step further and turned to me, making me look up at him, "Well, my little investigator, with your riddle solving talents and my dashing officer looks, we'll solve all these mysteries."......... "You have a plastic badge.", "And you're here to make coffee, so." And my palm met his cheeks, "Okay... Ouch?", "Shut up it wasn't even that hard."

And just like that, with a heavy heart and heavy foot steps we push the heavy door into the heavyly crowded building. I didn't plan on hiding the full story from Tristen. Hopper is my dad's best friend and he took care of me for years, while my dad was busy with his science-y job and my mom was passed out on the floor with the bottle in her hand. Hopper would pull me out and drop me to school no matter how late or sick he was, he was always there with his stupid car and stupid hat waiting on in the drive way and when one day all all my father's friends were over for dinner, Hopper was there too with the glass of whisky in his hand and the cigarette pinched between his lips, charming all the ladies in my house including my barely awake mother. That was the night the cheek kisses for greetings and waffles for breakfast stopped.

Tristen put his arm around my shoulder perhaps noticing my mood change as we walked down the hallway to the door labelled "Chief". "Go, exchange some formalities, I'll be here when the day ends, waiting." He says looking down at me, his lips in a sweet soft smile, his arms extended across my shoulders as I held some papers Flo handed me in my arms, "Yeah?" He whispered, "Okay" i answered softly, "Okay" he echoed, before letting go and stepping back as I turned to knock on the door now in front of me, "Best of luck detective.", "Best of luck Officer." And the sound of his steps faded and new ones started, muffled by the closed door and a click. And there he was.

~°°~°°~°°~°°~°°~

Wsg, text me if u have requests

I might change the writing style, also don't worry Tristen isn't you boyfriend. For now at least I'll see how it goes.

yours truly
- miss author