22. Man-to-man (The Party and Hopper)

A/N: Omg you guys, I'm so sorry! My brother took my computer to do homework and silly me thought that he would be done that same day, but he took so looong! He even took it to work! Sorry again :( This is for sadistichanjizoe who wanted the Party getting detention because somebody hit on El, Hopper taking them out for ice cream and having a serious talk with Mike. I complicated the 'hitting on' because it needed to be more serious. I hope you guys like it :)

PROMPT: Somebody hits on El; the Party gets detention, Hopper takes them out for ice cream and he has a serious talk with Mike.

Hopper had been having a rough day. Eugene and his farmer neighbor were fighting again, Callahan had "accidentally" insulted a woman and he had to calm the neurotic female down, Flo had thrown the entire box of donuts in the trash and left him with just the glaze on his fingertips before he had a chance to take a bite of one (his mouth watered and his stomach clenched in sadness at the thought), and to top it all off, they had a rat in the station.

What he really didn't need was more trouble, and yet...

"Hello?" He answered the phone of his office as Powell continued thumping the corners of the station in search of the rat outside.

"Mr. Hopper, sir?" A woman's voice told him.

"Who's this?" He frowned.

"This is Celia, Principal Langdon's secretary, and I'm calling from Hawkins High."

He sighed, leaning back in his chair and rubbing a tired hand on his forehead. "What's she done now?"

"Umm... I'll let her tell you, sir." The line shifted and then slightly-harsh breathing was heard on the other side.

"Yes?" He asked after a few seconds of silence.

"Uhh... hi," El answered, finally, with a bit of a nervous voice. "So, I'll be home late today."

"Why?" He asked his daughter as he lit a cigarette.

"... I'm in detention."

"El!" He groaned through an exhale full of smoke. "What happened?"

"Listen, I have to go, but I swear I'll explain everything later. Just know this," her voice grew louder, as if she wanted everyone who was near her to listen. "It was not our fault."

"Our? Am I to assume that your little group of friends is there, too?" He rolled his eyes.

"Yup."

"What time are you getting out?"

"They gave us two hours, so..." her voice trailed off as she was checking the hour. "5?"

"I'm picking you up."

"Dad!" El groaned on the other side of the phone.

"And I want to hear everything about this when I do, you hear me?"

"Yes," she sighed sulkily. "I have to go, for real. I'll see you soon."

"Bye." He muttered around his cigarette.

He hung up the phone and leaned back again to plop his feet on the desk, running a hand on his balding head in exhaustion as he contemplated his shitty day.

"Chief!" Callahan knocked on his door with an urgent tone as Flo began shouting at Powell to give her the broom. "Help!"

"For fuck's sake!" He groaned, taking one last deep drag of his cigarette, and then putting it out in the ash tray as he stood up, walking moodily outside to find that damn rat.

At 4:57 Hopper was leaning back on the hood of his Blazer, arms crossed and an intimidating frown on his face as he waited for the little band of rebels and, more importantly, his daughter, to get out of school.

He lit another cigarette, exhaling smoke as the nicotine helped him calm down. He knew El was a good kid, sweet and— mostly— well behaved, but he also knew she was a little terror when she was mad, so he really wanted to know why and how she had landed herself in detention.

He was halfway done with his cancer stick when he saw her walking out attached to Mike's hand, followed by the other kids as they talked to themselves.

He stood up and began forming his gaze into a glare (a little fear would do her some good), when he saw a group of boys walk out behind them, quickly walking to fall in pace with them.

He saw a blond boy walk backwards to face the group and then he saw Mike's face contort into a sneer while El glared at the laughing group.

"Fuck off, asshole!" Lucas snapped.

Hopper frowned as the boys walked off, led by the blond kid who, even from a few good feet away, Hopper could see sported a few bruises on his face.

He met El's eyes and the girl sighed, giving him a grimace as the kids came closer to where he was standing.

"Hey, Chief." Dustin greeted as soon as they were close.

Hopper only responded with a flare of his nostrils and wordlessly summoned El to his side.

The girl squeezed Mike's hand and said thanks to the other kids, much to Hopper's confusion.

"Chief," Mike stopped him as he turned around to walk around the Blazer. "It's not El's fault she was in detention." Mike's words caused a verbal explotion.

"Yeah, this asshole named Brian—"

"We were just—"

"We tried—"

"—next thing I know—"

"We didn't even—"

"—and then we—"

"They tried to—"

"—out of nowhere!"

"OKAY!" The Chief shouted, overwhelmed by the sudden chatter the teens in front of him had erupted in. "One at a damn time."

"Some asshole grabbed my ass." His daughter said from next to him.

"What?!" He snapped, looking at her with anger that was quickly burning through his large body.

"I was in the hallway with Max and Will, and this idiot called Brian Allen leaned down to kiss me on the cheek out of nowhere," El started to explain with a deep frown. "And when I pushed him away he just reached down and literally squeezed my butt."

Words couldn't explain what he was feeling. Rage. Pure unadulterated rage began to seep through his pores, and he had the need to get into the truck and race after that stupid blond kid to run him over.

"Oh my God, El!" He finally said, reaching over to hold his kid to his chest, hugging her tightly as he kissed her head.

"It was really uncomfortable." She admitted in a quiet murmur.

"I know, sweetheart. That is not okay! Why did they put you in detention?"

"Well," Will said, speaking for the first time. "We kind of pummeled the kid."

"Will sucker punched that asshole so fast, I swear his head spun all the way 'round." Max said as she let out a laugh at the memory.

"You punched him?" Hopper asked the green eyed boy, impressed.

"I wasn't going to stand there and let him grope her." Will exclaimed with furrowed eyebrows, and Hopper took in the kid's bruised knuckles.

"That's right," he reached out to mess with Will's hair. "You have to watch out for your sister." He received a lopsided smile in return for his words, knowing Will got really warm when he mentioned their family.

"I can watch out for myself," El said as she separated herself from his embrace. "I didn't punch him, but I kneed him in the balls."

"Good job." He told her fondly.

"Then his stupid friends came running to help him." Will continued.

"I punched a couple." Max smiled proudly, showing her bruised knuckles to the Chief, who chuckled softly. He liked the redhead.

"That's when we came in," Dustin said. "We were at my locker because I wanted to show the boys my Biology project- It's amazing Chief; it's an album of the different stages is the Krebs cy—"

"Dustin!" Lucas exclaimed with an eye roll. "Nobody cares about your stupid album!"

"Uh, excuse me! My album is amazing! You're just jealous." Dustin stated.

"Uh," Lucas mocked. "No, I'm not! Why are you even talking about biology?"

"Whatever," Mike said pointedly, sending Dustin a glare as the curly haired boy began talking back to Lucas. "We were at Dustin's locker when Brian... did that to El," He had a hard time saying it, furious with the whole situation. "We just ran to help them."

"And then we all got into a fight." Max finished with a shrug.

"Mhmh," Hopper nodded as he hummed. "So, you all got detention because you were defending El?"

"Yeah, I mean," Max scoffed. "What kind of school just gives detention to an actual molester?"

"Gotta love Hawkins." Lucas said with a shake of his head.

"They only let me use the phone because I threatened to sue them." El informed him as she looked up at him with a raised eyebrow.

"And we will," Hopper promised her. "That asshole touched you without consent and that's basically abuse in my eyes."

"He's almost eighteen, too." Will added helpfully.

"Huh," Hopper made a pleased sound. "Even better, then."

"So, am I grounded?" El asked tentatively.

"Hell no," Hopper shook his head. "As a matter of fact..." he said as he eyed the group of teens.

"You each get a scoop, my treat." He informed them as soon as they entered the Ice Cream place.

The kids cheered and went to get in line, but Mike tagged behind, walking slowly as if he didn't want to walk away from Hopper. And he was right, because after 3 steps, the freckled boy turned around to face him.

"Hey, Chief?" He said tentatively, shuffling his feet and pushing his fists inside the pockets of his jacket. "I'm sorry." He said softly.

"What for?" He frowned.

"For not being there for her." Mike said with sad eyes and lowered eyebrows.

"What are you talking about, kid?"

"I wasn't there. I could've prevented that asshole touching her, and I wasn't there because I wanted to see Dustin's stupid album." Mike was nearly spitting in anger at himself.

"Mike," Hopper sighed. "It's not your fault."

"But I—"

"Unless you somehow knew what that stupid blond was going to do. Did you? Because if you did then we are going to have a problem."

"No, of course not." Mike scoffed, shaking his head and flopping his dark hair around.

"Then you couldn't have done anything."

"Still." Mike mumbled as he scuffed his foot against the black and white floor of the ice cream parlor.

"Hey," He reached out to place a hand on Mike's shoulder. "You were with her after, weren't you?" Mike nodded. "And you comforted her when I wasn't there?" He nodded again. "Then you've done more than I have."

"But you weren't there Chief, you couldn't have—"

"Exactly, and you weren't either. But you were there after. You're here now. And that's what matters." That got a tiny small from Mike. "Besides," Hopper continued. "You kicked some ass, didn't you?"

"Hell yeah, I did." Mike said with a satisfied nod. "I landed a couple punches on that idiot."

Hopper chuckled deeply, his stomach moving from the effort, and he reached out again to mess Mike's hair like he did with Will's. "Good."

"I wouldn't leave her, you know?" Mike said. "I'll stay with her forever."

"I know." Hopper nodded as he watched him turn around and watch his daughter, who was laughing with Max while they waited in line.

"I love her." Mike admitted with a blush as he stared like a love-sick puppy.

"I know you do."

"Wait," Mike said as he turned around and looked at the Chief. Hopper tried to remember when the kid stopped looking up at him. "Did we just have a man-to-man?"

"Uh..." Hopper shook his head with a frown. "Yeah. I'm ending it now. Now," he cleared his throat as he squared up his shoulders. "Stop pouting and go get me some coffee ice cream." He pushed Mike in the direction of the line.

"I'm not pouting." Mike frowned back at him, and then he walked away to hug El from behind as soon as he got in line.

Hopper watched his daughter smile as Mike kissed her cheek and she continued talking to her friends. He was glad she had them all to be there for her, even though they got on his nerves a lot. Still, they're good kids. They're even better when they bring him a double scoop of that coffee ice cream. The cold treat was definitely what he needed to eat away the awful day he had, and as he gulfed it down, he felt the stress finally leave his body.

He's definitely suing that asshole, though.

What did you guys think? Leave a comment :D Also, if you guys wouldn't mind checking out my other story '3 Steps Above Heaven'... it's not getting the audience/attention I hoped for, and I'm seriously considering taking it down. I'll post the third chapter tomorrow and depending on the outcome, I'll keep it up or not. I'm sorry if I'm pestering you guys into reading it, but it's just a bummer when you put a lot of effort into something and it's not what you expected :/ I once told you guys that reviews are an author's payment, and I'm feeling very poor lmao. So, do me a favor and check it out. If not, then I'll stop and just focus on this lovely story that you guys love so much :) Love, my sweets!