Head Over Heels - Steddie

18

Jim Hopper had always owned a greater part of Steve's life since he was a teenager, and not just because he was the police chief of Hawkins but also because they had absolutely hated each other the first years of Steve's youth.

Their friendship - if you could even call it that - had started with Steve beating up, or more like getting beaten up by Tommy Hagen on the middle of the street outside the cinema a few years back when he was a sophomore.

Jim had appeared at the scene a few minutes after Tommy had ran off, leaving Steve with a bloody nose and bloody knuckles, leaning against a dumpster. Jim had walked up to him, and leaned leaned down with his hands folded. He had sighed loudly and deep, and just looked down on Steve for a while before he opened his mouth to say something.

"You gonna tell me what happened?"

Steve looked up at him with both disappointment and guilt in his eyes. He felt disappointed with himself, and guilty for starting the fight with Tom. He threw the first fist, but it sure wasn't okay for Tom to walk around calling Nancy Wheeler a slut, especially not after they got back together.

"I got angry.." Steve exhaled with shame in his voice. His lips hurt and he didn't know how many open wounds he had in his face at the moment, and he sure didn't look forward to seeing them in the mirror either.

"You got angry, yeah." Jim repeated with a deep sigh. "Why don't you come back to the station, son? Let me get you someone to look at those wounds for ya.." Jim stood up from the ground with a long groan. Steve looked up at him with a little hesitation before he stood up from the ground himself and followed Hopper to the police car. At that moment he was just happy to escape the nasty smell of the container he had been sitting next to.

The ride to the station was very short, and very silent. Steve sat in the back seat with his thumbs rolling against each other, and the feeling of Hopper watching him in the mirror. He felt really ashamed of himself, he really did, but he did still find it quite pleasant that he had caused Tommy to have some bruises as well. Not as bloody and big as the other way around, but a few at least.

Jim opened Steve's door a few minutes later, and followed him to the station where he sat him down and ordered an older woman to treat his wounds. Steve just looked at her while sitting down on a chair, feeling the gaze of the other police officers and how the older woman watched him with worry before she grabbed the first aid kit on the table behind her and walked towards him.

"So, can you tell me what's going on? This is the second time you get into a fight THIS WEEK, Harrington." Hopper sat down on the other side of the table and looked at Steve with humiliating eyes. He was really going to squeeze the truth out of him this time.

"I-"

"And no lies this time, boy."

They looked at each other for a second and Steve nodded eventually as he looked down on the black haired woman sitting next to him, who was getting ready to clean his wounds.

"I've been feeling really angry.. the last couple of days. And.." he exhaled. "Tommy called Nancy Wheeler a slut, and I don't like that shit. It was the last drop and I couldn't control myself anymore." He looked away, embarrassed to meet anyone's eyes. He wasn't supposed to feel this way about protecting a girl when he was 17.

"Why were you feeling angry before? Have you been taking things or .. did Tommy do something before?" Hopper had calmed down his voice a little.

"No.. not really." Steve swallowed and looked down on his knuckles. The woman had started to clean them, and it stung like hell. He had to bite the inside of his bottom lip to not look like a total wuss.

Steve looked up at Hopper with sadness in his eyes, and then his eyes wandered to the police officers watching them from the other side of the room.

And suddenly, there was a knock on the door. One of the police officers sighed as he walked to open the door, giving Steve a glance on the way out.

"You gonna tell me?" Hopper spoke up. Steve couldn't even open his mouth this time before he got interrupted again.

"Chief! It's the Munson boy again!" The police officer yelled to them from the door. Hopper stood up from his chair with a deep groan and walked towards the door with heavy and load steps.

"God damn it, Munson!"

Hopper disappeared with the other police officers, and Steve was left alone with the black haired woman who treated his wounds with soft hands.

They sat there for about an hour before she told him he could go home, cause none of them felt like waiting for the chief to come back. Steve just nodded and walked out from the building and started walking home.

He felt more lonely now than he did by the container, and that made him somewhat sad. He was worried that he would get in trouble for leaving the police office, cause even thought the woman had said he was allowed to, Hopper had never been a big fan of Steve and everyone knew that.

However, a few hours later when Steve had just thrown away the fast food package from the dinner table, his door knocked and he opened with the surprise of none other than Jim Hopper standing on his porch. He got worried at first, but then he saw the 6 - pack of cocoa cola in the man's left hand and just invited him in.

They sat at Steve's dinner table for hours, drinking Coca Cola and talking about what had actually happened before Tommy had heated him up. Steve explained that his father didn't come home for his birthday last week, and that he had promised already last year that his old man was to teach him how to drive a car.

But he never showed up, and instead he had built up a big cloud of anger towards everyone and everything, out of pride disappointment and the feeling of being abounded.

Jim just sat there and listened, spoke from time to time. And the next day, when Steve left school to walk the entire way back home, Jim approached him with a big smile.

"Jump in the car, son. I'm gonna teach you how to drive."

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Sorry for not updating in a while, lovelies. I'll try my best to keep the updates going ❤️