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Chapter 32

Here we have some more Mike & Hopper bonding, along with a bit of Mike & Flo! XD Valentine's Day will be next chapter!

Tuesday, February 12, 1985

Even though he's done it a couple times before, Mike still felt weird going to the police station. He didn't even get a chance to speak to Flo, other than a quick smile and hello when she called,

"Hey Hop! Mr. Wheeler's here to see you!"

"He can come back!" Hopper called back.

"Go ahead, Sweetie." She nodded towards his office. He smiled at her and made his way to the office. Hopper was taking a sip of coffee when he walked in.

"Hey, Hop."

"Hey, kid. Sit down." Mike sat down and put his book bag on the ground next to him. "You come here right after school?"

"Yeah." Hopper chuckled. "What?"

"I've been wondering when you were gonna come and talk to me. Didn't think it'd be two days before Valentine's day." Mike blushed.

"I kinda forgot that it was a thing." He mumbled. "But I know what I want to get her, but I need your permission first."

"Jeez, kid, you sound like you're asking for permission to marry her or something." Mike's eyes widened and his face turned a bright red.

"N-no." He stuttered. "I, um, I want to get her a kitten."

"A kitten? She did tell you about what they did... there, right?" Mike nodded immediately.

"Yeah, but we went to Dustin's house last week and they have a cat, and she fell in love with it. Her, I think? I don't know. Anyways, she actually asked me if she could get one and I didn't know how to respond so I said maybe in the future."

"Okay. And where do you expect to get one?"

"One of my neighbors cat had kittens a couple weeks ago. She said that they'd be ready to adopt by Monday, as in yesterday so... I asked her about it on my way to school this morning and she said they were already trained to use the litter box and everything and were eating solid food and ready to go. And they're free." It was obvious how nervous he was, and how much he wanted to do this for her. It didn't take much to convince Hopper to begin with, so he just laughed.

"Calm down, kid. You can get her a cat. Boy or girl?"

"Really?" Mike's eyes widened a little, a grin forming on his face. "I didn't expect you to go along with it." Hopper snorted. "Uh, probably a girl? I don't know, I asked mom about it and she said the boys spray too much or something." He shrugged.

"Yeah, I'd rather have a girl. Gonna get her fixed as soon as she's old enough though." Mike nodded. Hopper looked at his watch. "I get off at five, a little less than two hours. You wanna hang around here and do your homework or something? And then we can go buy stuff for the cat." Mike nodded enthusiastically.

"I was worried about that the most, other than whether or not you'd say no." He said, pulling his books out of his bag. "Finding time to go get it because tomorrow I have a project that me and Will need to work on at his house and that'll take forever so I'm staying over tomorrow night." He babbled. "And then Thursday is Valentine's day and I'm getting her flowers and candy too so today is like the only day I could go get stuff." Hopper chuckled. "What?"

"Nothing, it's just... there's no doubt in my mind that you're Karen's kid." Mike raised his eyebrows. "You sound just like her, worrying about everything. You're like a mix between her and Joyce."

"Wow." Mike deadpanned, then snickered, "I do sound like her. God, I need to chill." He shook his head at himself and sat Indian style in the chair, just barely able to with his long legs, and a peaceful silence fell over them, the only sound being Mike flipping a page over or the scribble of his pencil. After a few minutes, Hopper asked,

"Speaking of your mom, does she know you're here?" Mike nodded, eyes trained on a math problem.

"Yeah, I told her this morning before school. She was cool with it." Hopper snorted and nodded, even though Mike hadn't paid any attention to the movement.

Within an hour, he was done with his homework and had packed everything up, looking around the room. He'd taken his jacket off and was wearing the sweater they'd gotten him.

"You like the sweater, kid?" Mike looked at him and nodded.

"Yeah, it's comfortable. I usually wear the hat too but I was rushing this morning and forgot it."

"Really?" Hopper asked. He nodded again.

"I wear the dog chains too." He pulled them out of his shirt and showed it to him. Hopper grinned.

"Well... good, kid, that's good." Mike was quiet for a couple minutes and Hopper looked up, seeing that Mike had a tiny grin on his face. "What?"

"So... you and Mrs. Byers?" He asked. Hopper blinked at him and Mike wiggled his eyebrows. Hopper started laughing. Mike grinned wider. He hadn't said anything to him about it, even though it's been about a month and a half since he and Max caught them kissing. "What?"

"Sorry, I just thought about what you said when you caught us kissing. Not in front of the children." Mike snickered. "And I'm surprised you've waited this long to ask about it. The redhead," Mike snorted at that, Hopper rarely ever called her by her name, "asked almost immediately after. But, if you must know, we are... kind of dating."

"Kind of dating?"

"I mean... I guess you could say were together."

"Like boyfriend and girlfriend?" Hopper nodded. "Who asked, you or her?"

"What's it to you, kid?"

"Just wondering." Mike shrugged.

"Joyce." He muttered. Mike giggled and Hopper glared at him playfully. "Hey! You shouldn't be laughing, you turd, I already know that it was El who asked you!"

"That's why I'm laughing." Mike said, grinning. "El told me that Mrs. Byers is the one who told her that girls could ask boys too, and not just the other way around. She'd asked me why Mrs. Byers wouldn't ask you but I didn't know what to tell her." Hopper snorted.

"When was this?"

"My birthday." He replied. 

"Figured." Hopper shook his head, shrugging. "Okay kid, since you're so keen on keeping yourself occupied by asking about my love life, I'm gonna put you to work." Mike snickered and nodded. "Do you have decent hand writing?"

"Eh, you can read it so I guess." Hopper nodded.

"Good enough, come on." He stood up and let Mike out to the front, where Flo was sitting, typing away. "Hey Flo? I'm putting him to work since he's being a nosy turd." Mike grinned at her and she chuckled. "He's got decent handwriting so feel free to let him write stuff."

"Gotcha, Hop. Alrighty, Mr. Wheeler, you see that calendar over there?" She nodded towards the one close to the door. He nodded. "Grab it and come over here." She brought a stool out from under the desk and placed it next to her. He came over with it and set it down on an empty space. She handed him a piece of paper with a bunch of dates on it. "I've been meaning to do this since the first of January but I obviously haven't. I want you to write all those dates down for me, starting with whatever comes after today." Mike nodded and got to work, writing down the little notes and schedules or off days for Hopper.