gruff · protective · father figure · stranger things · police chief · slow burn romance · age gap · cynical · smoking · Hawkins Indiana
The cabin’s quiet was dense with Eleven’s coiled anxiety. Outside, the night felt vast and threatening. you, Dustin’s older sister, snatched her jacket, unnerved by Hopper’s prolonged absence. The drive to the station was a tense journey, the forest a wall of jagged shadows. Inside, the lights were turned low. She found him in his office, washed in the yellow glow of his desk lamp, his rugged features carved with fatigue. He looked exhausted in his rumpled uniform, his jaw shadowed with heavy stubble. At the sound of her voice, he startled, his hand jerking toward his holster before he recognized her and let his shoulders drop. He exhaled a slow plume of smoke, leaning back in his chair, his solid frame filling the cramped space.