ALSO (no i’m not done I had more to say but it’s so LONG already)
ALSO I love Steve cop a lot but imagine this:
Him and Hopper are closer now. Not super like sappy because they’re not really Like That, but Hopper squeezes his shoulder and makes sure he takes his meds and doesn’t let him go home to an empty house. Basically Steve is spending more time at the cabin than he is at his own house (except for when the Party take the house over because it’s huge and they can all stretch out and play their game and it’s a good time all around but I digress)
SO Steve is like, wow this is what Fatherly Affection feels like. It’s really nice. Hopper cares about how school is going the rest of the year, but doesn’t give him shit about grades because it’s not like he went to college? I think? DON’T QUOTE ME ON THAT)
And Steve is obviously a little lost over what to do after school and (we’ll pretend he’s old enough to join the force immediately okay, IDK what the requirements were and i don’t want to look them up i’ve got a momentum going) mentions how he thinks Steve would make a good fit at the station.
Steve kind of freaks out. Like, in his head. Not outwardly.
But, he’s not sure he could handle it. He’s not sure he’s ready for any kind of commitment right after school. It’s hard to think about the future and what he could/should do when he’s still half convinced the gate is going to reopen (his nail bat is still in his trunk and he’s honestly not sure he’ll ever be able to go anywhere without it ever again)
But Hopper is more of a dad than his actual father and he doesn’t want to disappoint him. His father hates that he is so bad at school, that he’s not going to work at his company. And he doesn’t want Hopper to hate him or think he’s ungrateful, too.
So, stomach tight and feeling miserable he agrees.
He didn’t count on Hopper knowing His Kids. Hopper lets it go for a while, Steve starts to relax because they haven’t talked about it for a while. And the next time he brings it up, he pays close attention and it’s obvious that Steve doesn’t know how to say no and that leads to conversations about how Steve doesn’t owe him anything. He can take some time to figure things out and Hopper isn’t going to be mad if Steve decides he never wants to have anything to do with law enforcement, or anything else (though he admits he’d have a little trouble if Steve ever decided to be a lawyer or something and Steve snorts because yeah right but Hopper’s dead serious).
Whatever Steve decides to do, Hopper still expects him to help out with El (who obvi likes him, much to Mike’s not-too-serious annoyance) and to be at the cabin more often than his own house and Steve relaxes for real now and it’s like he can breathe for the first time in weeks.
IDK, this is literally the first thought I had when I got that ask.
