#sorry this isn't so much Hopper being a dad as it is me cryin over billy

[okaybutlikeimagine]

Imagine billy running into Neil and going back home to Hoppers with a bruised face and Hopper just...Angry Papa Bear Activated

ohnOOO augh okay (get ready for ANGST CENTRAL but) i think about this so often too bc Hawkins is SUCH a small town and there’s just no way they wouldn’t cross paths, y’know?? And that makes me so scared for the boy bc just… imagine???

Billy stopping by the grocery store to grab some more milk bc El spilled a bunch this morning and she had nearly cried about it bc she felt so bad but Billy helped her clean it up and told her he’d pick some up today. But he got swept up hanging out with Steve after school and now it’s about 6 and Billy is walking out of the store with the milk and a little box of cookies in his grocery bag when…

Billy nearly turns on his heels and walks back into the store. Briefly wonders how stupid it’d be to just walk home. Maybe run home? No, that’d be even more humiliating.

It’s just that, there’s Neil. Leaning up against the driver’s side of Billy’s Camaro, left arm crossed over his chest and the right extended to tap his heavy fingers on the hood of the car. He’s looking down at his fingers, jaw locked in place, maybe hasn’t seen Billy yet?

And Billy’s blood is cold but bubbling and his eyes feel like they’re pricking with tears and he’s mad at it. He’s mad that that’s his immediate reaction. He’s mad he has to see this fucking asshole now that his life finally got better without him. He’s mad at himself for thinking that he’d be able to avoid him in this small as fuck town.

He walks up and tells himself Neil wouldn’t do anything out here in public. Neil knows that Billy got adopted by the Chief of Police. He knows everyone respects Hop. He knows everyone knows Hop got custody. It was a big deal, but mostly because everyone was confused. There was no evidence of anything bad happening to Max or to Susan. There was barely evidence that anything bad happened to Billy and it took a lot to convince people bc of how often Billy was getting into fights. Not a lot to do in Hawkins but talk, and everyone wondered why Hop wanted to take the boy in when they knew he just recently adopted a little girl as well. Hop only got custody bc the judge was a good friend of his and owed him a favor and Hop begged him to trust him, he had seen this.

Billy didn’t blame Max for being too scared to testify. He did his damnedest not to blame Susan, either. And Billy still drives Max to school every day and made her promise to tell him if absolutely anything happened at home. Be it to her or to Susan or even just Neil punching a wall or something. Made her absolutely swear she’d tell him bc “hey, I have an in with the Chief of Police now.”

But nothing ever happens. Max swears it doesn’t. Neil is still grumpy and non-responsive and kind of an asshole, but he hasn’t done anything to either of them. Susan doesn’t question it. She shushes Max when she tries to bring Billy up.

But here Neil is, waiting for Billy in plain sight, leaning against his car and turning those harsh eyes onto Billy like fucking nothing has changed. Like Billy still needs to answer to him. Slips right back into it like he’s been saving it all up just for him. Like his blue eyes and blond hair just do it for him or something.

Billy keeps his back straight, chest out, chin forward. He’s not gonna give in to this assshole.

“William.”

Billy heart stutters and his mind reels and fuck.

“Neil.”

Neil’s eyes get harder, squinting like Billy just spit at him or something. “Is that any way to talk to your father?”

“You’re not my father.”

And with that, Neil’s hand claps down hard on Billys shoulder, gripping it like a vice and his eyes are boring into Billy and the people around them stop to look. They both notice.

“Let’s not do this here, huh?” Neil asks, voice still authoritative but feigning casual pleasantries. Like he’s asking Billy to just go on a walk with him.

Neil slips his arm around Billy’s shoulders and guides him forcefully around the grocery store. Billy can’t help himself- he sends a scared look to a woman who hasn’t been able to stop staring at the two. Billy might have imagined it, but he thinks he sees her give a small nod before she runs into the store.

Billy feels the bruises blooming on his face by the time the cop car rolls up. Officer Callahan and Officer Powell step out. Callahan walks Billy over to his car while Powell talks to Neil about what just happened.

“Y’know kid, I can-”

“I just wanna go home.”

Callahan rubs the back of his neck.

“Don’t suppose I could get you to come down to the station to talk to us about what happened?”

“No.”

“Uh… Billy. He’s just gonna keep getting away with it if you don’t say something-”

“He doesn’t do shit to his wife or to Max. I’m fine.”

Callahan nods and hands Billy his grocery bag.

But when Billy gets home… Hop’s eyes are tight. They must have called him.

“Billy-”

“Save it.” Billy growls, heading for the kitchen. “I brought milk and some cookies.”

He puts the milk in the fridge and turns to see Hopper standing there, hands in his pockets.

“Where’d those bruises come from?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know.”

There’s a pause. Everything inside of Billy is bubbling as he looks at that concern paint Hopper’s face again and there are needles of tears in his eyes and his chest is getting tight when-

“He doesn’t deserve you, Billy.”

And Billy just wants to collapse. He takes a few steps and just falls into a hug with Hopper and just wants to scream but there’s not a lot of air in his chest as he sobs and grips Hopper tight and his eyebrows are knitted together hard and he thinks about how he just fell into submission again when Neil raised his hand and fuck I really am a trained dog, huh?

“Fuck!” Billy yells, ripping himself away from Hopper to pick up whatever’s closest to him and throw it and it happens to be a pillow from the couch but he doesn’t throw it because there’s El, standing in the doorway of her room and looking at Billy sadly. He drops the pillow.

“Billy?”

He clears his throat.

“Sorry short stuff.” He rubs harshly at the side of his face. “I uh… I got some cookies.”

And El just hugs him and they sit on the couch as Hopper pours them out some milk and cookies and El apologizes for the “bad man” and Billy looks shaken to high hell, eyes red from the tears that were there and he’s shaking and Hop is seeing RED.

And all Hopper wants to do right now is hunt that man down and slaughter him. Like, he’s fully ready to go beat that man black and blue for what he’s done to this child bc Hopper lost his own child in such a horrific way and having a kid is such a blessing and treating them like this????

Fuck no.

He thinks real hard about beating Neil up, but he knows he can’t. Knows he can’t do anything legal either unless Billy wants to and he doesn’t so he can’t.

So Hop gets real fucking petty and gives Neil traffic tickets and parking tickets allll the time and kind of bullies him when he sees him. Uses the few extra inches he has over the man to look down on him hard and get him shaking until he’s rushing to his car. And maybe it’s not how a cop is supposed to act… but it feels like some kind of punishment to this asshole and it’s the best Hop can do.

(((also this totally made me think of this scene from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and if you haven’t seen it please watch and be ready for your heart to break bc AUGH 3)))