It was the beginning of December, Hopper had just come home from work.

He took off his big winter coat to keep just his long-sleeved uniform and settled down on the couch next to Joyce with a sigh. Will was doing his homework on the table behind them.

"Where's El?" He asked, forcing Joyce to look up from her book Little Women. He was pretty sure she had read it a hundred times, at least.

"Oh, she's in her bed. She has a stomach ache."

"Again!? But she was already sick yesterday."

"Yes I know, I took care of her, don't worry it's no-"

"Maybe she needs to go to the doctor? Or even go to the hospital? I'm sure it has something to do with this Mi-"

"Hop, no, you need to calm down. I'm telling you it's normal. She's fine, it's just... girl stuff."

"Ah... But are you sure it's not about Mike? They kiss all the time when I sometimes pick up El and Will at the end of class. I swear they're glued together, it's not healthy, Joyce." She looked up at the sky. "You can't even call it kissing, it's like he wants to be glued to her so they're always next to each other. It's really crazy..."

"She's not a child anymore, Hop. I know you don't want her to grow up, but she does anyway. She's a teenager with a boyfriend and they're just kissing so stop exaggerating, it's not the end of the world", she said, looking up to the sky again before putting her book on the table. She was sure that this discussion would last a while.

"But no... I don't agree. In fact I've been thinking about it for a while, I think I'm going to ask her to break up with him", he said, starting to leave the sofa.

Joyce threw herself at him. She sat on his thighs, preventing him from getting up.

"You're not going anywhere, especially to do something as ridiculous as this", she laughed.

"You're right, she'll never listen to me. But she will listen to you, will you talk to her about it?"  He said, looking the most serious in the world.

"No, no, no", she answered, shaking her head.

"Yes you can, please, Joyce! She'll listen to you."

"No, it's not up to us to decide the future of their relationship!"

"Well, we should... I swear I go crazy when I see them."

"I know, and that's why you need to calm down, darling."

"What?"

"What what?"

"You’ve just called me darling," he said with a smile.

"Me? No, I never said that", she said, looking everywhere except in his blue eyes staring at her.

"Yes, yes, you did, you even said : you need to calm down, darling", he said, imitating Joyce in a very unconvincing voice.

"Hey, I don't talk like that, you're imitating me extremely badly! It's borderline hurtful, I'm waiting for an apology."

"Only if you admit that you called me darling", he said with a wink.

"I'm pretty sure I didn't say that."

"But yes, even Will heard it, right Will?" Hopper said, turning to the boy on the table. 

He looked up from his notebooks and closed them with a snap. Then he took them in his arms and stood up.

"I take no side."

Hopper looked up to the sky.

"It's like you're on your mother's side in this case."

"I think you're the dating teenagers", he said before going into his room quietly so as not to wake up his sister.

Hopper and Joyce looked at each other before bursting into laughter.

—♡—♡—♡—♡—♡—

It was the first Saturday of the Christmas holidays, which was getting closer and closer. 

Mike had asked his mother to invite El and Will this year to celebrate with them, so Nancy insisted on inviting Jonathan too and that's how Joyce and Hopper were somehow forced to accept the invitation too. 

Joyce had planned to go to Starcourt today to buy a dress she could wear for the occasion. She would also take the opportunity to buy some make-up accessories for El: she had noticed that she was becoming more and more interested in it, she could give it to her for Christmas. 

She had decided with Hopper to give Jonathan new photography equipment, drawing material for Will and DVDs for El. For Hopper she had bought a new hat and a pair of sunglasses because she had noticed that his was starting to wear out and even had a hole in one place and sunglasses simply because he had broken his previous ones... 

Hopper was about to leave to work on a "simple matter that can't wait" when El, Will and Jonathan came out of their rooms and headed for the door.

"Hey, wait a minute! Where do you think you're going?" Joyce asked as she came out of the kitchen.

"To Mike's house by bike", El answered at full speed.

"Oh well, I'll see you tonight then. Do nothing stupid."

"See you later." Her two boys answered in perfect sync. 

Joyce hurried to get her purse and left the house too. 

But what she saw when she came out was a surprise: Hopper opened the door to let El into his truck.

"What the hell are you doing?" She asked as she approached them.

"What?" Hopper asked, waving at the boys to come in.

"I thought you were going to work and they were going to Mike's?"

"Yes, I indeed... I'm... dropping them off. That's all", he said, smiling.

"Umm, okay. I'll see you tonight", she said, kissing him before she heads to her car.

Joyce frowned, she couldn't help but think there was something wrong with his smile and the way they acted.