something_incredible | (no subject)

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lucy

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The morning after his bender, Hopper had woken up on Lucy's couch pretty damn embarrassed, some of his memories blurred to the point where he might consider it a black out, but he remembered two specific things very clearly. Lucy had been a hell of a lot kinder to him than he deserved, and he had decided, in his stoned and drunken state, that asking her on a second date at that moment had been appropriate.

But for some reason she had agreed to go with him.

Since then, it's been a lot easier to keep himself from drinking. That's down to Beverly, though, and he knows maybe it's not real recovery if he's not drinking because of a kid he's sort of looking after, but it's better than nothing. Those pills he'd bought, he'd held onto them for a few days, but after the first night Beverly had needed to spend at his place he'd flushed them down the toilet.

What he wants is to get back home. But maybe Darrow has a few things going for it, too, and somehow he's got a kid who trusts him enough to come to him when things get weird at the Home and a woman who actually wants to see him again after she finds him in a pretty goddamn terrible state and he thinks he should probably try not to mess any of this up.

So they're going bowling. It's a little cheesy, but Hopper likes cheesy and he likes Lucy, and when he shows up at her place to pick her up, he's bound and determined to do this properly. He's come up short of getting flowers, figuring a woman like Lucy would probably appreciate something a little more thoughtful than that, so he's going to leave gifts for a little later in whatever this might turn into.

But he does go up to her apartment to pick her up instead of waiting around outside and when he knocks on her door, he finds he's both excited and nervous.

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Having been expecting Hopper, Lucy's tried to clean up her apartment. There's not much in there in the first place but she still straightens the mess of books that are all over the place. There's exam papers stacked on a table but and a pair of shoes near the sofa but everything else seems to be in its proper place so she takes a breath, slides her fingers through her hair and then opens the door.

"Oh good, I was hoping it was you and not someone I wasn't expecting since I didn't want to clean this place up for just anyone," she jokes, stepping aside to let him in while she grabs her things.

"How are you today?" she asks, reaching for her jacket and sliding it on. "Better than a few weeks ago, I hope."

"Better than a few weeks ago," he says with a laugh, although he resist the urge to apologize for it yet again. While his memories of the night might not be perfect, he knows he'd apologized to her plenty while it was happening and he knows she'd reassured him far more than he deserved. He never would have expected anyone to look after him the way she had and then only thing that might make him more pathetic is if he continues to apologize for it.

What he'd done had been stupid and he can't promise he'll never do something like it again, but he can try. The only way to prove that is by actually doing it, though.

"Not that it'd be hard to be better than that, but this, uh, us going on, this helps," he adds, his smile growing a little. "Even if I think I might walk away from bowling tonight having my ass handed to me."

"I've had enough bad days of my own to not let one bad ruin something for me," Lucy tells him, smiling. "Stop worrying about it. Or stop worrying about it when it comes to me. You didn't put me out and I've seen worse."

She might not have been worse herself but she's seen it, she's dealt with it and he'd come out okay on the other side of things. He seemed to be trying to right himself and that was all she could ask him for.

"Now, just because you had bad day a few weeks doesn't mean I'm gonna take it easy on you either," she teases. "You're going down, mister."

"Yeah, maybe," he agrees, laughing before he offers Lucy his hand. When it comes to getting his ass kicked in bowling, he thinks he'll be pretty damn happy to have her doing it. It just means he gets to spend a little bit more time with her and hopefully do something that she enjoys rather than ending up drooling on her couch cushions while he sleeps off a particularly bad bender.

If he spends the night at her place again any time in the future, he's going to aim for complete sobriety. That would be a hell of a lot better for all involved.

"We'll see," he adds. "You sure do talk big."

"I can be confident when it counts," Lucy says, taking the offered hand and giving it a squeeze. "And bowling apparently makes me very confident."

Not that she knows why. She can't remember the last time she's been holding. It had probably been when she'd been a kid for someone's birthday. Regardless, it hadn't been anytime lately and she's sure she's going to be terrible about it.

But, right now, she can act like she's a professional bowler with years and years of experience under her belt.

When she throws her first gutter, she'll admit to being a fraud and then laugh her way through the game. "We will see. I've never been proven to be a liar before and I don't plan on having it happen this time. I will bowl your socks off."

Edited 2018-04-01 00:48 (UTC)

It's on the tip of his tongue to make some comment about his socks not being the only thing she can bowl off, but he bites it back, remembering their conversation from their first date. Men had been shitty to her in the times she'd visited and he doesn't want to be like that, even if it's sometimes his instinct to go in that direction. It's gotten him laid before, but if he were just looking for sex, he wouldn't be taking Lucy bowling, he'd be out in some bar, looking for something easier. So instead of the comment he just grins and shrugs and leads the way back outside with Lucy's hand in his.

"Y'know, taking Beverly a couple of times means I've had some practice," he says. "I can even work the scoreboard computer now."

That had taken him a little bit more practice than he'd like to admit, but at this point he knows what all the buttons and keys do. He's even gotten a little bit better with his phone, though that has mostly been learned on his own, since Beverly hasn't come from a time when they were common either.

"Oooh, look at you, learning things," she says and gives his hand another squeeze. "Before you know it, you'll be sending me invites for games you can play on your phone and I'll have to text you and tell you to slow down because I can't keep up."

That probably won't happen, she knows, because he doesn't seem like a 'plays games on his phone' type of guy. But, maybe he'll surprise her.

"I met Beverly the other day," she says idly, glancing over at him. "She's nice. She stumbled upon me in the park."

There's no mistaking the grin that lights up Hopper's face when Lucy said she's met Beverly and he looks over at her, still holding her hand, heading in the direction of the bowling alley. It's a pain in the ass, not having a car, but he doesn't exactly make enough on his Darrow stipend to buy one and without going back to the police department, he's not going to end up with another cruiser, so for now he has to walk and take a cab if he ever wants to go somewhere further away. Luckily the bowling alley isn't too far off and the weather is nice.

"Yeah?" he asks. "She's a good kid, huh? She's been staying at my place lately, the Home is..." He trails off and shrugs, because it's not really his story to tell and he doesn't want to spill details on something Beverly might want to keep to herself. There has to be an explanation for it, though, and he blows out a long breath before trying again. Lucy will probably believe it, after all, she had believed him about the Upside Down. "She says there's something weird going on in there. She doesn't feel comfortable staying there most nights."

"She was enjoyable to talk with," Lucy tells him, nodding. "She caught me reading a terrible book and let me vent a bit about how terrible it was. Usually people get bored of hearing me be academic or something close to it but she didn't. She seems much older than her years."

She doesn't know much about Beverly's background but the people that end up here all seem to have had to grow up quick. Something occurred in their pasts that meant they were all maturing fast and faster and fastest so they could deal with some kind of trauma that was going on at home.

Frowning, Lucy looks over at him when he speaks about the Home. "Does she know what's going on? Or is it just like noises in the night and things disappearing? Those were the movies Amy liked best. Said it built tension."

"Yeah," he says. "I think she's been through a lot."

He doesn't know all the details, but that somehow still feels like an understatement. The way Beverly had seemed so casual about her unsettling gym teacher doesn't sit well with him. The ability she has to just process the weird shit going on at the Home strikes him as unusual for a kid her ages. She's been through something bigger than what Darrow has thrown at her so far and he doesn't want to push for all the details, but instead wants to let her come to him with time. If what's what she wants.

"She says she doesn't know what's going on, just that it's weird," he tells Lucy. "People seeing things in the basement. Food going bad before it's supposed to. She said there are bugs where there shouldn't be and uh... there was some blood. In the pipes. Came out of the shower."

"That...okay, that's strange and I probably would have gone somewhere else too," she says, cringing. She's seen weird things, done weird things, but she doesn't know if she could stand showering in blood. She's been covered in blood, seen men bleed out all over the place, seen them die but that shouldn't be something that happens in a typical, mundane shower.

"I'm glad she has some place to go," Lucy tells him, nodding. "Is anyone going to check out the strange happenings? That doesn't sound like the house settling or the wind. Those are the excuses my mother used to give me when things got loud back home. That's more."

"I went by to talk to some of the staff, but they seem pretty intent on denying anything is going on," Hopper admits, frowning as he thinks about it. There had been a volunteer, a tall, lanky guy who hadn't said much but had seemed especially watchful, and Hopper thinks he might go back and talk to him as some point, but the staff don't seem like they're going to be much help.

"They've got the usual excuses. Their fridge went or the bugs are just a one time thing, they're getting in an exterminator. Shit like that. No explanation for the blood, but people manage to rationalize all sorts of shit, don't they?"

And it pisses him off. Kids are afraid and the staff doesn't seem to be doing much of anything to help them.

"Showering in blood is a little too much for me," Lucy says, grimacing once again. "I can deal with getting blood on me and I have dealt with it but actually washing myself in blood? They would have to peel me off the ceiling."

Literally. She would climb the walls and cling to something or someone until she was reassured about seventy times that the blood was gone and she would be able to shower with water and soap again.

"If there's anything I can do to help, please let me know," Lucy offers. "I probably won't be any help with investigations and police work but I can do some research on the history of the place, see if there's anything that might explain the strange happenings."

"Shit," he says with a laugh as they near the bowling alley. "Two years ago, I would've been convinced there was some logical explanation for everything that's going on, but now here I am, thinking it might be a really good idea to have you do something like that."

Because maybe she's right, maybe there's history in that building, something that might be causing all this stuff to happen. Hopper wouldn't know where to begin with that, but Lucy would. And if it's something that can help Beverly, he wants to do it. He likes having her stay with him, but what's most important is that she's comfortable and happy.

"You'd do that?" he asks with a small smile, looking over at her.

"I could try," Lucy tells him, shrugging. "I can't guarantee anything because this library is...lacking when it comes to the history of this city but there's really nothing to lose, is there?"

Maybe there'll be something. Maybe someone will know something if she asks around. Maybe she can go out to the home and take a look around, see if anything raises a red flag in her mind or jogs her memory. It's probably not going to be much of a help but it's something.

"There's not much I can do but I can try and do that," she offers. "If you think it might help."

"It might," he says and he squeezes her hand, unexpectedly touched by even just the offer. Lucy has met Beverly, but by the sounds of it, it was just the one time. She doesn't owe her anything, doesn't owe him anything, but it's a kind offer and he appreciates it.

And even something that only might help is still worth looking into. At this point he's willing to investigate just about any angle that might lead him to an answer. He'll dig up the entire city again if that's what helps.

"Thank you," he says with a small smile. Much smaller than usual, but genuine.

"It's no problem at all," she assures him, giving his hand an answering squeeze. "I'll do what I can. And what I can do might be a whole lot of nothing but I'd like to use my skills where I can especially since it's not like I can go back in time to figure out what the story behind the Home is and I can't teach a glass on it. But, I can research."

She's pretty damn good at doing that. It's not a hard skill to perfect but a lot of people get bored. She doesn't. She just wants more and more and more. The more she can learn, the better.

"And hopefully tonight I can also bowl," she quips with a smile. "For all mu talk, the last time I think I bowled was...in the nineties."

"If not for going with Beverly, that'd be more recently than me," he says, pleased with what he's sure is actually a pretty stupid joke. He hadn't even made it to the nineties, has no idea what they might have been like, and it's as weird as ever to think of just how old he'd be right now if he'd made it to this time the usual way. Chances are, unless something drastic had changed his lifestyle, he'd be dead. Heart attack, he's willing to bet.

Not that he's going to get into any of that tonight. Hell, maybe Darrow can change him.

"Come on," he says, opening the door for the bowling alley and letting Lucy head inside ahead of him. It's not the same as he bowling alleys he's used to back home, but he's been here already and so the lights and the music don't throw him off like they had the first time. "Let's see what you've got."

They step inside the bowling alley and Lucy's immediately struck by the sights and sounds. There are many lanes in use and she can hear the thump of bowling balls sliding down lanes and hitting pins. She can smell typical diner food and it makes her smile. She hasn't been inside a place like this in a long, long time. It's nice. It's new. And she thinks it'll be fun.

"I've just remembered that we're going to have to wear terrible shoes," she remarks once they're inside. "Shoes that other people have worn. Let's hope they clean those out and the colors aren't too terrible. I'm not a fashionista but no one looks good in bowlin shoes."

Hopper looks her over, as if giving it serious thought, then he grins and shrugs. "I dunno," he decides. "I think you'll probably still be beautiful."

He'll look like a damn idiot, but then, he usually does. That's not something Hopper worries about too much. He likes Lucy and he doesn't want her to find him unattractive, but he thinks if that were the case, she wouldn't have agreed to this second date at all. Still, he knows he's not as young as she is and he's certainly not in the best shape, but he's got his own appeal,

Probably even while wearing bowling shoes.

"C'mon," he says, approaching the counter to get their shoes and pay for their games. "What size?"

"Thank you," she says, a faint blush highlighting her cheeks. It's not that she doesn't like how she looks, it's just that it's never been a priority. She does her best, takes care of herself, and tries to dress in a way that makes her feel nice but she doesn't go out of her way to primp and prep for days.

"We'll see what you have to say once I get myself in bowling shoes," she tells him with a laugh. "Size eight. I think. I haven't bought new shoes in awhile but unless something's changed, that should be right."

She's even prettier when she blushes like that, a faint hint of colour that lights up her features and Hopper smiles as he steps them toward the shoe counter. Lucy says she hasn't bought herself new shoes in awhile and he has to admit, if he thinks about it, he can't remember the last time he bought himself any new clothes before Darrow. It had been necessary here, given that he'd shown up in a dirty pair of jeans and hospital scrubs, but before that, he'd just never bothered.

And here he's just gotten himself more of the same.

"Size eight for her," he says once they're at the counter. "And twelve for me. And two games. For now." He looks back at Lucy for confirmation. "Two games sound good?"

"That's fine," Lucy tells him, nodding. "That might be all that my fingers will stand up to. I spent awhile grading today so I've got a case of stiff fingers and bitten fingernails."

She flexes her fingers to demonstrates, shakes it out and then shrugs. "Two games gives me plenty of time to show you the extent of my bowling skills."

Skills that were virtually nil. She supposes that talking a big game counts as having some skill but talking was not going to translate over to bowling very well. "And then we can decide on further games or something else."

"Lane fourteen," the young man behind the counter tells them, sounding about as bored as he looks, passing them their shoes and taking Hopper's money to pay for the games. It's clearly just another routine evening for him, but Hopper's not the sort to be offended by a kid going through another boring night at work and he grabs their shoes, then leads Lucy toward their lane.

"Hey, better bitten fingernails than a bad back," he suggests as he takes off his coat and drapes it on one of the chairs in their lane. "A bad back would kinda screw up your bowling game, I'd think. Good thing I don't have a bad back."

He flashes her a grin before sitting down to change his shoes.

"Good thing. A bad back would probably prevent you from doing a lot of fun things," she says coyly. She takes a seat of her own, sliding off her shoes to put the garish, battered bowling shoes on. They fit fine and she wiggles her toes to make sure she's not going to get blisters.

"I don't have a bad back either," she tells him, getting to her feet and wandering over to the selection of bowling balls. "About the only thing that runs in my family is the ability to run away from your responsibilities and cancer. Let's hope I don't inherit either of those."

Not that she could run far in Darrow. She could leave, find other places to stay but it's not like she could find another city to disappear into. So, it's a good thing she has no desire to do that. She doesn't want to be her father.