Hello! This little something was inspired by @joycehopquotes on Twitter that posts incorrect and absolutely amazing quotes about Jopper so please go check them out! This is also my first Jopper story and my first fanfic in like a year and something so please be gentle with me . I'm also sorry for all the mistakes, English is not my first language.

Hope you enjoy it anyway! :)

It was a boring day at Melvald's, something that's been normal for a while since a new mall opened just outside the city. Donald refused to close the store but he did release some of the staff, only leaving Joyce since she was the longest working and most loyal employee.

That meant that her salary got slightly higher since then, but that also meant that she was the only one working besides Donald, so she spent most of her days at the store, meaning that she saw her boys even less. But since school started and they returned to their school and afterschool activities, they were also home less and only came back in the evenings, sometimes even waiting for her to close the store so they could all go home together.

It wasn't ideal, but they could use the extra money so close before Halloween, Christmas was also coming up and Joyce thought that her boys deserved proper presents after everything they've been through.

She was browsing through the newspaper, occasionally filling out the crosswords when the bell above the door rang. She quickly looked up, happy that she finally had a customer after hours of boredom, only to see the Chief of Police at the door.

She was still excited, but for a completely different reason. Hopper's been visiting her almost every day for two weeks now, he never set foot in the new mall even if they had a slightly better selection of products, choosing to stay true to the big ol' store and his friend.

Joyce felt butterflies in her stomach the second their eyes met, Hopper had been absent for a few days due to a case that needed quite a lot of paperwork and El's been feeling a bit sick so he chose to stay home and play nurse.

But now he was back and he was making his way towards her and she should control herself because she's still looking and him and she may as well start drooling.

"Afternoon Chief, what brings you here?" She teased as he came closer to the counter.

"Hello Miss, just got a call about a suspicious activity happening in the store, so I came here to check it out," Hopper teased back, trying to hold back a smirk.

Joyce however, snorted and shook her head, "Suspicious activity? The only activity happening here is me doing the crosswords, and now that I think about it, it is quite suspicious because usually I'm good at this, but I seem to get every answer wrong today." She playfully furrowed her eyebrows and he wanted to kiss her. Gosh, she's so adorable.

"Hmm that is suspicious, are you sure that you're reading them right or that you don't have the paper upside down?"

"Please Hop, I may be slowly losing my mind because of boredom but I still can read."

"Is it really that bad?" Hopper winced.

"Oh noo, not that bad. It's just that you're the first customer in three hours and the fourth one today and it's almost 7pm. I haven't talked to anyone since forever and I'm this close to talking to myself, or to everything that's in the store." Joyce said and the way her eyes widened meant that she wasn't joking.

Hopper seemed to think about something before he asked, "What time are you finishing today?"

"At 10…why?"

Instead of answering, Hopper brought her chair around and sat down in front of her, since she was already sitting on the counter.

"What are you doing?" Joyce asked as she watched him get comfortable on the small chair.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm keeping you company so you don't lose your mind. El would kill me if the store closed because you went crazy and she wouldn't have more Eggo's." Hopper said and raised his eyebrows, daring her to argue, he wasn't kidding around when it came to his daughter and her favorite meal.

"Okay, so what do you suggest we do so we both don't go crazy?"

"Do you have a pen and a paper?"

After an hour and countless rounds of "Hangman" the pair collapsed on the counter and chair in exhaustion.

"Oh my god, I think my brain is melting, I haven't used it so much in a long time." Joyce whined and she laid her head down on the counter. Hopper chuckled as he stood up and threw the impressive pile of used paper in the bin.

"It was kind of fun, I don't remember hangman being so exciting in middle school"

"It's because in middle school we didn't use the words like exasperated, I mean where did that even come from?" Joyce asked in confusion.

"Yeah, El's been bored out of her mind because of her cold, so she found a dictionary in my pile of books and decided to test my intelligence, this was the word I spent thinking about for 20 minutes without a result, so I just wanted to see how much would it take for you to lose your patience with it."

"Well, you did I great job, thanks to this word, I don't want to play this stupid game ever again." Joyce huffed and crossed her arms, expression annoyed.

Hopper snorted and moved to stand next to her. "Come on, it's just a game, besided, you've always been a sore loser."

"Excuse me?!"

"Oh come on, like you haven't ripped your cards apart that one time in high school when we were playing poker and you kept losing your gummy bears."

"That was one time and I was pissed because I bought those bears and I was hungry."

"Mhhm, and what about that time you spilled your drink on Jenny Hardings when we were playing spin the bottle?" Hopper asked in amusement, knowing that he was riling her up.

"That was because the bottle was going to be pointed at her and she didn't want to kiss Bobby's disgustingly smelling mouth so she pulled me at the last second and it landed on me!" She protested with an eye roll.

"Okay, sure" Hopper chuckled and her annoyed expression. He loved when she got annoyed because her eyes got even bigger and her cheeks had the lovely red glow thanks to the anger. She looked simply beautiful and he was a goner.

"Okay, let's play another game and I'm sure you're gonna win this one." Hopper said and turned to her, expression playful.

"Why do I feel there's a trap?"

"Come on! It's not a trap, trust me."

"Okay, let's hear your game." Joyce replied with a sigh and eyeroll, already regretting her decision.

"Okay, so I bet 30 that I can kiss you without touching your lips."

Joyce could feel her breath stop and her heart beat out of her chest at the same time. Did he just use kiss and your and lips in the same sentence while talking to her? She almost collapsed.

She knew that she felt something, it wasn't just attraction but it wasn't love yet either, something in between, something beautiful and exciting but frightening at the same time. She knew that Hopper felt something too, he couldn't hide his longing looks, no matter how hard he tried, but she couldn't figure out if he wanted to get laid with someone familiar that knew about El and understood the situation and won't ask any questions or if he too, felt something more.

Now she was more confused than before.

"Wha-…I mean that's not even possible." Joyce replied and was so glad that her voice wasn't as shaky as her whole body felt.

"Maybe for you! But I bet I can make that happen." Hop replied and wiggled his eyebrows.

"Um, well then go ahead I guess!" She replied, trying to play along and act like her heart was not about to come out of her throat.

She saw him leaning in and had to close her eyes so she wouldn't collapse right in front of him. Joyce was waiting with her eyes closed for him to say something about how it didn't work or how he was just pulling her leg, when she suddenly felt a soft pressure on her lips. She opened her eyes from the shock and saw that he, indeed was kissing her, kissing her so softly that she barely felt his lips on hers. She closed her eyes again to savor the feeling but he pulled away a second later.

"Wha-"

"Huh, I guess you were right." Hopper shrugged, smirked and gave her the 30.

Before she could reply or react, there was a sound coming from Hopper's belt. He reached behind his back and pulled out his walkie talkie.

"Chief you there?"

"I'm here, what's happening?" Hopper replied to the voice in the device.

"We may have a little problem, some kids apparently thought Halloween came early and managed to cover 3 houses in toilet paper, old Miss Graham is threatening to use her late husband's shotgun on them if we don't do something."

Hopper took a deep breath and then sighed, "I'm on my way, be there in 10, over." He placed the walkie back into his belt and looked at Joyce, who still looked a bit dazed.

"Well, duty calls, I'll see you tomorrow Joyce." He said and placed his hat back onto his head before making his way out.

"Wait, Hop!" Joyce ran after him before he could open the door and when he turned around, all he could see was a mop of dark hair hurling itself on him before he felt her lips touch his in a passionate kiss.

The kiss lasted about 20 seconds before they broke away, deep breaths and dazed expressions were exchanged before Joyce spoke, "What do you say? Enzo's, Friday night at 7? You pick me up?"

"Enzo's, Friday night at 7…picking you up…"

"Yep, it's a date!"

"A date…" Now it was his turn to feel like he's gonna collapse.

"Yes, now go Mr. Policeman before Miss Graham clears out half of the town." She teased and gave him a smile before walking back to the counter.

He watched as she sat on the chair he was occupying before and went back to her crosswords, she met his eyes one last time and gave him a wink before completely engrossing herself in the puzzle.

He just stood there in amazement before finally leaving the shop with a stupid grin a butterflies in his stomach. This woman is gonna be the death of me.