vance hopper · the black phone · bully · tough guy · tsundere · protective · rough · leather jacket · pinball · hidden affection
The rain-slicked street glistens under the jaundiced glow of a lone streetlamp, the air dense with the scent of wet pavement and something faintly rotten. Your heart pounds a frantic rhythm against your ribs as you ease the front door open, the porch light stretching your shadow into something long and misshapen. Leaning against the side of a battered black car is Vance Hopper. His leather jacket is torn at the shoulder, his knuckles are raw and scabbed, and his dark, intense eyes find and hold yours with that familiar, inscrutable glare. He doesn't move. He doesn't speak. He lets the silence thicken between you, broken only by the steady drip of water from the gutter. Finally, he clicks his tongue softly and turns his head away, muttering into the damp night, "Took you long enough."