VAN DYNE // w a s p !

[ text → hope ]: that’s true. at least there’s no harm in it. [ text → hope ]: he’s not very good at the whole.. subtlety thing, is he

@hcpefulwasp​​

he’s a bit overenthusiastic as he rolls his chair over to where she’s looking through a microscope, hands on some papers he’s been looking over. “hope, hey,” he interrupts, knowing she won’t appreciate it but too excited to keep it in. “i don’t want to google it—i know you’ll know. can you look at this,” peter points to a highlighted section of the papers in his hand. “and just—let me know if you know the name for it? like a game! or like i’m a student. not that i am or that i don’t know, but it’s just—look. it’s complicated. it’s been a long day. what is this called? don’t leave me hanging. please and thank you.”

[ text → hope ]: ah, of course. [ text → hope ]: well i guess it’s mostly harmless right [ text → hope ]: that’s probably an easier way to handle them

‘ stop. don’t finish that sentence. ’ // @hcpefulwasp !!

“you’re a spoilsport!” laughing, clint pouted, reaching out and flicking hope on the arm playfully. no matter what she said, he liked his million dollar scenarios. although, admittedly, they probably got annoying after an hour or so. how long had they been sitting there? it didn’t matter. at least his questions were a fun way to pass the time. shifting in his seat to grin innocently his fellow avenger, he held up his hands to stop her, before signing.

“one more.” he insisted, before going ahead without letting her interrupt. “you get a million dollars, but – every time you see an unfinished drink, you have to finish it. whether that’s at home, at a party, on a bus. in a park. whatever. do you take the money?”

the wasp tries to keep a straight face, but the truth is clint’s little questions and games make the passage of time much more bearable. normally she would be annoyed, but her relationship with one scott lang had certainly raised her tolerance for inane subjects. she even enjoyed them now. ❝ yeah, and i wear that badge with pride, ❞ she stated, but didn’t even bother to suppress the smile on her lips. ❝ fine, ❞ she agreed, but he’d already gone ahead without her permission.

          it was an out-there comment from janet; unprovoked. an observation,    she’d become used to musing out loud ( with no one to hear her; too small to even be heard ) she had forgotten now that people didn’t expect her melancholic comments, her notes of happiness, though still somewhat okay with her outbursts of aggression.    her daughter’s words snapped her back to reality / what would normally garner a snappy comment, was instead met with the softest of smiles.          ‘ sorry, sorry;       i didn’t know stargazing was now a banned conversation topic between us.’     with so much left unsaid between them / or never said in the first place / finding a ground for conversation can sometimes be tricky between them.      ‘  is ghosts a better subject for you?’

cassie shook her head with a specific emphasis, “nope, not alone,” sure, she’d gone out a couple times, but in Paragon it was rare, “Kate and I have been working together a lot. aaaaand,” she did a little jig with her body in her excitement, “I’m planning on getting the team back together,” her grin spreading further across her face, “even adding more people. you know, if there’s one thing I learned, it’s that numbers are better.”

Cassie thought for a moment, contemplating a sudden idea before deciding that yep, it definitely needed said. besides, if there was anyone in her life that would gracefully shoot down a bad idea she had, it was hope. she looked at hope, curiosity lighting her eyes, “i think you’d be really useful helping us train. you think of things I don’t, and with the Danger Room here, it’s fairly safe, and you’d have control of what’s going on if you’re at the controls.”

hope wasn’t the tiniest bit surprised at cassie’s plan. it was only a matter of time before that idea popped into her head, the wasp had been almost waiting for her to announce it. she saw brief flashes of the last time the team was together and felt a slight shiver, but she knew that was in the past. no matter how fresh the memory of cassie’s death was in her mind, she was confident in how much the young blonde had grown since. hope could trust her to go right back into the action like this.

[ text → hope ]: why would they do that? [ text → hope ]: it seems like an odd choice that’s all

Ask meme starter for @hcpefulwasp​ - [ text ]: Why are you saved in my phone as ‘Prison Wife’?

[ text → hope ]: I would guess that has something to do with either scott or finn [ text → hope ]: their idea of a joke, i would say

though she certainly wasn’t in new york city anymore and there weren’t things to do every single night for heroes, cassie never seemed to stop doing something related. now, flying side bye side with hope – wasp – was something that cassie had pretty much dreamed of since she was a small child, watching her and her father kick butt on the local news. sure, that thought process hadn’t factored in much while she became stature, but since December when she woke up, cassie had realized that whatever she did next was totally up to her. 

so, she’d designed Stinger. she’d asked everyone she knew for help ( tony and jan and hope and scott and more ) because whereas cassie lang was absolutely intelligent, she was no super genius. the girl that had died at 17 and come back physically matured to 23 had gotten her GED relatively smoothly, all the high school information still crammed into her brain, but this was different. cassie had buried herself in engineering, in biology, in the study of different bugs and even genetics. her plans were huge, bigger than she was willing to tell most anyone, but they would take a while. for now, her and hope growing and landing upon a roof at Paragon was enough to give cassie a huge thrill. after she scanned the area, she pulls off her helmet… and promptly bounces towards the woman with a hug. she can’t help it, everything feels right. 

“so, what do you think?” she asks as she pulls away, “pretty cool, out in all the Stinger glory, instead of a lab, huh?” [ @hcpefulwasp ]

since she was a little girl, hope had been flying solo. she learned very own that fairytales were bullshit, and that she had to be her own knight in shining armor. she had to have her own back. she didn’t need anyone’s help, because she was her own hero. she took pride in her self-reliance to the point where the mere idea of a partner felt like an offense. she was a one-woman show, and that was the way she liked it.

then came scott lang and flipped her world upside down.

in retrospect, it made sense for her to have someone by her side. she was too proud to admit when she was too weak or tired to go on, but it was nice to have someone who was always ready to catch her when she was about to fall. someone who knew she would be there to do the same. and along with scott, came cassie. a girl who was so much like hope in so many ways, she could have been her daughter ( and for years, hope’s considered her just that ).

there was a mix of pride and worry in floating over the town with cassie like this. her instinct was to protect the girl, but she knew cassie could protect herself. she was, after all, just like hope.