Back for the first time
Having a good plan was the basis for succeeding in what you intended to do. Whether it was extracting revenge on a former employer, liberating something that didn’t belong to you or in this case making a good first impression. Truth be told, it wasn’t really a first impression as he’d spent most of his time recently leading up to that fateful day with her. Logic didn’t seem to apply to their association in any way - he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what it was she’d find appealing about him. Still, Scott wasn’t about to let a good opportunity slip through his fingers.
Despite the newly found fame that came with that all too well known suit, he’d remained mostly the same. Things were better now with Maggie, so much so that seeing Cassie on a regular basis was actually something they let him do now. Life hadn’t been going this well in a long time and while the apartment he shared with Luis wasn’t great it was a far cry from the jail cell he’d been in prior to it. So when the door closed that day and Hope leaned in for the kiss he’d been thinking about ever since there was no doubt that life was on an upward swing.
The part they didn’t tell you about being a superhero? There weren’t exactly regular paychecks, in fact there weren’t many ways at all to bring in money. Outside of a few peculiar messages from people with weird names like Nick Fury, he didn’t get much in the way of acknowledgement. While the low profile was nice, it didn’t exactly give him options when it came to showing Hope a good time. You didn’t exactly get a blueprint for how to live your life once you put a mask on and he was learning that lesson first hand.
Equal parts of being anxious and excited filled him as he maneuvered the van through evening traffic towards her place. Everything had happened so fast that he didn’t have time to plan out how this could go. In a heist, you always had to be aware of your exits and willing to ditch the plan at any time if things went south. Problem here was that he had no intention of exiting the situation because for the first time in a long time, he wanted something - he wanted this. The prospect of something normal, a relationship was so very necessary in his eyes to maintain whatever normalcy could be preserved in his life.
Hope was the epitome of everything he wanted to be - successful despite the odds, motivated to succeed and willing to put in the work to ensure that success. So when he pulled up to the curb and looked up at the house, it was no surprise the nerves hit him full force. The walk from the van to the front door was a blur, he was lost in his mind trying to find the right words. By the time he realized he had nothing in the way of clever greetings, his fist rapped gently upon the front door three times. Turning and running back to the van right now would assure him he wouldn’t screw this up but it also would guarantee this could never happen again and he wasn’t about to concede that.
The critical moment arrived when he began the internal debate. The doorbell - ring it now or wait? Ringing it would certainly give off the impression that he was anxious or perhaps impatient. Not ringing it would probably make her think that he wasn’t all that interested in seeing her. Cursing himself for overthinking something as trivial as the door bell, he pulled out his phone and with a proud smirk began typing a text message before sending it to her as he waited.
“I’m outside ... you’re not.”
