Work Text:
Hope was pretty sure she had spent the past fifteen birthdays or so on her own and she was mostly sure she didn’t mind. More often than not she worked the day away, consumed with whatever she was doing at Pym Tech and went home, only for a few days to pass and she’d look at her planner and realize she was another year older.
Another year, another year trying to get back at her father, working with Darren on whatever his plans were, an endless cycle of it all. It was another reminder of her mother being gone.
She had mentioned her birthday was coming up on one of their weekly taco dates, when Scott forced her out of the lab and to take a break from working on the Wasp suit, from researching everything she could about quantum physics for the sake of her mother.
She needed that.
“Would you mind if I came over?” he asked, passing her the takeout bag.
“I don’t mind.” They had already spent more time apart these past few weeks since they had first met, and she may not have admitted it out loud to anyone, but she missed him, more than she thought she would.
He even texted her to ask again if it was okay to come over the morning of, and she said it was fine. When was the last time she had even a friend over for her birthday? Not in a long time.
And after she had said goodnight to her father (who also wished her a happy birthday, and Hope couldn’t recall another time she remembered him doing so in the past 18 years, but it wasn’t like they had been on speaking terms.) After she had gotten to her apartment, sure enough, Scott arrived at her door, a bottle of wine in one hand and a plastic box with a giant cupcake in the other, and as always, a smile on his face when he saw her.
“I tried to find those number candles, but the grocery store was out of the 6’s.”
She felt herself flushing and then simultaneously feeling guilty that he had spent money in the first place, not when he was trying to pay bills and child support and start his own company.
But he had read her mind. “Leftover ‘thank you for helping us stop a deranged CEO’ money.” He passed her the bottle. “I know nothing about wine, but Luis helped with this, even though he ‘doesn’t like reds.’”
“Well I’ll be sure to thank him. And thank you.” She gave him a kiss as he stepped into her apartment and she felt him grinning.
“I’ll be sure to bring wine over more often then.”
Hope took the wine and cupcake and stepped into her small kitchen and was about to grab glasses but then put them away. She wasn’t in the mood for that tonight.
She walked back to the living room and sat down next to him on the couch, resting her head on his shoulder.
“Sorry I haven’t stopped by the lab this week.”
“Don’t be sorry,” Hope said quietly, as he took her hand in his own and ran his thumb over hers slowly, back and forth. And she could tell something was wrong.
“How was Cassie?” she asked, recalling that he was supposed to go over to Maggie and Paxton's a few nights ago.
And a topic she thought would have made him only happy made him frown.
“She’s good- just finished up a science fair project, the one she asked for your help on. She doesn’t quite know the difference between a biologist and a physicist yet.”
“Well that’s alright, luckily I remember third grade science.”
Scott gave a small smile before he sighed and looked up. “They still don’t trust me. Maggie and Paxton,” he said, finally speaking what was on his mind as she moved a hand to rest on his shoulder. “And I don’t know. I don’t blame them but- I guess I just want to be there in Cassie’s life, not just be some guy who shows up.”
“You do matter in her life,” Hope said quietly. “Even if joint custody isn’t in the picture yet. You’re not going to leave your daughter’s side again.”
He nodded. “Thank you.” And he finally smiled. “In this together.”
Together.
“Partners,” Hope said and he moved to kiss her, smiling against her lips and within a moment, whether it was minutes or an hour, she was in his lap.
One of his hands went up to run through her bob and she couldn’t help but lean into his touch as she kissed him, the touch that somehow always made her melt.
“Do you…?” he asked trailing off, realizing he had untucked her shirt from her pants.
“I do if you want to.”
“I very much do.”
“Then I have one birthday request,” she said. “We are not doing this here on the couch.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he said, and he was back to Scott with that shit-eating grin he had that she had grown fond of. He kissed her again and she stood up from his lap, and then dragged him to the apartment’s bedroom, exactly where she wanted him.
She sat down on the edge of the bed and he kneeled down in front of her as she leaned down to kiss him, his stubble slightly scratching her fingers, and in a wave of late evening emotion she realized just how thoroughly he had stolen her heart and how she didn’t think she was getting it back any time soon.
Hope moved to undo the buttons on his shirt and his hands joined hers to help, before she moved her hands up to his shoulders and then his face to draw him into a kiss again. He smiled against her.
“You’re kind of distracting,” he said as he went back to the buttons on his shirt.
“I could say the same.”
Once his shirt was finally off and tossed on the ground, hers followed.
He stood up and gently pushed her back onto the blanket, without words saying “ let me take it from here. ”
It had gotten cold enough during the night that the apartment had a bite in the air, maybe a bad time to sleep half naked. But it was warm under the comforter and Scott must have been half awake, because he had moved his arm over to her to trace circles on her lower back.
She rolled over to face him and smiled sleepily at him, and then curled up by his side.
“So,” he said, running his fingers up and down her upper arm. “Good birthday?”
“Definitely.”
She yawned. “Thank you for coming over.” She was glad to not spend the evening alone.
“Well I think 36 is a big year.”
“Hmm. Maybe.”
She draped a leg over his and he moved to brush her bangs out of her eyes.
“Do you want breakfast?” he asked.
“I’m fine at the moment.” She rarely was very hungry in the morning. “But you can take whatever food you want in the kitchen.”
He grinned and briefly pressed his lips to hers. “I was planning on it.”
Scott stood up and left and she listened to him fiddle with the knobs on the stove. She looked over to the small gap between the curtains where the sun was starting to come in. She should probably put some actual clothes on.
Hope rummaged through her wardrobe and found some leggings and a blouse to wear, and then found her comb in her nightstand to run it through her hair and get out the tangles. She straightened it most days but didn’t feel like it this morning.
And she tried to not blush when she thought about how he had told her he liked it when it got wavy and tucked it behind her ear.
She had really fallen for him.
Hope set the hairbrush down on the dresser and reached to put on her necklace, the one she always wore.
Another year older. She wasn’t one to wax poetic about birthdays, but maybe everything felt different.
No more early mornings and late nights at Pym Tech. The chance of her mother coming back. And several new people in her life she never would have expected, and two that suddenly meant a lot more to her then she could have ever expected- Scott. Cassie.
Scott’s singing to the cheesy Rick Astley song he had been playing on his phone broke her train of thought and she smiled as she stood up to go join him in the kitchen.