She'd given him So Much. So much more then she could Ever Know. Supposedly it went both ways, which was something that both filled him with a sort of dread, but also lifted his spirits more then any drink ever could. He wasn't sure he could ever convey how MUCH she'd brightened his life. Mostly because he wasn't very good at putting sentiment to word. He wasn't usually very good at Physically showing it either, but he was Nothing if not Creative! Today of all days especially, his mind was Buzzing with ideas!
It had started as a 'simple test' for his old wasp suit. It had needed some love and care, care that Nadia was all to proficient in providing the poor neglected thing. Now, he hadn't planed on the suit also getting a tailoring touch up, but apparently he'd waited far too long to touch it up to modern 'taste'. Yet today he could find no care in the world but for the focus on her face, the concentration as she modernized the wing system. The flick of her wrist behind every tool switch, and the steady hand between the bioenergy blasters. All the while they chatted and quipped, debated and theorized until at last the old suit had been sparked with new life.
However, once she had given her all clear, that is when his capacity to withhold his thoughts lost its grip on his tongue. Smiling with nothing but sheer unfiltered Pride he scooped her up into a big, heavy hug. Careful not to damage the work as the wings upon his back flittered up to attention and buzzed as if powered by the force of his joy alone.
Nadia, not the name they had chosen for her so long ago but it didn't matter, it'd Never matter. She could change her name every single day and he'd adore each, and every one of them. Releasing her from his hold he set both his hands on her shoulders, seeing the light hit those hopeful eyes of hers as his heart Ignited with what he could only understand as pure parental love.
" Nadia you work so hard, not just on things like this old mans outdated suit but yourself, your work, The World! You keep finding ways to put your foot forward and stride into a world rife with pitfalls and difficulties and YET you keep pushing onward. Head in the clouds and eyes on the road you have forged a road that is Genuinely awe inspiring, it spurred me to pick up my mantle as Giant Man again and I've seen it spur so many others to action. "
His hands rose, cupping her face in their gentle hold.
" My dear Nadia, if you'll forgive this old man his sentiments, I am So. So Proud of You, and Knowing the world is in your hands- oh Nadia, I've never been so excited to see the future you help make. "
There's one thing that she knew was more belief than theory. It's one of the few things that she didn't need to test and that was having hope that things would work out. Partly that she would male them and partly the part that Nadia didn't need to break down in scientific understanding. She did not need to know how she got so lucky or delve into probability science; she could count this as a blessing, as a proof that the universe was inherently good. That thing that defied the need for like-minded bugs to understand was that she got to have a family. First a chosen family which that was her family, her first, and there was no putting value of less than the next onto anyone. Nadia wouldn't, couldn't, trade them.
Following that was the shock of Hank Pym in the flesh, no lingering Ultron, at the front door of her living residences. It took months to find the stride and rhythm between the two of them, but at the end of that? She got to know her hero who became not so much less than that, but truly became like a father not so much by blood or genetics (that didn't matter) but by work and effort into maintaining a bond, a relationship.
Helping with Hank's own and old Wasp suit had been a project she eagerly took on. Getting to work alongside him, not just sharing the lab space, but in the ideas and common goal had been delightful. More than delightful but English didn't have a better word. This how they bonded, science and their work. He really had inspired her own view on science as a whole, the way he wrote about new discoveries or theories, anything is possible and there was a wonder that not many dissertations could ever inspire.
They talked at a speed all their own and laughed together. One of the greatest, happiest sounds to share and hear. She had been intent upon keeping his single pair of wings design since that felt more him, but there's something fun they could do with the silhouette. A nod off to his favorite things a trench coat without worrying about a trench coat being a hindrance to Wasp mobility. Anything additional flapping could interfere with wing function.
Her hands move adept at what she was doing, engineering had been one of her most important skills and modernizing the gadgetry in the bioenergy gauntlets, head piece with the googles, and wings were a must. The tailoring being snazzed up also had been a necessity if only because she is nothing if not Janet Van Dyne's step daughter and supersuits could and should look cool!
When the final touches are done and it was time for them to move onto full body testing, with him in the whole suit and plans to go out somewhere, maybe to a park to enjoy the flowers up close or something, or head into New York and zip around between the skyscrapers together. Nadia stands up and it was not even a minute of standing, not a chance giving to put her foot forward that Hank pulls her into a hug. He doesn't realize it, but he pulls her up onto her tip-toes (luckily she's a ballerina). Then he even lifts them a little further just by the fluttering of his wasp wings.
OH NADIA and there's something to the tone of his voice that gives her pause. Nadia's only five foot, and she tucks her face into his chest at the unexpected hug and pulls her arounds around carefully to hug his torso back. It's a good hug, a nice hug, and it's been a good day spent with HER DAD. That is not the end of her father's affection as he sets her feet back onto the ground and large hands go onto narrow shoulders.
Nadia looks up a little confused, but smiling and about to ask "everything okay" but doesn't when he repeats her name. A whole speech follows that which she wasn't so sure what spawned such a moment or what she was ever so deserving, but than that didn't matter she reminds herself in thought half way through as he tells her that she inspires him. Tears well up in her eyes, for it was a lot of emotion, it's been a long journey to this and she genuinely had once been content and accepted this was a fantasy, and then once more had thought maybe she couldn't trust this or him (from her own lesson from quantum entanglement).
Yet she did get this, and did get to trust him. They both made this dynamic a real one, built on work and trust. It felt real, nature, and it had little to do with being related (that was an added bonus). Nadia swallows a little, wants to go wipe her eyes because she gets to feel loved, and the inner child in her had dreamed of that every day until she came to America.
β Mhm! If you forgive, uhm, my tears... β She sniffles, leans her head forward and goes in for another tight hug and rarely does Nadia not have words, but her happiest, her feelings and emotions were so much right now after the day that she had share working on a super suit and talking about anything with Hank. β Thank you... thank you so much. β It wasn't thanking him for his praise of her, but for being here and building her trust and teaching her, for working on being a better him and being her dad not just her biological father.