That Space Spa That Summer Never Shuts Up About, Monday, June 19

[stykera]

Stark had, somehow, managed not to spoil this birthday surprise for Summer despite wanting to several times. He was good at keeping secrets. This was just one he wanted to tell someone about and Summer was the person he told most things to. Still, she'd been surprised. He thought she was happy with everything so far. He hoped she was.

They'd arrived and checked in. He'd dropped off his bag to be delivered to the room later. He'd worn his leather pants as requested though he'd changed out of them and into one of the very lovely robes provided by the spa.

The only issue so far had been that while he'd scheduled two massages it had somehow been recorded as a couples massage with the two of them in the same room. Stark, extremely flustered, had stammered out that they were friends and not a couple. The spa staff had been unimpressed and pointed out that they really didn't care about the nature of their relationship (or lack thereof) and there were not any single massage rooms available so it was this or one of them would miss out entirely. Summer, naturally, objected to the idea that Stark was just going to go mope in a hallway or something and told him to stay.

After that massage that had been somewhat less relaxing for Stark than anticipated they'd headed to the strawberry-scented mineral pool for a soak. Stark was trying not to give Summer too many nervous glances. He wanted this all to go well but it wasn't about him. It was about Summer having a day where she had people to take care of her every need and whim.

"Have you decided what you want to do next? Whatever you like, remember. Anything they have. It's your birthday and you should have what you like." Stark had said similar things already today. He would likely say them again.

[For that gently modded birthday girl and NFB for distance]

Comments

[somethingwithturquoise]

Stark had already said pretty much all those things, and Summer knew that it would probably not be the last time she heard them, even if she did say something about it, so she was just going to save herself the trouble. After all, she had just gotten pretty much every muscle in her damn body obliverated in the best way possible by a six-armed masseuse (seriously, how could she ever go back to Earth massages after this place entered her life?) and now she was letting those muscles soak in the most relaxing and rejuvenating and restorative water in pretty much this whole galaxy. And she was just going to revel in it for a moment before even starting to think of responding.

But, eventually, she did.

"We should get our nails done while we're here, too," she said. "Best manicures this side of the Milky Way. They have a treatment, too, that, I swear to God, will prevent hangnails for, like, a month. Maybe after some lunch."

A very late lunch at this point, but this place knew its shit. Pampering didn't come without a good deal of offerings of strange and exotic fruits, even by space standards, to enjoy in the meantime to tide them over.

[stykera]

"Are you hungry? I can have someone bring food if you are." Because, again, anything she wanted.

Stark offered a hesitant smile. "Or are you too relaxed for food?"

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer smiled back, albeit incidentally, since her eyes were closed as she just settled in with a happy sigh and a deep breath because even the air at this place had its own sort of influence. "I'm too relaxed to even think right now, honestly," she said. And not thinking about anything? A rare feat indeed. "This is great."

[stykera]

"I'm glad," Stark told her, deciding that maybe it was safe to scoot a little closer in the water. "That was the idea. Let you be relaxed. Let other people take care of you all day. You deserve it. Whatever you like."

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Thanks, Stark," said Summer, still just sort of happily floating in her relaxation bubble. "This was a great idea. And you're right. It sure beats working today, by a long shot."

Would Apu have even celebrated her birthday? She'd probably be taking a back seat to orange cartoon cats and Oreo's today, or something.

[stykera]

"You're happy?" Stark asked quietly. He was pretty sure he knew the answer. "I...I thought you'd like this. I know you like this place and I didn't think I could do a party but I knew I could do this. As long as you came with me instead of going to work."

Apu might have offered birthday hats? But it wouldn't have been nearly as good as this!

"And the day isn't over yet. Far from it. Plenty of time for more relaxation or food or nails or whatever you want."

And then he'd booked a fancy suite for the night, too. Had he mentioned that yet?

[somethingwithturquoise]

It may have come up, but there had been leather pants and space seaweed wraps to distract Summer (and a near disaster where a certain seaweed that ran the risk of actually leaving their limbs paralyzed for a good week, give or take, was almost used, but Summer'd been here enough to recognize it and mention it and might have gotten some poor Gromflomite college student fired or at least on shaky terms with her employment), and so it just sort of existed in the general ether of things in her head right now.

"I'm very happy," she assured Stark, sinking down into the water just a little bit more, knowing if she didn't say it, he'd only just flail and second-guess himself and that was, like, the opposite of relaxing. "And we'll figure out what to do next when we get there. Right now? Kinda big on just living in this moment, you know? God, this place is the tits."

[stykera]

The leather pants might even go back on again later!

"Good. That was all I wanted, for this. A good surprise that made you happy. Because you deserve something that makes you happy."

Content, for the moment, that he'd achieved that goal, Stark let himself relax a little further. He even closed his eye for a moment.

"This is a good moment. Isn't it? I like it."

He was (mostly) relaxed. He was with his favorite...person. She was happy. He couldn't ask for much more than that.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Could probably be a little quieter," Summer couldn't help remarking with a faint grin. But there wasn't any real heat or annoyance to it; it was kind of hard to be annoyed at anything right now, even Stark's near-steady stream of reaffirming babble. And it being hard to be annoyed at anything much right now also meant she didn't mind reassuring him just that little bit further, because she figured it would eventually buy her some time until the next resurgence of doubt in him.

"But, yes," she confirmed, "it is a good moment, and a good surprise. And it's a very good day."

So long as no one ruined it by constantly checking to see if it was, in fact, a good day.

[stykera]

"Good," Stark said again with a relieved little sigh this time. He let himself sink a little deeper into the water.

"Just let me know when you're ready for something else."

He was trying not to babble. He just wanted so badly for everything to go well today.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"I could literally spend the entire rest of the day right here," Summer said, with another happy sigh. They could just fish her out as a strawberry-scented human prune after a while, for all she cared. "Pretty sure it'll be a while before I can recover from that massage, anyway."

Her limbs felt like wet noodles and her back was so free of knots and tangles that it might just completely unravel, and it was the best feeling ever, especially following so closely on the coattails of the stress of dealing with her family for Father's Day yesterday, and all the working out she'd been doing lately.

God, she needed to do this more often.

[stykera]

Stark had opened his eye and was watching her with a very soft smile on his face.

"As long as you come out of the water eventually. There are other things to see, later. And it would be difficult to get your nails painted while you're in here. I'm sure they could manage though."

Especially the way Stark tipped, let's be real.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Mmmm." Summer hummed thoughtfully as if genuinely considering the possibility. And maybe she was! She was pretty fucking comfortable right now, thank you very much. "It is my birthday. And you did say whatever I wanted..."

[somethingwithturquoise]

It was kind of amazing, how a long day of doing pretty much nothing but relaxing could be so exhausting, but Summer had been pretty excited about this part for a while now. For all her visits to the space spa that she never shut up about, she'd never actually stayed there overnight. And knowing full well how great the rest of the facilities were, she had some pretty high expectations for their private rooms.

She was not disappointed.

She had, at some point, sent Stark off to do his own thing so that she could have a little private time to do her own things, because a whole day with one person could be a lot, and when she was finished, she headed right up to the room, and when she saw the big huge bed in the middle o fit, she didn't hesitate to just throw herself right onto it with a contented sigh as she sunk right into.

She flipped over onto her back, splayed out her amazingly relaxed limbs and looked up into the decorative canopy hanging over the bed, with all its little space crystals and aromatic space mist.

"I am going to sleep so fucking good tonight."

[stykera]

Well, Summer had probably needed some time to take some cute selfies that didn't have a masked man in the background. Maybe to do a little shopping. Or a lot. It was her birthday after all.

Stark, being Stark, knocked on the door before he entered the room. He knocked to let her know he was there and he was coming in, waiting a moment to make sure there was no shout to go away. He opened the door just a crack with a hesitant "Summer?" before stepping in and heading to sit down on the couch.

The bed was for Summer, obviously.

[somethingwithturquoise]

Oh, there had definitely been selfies. And shopping. And something to do with space crystals and jade, don't worry about it.

There were no shouts or even responses or even movement from Summer at first, because this bed was comfy as shit and she didn't want to disturb any of it for a moment. Eventually, though, she did push herself up on her elbows to see where Stark was.

"Wine?" she asked.

[stykera]

"On its way," Stark promised. He'd stopped at the front desk to make sure it was coming and that there would be the promised wine and everything else. Including some sort of pink dessert that was a specialty only served here. "It should be here...very soon."

"Do you like your room?" he asked.

There wasn't even time for a response before there was a knock on the door and a hotel staffer rolling in a cart with silver cloches on it.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Look at that timing," said Summer, who had to scoot a little bit to get close enough to the edge of the bed again so she could push herself up out of it to go over to the cart to check out all its offerings (and thank the staff member, of course, even though her words would probably mean nothing to the tip she figured Stark was about to fork over to them).

And once it was just them again, Summer looked over from the room service to Stark with a quirk of her eyebrow, trying to translate the Stark-ese for the usage of the word your in his question.

"I love it," she said. And then, in a slightly hedging manner: "Are you staying here, too?"

The room? The resort? The planet itself? Either or!

[stykera]

"It's a big room," Stark said. "There's a couch."

Because he wasn't making any assumptions. This day, all of it, was about Summer and it was about making her happy.

"I brought clothes for tomorrow, so I can stay." You know, on the couch he was walking back towards. "And...I brought you a phone charger. In case you didn't bring yours because you didn't know where we were going. In my bag."

He'd brought her a shirt she could wear to sleep in, too, if she wanted. If she hadn't purchased something already or maybe she didn't want to sleep in anything at all. Maybe she wanted to take full advantage of the extremely soft space bedding!

[somethingwithturquoise]

"Like I would agree to go anywhere without a phone charger," said Summer, her grin maybe slightly less sardonic because that was actually pretty thoughtful on Stark's part, although, really, at this point, should she really even be surprised about something like that?

Just like she wasn't at all surprised about the couch.

"And you're not sleeping on the couch, Stark."

[stykera]

"I didn't tell you we were staying overnight," Stark said. "It was just in case you might need it."

He looked over at the room service cart, then back at Summer, then down at his newly sparkly and color-changing fingernails. "I'm not? I, I didn't want to assume anything. This is just for you because you deserve it. All of it. More than this but this is what I could do for now."

He had hopes for how the evening might go, considering that he'd been asked to wear these pants, but he wasn't going to assume anything.

[somethingwithturquoise]

"I am not going to sleep in that big giant bed all by myself while you're over here sleeping on a couch," Summer emphasized, and part of the lift of her brow as she look at him seemed to suggest that maybe he wasn't going to assume, but he clearly also hadn't not assumed enough to not get a separate room. There was a smirk there, though, as she considered those cloches and trying to figure out which one to peek under first.

[stykera]

Stark had gotten a suite so there was room for both of them. Obviously! It just made sense.

"Do you want your wine first? Or...do you want to see the food?"

He thought she was going to be very excited about the dessert once she found it. It was very pink and very fancy and not something he thought could be replicated back on the island. He had no idea how they made floating desserts but he was eager to see it too.

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer's fingers drummed thoughtfully on one of the cloches. "Wine first," she decided, plucking up the bottle in one hand and the two (clearly FRIEND classes) in the other, "so that we have it when we make a big reveal out of the food."

And the cloches, honestly, just made her think about their class, and so now she was half-expecting something terrible to be lurking underneath them, which would be fair and kind of hilarious, lbr.

[stykera]

Stark had considered ordering some sort of horrible food as a joke. He'd decided it might ruin the good moods of the day. But he really had thought about it.

"Wine first," he agreed, holding out his hand for either a glass or the bottle if she wanted him to pour. "And then the food. As promised."

With the dessert surprise!

"And we can order more if you're still hungry. Or thirsty."