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

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

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]

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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."

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.

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.

"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.

"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!

"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!

"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."

"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.

"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.

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.

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.

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."

"Well," said Summer, who handed the bottle over to Stark because pouring drinks was her job and she was very intentionally not working on her birthday this year, "I am definitely feeling both of those."

Though maybe not necessarily just food and wine, at this point.

Stark took the bottle, which room service had very kindly opened, and filled the two glasses carefully. One more than the other, of course, because only one of them had a birthday today.

"Anything you want today," he reminded her. "Everything you want that I can manage."

He set the bottle back down on the cart and turned to take one of the glasses.

"A toast to you? For your birthday?"

"A toast to me," Summer said easily, proudly, with a lift of her chin right along with a lift of her glass, "for my birthday, and because I'm awesome, and I've had an awesome day."

"You are awesome," Stark confirmed, though the word felt odd in his mouth. He lifted his own glass and took a sip. "You are wonderful. And you deserved a wonderful day. I'm glad I could give that to you."

"You did a great job," Summer informed him, following it with her own sip, before adding, "It's been an excellent birthday. But..."

And she really couldn't help herself here, taking another drink to really drag out the dramatic pause for additional effect.

"It's not over yet. Things could still go horribly wrong."

Stark was not foolish enough to say 'what could go wrong' out loud.

"I don't think it will," he said. "I didn't order any horrible food. I think you'll like it all. If it's what it's supposed to be. And...if there's anything I've forgotten or anything you still want after we eat you've only to say it."

And not even a single aghast why would you even say that. That response was practically self-assertive and confident, by Stark standards.

Color Summer impressed.

"I'll have to keep that in mind," she said, with a spark in her eyes that made it pretty clear there was already something there, to wait and see if it was already included. "If there's anything I still...want, after we eat."

Stark, once he'd gotten past the couples massage incident, was feeling fairly confident.

"Look at see what we have then," he encouraged, nodding at the cart.

One cloche was covering a very fancy space charcuterie board. The other contained that floating swirly pink dessert.

Summer grinned eagerly at Stark, taking a big swig from her glass so she could set it down and free both her hands, one for each cloche, though she lifted them one at a time.

"Oooh, there's the cheese!" she said with delight.

Space cheese!

"And that's..."

Summer didn't know what that was, but she did know she needed to post it on Instagram immediately.

"I told you birthdays should have dessert," Stark said, grinning at her reaction. "It's made special here. I don't know how it floats but...it floats. And it's pink."

So it was perfect for Summer, obviously.

"Who cares how it floats," said Summer, moving around the cart to snag a few more angles. "I just want to know how it tastes."

A pause. Another shot.

"And probably how to eat it, too, I guess."

"I think once you've cracked it's meant to stop floating," Stark told her. "So just...hit it with your spoon? Or a knife? And then you can eat the pieces."

Summer bit her lip a little, keeping her phone out and on the ready as she searched the cart for said spoon or knife, finding what looked like a spork...but, you know, space-y, literally a sp(ace-f)ork...pressed play to catch the moment as best she could on video while she took a deep breath and then struck the whole thing as best she could with the spork.

And it disappeared into the diaphanous swirls surrounding the sphere, which did, in fact, crack, and split open with a little poof of pink and white smoke with a faint sparkle to it before it split apart into even little shards like slices of its marbled pink...essence? True form? Solidification?

Whatever it was, it was cool as fuck.

And Summer, in an echo of her own narrative, pretty much said as much.

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