somethingwithturquoise | MHA #4; Saturday Evening - Stark's Surprise Birthday Bash! [01/14].

By the time she expected the first guests to start filtering, Summer had managed to make her apartment look like a very blue-gold-specific explosion had happened in a Party City somewhere, and all the shrapnel somehow wound up in her living room and kitchen. From the balloons to the streamers hanging from the ceiling to the banners, there was no mistaking that a birthday party was going on here, in all its blue and gold and star themed glory.

Was it a bit much? Probably. Cheesy? Definitely. But it was the dude's first birthday party; it was allowed to be. In fact, Summer might argue that it was required to be exactly this level of obnoxious, thank you very much.

She got some music playing, went to get some of the food set out in the dining room and the drink offerings set up in the kitchen, and then she just had to wait for a good amount of people to show up before she'd text the man of the hour to get him down here.

[[ open party is open! Everyone who wanted them got invite texts or feel free to mod Summer mentioning it or just wander in oblivious! Basically, please come party, by any means necessary ]]

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Stark did not, in fact, have any plans tonight. His weekends were often quiet and he did tend to stay inside more in the winter.

He also did not, in fact, hesitate. He thought perhaps there was some sort of horrible food Summer wanted to subject him to. The thought also crossed his mind that something might be wrong but that seemed unlikely. Surely Summer had other people to contact in case of emergencies.

He didn't quite run down the stairs but he wasn't walking at a sedate pace either and found himself outside Summer's door and knocking in very short order.

"Summer?"

At which point it was probably already too late for her to gesture at anyone who wasn't being quiet already to be quiet already, but the text gave them all plenty of time to prepare and when Stark knocked, she responded by calling through the door, "Just come in, Stark, it's open!"

Should Stark have been suspicious at this point? Possibly. But he trusted Summer and so opened the door and took a single step inside and then just froze.

And, of course, now that he was inside the apartment and got a good look at it and all the people there, and she'd snapped a quick picture of the look on his face, Summer threw a little blue and gold confetti in the air with a "Surprise! It's your birthday now!"

He did say she could pick it, if she wanted to.

He had said that. And he'd meant it. He just hadn't thought anything would actually come of it.

"You did this all for me?" Stark asked very quietly as he tried to take it all in.

"Well, yeah." Summer scoffed as if offended that he would even think that she wouldn't. "Obviously. It's your first birthday party, what else was I going to do? Get you a card from the dollar store and a mass produced sheet cake with a single candle stuck into it? Please."

Stark would still have been pleased with a card and a sheet cake because it meant someone was thinking of him.

"I...I thought maybe we were just talking and there wouldn't really be anything," he admitted. "This is...thank you."

"You know I can't pass up an opportunity to throw a party," Summer reminded him, as if that's all it was, really, just an excuse to continue living up to her party princess name, but her grin went just a little to soft in its attempts toward wryness to be entirely convincing. "But..."

She paused there, rolling her eyes just a little bit, clearly a requirement before she let anything too sincere slip out of her mouth. "You're welcome. Also, you should probably hold your thanks until after you see the food table, then we'll see how you really feel. But I hope you don't mind January 14th. Obviously we can change it if you want, but I wanted to at least put it out there.

"You'll share a birthday with Marc Anthony!" she offered encouragingly. "The old Roman guy, not the singer! But also famous traitor Benedict Arnold, LL Cool J, Dave Grohl, and the guy who first started purifying cottonseed oil for consumption!"

Thank you, Wikipedia.

Edited 2023-01-14 15:20 (UTC)

"I don't know who any of those people are," Stark told her. "But I'll keep this birthday."

It was his now! No takebacks!

"...wait. What's on the food table?"

To that, Summer could only grin.

"You'll just have to go check it out and see for yourself," she said, as she found a pointed, sparkly blue birthday hat to ceremoniously put on his head, as if it had been waiting for the occasion to be officially accepted. "Once everyone's done wishing you a happy birthday."

Stark ducked his head without protest. Of course Summer could give him a hat and of course he'd wear it the rest of the night. The goofy smile on his face might not last the whole time though.

"Should I be worried?"

"Probably," said Summer, confidently, and far too proudly.

But he already knew she'd say that, now, didn't he?

"More than I usually am?" Stark wondered, still grinning.

"Probably right around the same amount that you usually are," Summer told him, with a nod and a small grin back.

"That isn't too bad then."

Oh Stark, just wait until you saw what Hannibal brought.

"I'll go look then. Unless I need to be supervised while I do?"

"Hey," said Summer, with a smirk, "it's your birthday. You're a big boy now, I think you can handle this one on your own."

What, Summer didn't want to capture Stark's face when confronted with Hannibal's cupcakes?

"I'll do my best," he said, nodding solemnly.

MHA #4; Saturday Evening - Stark's Surprise Birthday Bash! [01/14].

Re: Let the SURPRISE Commence! - SSBB, 01/14.

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