Work Text:
"Listen, Yuko...I appreciate you taking the time to take me somewhere on my birthday but I don't think we have time for here on a lunch break." Asa pointed out as Yuko led her inside a spa by the hand.
"Don't worry, Asa! We're just going to get a quick manicure, a plucking and just some coffee with a feet mud thing...shouldn't take long!" Yuko assured as she set things up at the front desk.
"That's going to take way over an hour...we're going to be late getting back." Asa warned before Yuko tugged her off by the wrist. "Yuko, listen...I was told that more eyes will be on me after the Bomb Girl incident. I can't afford to be seen goofing off."
"You're not goofing off! You're unwinding on your birthday!" Yuko reminded while taking her inside the changing rooms. "Listen, people don't want to see a girl so stiff and winded up all the time...they want a heroine who's fun and relaxed! Look at Kishibe...he's fun and he was super popular in the 80s!"
"That's a horrible comparison...first, he's not a girl. Second, that was decades ago. Third, he was nearly fired and arrested over attacking the Vice Speaker." Asa criticized as Yuko began to undress.
"Splitting hairs! Come on, Asa...don't you think you'll be a better fighter if you let your hair down for a bit?" Yuko suggested, putting her clothes in a compartment.
Asa frowned...before taking her hair out of their pigtails, beginning to undress. "I'll take the massage, the pedicure and the facial and that's it...and I'm working overtime today."
"That's the spirit!" In her robe and slippers, Yuko grinned as Asa put her clothes in her own compartment before putting her own robe and slippers on. "Let's make sure you really get to loosen up today! Who knows...maybe you'll be in for a treat later on!"
"Do you mean a surprise party? I hate surprise parties." Asa griped as she walked off with Yuko.
"Ah...that's probably not going to happen!" Yuko covered as she led Asa into another section, taking her into a room with two beds to lie down on. "The guys should be in in a few minutes."
"Alright..." Asa removed her robe and slippers, got on the bed, lied on her stomach and sighed with her face through the face piece...before putting the sheet over her back then putting her face through the hole again. It was a long five minutes before she heard two people walk in, approaching both hers and Yuko's tables.
"Hello! We'll be attending to you today, if you'll have us?" One woman's voice announced next to Yuko as Asa looked at the floor.
"Uh...yeah! New guy?" Yuko questioned as the sound of oil being poured on palms were heard.
"Not really? Mako has been working here for years...I mean, he does look younger..." The woman said as she put her hands on Yuko's back, Asa feeling a rough pair on her own. "But he's been here since morning so that hasn't changed..."
"Okay..." Yuko, sounding unsure for whatever reason, put her face in the hole. "Just tell him to stick to the front. My friend is shy, you see."
"Alright! Mako, please respect our guest's desires." The woman instructed as she worked on Yuko, Asa slowly decompressing from her knots being untied.
"Okay...desires respected!" "Mako" spoke up, causing Asa's eyes to snap open. Recognizing the voice, she turned around and gave a wild-eyed stare at Beam, dressed in a spa employee's uniform, who nervously grinned back. "Hi...happy birthday."
There were screams, thrown furniture, Asa running out of the room with a sheet wrapped around her while Yuko chased after her while carrying her robe and slippers. Beam sat back on the floor, a wooden bed broken in half after being smashed over his head, as the other worker simply stared at the carnage in horror.
"...Can I work here?" He asked.
"Get out." She demanded.
***
"Listen, don't be mad at Beam, okay? He's just trying to make sure he has options when he retires." Yuko explained while in the karaoke booth with a fuming Asa.
"He's 17! He doesn't need a job outside of PS...and how did he even get hired there anyway?!" Asa complained as Yuko got up to find a song on the machine.
"Don't...read too much into the details for it." Yuko tried to placate as she handed the mic over. "Look...sing away your feelings. You like Hades66, right?"
"Who is that?" Asa took the microphone with a confused look, hesitantly standing up.
"Didn't you like Emociones?" Yuko said as Asa took the stand.
"That Spanish song that Denji was playing? I was making fun of him, Yuko." Asa scowled before the music started. "I don't think I can even stay on cue..."
"Just try your best!" Yuko began to clap with a smile.
"I don't even know Spanish!" Asa tried to protest only to be forced to half-heartedly mumble her way through the speedily-delivered lyrics. While she droned on, there was a knock on the door. Yuko immediately got up to answer, opening it to reveal Denji standing awkwardly in uniform.
"Oh my goodness, who could expect Denji?" Yuko gestured to him as a stunned Asa stared, the song ending.
"Hey...I'm, uh, here to make sure Asa's alive?" Denji slowly blinked as he spoke. "Was that Hades playing?"
"..." A red-faced Asa dropped the mic as she ran out, pushing past Yuko and Denji as she did so.
"...Does this place have Miriam Yeung?" Denji asked Yuko as she kept her arms and legs up in the air on the couch.
***
"Asa! It took forever to find you!" Yuko ran over to Asa as the latter tried to pace away past a train station, the former having to grab her hand to keep her from escaping.
"I'm on beat...like I'm supposed to be! I didn't take a day off for a reason!" Asa snatched her hand away angrily. "What is going on, Yuko? Birthdays just aren't important to me...and Makima's probably got something planned for me when she gets back home tonight anyway! I don't want to do something special just because I'm older!"
"But...we really wanted to..." Yuko began to struggle with her words, her expression turning downcast as Asa gave her a suspicious look.
""We"? What do you mean "we"?" Asa commanded. "What is going on?"
"...Can you just come back to headquarters with me? We can skip Yamanashi. I don't think we could get back in time from Koshu Valley anyway." Yuko pleaded.
"Fine...wait, Koshu Valley? Were you planning to take me wine-tasting?" Asa scrunched her face up as Yuko led her off by her hand. "Yuko, we're still teenagers!"
***
"Quick, everybody...I smell them coming down the hallway!" Power said in the cramped storage room, a small table with smaller cups filled with iced coffee surrounding a Brazil Nut Cake. "Get in position!"
"What position---" Aki tried to ask as Denji, Power, Beam and Kobeni scrambled around the room, shuffling things around as the cups started to shake. "Hey!"
"We're here!" Yuko opened the door to bring in a still nonplussed Asa, watching as the cups dropped and spilled off the table and on the floor while Kobeni managed to catch the cake, putting it back on the center as the squad stared at Asa.
"...Surprise!" Denji, Power and Beam shouted, Asa giving a blank look in response.
"...Why." Asa inquired.
"Um...okay, you said you hated surprise parties but..." Yuko tried to defend.
"I said it was a bad idea." Aki interjected.
"But the others on your team wanted to give you a special day...and we already paid for the paid, the booth, the winery tour..." Yuko explained.
"And Power paid for the cake!" Power revealed. "And snuck Beam into the spa!"
"So don't be mad...but we wanted to something cool for you after...Reze's...thing." Denji added. "And...it gets us off work."
Asa stared...then frowned...then scowled deeper...only to break down into sobs, hiding her face behind her hands as she cried into her palms.
"Shit...sorry, we didn't think you would hate it this much." Denji apologized. "We'll clean up and tell the...whoever that we set this up. Don't worry about getting in trouble."
"No...no..." Asa wiped her eyes, sniffling. "This...no one's ever done this for me before. I've never had...when I got home from my first day a year ago, I told Makima I was making friends. I didn't mean it...I just didn't want her to worry about me. But you guys are...this party is so awful. I don't even like nuts. And...I've never been more grateful...!"
"Asa..." Kobeni stumbled over, drying Asa's face with her thumbs. "Sorry we went in on the nuts thing...I'm guessing you don't like corn nuts either?"
"Those are fine." Asa nodded as Yuko smiled.
"Let's party! Denji, get me a slice of cake!" Power declared.
"With what? You were supposed to bring the knives!" Denji pointed out, crossing his arms.
"Hasn't Power done enough?! She brought the cake!" Power argued back.
"Beam! Stop drinking the coffee!" Aki ordered, Beam pausing from slurping the spilled drinks off the floor.
"Do I still work in the other place?" He asked, Asa and Kobeni stepping over him for the snacks on the shelf.