He sighed as he opened his eyes and looked over at her. She was digging out a moat to surround her castle, spitting at the hair that had flown into her mouth as she did. He chuckled as he closed his eyes again. Things were settling back to normal between them. It was almost as if the "friendship kiss" he had bestowed upon her this morning had erased all awkwardness between them. < Friendship kiss > he snorted. Well, it sounded good and prevented him from having to think about the reasoning behind it. She had been upset because of him. He had just waned to offer her some comfort. So what if she had completely composed herself before he felt the urge to kiss her? So what if it was only one of half a dozen urges he'd been having in the last couple of days? Some things one was better off NOT thinking about. He stretched his arms up over his head and yawned silently. Two minutes later, he was dead to the world, completely enveloped by sleep.

Willow finished shoveling out her moat and brought her arm up to wipe the sweat off of her forehead. She looked over at Xander lying peacefully under the beach umbrella, sleeping.

"I can't believe he's sleeping. It's eight thousand degrees out here and he's sleeping."

She crawled over to where he was on her knees. He looked so serene in his sleep. She sat there for a moment just looking at him. He looked so, well, beautiful. She couldn't think of a better word to describe him. His cheeks were still slightly pink, as were his shoulders, but it just added to his beauty.

Willow sighed softly, bringing her hand up to run lightly down his muscular chest. She had dreamed about him last night. One of those surround sound dreams. He had been kissing her neck and caressing her cheek and she returned his kisses. She had almost thought that it had all happened. For a brief instant, she thought that she had woken up and felt his lips still resting on hers, her neck wet from his kisses, and her breasts sensitive from his touch. It had all been a dream, but it seemed so real to her. < Probably because I've been dreaming about him for years, just never anything that vivid. > Part of her wanted nothing more than to snuggle up beside him. < No. Bad girl > she chided.

She withdrew her hand and stood up to go back to building her sand castle and a wicked little grin widened across her face. She went over to her bucket and began filling it with moist sand.

Xander awoke slowly to the feeling of something warm and moist covering the lower half of his body. It felt as though someone was rubbing him without touching, almost as though there was something between his body and the hand stroking him. < Stroking me?!? What the hell...? >

He slowly opened his eyes, wincing against the brightness of the sun, to see Willow leaning over his hips. She was carefully etching patterns into the sand that completely covered him from the waist down. He lifted the upper half of his body up and leaned back against his arms. Willow was putting the finishing touches on what appeared to be a mermaid tail into the sand that covered him. She had just finished the very last scale, when she sat back to survey and realized Xander was awake and glaring at her.

She smiled and motioned to his tail. "You're a merman. Pretty neat, huh?"

Xander studied his tail. < Rather impressive > He was momentarily torn between his desire to preserve her hard work or seek out his revenge. Revenge won. He jumped out, rather quickly for one who was partially submerged in sand, and ran after Willow. Willow started to run the second she saw Xander trying to get up. She was a good fifteen feet ahead of him, but he was a faster runner. His arm snaked out and caught her about the waist, causing her to stumble and fall beneath him.

She was still trying to struggle away, when he pinned her to the ground. His body was stretched out over her, covering her from shoulders to waist. Her legs were raised, feet against the sand, and his hips fell between them. Her hands were above her head in his grasp.

"Wait!! Time out," she sounded dead serious and rather panicked.

Xander began to ease away from her, wondering if he had hurt her with his attack.

"No! Don't move."

He looked down at her completely confused as she pulled her hands out of his grip and brought them down beside her body.

"My bathing suit came undone," she wiggled underneath him. He suddenly realized that not only were they pressed completely against one another, but it was bare skin against bare skin. Not only had her top come untied, but it had shifted so that it no longer covered her. Xander looked down at Willow, who's face was scrunched up in concentration, as she tried to adjust her suit. He tried to fight his reaction to the whole scene but failed miserably.

Willow glared up at him as she heard him start to sputter. "Xander Harris, if you start laughing so help me..."

He couldn't contain himself any longer. He burst out into a fit of laughter, all the while trying to keep still so as not to expose Willow. His body was shaking with his merriment. Willow tried her hardest to condemn his mirth, but soon found herself laughing as well. They laughed together for a few moments before Xander spoke again.

"OK, so how do you want to fix this? I could just get up and close my eyes."

"Yeah, right. And just accidentally sneak a peak at a nude me. No, I'd rather not be exposed. Can you reach around and tie my suit?"

Xander's face scrunched up as he tried to get his hands underneath her. Once his arms were firmly around her, he realized that their combined weight was now on top of his hands.

"This isn't gonna work. I can't move my hands if we're both lying on them."

Willow arched her back, pressing her body even closer to Xander. It helped a little, since he could maneuver his hands better, but it also completely distracted him since he could feel her naked breasts pressing against his chest. He tried to block out the feeling, but their bodies were rubbing against each other with each movements. Xander gave a frustrated grunt.

"Will, this isn't working either," he stilled the movements of his hands and her body relaxed. Even though they were still in contact with each other, they were no longer pressing into the other person. Xander rolled his eyes, sighing and leaned his forehead against hers.

"Why is it that we keep getting ourselves into these messes?"

Willow snickered. "Just lately it seems. I guess cause we're spending so much time together. Maybe we're just destined to get into trouble. Since there's no vampires around, we had to find a new way," she smiled up at him.

"Hey, I've just been struck by inspiration," his arms squeezed tighter around him and he rolled the two of them over so Willow was straddled over him.

"Xander, what are you...?" She started to struggle and he pulled her tighter to him.

"If you don't want me to get an eyeful, stay pressed against me. See? Now my hands are free and I can tie your suit, " his hands ran up her back, brushing away sand as they did, and took hold of her bathing suit strings. He started to tie the suit together. Meanwhile, Willow adjusted the suit so it was covering her breasts again.

"This is why I didn't want a two piece, but NO Buffy insisted. 'It looks so good on you Will. You have to buy it' " she mimicked in a mocking tone.

"It does look good on you Will. You have an awesome body, I don't know why you hide it so much." Willow blushed bright red as he finished tying and then continued to brush the sand from her back until his hands settled on her hips. "Crisis averted. Your suit's back on, and I didn't see anything."

"Crisis could have been avoided if you hadn't tackled me," she said pushing down hard on his chest with the premise of sitting up. He grabbed her hands, holding her by the wrists.

"Me? Whose the one who decided to make me a merman in my sleep? Y'know I'm touchy about that ever since I almost became a fish." He poked at her sides, making her squirm.

"It was just a coincidence. I had forgotten all about the fish incident. I even had forgotten about you strutting around in your speedos and jumping into a pool that had been peed in," she replied as she started to laugh.

"Oh, bring that up again, huh? That's it. I'm not showing any mercy now," he began tickling her as she tried to fight him off and squirm away.

"Ahem, are we interrupting something?" Matt asked suggestively. Xander had Willow pinned beneath him again, and with the way she was squirming....well, when Matt and Mindy were wrestling like that it wasn't innocent.

Willow swatted Xander away and stood up, readjusting her suit and brushing the sand off the front of her body. Xander stood up behind her and brushed himself off as well and then began brushing off Willow's back. "We were just playing," Willow respond as she turned to brush off Xander's back for him.

Matt and Mindy exchanged a look and Mindy gave him a smile that let him know her thoughts were exactly where his had been. "Oh, well, I know it's a little earlier than planned, but if there isn't anything else you'd like to do on the island, I was thinking we could eat breakfast and then head back."

Willow and Xander looked at one another and shrugged. "No, we're pretty much all set," Xander responded. "Let me just run back to the cabana and put this stuff away and grab our bags." He picked up the buckets and umbrella they had brought down and headed back for the cabana.

Within twenty minutes they had eaten, stowed there belongings and were on the boat and headed back to the hotel. The group laughed, joked and played the whole way back. Finally, for the first time in a week, things were just as they always had been between Xander and Willow.