I hope this formats correctly. *deep breath* Okay, here we go...
Disclaimers: The characters of the television show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" are owned and copyrighted by Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Fox and UPN. No copyright infringement is intended.
Timeline: Would have been between S5 and S6, but because of "The Gift" summer hiatus is not a happy time. So, "the future."
Beachcombing
"Come on, let's...frolic!"
Tara smiled, dipping her head and watching indulgently as Willow toed off her sandals. The redhead clattered down the boardwalk stairs and into the sand, then waited for her lover. Tara accepted Willow's outstretched hand and, using her other hand to hike up her skirt, followed Willow into the surf.
Water sluiced over their feet and around their ankles, then around their calves. Willow ventured a few steps further and small waves broke around her knees. She turned to Tara and grinned. "Isn't this--" Her comment ended in a squeal as a wave caught her, sending a starburst of spray onto her shoulder blades. She laughed and dove beneath the waves.
Willow reemerged and wiped the wet hair from her eyes. "I know I said frolic, but"--she shrugged helplessly--"swim with me?"
Tara released her skirt. She pushed off the ocean floor and shot through a cresting wave, then surfaced past the breaking waves to find Willow floating on her back. The redhead righted herself and Tara could see a babble about salt, density and the Dead Sea in her eyes.
Instead, Willow chuckled. She bobbed over to Tara and quirked her eyebrows. "Everybody must think we're nuts, swimming with our clothes on."
Tara leaned forward and gave Willow an Eskimo kiss. "We're trendsetters."
Willow grinned. "Race you to the shore. Last one buys the cotton candy!"
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Willow took another bite of cotton candy. Her clothes were slightly lighter, having progressed from sopping wet to merely damp. "Look."
Tara turned from the water fountain. "Hmm?"
"I saw yonder balloon man and thought you might like one, so, behold: balloon," she explained, holding out the balloon in question. "Blue, 'cause, sky, ocean, it's all very thematic."
"Thank you." Tara smiled as she took the balloon, then took in Willow's sugarcoated chin. "You're messy."
"I am?" Willow asked, wiping the corners of her mouth. "Not neat is not nice."
Tara laughed, then leaned in and kissed Willow. She pulled back, a blush dusting her barely-tanned cheeks.
"Then again, not neat can be very nice."
She grinned and led Willow to a bench. Tara folded one leg beneath her and twisted to watch a little girl, caked in sand, furiously digging some kind of foxhole. At the feel of Willow's hand on her shoulder, she turned. "Hmm--"
Willow's lips met hers, sweet beyond the cotton candy. One of Tara's hands snaked into red hair; the other circled Willow's waist and pulled her close.
"The balloon!" Tara gasped, leaning back.
The string had escaped her, and they watched, faces raised to the sun, as the balloon rose into the sky, at first a smudge against the clouds, then nothing.