"Wa-hoo! Tropica here we come!" Finn yelled as the terra came into sight.

Piper sighed heavily. It was typical Finn to get super excited about Tropica. Aerrow chuckled.

"Don't worry Piper. We really needed a break. Besides, if Finn won't shut up, I'll make him."

Piper smiled at him.

"Thanks, but Kaya already said SHE would make Finn zip it. You know how effective she is."

"Believe me, I know."

"Come on guys! Those waves won't wait forever!" Finn yelled.

"Oh shut up about surfing and waves Finn or I'll make you!" Kaya shouted at the blond, chasing him toward the hangar, her beach bag slung over her shoulder.

Aerrow and Piper rolled their eyes and went to get their beach gear too.

A few minutes later, they were all on the fine, white sand. Well, almost all of them.

"Where's Piper?" Aerrow asked Kaya, who was sitting next to him munching on a hot dog Junko had prepared (it wasn't a gross oddity Junko would usually cook).

"She's still getting changed. Her other bathing suit was feeling a little tight, so I bought her a new one. She's just feeling a little shy." Kaya added slyly.

"Why would she need to feel shy?" Aerrow asked.

Kaya just finished devouring her hot dog, when something caught her eye. She grinned and turned Aerrow's head in that something's direction.

"That's why." she said pointing at Piper, dressed in a bright blue, two-piece swimsuit and her hair down, pushed back from her face with a bright blue hairband.

Aerrow's heart stopped right then and there. At least, he felt his heart stop. All he could do was stare, his jaw hanging loosely and his eyes open wide in astonishment. Kaya closed Aerrow's mouth and waved her hand in front of his eyes to snap him out of his trance. He shook his head and watched as Piper walked over to a large rock pointing over the water, like a natural diving platform.

"She's quite the knock-out isn't she?" Kaya asked.

"Tell me about it." Aerrow replied.

Kaya giggled.

"You've got to tell her eventually."

"Tell her what?" Aerrow asked hurriedly, hoping Kaya didn't mean what he knew she meant.

"That you've got a monster-sized crush on her, that you love her. Besides, if you don't tell her…" at this, Kaya had on a sinisterly creepy face that Stork would usually have. "…I'm gonna tell her."

"WHAT!? But that's…"

"…blackmail, I know, I'm a master at it."

Aerrow grumbled curses under his breath before answering:

"Fine, I'll tell her before the day is out. But if you say a word to her in advance…"

"I won't! Don't worry! Now you might want to take a look over thereby."

Aerrow looked just as Piper dove magnificently off the rock and into the clear blue water. As she rose to the surface, she tossed her head back to take a long gasp of air, flipping her hair out her face and scattering water droplets all around her. And again, Aerrow felt his heart stop, before it started up again in a wild "bum-bum, bum-bum, bum-bum". Oh yeah, he really had it bad for that girl.

As Piper broke the surface of the water, she felt like someone was watching her. She turned around just in time to see Aerrow snap his head away from her direction. Almost as if he'd been watching her before. But Piper wasn't thinking of that now. She could only look at Aerrow, not able to take her eyes off him. He really was every kind of hot; especially that he wasn't wearing a shirt. Even from a distance, one would have to be blind to miss his perfect 6-pack.

Piper shook her head and gave herself a small hit on the head. If she kept thinking like this, she would make a fool of herself right in front of him, which was one of the last things she wanted. She began swimming back toward the shore, until she heard a whooshing sound.

She turned around and let out a small scream. An enormous wave was rising behind her, with Finn surfing on the top yelling like crazy. She plunged again under the water and tried to swim out of there, but wasn't fast enough. The force of the wave swept her up and the current practically threw her onto the beach. Thankfully, the sand was soft so that she didn't hurt herself. But she ended up with seaweed in her now messy hair.

"Great, that's just great. Thanks a lot Finn!" she shouted at the blond who had also arrived on the beach.

Finn took one look at her and burst out laughing. Junko soon joined in the laughter.

"Oh man! You look like a ship-wreck!" Finn gasped in between laughs.

Piper groaned, trying in vain to pull the seaweed out of her blue hair.

"Don't listen to him." Aerrow said walking over to her.

Piper blushed lightly as the boy gently combed the green weeds out of her blue locks.

"You still look fine to me." he added.

Now, Piper just knew her cheeks were as red as they could get. Unfortunately, the sharpshooter noticed her blush (who wouldn't).

"AWWW! How cute!" Finn said loudly.

Now both Aerrow and Piper were blushing as Finn began singing:

"Aerrow and Piper sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G…"

But before he could go on, Kaya whacked him on the head.

"SHUT UP!" she roared.

Instantly, Finn shut up and ran for his life as Kaya chased him with a surfboard, trying to hit him with it.

"I'd, better go dry off." Piper said.

"Yeah, I'm gonna see if I can prevent Kaya from actually killing Finn."

They went their separate ways, each cursing about how they were both so close, and yet so far.

A few hours later, as the sun began to dip into the sky, Aerrow sat on the beach. He had spent the rest of the afternoon trying to catch Kaya before she murdered Finn and trying to calm Kaya down afterwards. The day was nearly over, and he wasn't able to confess his feelings to Piper. He had been so close. Now, the sun was starting to set, and he felt further away from the navigator than he had before. He had told himself that this would be the day he told her, not just because Kaya blackmailed him to do it, but because he'd also had enough of his own silence.

"What are you doing?" a voice asked him.

He looked up. It was Kaya, as he'd suspected.

"Nothing." he answered.

It was true. He wasn't really doing anything besides just sitting here.

"That's not what you SHOULD be doing." Kaya said.

"I was close Kaya. I tried, you know I did."

"But you've got to try one last time. Look." she said, pointing to the setting sun.

"The sun has JUST started to set, the day's not over. And look at the sky! It's positively gorgeous! This kind of sunset only happens once in a long time."

She looked at Aerrow.

"This sunset was made for you two. But it'll only be here only today, so go and tell her while the time is right." she finished pointing in the direction Piper had gone a few minutes ago.

Aerrow looked up at her and nodded. He got up, patted Kaya on the head saying: "Thanks Kaya.", and went to find Piper.

The blue-haired girl sat alone on the beach, watching the sun as it set. Why hadn't she just told Aerrow how she felt about him when she had the chance? What had stopped her (besides Finn)?

"Hey." Aerrow said.

Piper looked up and smiled at him as he sat down next to her. Maybe hope wasn't lost yet.

"Hey yourself." she replied.

They just sat there for a few moments before Aerrow summoned up all of his courage and said:

"Piper, I have something to tell you, something I've been meaning to tell you for a long time."

"I needed to tell you something too. But you go first."

Aerrow looked into her bright carnelian eyes. Piper edged closer to him, looking at him with open curiosity.

"Piper, I love you. I've loved ever since I've met you. You are everything to me and the only thing I could ever want from you is this: could you ever by some chance love me back?"

"You don't need a chance…" Piper whispered. "…because I love you too. I have ever since I first laid eyes on you."

Relieved and overjoyed that she loved him back; Aerrow kissed Piper, not able to take one more moment of separation from her. She tilted her head to deepen the kiss and let her arms snake around Aerrow's neck. His arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her closer. Piper moaned in pleasure as Aerrow's gentle fingers caressed her exposed skin. The fiery colors of the sunset seemed to surround them, brilliantly magnifying the precious moment. And this time, there was no Finn to interrupt it. Well, that's actually a lie.

"Woa-oa-oah! Dude, get a room!

Aerrow and Piper quickly separated to glare at Finn.

"Do you mind?" Aerrow asked the wing-man.

"Actually I do mind." he said, until Kaya's staff began glowing and the owner glowered menacingly at him.

"But I don't really mind anymore." he added to be safe from yet another Kaya massacre.

"You know what guys…" Kaya said addressing Aerrow and Piper. "Instead of leaving the day after tomorrow as we'd planned, how we stay here for a little longer? You two guys deserve a break, don't YOU think so Finn?" she added poking Finn with her staff.

"I guess we could stay here for a few more days." Aerrow said.

"That's fine with me." Piper added.

"Yes!" Finn whispered. "More waves for the Finnster!"

"Oy." Kaya said rolling her eyes, following Finn as he left.

Aerrow looked back at Piper.

"The sun still hasn't set yet. Want to continue where we left off?" he asked, wrapping his arms around her again.

"Definitely." she said as they shared their second, but far from last, kiss.