Chapter 18-Love Just Is

A/N: This chapter was written by Ozlover

"Morning, Will." Buffy mumbled when Willow got out of bed.

"Morning." Willow said, smiling.

"What time is it?" Buffy asked, turning over in bed to face her best friend.

"About six." Was the answer.

"Six? As in morning six?" Buffy asked. Willow nodded.

"Argh...I can't believe I'm awake this early." Buffy grumbled.

"Did you happen to dream about Fanta?" Willow asked suddenly.

"Yeah, How'd ya know?"

"Just a wild guess..." She trailed off. Buffy gave her a look. "Well, you were kinda saying that Fanta was fruit that bubbles...But in your sleep."

"You really need to wake me up when I do that." Buffy said, grinning.

"If I did that you wouldn't get a wink of sleep." Willow replied, smiling as well.

"I do it that much?" Buffy asked. Willow nodded.

"Did you dream of anything else in particular? Besides Fanta, I mean." Willow asked, curious. She went over to sit on Buffy's bed.

"Well...I was on a date with Spike at some fancy restaurant and we were all dressed up except I was one of those Fanta girls, from the commercial...And then Angel and Darla came and Darla was a Fanta girl too." Willow nodded, signaling for her to continue. "I was dressed in purple and her in yellow...And then we jumped up on a table and started fighting with those giant q-tip things." Buffy concluded. Willow burst into giggles, soon followed by Buffy. The girls got off of the bed and got dressed.

Buffy had to pick something to wear from her suitcase because of the damage done by the moths to her other clothes. She wore a lavender baby tee that read Hollister across the front in black and a black denim mini-skirt. She had black flip-flops to go with it. Willow put on a white babydoll top that had light blue flowers in varoius places. She also had on denim shorts and white flip-flops.

"I wonder if Oz is awake..." Willow thought aloud. The girls were up unusually early.

"Probably...Why?" Buffy grinned slyly.

Willow blushed. "N-no reason..."

"Cuz if he is down there- alone, I could just...Go in the kitchen...Eat some Lucky Charms...I'll do my best to ignore the noises." Buffy's grin widened. Willow's blush deepened.

"Shut up." Willow mumbled. There was a silence. "I was thinking alot last night- about Oz, and I think...Well, I think that I love him" Willow stammered. Buffy squealed happily.

"Aww, you guys are soo cute!" Buffy smiled.She glanced over at Willow, who was frowning. "What's wrong?" She aksed.

"Well, the thing is...I don't know how to tell him. And I don't know if he feels the same way, 'cause if I tell him and he doesn't love me back I might die o-or run away or something." Willow said, making wild hand gestures. Buffy reached over and stilled her hand.

"Don't worry about it. You have to let it happen on it's own. And when it does, he'll feel the same way." Buffy said reasurringly.

"Promise?" Willow asked.

"I promise." Buffy confirmed. She let her eyes wander to her nighstand, which had a jar sitting on it. The night before Willow helped Buffy catch some of the moths that were in her closet.

The girls headed into the hallway the same time Cordelia and Dawn did. Cordelia was wearing an indigo halter top and a denim, pleated mini-skirt. Dawn had on a thin, flowery white skirt that went to a little bit above her knees and a pink tank top that gathered at the top.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs they were greeted by Oz and Xander, who were sitting on the couch, watching TV. There was something on about another rapist being in the area, and another girl gone missing.

The girls went into the kitchen for breakfast.

"Lucky Charms. Be still my heart." Dawn joked as she pulled the box of cereal out of the cabinet.

"We really need more of a selection." Willow agreed.

Dawn opened the refridgerator. "Hey. We have Jell-o.Or...Remains of Jell-o. Looks like someone got to it last night." Dawn observed.

"When did we get Jell-o?" Cordelia asked. Dawn shrugged, grabbed a gallon container of milk and closed the fridge.

"Does anyone else want Lucky Charms?" Buffy called into the living room. She was answered with 'no's and 'no thanks'. She realized that Connor had joined them on the couch. Darla was the next teen to come downstairs.

"You're making breakfast?" Darla asked Buffy. Without waiting for her response she said: "Well, I'll have a cheese and ham omlet, bacon, a pancake a glass of milk."

There was an odd silence.

Buffy pulled out the box of cereal. "Oh, sorry. Fresh outta everything. I hope this is okay." Buffy sneered at her. Willow took her by the arm and dragged her out of the kitchen before she and Darla got into a fight. Buffy just grinned sheepishly. Everyone was watching The Top 20 Countdown on VH1. Angel came down the stairs about half an hour later. Everyone was still watching TV.

At about 9:00 AM Jenny came through the front door along with Giles, who was looking considerably grumpy.

"Hey Mom. Uh, where were you guys?" Xander asked the question that was on everyone's minds.

"Well, we were out...And we just happened to come across something we thought you kids might enjoy." Jenny answered with a sly grin. Then teens exchanged glances. Except for Darla, who was inspecting her nails.

"What is it?" Buffy asked, when the suspense finally got to her.

"Go outside and see for yourself." Jenny smiled widely as all of the teens jumped up from the couch and ran towards the door. She and Giles followed them out.

"Holy shit!" Xander exclaimed excitedly when he saw. Jenny smacked him in the back of his head for using that language. "Crap, I mean." He said sheepishly.

Sitting right there in the front yard were -not one- but two brand new Kawasaki jet skis. One was green, black and white. The other aqua and black. There were scattered 'whoas' and 'wows' and 'thank yous'.

"You better like them." Giles mumbled. "We spent a bloody fortune..." Jenny just smiled sweetly at him, knowing that he was secretly glad to have them. She knew he'd always wanted one.

Xander and Oz carried one jet ski out back and Angel and Connor carried the other.

"Sweet Mother of God, that thing is heavy." Xander panted. The other three guys agreed.

"Does anybody here know how to drive one?" Buffy asked...Silence...

"It can't be that hard..." Xander said. No one volunteered to try it first, so..."Fine. I'll go figure it out." Xander said as he walked over to the green. black and white jet ski. Angel helped him push it into the water. Xander patted the back sat, motioning for Cordelia to join him.

"Are you kidding?" Cordelia asked incredulously. "You've never driven one of these things before. What if you kill me!"

Xander sighed. "Don't worry about me, honey. I'll be just fine." He said sarcastically. Cordelia rolled her eyes, walked up to the jet ski and sat down on the black, cushioned seat behind Xander.

"If you kill me on this thing I'm gonna be really pissed." Cordelia warned. When Xander started the thing up, Cordelia jumped and held on to him tightly.

"Don't worry. Just hold on and you'll be fine." Xander said over the rumbling noises. Cordelia nodded meekly and held on tighter. Soon they were off. They only tipped over once, and the other teens could hear Cordelia screaming about her clothes from their place on the beach.

But surprisingly, it wasn't all that hard to figure out. (To people who actually have driven one of these:if it IS hard to figure out- Sorry, I've never driven one before...Please have mercy!)

When Xander steered it back to shore, he taught everyone else how to work it. To avoid anymore wet clothes incidents, everyone went back to the house to change into their bathing suits.

When they got back outside Darla made Angel take her on one of the jet skis. Oz drove Willow around on the other one. Then Xander and Cordelia went and so did Connor and Dawn. Angel offered to give Buffy a ride a few times, and she accepted, only to have Angel be dragged off by Darla and yelled at. So Xander gave Buffy a ride. Everyone switched off for a while, and the girls all drove together for a little while. Needless to say they were entertained for hours.

When they went back to the house arounf noon for lunch, Connor found a note on the refrigerator from Jenny saying that she and Giles would be gone until later that evening and for them to order a big lunch from somewhere because it would be their dinner as well.

"How about Chinese?" Xander joked.

"NO!" Was the reply from everyone.

They eventually decided on Mexican take-out.

"The restaurant is a good ways away from here and they won't deliver it to our house." Xander explained.

"Angel and I can go get it." Darla volunteered, much to everyone's surprise. Buffy grinned to herself. With Darla gone for a while she could execute her plans...

Everyone wrote down their orders, added extra stuff in for dinner, gave the list to Darla and Angel, and they were off. The other teens were outside at the pool. Cordelia was tanning and Buffy, Willow, Dawn, Connor, Oz and Xander were in the pool. Oz and Connor were chasing their girlfriends around, and Xander was chasing Buffy. Cordelia decided that she was bored and joined them in the pool. When she did, the teens set up the net across the pool and played volleyball- girls vs. boys. That ended when Xander was a sore loser and jumped on the volleyball net, tangling himself up in it. Then he commenced chasing all the girls, looking ridiculous in the hot pink volleyball net.

The seven teens began to worry when Angel and Darla didn't show up. They'd been gone for an hour and a half. The Mexican place was about twenty minutes away.(Yet they still wouldn't deliver to the house...tsk tsk tsk...)

This was good news to Buffy, who slunk upstairs while everyone else was playing video games in the basement. She stopped and her and Willow's room first and got the jar of moths and a bowl of something. She sneaked into Darla's room and was in there for about five minutes. She sat down on the floor in the basement next to Cordelia just in time for Darla to open the basement door and yell: "Food's here!"

"Jeez, what took you guys so long?" Xander asked when he and everyone else was in the kitchen, getting food and drinks.

"We got a little lost." Angel said, not looking at Xander. Xander could tell by Angel's messy hair and rumpled clothes that that was a lie.

"Sure you did." Xander said, grinning slyly. Angel returned the smile.

After they ate, the teens decided what to do for the rest of the day.

"I need to go to the mall." Buffy said. "Last night, moths somehow managed to get into my closet and now I have itty-bitty holes in most of my clothes." She said bitterly, glaring at Darla, who just ignored her gaze. All of the girls, including Darla were going to the mall with Buffy. The guys said that they needed to practice their instruments more, even though all of the girls insisted that they sounded great. Since Jenny and Giles were gone, they could use amps, which was a plus.

Everyone said their goodbyes and the girls were about to leave when Darla realized that she had the 'totally wrong shoes for her outfit' and rushed upstairs to find her black, leather boots. She saw them right where she left them-next to her bed. She slipped out of her other shoes, but when she slid her feet into her boots, she got a big shock. She tried to shake the boots off of her feet to no avail. She ended up tripping and falling onto the floor. She screamed and pulled the boots off of her feet. There was green slimy chunks of something falling out of her shoes and stuck to her feet. It sorta looked like...

"BUFFY!"

...Green Jell-o.

She would get Buffy back later. Now she needed a pair of shoes to put on. She opened her closet and a swarm of moths flew out. Alot of her clothes had little holes in them (A/N: Now, I'm fairly sure that moths don't eat clothes that quickly...Just pretend...)

Darla was furious. How dare she turn her own prank against her! She stomped angrily , her face turning red. It was safe to say that she'd never been angrier in her life. She wiped her feet off on the carpet, put on a different pair of boots and stomped downstairs, leaving the mess behind for later.

"Good thing we're going to the mall." Darla spat, while glaring at Buffy. "'Cause I'm having a moth problem in my closet too." She stormed out of the house, got into her spotrs car and sped off towards the mall without a word.

Buffy tried not to laugh. "Bye!" She called as she rushed to the door, followed by three other giggling girls.

"Women." Xander sighed. He and the other guys started to set up their instruments.

The girls giggled all the way to the mall.

"So that's where all the Jell-o went." Dawn observed with a smile.

When Cordelia pulled into the mall parking lot the girls spotted Darla's car, which they parked very far away from.

While in the mall, they only ran into Darla once or twice. If they sw her in a store, they'd turn around and go in later. In American Eagle, Buffy was trying on a bunch of clothes.

"I like these." Buffy said, admiring herself in a new pair of short khaki shorts.

"Your butt looks hot." Cordelia agreed and all the girls giggled some more.

"You know, this turned out okay." Buffy replied.

"What do you mean?" Willow asked.

"This. With the moths eating my stuff. Because it's fun to go shopping...And it's fun to watch Darla bustle around the mall all angry looking...And it's a really good way to spend time with my best friends." She told them sincerely. All the girls smiled and Buffy went back into the changing room.

"Here, I got more stuff for you to try on." Willow said, hanging more clothes over the fitting room door.

"Thanks, Wil. Aw, this is soo cute!" She said as she looked over a denim mini-skirt Willow gave her to try on.

"Oh, great." Buffy heard Cordelia say...Well, groan was more like it.

"What's wrong?' Buffy asked.

"Darla's here." Dawn observed, putting emphasis on the word 'Darla'. Buffy poked her head out of the stall and sure enough, there she was, pawing through bathing suits and underwear.

"Ugh. I'll try this stuff on quickly so we can get outta here." Buffy said as she closed the stall door.

" Maybe she'll leave...And we can stay. We'll be looking for more clothes, mmkay?" Dawn asked.

"Yeah."

After the three girls left, Darla strutted into the fitting room area with an armload of stringy, tiny clothes. There was no assistant nearby, so she took the liberty of finding a stall herself. There were a few other people standing around waiting for a stall, but Darla pushed past them. She recognized Buffy's shoes in one of the stalls and grinned evilly. Suddenly, she ripped open the door to reveal Buffy standing there in a skirt and a bra.(Buffy had forgotten to lock the door because she was constantly coming out of the stall to show her friends the clothes she was trying on)

"Oops, I thought it was empty." Darla replied innocently. Buffy made an angry grunting noise and slammed the door shut in her face and locked it. Darla just smiled and went into another stall.

Buffy tried on the rest of the clothes she had in the stall with her and went to find her friends. She ended up buying two shirts, a denim mini-skirt, a white ruffled mini-skirt with pink flowers, a pair of khaki shorts and a pink belt.

"On to the next store!" Cordelia announced, as all the girls linked arms.

The went to Pacsun and Hollister, finding everything they needed there. The other girls bought some new clothes as well. They stopped for ice cream on the way home from the mall and made it home about the same time Darla did. Darla got Angel to help her lug her all of her shopping bags upstairs into her room.

"Now what do you wanna do?" Xander asked, directing the question at anyone who had an idea...Silence...

"We could just walk on the beach or whatever." Dawn suggested. Everyone agreed, seeing as they were at a loss of ideas. And since everyone still had their bathing suits on they could swim if they wanted to.

As soon as they got on the beach, they coupled up. leaving Buffy all alone. She thought about calling Spike, then decided not to. He was probably practicing with his band or something. She didn't mind being alone for a little while. She needed to think on some things anyway.

Connor and Dawn immediately stripped down to their bathing suits and went into the ocean. The sun was in the process of setting, making the ocean glow beautifully.

Darla and Angel walked alongside the beach until Darla spotted a little tent used for changing and she dragged Angel in with her.

Xander and Cordelia walked hand-in-hand at the water's edge for awhile, then spotted a small beach shack that was selling surf-boards and shell jewlery and they decided to stop and look.

Buffy sat on the shore, with her knees tucked in to her chest, letting the water come up to her feet, then retreat back, then come back to her feet, over and over. Not that she was paying any attention to that. Her mind was on other things...Like her complicated love life.

Willow and Oz sat down on a wall that over looked the ocean. If they wanted to they could jump down and land right in the water.

0000

Dawn and Connor were making out in the water, trying to stay afloat when a huge wave ripped them apart.

Dawn just laughed and sorta choked at the same time. They just picked up right where they left off.

Darla and Darla finally emerged from the tent, their clothes and hair looking disheveled. A crowd of people had gathered outside the tent, wanting to change. The two just ignored their angry glares and walked in the opposite direction.

Xander bought a sea-shell necklace for Cordelia, which they promised the cashier they'd pick up later- after they swam for a little while.

Buffy sat, enjoying the sound of the waves crashing and sea gulls cawing when she heard her name being called from somewhere. In a sexy Britsh accent too. No, not like Giles'...

Buffy turned around to see Spike jogging toward her.

"Hey." Spike said when he got his breath.

"Hey." Buffy returned softly.

"What's wrong?" Spike asked, immediately sensing that something was up with his girlfriend.

"Nothing." Buffy lied.

"You can tell me." Spike told her sincerely.

"Well...It's just..." Buffy trailed off, avoiding his gaze. She could see Spike nod out of the corber of her eye, wanting her to continue. "I just kinda want to be alone...I need to think about some stuff." Buffy said honestly.

"Oh. Okay." Spike said, trying not to sound hurt.

"I'm sorry."

"No, no it's okay, I understand." Spike said, standing up and brushing sand off himself. "Well, I'll see you around then."

Buffy nodded. "Bye."

"Bye, luv."

Then he was gone. Buffy felt tears stinging her eyes. But she wouldn't let them fall. She just continued to sit silently, giving in to the sounds of the waves crashing on the shore.

Willow and Oz also sat in silence for a while.

"It's beautiful." Willow commented on the now almost set sun.

"I know." Oz said, looking over at her. She turned to face him and smiled sweetly. Out of nowhere, Oz leaned over and pulled her into a hug. Willow realized how perfectly she fit in his arms- Which was where she wanted to stay. Forever.

God, she wanted to tell him how she felt so badly. It felt like the right time, so...

"I wanna tell you something." Willow and Oz said simultaniously. They both smiled.

"You go first." Oz told her.

Willow gulped silently, regretting bringing this up. "Well, Oz, I've been t-thinking...About us a-and stuff..." She studdered, blushing a little. Oz nudged her gently, wanting her to continue. "Well...I...I love you, Oz." She finished, refusing to look him in the eye.

"Wow." Oz whispered. Willow looked up with questioning eyes. "Oh, that's what I was gonna say." He explained with a soft smile.

"Really?" Willow asked, amazed that he felt the same way.

"Really." Oz confirmed. The two leaned in and kissed passionately. Needless to say, Buffy was right about the whole 'I love you' thing.

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About a half hour after the sun set, the teens met up and swam in the ocean for awhile, then decided it would be more fun to swim in the pool after midnight, so they went back to the house. (After Xander and Cordelia made a quick stop to pick up Cordelia's necklace they had left at the shack) The guys played video games while the girls touched up on their nails. Darla had to clean the green stains out of the carpet in her room.

All of the girls except Darla went down to the basement to watch a movie with the guys.

"Let's watch The Little Mermaid." Dawn joked as she and the other girls looked through Xander's collection of movies and DVD's. The girls giggled.

"Let's not." Xander said.

"Aw, is Xander embarrassed or having a little girl movie?" Cordelia asked in a baby voice.

"No." Xander said defensively, crossing his arms.

"Why do you even have this movie?" Dawn asked. Xander didn't answer.

"Hey, Ariel was pretty hot. I bet that's why Xander has it." Angel grinned, coming to Xander's rescue.

"Yeah, that's it." Xander replied.

The girls exchanged glances and started giggling again. They ended up watching War of the Worlds (the older version), which got all the guys pumped up. The guys all grabbed their girlfriends, (Xander was able to carry Buffy as well as Cordelia) carried them out to the pool and thew them in with their clothes on over their bathing suits.

Darla got pissed, stomped out of the pool and sprawled out on a beach chair to dry. Everyone else had a blast splashing and chasing each other in the water. That lasted for about two hours. By then, everyone was exausted and headed up to their rooms to get some sleep.