The two of them were in one of their moods today. Ducky would call it a silly mood; Gibbs would call it them being idiots and McGee would just call it them being weird and promptly get out of the area as fast as he could. Whatever it was you wanted to call it, it started with them doing their normal banter for flirting and it had progressed to outright teasing and was veering quickly into nonsense. Well, the nonsense was more from Tony but you got the gist. Either way, neither of them were reacting particularly rationally and they were feeding off each other's energy.

They were at the point where only Gibbs could get them back under control with a well-timed bark. Except that there was no Gibbs right now. There was no one to keep them in line, not even a little bit.

They had just been fooling around, slipping sand down each other's backs (which was going to definitely bite them in the ass later) and trying to trip each other up so they went sprawling into the carpet of seaweed on this beach. Seriously, there was a lot of seaweed, they were basically wading through it. He was going to smell of it for weeks. Ziva had managed to trip him up once and, of course, he had yet to get her no matter how hard he tried. He wasn't sure why he even bothered. Well, he kind of did. Her laughter every time he tried and missed. He didn't mind being unsuccessful if it meant he heard that.

And then he tumbled face first into the sand again because he had been distracted and Ziva took advantage of that. Okay, maybe he did mind being unsuccessful.


Tony, for some reason, decided that this meant that he should squirt her with his water bottle. She spluttered as she got a good mouthful of it, splashing it down her front and soaking her. It was not even that warm a day! It was not going to evaporate that quickly!

And before she knew it, they were chasing each other down the beach. Well, she was chasing Tony. He could hardly chase her if she was chasing him, they were not going around in circles. She was very much in pursuit of him.

At least this would warm her up, it was a cold November day and she had not exactly found the beach experience enjoyable. In fact, she had been on the brink of asking Tony if they could just go home because it was too cold. But then one of them had started teasing the other (she still could not remember who had started kt) and then this had happened. Which was not a bad thing. Like she had said, this was more fun.

Tony was laughing as he ran, which just made her more annoyed even though she knew the whole thing was ridiculous. She picked up some speed even though she had not been intending to catch him. Yet, anyway. But his taunting laughter had changed that so really, it was his own fault.

She could not tell you when she picked up the seaweed or even why. All she knew that she had a length of it in her hands and she was chasing Tony with it. He seemed to run faster when he saw what was in her hand Which made no sense because it wasn't even a threatening weapon, it was just wet and slimy. Though, to be fair she would not like to be hit by something like seaweed either. But Tony was going to be.

Speaking of Tony, he had stopped running and now crouched to the ground. Ziva narrowed her eyes and tried to decide whether or not to tackle him. This would be the perfect chance, she just had to...

Suddenly her vision was blocked by a mass of green and a salty taste in her mouth. Argh! He had thrown seaweed at her. The tendrils were in her hair and against her face. It was all slimy!

Shaking her head in an attempt to free it, she heard a "Whoop!" from Tony as he continued to run. She cursed in at least three different languages when she realised that shaking her head wasn't going to get rid of it all as it had tangled itself in her curls. She was going to have to pluck it out.

Oh, she was definitely going to have to get her own back for that. The question was how? And with what? She looked around for ideas. She could not go with seaweed again, they had already both used it. And she would have to think quickly because he had already sprinted away.

Thankfully, she was fast and by setting off in a dead sprint she was easily able to catch up with him. Or, almost catch up with him because she wanted to catch him off guard. Which meant being a bit sneaky and not running right up to him.

She had to be very careful because the sand was more damp down here and would make a noise if she stepped incorrectly. So, she had to be swift. She could do that. Tony did not call her a ninja for nothing, after all.

Bending down briefly to pick something up, she narrowed her eyes at her target. This had to be timed just right or else It would not work. And she needed this to work.

Moving quickly, she lunged forwards and pulled his collar back. Tony yelped loudly as wet sand was poured down his back. She managed to pour a good amount before he jerked away from her and she had to let go or else she would have lost her balance.

"Argh! What the hell, Ziva?" He shouted, pulling his shirt away from his back in an effort to let the sand run free.

This is when him having a hairy back was not in his favour and why it was such a good idea for her to use wet sand. It stuck to him! She burst out into laughter.

"It's down my underwear!" He complained, doing a funny little dance as he tried to shake himself free of all the sand.