So since NCIS is quite possibly the most amazing show ever, I decided to try my hand at writing a short story about the best couple on the show after I finished my happy dance over the season premiere finally airing. This is my first fic ever outside of "Rookie Blue", and I don't know how it turned out, so please tell me what you think! Good, bad, indifference...just no flames please!

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or any of the character.

Hope you all enjoy! xx

The ding of the elevator was too common a sound to elicit a reaction in Tony, but the voice that soon followed brought an unexpected happiness.

"Hello Tony. I'm back," a very familiar voice called as he looked up. His eyes narrowed and darkened for a split second as he took in the view of the woman walking towards him. Her smile held all sorts of meanings behind it, and her face...her face was a sight he had sorely missed.

"Well hello, Little Miss Sunshine State," he said with a grin, "and don't you look balmy." He wasn't going to pretend he wasn't jealous that she had gotten the choice assignment for the case, but knowing Ziva, he was half certain she wouldn't understand the meaning of the word.

"I do not know what balmy means," she said, affirming Tony's guess as she took off her hat, "but I will assume it is not good." The little smirk on her face conveyed to him that though she didn't know the definition of the word, she definitely understood the meaning - his jealousy - behind it.

"Well, just because I was alone, manning the fort, handling Gibbs solo, while you've been strolling around South Beach dancing to the rhythm of the night, why would I have the need to say anything negative?" He gave a little laugh and resumed typing meaningless words into his search engine, defiantly avoiding looking at her.

"Because, you are you," Ziva stated matter-of-factly. She wasn't at all pleased with what he was insinuating. "Besides, I was working the whole time."

Tony gave another short laugh, this time expressing incredulity. "Hah!"

"Hah what?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him. Tony swiveled his chair around and grabbed a file from the open cabinet drawer behind him. "Working," he muttered, turning around to face her again. "Are those tan lines?" he asked, in a condescending tone, as if speaking to a child.

Ziva's expression changed to one he knew well as she looked down at her shoulders and back at him. "Where do you think you're looking?" she asked, a teasing, flirty smile ghosting her face.

"Does it even matter?" he asked, a trace of a smile appearing on his face as well. He would never admit it, but he had run his gaze over her body a few times when she had first walked back into the office, drinking in the curvy figure he had greatly lacked for the past few months, and had fully appreciated the amount of smooth, tanned skin she was showing in her sleeveless blue top.

"Well actually, yes it does," she stated, her face a carefully sculpted mask of indifference, "and I can assure you, I do not have any tan lines," she finished.

"Oh," Tony said, his eyes growing wide as he took in the hidden meaning behind her words, "so you did lay in the sun."

"Yes I did actually," she answered, getting up from her desk and walking over to where he was sitting, "this morning before my flight, and I came up with something case-related prior to my departure." Her brow furrowed as she leaned on Tony's desk, looking at the man next to her.

Tony's eyes closed, and he allowed himself a brief moment of pleasure as he envisioned his partner...lying on the sun-drenched beach...alone...and naked. A tiny shiver ran down his spine at the extremely inappropriate images that were now running rampant through his mind. He inhaled sharply, and while he wasn't met with her usual scent of cinnamon and vanilla (a combination he could never quite understand how she got), a new, equally pleasant smell graced his nostrils.

"You smell like ocean and shea butter," he said, his voice low and husky. He opened his eyes and was momentarily mute as he gazed into her dark eyes, her face inches away from his.

Ziva's mouth opened slightly, a teasing smile on her face, and Tony wasn't sure if she was going to kiss him or come up with a snappy retort. She did neither of the two, instead beginning to talk about their current case, but not before she licked her lips slightly, a motion that was not lost on him.

Ten hours later

The knocking had barely stopped before the door was ripped open.

"What took you so long?" Tony asked, slightly breathless from both the sprint to the door and the sight of the person in front of him.

"I had to buy some of this," Ziva said softly, holding out a bottle of shea butter. She stepped inside and closed the door behind her, slowly undoing the sash that tied her trench coat together. The front fell open, and Tony's senses were sent off-kilter at the sight of his very naked partner. He took a step closer and snaked a hand inside her coat and around her waist, pulling her into him.

"Since you couldn't come along with me to Florida, I thought I'd bring Florida to you," she said, a satisfied smile turning the corners of her lips as his hands moved downwards.

"Four months is a long time Ziva," he murmured, his eyes dark and smoky.

"Which is precisely why I plan to..." she stood on her tiptoes and whispered in his ear, her lips gently moving over his sensitive skin. His face lit up in a delighted daze as her words sent waves of heat throughout his body. He growled and lifted her onto his hips, carrying her to the bedroom, his heart dancing as she smiled against his lips that were plundering her mouth.

He laid her down on the bed, and momentarily broke contact to look down at her.

"Welcome home, Ziva."