Everyone decided to pitch in this year for their Easter dinner. No one is particularly religious but then again, no one quite wanted to pass on a holiday where everyone gets baskets full of candy and treats. Also add in a nice home-cooked feast and it was a day that everyone was looking forward to for weeks.

Willow and Kennedy spent two days making every kind of dessert they could come up with. Andrew and Dawn were in charge of the ham and side dishes and Buffy was in charge of the salads. Giles sprang for the necessary beverages including a few of the alcoholic variety.

Xander had taken the liberty of filling and hiding baskets of goodies for everyone, which just left Faith without a task to do. Buffy and Andrew had mutually decided to put her in charge of coloring the eggs. It was something simple and something that would hopefully hold her attention seeing as that everything else they'd suggested made her roll her eyes or flat out refuse.

But really, she had no intention of dressing up like a giant fluffy bunny for the benefit of the group. Xander had her back on that one.

Of course, though, Faith waited until the last possible moment to do her task. While everyone else was busy enjoying their baskets and getting ready for their Easter dinner, Faith was isolated away in the basement coloring about three dozen eggs. Buffy tried to check in on her several times but Faith shouted at her to go away, arguing that she was going to ruin the surprise.

Buffy was pretty sure that Faith's self-imposed isolation was kind of the opposite of what holidays were for – togetherness – but she let it go and let Faith do her thing. She could barely wait to see the end product. She really hoped for the sake of the group that Faith didn't let her usually x-rated mind win over.

That could prove for some really interesting Easter eggs!

Hours later when she emerged with three trays of perfectly colored eggs, everyone was in awe. She'd really gone all out; no two eggs were alike and several were customized for select people. Xander had a pirate egg with a little black eye patch on it. Giles' egg had on a tiny pair of wire-rimmed glasses made from a bent up paperclip. Willow's egg had on a little witch hat and Kennedy's was covered in tiny little band-aids, a homage to the last time she'd gotten her butt kicked on patrol.

"Oh baby, they're perfect," Buffy said happily, closely inspecting her little Buffy-egg. It had blonde hair and looked to be holding a tiny little stake.

"See? Never doubt my level of awesome, B," Faith replied cockily.

She snatched the egg from Buffy's hand and placed it on her place setting at the large dining room table. Andrew and Dawn were busy bringing in bowls and plates of food from the adjoining kitchen and once everything was set, everyone sat down at their designated place. Between the cute little eggs and the great smells from the abundance of food, no one could stop smiling. It really was turning out to be a perfect day.

They held up their glasses and toasted to health, wealth, happiness and no apocalypses for the foreseeable future, then promptly tucked into their food.

"They're so pretty," Willow commented as she held up her egg and studied it closely. "I almost hate to have to break it.

"Well I don't," Xander said, grinning. "Everyone appreciate pirate-egg because it's the last pirate joke any of you get to make about me. Really. It's getting a bit played out."

He held up his egg, let everyone get one last look at it, then tapped it on the side of his plate to start a crack to he could peel the shell off.

That was when the shell crumbled into about a million pieces and the yolk spilled all over his plate of food. His mouth opened in shock, as did everyone else's at the table before the laughing began.

"Hey Faith?" Buffy began, trying to hide her grin. "Any chance you forgot to boil the eggs?"

Faith sighed in defeat.

"Could be worse," she said after a moment. "At least I didn't accidentally drop the ham on the floor when I thought no one was looking."

And suddenly all eyes were on Andrew who blushed crimson red and Faith's gaffe was long forgotten. The room was completely silent until Giles finally spoke up.

"Who fancies some Chinese take away? My treat."

Everyone at the table raised their hand and then promptly cracked up laughing.