Faith was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and the newspaper, happily minding her own business while everyone else was out doing errands. It was very rare to have the house so empty and peaceful, and Faith was taking full advantage. Instead of blaring her music, she was just basking in the silence and in the fact that no one was walking by and stealing sips from her mug or taking sections of the paper that she was interested in.

Also, she may or may not have been wearing pants.

Okay, she wasn't. Being pantless was just another way of celebrating her glorious alone-ness.

The split door to the back yard was open only on the top and a nice crisp fall breeze was blowing in. Really, it was a perfect morning.

Naturally, Faith was disappointed when she heard a car rolling up the driveway but she smiled when, a few moments later she heard two voices coming up the rear sidewalk and toward the door. It was Buffy and Andrew, back from grocery shopping and bickering back and forth about only god knew what.

To be honest, the conversations - or arguments - that Buffy and Andrew had were endlessly amusing. Faith set the newspaper down on the table and focused instead on the conversation they were having, a small smile already gracing her face.

"Not even."

"Yes even."

"Well I don't believe you."

"Why would I make that up?"

"Because you take amusement in trying to scare me with your tales of beasts and horribleness."

"It's not for my amusement, Andrew. I'm simply warning you that swarms of vampiric bees do exist. Scientists cross-bred honeybees with mosquitoes and it went horribly wrong. They got loose in Mexico and are flying further and further north every day. Giles thinks they'll reach Cleveland before the season is up if they haven't gotten here already."

There was a long pause before Faith heard Andrew skeptically reply, "Not even."

"Way even," Buffy replied, her voice getting louder as they approached the door. "But fine; don't believe me. Don't say I didn't warn you."

Okay, clearly Buffy was having way too much fun with this. Faith's bad habits had obviously been rubbing off on her. That alone made Faith smile proudly. She continued smiling as Buffy and Andrew appeared at the split door.

"Faith, tell Andrew about the vampiric beesquitoes," Buffy said with a wink that Andrew missed.

"What, you mean like the one flying around his shoulder?" Faith asked.

Andrew's eyes widened and he quickly looked from his left shoulder to his right where, conveniently, a tiny honeybee was flying around and finally landed on him. The grocery bags he was carrying hit the concrete pad with a thud.

"Save yourselves!" he shrieked before taking off into the yard.

Faith stood up and walked over to the split door, watching with amusement as Andrew hopped over the fence at the end of their property and dove into the neighbor's in-ground pool. After a moment she looked over at Buffy who was smiling proudly.

"You're gettin' pretty good at that, B. Think I might be a bad influence on you."

Buffy leaned up on her tip-toes and placed a kiss on Faith's lips, then started handing bags in over the lower half of the door. Faith took them easily and then opened the door so Buffy could come through with the remaining bags.

"Bad influence, maybe, but being bad has its perks."

"Such as?"

"Such as he'll be in that pool at least for an hour dodging fake mutant bees and the gang won't be back 'til later. Can you think of anything we might be able to do in this big empty house?"

"I'm already a step ahead of ya," Faith said, indicating her already bare legs. "Now get upstairs and take your pants off so you're not so overdressed."

She gave Buffy a smack on the butt, then chased her up the stairs leaving the groceries all over the kitchen table and floor for someone else to take care of.