It was nearly two weeks after Halloween and Faith still refused to pack away her costume like everyone else in the house had. Actually, that wasn’t completely true. Xander saw how much fun Faith was having with her costume so he decided to keep his out as well. Together, they were causing all sorts of trouble throughout the house and nearly everyone was at their breaking point.

Buffy finally decided that she had to take matters into her own hands if the madness was ever going to end.

She’d sneaked into Faith’s room while Faith had been showering and stole an integral part of her costume. Now, she knew she was going to catch hell for her sneakery, especially when Faith realized that her costume fun was over, but Buffy was willing to risk the headache if it meant they could all go back to living normally.

One more treasure hunt and she was going to go bonkers.

“Who was in my room?”

Buffy looked up over the top of her magazine at Faith who was standing in the doorway to her bedroom. The brunette was waiting for her to answer so Buffy took a deep breath and tried to distract her as best as possible.

“I think the appropriate question is, who hasn’t been in your room?”

The ribbing wasn’t lost on Faith who started to laugh but then quickly narrowed her eyes and got serious.

“Making inappropriate yet funny jokes pretty much points the finger right at ya, B. Now give’em back or someone’s gonna get hurt.”

“You’d never hurt me,” Buffy said with a playful smile, tossing her magazine next to her on her bed and crossing her arms over her chest.

Faith stepped into the room and approached the bottom of the bed. She looked Buffy up and down, trying to appear menacing, but eventually shrugged and seemed to relax a bit.

“Yeah, you’re right, B…”

“Always am.”

“…doesn’t mean I can’t make ya suffer though.”

Quicker than Buffy could react, Faith leapt up onto the bed and had her completely pinned beneath her. She tried to wriggle her way free but Faith only held her tighter, actually managing to hold both of Buffy’s wrists above her head with one hand while tickling her side with the other.

“Faith, stop!” Buffy gasped as she laughed and continued to try her best to wriggle free.

“Why would I do that? I’m havin’ a blast here.”

“Faith, please!”

Buffy was about ten seconds away from either wetting herself or passing out and she was ready to do just about whatever Faith wanted in order to stop the tickle-attack.

“Come on, B. All ya gotta do is tell me where they are.”

“Fine!” Buffy squealed between laughs. “They’re in the top drawer!”

And suddenly Buffy’s hands were free and Faith was crossing the room towards the dresser. She pulled open the top drawer and effortlessly rifled through it until she found what she was looking for. Digging in with both hands, she pulled out two matching waterpistols. There was a black thong hanging unceremoniously off the tip of one and Faith grinned and looked over at Buffy.

“Thong. Nice.”

“Ugh,” Buffy groaned and sat up, adjusting her rumpled clothes. “Leave the panties and go. Xander is gonna beat you to the treasure if you don’t hurry.”