disclaimer: the long walk is not mine.

It would have been a beautiful day out, if not for the fact that they were going to die.

There was a slight breeze to the air, and the boys were walking beneath an almost completely cloudless sky. Yeah, it was the kind of day that would have couples going out for picnics and the like.

It was the kind of day that would usually make Pete McVries sick.

But today, somehow, McVries felt, in the words of Hank Olson, 'raring to rip.' He could just walk for miles. Or at least that was how it felt.

"Pete? You look…cheerful."

McVries laughed. "Is that not allowed or something, Ray? You say it like it's a curse."

"No, not at all…I just…you seem, like…" The other boy struggled to find the words. "Naturally happy, I guess."

"As opposed to unnaturally happy?" But really, McVries got what Garraty meant. Nobody was faking anything. It was just…happy. It was funny how he'd never felt like this until now, which was during an event he'd entered in because he wanted to die.

"Whatever."

"Hey, Ray. Do you know how to dance?"

Garraty looked slightly surprised. "Uh. Yes. What kind of dancing?"

McVries almost giggled. He hadn't expected Ray to actually know how. "It doesn't matter. Just dancing."

"There are lots of different kinds of…" Garraty was cut off as McVries grabbed his shoulders and pulled him into an improvised waltz. Both of them were almost tripping over their feet, and had probably gained some weird looks from the others. "W-we're going to get a ticket, Pete!"

"Who cares?" McVries threw back his head and laughed, spinning Garraty around. "And where does it say anything in the rulebook about dancing?"

The brunet boy almost fell over, but McVries caught him by placing a hand on the small of his back and whirling him around again. Garraty had to wonder why nobody was making snide comments. Maybe they were just too stunned by this sudden display of emotion from McVries, who was usually being sullen or saying something snarky about the government.

"Isn't this on live TV?" Garraty was panting, and McVries nearly dropped him again. Garraty didn't know a lot about waltzing, but he was pretty sure that that wasn't how you did it.

"So?" McVries let go of Garraty with one arm and blew a kiss at the various cameras in the crowd.

Garraty was convinced that somebody was going to yell something obscene, but no one did and that seemed to disappoint McVries. So he stopped dancing for a moment and leaned over to give Garraty a rather sloppy and wet kiss.

That got the crowd yelling things. "Warning! Warning 61 and 47!"

McVries bowed. "Thank you all for watching." And with that, he slung an arm around Garraty's shoulder and the pair continued walking.

is there such a thing as too many oneshots