"Come on, Woody! You're not even trying!"

"I am! S'not my fault the floor doesn't do well with my boots!"

"We're on the carpet! And there's nothing wrong with your boots!"

"Like you would know."

"Mine are the same make as yours!"

Woody scoffs, she's right, though. They're from the same play-line. "Still - you know mine are old. They don't move as well as they used to." He gets no answer but a roll of the eyes from Jessie. "Don't look at me like that-!"

"You're being completely ridiculous! I'm trying to teach you something worthwhile, here, and you're not listening!" She says, firmly cleaving his hand so tightly he thought it was one more cross word away from breaking in two "Now, you stand up straight - not slouching! It's like dancing with a potato!"

"Heard that," articulated a passing Mr. Potato-Head, skipping a merry step on the way. Woody could almost hear the grin to his voice. Why? Oh, how he wished he were in some dark cupboard right now, parted a safe distance away from this torture. If, perhaps, Jessie hadn't decided that under Andy's bed happened not to be the best place to practice the routine, where they were sure to be safely tucked away from sight of the others, this cruel punishment might've been the slightest bit easier on him. Note to self: NEVER ask her for help again. "I, on the other hand, dance like a swan," he says on a passing note, chuckling heartedly for a change. "Enjoy your dance, Lover Boy. "

Woody makes to shoot a wanton look at Potato-Head but, after another near-fall to the ground, the spud's gone before he can look up. "Oh, great - I'm never going to hear the end of this," mutters Woody, under a very prolonged, hissing breath. "I tried to reason with you to go somewhere where we won't be seen - and what do you do?" Jessie smirks. "Make us the centre of attention!"

"You asked for the help, Lover Boy," she says, pointedly, jerking him towards her curtly when he strays back. "And I'm just giving it to you."

The smile on her lips didn't even abate.

"But-"

"Oh, come on, you haven't bit off more than you can chew, have you?" asks Jessie in a sweet, angelic tone that's not at all like her. She's still smiling, and suddenly Woody can't quite word a protest. "Honestly, you ask for my help, and then beat the devil around the stump trying to get away from it."

Jessie starts to laugh hysterically. "What? What's so funny?" he actually cannot think of anything wrong, until he staggers over his feet again. Thankfully, Jessie's death-grip is still winding into him keeping him on his feet. If there was a cog in Jessie's mind, it'd just struck the timer, for she was almost keeling over trying to contain her laughter. "This is not funny!"

She shakes her head, discarding his comment much to his irascibility. "Do you have any idea what Bo's going to think when she comes back from Molly's friend's sleepover tomorrow night?" The thought sets a trigger alert within him. Abruptly, though Molly knows to much displeasure that she's not supposed to take Bo outdoors in precaution of accidentally-dropping-and-breaking-her, Woody's quite glad she's not here. What if she could see him right now? Lurching about and falling like a inebriated baboon just trying to get a hold of even the basics of a simple dance? More worryingly, what would she think of him, trying at the last minute to come up with something special for their five-year anniversary of being coupled? He didn't want to even imagine it, so stood up bravely and puffed out his chest. Suddenly, with a great burst of strength and dignity, he was a good deal taller than Jessie was.

"She's going to think what a kind gentlemen I am to be thinking of her while she's away."

He gets little response but another roll of the eyes from her. "What?" he probes, menacingly. "Do you think she's that narrow she wouldn't appreciate something like this?"

"No." Jessie uttered with distaste, like this was the most personal offence he could've made. "But I certainly know she wouldn't be all-for-it if she knew you'd left it until the very last minute."

"I did not!" he proclaimed, jabbing a harsh index finger down to the ground to validate his argument. "And besides - I don't need to learn how to do this! The Barbies' all say I'm fine."

She stares him down with a you-really-practised-with-the-Barbies'? look. "Well, of course they're going to say that!" She splutters without thinking. "You're-"

"I'm what, Jessie?" Woody asks, a smile propping to his lips at her speechlessness. Truthfully, he had no idea what she was going to say, but a mad growl from her tells him she won't finish it anytime soon…

"Never mind."Jessie's glower is still searing hot through him, scathing like Mr. Potato-Head in a grouchy mood. "Woody - she's been planning this day for weeks." She says, pointedly, making sure to put extra emphasis on the amount of time Bo's spent planning. Woody listens, and cannot believe what he's hearing. Abruptly, an uneasy feeling mingles through him from head-to-toe and his eyes widen to their extent.

"What?"

Her smirk also disappears. It hits Woody now that she's being completely serious with him - there's not the slightest perjury to her words. "She was planning to go out onto the porch with you," Jessie tells him, the words so sharp and curt Woody felt as though his chest had just been punctured by half a dozen bullets by the sheer timbre of her voice. "She had to sort out the best time to go outside and everything - you can't just risk being seen, Woody."

"You kidding me?" he seems to have offended her again, for she glares at him with her pointed verdant eyes shooting silent daggers in his direction. "I didn't even think she'd remembered this year!"

A groan, "She never forgets, Woody. You know better enough than to think that."

He frowns. Of course he knows better than that. Not once has Bo ever forgotten a date - his 'birthday', the day they first met, the day they became involved romantically with one another. She just never does. It simply amazes him, that one so quiet can remember so much. But he's never considered this one of her flaws; it was one of her quirks he loved.

It takes some time before he realizes that he's still linked to Jessie, his arm carelessly slung around her waist as he held her right hand with his left. She's steady on her feet, whereas he's tottering idly about, dragging her down with him at times. He just can't quite get the rhythm of her movements down to his feet. When she moved one way (in the lead, which was definitely unjust), Woody tried his best to amble in the same general direction hoping to at least be in tune to the simplest beat.

For all it was worth, however, he might have well have just trapped himself in the laundry basket again away from everyone. He wasn't just useless - he was the finesse of a drunken imp in disguise.

"Oh, it's pointless." He staggers back from her, again almost falling flat on his backside. As he steps back from her away from her touch, the bitter touch of the night-crisped air kisses the palms of Jessie's hands. She rubs them together, hoping it's not too obvious that the cold's getting to her without him there. "I might as well just get Buster to bury me right now. Then, I might have the slightest excuse…" he trails off from this, looking back at Jessie only a few moments later. "I thought it would be easy!"

"Nothing's you need's ever easy to learn, Woody."

He gapes at her, "How do you even know how to do this?" As soon as he's even let the last word pass his lips, a notion is set burning alight in him. "Do you take secret dance lessons from Mrs. Potato-Head or something?" he pauses, trying to think. "Is that why Potato-Head can actually dance?"

Confusion of the worst sorts overwhelms him. Jessie's eyeing him oddly, like he might do something else strange at any moment. He doesn't pay too much attention to this, though, and spends the rest of the time she wastes gaping at him thinking about Bo and how he can't dance to save his life. What would Bo think about this?

She shakes her head, leaving Woody to store that thought elsewhere to think over later. "No - I didn't learn anything from her." Jessie's absent-mindedly fingering the end of her braid. Woody, in turn, notices this but says nothing. "If you really must know, Emily was having us Polka-dance before we even knew what it was. I just…picked up a few steps from her, s'all."

Something to Jessie's voice sounds odd to Woody; very peculiar indeed. It seemed almost akin to the thought that, perhaps, she truly was embarrassed to admit it. Woody didn't think so, if she was so keen to get him to learn the tricks. Or was she? "Then how come it's so hard for me to learn?"

"Well," her voice trips, just in the way Woody did over his feet a few moments ago. "You always seem so edgy - like you're not confident in yourself…"

"Of course I'm not - I'm always falling over!"

"Well, then that's the problem I think." Jessie frowned thoughtfully, stepping back slightly. "You never seem to have any in yourself when dancing, surprisingly enough."

Woody lets his brows fall for just a moment, but fixes his expression a moment later trying not to let it show. "So you think that's it?"

"I reckon it is," Jessie looks absolutely stumped. "You just need to straighten your posture up a bit. You're always slouching."

She spends the next few moments examining him, muttering and thinking quietly to herself. Eventually after much reluctance, Jessie returns her gazing back up to him. "Do you want to give it another go?"

He'd rather risk the conclusion spoiling 'Woody's Finest Hour', but shakes this thought off and nods. If not for Jessie to show her he was capable of doing something for himself, then he'd at least hazard another episode of falling for Bo.

"Okay…" Jessie drawls, her eyes distanced as she thought. "All right - we'll just start off how we started before, shall we?"

Damn… He must've given his ineptitude away in his expression, because she pouted at him crossing her arms. "You've forgotten again, haven't you?" He merely nods at her, too embarrassed to admit it. She sighs and steps forward again, her boots clicking softly against Andy's floorboards. "Never mind," she takes her position in front of Woody, extending one arm out indicating for him to do the same. "Now you just wrap your arm around my waist…"

He did so.

"My waist, Woody." Jessie accentuated, her quivering voice threatening to tremble on him. Noticing his mistake, he corrects himself bearing an expression almost as flushed as Jessie's hair-like yarn.

"Right - sorry…"

She shakes her head, "Forget it." Finishing their arranged position by strewing an arm around his shoulders, she looked back up at him again to say. "Okay? So you'll remember this?" Ensuing his nod, she smiled shyly at him and said. "Good - because you'll need to remember that when Bo's here."

Wearily, he smiled back at her, flustered in expression and feeling he'd just struggled away from an hour on a sun-bed. "I-I will." He speaks slowly, almost unsure of what he is agreeing to. Jessie's hand is warm in his, standing calmly only a few inches before him, facing his way. If it were possible, his heart would have been thumping like a wild drum-beat in these close proximities. He looks at her with his painted hazel eyes patient but quivering, unsure if he's understanding the basics of this yet. "So, now we just move this way?"

"No, Woody-" her eyes are trembling at the strain of trying not to roll them. "Do you remember the type of dancing you saw in the third Back to the Future?" she pauses a moment, continuing with a small smile when he nods. "Well - you just copy that."

His eyebrows fold into a sharp crease. "Is that all we have to do?"

"Yep."

"Then let's get on with it." For the first time that night, he feels the slightest hope swelling deep inside his stuffing.

…

The rest of the morning came by them, and then two hours more. Woody made little progress during this time, sometimes going for swaths of up to five minutes without either tripping over or accidentally-elbowing-Jessie-hard-in-the-gut at all, but even Jessie had to admit it was more of an improvement than she'd expected of him. By the end of the session, she could've bet a single stitching in her clothing that the Sheriff mightn't break Bo into a million, tiny pieces at all.

She still thought the better alternative was to just rip one of Woody's arms off now and later greet Buster with an early Christmas present. Then he'd have an excuse not to break his partner-

"Hey, Jessie-" came a voice from behind her before she could finish the thought. Folding her arms together quickly, she rounded towards it to finally face Buzz, and felt a frown fall on her face. Buzz was looking at her, a small grin on his very thin lips seeming to know something she did not.

"Yes?" she asks, carefully? Oh, he didn't see Woody fall right on me before, did he? She thought, perturbed, now starting to feel her face grow akin to the colour of her hair.

"It's pretty lonely to still be walking about after all this time, isn't it?" She says nothing in response to this, she, too, wondering why they were both up and parted from the rest of the group - though the morning light splashing in from the outside could denigrate otherwise. The rest of the toys loved heading outside for afternoon strolls when they got the chance. But she nevertheless knew that wandering the house on her own probably came off as pretty idiosyncratic... The smile doesn't falter, "I-I saw you and Woody dancing before…"

A mingled breath catches in her throat, her eyes growing agape. Damn it! "And?" she says in a dignified manner, as though Buzz's words had affected her not in the least.

"I saw you were - uh - having a bit of trouble over there with him…" the smirk is not wiped, but shivers slightly. "And I was just - erm - wondering if you were okay?" She still doesn't say anything, watching him nonchalantly. "Uh….are you okay?"

Puzzled slightly, she unfolds her arms and lets them dangle at her sides. "Yeah - of course I am…" she lifts an eyebrow when he frowns at her, the smile disappearing abruptly. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"No reason in particular. H-he just didn't look very good."

Jessie couldn't have agreed with him more, "Well - it's pretty obvious he's no good, innit?" Buzz starts to play with his hands, leaving her unanswered for the moment. "I mean, he's so tall and lanky-" she starts to say, not realizing that Buzz wasn't really wanting to hear any more of it as she continued. "And he's so clumsy. He can't tell where the floor stops and his foot begins!" Buzz lets out a small laugh, but the muffle was inaudible under Jessie's groan. "Did you know he was so clumsy?"

"Well - yes, actually, I did." He flushes slightly when Jessie's lips pucker . "But that's not what I came over here for-"

She knit her brows. "Then what?"

Managing to open his mouth to forward an answer, he realizes he can barely word what he wants to say, "Well - he was in Molly's room before trying to practise by himself, mentioning something about how he has to get it right by tonight."

"Why?"

Buzz bit his lips, "That's the problem, you see?" She didn't see at all. "I think he wants to show it to you." Jessie's still gazing at him with an apathetic persona. "And as far as I saw - theoretically - it did not look exactly like the dance you were doing before."

Clearly, she's not impressed by what he's hearing. "What-?" Before she can finish what she's saying, they hear a small shout from the other end of the room, along with the scurrying of footsteps.

"Buzz!" They look to the direction and spot an anxious looking Rex heading towards them. "Buzz! Potato-Head and Hamm are fighting again!" he pants breathlessly, stopping shortly before them. Buzz and Jessie would've laughed aloud at what they'd just been told had it not been for the slight bewilderment of their previous conversation. "Mrs. Potato-Head told me to call for either you or Woody…and-and you were much, much closer."

Quite perplexed, Buzz barely manages to settle him down before coming to the resolve. "Okay, Rex - well - thank you for telling me. I'll be there shortly."

"Oh, be quick, Buzz! I think it's bad!"

He looks back to Jessie, unsure as to what to do. She, in answer to his questioning gaze, flitted her eyes towards Buzz's right, silently ordering Buzz to venture to their aid. Regretfully, Buzz does.

When he's gone, she lets out a small sigh and paces to the centre of the room, thinking about what he had just said. It's absolutely ridiculous! Woody wouldn't-

In no time at all, she feels a small tap on the shoulder. Jessie turns around sharply, stepping back all the while, to face her verdant green painted eyes towards Woody himself. Slightly taken aback, she distances herself from him with another backwards pace. He does nothing but look at her bearing the conceit of one quite chuffed with himself.

He looks happier than he did before… The first thing she notices is that there's a significant upturn in his demeanour. When he'd left her several hours before, he'd been tottering side-to-side from the strain of spending so long on his feet, definitely regretting ever accepting Jessie's advice in the first place. But now he looked almost complacent, which resolved only one thing in her mind: This definitely wasn't going to be good.

"Care for a dance?" he asks, offering her a hand. She stares at it.

"What?"

The smile on his face sharpens into a certain grin. "Dance with me, Cowgirl."

She doesn't move. So he just takes those few simple, brisk steps towards her, glittery-eyed and still holding out his hand. After a few moments, she discerns what he's getting at and smiles nervously at him. Before she even knows what she's accepted to, however, her hand's in his and he's clicking the fingers from his left hand over towards something in the distance behind her.

Where on Earth did the music come- she's almost swept right off of her feet before she can come up with the ending of that thought. Her mouth opens wide at the surprise of almost being thrown half-way across the room, but she's prevented from uttering any exclamation of surprise when Woody, using just the strength of one arm, pulls her straight back to him. Her breath catches in her throat as Woody bounds around her in a full circle. She's eyeing him in a sense of thoughtless apprehension, dreading to even fathom what he might to next. The answer arrives all too quickly. Woody pulls her to him again, and moves to the side slightly to twirl her around on the spot so quickly she almost starts to see stars. As abruptly as she was twirled around, she's swept off her feet again and straight into Woody's arms. In that one second of stillness, she's fazed by her nausea and Woody's upper-body strength. When the second passed, she thinks its over, and smiles at Woody about to congratulate him on his success (with every intention of telling Bo to avoid Woody later on at all costs). Nonetheless, no two seconds pass. By the time she's even got her breath back, Woody's throwing her over his back and through his legs, surprisingly hauling Jessie to her feet.

Please let this be it! Please say you're done! She wants him to step back, dust off the rest of his act and say he's done with dancing. For good. Unfortunately, he's not. He still has one more trick up his sleeve: The finale.

She couldn't even shake her dizziness away before Woody had hold of her again, sweeping her right off her feet and hurtling her half-way across the room. Having been knocked onto his backside as well, he sat up with a broad smile expecting Jessie to be gleaming at him. He turned his head, smiling satisfactorily.

Jessie was no where to be found. He frowned slightly, raising a puzzled eyebrow.

The questioning eyebrow fell with a wince when he heard a crash in the distance behind him.

Crap… Maybe I should leave Bo?

A/N Had the last dance not been inspired by the YouTube video 'Toy Story 3 Short: Woody and Jessie Dancing', the dance sequence would've confused the heck out of me. Sorry for its poor layout (and the slightly abysmal ending), but I felt like I had to relate the general plot to that video. ^^

I still have no idea what it is with one-shots, but once I started, I simply couldn't stop. :P

Anyways, hope you all have bright days ahead. :-)

~x~FanFicAddict02