One.
"Laughter is the shortest distance between two people."
~Victor Borge~
They couldn't stop laughing.
The squirrelly energy zipped through them, their cheeks growing painfully tired from grinning and their breath coming short as the spasms in their chests didn't subside. The laughter grew, in fact, to tweak their eyes with the start of tears, and pinch their sides with the ache of laughing so hard.
But they couldn't stop.
And it's not even that what happened was overly hilarious; in fact, it was barely above 'funny', and yet with the timing, it couldn't have been more amusing. So they laughed, and kept laughing, and didn't know how to stop. One look at the other's face would send another wave of crushing hysterics, and one breathless attempt at stopping made a squeaking noise that created yet another bout of insane giggling.
Slowly, they fell into one another, shoulders bumping and heads lolling onto chests and hands slapping knees or holding sides.
Eventually, the laughter died and tears were wiped from opening eyes and breaths were caught, hearts slowly to a normal pace.
"Man, V, I haven't laughed that much in ages," the blond of the two said with a lingering smile. He opened his jaw to stretch his cheeks to cease their dull aching. "Who would've thought something like Sweeney Todd could make us laugh so hard? This is supposed to be a horror/tragedy!"
"Dude, I swear it was the way Mrs. Lovett said, 'No you don't' while squashing a cockroach with a rolling pin is what made us laugh. It's just so, I dunno, out of place in this gloomy London scene," the brunet answered. They had to pause the movie, Mrs. Lovett frozen while kneading dough. "Then again, this entire song is outta place. It sounds so… happy."
"I know, right? It's like they want us to laugh in the beginning before all the killing." He paused to fling a popcorn kernel in his mouth. He caught it with his tongue. "Why did we rent this movie, again?"
"Stress relief?" the other guessed as he shrugged his shoulders noncommittally. He reached into his friend's lap and dug out a handful of popcorn, salty butter coating his fingers. He shoved the entire bite in. "Anyway, Rich, we better play it before the DVD gets wrecked or something. It's been on pause for a while now."
"You're thinking of VHS tapes getting wrecked," the other corrected. "And I'm way ahead of you." He pressed the play button on the remote, and within seconds, the laughter started up all over again. This time, it was because of Johnny Depp's face when he tasted the crusty, dusty pie and had to wash it down with ale.