Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, places, etc. for Batman (in general) or Inside Out. It all belongs to their respectful owners.
This idea was actually created by Bighead98. They just asked me to write it, so thank them for the awesome idea! :)
The Least
She was the least used emotion and she had accepted it a long time ago. Joy had been a prominent emotion in Bruce Wayne's early childhood. The relationship that he had with his parents, and even the butler Alfred, was one to be cherished. That all changed though when his parents were killed.
She had tried to make him smile more, but Sadness and Anger had been the most prominent emotions, and still were to this day. Even Alfred had tried to help return the boy to the way he had been before, but there didn't seem to be any success. She had accepted this though, knowing that each emotion was important, but she often wondered if there was anything that could ever make Bruce Wayne smile again.
Year had passed and things had changed drastically. Most of the time she stayed in the back, watching what Bruce Wayne had become. She knew that this was something that he thought would bring order, but she still cringed every time he risked his life or hurt that of another. If this was a necessity for him to cope, then it was fine, but that had been years ago and he didn't seem to show any sign of stopping…
Hopefully Alfred can help with that…
Joy had seen the injuries that Bruce sustained while being 'The Batman' as everyone, including himself, had begun to call his alter ego. She knew that if he didn't stop at some point, one injury could lead to his death. She had even tried suggesting the idea to Bruce in the past, early into his training when he seemed to get hurt more, but the man had just shrugged it off, saying that "Gotham needed a Batman".
That's one point I can't argue but I wish he would stop getting hurt…
It was true that Gotham needed a Batman, but Joy still wished that Bruce wouldn't push himself so much. He went out every night, getting back only enough for a few hours of sleep before he had to get up and go be what the public wanted him to be. She knew that although there seemed to be no way in stopping him, that if he didn't take a break once in a while, then his body would crash.
A few more years passed and then something changed again in Bruce Wayne's life, something that Joy was going to use to make him smile again. The emotions had jumped at the chance when it came that Bruce could adopt Richard Grayson. The boy had lost his parents in a similar way to Bruce, and although they were saddened by the circumstances, they knew that it would be good for both Bruce and 'Dick', as the boy called himself. So when the idea had been accepted, and even Alfred seemed to enjoy the idea, the emotions were ecstatic.
They had brought the boy home to the Manor but now they realized a problem. Bruce Wayne wasn't overly social, even to Alfred who had been living with him for years, so how would he be around Dick? This was the predicament that they had when the two had to interact for the first time, with the emotions just staring at the screen while Bruce looked down at the boy.
"So… how do we start?" Anger asked, looking quite confused. Joy had told him multiple times that the kid needed to be encouraged and not beaten down, so he was taking this as calmly as he could.
"Umm… a smile? Most people start with a smile, right?" Joy stated before pressing a few buttons on the control panel. It lit up a bright yellow and she watched as Bruce smiled at Dick. The boy gave them a curious look before looking back down at the ground.
"Wait…. What was wrong with that smile?" Joy asked herself, more than anyone else, before turning the camera to see what Dick had seen. "Oh…"
Disgust peered hard at the screen before looking away.
"Eww… that is totally a grimace."
"No it's not!" Joy tried to rationalize the situation but the more she looked at it, it did look like a grimace…
"It's hopeless… He can't even smile anymore." Sadness cried, laying her head down on the panel.
"No! He can, it's just that he hasn't done it for a while!" Joy tried again with the same result, with Dick a moment later saying that he had to go unpack.
"Well… that was… different." Joy stated, looking at the screen confused. Things didn't seem to be going that well…
She walked away from the panel a bit, thinking of ideas of how this could be fixed.
I mean, most kids like ice cream or TV but we don't even know what Dick really likes…
"Based on this interaction, we'll be lucky if Dick even looks at us again!" Fear was running around the room, flipping through stacks of paper that he had compiled before the boy had come to stay with them.
"No! I mean… he will… we just need to…" Joy stuttered, possible ways filling her head but none of them really seemed like Bruce.
"Way to go Joy! I still think we should just whack the kid…" Anger stated, staring back at where the boy had went. Joy looked over at him in horror.
"No! How many times do I have to tell you that that's not how you handle a kid!?" Anger looked over at her in confusion.
"Boys like wrestling though, right? So what kid wouldn't like getting beat up?" Joy sighed before walking over to the stacks of shelves that contained the ideas.
"Clearly not Dick! He came from the circus, not-." She cut herself off as she thought of an idea.
It might work!
The others stared at her as her face seemed to light up even more in excitement. She quickly explained the idea to them, with her getting doubtful looks back.
"Well… I mean we could try…" Sadness suggested, and Joy beamed over at her friend. She had been trying to get Sadness to be a bit more positive and was grateful for the support.
"That's right Sadness! We can try! Anything that happens is at least progress!" She excitedly stated, thinking over her plan again.
It'll be a great bonding time!
"Except for the thing we just witnessed." She looked over to see Anger shrug, but she couldn't deny that the last time had been… less than fruitful.
"Yeah but first we need to work on the whole… grimace thing." She looked over to see Disgust looking down at her nails before back at the screen.
"I have an idea!" Joy stated before going over and picking up one of the suggestion light bulbs.
At first it seemed like a great idea. All he needed was practice and the one person who would be honest with them was Alfred. So far that didn't seem to be the best idea that they had come up with. For the past few minutes they had been testing Bruce's 'smile' on Alfred, sure that the faithful butler would tell them how it was going.
The faithful butler finally noticed what Bruce was doing and turned to face him, only to raise an eyebrow at his expression.
"Master Bruce, is there something troubling you?"
All the emotions sighed when the butler asked that. Why couldn't it have gone perfectly, with Bruce using an award-winning smile, like he had for the press so many other times?
I guess some things just don't work that way…
"Nothing, it's just…" They heard Bruce say and inwardly cringed. Knowing the Dark Knight, he probably didn't know what was trying to make him smile were the emotions in his head.
"'Just what' sir?" Alfred asked and the emotions watched curiously. Sure they had implanted the idea in Bruce's head to go and test his smiles on Alfred, but they hadn't planned for this to happen. They heard Bruce sigh and Joy immediately began to panic.
What could be troubling him?
"Alfred, am I…?" The Dark Knight cut himself off, but the emotions as well as Alfred seemed to understand what he was going to ask. This filled Joy with a bit of sadness.
Sure he isn't the best… but they've only interacted a few times so far…
"Not at all sir. Master Grayson has only been with us for a short time. I'm sure that by then, you two will work something out, you just need to give it time."
"Thanks Alfred." And with that, Bruce Wayne gave an actual smile, making Joy ecstatic at seeing the same way that the two used to interact when Bruce was a kid.
"Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, there are at least a dozen ways he could get hurt…" Fear asked her and she shrugged before looking excitedly back at the screen.
"It might not be the best idea, but it's the only one we've got right now. It'll be fine." She watched as Bruce turned towards the slightly apprehensive and yet excited Dick. Joy could understand the boy's excitement; after all, it did have something to do with what he was trained for.
She had remembered that a few years ago Bruce had built an indoor exercise room that happened to include various acrobatic equipment. She had figured that the boy would like it since he was a trained acrobat in his old home and just because he had moved here, didn't mean that he couldn't continue to practice.
It's something the both of them can do together…
So for the next hour they watched as the two performed various exercises together, with Dick laughing most of the time. That was until they heard a loud 'pop' come from something.
To say that the emotions were confused when Bruce stopped was an understatement, until Fear then realized that Bruce must have gotten hurt somehow. This was then followed by an appointment with Alfred to make sure that Bruce was ok and an end to their fun time. Bruce was instructed not to do any strenuous activity for at least a few days.
Like that'll happen with him being Batman…
The two were now sitting on Bruce's bed, watching TV and eating ice cream, with Joy being excited that the boy actually liked the sweet. Even though Bruce was 'injured', the two could still bond by just talking.
It's also a way we can learn about Dick as well…
As Bruce and Dick talked, Joy couldn't help but let out a happy sigh, content with the way things were going. She just knew that the boy would help bring back the way that Bruce was when he was younger. Maybe not completely and not quickly, but it would take time, like all good things do.
I might be the least used emotion, but something tells me that things are going to change.
So once again thank you so much to Bighead98 for letting me write this awesome idea! I hope it was everything you dreamed it would be! I hope that all you other readers enjoyed this as well! On my own, I probably wouldn't have thought of this idea because it's so different from what I normally write. I hope you all enjoyed and please let me know in a review!
-AnimeWolfGirl16
