Hey there dear readers! Svinorita here with another TearBrick request (once again suggested to me by the always supportive and kind Orangebird124). Before we get started, for those of you who have read my previous story called "Anger Loves Sadness", you may remember towards the end of the last chapter when Anger and Sadness hugged and Anger whispered to her "I love you too Sadness…I always have."

Well I was keeping that quote in mind when I decided to start writing this story and I chose to turn this into a kind of prequel to "Anger Loves Sadness." So in this story we will get to see how Anger had already developed a bit of a fondness towards his blue coworker; who had been feeling bluer than usual after the stress of Riley's move to San Francisco and on top of that, Disgust had decided to vent her frustrations out on her blue companion.

Now this story is rated K+ so the romance will not be as intense as in "Anger Loves Sadness", but there will still be some show of affection between our little red and blue friends that could be regarded as a lead up to the events that unfolded later in "Anger loves Sadness."

Okay, that's enough said for now…I hope you decide to read on and enjoy this TearBrick!

Chapter 1.

It was a lovely summer morning in San Francisco…or rather it would have been if the delivery van containing all the Andersen family's furniture and valuable possessions had arrived on time like it was supposed to!

It was now the second day after Riley and her parents had moved into their new house and there was still no sign of that wretched moving van or the simpletons driving it! Riley's dad had been on the phone almost every hour since the family had settled into their new home inquiring about their missing belongings, and every time he received the same answer:

"Sorry for the inconvenience Mr. Andersen." Some bored sounding and decidedly unconcerned female receptionist would tell him as Riley's dad; Bill, slapped his forehead with exasperation and cursed silently to himself.

"Our movers are doing the best they can with servicing multiple customers. I'm sure your belongings will arrive sometime later today…or if not, then probably by tomorrow…"

That conversation had taken place two days ago, and this morning as Bill rang the moving company and asked about the whereabouts of their missing property for what seemed like the millionth time, he received the exact same answer. So given the dire situation as it stands, it was no wonder that Riley and her parents couldn't stop and appreciate the beautiful sunny San Francisco morning as everyone was understandably feeling a little on edge.

Well almost everyone…

Inside Riley's Headquarters, Disgust woke up feeling uncharacteristically optimistic and cheerful as she stretched contentedly in her bed and smiled to herself. Although she had had her own reservations about this whole move from their old life in Minnesota, the green Emotion convinced herself that maybe this whole venture wasn't such a huge misgiving after all.

This was an opportunity for Riley and her fellow Emotions to enter an exciting new phase in their young lives…now that they were living in the big city surrounded by all those trendy people and warm weather year-round, Disgust thought that it was time Riley received a new image!

After all, their host was a teenager now and it was time to ditch all those outdated childhood fancies like stuffed toys and bland dress-sense. Now was the time to start thinking about fashion and makeup and hot guys…oh yes! Disgust had it all planned for their girl…and what better time to make some lifestyle changes than after moving to another state?!

So with her head full of the endless possibilities she could offer to their host, Disgust hopped out of bed and prepared herself for the new day. She put on her favorite green dress and brushed her hair thoroughly before getting out her makeup bag and expertly applying her makeup for the day.

Once all the foundation, lip gloss, eye shadow and mascara were in place, the green Emotion headed out her bedroom door and made her way briskly to the main room. As she walked down the ramp leading from the Emotions' private sleeping quarters into the main room, Disgust put her own unique twist on a classic hippie anthem as she sang cheerfully to herself:

"If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some hairspray and highlights in your hair…"

The green Emotion stopped at the bottom of the ramp and the smile melted from her pretty face as she surveyed the scene that greeted her upon her arrival…

It seems that her fellow Emotions didn't share her laid-back attitude this morning as they all reacted to the news of the delayed moving van in their own ways:

Anger was pacing in a wide circle near the console with the mother of all frowns plastered on his furious red face as a menacing cluster of sparks appeared on top of his head and trailed behind him.

The stout red Emotion had his newspaper in one hand and in his rage, he ended up scrunching it into a mangled mess of pages as he shot a look of contempt at the monitor and fumed, "This is beyond a joke! If I get my hands on those dimwit movers I am going to kick their butts into next week! Let's see how long it takes for our stuff to arrive then!"

Disgust rolled her eyes and turned her attention to Sadness, who was slumped in a corner over by the Mind Manuals crying so hard that she had started to hiccup.

"Poor Riley…" the blue Emotion wailed in between sobs and hiccups as a sizable puddle began forming on the floor around her.

"All her friends are back in Minnesota and she had to leave her old hockey team behind!"

A cross between a sob and a hiccup escaped from Sadness as she worked herself into a whole other level of melancholy, "Oh…we start school tomorrow! What if everything ends up being awful and the local kids don't like Riley…that would be soooo sad…."

Disgust shook her head in irritation and felt her previously positive mood beginning to sour as her gaze fell on Fear, who was curled into a tight ball on the couch, hugging his legs to his chest as he whimpered, "Oh not again! Riley has to sleep on the floor another night?! Who knows what nasty things crawl around on the ground at night…?"

Suddenly his eyes darted around the room fitfully as an icy shiver rolled down his spine. In a small panicky voice he whined, "What if a tarantula crawls onto Riley while she's sleeping?!"

Joy meanwhile was running around like a headless chicken as she rushed from one Emotion to another, doing her best to calm everyone down and restore order.

First she went up to Fear and gently placed a reassuring hand on his trembling shoulder as she whispered empathically, "Fear dear…"

The yellow Emotion let out a little laugh at the unintentional rhyme and insisted, "…there are no tarantulas in San Francisco."

She felt him relax ever so slightly and turned her attention over to Anger, who was still stomping around and ranting, his newspaper nothing more than a shredded trail of paper around him.

Sighing gloomily to herself Joy offered helpfully, "Anger please try to calm down. Our stuff will be here soon enough okay?"

Anger huffed stubbornly and halted his agitated pacing for a minute, settling for staring crossly at the monitor as he ground his teeth and slowly clenched and unclenched his fists.

There was a loud wail of misery followed by a succession of hiccups coming from the vicinity of the Mind Manuals, and Joy gave a deflated moan as she turned to face Sadness.

With a controlled smile on her face the yellow Emotion said softly, "Sadness sweetie…everything will work out just fine, I promise! Now please stop crying or you'll give yourself a headache."

Sadness looked back at her friend apologetically and wept, "I can't help it Joy…*hiccup!*…I'm in the midst of a sadness spiral!"

The blue Emotion buried her face in her hands and let out a long moan of misery, which ended in a very loud hiccup. Over on the couch, Fear got so startled that he shrieked in fright and practically jumped 6 feet straight into the air!

Joy sighed and gave her blue companion a sympathetic smile as she urged, "Oh you poor thing! Try drinking a glass of water to clear up those hiccups."

Disgust had been watching this drama unfold silently and by now her mood was definitely soured as she felt an irritating tic develop in one eye and she groaned to herself in frustration. It seems her plan to help take Riley's mind off the stressful move by introducing some glamor into her life starting from today, had just gone out the window thanks to her overacting coworkers!

And as if to prove that their actions were having a negative effect on Riley, Disgust glanced over at the monitor and surely enough her suspicions were confirmed. Although she couldn't actually see Riley's facial expression from the point of view monitor, Disgust thought she could piece together a pretty accurate image based on the growls of frustration she heard coming from their stressed-out host.

Disgust herself felt a growl of annoyance escape from her throat as she whipped around and glared crossly at the other Emotions.

"THAT'S ENOUGH FROM ALL OF YOU!" She shouted at the top of her voice and the others all stopped what they were doing and stared back at their infuriated green coworker curiously. Disgust was not one to usually lose her cool like that and even Anger looked stunned as he stared at her with a questioning look on his face.

Seizing the moment, Disgust pointed at the monitor angrily and snapped, "You are all out of control! Look what you are doing to Riley!"

The other Emotions glanced at the monitor and noticed that Riley appeared to be experiencing a combination of all their current feelings: first she growled and grumbled something under her breath like Anger had done only moments ago.

Then for no apparent reason, she started shaking and shivering as she scanned the floor frantically as though she expected to find a tarantula lurking in the corner somewhere.

Finally, there was the unmistakable sound of sniffling and sobbing as Riley's hand obscured the whole screen while she wiped the tears that had begun streaming from her eyes.

The other Emotions all looked at the floor in guilt and remained silent as Disgust settled her gaze onto Joy and urged her yellow coworker in a chiding tone, "Joy do something! Anything! Make Riley look outside at the beautiful sunny morning! We are living in the city now…she should be feeling happy!"

Joy gave a reluctant nod and wordlessly went up to the console and pushed a few buttons. The console lit up with a pleasant yellow glow as Riley registered Joy's input and walked over to her bedroom window, taking in the view properly for the first time since arriving in San Francisco.

Riley's gaze fell on the house immediately to her right and she saw a rather heavy-set old lady sitting on her balcony holding a very fluffy brown cat lovingly in her arms. As Riley watched with a tiny smile, she noticed two other cats, one ginger and the other gray and white milling around the old lady's feet as she reached over to her windowsill and took a sip of her coffee.

Suddenly the elderly woman looked over in Riley's direction and instantly her wrinkly face was lit with a huge smile, as she gave her young neighbor a friendly wave.

Riley smiled fondly and returned the wave as a feeling of contentment washed over her for the time being.

Back inside Headquarters, Disgust breathed a sigh of relief and exclaimed, "Finally! Sanity is restored around here!"

Then she planted her hands on her hips and glared irritably at her fellow Emotions.

"What were you all thinking?" She reprimanded crossly. "Riley should be feeling excited at all the wonderful opportunities this move has opened up for her…not fretting about our furniture arriving late!"

The others remained silent and shuffled their feet uncomfortably as Disgust got a dreamy look in her eyes and smirked knowingly to herself.

With an undisguised air of confidence about her, the green Emotion flicked a strand of hair casually out of her face and informed sassily, "Personally I think this move was great! Sure I had my doubts about it at first like the rest of you…"

She paused to survey the faces of her coworkers, which ranged from an unimpressed frown from Anger, to wide-eyed trepidation from Fear and a hesitant smile from Joy. Sadness was still moping pitifully near the back of the room and Disgust felt a twinge of annoyance flare up inside her at the prospect of being ignored by her blue coworker.

But for now she turned her attention back to lecturing the others as she continued coolly, "…But if you all just stop and think about it for a minute, then you'll see that this whole change is actually a blessing in disguise for Riley!"

Now everyone was looking at her with even more confusion than before and Disgust let out a small sigh of irritation as she prompted edgily, "Oh come on! Do I seriously have to spell everything out for you morons?!"

The green Emotion held up her hand and started listing all the positive things about moving to San Francisco off her fingers:

"Goodbye freezing cold winters and snow."

"Goodbye heavy unfashionable winter coats and gloves."

"Hello sunshine and warm weather all year round."

"Hello exciting city life and trendy people!"

Joy stepped up to her green colleague and challenged in a calm but firm voice, "That's all well and good for some people Disgust. But you have to try and understand that not everybody handles big life changes the same way."

Disgust narrowed her eyes at the Lead Emotion but Joy was not one to be intimidated easily, and she continued calmly, "You tend to get bored quickly and are always looking for something new and fast-paced…whether it be fashion or other aspects in Riley's life."

Joy gave her a sincere smile and added, "There's nothing wrong with that. That is just your individual personality and it's what makes you unique. But we are not all like you Disgust…some of us are Emotions of habit and we take longer to adjust to big changes than you might. For example…"

Joy turned to address the others as well as she pointed out helpfully, "…Sadness likes familiarity. When she feels comfortable in her surroundings, she is less likely to start obsessing over every little problem and work herself into a crying fit. Fear is similar in that when he is used to his surroundings, he can anticipate where potential danger might be and he becomes less jumpy. Anger too seems to control his temper better when Riley's daily routine is consistent and everything is running smoothly."

Disgust waited until her yellow coworker had finished her speech and pouted stubbornly before sniping, "Oh and what about you then, Miss Perfect? I don't suppose you just go with the flow while the rest of us are obviously stuck in our own little pitfalls huh?"

Joy's smile wavered slightly as she tried to ignore the bitter edge in Disgust's remark and replied as cheerfully as she could, "Most of the time I do! Maybe that's why I'm in charge around here…"

Unfortunately, Joy's light-hearted comment backfired in a big way as it seemed to push Disgust's growing irritation over the edge and the green Emotion glared resentfully at all of her coworkers.

"Oh I see where this is going!" she seethed in a shrill voice as a frown even deeper than Anger usually produced spread across her brow and her emerald-colored eyes flashed with fury.

"Everyone else around here is good and I am made out to be the bad girl right?! Well you know what? I think that I am the only one who can really help Riley adjust to her new life here! If I had my way, I would make her see the world through my eyes and then she would have been happy in this wonderful place by now! But instead the rest of you are just succeeding in confusing her!"

Realizing her mistake, Joy put a gentle hand on Disgust's shoulder and tried her best to calm down her enraged friend. Giving her the most apologetic look she could, Joy offered softly, "Come now Disgust. I'm sorry if what I said upset you…I didn't mean it that way!"

Disgust shot her a look of absolute contempt and shrugged off her hand roughly. "Don't touch me! I know exactly what you meant and I have had enough with all of your selfish moping! The fact is you're all making Riley miserable right now!"

The others were all shocked into silence by Disgust's furious tirade and the only sound was coming from Sadness, who was once again weeping and wailing in the corner, this time from the hostility rising in the room.

Disgust let out a furious growl and turned to vent her frustration out on her blue coworker as she felt her rage reach a boiling point.

"Will you just shut up already?!" She screamed at Sadness as the others all gasped from the harshness and bite in the green Emotion's voice.

"You are really starting to get on my nerves Sadness! Look at you! You are a blubbering mess!"

Sadness looked up timidly at her angry friend and stuttered through her sobs, "I…I'm sor…sorry…"

Disgust crossed her arms and spat back, "So you should be! Isn't it time you grow up and snap out of this?!"

A cruel smirk appeared on Disgust's face as she sniped, "And while we are on the subject, don't you think it's time you changed your image too? Because you look as if you are permanently stuck in the 1970s with that bulky sweater and those huge glasses! In fact when I look at you, I am reminded of Velma from Scooby Doo!"

Disgust put on a wimpy, melancholy voice as she imitated Sadness, "Here Scooby! I have a Scooby Snack for you!"

Sadness sniffled and looked away in shame as Disgust added coldly, "And by the way, there is such a thing as contact lenses you know…!"

"Disgust! That's enough!" Anger commanded as he stepped forward and shot the green Emotion a withering look. The others all stared at their short red coworker in surprise and even Disgust took an instinctive step back at the contempt in Anger's voice.

Sadness was still feeling too ashamed of herself to notice that Anger had just blatantly stood up for her, and she continued weeping mournfully in her corner as her tears formed a large puddle around her feet.

After the shock of being reprimanded wore off, Disgust felt her irritation reach a whole new level of nastiness and she directed her frustration on her red coworker.

"Enough of what Mr. Know-it-all?!" She placed her hands on her hips and leaned forward so that she was eye-level with Anger and spat sarcastically, "Enough pounds on your body?! In case you haven't noticed, both you and Sadness are a little on the chunky side…maybe you two should consider working out a bit more! You could both stand to lose a few pounds!"

Now Joy stepped in between the two quarreling Emotions and demanded in her most authoritative voice, "THAT IS ENOUGH!"

Fear yelped from the sudden explosiveness of Joy's command and dove behind the sofa, curling into a fetal position and shivering tremendously as he pleaded silently for this nightmarish morning to end.

Anger ignored the fact that Joy had placed herself in between him and the object of his fury and glared daggers at Disgust, his teeth clenched and chest heaving from his agitated breathing.

Disgust just raised an eyebrow nonchalantly at Joy before crossing her arms stubbornly and turning her head to the side in dismissal.

Joy addressed her green coworker with simple directness as she stated, "To you everything is about image! Not everyone is modelled on Barbie or Ken you know…"

Disgust gave no indication that she cared and absently waved her arm as if shooing a fly. "Whatever!" She mumbled sarcastically.

Joy gave an exasperated sigh and went on with firm persistence, "We are not in the Entertainment Business here…we are in the Emotional Business! And those snide comments you threw at Sadness were really uncalled for and insensitive."

She glanced over at Sadness, who was staring dejectedly at the floor and gave her a reassuring smile.

"Sadness is the kindest, most gentle Emotion I have ever known and I know that you mean well and just want to help Riley in your own way Disgust. We all do! But it wasn't fair for you to take out your frustrations on her."

Joy shot Anger a quick look and added helpfully, "As for Anger, those few extra pounds will probably turn into muscle as he gets older…?"

She gave the red Emotion an encouraging smile and shrugged innocently as he glared back at her with a slightly baffled expression on his face. Anger seemed to consider this theory thoughtfully for a minute, and finally he nodded slowly in agreement.

"Well said Joy." He affirmed in a casual tone.

Then his eyes flashed with contempt as he threw a spiteful look at Disgust and snarled, "Back off Disgust! Otherwise you'll be joining those dimwit moving men on my hit list!"

Disgust tried to appear indifferent to the situation, but already she felt the rage inside her give way to guilt as Joy's words sank in. She didn't really mean to say those nasty things to Sadness or anyone for that matter. It's just that she woke up feeling so hopeful and excited about what today might bring, and as soon as she'd come down here to join the others, she was greeted with chaos and disorder!

Something about that whole scenario had just pushed her over the edge and she lashed out without really intending to. It was as though a switch had been thrown inside her head and seeing everyone overacting over something as trivial as their furniture arriving late, (at least it sounded trivial to her) when there were so many positive things to focus on instead, had annoyed her so much that Disgust just lost her cool in a really bad way.

And Sadness in particular had been carrying on and moping over the smallest things ever since they moved to San Francisco, that Disgust had chosen to direct the brunt of her frustration on her…

Disgust groaned dismally to herself and her heart felt heavy with remorse. She knew the way she had acted had been the wrong thing to do…but why did Sadness always have to break down over everything like that?!

Disgust knew she should apologize to her blue coworker at some point, but she decided that now was not the time or the place. All the other Emotions were watching her and after her overpowering show of force, she couldn't show weakness in front of them now. That would make her a hypocrite and Disgust was too proud by nature to allow something like that to tarnish her image.

Joy was looking at her expectantly. Disgust decided she wasn't going to give her yellow companion the satisfaction of letting her know that she had overacted herself, and still avoiding eye contact, the green Emotion gave a petulant grunt and grumbled something incoherent to herself.

Joy's shoulders slouched in defeat and she gave a disappointed sigh, but she decided not to press the matter any further. Disgust would come around and acknowledge her mistake in her own time…

The yellow Emotion turned to look at the spot where Sadness had been crying all this time, and to her surprise she found that the little blue Emotion had disappeared while everyone was concentrating on Disgust.

Poor Sadness…Joy mused to herself miserably.

She must have gone and locked herself in her room because she thinks she's a burden to the rest of us…

Anger followed Joy's gaze to the spot previously occupied by Sadness and felt a pang of regret stab at his heart. He too stared forlornly at the large puddle left by the blue Emotion's tears and he let out a gloomy sigh.

Why didn't I stand up for her sooner…?

Author's Note: WARNING: This Author's Note is really long!

I know, I know…You are all probably thinking: "Svinorita, this doesn't look like a TearBrick!"

I know this opening chapter didn't feature much Anger/Sadness interactions and virtually zero romance but please try and bear with me! I promise there will be more focus on Anger and Sadness as the story progresses but for this first chapter I felt like I had to set the mood by giving Sadness a really bad case of the blues…cue Disgust!

Now don't get me wrong people. I like Disgust and I don't mean any disrespect to her character by making her appear nasty and insensitive. It's just that she is a very image-driven character that is not afraid to speak her mind and sometimes she doesn't necessarily realize that her words can be hurtful to those around her.

Just like I hopefully attempted to portray in this chapter, she means well by Riley and by her friends and she has her own ideas about how things should work. But like with this chapter, sometimes those plans are thrown out the window when the other Emotions don't share her current objective and this can make her feel annoyed and cause her to lash out (like she did to Sadness) even though she doesn't mean to.

Anyway my point is Disgust is cool and I hope I didn't offend any serious Disgust fans out there by making her appear too nasty :)

In fact I'll let you all in on a little secret about where I really drew my inspiration from when I made Disgust go on her tirade at the other Emotions…

That particular part of the story was inspired by 3 real life women in my life (who, if this were like the movie "Inside Out" would all be driven by Disgust!) They are my Grandmother, my Aunt and a family friend from work.

Now before you label me as some crazy lady who calls her grandma and aunt wicked, allow me to give you an example:

My 'Aunt' is a complete self-centered, nasty piece of work that verbally abused me throughout my teenage years and destroyed my confidence and self-esteem.

My grandmother is not as nasty as her, but she is still unbelievably selfish and image-obsessed. For instance one day she was walking down the street with bags of groceries in both hands when she passed a clothing store window selling trendy outfits for twenty-something year olds. Anyway, she got so distracted by those fancy clothes that she tripped over a rock on the sidewalk and fell on one of her shopping bags that had a big bottle of water in it and ended up cracking her rib. But she didn't care about that…the only thing she was worried about was whether she knocked any teeth out! (I am not making this up people! This really did happen!)

Okay that's enough about my personal life! Back to the story: Like I said I needed to give Sadness a really bad case of the blues (as this is a hurt/comfort story as well as romance) so that Anger could play his part later on and that's where the real TearBrick begins!

So I hope you decide to stick around and find out what happens later on! Orangebird124, thank you for sharing this suggestion with me and I hope I am doing you justice with this request :)

Svinorita