I really don't know what genre this should be so...
The concept of this story is that everything is slowly drawn out by sleepiness and tranquility (read: I feel sleepier as I write so it becomes shorter and shorter, but I think it's warmer also. Maybe I'm thinking things)
I'm mostly Anger/Disgust but this story can be read as either Friendship, Family or Romance. It's up to you.
Hope you like my sleepy one-shot. Thank you!
Disclaimer: Pixar own Inside Out and its characters. The only thing I own here is the dream and Fabricated Story Faculty
Gradual
Dream Duty was always kind of boring. Since Dream Production wrote the script based on Riley's memory, one could not expect a dream to be so exciting. Once in a while there would be a grand production, with dinosaurs, explosions, giant robots and such (and the emotion with dream duty that night would be so blasted they would not stop talking about it). But that was when Riley was younger. Now she was twelve and her Imagination Land had become a bit dull, which in turn caused Dream Production to gradually lose their resources (or so they said). Not mentioned factor would be the emotion's preference and taste.
And tonight was Anger's time to take a seat and watch this night time movie. He set at the couch and tried hard tot to fall asleep. After all, he was never satisfied with any dream he had seen.
Turned out this was better than he though. There was a volcano (science experiment during the class earlier that day. Riley was very impressed by it), a pair of lovers thrown into a volcano (Romeo and Juliet during literacy class. Riley was not very impressed, obviously), a train circling around a pair of lovers thrown into a volcano (Riley randomly browsed a webpage out of sheer boredom. She found out that trains are more interesting than she thought) and an upside-down volcano on the sky above a train circling around a pair of lovers thrown into a volcano (She was very impressed with the science experiment, it seemed.)
Anger enjoyed the scream of lovers more than he thought. He laughed very hard when lovers, while managed to land on a train, lost their balance within a minute and fell. He observed around the Headquarter and, seeing no one and hearing no voice, turned up the volume to experience the surround audio of an agonizing scream.
And then a sound of stomps startled him. Turned back, he saw a very displeased Disgust on a balcony, looking greener than usual. She was shivering slightly, he noticed.
"TURN IT DOWN!" She yelled.
"What? No!" Anger retorted, "This dream is one HELL of a dream! I won't watch it quietly!"
"I'm trying to sleep here!" Disgust screamed. Anger just shrugged.
"This is almost midnight. The fault's on YOU." He then turned back to the monitor, "Why don't you just sleep earlier like the other." He eyed the green emotion, "Hair treatment before sleep? HA! I know it!"
Disgust grunted with clear frustration. "I'm not doing any treatment mister! I'm trying to sleep and then there's a scream and now I'm wide awake!"
She was on verge of pulling her hair out when she saw that Anger just nonchalantly shrugged again. Disgust decided to just walk up to the console and shut the dream down. Who cares? She wanted to SLEEP!
Anger would not let her do that, obviously.
"Away from the buttons!" He pushed Disgust away. "If you're the only one awake then the joke's on you and you alone." He said with a frown.
Disgust frowned back (with a hiss). There was a moment with no words from these two. The only sound was the scream of a pair of lover thrown into a volcano.
After what seemed like eternity (14 seconds), Disgust rolled her eyes and sighed in surrender.
"Riley washed her hair before went to bed." She said while rubbing her eyes, "Guess we did not dry it all completely. Her head's cold and I think she will be sick tomorrow." She said as she moved toward the one red couch in the room. Once she reached it she immediately laid on it face down. Yeas, she was that exhausted.
Anger let out a huff to calm his mind. He looked at Disgust with a slight suspicion, "Then why don't you use those blankets of yours?"
Disgust turned her face and wearily glared at him, "You don't remember last week I guess?"
"Uh… I guess no?"
"Riley has a losing spree on that online monopoly. She was very frustrated. Accordingly your head's on fire."
"Then what?"
"Since when did you become forgetful?"
Anger furrowed his brows, or what was in place for brows, "Just continued!"
Disgust returned her face to the soft surface, muttering an answer, "You were very furious. And loud. And scary. The flame was intense and seemed to be uncontrollable. Joy and Fear had to drag you out from the console. Me and Sadness went to grab a blanket to put out the flame since the fire extinguisher ran out and Train of Thought hadn't delivered it yet."
Anger's eyes widened. His mouth parted in dumbstruck.
Disgust yawned face-down before turned her face to him again. Her frown deepened, "I guess you can piece the rest of the story."
Silence then consumed the atmosphere, if you did not count the sound of infernal music from the monitor.
Disgust ran both of her hands through her hair, though it looked more like she was trying to scrape her head skin off. Particles fell from her hair as she ran her hands through them. Normally she would comment how it look like she was plagued with an eternal dandruff, but now it was a grunt and an attempt to adjust her posture on the couch.
"Yeah yeah. I got mine first. I came down first. And now I'm left with no blanket and Riley has to forget to dry her hair properly during this time." She rubbed both of her temples, "Fabricated Story Faculty cannot confirm that I will get a new one soon. Thank you very much"
Soon Disgust gave up trying to sleep on a couch and just slumped against it. Her frown unnaturally became deeper.
Anger looked down on the floor, feeling guilty. After two minutes (seems like an eternity) passed, he looked up to face the displeased green emotion.
"Uh…" He struggled for a word, "I… guess I'll go get you a glass of warm milk? Then I would lend you my blanket?"
Disgust's frown relieved slightly, "Appreciated."
And it deepened to its previous shape "But first, turn down the volume. Please."
Anger did just that, before moved quickly to the canteen.
"Oh great, you left me to die alone." A voice followed him.
With a glass of warm milk in her hand, Disgust's voice became warmer as well. She chatted aimlessly. Anger had turned off the dream (after Disgust screamed as the pair of lover met their lovely end at the lava) and dragged his (personal) chair to sit accompanying her besides the couch. He was not sleepy yet and Disgust seemed to be quite angry when she was alone in this state. Deep down, though, Anger knew that he felt slightly guilty and this was a small price for his peace.
Late night conversation, indeed.
"Don't know why others are still sleeping." Anger wondered, interrupting Disgust and her rambling about a mess in the lab room.
"Or rather, why they still can sleep through that sound." Disgust huffed, "Fear passed out because he was in the Dream Duty for three days straight. Don't know who did the schedule." Disgust rolled her eyes and took a sip, "Joy was exhausted with all the work since this is, well, a happy day. Not to mention her tendency to plan everything before going to bed. That stuff drains her energy like a whirlpool." Disgust sighed before finished, "And Sadness is one heavy sleeper. Satisfied?"
"Thank you for your information!" Anger muttered sarcastically. He rested his head in one palm and sighed in slight frustration.
A peaceful silence then reigned supreme, before Disgust dragged it down from its throne.
"You know" Her mouth transformed into her signature mocking smile, "I've been thinking…"
"What?" He eyed Disgust.
"That…" Disgust's grin widened and Anger did not like it, "You could make a great fireplace."
Of course Anger didn't like what he had heard.
"Oh, come on" Disgust sneered "If you could be a flamethrower, then why not a fireplace?" She then giggled hysterically.
"…No. Not even in your dreams" Anger frowned.
"You think so?" Disgust shot him a look of contempt, "Of course your tiny brain is confused…"
"Okay, okay. Stop right there." Anger straightened himself, "I think you are so sleepy you don't know what you're saying."
"I'm not sleep!" Disgust argued, then turned away to hide her yawn, "I'm fully aware of everything."
In contradiction of her first statement, Disgust slumped back further in the one red couch. Her eyes were on a rippling surface of the milk. She seemed to willingly let the peacefulness settled around them before saying,
"Guess we're even now, huh?"
Anger was surprised, "Even what?"
"For that time I called you dumb" She chuckled, "though I really mean it."
"That's not helping" Anger frowned.
Disgust ignored his comment. "I called you a moron, so the universe arranged you an indirect revenge." She shrugged, "Very smooth."
"Uh… You know what you're talking?" Anger was now feeling very concerned of his green friend.
"I do" Disgust said before yawned "I really do" She rubbed her eyes.
"Look, Disgust" Anger got off from his seat, "I'll take you to your room and get you a blanket. You are seriously sleepy."
"I'm not sleepy!" Disgust shook her head. "I'm warm here. The couch's warm. The milk's warm." Then she gave a sincere smile of satisfaction. Fully conscious Disgust would not do this, so Anger knew that Disgust was very asleep.
"Disgust, please" He offered Disgust his hand.
She blankly stared at his hand for many seconds before simply asked, "What?"
Anger as a bit frustrated at this point "I'll take you to your room and find you a nice warm blanket and you can sleep" He tried to speak calmly.
"Forget it" Disgust let out another yawn, "Go back to your seat, we're not going anywhere."
"Disgust!" Anger nearly yelled.
"Anger!" Disgust mimicked and laughed maniacally. Anger let out a sight of frustration and get back to his seat.
Though he would not admit it, he found that peaceful Disgust, staring at the now-cold milk, looked kind of adorable. He spent the past twenty minutes looking at Disgust (because there was nothing to do!) and she seemed to acknowledge it with no offense.
At twenty three minutes mark, she broke the tranquility.
"I still don't know why I support you in that… decision" She was referring to the event of him suggesting making Riley run away back to Minnesota.
"I don't think we'd like to talk about it"
Disgust ignored him again, "Maybe because you're scary and threatening? You should stop being scary and threatening." She said with a frown.
Anger leaned back against his chair, trying to soothe his irritation, "Like no one already know that." He let out a sigh, "I mainly acted on instinct. Do not expect much logic from me okay?"
Anger averted his gaze to the ceiling. The guilt of this past event now emerged and added its weight on top of his guilt of (unintentionally) leaving Disgust all cold and unable to sleep.
"We also could not find a better solution, I guess" Disgust bit her bottom lip, "I feel so awfully stupid when I think about it."
"There's a better solution" Anger spoke quietly, "Like Fear had said, we should just sleep back then."
An uncomfortable stillness clung onto them soon after. Reflecting on their past mistake had never been comfortable or redeeming.
Unknown time had passed and Disgust broke the silence,
"It's cold out here"
"For you, yes it is"
"You're not feeling cold?"
Anger finally turned his face back to the green emotion. A glass of milk, now cold, still in her hands. He gave her a weary look. She returned an equally weary one to him.
"Guess I have fire in me" He said jokingly, though a bit dry.
Disgust did not answer. She shrunk herself between her shoulders.
"What if Joy and Sadness couldn't make it in time?"
Anger did not answer. He returned his gaze to the ceiling.
After moments passed, Anger spoke, "The best thing you could do is stop blaming yourself. Ourselves."
"I'm trying to."
"Any success"
Disgust looked at him, defeated, "None"
Anger chuckled, pitying himself, "Same here"
A moment of wordlessness passed.
"I'm sorry" said Disgust.
"For what?" Anger raised his eyebrow.
"For using you"
"You mean for provoking me and use me to break the glass?"
"Yes"
"You shouldn't feel sorry"
"Yes, I'm sorry"
"If you hadn't done it, Joy and Sadness would be…" Anger looked at the dark chasm outside "…down there."
"You've done well" He added.
Disgust seemed to grin ever so slightly.
"I'm tired." She said.
"Should've said that half an hour ago" Anger smiled.
He offered her his hand, again, though with much more warmth.
"Let me help you"
"Let's do that again"
"Hm?"
"Talking in the late night"
"Do you know what you're talking about?"
"Yes"
"I doubt that"
"So… could we do it again sometime?"
"…"
"I'm impatient."
"Guess the answer is 'Yes', then"