Note: After the Brain Freeze trailer, I feel that I now have enough info about the Emotions' personalities to attempt to get inside their heads. …pun not intended. There'll be a chapter for each of the five Emotions, posted at irregular intervals.
This is obviously written before the movie comes out (and loosely set before it takes place, I guess), so take it with a grain of salt. But I, for one, look forward to looking back and seeing how accurate my portrayal was.
Sometimes, she was glad that Joy was around.
Not glad as in happy, but glad as in... well, not depressed, which was the closest Sadness ever came to glad. But she didn't know what else to call it, because if Joy wasn't around, that would have deprived Riley of many of the things she treasured. She could not have enjoyed her matches, or particularly tasty foods, or what Joy liked to call "quality time" with her friends and family. If Joy wasn't around, Riley would never be happy.
Of course, Sadness wasn't really sure what happy felt like, but she could sense that it was something good, at least, something which was important to Riley. Something Riley wanted to be.
It broke her heart to know that there were feelings Riley had that she would never understand, but she had long since learned to accept it as a fact of life. And she felt bad for always dragging Riley down, so it was rare for her to take the lead in the girl's state of mind. But sometimes, she knew she was needed, and she never hesitated to act on that realization. Because sometimes, Riley was truly desolate, and in those times, it was Sadness who was her best friend.
When something bad came up, the others never knew how to act. But Sadness knew, because she understood. Riley's mom sometimes said that crying together could make the bad things go away, and it was a truth Sadness felt resonating inside her, except that it wasn't always about solving the problems. Sometimes, in the darkest moments, it was just about indulging in them.
It was hard being the only one who could empathize, but she didn't blame the others; it simply wasn't in their natures. So she did the best she could for the girl, even if that just meant being with her. And even though those were the only moments in which Sadness felt truly alive, she always willed them to be temporary.
It wasn't much. But it was theirs. And maybe that was enough.
Note: Keep an eye out for the other chapters. I have them all figured out; just need to polish them.
If you enjoyed this, please give a shout; would be nice to meet other Inside Out fans-to-be!
Next up: Anger!