Turmoil in headquarters. Joy and Disgust were arguing and fighting for the control console. Riley's parents had embarrassed her earlier in front of her friends and now she needed to talk to them about it to ensure that it wouldn't happen again.
"Joy, let me handle this! This is my job!" Disgust exclaimed, as she and Joy attempted to physically push each other away from the control console as they often did when the two of them argued.
"No," Joy replied, trying to stay calm and cool as she wrestled for control with Disgust, "If we're too hard on mom and dad, it'll just make things worse."
"Now listen here!" Disgust gave Joy a hard shove away from the console and stared daggers at her, "She's thirteen now Joy! And all her friends just saw dad do that goofy monkey thing and they saw mom hug her and call her a bunch of childish names!"
"Okay, so it was a little embarrassing," Joy shrugged, "Let's just ask them nicely to be a little more grown up around our friends from now on!"
"That's not going to work," Disgust groaned, "They need a stern talking to about what is and isn't appropriate behavior around our friends, and I'm just the one to administer it!"
Joy sighed in resignation as Disgust took control of the console and made Riley initiate a conversation with her parents.
"Mom, Dad! We need to talk!" Riley said with bitterness to her parents.
"Riley, what's wrong?" her mother asked in her usual concerned tone.
"What's wrong is you two acting like childish idiots in front of my friends!" she continued.
"Riley, I don't like this attitude," her father warned.
"Well I don't like you playing monkey and making an ass out of us in front of our friends!" Riley replied.
"Don't you dare use that kind of language in front of us!" her mother joined in admonishing her.
"You wanna talk about language? Don't call me sweetheart in front of my friends! It's embarrassing!" Riley yelled.
Disgust was not only disgusted, but almost furious as she worked the console. She was behaving like a combination of herself and Anger, who was sitting on the couch in headquarters, growling from behind his newspaper. Only he wasn't growling because he was mad at Riley's parents. He was growling because he was mad at Disgust for doing something that was almost certainly going to get them in trouble.
"That's it, young lady, you're grounded for three days," her mother said calmly but harshly.
"Oh come on!" she began to protest.
"Go to your room!" her father ordered. She groaned and stormed off.
Disgust was still pouting in headquarters. It was very rare and unusual for her to throw a tantrum, but on occasions where grievous mistakes and embarrassments occurred in Riley's social life, it could happen. There was silence in headquarters until it was broken by Sadness.
"We made mom and dad mad, it feels really bad," she said slowly, "I should drive."
Joy solemnly nodded her approval, then shook her head disapprovingly at Disgust. As Sadness took control of the console, Riley played the conversation back over and over again in her mind as she laid in bed and began to feel guilty. Disgust initiated another argument with Joy.
"Don't look at me like that Joy! What was I supposed to do?" she whined.
"I told you I could've taken care of it and no one would get in trouble," Joy replied matter-of-factly.
"Ugh!" Disgust groaned loudly then looked to Anger and Fear for argumentative support, "Anger? Back me up! You care about fairness don't you?"
"Fairness?" Anger scowled at her, "What's unfair is how you just got all of us in trouble!"
"Fear?" Disgust asked hopefully.
"I'm staying out of this," Fear replied to her, "This is the kind of stuff that always happens when you guys fight with each other. I want no part of it."
"Okay it's all my fault, I'm the bad guy," Disgust exclaimed in a sarcastic but upset tone, "I need some time alone."
Disgust trudged back to her room. She didn't need the others to see that she was actually disgusted with herself at the moment.
Since Riley was sad, upset with herself, and already in her room, she ended up falling asleep for a nap. With Sadness watching over the console at an appropriate time to do so and Anger and Fear taking the time to cool down at opposite ends of the couch, Joy decided it might be best to go talk to Disgust and see how she was feeling. She walked down the hallway of the emotions' bedrooms and knocked on Disgust's door.
"Go away!" she heard her yell, the typical response.
"Come on, let's talk" Joy replied.
"There's no need! I was wrong, okay? Okay!?"
"Just let me in," Joy said soothingly.
"Fine!" Disgust groaned.
Joy entered and shut the door behind her. She sat down on the bed next to Disgust and put her arm around her shoulder.
"You had quite an episode," Joy commented.
"I know, okay?" Disgusted replied bitingly, "I screwed up. I got Riley in trouble."
"And you feel?" Joy asked. There was silence for a moment as Disgust searched for the right words.
"Upset… with myself," Disgust replied, her tone growing a bit more calm, "It's a bit of a foreign feeling to me, but I suppose I can be... disgusted with myself."
"I think that's just called guilt," Joy said, "And it's a very necessary feeling."
"Look, I'm sorry I got us all in trouble, I really am," Disgust lamented.
"It's going to be okay," Joy replied, "I doubt that three day grounding is going to stick anyway."
"I should've listened to you," Disgust said quietly, staring at the wall.
"You were just trying to do your job," Joy admitted.
"But my job is to clear a path for you, clear anything disgusting from her life, so Riley can be happy," Disgust explained, "But instead I got her in trouble and created an extra obstacle to happiness."
"Don't be so hard on yourself," Joy said comfortingly, "I'll tell you what, Riley's napping right now. When she wakes up, you can help apologize to mom and dad."
"I don't know that I'll be much good at that," Disgust replied, concerned.
"Don't worry, Sadness will help you and she's great at that," Joy explained.
"Yeah, I guess that could work," Disgust's tone brightened up just a bit, "Hopefully my being disgusted with myself will have a new effect on the control console. And then I guess Riley can use this guilt and remorse to evaluate her decisions better in the future?"
"Now you're gettin' it, we're gonna make things right," Joy exclaimed joyfully, "Now why don't you give me nice smile?"
Disgust smiled weakly, without looking at Joy and gave a soft grunt.
"Come on, look at me and smile," Joy moaned, inching closer to Disgust on the edge of the bed so that they were practically cuddling.
Disgust weakly turned to Joy and smiled at her, finding Joy's big blue eyes staring longingly into hers. This caused her smile to widen with sincerity as their noses were nearly touching each other.
"You have the most beautiful smile of anyone in headquarters," Joy said softly, running a finger across Disgust's mouth and cheek, causing her to blush profusely.
"Woah, Joy, this is awkward," Disgust pulled back, embarrassed, inching herself further from Joy's side.
Joy frowned, disappointed, but she soon realized that Disgust wasn't disgusted with what was happening. She was just embarrassed and acting shy. If she didn't want this close, implicitly romantic contact, she would have been disgusted as well.
"I'm gonna take a nap now," Disgust said as she lied herself on the bed, shyly facing away from Joy, "Wake me up when Riley wakes up from hers. I promise I'll help apologize."
"Do you need me to leave so you can get some rest?" Joy asked expectantly.
"Um, only if you want to," Disgust said uncertainly.
She gasped slightly as she felt Joy curl herself around her and wrap an arm around her waist.
"Mind if I nap with you?" Joy asked happily, "You're so soft."
"Okay Joy, if you insist," Disgust replied with light sarcasm.
She shut her eyes and smiled to herself. One last thought came to her before she dozed off into her nap.
"Joy?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you really think I have the prettiest smile out of everyone in headquarters?" Disgust asked.
"You have the best smile in the world," Joy said in affirmation.
"But you smile all the time Joy, how can yours not be prettier?" Disgust asked confused.
"Because yours is something special and rare," Joy replied, "It really takes something to earn a smile from you."
As they both drifted off for a nap, the biggest smile Disgust had ever smiled came across her face. Next time, she thought, she would let Joy take control of the console if a situation similar to the one earlier were to again arise. Disgust resolved to herself then and there to learn from the events of that day and allow more Joy into her life.