Chapter 1 – Proud

A/N: Hey everyone! It's been a while since I wrote an Inside Out fanfic and I'm really excited to start this one!

Disclaimer: I don't own Inside Out.

Enjoy!

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Fear slowly opened his eyes and sat up from his bed, feeling a little thirsty. He glanced across the room to Anger's bed and was confused when he saw it was empty, but he soon remembered that his roommate had Dream Duty tonight.

Sighing, he stood up and made his way out of the bedroom to get something to drink. Fear could tell the dream had already started from the bright blue glow that was coming from the main room. After walking down the short hallway, Fear reached the exit door and was surprised when he saw the red emotion wasn't alone.

Sadness was sitting on the couch watching the dream with Anger who was standing in front of the console.

Confused, Fear made his way towards them. "Hey guys,"

"Oh hi Fear," Sadness said.

"Hey," Anger muttered.

"What are doing here Sadness? I thought you and Joy went to sleep in your bedroom." he asked.

"I couldn't sleep so I came here and Anger let me stay with him." She answered quietly.

"Oh okay, how's the dream Anger?"

"Fine," Anger said apathetically without looking at him.

Fear's face flattered, not expecting that response. Talking to Anger was always hard for Fear and their interactions often ended either on an awkward note or with small guy setting him on fire.

Fear cleared his throat. "Well, I should be going now." He said awkwardly and quickly hurried to the kitchen. He filled a glass with water and took a sip from it.

He suddenly caught snippets of a conversation nearby and stepped closer to the doorway to hear it.

"Hey Anger, can I ask you something?" it sounded like Sadness.

"Sure, kid." Anger answered. Fear inched closer to the door and peeked at them.

She hesitated for a moment before speaking again. "Do you….hate Fear?" she asked and Fear stiffened at the question.

"Why do you ask?" the red emotion didn't sound angry, just confused.

Sadness pulled the neck of her sweater nervously and looked down. "I-I always noticed how you treat him differently from us, but I can't understand why."

The purple emotion knew he shouldn't be eavesdropping, knew this conversation wasn't meant for him to hear, but his curiosity got the best of him. He wanted to hear what his colleague will say.

Anger huffed. "Well, he's a big wimp who can't stand up for himself and afraid of almost everything."

Fear flinched at the words. He already expected that answer. He and Anger never really got along and he knew the red emotion didn't like him very much. But still, hearing Anger say it so bluntly stung him. Sighing dejectedly, Fear was about to back away from the door and stop listening when Anger suddenly continued.

"But he does a good job at protecting our girl and keeping her from danger which is something I really appreciate. Not to mention he's so resilient and no matter how many times I knock him down he never fights back and just stands up again. I admit it, I can be rash sometimes and he stopped me from making some poor decisions before like when I wanted to hit that kid who shoved us this morning."

"So no, I don't really hate him. In fact sometimes I found myself proud of the beanpole, but don't you go tell him I said that!" He stated warningly.

Sadness quickly shook her head. "No, I won't." she said with small smile and Anger's face softened again.

Fear meanwhile just stood there, trying to absorb what he heard. He couldn't believe Anger thought of him like that. Did he really mean it?

Despite the confusion he felt, Fear could also feel relief and warmth fill him, knowing that his colleague didn't hate him like he always thought.

Smiling softly, Fear set the glass down and quietly slipped back to their bedroom.

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A/N: Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think of this with a review!