Author's Note: Sorry for the delay, guys. I'm in the last year of school. As a result, workload is crazy and time is increasingly being devoted to study. Therefore, my fanfic updates will be sporadic and in some cases might be once a month. Bear with me, please. Thanks to all who are reading this story.

-JonoGwood

It had been several weeks since Depression's reign of terror had come to a sudden and quite violent end. Love and Shyness were beginning to find their place among the emotions. They were taking over the console more often than before, particularly as Riley and Mike were regularly going out together. As they grew, Fear and Sadness would teach them more of the buttons, how they operated, and which ones they should be cautious with pressing.

They soon discovered Love was a little more impulsive than her brother, flicking switches and pressing buttons at random before Fear quickly reining her in. Shyness was a little less adventurous, mirroring his mother. He understood what the buttons did, but he was hesitant to push any button except his personal one. The same was true of when they were playing. Love would sing, dance and giggle around Headquarters. Shyness would sit in a corner and read a picture book, not paying particular attention to his twin's antics.

Their telekinetic abilities were acknowledged, but were not put to use much after Depression's defeat. The adults realised they were defense mechanisms predominantly associated with threats against both them and those closest to them. Occasionally they would lift a small object, but otherwise their energy and time was spent at the console, which was becoming increasingly common.

The "little heroes", as they were dubbed by Joy, were happiest attending to Riley's needs and emotions whenever the situation called for it. They wouldn't have had it any other way.

"Story time!" Fear called. Love and Shyness bounded over to their father, Love almost tripping over in the race against her brother.

"Story!" Love shouted. "I love stories!"

"Yeah, me too!" Shyness grabbed a comfortable chair and sat on it, his smile broad and his teeth gleaming with anticipation.

"This story is called: The Fascinating Journey of the Central Nervous System!"

Shyness cocked his head a fraction. "What's that?"

"You'll soon find out, son," Fear replied. "The central nervous system is made up of the brain and the spinal cord-"

Love groaned. "Dad!" She began putting cotton buds into her ears in protest.

Shyness leaned in closer, hanging onto every word his father was saying. "More, Dad! I want to learn!"

"With pleasure. The spinal cord sends messages to the brain from the peripheral nervous system... Yes, Shy?"

Shy had his hand up, waving with curiousity. "What's the peripheral nervous system?"

"Oh, well that's easy! It's..."

His daughter tore the cotton buds off her ears and ran away to escape the searingly dull "story" her father was reading to them. Her brother, meanwhile, was fully engrossed in the descriptions of the nerves running up the spinal cord, "like a spider", as his father put it, to send and receive messages to the brain, and the brain sending information back through the peripheral nervous system to send to the "things that make Riley work".

"Cool, Dad! I love you!" Shyness beamed as he wrapped his arms around his dad-turned-lecturer.

"No problem, son!" Fear beamed.

"MOM! DADDY'S BORING ME AGAIN!" Shyness hollered as she ran towards Sadness.