Sometimes, the fire got painful.
It was the only way Anger knew how to make himself heard, but when the top of his head burst into flames, he couldn't think straight. He didn't want to think straight at those times, and that irked him, because it never failed to get Riley into trouble.
And as much as he pushed the others away when he got going, in retrospect, he always did welcome their interventions. Not that he ever told them that, of course, or he would have to suffer their irritating self-righteousness each time. Disgust especially was way too smug for her own good.
But he didn't believe in bottling things up, either. Sometimes, Riley actively refused to acknowledge him, and whenever she did, it made her later outbursts all the more magnificent. So he was convinced it was best to just let it all out, and that was exactly why he never tried to hold himself back.
At times, he resented being the only one she didn't seem to want, but it also grounded him, for no matter the lengths to which she could go in order to ignore him, he knew she always came back to rely on him in the end.
Mostly, that was when people didn't let her be herself. Those were the moments in which she snapped. Her parents in particular were infuriating. To be honest, he didn't really understand how she managed to deal with them when he was not the one in charge. They kept trying to form her into something she was not, and it caused a fierce protectiveness to stir inside him whenever it happened, one he didn't quite understand, but which he welcomed all the same.
It wasn't always what she wanted, but he would protect her. Because someone had to.
Note: These are great writing exercises. Maintaining a general emotional tone despite having a bunch of differing feelings flowing into each other is surprisingly hard.
Next up: Disgust!