Due to the amount of positive reviews recieved, I am happy to share the next chapter with you! I hope you enjoy!

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Thanks again! Enjoy!

Chapter 2: Of Penguins and Pebbles

He awoke to the feeling of a thick palm pushing repeatedly on his shoulder.

"Come on, Fear." Anger's gravely voice sounded slow and exhausted. "We gotta get moving."

It took Fear only a moment to coax his bright eyes open. He tiredly watched as Anger shuffled his wide frame to their closet door, muttering something under his breath, no doubt about not wanting to be awake at the moment. But Fear's eyes quickly moved from his coworker to the ceiling.

"The lights are still off." He mumbled, rubbing his strained eyes and lifting himself into a seated position. "Riley's still asleep. Why are we getting up now?"

Anger grunted and turned back around to his lanky coworker. "We're doing that thing where we keep waking up for a few seconds just to fall back asleep for a minute or two." He grouched, folding his thick arms across his broad chest. "No doubt Sadness who keeps putting us back to sleep. She always does this when Riley's sick..."

Almost as if on cue, the lights throughout headquarters went on, accompanied by the sound of electronics whirring to life, bathing them in light like the morning sun beyond the monitor. The glow lasted only a few wavering seconds before once again shutting off, bringing back the darkness of nightfall. Anger shook his heavy head, growling something nasty about his melancholy colleague.

Fear looked to the now darkened lights above him and sighed. This, he knew, could go on for quite some time. No one really knew much about Sadness's motivations. But ever since their preteen moving incident, no one ever questioned her again. Obviously there was some reason behind this waking behavior when Riley was sick that the others simply didn't understand.

In an instant, Fear's mind chained several thoughts together. Riley was sick, which meant Fear wasn't needed, which reminded him of the question he had asked Joy, which lead to remembering what her response had been. The realization hit him with the strength of a speeding semi; he was going out with Joy today. A wave of excited energy washed over his body with a shiver, and he bolted out of bed and to the closet on the far end of the room.

Anger, who had already retrieved his clean outfit from the same closet, returned to his crimson draped bed. As he deftly arranged his patterned tie, he watched as Fear moved at light speed; throwing off his pajamas and redecorating himself with his day clothes, all the while appearing as a fuchsia blur. The stout emotion grunted, wondering where his nervous coworker found his never ending supply of energy. As soon as his tie was in place, he started towards the bedroom door.

Finishing his outfit with his standard mauve bow tie, Fear too headed for the control room. But he found himself quickly skidding to halt only moments later, as Anger had come to a complete stop just in the doorway, his wide square frame entirely obscuring the exit.

"What are you doing?" Fear panted, thankful he hadn't crashed into his stubbornly still companion.

Anger turned around with a somewhat devilish look of curiosity on his flat face. "Yeah... I meant to ask you..." He nodded, grinding his blocky fists into his hips. "What is it that you have planned today? It's obviously something big."

Fear's long face turned a pale white, his antennae dangling freely behind him. He hadn't told Anger about his plans with Joy. He hadn't told anyone. In fact, he wasn't going to tell anyone. On a sick day like today, the three now in charge would be so busy that they wouldn't have even noticed or cared about Fear's absence. He had been planning on taking advantage of their obliviousness. The less they knew about his attempts at strengthening he and Joy's relationship, the better. Especially if he failed.

"How..." He stammered with a nervous step back. "H-how di-did..."

"Oh, come on. You're easier to read than a picture book." Anger laughed, rattling Fear's nerves with his somewhat rare hearty chuckle. "You spent all last night chewing on your pillow. That thing was practically your teething ring. And that always means you've got some sort of plan laid out the next day, be it good or bad."

Startled by his own unconscious readability, Fear spun his head around to look at his bed. Sure enough, the pillow had been left at an awkward angle, much lower than he usually kept it. And the bottom third of the cushion was saturated in his own saliva, flattened in certain areas that still retained a vague outline of his wide, strangely spaced teeth.

Fear knew when to admit defeat. "All right." He sighed. "But don't laugh! I asked Joy out to imagination land with me today, and she said yes. I figured you wouldn't have much use for us anyway..."

Taking in this new information, Anger slowly revealed a wide grin.

'Here it comes...' Fear thought, closing his eyes and turning away from any mocking laughter that was about to ensue. 'Brace yourself...'

"You?" Anger suddenly bellowed, watching Fear wince in response to the sound. "You asked Joy out on a date?"

Fear, having trouble deciphering Anger's underlying tone, slowly opened his eyes and looked to his shorter companion, who still had that wide smile across his lips and that devilish gleam in his ruby eyes.

"Y-ye-yeah... I... I did..." Fear began to fiddle mindlessly with his own hair-like appendage. "B-but I dont... R-really... I don't th-think that it's a... a date..?"

Anger either didn't hear his coworkers muttering or, more likely, didn't care. "I mean, I knew you liked her and all..." He chuckled, continuing his thought as if Fear hadn't said anything. "But to ask her out on a date? That takes guts! I didn't think you had it in ya!"

Becoming somewhat more at ease, Fear uncurled himself into a more upright pose. Was this, he wondered, an example of one of Anger's rare and strangely worded compliments? The passing thought made him laugh nervously, which he hoped wouldn't receive any negative reaction.

But it was apparently the reply Anger had wanted. He smiled wide enough to allow his uneven teeth to show through, shuffled a step forward and patted a huge palm as high up Fear's lanky back as he could reach. "Good for you, nerd." He praised. "And since I'm so nice, I'll even give ya my best bit of dating advice!"

Fear, his skeleton rattling with each of Anger's 'pats' (which felt more like slaps to him), raised his thick eyebrow. He was quite curious to know just what kind of 'dating advice' the angry emotion could offer him, seeing as how he had yet to court his own long-time crush.

Despite this, Anger seemed confident in his advice and stood tall and proud, as if it were a precious gift of information that he was kind enough to let Fear in on.

"You see, Fear." Anger talked almost in a whisper, as if this was real secret stuff. "Girls like a whole lotta things in a man. But there's one thing that they look for that means more to them than anything else. A dame expects her man to be confident."

Fear tilted his head. "Confident..? In what..?"

Anger scoffed. "In everything! In himself, in his actions; they want to know that their man is confident and proud of every little thing he does. Trust me; ladies flock to the guy who looks like he's got things figured out. A weaker, wishy washy type? They'll just pass him by.

"So do yourself a favor. Make sure you show Joy your own confidence on this date. It's a fool proof way to ensure a second date. And so far... you haven't really scored many points in this department..."

It felt like Anger had more to say about the subject, but he was interrupted by the lights around them once again coming to life. They both stared at the glow, waiting to see when it would go out once more. But even after a solid ten seconds, the lights showed no signs of fading.

"Looks like Sadness is finally letting us stay up this time." He grumbled, back to his standard grouchy self. "That's my cue. There is NO WAY Riley is gonna be happy about missing out on that much sleep!"

Wanting to make sure he took control before any other emotion could settle in on the console, Anger spun around and jogged out the door on his stubby legs, absentmindedly pushing the door closed behind him. Fear was suddenly face to face with his own reflection, shining off the floor length mirror that hung on the bedroom door.

Fear couldn't help but take a moment to look over himself. The words of wisdom Anger had provided began to sink in, and Fear breathed a solemn sigh. Because one thing he wasn't was confident. Especially in himself. 'What do I have to be confident in?' He had wondered. He was scrawny, skittish, weirdly proportioned, and just plain funny lookin'. He didn't look anything at all like someone a girl would find manly or attractive. He was the opposite of a good catch. He began to wonder what it was that Joy saw in him, and began to fear it may have been pity.

As he continued to contemplate what a poor specimen he was, he suddenly remembered that nature documentary Riley had seen recently. It was one of those educational pieces narrated by that old British man who seemed to provide the voice over for all nature documentaries. The part in specific that had come to mind was the part focusing on the rockhopper penguin.

The small, flightless birds lived in the antarctic. During their mating season, the show had explained, the female rockhoppers would wander through fields of males, each sitting atop a nest he had built for any eggs he may father. In such a fierce and brutal environment, the females wanted to be sure they were giving their offspring the best chance of survival. So they searched for a mate who was large, strong, and could screech out his call with impressive lung power. Surely a virile specimen like that would father children strong enough to survive.

Fear had remembered watching as the footage depicted the choosy females passing up dozens of potential mates until they spotted one of those burly males. Even with their expressionless bird face, Fear felt like they seemed to exude confidence. They knew their perfect physical form would get them a mate every time. It was almost too easy.

But then, there were the male rockhoppers who hadn't been dealt the greatest hand in their genetics. The scrawnier, quieter penguins had almost no chance of attracting a female with their physical form alone. Fear had felt a lot like a particularly lanky rockhopper they had shown, who had been passed up near a hundred times the last year, ending the mating season all alone.

There was one thing, however, that could give these weaker birds an edge in the mating game. And that was dedication. Rockhoppers, it said, were named after the rocky terrain which they live on. During the mating season, each male rockhopper assembles a nest of dozens and dozens of pebbles arranged in a neat little pile.

The scrawnier male penguins could prove their worth by pouring their dedication into their rocky nest. The lanky rockhopper, refusing to be rejected for another season, spent days assembling his rock pile. He chose only the smoothest, glossiest stones; favoring ones of a golden brown color. He would travel great distances to find the perfect rocks, and he worked as hard as he could to create the perfect nest. When it was finished, it was glorious, and the penguin seemed rather confident in his own creation.

As the females began to walk among the males, trying to decide on their future mate, it was the lanky males nest that had caught the most attention. For even the penguins knew that it was easy to be a noteworthy catch when fate had bestowed upon them the perfect body, but it took effort and dedication to build a beautiful shimmering pebble nest to prove that they would make a reliable mate. In no time at all, the lanky penguin in the documentary had caught the eye of a young and healthy female, who knew that her new mate would always be willing to put forth immeasurable amounts of effort to please those he cared for.

As Fear continued to study his form in the mirror and ponder the events of the documentary and it's penguins, a new thought formed in his mind. He was one of the weaker penguins; a lousy physical specimen that was bound to be ignored by the opposite sex. So his only hope to impress Joy was to prove not only his dedication to their relationship, but the confidence in that work. He had to gather the most pebbles to make up for what fate hadn't given him. It would be hard. But in the end, he hoped, it would mean more to Joy than any muscles ever could.

"Confidence... Dedication..." Fear thought aloud to himself. "Gather the most pebbles, Fear."

With a newfound sense of self worth, Fear stood up straight and tall, puffed out his chest, and exited the bedroom in search of Joy.

"There you are!" Joy chirped, as Fear descended the ramp connecting the living quarters to the main control room. She almost added 'I thought you might've gotten cold feet', but didn't want to risk upsetting her skittish romantic interest, especially before something as big as this. She was just happy that he had found the courage to go through with it after all. This was something she had been looking forward to all night, she just didn't want to tell Fear and find himself putting unnecessary pressure on himself to make the day perfect.

Fear, still trying to maintain the confidence Anger had advised him to keep, could already feel that his face had begun to flush just from the pleasant sound of Joy's sing-song voice. As he came to the bottom of the ramp and stood beside her, the color change in his cheeks only got worse, and his nervous shivers threatened to start up again.

"H-he...h-hi... Good morning, Joy..." Fear felt his grasp on the English language slip away as his brain instead swirled with thoughts about Joy and how perfect she was. He tried to give his mind a chance to settle down by briefly turning away from her beautiful form to open his locker at the base of the ramp.

Joy, giving into her excitement, momentarily forgot to stay calm around the being of frazzled nerves. "Are you ready?" She beamed, smiling the brightest smile she could muster. "Where do you want to go first? Are you gonna swim too? Do you think they'll have roller coasters? What's with the backpack?"

Fear, revealing the purple backpack he had prepared the night before with all the things they may need on their outing, was startled by the sudden question onslaught. Trying to remain confident and avoiding any sort of awkward silence, Fear's panicked mind raced to answer the queries as well as give his own thoughts on the day ahead. But in his haste and embarrassed confusion, his mind and mouth attempted to answer everything at once.

"I...I'M YES, GOOD LETS GO WITH AND SWIM MAYBE BECAUSE TOWELS ARE HERE AND I REMEMBER PENGUINS." It was like an avalanche. Once the words had started, they refused to stop pouring out of him until the mash of thoughts had been completed. When the jumbled mess finally ended, Fear slapped his large hands across his mouth as if to ensure nothing more could escape. He tightly shut his eyes, embarrassed beyond belief, and waited for Joy's inevitable response. Something, he guessed, along the lines of 'I just remembered some things I have to do so...'

But to his surprise, he instead heard Joy's sweet, bubbling laughter. Mortified at the possibility that Joy was mocking his panicked babbling, Fear quickly snapped his eyes back open. "Sorry! That was a lot of questions, wasn't it?" Joy smiled, blushing a gentle pink on her golden cheeks. "I'm just really excited! And it sounds like you are too!"

Fear blinked a few times. She was... excited? About being with him? Even after the sudden word salad that had cascaded from his mouth? Fear returned Joy's bright smile, blushing madly, reminded yet again why he adored her.

"Y-yeah..." Fear chuckled nervously, finally back in control of his thoughts and words. "Yeah! I am excited!"

"Well what are we waiting for!" Joy began to skip to the area beneath the living quarters where the headquarters only exit was. "The train will be here any minute! Let's go!"

Fear watched as her chartreuse dress danced with her graceful movement, more in love with her then ever. He silently swore to make this outing absolutely perfect. He wanted to make certain that this would strengthen their bond, for the thought of life without Joy by his side was a thought he could no longer stand.

It was time to show Joy just how much she meant to him. "Gather the most pebbles..." He whispered to himself, and slowly proceeded towards the exit.