It all started with the party.
Parties were more her thing, but Joy was over-the-moon happy that Sadness had decided to at least try it out. It was also a big shock to get at the time.
"Alright Sadness, I'm headed out."
"Where you going, honey?" Sadness replied from her reading chair.
"Fear's office party. He invited me, and I do like parties. Besides, he might not do too well by himself." Joy said, more to herself for the second part. Chuckling a little, she grabbed her keys and stepped to the door before she was stopped by a wait in Sadness's voice. Turning, she saw the shorter woman already had her coat on and was staring at her with more than a hint of aggressive defiance in her eyes. Joy was scared, until Sadness said "I want to go too."
Then she was concerned.
"Are you sure? I know parties aren't really fun at all for you. You don't have to if-"
"No! This time I want to! I want to try this. Try something new?" Sadness said, starting with the aggression shown in her eyes but quickly losing her confidence. Joy knelt down to Sadness's shorter stature and said "Sadness, I will always support you if you want to try something new." deadly serious. And so Sadness had come to the party.
Joy looked over, doing a quick check on everyone she knew in the room. Anger and Fear were talking to other couples, and Sadness had found a group of people who shared her interests, and they were smiling at having a blast. Joy couldn't stop the giant grin from spreading across her face at the sight of Sadness having a good time at a party. Turning back to her own group of people, she talked for some amount of time until she, and everyone else, heard the slurred "Hey there girl." That could only mean one thing. Dudebro was hitting on some poor, defenseless girl. As Joy turned around to check it out, her blood ran cold. There was a Dudebro alright. And he was standing way too close to Sadness.
"Those clothes don't suit you, girl. Let's go get you something more comfortable." Dudebro managed to shove out, while teetering closer and closer to a retreating Sadness.
"Uuuhh, no thanks. I came with someone else." Sadness replied, painfully aware that all eyes were on her.
"Pffft. Once you get a piece of this, there won't be no one else."
"N-no. I'd rather not." Sadness stuttered out, her back now literally against the wall.
That stutter triggered a chain of thoughts on Joy's mind.
Sadness told her once that she hadn't stuttered since 11th grade, and the pride on her face had made Joy kiss her right then and there.
How dare this dickhead make Sadness feel like this. HOW DARE HE.
Joy knew what happened next, but it was almost as if she were only in partial control of her body. Like it did what it wanted to do, but it was also what she wanted to do.
She crushed her drink in her hand and stalked over to Dudebro, people parting in front of her like the Red Sea. When she got to him, she grabbed his shoulder and spun him around to face her. Then she gave him her sweetest smile, and slammed his face into her knee.
And then threw him across the room, away from Sadness.
Then she elbow dropped him off a table.
And then there was just a lot of straight up punching.
Then she stomped on the back of his head.
After that one, the police were called and she was bodily dragged off of him.
When the police showed up, she was being restrained by four separate fully grown men.
The next thing she actually remembers is sitting on an uncomfortable office chair with a cup of hot chocolate in her hands and a shock blanket around her shoulders, with an armed officer watching her every move.
Her eyes were on the cup
A detective came in. "Ma'am, I've been an officer for thirty years." He started, pulling up another chair to sit and face her. "The only other time I've seen someone beat that bad was when a boxer beat his wife to death."
Her head snapped up to his. She hadn't-
"Oh don't worry. He'll live. You actually did us a semi-favor. We've been looking for that guy for a year. He's been embezzling money from the company."
But listen here Joy." He said, his voice dropping to a serious tone. "That was a serious assault. You've been an upstanding citizen your whole life, so we'll let it slide. But if it happens again, you're going to jail. For at least five years. Understand?"
Joy nodded vigorously.
"Ok. You're free to go."
Joy downed the hot chocolate and bolted for the door.
Sadness was waiting on a bench on the sidewalk.
Joy stopped running the moment she saw her. All the horrible things she did to that guy came back to her. There was no way Sadness would ever love her again.
Joy dropped to her knees and began to sob into her hands.
A hand gently lifted her face, and she met Sadness's eyes with her own for an eternal second.
Sadness whispered "Sssshhh. It's Ok." And wiped Joy's tears away, but that only started her up again. Sadness held her close right there in the middle of the street and answered every blubbered "I'm sorry." with "It's Ok."
And, eventually, it was Ok.