Joy snuggled deeper into the couch she made those memory erasing guys bring her, tossed a piece of popcorn into her mouth and set in to watch Riley's dream. All the other emotions had gone off to rest, and she would too, but she always took a few minutes to check on Riley's dreams to see what she might need for her next day. Fear, Anger, Disgust, or even Sadness. Thinking about her made Joy cringe. Not at the emotion herself, but how Joy refused to let her play a part in Riley's life for so long. All those years she would never get back…
Joy jumped and shrieked a little as something slid over the back of the couch and landed next to her. She calmed down when she realized it was Sadness herself, almost as if the shorter blue emotion had read her mind.
"What are you doing up?" Joy whispered, careful to not wake anyone else.
"I just wanted to sit with you while you check in on Riley's dreams. It must be depressing sitting here alone every night." Sadness muttered out, refusing to look over at Joy.
Joy's face softened out into a smile, turning back to the screen and offering Sadness the bowl of popcorn. She took some, careful to not let the rain she now caused on occasion to spring up and ruin the snack, and sat back to watch with Joy.
After some time had passed, Riley's dream took her to the top of a castle guarded by a dragon. As she stood there in a pretty dress, waving a handkerchief in the air, a knight in shining armor rode over the hill to save her. When Joy saw this, she gave an exasperated sigh and threw popcorn at the screen.
"Boo! Boys are overrated!" She whisper-yelled, still conscious of her sleeping friends. To her surprise, Sadness whispered "Yeah!" and even stood up on the couch in a rather heroic pose. "Who needs them?" Joy looked over at Sadness, feeling some mixture of emotions none of them had experienced before bubble up. Until she noticed Sadness's glasses. They were covered in dirt and scratches, probably from their "vacation" outside Headquarters. She gently pulled Sadness back down onto the couch, turned the blue emotion's head towards her, and took off the glasses, asking "How long have these been like this?"
"Oh, uuuh, I don't know?" Sadness replied, squinting as she watched the glowing emotion rub the lenses on her dress.
"There!" Joy said, triumphantly holding up the cleaner glasses. "I couldn't do much about the scratches, but all the dirt is off. Now…" She said, faltering as she turned back to Sadness. "I, uh, I don't actually know where your ears are. Hold on." Sadness held back a surprised gasp as Joy's hands worked their way into her hair, sweeping for her ears. She could have easily moved her own hair aside, but her hands were suddenly not responding.
"Hang on…almost…aha!" Joy triumphantly sang as her hand brushed up against what must have been Sadness's ear. Sliding on the glasses, she basked in her success before realizing where she was. Her face was inches from Sadness's, her hand now cupping her face. Both of them blushing furiously, neither moved.
Unseen by either of them, the knight in Riley's dream shimmered, becoming much more feminine for half a second.
Joy jumped away from Sadness, frantically apologizing and coming up with excuses, until Sadness put her hand on Joy's arm. Joy looked down, and saw a blue hand holding out the popcorn bowl, a peace offering she couldn't put into words. Joy smiled, taking some of the popcorn and sitting back, watching the rest of the dream with Sadness in a comfortable silence.
Fear yawned, stretching and rising out of his bed, the first of the emotions to rise. As made his way over to the controller, he noticed Joy's spiky blue hair peaking out from behind the back of the couch. Moving silently as not to wake the energetic emotion until he was in front of her, he made his way around the couch to tell her to get up, their day was starting. But the words died on his lips as he saw the front of the couch. Joy was there, sound asleep. But Sadness was there to, laying on top of Joy, arms wrapped around each other. Fear thought quickly, then slunk back to his room. He then mimicked his earlier yawn, but much louder, clearly saying "Alright, time to work folks!" As Anger let out his usual string of curse words at being awoken, Fear made his way back over to the controller, hiding a grin when he saw Joy and Sadness already there, both refusing to look at each other and blushing a deep red.