ANXIETY
My name is Fear, I am an emotion living in Riley's mind and my role is to protect her from harm.
"Morning check: done! I haven't forgotten my name and purpose. Good." Mumbled Fear, while adjusting his bowtie and combing his single hair straight up. He tossed his teddy bear aside and turned off his bedside light because it was day now. He took one last look at himself and smiled, carefully heading downstairs to start a new day.
There he sees Ennui sleeping peacefully, her phone laying on her chest. He couldn't help but think how typical this was of her.
"MORNING FEAR!" rushed over Anxiety, her hair jolting straight up. She quickly handed him an energy drink, which he refused.
The raw nerve quickly notices her bloodshot eyes and sighed. "You haven't slept all night, have you?"
Anxiety quickly shook her head, to which Fear facepalmed but he also nodded, understanding and accepting of how she is. He himself isn't able to sleep sometimes.
"Fear dear, I have worked ALL NIGHT making a list of every possible outcome that could be in store for us today! TODAY IS MONDAY!" she squealed, pulled her hair downwards and breathed heavily.
She quickly recomposes herself and calmly speaks to Fear once again.
"I have also devised a new Monday morning drill system. Would you like to see?" she impatiently asked.
Fear couldn't even form a single word before Anxiety interrupted him, hopping in place.
"Excellent! Watch this!" she pulls out a loudspeaker and begins screaming at the top of her lungs.
"ALAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARM!" and all of a sudden, sirens and alarms blast throughout the entirety of Headquarters, perfectly synchronized with Riley's alarm clock for 7 AM.
Fear covers his ears due to the agonizing quantity of decibels being blasted all at once, while Ennui jumps awake and falls back down the couch.
The rest of the emotions all rush down still in their pajamas with Anxiety still yelling at them to hurry up.
Embarrassment and Anger trip down the steps. Anger quickly gets up with bloodshot eyes as well, baseball bat in hand ready to strike at any possible intruder, while Embarrassment carefully got on his feet dusting himself off, hands in his pocket and brisked over to the console.
"WHAT'S GOING ON?! WHO NEEDS A SMACKING TO THE FACE?!" roared Anger, demanding blood for having been abruptly disturbed in his sleep. He scans around, no signs of distress among the crew, or in HQ for that matter.
"Ugh, why did you wake us up? What's happening?" asked a sleepy Joy, seconded by Disgust, snatching the bat from Anger's hands and tossing it aside.
"That was so stylish! Almost makes me forget our beloved Anxiety interrupted my beauty sleep!" complimented an ever admiring Envy with sparkling eyes towards her idol.
Disgust simply flipped her hair in response, in a cold demeanor, appearing even cooler to Envy.
Fear is shocked by what he saw. He couldn't help but think of how genius this was. A Monday drill to get everyone up to shape and ready to intervene for Riley at a moment's notice. He was marveled by it and he wished he had thought of it himself. He noticed a chronometer in the orange emotion's hand and it read 1 minute, 45 seconds.
"April's fools!" she sticked her tongue out. "It's important to not get rusty! Congratulations everyone! I hope you'll be faster next time and-"
She felt shivers running through her when her ankle was touched by Ennui. She slowly crawled all the way there to her, from the couch. Impressive feat.
Anxiety updated the chronometer to 2 minutes and scratched her hair. "We can do better next time!" she squealed enthusiastically.
Joy blinked, yawned and reached for the console, having Riley waking up.
"Wait… this was a-a FALSE ALARM?!" shouted Anger, his fists trembling.
Fear gulped as Anger shoved Sadness and Joy out of the way.
"This is going to suck…" she predicted, shifting next to Embarrassment.
"Not a false alarm, but a drill! Very different things indeed, Anger. Try to not fall over next time… please?" she said naively.
Anger was fuming. "You're dead to me. I don't care you're a girl, you're getting it!"
Sensing what was going to happen, as he endured it himself, Fear stepped in between Anxiety and Anger while Anxiety shielded her face with her clipboard and looked away.
"WOAH THERE, PAL! Let's not be hasty, okay? How about some yoga and-" his sentence was cut short as Anger's head erupted into flames and punched Fear right in the gut, cutting his breath short and making him fall and crawl into a ball, holding his hit area.
Before he could do anything else, Anger was quickly stopped by Embarrassment and he quickly settled down, before stomping the other way.
Ennui showed a slight amused smile before she resumed her usual routine of staring at her phone.
"Great. Just what we needed. More chaos." Facepalmed Disgust, as she crossed her arms staring at the screen.
"I think he just wanted an excuse to hit something. Poor Fear." Commented Sadness.
Envy inspected Fear on the floor and she gasped. "You took that like a champ! Anxiety's knight in shining, flimsy armor!" she clapped. "Wish someone would take a punch for me!"
Anxiety quickly rushed by Fear's side. "Oh no no no! I'm so sorry, this is all my fault! Does it hurt?"
Fear stared at her for a second, before answering a sound "Yes."
"How cute, but it's not your fault, but I'd take a closer look at him!" hinted Joy, elbowing Embarrassment for whatever reason, as she wiggled her eyebrows.
"GREAT IDEA, JOY! This is why you're the best!" complimented Anxiety, helping Fear standing up, with a little bit of difficulty, and helped him upstairs.
Embarrassment looked at Joy as to say What are you thinking?
Joy simply shrugged.
"Pair of fools." Laughed Anger, slamming a button on the console, making Riley angrily shut off her alarm clock.
"I HATE MONDAYS, WHY IS IT ALREADY MONDAY?!" blurted Riley.
Envy nodded, imitating Disgust. "I feel you, Riley." She pouted.
Meanwhile, in the emotions' room, Anxiety and Fear were sitting in his bunk. The pain Fear was enduring had mostly passed, his breathing steadied and went back to regular.
"It's all my fault! If I didn't sound that alarm you would have been fine! What if you have permanent injuries? What if everyone hates me now? What if-What if-!" she briefly screamed and pulled her hair but Fear quickly reassured her.
"Hey, calm down! Everything is fine, see? I'm back up to speed again! I am used to it by now and I'm pretty sure nobody hates you so you can stay serene. I actually think Joy liked that." Smiled Fear, slowly but surely pulling her arm down, so she'd stop pulling her hair.
Anxiety slowly lets go and looks at Fear in the eyes. "Y-you think so? I hope you're right then… I'm sorry, I just keep overthinking stuff, even right now and-!" she gasped as Fear took her hand in his.
"Me too. I also overthink and make stuff like, thousands of pages of things that have a roughly 87% chance of not happening, but it's part of us. And I like that side of you." Confessed Fear, maybe without thinking too much about it for once.
Anxiety's cheeks visibly turned red as Fear was holding her hand. She sat on his bed, on her knees, getting just a little closer to Fear.
Her expression shifted, and she seemed to regain confidence. "Y-you might be right about that… YEAH! Joy didn't seem all that mad! I think she still tolerates me!"
A solid 10 seconds pass in complete silence. Anxiety snapped out of her trance and told Fear that they should go back.
"Wait!" he lightly pulled her towards him, so she wouldn't abruptly get up. He takes her other hand in his, inching closer.
Anxiety was screaming internally, blushing harder than ever.
AH! Is he about to make a move? She thought, a shiver ran down through her whole body.
"Anxiety… I want to enjoy this moment just a little longer and besides… I've always wanted to do this with you." Fear was now also blushing, as he now held Anxiety's shoulders.
"Y-yes! Me too! I've felt like this as well and I-" Anxiety couldn't finish the sentence as her thoughts interrupted her once again.
My heart is not ready! I hope I don't mess up again! This is it!
Their faces mere inches away, only for Fear to pull away at the last second and reach for something hidden under his pillow.
To Anxiety's surprise, he pulls a box containing a thousand puzzle pieces of a famous landmark in France.
"Ta da! Ennui gave this to Envy. She thought she'd get smarter by solving this, but she gave up instantly so she gave it to me. I've always wanted to complete this with you! Come on, we'll take 10 minutes at most if we work together!" explained an ever enthusiastic Fear, opening the box and flipping it upside down, as all puzzle pieces fall in between them. He starts picking up the pieces and inspecting them.
Anxiety just stood there mouth agape, still blushing and in disbelief. Moments later, her expression shifts to a neutral, yet slightly disappointed face.
"Oh… sure, let's… do this?" she gulped as if swallowing a bitter pill, faking a smile. She reluctantly picked up some pieces, looking at Fear being more focused than ever.
What was she expecting anyway?