Work Text:
“Ah- uhm- loving the enthusiasm, Anger, but let’s try not to explode the piano!”
It was no secret that Headquarters needed cleaning. After the mind workers had quite literally crashed their way in at the first sign of puberty, they had left a massive mess on account of some permits to ‘renovate’ the place for the incoming emotions. Furniture sawed in half, random holes jackhammered into the floor, items tossed out of rooms, and even explosives detonated for no real reason! All of these damages accumulated to a whole heap of useless demolition that was the farthest thing from a ‘renovation.’ Plus, there were heaps of ideas scattered all over the place from Riley’s brainstorm, most of which no one wanted to ever put to use.
The emotions, both old and new, had been rather clueless as to what to do about the mess after the dust had settled from the creatively dubbed ‘Hockey Camp Incident.’ In the few days after camp when Riley was safe and sound at home, Disgust had sent in numerous complaints about the hideous mess that was offending her retinas every second that it stayed there and you just have to get back here and get rid of it, you overpaid morons! This, however, only resulted in a few dry promises to clean it all up at some point that left even Joy skeptical.
“Sadness, it’s okay! You didn’t mean to! So what if you broke a great idea? Riley will have plenty more! C’monnn, it’ll be alright! ”
So, while Ennui kept Riley busy scrolling through Netflix, Joy gathered the other emotions to sort the damage as best as possible, that way they could easily dump the broken junk onto the Train Of Thought in the morning.
“It’ll be fun!” she had enthused, thrusting her hands in the air and arching them down at her sides as if a rainbow would spark from her arms. “Besides, we could all use a healthy bonding exercise to keep ourselves stimulated! Teamwork makes the dream work, as they say! Now who’s with me?!”
Her call to arms received a mix of murmurs and reluctant grunts but no one voiced any complaints, so it was settled: they’d be fixing this mess themselves. Joy then took it upon herself to delegate tasks to all of them. Disgust and Joy would sort things into piles based on what should and shouldn’t be kept; Anger and Embarrassment would be doing the heavy lifting of larger objects; Fear, Anxiety, and Sadness would sweep up smaller debris; and Envy.. well, she insisted she could do everything, so Joy allowed her to flit around helping wherever she saw fit. With all of their combined efforts, Headquarters would be spic and span in no time! Right?
“Fear, wait! It’s okay, the chainsaw isn’t on, it can’t hur- ..hey- hey, wait, wait, wait- WHO TOLD ENVY HOW TO TURN IT ON?”
..Yeah, not quite.
At some point, Envy got her hands on a chainsaw and managed to get it running, leaving everyone (reasonably) terrified as she began cackling from how fun it was to swing. The others were currently hidden behind a toppled couch while Embarrassment slowly approached her, his hands raised as if he were dealing with a wild animal. In all honesty, he may as well have been.
“Be careful!” Sadness cried out, peeking over the couch to watch with worried eyes. She could barely be heard over the ripping and roaring of the machine as it echoed throughout Headquarters.
“Watch the chains, watch the chains!” added Fear, entangled with Anxiety as they held onto one another for dear life like a pair of jungle vines.
Embarrassment made a hesitant noise but stepped closer, flinching back when she swung the chainsaw in his direction. The thing was at least two times the size of her so she had very little control of where it was going, allowing the machine to dance her around in a threatening spin. All the while she was giggling away, unbothered by how terrifying the situation was.
“I bet you guys wouldn’t have figured this thing out!” Envy bragged as she just continued to spin faster and faster to the point where she was beginning to wobble dangerously off balance. Thankfully before things could get any worse, Embarrassment bit the bullet and reached directly into the spiral to pluck Envy up with one hand and snatch the chainsaw with the other. He sighed with relief as he safely held Envy away from the death machine. However, they all watched him realize he was holding an active chainsaw, causing him to yelp and drop it, jumping several steps back when it began spinning wildly on the floor.
Anger came to the rescue this time by hopping the couch, grabbing the nearest chair, and promptly smacking it against the saw until it coughed to a stop.
Everyone simply stared at it for a moment before the silence was broken by Disgust.
“What were you thinking, Envy? Good lord,” she scolded, rounding the couch and setting her arms akimbo at her hips. Her scowl was evident on her otherwise perfect face but one could see the underlying concern it held. “Were you trying to get someone killed?!”
Envy crossed her arms with an exaggerated pout, still being held by the back of her shirt collar like a kitten by its scruff. “I wanted to see if it still worked! It’s not like anyone else thought to do it!”
Disgust blinked, seemingly offended by the answer. “Why would we need t- okay, whatever, it’s fine now I guess. But don’t pull something like that again,” she griped, sauntering off to a pile of ideas bulbs to continue her sorting. Meanwhile, Fear and Anxiety had finally realized the state they had found themselves in and promptly released one another, each awkwardly clearing their throats and scuttling away. Shades of violet and tangerine stayed dusted on their respective faces even as they returned to work.
While Anger and Joy set out to (somehow) put safety locks on every potentially dangerous machine, Sadness emerged from behind the couch to approach Embarrassment, who now had Envy standing on his palm and rattling on about how she would have been fine and it wasn’t such a big deal, GOSH. He didn’t appear convinced in the slightest but just kept nodding along anyway, checking her over for injuries. Sadness found the sight.. endearing. Like a big brother toting on a little sister after she had nearly stumbled into an intersection. The way he held her so carefully in his hand as he turned her this way and that, confirming she was unharmed. She could see the tension leave his shoulders when Envy waved off his concerns with an “Oh please, it’ll take more than a chainsaw to scratch this!”
Once she was close enough, Sadness asked, “You okay, big fella?” crossing her hands over her front and tilting her head up at him. She hadn’t seen him hurt in any way, yet she couldn’t help but ask. He could be shy and likely wouldn’t bring up an injury unless he was directly asked about it.
Embarrassment turned to look at her, surprised by the question. As usual, he didn’t say a word, content with a nod and a thumbs up that conveyed enough of an answer. When they were first introduced, Sadness had initially found his quiet nature disappointing as she would have liked to talk with him, and maybe get to know him more. The reason why she had wanted to do so right off the bat was still a mystery to her, but for now, she had it chalked up to empathy for the gentle giant. After all, she had spent a whole eleven years with bottled-up ideas that were shunned by her fellow emotions; it’d break her heart to see the same happen to another just because he was too afraid to voice his thoughts.
Now, though, she took notice of the quiet mannerisms he had that were just as expressive as words, if a little more subtle. How he’d wring his hands when he was unsure of what to do, twiddle his hoodie strings when he was deep in thought, settle a hand over someone’s back when he wanted to offer comfort- the list went on. Some were much more obvious than others, but Sadness kept track of them all. To understand him better, of course! It had nothing to do with how cute they were. That’d be.. unprofessional. And as of now, they were simply coworkers. Things were still rather awkward between the old and the new emotions and Embarrassment was no exception, even if he was the one who rebelled in the end.
Sadness was snapped back into the present when she spotted Embarrassment lowering his hand to let Envy hop off and march off towards the piano that they still had for reasons unknown. “Move it or lose it, Bear-Bear; we’ve got stuff to haul!”
“‘Bear-Bear?’” echoed Sadness, looking at Embarrassment with a growing smile. Holding her hands together and pressing them to her cheek, she cooed, “Awwwwhh, what a sweet nickname. Can I call you that?”
His eyes widened as a scarlet blush burst onto his face, followed by a flustered whine that was muffled by the drawstrings tightening his hoodie over his mouth. He curled in on himself and retreated to follow after Envy, not daring to look anyone in the eye.
Rather than deflating, Sadness’ heart (?) only melted at the sight. How could someone so imposing always attempt to look so small? It was ironic in a way that made her chuckle lightly, even when she went on to sort the mind manuals back on their shelves. It was a mundane task that was about as stimulating as reading those things cover to cover- which she has done more than her fair share of times- but it let her divide her attention. Let her thoughts wander with how mindless it was.
And she found those thoughts drawn back to Embarrassment time and time again.
How he had helped keep her hidden when Anxiety had taken over Headquarters. How he’d distracted the others long enough to send a positive projection to Riley when she was being bombarded with nightmares. How he’d released her and lowered the makeshift recall tube when Joy needed her most. He’d gone behind his closest friends' backs just to help Sadness and, in turn, Riley. It was hard for him to do so without seeming suspicious and potentially being booted from Headquarters, yet he still helped regardless. Little things like that earned him her admiration because it was.. well, it was brave. And kind. And soft. And charming. And-
Sadness shook her head as if jumbling her thoughts would make them go away. Oh, but who was she kidding? She liked him. Just a little. Or a lot. Which felt very strange because the previous tiny crushes she’d previously had were the tragic, dramatic types. The vampire romance novels Riley used to love had so many tales of dark and handsome guys, none of which Sadness had ever seen but they all had a few things in common. They were suave and mysterious and brooding and above all confident. Sadness had found all of these traits attractive and interesting, and yet they didn’t even come close to relating to Embarrassment.
So why did she feel this way? The same way she felt about the tragic vampires?
Maybe she was just getting her feelings mixed up. The past few days were crazy and she still hasn’t processed all of it, so that could be the case. Yeah. Yeah, when everyone’s said what they need to say and things have fully sunk in, this feeling will go away and they can be friends just like everyone else-
A tap on her shoulder interrupted her little self-reflection. Blinking, she turned to see who it was only to feel her face heat up, cobalt no doubt blooming on her cheeks.
Embarrassment was looking down at her with his hand raised from tapping her shoulder. Now that he had her attention, he gestured to the manual she held and then up to the empty top shelf. Only then did she realize she’d been trying to reach the top shelf while her mind was on autopilot.
“Oh. Yeah, we usually have a stepping stool for that…” lamented Sadness as she cast a look around the expansive room. The furniture had been moved to one spot a little ways behind the console since it all took up so much space, leaving most things buried under a miniature mountain of other things. She hadn’t even thought to get a chair for this. “I’ll go get it.”
Before she could even take a step, though, Embarrassment hummed and held his hand out to her, nodding to the book. Sadness caught on and slowly gave him the manual, to which he filed it on the shelf she had been trying to reach. Then he looked back to her with another extended hand and an upturn to his eyes. He was smiling under his hood.
He genuinely liked helping her.
She had to stop herself from making another ’awwwwww’ to not scare him off like last time. Rather, she offered an appreciative smile and gave him another book to put on the top shelf, to which he slid it in on the correct side of the previous one. And when he again looked to her with smiling eyes and an expectant arch of his brows, the overwhelming flutter in her chest made one thing very clear:
This feeling has already sunk in.
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Despite the hiccups along the way, the joint effort of the eight emotions pulled through enough to leave Headquarters as clean as they could make it. That is to say that the back window, floors, and other severe damages would have to be managed by the actual mind workers, but hey! The floors were no longer covered with debris! Everything that needed to be moved out of Headquarters was already tucked into the back corners of the place for easy pick-up.
Later that night after Riley enjoyed a short conversation with her parents over dinner- courtesy of Ennui- the emotions guided Riley to sleep and officially clocked out. They and Dream Productions unanimously agreed that Riley deserved a peaceful, dreamless sleep tonight, meaning there would be no need for an emotion on dream duty. This allowed them to better decide on sleeping arrangements. The original five hadn’t been expecting four new additions at all so they had nothing to offer besides extra pillows and blankets.
..Although, it was evident Anxiety, Ennui and Envy took it upon themselves to sleep in the other’s beds during the ‘Hockey Camp Incident.’ Embarrassment didn’t for obvious reasons.
The new four would be sleeping in the bedroom on a tarp of blankets and pillows, behind the small break table where they’d have space on the other side of the room. A few attempts were made by Joy to offer up her bed to any of them, but all were politely declined. They had put her through so much already; it’d be rude to deny her a bed now. Besides, their pajamas had been delivered that morning, so it wasn’t as if they’d sleep in discomfort.
“Great work today, you guys! The Train will be arriving earlier than usual to pick up all of that junk, so let’s get a good night’s sleep. We’ll want to be awake when it gets here!” said Joy, already dressed in her pastel green pajamas.
“Bastards better not leave it to us to put it all away. We’ve done enough of their job for them,” grumbled Anger. He smacked his trusty baseball bat in his palm with a deep frown on his face as if he were ready to cave someone’s head in at the mere thought of it.
Fear gasped while he was in the middle of securing his nightcap on his head. “Language! Riley can’t be talking like that!”
Anger rolled his eyes. “Only when it’s deserved. Which it is when it comes to those little sh-”
“Uh, hello? Trying to sleep up here? Do you idiots mind?” interrupted Disgust, much to Fear’s visible relief. “Have this talk tomorrow; I need my beauty rest.”
Tuning out the banter, Sadness fixed her robe on and prepared to climb onto her bunk when she cast a glance at the new emotions who were noticeably silent. She paused mid-step to stare at them with minor surprise. Rather than sleeping separately as she had expected, they were huddled together on the floor. Embarrassment had his back against the wall while Anxiety, Ennui, and Envy were seated against his side. The three leaned closely against one another, snuggled and safe behind the arm Embarrassment had covered them with like a blanket.
Sadness watched as Ennui pulled out her phone and held it over Embarrassment’s arm so she could show them a video, one that got a small smile out of the literal incarnation of boredom.
The scene of them quietly watching Ennui’s phone while snuggled up was strangely.. domestic. Cozy.
‘They’re so comfortable with each other,’ thought Sadness, turning around to climb onto her bunk. ‘How? Haven’t they only known each other for a few days? When did they become so close?’
She tried to think of how she felt about Joy when she first arrived, back when Riley was just an infant. It was very hard to remember, but she certainly wasn’t that comfortable with the other emotion. Neither were Fear, Disgust, or Anger. They had all been professional and at most friendly with one another up until recent years. And even still, they weren’t familiar enough to sleep in a pile together, much less cuddle.
Once she was in her bed, Sadness set her glasses on a small shelf and laid on her side to face the wall. Maybe.. the new emotions had existed with each other before they arrived at Headquarters. Sadness couldn’t imagine a time before meeting Joy, and the other three hadn’t shared if there was anything for an emotion before they showed up. As far as she knew, they simply came to be in Headquarters and started work immediately. But what if that wasn’t the case for Anxiety, Ennui, Envy, and Embarrassment?
Sadness shut her eyes and tucked her blanket around her with a deep sigh. She was probably overthinking this. It wasn’t a big deal and didn’t warrant the amount of thought she was dedicating to it. Her curiosity couldn’t be shaken, but it was a question for another time. She needed a good sleep after a long workday as did everyone else.
As she drifted into her own NREM, she couldn’t help but wish her blanket were Embarrasment’s comforting arm instead.