Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Ennui!”

Anxiety walked forward towards the red couch that the indigo emotion was laying on, she looked towards her stoically.

“What?” She asked nonchalantly.

“Your phone..” Anxiety fidgeted in pace, trying to calm her trembling arms. “I need to borrow your phone for a bit.”

Ennui’s eyebrows raised a bit and there was the slightest hint of concern on her face. “For what, exactly?”

“I need to order something.” She replied, unable to stay still. “I’ll just be a minute. I’ll give it back, I promise!”

“Uh.” Ennui sounded cold but confused. “You do realise the console is over there, right?” She motioned by pointing her phone towards the console, where the other emotions were taking charge.

Anxiety stared back at the console for a moment, noticing that Joy, Fear and Envy were taking control of you when you were writing an essay on your laptop. Joy was guiding the controls as Fear unloaded ideas to put into your text with Envy assisting him by recalling specific memories that you needed.

For a moment, Anxiety was transfixed, not on the emotions guiding the controller, but you. She could see the reflection of your face on the laptop whenever you clicked out to view a specific reference. You looked calm, peaceful, and so entrancing.

Anxiety snapped out of her trance as soon as it started and she turned to Ennui, clutching her shirt. “Well, yeah. But the main controller’s occupied, and you know, don’t wanna interrupt their research, haha...”

Ennui glanced at Anxiety, making her smile nervously.

“Look mon ami, I just need to press a button and then I’ll give it back to you. Quick as that!”

The bored emotion sighed defeatedly, slowly offering her phone to anxiety. “There will be consequences if you don’t bring it back.”

Anxiety made a squeak of excitement and eagerly grabbed the phone, undeterred by the threat. “Oh, thank you! Thank you!” She bounced up and down, and she instantly got to work, but first, she needed a distraction.

“Hey Joy!” Anxiety waved out which was met with the emotion turning her head to the side to look at Anxiety, leading her to quickly hide the phone behind her back. Fear and Envy also turned their heads to look at her, intrigued.

“Oh, hey Anxiety!” Joy smiled. “Did you come to help us?”

“Actually, yeah.. yeah I did! You see that box over there?” Anxiety pointed towards a specific box that Envy hadn’t carried over towards Fear, the other emotions looked curiously in their intended direction.

For that moment they were distracted, Anxiety’s fingers were lightning-fast, and she quickly tapped a specific button on the phone that translated to the main controller. For a second, the console turned orange, but it faded just as fast.

“The one on your left?” Envy asked.

“Yeah! Specifically the idea about drinking something to wake us up, I’m pretty sure Reader’s absolutely exhausted with all the work they’re doing.”

“Well, we have been working for a while.” Fear pondered, crossing his arms.

Joy trodded over to the box, grabbing the bean-shaped bulb and looking at it closely, taking note of the interior. “Huh, you got a point there.” She looked back. “Actually, yeah. I think it’s time our dear Reader has a break, wouldn’t wanna overwork them, right?”

“Yeah, exactly! Oh, I wish I thought of that idea!” Envy admired, her eyes twinkling.

Anxiety breathed a sigh of relief then chuckled while shrugging. “Oh believe me, I know what it’s like to overwork.”

Joy laughed loudly at the joy, not covering up her delighted noises. “Hahaha! Exactly! Just call us if you got a super-cool idea to share with us again!”

Anxiety grinned in response, giving the emotions a moment to turn around to install the idea into the console. And with that, she turned around and quickly gave Ennui her phone back, spewing out a ‘thank you’ before scattering her way to the far back of the room.

Her small heist had opened up a wall-phone underneath the staircase that led to the bedrooms, the orange emotion snapped her head side to side, looking for anybody who was watching. But it seemed all the emotions were distracted by your essay planning, Anxiety clutched her shirt again, taking in a deep breath as she grabbed the telephone and pressed the numbers on the side.

There was the intense sound of ringing as Anxiety fidgeted with the cord, biting her lip. She hoped nobody would see her or ask what she was doing, she was trying her hardest not to think of potential scenarios if she got caught or worse: if her plan ended in failure.

After a short while of the ringing sound, there was the sound of a click.

“Hi, this is the office of Dream productions, how can I help you?”

Anxiety breathed in deeply, closing her eyes before talking.

“I-I’d like to make an order to headquarters.”

*          *          *

You brushed your hair back before resuming typing onto the keyboard. Your eyes were beginning to sting and your energy was running out, but you continued typing and flicking back and forth between tabs to check your sources and references.

You yawned, rubbing your eyes. You certainly weren’t going to end the night just now, you still needed a bit more time before you can call it a day.

But then a small idea popped up in your head, why not take a break now? After all, you’ve got plenty of time, it wouldn’t hurt to squeeze in some energy drinks to wake you up.

You rolled your chair back and say up, making your way to the kitchen while cracking your sore hands. How many words did you type again? 6000? 6500? You couldn’t keep track anymore, that tank of energy in you was running dry.

You opened the fridge, looking at the contents before your eyes rested to a can of redbull. Perfect, just enough to keep you awake.

You grabbed the beverage and cracked it open before holding it up to your lips, drinking it without much attention to the sweet taste. You stopped drinking about halfway and started to make your way back to the computer, carefully the half-full can on your desk.

Okay, you had your small break, now it’s time to get back to work.

You rubbed your hands a final time before resuming your typing onto the keyboard, feeling the ideas in your heart start to form as you got back into the rhythm of things.

*          *          *

Anxiety walked in circles nonstop, biting her knuckles while staring at the floor. She was trying her absolute hardest not to let her usual anxious thoughts get to her which was almost impossible due to her status as an emotion of worry.

Did any of the emotions hear her make the call? She hoped not, they seemed too preoccupied with helping you with the assignment, but what about the others who weren’t directing the console and simply watching the others work? Would they have heard her due to not paying as much attention?

Anxiety stopped in her tracks to look at the emotions in the front. None of them looked suspicious nor concerned but were rather talking to each other about potential ways to contribute.

The sight of all the emotions making sure they guided you made Anxiety start to think about herself.

Come to think of it, why did something like this happen?

Of course emotions would feel connected to their host, it’s literally their purpose. Of course they all want to keep you safe and make you do decisions they found right, but Anxiety didn’t just feel a connection as simple as guiding you. What she felt was.. deeper.

At first she tried to deny her attachment to you, after all she’s literally a part of you, her simply wanting to protect you was only natural. But as time passed, her fondness for you kept growing far beyond what one would normally feel.

Even when she found herself daydreaming about you and spending countless nights thinking about you, even when she was occasionally making small paper dolls of you and would almost squeak in joy when she was given full control of the console, she’d still try to play off her own feelings as simply instinct.

Only recently did her denial start to break as she started to accept the full extent of what was happening. It was unbearable, she could hardly sleep because all she thought about was you, not operating you, but you. It gave her a feeling of nervousness and bliss at the same time, she never felt like this, and it was both exciting and terrifying.

After weeks of hesitating and slowly accepting her feelings, she decided to finally act for the first time, which is why she made the very risky decision of calling dream headquarters for a particularly special order, an order that will hopefully satiate her nagging feelings for good.

Anxiety didn’t even realise she was gazing out until she heard the loud noise of a train whistle. She jumped in place, turning around in shock.

“Train of thought! Right on schedule!” Joy announced, making her way over to under the staircase as the deposit opened, multiple boxes slid through the door.

Anxiety grinned wildly. Huh, that was quick.

“Alright, let’s see..” Joy lifted the lid of one of the boxes, but was quickly distracted by the packaging. “Ooh, they got packing peanuts this time! Looks like the crew got style, am I right?”

“Packing peanuts are like the farthest thing away from style, Joy.” Disgust commented, unamused.

“I beg to differ, they even got the pink ones!  I’m sure you could make a crazy hat with these with enough effort!”

“Ugh! Don’t even put that image in my head!” Disgust gagged.

While the two bantered, Anxiety zipped across, her eyes darting across the boxes until she found a specific wooden box that had the name ‘Anxiety’ written on it. She could hardly contain her excitement and ran past as quick as lighting, opening the box so fast that her hands were a blur.

“Oooh, did you order something for yourself?”

Anxiety lifted her head, moving her gaze towards the teal coloured emotional. “Oh, hi Envy!” She smiled.

“What did you get? Is it something cool? Can I see?” She curiously looked towards the box.

Strangely enough, Anxiety wasn’t freaking out. She knew this would happen in her intense planning sessions, and she had the perfect excuse.

“Hmm, I don’t know.. do you count an entire box of energy drinks as interesting?” Anxiety demonstrated by reaching into the box and grabbing out a can of extra-caffeinated soda, waving it slightly.

“That depends, do they taste good?”

“It’s not about how they taste Envy, it’s about how energised it gets you!” She put the can back with the others then picked up the box, grunting slightly by the weight. “Now.. if you.. excuse me I got to put these somewhere convenient!”

Anxiety zipped to the side, making sure not to bump into any more emotions and began making her way up the staircase into the bedrooms. She looked behind her for a moment to check if anybody was following her, once satisfied, she placed the box next to her bed.

She checked behind her for a final time and crouched down, lifting off the top of the wooden box and placing it next to her. She carefully removed a few cans before reaching to the bottom of the box, trying not to get foam peanuts anywhere.

She jumped once she felt the unmistakable feeling of something covered in plastic. She bit her lip, suppressing the happy squeak that would erupt out of her. As gently as she could with her trembling muscles, she pulled out the small opaque plastic bag that was carefully hidden under the energy drinks.

She couldn’t hide the massive smile painted on her face seeing the contents inside the plastic bag, she just wanted to run around headquarters while screaming happily.

Perfect. This was it! Alright, phase two of her plan was successful, now it’s time to move onto phase three.

*          *          *

You rubbed your eyes tiredly as you pressed typed up the last part of your essay, you looked at your clock in your computer. You’ve been writing nonstop for two days, no wonder your hands hurt so much. You held a hand up to your chest, feeling your pulse. The energy intake must of been wearing off, that’s probably why you were so tired.

After scrolling through your whole essay, briefly skimming through the whole text to check for mistakes, but you could hardly be bothered anyways. You were absolutely exhausted and you needed to call it a night.

You looked at your desk for a moment, an empty can of redbull and an empty bag of Hershey’s kisses. You could dispose of those in the morning, you’re much too tired to do anything else right now.

You made sure to save your work before closing all the tabs on your computer and shutting it off, breathing a small sigh of relief of your work finally done. Your future self would heavily thank you.

You rolled from your office chair again, sitting up and stretching while yawning. You’ve worked hard enough, what you need right now is sleep.

*          *          *

“Alright, nightwear is on. Our bed is made and only the lamp is on, I say we had a pretty successful day there, team!” Joy announced, making her way over to the centre.

“And we didn’t spill our drink onto our keyboard not even once, I’d say that’s the real achievement here.” Fear added, looking proud of himself.

“I got dream duty so I’ll be sending these to longterm, you guys go get some well-deserved rest.” And with that, Joy stepped onto the button near the centre, there was a sound of clinking as the memories all made their way downwards and through the tubes that connected the two places.

The other emotions also added onto their own commentary as they made their way to the bedrooms, all seemingly spent for the day. All except for one.

“Alright, looks like our eyes are shut. Wonder what-“

“Wait, Joy!” Anxiety called out, running towards her. Joy turned around, confused.

“Yeah? What is it, Anxiety?”

“Look, you’ve had a busy day guiding Reader and leading on the team and.. I felt bad that you were working so hard and now you’re on night shift.” Anxiety fidgeted, looking to the side. “So.. I was wondering if I could maybe take on dream duty for the night?”

Joy was puzzled, but kept a smile on her face. “Dream duty? Are you sure? I mean.. we want Reader to have a good night sleep, right?”

“Joy, you really need a break.” Anxiety cupped her hands, speaking rather quickly. “Also, caffeine lasts in the system for an average of four to six hours, and also also! Caffeine has proven to disrupt the REM cycle and lead to stressful nightmares, combined with that with the chocolate we had earlier will lead to undoubtedly a groggy night, and don’t even get me started with the sugar content that-“

“Woah, woah, woah there!” Joy exclaimed, walking towards her. “I’m glad you’re all prepared and stuff, but where exactly did you hear those sources?”

“Uhh.. the online websites we occasionally scroll?” Anxiety fidgeted.

“Anxiety, those websites are.. in the kindest words.. not exactly accurate.” She put a hand to their shoulder, trying to comfort them. “I’ll make sure Reader has a great night even with all that caffeine hickeedooda. Trust me.”

“But- but Joy!” Anxiety held her hand between theirs, clutching it desperately. “Don’t overwork yourself, I can deal with it, I swear!”

“Anxiety-“

“Come on, it’s the least I can do for you.” Anxiety stared at her with begging eyes.

Joy visibly thought about the decision, holding a hand to her cheek, she seemed to be pondering a lot.

“Are you sure you can take care of Reader?”

“Yes! Definitely! Absolutely!”

“Alright then.” Joy sighed, smiling while brushing Anxiety’s hair. “Try not to overwhelm them, okay?”

“Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!” Anxiety eagerly squealed, flapping her arms in place. “I won’t let you down, I promise!”

Joy stood up, looking at the console for a moment before starting to walk towards the staircase. “Seeya in the morning, ‘Xiety!”

Anxiety grinned at the nickname. “Night, Joy!”

The last of the memories had been transported to long term, and Joy was out of view. Anxiety took a moment to look at the empty headquarters. It was quiet, but in the oddly somber but comforting way. The only source of light was herself and the outside through the window.

But Anxiety wasn’t too terribly interested in taking in the serenity of the headquarters at night, she chuckled in happiness to herself, making her way over to the console.

The screen was already starting to light up with the latest movie from dream productions, it didn’t seem too terribly interesting, just another dream about being at your childhood waterpark. Anxiety wasn’t even paying attention to the dream and was preoccupied with her own plan, she reached behind her to grab out the plastic package from seemingly nowhere.

She made a noise in pure euphoria as she placed the package onto the console, she took a final scan around headquarters to see if anyone was potentially watching. Confirming that the coast was clear, she bent down to the console and unplugged the dream channel, filling the room with silence once again.

She cringed a bit hoping that nobody heard her, but nether-less continued on. Grabbing the plastic package off from the console and reaching into it.

“Alright.. let’s get you out.” She whispered to herself, grabbing the contents inside and pulling it out.

What was in her hands was a round, crystal sphere. But it wasn’t just any regular sphere, it was a consciousness, your consciousness to be specific.

Dream productions had a weird history of putting their resources in the strangest things, such as writing the most unintelligible scripts, spending more budget on actors than sets leading to admittedly funny incidents of extremely skilled actors acting on a set that resembled that of a kindergarten drawing.

But what was in Anxiety’s hands was one of their most advanced inventions. While the studio preferred using a camera and actors a majority of the time, sometimes they stepped it up a level and used your consciousness so you’d feel more involved in the story. It allowed more freedom such as you being able to move more and feel more sensations as well as feel actual emotions without the interval of the actual emotions, sort of like autopilot.

Anxiety specifically ordered a duplicate of the orb, to which she was met with extreme hesitance by the company, she expected this and knew exactly what to say due to her immense planning that went into this.

It took a lot of convincing, but she finally managed to grab a copy of the orb. She told the head of dream productions that due to the sophisticated technology of the sphere, it would be best if she kept a duplicate as a sort of backup incase the dream productions would be incinerated by you being burnt-out from stress again.

“I.. can’t believe I’m actually doing this…” Anxiety whispered to herself yet again, feeling both uneasy but excited.  She would only do this once, then never again. It wasn’t that big of a deal if she only did this the one time.

Anxiety carefully held the orb in one hand as she clicked a couple of buttons on the console, there was a small sound of warping as a light projector in centre of your core memories arose. Anxiety carefully walked over to the centre and held up the clear orb, it slowly lifted into the air as the light projected into it.

Anxiety squeaked loudly in excitement and rapidly flapped her hands, watching as the light collided into the sphere which was beginning to take on a shape that became more and more humanoid.

She watched with bated breath as the details of you began to form from what was originally a sphere. She couldn’t stay in one place, she was so terrified but elevated.

Finally, for what felt like forever, your full complexion was revealed. You stood there, taking in your surroundings. You looked around the empty room, yours eyes widening.

“Woah..” You muttered to yourself, mesmerised by the oddly beautiful room. The lighting was so dark but in a comforting way, it reminded you of the strange tubes you’d put balls into at museums when you were a child.

But your thoughts were interrupted by the sound of an extremely pleased squeal along with an “Oh my gosh!” that repeated quickly.

There was a flash of orange and you suddenly found your hand being rapidly shaken. You looked up, shocked when you finally see who was eager to see you.

“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I’m finally seeing you here in the flesh, I didn’t think it was possible, I thought I’d always just be in your head, but here you are right in front of me!”

“Uhhh..” You awkwardly grinned, trying to seem friendly, albeit you were taken aback by the appearance of her. “Nice to see you Miss..?”

“Oh! I’m sorry, I got so excited I forgot to introduce myself. I-I’m Anxiety!”

You scrunched your brow. “Anxiety?”

“Yeah!” Anxiety’s heart practically flipped in her chest once you said her name out loud. “I’m one of your emotions, like uh- do you know how you potentially think about scenarios that could happen before you make a mistake? That’s me!”

You gently lifted your hand off of her, perplexed. “Wait, an emotion? I’m meeting one of my emotions right now?”

“Uh-huh! Look, it’s a long story but all I’ll say is that I’m not supposed to be meeting you, but I couldn’t help myself, I just had to see you face to face.. I’m so glad I did though, you look absolutely stunning as always.”

You were confused, everything was happening so fast that you may as well have vertigo. She was so full of energy and talking so fast, you could barely keep up with her. You may as well try to slow down the mood as best as you could.

“Well it’s.. really nice to meet you Anxiety! But uh.. where are we?” You looked around the place again, wait, is that a lookout window? Was that a city?? Where even are you?

Anxiety tilted her head. “You’re at headquarters, which is like.. technically your mind. But everything around you is your mind too so we just call this place HQ. Me and the others help control yo-“

“The others?” You perked up. “What do you mean others?”

“Your other emotions of course! There’s Fear.. Joy.. Sadness.. Anger..” She began listing off the emotions while also counting off her fingers, staring off at the ceiling.

Due to you not being in the most stable mind while asleep, you weren’t too shocked by the whole thing but rather surprised. You walked backwards until you stumbled onto a couch, sitting down onto it as you took in the whole situation. Anxiety noticed this and walked her way over to the couch as well, sitting down besides you.

“Are you okay, Reader?” She asked, leaning forward to look at you.

“I dunno, this is a lot to take in.” You slumped against the couch. “I’m inside my own mind and I’m meeting my own anxiety? It’s just..”

“I know, it must be a lot.” Anxiety replied, sounding sympathetic. “But hey, you’re here now, and I know I already said this, but I’m.. so glad I get to see you.”

You lifted your head up, making a curious hum in response. Anxiety sighed, cupping her hands.

“My main purpose in life is to keep you safe from potential dangers, the threats you can’t see. I know sometimes I mess up and I make you panic, but.. I really do care for you. A.. lot actually.”

You were intrigued, beginning to realise the situation you were in, you scooted over to Anxiety leading her to look at you slightly surprised. “You do?”

Anxiety’s eyes widened and she quickly broke eye contact to look away. “Yeah, like.. I never want to hurt you, I only want to protect you. Oh man, I’m rambling, sorry, I tried planning out our meeting and all the potential scenarios and conversation topics but now I’m just getting blank in the head.”

“That’s.. actually comforting to hear.” You smiled, the sight making Anxiety feel fuzzy inside. “I always assumed my anxiety was a rabid monster who wanted to torment me for fun, I guess that’s why I started taking beta-blockers.”

Anxiety scoffed. “I am not a monster, thank you very much. And do you even know what happens when you take beta-blockers? I can’t touch anything  on the console! I was practically speeding around it trying to get any of the buttons to work and none of them would respond.”

You loudly snickered, your face lighting up. “Oh man, I can’t even imagine how embarrassing that must of been for you!”

“It was humiliating!” Anxiety exclaimed playfully, “The console wouldn’t turn orange no matter what I did, only for Joy to come up, switch a lever and boom! It turned yellow!”

“Alright, alright. If it makes you feel better, I’ll reduce the usage of beta blockers, but if you send me into another panic attack I’m back on that stuff, okay?”

Your witty remark was supposed to lighten up the conversation, but instead Anxiety started to look sad, making you start to worry yourself.

“Oh.. I-I’m sorry.” Your voice softened. “Is that a touchy subject?”

“No, no. You’re fine.. it’s just..” Anxiety stared at the floor. “I never mean to hurt you or make you feel terrible when I spiral, I always feel so bad whenever I accidentally send you into a panic and- Ugh! I’m screwing this up, aren’t I? I’m sorry I’ll just-“

“Hey, hey. It’s okay.” You held a hand over Anxiety’s, making her jolt and squeak slightly. “I’m not mad at you, I promise.”

Anxiety’s hands were very warm on your own, her eyes widened when seeing your own. “Y-you aren’t? But what about those times you’ve ranted about me?”

“I won’t deny the feeling of panic is.. pretty sucky. But when you actually meet your anxiety for the first time it does put things into perspective.” Your free hand was starting to lift up and rest against her head, stroking her orange hair in a soothing manner. The gesture sent a shiver down Anxiety, she prayed you couldn’t hear her heartbeat right now.

“I guess knowing my Anxiety is a cute humanoid instead of a bunch of a bunch of chemicals in my brain makes me appreciate it more.” You smiled warmly at her.

Anxiety had been trying to hide her euphoric feelings since she first met you, but she let the mask slip for a moment as a bright red blush appeared on her face, you just called her cute, the warmth that spread throughout her body was intense.

In that moment, Anxiety’s morality was thrown out the window and she shot forward to hug you tightly, you were surprised by the sudden embrace but didn’t resist and eventually embraced her back.

For a moment, everything was quiet. Anxiety tightened her grip on you, clutching your clothes. Your head leaned down to rest against hers, not minding the orange hair that was brushing against your face.

She felt so warm, you could feel her heartbeat in her body. You didn’t even question how an emotion has a pulse, you could tell she needed this, and you may of needed it too.

“Please don’t let go..” Anxiety muttered into your chest, she sounded so vulnerable, you stroked her back gently in an effort to soothe her.

“I’m not going to let go.”

Anxiety’s breath hitched, you couldn’t tell if she was crying or not. All you could do for now was let her hug you, letting her feel safe in your arms. In the moment, you noticed small details about her that you hadn’t noticed. Light was emitting from her skin, she looked as if she was sparkling under you. Your heart began to beat faster as you admired her, but you couldn’t tell if it was because of her or the fact that you were touch starved.

There was a long sigh emitted from Anxiety as she calmed down, she carefully removed herself from the hug but couldn’t stare at you directly in the eyes, her cheeks were still bright red.

“Thank you for that.” She said sincerely, a somber smile on her face.

You softened your expression, reaching up to cradle the side of her head again. She gazed at her hand before resting them on your face, reaching up and holding your hand against her cheek while giggling a bit.

You were mesmerised by her, time was weird when you were asleep, you couldn’t tell how long you were ‘dreaming’ for, but you didn’t want to wake up, this felt oddly personal and close.

There was the sudden sound of beeping when Anxiety suddenly jumped, looking off to the console where a small light was beeping on the console that signalled that the next dream was ready to begin.

“Oh no, has it already been that long?” Anxiety leapt off the chair, strolling up to the console and at the unplugged channel. “No no no, I don’t want this to end, they’re gonna find out something wrong and-!”

“What is it? What’s wrong Anxiety?” You looked at her, concerned.

“It’s dream productions, I think they know I unplugged the channel!”

You were confused by what she meant by ‘unplug’ and ‘channel’ but you stepped off the couch, making your way to her. “Well, do you wanna plug it back?”

“If I do.. it means you’ll have to leave.” Anxiety looked at you, worried. “And- and I don’t want this to end! I’ve spent so long preparing for this and I don’t want it to end so quickly!”

“Hey, hey.” You crouched down slightly, petting her hair which was met with her cheeks lighting up again. “I don’t know exactly what you did to bring me here, but do you think you could do it again in the future?”

Anxiety eyes widened. “But.. I don’t want this moment to last.”

“I feel that with most dreams I have.” You shrugged, chuckling a bit. “But there’s always tomorrow right?”

Anxiety looked at the beeping button, biting her lip. “I guess.. but.. could you do one thing for me?”

“Yeah? What?”

“Don’t forget me after you wake up.” Anxiety asked, walking forward to hold your hand. “Please.”

The empathy that filled your chest made you hug her again in which she squeaked, but recovered soon after by hugging you back.

The hug was shorter this time as the two of you only embraced for a few seconds before Anxiety stepped back, smiling widely at you before making her way towards the console.

“Goodbye Reader, thank you so much for being with me.” She cooed, her finger above a specific button. “I’ll see you soon.”

You beamed, waving at her. “Goodbye, Anxiety.”

And with that, Anxiety pressed the button that stopped the projector from emitting light, and with it came also your conscious, your form morphed back into a colourless crystal orb. Anxiety sighed, moving to the other side of the console to plug the dream channel back on. The screen infront of her lit up and the sound of a harp played as your second dream of the night came on.

Anxiety didn’t pay any attention to the screen and rather walked up to the orb, holding it up and cradling it. She felt melancholic, she so badly wanted to talk to you just a little longer. But this was probably the best night of her life so far even if it had to end on short notice.

This night was supposed to give her closure, make her stop feeling the intense feelings she had for you. But her plan just made it worse, the memories of you hugging her, holding her cheek and you calling her cute flashed in her mind, making her make a strange noise as she got flustered.

Anxiety grabbed the open plastic packaging that was still resting on the console and carefully placed the crystal into the bag, she looked behind her and zipped to the back of the console where the library of manuals lay, she looked into a nearby wooden crate and dug through it before pulling out some metal clips that she used to clamp shut the packaging.

She relaxed, knowing that her plan had worked out in the end, all the risk-taking and pondering came out useful.

The turned back, looking at the dream. Looks like that recurring dream about you being able to make anything a reality by simply saying it out loud was playing.

Anxiety looked pleased, she made her way over to the console and sat down onto the chair. She was dream duty after all, so she may as well make the most of the night.

While the dream entertained her, the thought of seeing you again made her smile.

She was so excited for the next time she would be dream duty.

*          *          *

Your eyes slowly opened as sleep left your body and you rose up, feeling more awake by the second.

What kind of dream did you have?

You remembered seeing an orange humanoid who claimed to be your anxiety, the two of you had a conversation but you couldn’t remember about what specifically in whole.

All you remembered was the fact that she felt remorse for her feelings of panic that she gave to you, in which you responded by gently reassuring her that you weren’t mad at her.

The two of you also hugged about twice, one when you were comforting her and one where you said goodbye to her.

Your eyes widened, you remembered that you promised you wouldn’t forget her.

Almost immediately, you dove down to grab your phone, inputting your passcode then opening up the notes app to document as many details of the dream that you could remember. Once you written down the dream, you thought about that orange girl then about your other emotions.

Anxiety..

Was it even real? Was your brain just playing an oddly lucid dream? It felt too real to be a dream, but everyone has an oddly realistic dream from time to time, right?

You looked at your bedpost, particularly at a bottle of beta blockers.

Oh right, you two had a talk about those, but you couldn’t exactly remember what about.

You scoffed, pulling off the blanket and starting to make your way to the kitchen. You could really use some breakfast right now, especially after your busy night.

*          *          *   

“Morning, Anxiety! How’d dream duty go?” Joy greeted as she made her way out of the bedrooms, the other emotions following soon after, chattering amongst themselves.

Anxiety turned over to Joy, smiling. “Absolutely perfect! No bad dreams, no scary moments, and it looks like our Reader is all rested even when caffeine was in their system!”

“Haha! Look at you! And to think I had my initial doubts about ‘ya!” Joy happily cheered, running over to the console. “Now I know who to call for night shifts incase I’m not here.”

“Wait, really?” Anxiety was a little confused at Joy’s doubts about her, but quickly pushed them off her mind as she heard the request, she beamed widely at the possibility of her being on dream duty more.

“Of course! Now then, who’s up for some mornin’ pancakes?” Joy pressed a button which lit up the console, the other emotions happily agreed and added their own comments, with some being about the date of expiration and the flavour of the pancakes.

Anxiety stood back, looking off to a wooden box that she had hidden the plastic packaging containing the crystal hall then looked back at the emotions operating the console.

She couldn’t wait for the next time she’d be on dream duty, she was excited to pick up where the conversation left off.

That night had only made Anxiety’s feelings towards you more powerful, and she was more keen than ever to keep you safe. Anxiety’s cheeks grew red as she thought about the possibilities of her next time encountering you.

She couldn’t be happier than she currently was.

Chapter Text

Anxiety couldn’t focus at all.

It had been over a week since she executed her plan resulting in her first encounter with you. To say it went successfully was an understatement.

Ever since then, she’s been much more cheerful than she usually was. While usually in your head she would constantly worry about the future and propose potential scenarios in which things could go horribly wrong, lately she’s been more focused in helping you make the right decisions, such as you avoiding caffeine hours before bed and moderating your sugar intake.

While it was mainly fueled by her desire to genuinely get you to feel better, it was only partially motivated by worry of the thought of you getting another nightmare.

Anxiety had been interested in your dreams much more lately, she would find herself unable to sleep at night and would instead sneak out to peer out of the bedroom opening, watching any emotion who was assigned dream duty for the night.

But she wasn’t focused on who was controlling your feelings when you dreamt but rather the contents of the dreams themselves. She would see depictions of you on the screen, sometimes from your point of view and sometimes from an outsiders view. It made her heart race, but not from terror or panic, instead it felt.. softer, like a warmth was spreading across her chest.

As much as she hated to admit it, she wanted to see you again. Scratch that, she really wanted to see you again.

The whole reason for her stunt in the first place was to satiate her nagging feelings, to give herself closure so she’d be up and done with it as soon as it began. She knew that an emotion meeting their host was forbidden, it wasn’t possible nor was it acceptable, and she constantly thought about how exactly a relationship between a human and one of their emotions would work.

Anxiety would often find herself pacing around headquarters, trying to get her thoughts about you to go away. She would try to distract herself by talking with the other emotions as much as possible, read manuals despite how dull they were, anything to rid herself of them.

“Come on..” She mumbled to herself as she paced in circles, biting her nails. “Keep it together. You already did it once, there’s no need to do it again.”

“Who are you talking to?”

Anxiety’s eyes snapped open, she had become so entranced in her thoughts that she was completely oblivious to the outside world. She quickly lifted her head up to find the source of the voice, to which she saw Disgust holding a few cards, looking at her with a confused look.

“Oh! Uh- just myself.” Anxiety masked her uneasiness and forced a smile, brushing her shirt.

“…Uh-huh.” Disgust hummed, making her way back over to the console to join the others.

Anxiety sighed, hugging her shoulders. This isn’t normal, emotions can’t feel this way towards their host, and yet here she is gazing out about you again.

She glanced to the side, looking at a wooden box that blended in with the others near the library and she thought of the moment she had with you. The sounds of cheering from the others were blocked out in her mind.

She thought about how you called her ‘cute’, how soft you were when the two of you hugged, how you gently stroked her cheek to soothe her, the texture of your fingers against her skin was still fresh in her mind and it sent shivers down her spine.

Anxiety’s eyes lidded as she became lost in thought again. She remembered the absolutely ecstasy she felt when the first thing you did in the morning was write down your whole dream before the other emotions noticed. Infact, she was lucky you had forgotten most of your dream anyway as it meant a minimal amount of memory balls would come down the track and be easier to manage.

The said memories and the crystal ball she used to summon you were still tucked away in a wooden box that she had locked shut, with her being the sole owner of a hammer that was able to crack open the lid. She normally was terrible at keeping secrets, but she devoted all of her willpower to protect this one. After all, how would the others react to one of their fellow emotions infatuated with their own host?

Was infatuation even the right word? Protectiveness?

“Hey, Anxiety!”

Anxiety jolted, making a squeaky noise in the midst of her fright.

Joy was waving, beckoning for her. “I need you for a moment!”

“Coming!”

Anxiety felt her throat speak before she could even think. She shook her head and straightened her posture. That’s the last time she’s zoning out, come on, she has a job to do.

The emotion zipped quickly towards the console, cupping her hands together. “Did you need me for something?”

“Why do you think I called ya? Tell me, how good are you at planning? Ah, who am I kidding, we both know you’re amazing at it.” Joy joked, laughing as she fingergunned at her, leading to small nervous chuckle from Anxiety. “Okay, as you know, Reader is going to give their final speech to the professors today.”

Anxiety bit her lip. Oh no.. was that today?

“And here’s what I need you to do: I need you and Fear to work together to find out all the possible scenarios and outcomes to the speech, do you think you could do that?”

Anxiety hesitated, thinking for a moment before grinning up at Joy. “Sounds much too easy of a job, you sure there isn’t a catch or something?”

Joy giggled. “Nope, no catches! Oh, and by the way, Fear has the notebook and pen incase you’re wondering.”

“Alright, thanks Joy, goodbye!”

Anxiety speedran away from the console, trying to breathe deeply. Her hyperactivity was much more scarce than it used to be, usually she talked extremely fast and would zip all over the place but here she was mostly silent and brooding. Infact, how did she even forget the final speech was today? That’s one of her main purposes, how can she just let something as important as that slip from her mind?

Unless..

Oh..

Oh no..

Anxiety clutched her hair downwards, her breathing becoming faster. She couldn’t stop thinking of you, the events of that night replayed over and over in her mind like a broken record. That’s why she can’t focus, that’s why she can’t concentrate, that’s why she can’t do anything.

That night was a mistake, she shouldn’t have unplugged the dream channel, she shouldn’t have summoned your conscience, she shouldn’t have hugged you, what did she even mean by ‘infatuation’? None of this would be happening if she just kept her stupid feelings to herself.

“Oookay, Anxiety, looks like we’re business partners for the time being, now, where’s the table again?” She heard Fear approach behind her, carrying a pen, notebook and several sheets of paper.

What is with this place and interrupting her in the middle of her zoning out??

She turned around, brushing her clothes. “Fearrr! Am I glad to see you!”

Perfect, maybe this can distract her from those thoughts.

Fear looked bewildered for a moment, his eyes widening as he froze for a moment. “You are..?”

“Yeah! If I remember correctly, you were the main outcome planner before I arrived, right?

“Oh- I mean- Yeah, yeah of course I did!” Fear held the pen to the notebook, trying to look as serious as he could. “But you know, it’s been a few years since I’ve done any actual planning so I’m a little rusty.” He mumbled at the last sentence.

“Well, how about we do some planning right now? Like.. Oh! I got one!” In a flash, Anxiety grabbed a piece of paper from the pile Fear was carrying alongside the extra pen in his hand, surprising him as she sat down on the ground and began to write down a scenario.

“Since Reader is going to be giving a speech, there are many outcomes that could happen! One for example..” Anxiety lifted the piece of paper to show to him that showed a drawn scenario. “We could mess up the speech or accidentally say the wrong thing, leading the professors to laugh at us and they fail education which leads to us living on the streets and we die alone with nobody to remember us!” She yelped, clutching the pen.

“Okay, I definitely like your style.” Fear stared at the drawing before sitting down, placing his pen on the notebook and beginning to write. “But I was also thinking along the lines of.. a meteor hitting the building and exploding in a fireball.”

“A meteor?” Anxiety put down the paper, thinking for a bit about the outrageous scenario. “That’s just- I remember hearing somewhere that those tend to hit us every thousand years.”

“But what if we’re in a thousandth year right now?” Fear suggested, slightly frightened.

“No wait, you’re right. It’s rare, but it’s not impossible. Even if it doesn’t hit us, a version of us in an alternate universe could be hit by it! What if we’re actually in that universe right now?”

“What if a shoddy light falls from the ceiling and hits us?” Fear was beginning to write down onto his notebook more with Anxiety joining by drawing her own scenarios onto the paper.

“What if we can’t speak from stage fright or even worse: vomit on stage and become a laughingstock?”

“What if one of the professors is a serial killer and decides we are their next victim?”

“What if we’re late and we miss the speech all together which leads us to failure?”

“What if a volcano in a nearby island erupts and causes us to choke from the ashes?”

The two began rapidly suggesting the worst-case scenarios as they went through the paper, drawing and writing their ideas down so fast that it became a blur. The pile of finished papers filled with drawings and text got taller and taller until only a few minutes later, there wasn’t any more paper to write on.

Anxiety stopped, looking at her slightly burning pen, the papers then at Fear. “Uh, did we go too far?”

Fear was about to respond when he looked at the immensely large pile of used paper. “Maybe a little bit.”

“Soo, how’d you two go?” Joy suddenly her way over to the two, looking at the two sitting on the floor with smoking pens in their hands. “Woah, you two sure got productive!”

“Huh. Guess I’m not as rusty as I thought.” Fear looked at his pen, baffled but amused.

Joy looked at Anxiety then at the main screen, she made a surprised noise, realising the time then sprung into action. “Alright people, practise is over, time for the real deal, Reader’s up in five!” Joy suddenly shouted out, waving high to catch the attention of everyone.

“I thought Reader’s speech was in ten.. the clock said so.” Sadness pulled out a small watch from her sweater, the arrows inside it were noticeably slightly jumpy.

“Sadness, we’ve covered this before, that is an internal clock, it’s not exactly accurate.”

“Oh..”

“Anyways, come on team, let’s get into places! I’ve got a good feeling about this!” Joy called the other emotions as she made her way over to the console. Anxiety was slightly taken aback but got up on her feet, staring at the pile of paper. It was even taller than her, her hair included.

How was even she supposed to carry this?

*          *          *

You gulped as you made your way through the hall, clutching the script in your hands.

There were a million thoughts going on in your head right now. For one, your heart was absolutely racing. You’ve already had a week to prepare for this, but it didn’t feel like enough time.

The loud echoing of your footsteps through the marble walls only made you feel more anxious, it served as a reminder of your new environment and the upcoming speech. You even silently prayed you wouldn’t forever associate this building with tension and nervousness.

A small part of you wanted to try calming your thoughts by scrolling on your phone, but you decided not to and instead opted to reread the script once again, making extra sure it burned into your memory.

“Reader?” You heard a door open, you turned around to see a woman beckoning for you.

“Yes, that’s me.” You straightened your posture, trying to seem as professional as possible.

“Good, you’re needed at the stage right now.”

Okay, alright, you can do this.

You nodded and started to follow the woman through the door, as you walked, the lighting became dimmer and more ominous. How inconvenient.

It only took a few seconds of walking before you entered a large lecture room, all the seats empty except for a few in the front, those being your professors and your graders. The sight made your stomach flip, all the eyes in the room were on you right now.

“Morning, Reader, how are you today?” One of them greeted you with a friendly smile.

You forced a smile, trying to ignore the heartbeat in your mind. “Good.”

“What will you be reading for us today?” Their voices were so kind, it didn’t do much to your nervousness however.

“Uh..” You grabbed your script with jittering hands, looking at the contents and rapidly scanning them. “I’m gonna be talking about the effects of the psychological phenomenon known as Alexithymia..”

“Sounds interesting!” One of them awed, leaning forward. “Please, do go ahead.”

You breathed in deeply, trying to stop your nerves.

Come on, just do this and it’s over with once and for all.

*          *          *

Meanwhile, in your head, Anxiety was absolutely freaking out.

She was rapidly pressing the buttons and zipping across the controller, the sound of pulling levers and mashing buttons filling the room.

“You can do this, Reader. Get it together!” She said to herself. “We’ve worked on this for a week, don’t let it be for nothing!”

The other emotions watched with increasing worry as Anxiety kept speeding across the buttons, the console was neon orange at this point. Some of them called out for her, some protested and others simply watched, not knowing what to do.

“Hey, hey, Anxiety!” Envy called out, starting to feel concerned. “You’re gonna overwhelm them!”

Envy’s voice was drowned out in Anxiety’s head. Right now, she was exclusively focused on you. If you failed this, you’d be socially dead and soon physically dead. She couldn’t let any of that happen.

This speech was everything. She already forgot it was the day of the speech, she had to make it up by not letting you fail. She wasn’t gonna let a mistake ruin your life.

Your visibly shaking hands and uneasy voice was visible on the screen, the emotions watching noticed and kept calling out to Anxiety, hoping to calm her down before things got any worse.

It didn’t matter what they said, their voices were muffled as Anxiety kept breathing heavily, her eyes were fixed open, she was too scared to blink by now.

Come on Reader, you can’t fail this now.

It took her a while to notice when the console suddenly turned a gradient of both orange and yellow, the voices stopping alongside it. Anxiety slowed down, confused as she turned her head over to the left side of the console.

Joy has turned a circular lever around, her body was still and her face was serious. Anxiety stopped in place, puzzled.

“Joy!” She called out “Joy, what are you doing?”

Joy looked at Anxiety, not saying anything, further confusing her.

However, your voice could be heard across headquarters, it was noticeably less fearful and more relaxed, your unsteady voice not as obvious.

“However, despite affecting around ten percent of the population, I-it’s not as well known as much rarer conditions like Alice in wonderland syndrome.”

Anxiety had completely stopped on her place, her hands were still gripping the levers, but she wasn’t moving.

The console lit up again, painted in shades of orange and yellow.

“But it’s also not as well-known due to co-occurring with other mental disorders, particularly neurodevelop- developmental disorders.” Your voice echoed across the space again.

Anxiety slowly looked at Joy, regret was starting to paint her face as she realised what she was doing. She quickly let go of the levers, slightly embarrassed. This didn’t last long however as she caught a glance of the professors who were noting down your performance, she impulsively zipped forward and pressed a button, but Joy wouldn’t let go of her lever, causing the console to be dual-coloured for longer.

Your chuckle was heard again and your heartbeat wasn’t echoing across your mind anymore. The two emotions kept control of the console for a while during your speech, the other emotions simply watched in awe at the cooperation.

It felt like both an eternity and in the blink of an eye, but you had finally reached the last sentence of your speech. You looked up, nodding in appreciation as you thanked the professors for letting them listen to your speech.

“Incredible speech, Reader.” One of the professors complimented you, clicking his pen. “Your use of language was very colourful.”

“Thank you, sir.” You responded, unable to help but beam.

Anxiety’s eyes widened, she slowly lifted her hands off the console and stepped back, bewildered by what just happened. She glanced at Joy, who looked back at her with a warm smile on her face.

Then the shame came onto her. She overreacted again. She just wanted to help you succeed, the sting of embarrassment was visible on her face.   

After you thanked the professors, you made your way off the stage and into the room where you originally entered. You stopped in place as you saw a girl with a script in her hands, she looked just as nervous as you were.

Joy leaned forward, pressing a red button and looking up at the screen.

You smiled at her, giving her a thumbs up. “You’ll do great.” you said as you walked away, a small smile also appeared on her face as she thanked you quietly.   

“Niiiice!” Fear suddenly praised Anxiety, walking to stand next to her. “None of those outcomes we planned happened, even the meteor one, I’d say that was a good speech.”

Anxiety hugged her elbows. “Ehehe.. yeah..! I thought for sure we were going to fail..!”

Fear flipped through a few pages of the scenario the two created. “I was certain one of the professors would ask us a question we wouldn’t know about.“

The only thing Anxiety could feel was shame. Shame for making you feel so terrible, shame for making you shake and stutter. She felt terrible, especially because it had to take Joy co-piloting the console to snap her out of it. She wish she could apologise to you.

..wait.

The conscious orb..

Maybe..

“Uh, Anxiety?” Fear waved a hand infront of Anxiety. “You there?”

Anxiety jumped, stepping forward. “Sorry, zoned out again! Anyways I’ll see you in a bit Fear thanks for working with me!” She sputtered out as fast as she could as she ran to the back of the console, not even looking back to see if Fear would follow her.

She stopped right by the manuals and looked back, some of the emotions were looking at her puzzled. She nervously grinned and waved at them, making them seem more suspicious.

“Well that’s done!” Joy announced, brushing her hands. “That’s one assessment out of our hands, good job everyone!”

Seeing everyone celebrate with Joy slightly pained Anxiety, she looked at the ground, guilt kept overcoming her.

As Joy high-fived the other emotions, she looked back at Anxiety huddling in the back. Concern appeared on her face as she walked away from the emotions and approached the orange girl.

“Hey, Anxiety..” Joy asked, her voice softer. “Are you okay?”

Anxiety fidgeted. “Uh- well- I.. No? I mean- ugh! I made Reader panic again, I told myself I wouldn’t do that again and yet I did! Why am I so- just so-“

Joy leaned forward and embraced Anxiety into a hug, making her instantly quiet down.

“It’s okay.” Joy reassured her. “You’re doing your best, that’s what matters.”

The hug made Anxiety remember..

That time she hugged you..

“Do you need your special chair?” Joy asked.

Anxiety wrapped her arms around Joy, hugging her back. “No, I’ll be okay.. thank you, Joy..”

Joy squeezed her once more before stepping back, letting her arms hang to her side. “It’s always there if you need it, and so are we.”

The two stared at each other silently before Joy looked back at the console then back at her, she gave the emotion a large smile and a thumbs up before making her way over to join the emotions at the front.

Anxiety began to think again. The hug had thrown her off, it overwhelmed her with the memory of when you hugged her to comfort her.

That feeling coupled with the overwhelming urge to apologise to you influenced her decision.

Anxiety looked at the wooden box that contained the dream memories and the orb.

She could do this just once more, it wouldn’t be a big deal, right?

*          *          *

You brushed your teeth after your slight celebration from earlier, you had treated yourself to takeout after managing to complete your speech, sometimes it was nice to reward yourself.

Come to think of it, why were you so worried? Sure, you stuttered a fair bit of times but the overall speech went swimmingly. You’re pretty certain you did a good or atleast a decent enough job, the professors even called your language ‘colourful’.

You scoffed a bit to yourself, you even thought a meteor was going to hit the building. What kind of idiot thinks of that?

You spat the toothpaste into the sink, rinsing your mouth with water. Oh well, you’re free for now, your week of hard work paid off and now you can finally rest for a while. You clearly earned it.

You yawned, stretching your back. Looks like your sleeping medication was starting to kick in, you started to make your way to your bed, readjusting your nightwear.

Speaking of medication.. you really should have used the beta blockers before the speech, you were on the verge of a panic attack back there.

But as soon as you thought of that, you remembered the strange dream you had a week ago. The one where you met a strange orange humanoid claiming to be the personification of your anxiety..

You stopped in place, simply sitting on top of your bed.

You remembered at some point she told you how humiliating beta blockers were for her, how she couldn’t operate the ‘console’, whatever that means. But you couldn’t remember every detail of the dream, it was mostly fuzzy in your head at this point, the only parts you remembered were the important details.

The one thing you could clearly remember were the hugs. You could clearly recall her soft orange glow, the firm yet soft bristles of her hair, how her skin felt electrifying against yours, she felt so soft under you.

You grabbed the bedsheets, your heart-rate was starting to speed up. Oh jeez, it’s been a long while since a dream made you feel so fuzzy even after a week, or were you just so depraved of touch that a simple dream made you feel like a teenager having their first crush?

As good as the dream sounded, you suspected it was just your brain deciding to play one of those oddly lucid dreams that occurred once in a blue moon, the ones where you could physically feel everything as if you were transported into another world. They always left the biggest impact on you.

Infact, didn’t you promise her that you wouldn’t forget her?

That was strange, but it was probably nothing. Hell, you could use this as inspiration for a story in the future or even draw ‘Anxiety’ based off your memory. Plus it was a strangely coherent dream that made some sense unlike the jumbled up usual messes you had nightly.

Your eyelids felt heavy, oh right, you still had to sleep. You adjusted into the bedsheet and reached over to your lamp to snap shut the lights, you were far too tired to do anything else at the moment.

*          *          *   

Anxiety lowered the levers and let go as the rest of the emotions said their goodbyes for the night and started to make their way over to the bedrooms, Joy walked over to the console and saw that Anxiety wasn’t leaving her spot, looking at the screen which was getting dark.

“Anxiety?” Joy looked at her. “Reader’s asleep, don’t you wanna go to bed?”

“I know.” Anxiety replied, turning over to face the glowing emotion. “But I was just thinking about the last time I had dream duty and how.. incredible it was..”

“Dream duty?” Joy cocked her head. “You wanna take dream duty this time?”

“Yes! I mean- yeah, yeah I do.” Anxiety let her excitement slip out for a moment. “I mean, remember how well rested Reader was the last time I was on night shift? What I’m trying to say is- I wanna be on duty again! It was just… so much fun! Please?’

Joy was less hesitant this time, she only put a finger on her chin as she thought for a few seconds before resting her arms on her sides. “Well, I did say I’d call you for nightshifts in the future.”

Anxiety saluted, trying to make herself seem as responsible as she could. “Yes ma’am! I-I mean Joy! Yes Joy!”

Joy giggled “Well, all right. If it gets too much, just call me, okay?”

Anxiety nodded eagerly, humming in response. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She rapidly thanked in succession.

The yellow emotion waved at her before walking across headquarters to enter the bedrooms, Anxiety watched and waited until Joy was out of sight, then she zipped to the centre.

“All right, let’s get you all to long term.” Anxiety spoke to herself as she stepped on a specific button on the floor. All at once, your memories collected for the day began to descend down their railings and travel under the floor with them rising above the clear tube that descended. The room was filled with the dancing rainbow lights of your memories shooting across the room, it looked absolutely beautiful.

Anxiety looked down and stared at a particular box near the library, she bit her lip and shuffled in place.

Should she even do this? She already did this once, and if she does it again, you’d surely know what’s up. And even if she did manage to keep it secret, how long would it be before it’s inevitably revealed?

She walked up to the box and stared at it again, she breathed in deeply and hugged her elbows. Her mind was rapidly deciding if this was a good idea.

Then she remembered the panic she sent into you at your speech and the guilt she felt. That combined with the warmth she felt when she thought of you made her act impulsively. She reached behind her back and grabbed a hammer from out of seemingly nowhere that she stored specifically for this box, physics in your mind wasn’t exactly the most realistic.

She leaned forward and kneeled down, holding the box in placed as she used the back of the hammer to lift up the nails until the lid could eventually be opened. A small orange glow was shining through the inside of the box, making Anxiety tremble in excitement as she lifted off the lid, gently placing it beside her.

“O-okay..” She muttered to herself, reaching into the box and stopping when she felt the familiar sensation of a plastic bag filled with something. She very gently lifted it up, trying not to let any of the memories inside tumble and make noise.

She smiled seeing the package in her hands, the circular orb inside could be felt, she reached down in the hole of the bag.

But she stopped right before grabbing the orb, hesitating.

She knew this wasn’t a good idea, and possibilities were already starting to swarm in her head about the consequences of the others finding out about this. After all, she has never heard of an instance of an emotion developing such a connection with their own host, what exactly would Joy do if they found out she was dating Reader?

How would a date between you and her even work?

Anxiety thought for a moment. Realistically, she wouldn’t be able to take you out on a date, but the thought itself was entertaining. The two of you could take a stroll around long-term memory and admire your own memories throughout your life, or even just have you both lie on a couch inside quarters, watching the outside world while you drank energy drinks.

The scenarios were making her smile and her eyes were already half-closed, she already had your consciousness in her hands, the possibilities of what the two of you could do were virtually limitless.

The fuzzy feeling Anxiety felt influenced her final decision, she reached down again and grabbed your conscious, putting the plastic bag back in the box and readjusting the lid so that the glow from the orange memories wouldn’t peek out.

The room was silent, the emotions must of already gotten to bed. Well, it was going to be a long night, she may as well keep herself energised regardless if she decides to go through with this or not.

Anxiety made her way over to the back of headquarters and turned a small handle to open up a small square shaped mini fridge that was implemented into the wall. She used the small fridge to store her energy drinks for occasions such as this one. She grabbed a tall pink one and shut the fridge with her elbow, she would have grabbed more if her hands had not been already full.

Anxiety walked over to the console and put the can onto the console, the orb carefully tucked under her arm as she used her free hand to turn on the dream production channel.

“Alright Reader, hold on tight, we’ll see each other in a second.” Anxiety once again muttered to herself as she pressed a few buttons in quick succession.

The display of the screen suddenly went quieter and darker until it was simply background noise, it was a simple but effective loophole as to not overwhelm the functions of headquarters while also letting them stay unaware of what she was currently doing. Anxiery wanted to smack herself for not thinking of this sooner, she really should have done this in the first place to save all that bittersweet melancholy of saying goodbye to you.

She pressed another button on the other side of the console, and she turned to see the projector in the centre of the room arise and shine a light into a straight line.

The emotion stepped forward, her breathing getting heavier and her hands starting to tremble. She was both terrified and ecstatic to see you again, she had such a wonderful time with you last time, she was hoping this would be another great encounter.

She lifted the orb near the centre and it slowly arose, Anxiety stepped back and quickly pat down her clothes and hair. Sweat was starting to appear on her much to her dismay, she thought she’d atleast be a little better when doing this again, but she was still just as anxious as ever.

While waiting for your form to take shape, she grabbed the energy drink wand cracked it open, gulping it down in seconds before tossing it away, her heart was already beating fast enough even without it.

As the light hit the crystal orb, it flowed white and began to form into a humanoid shape. Anxiety stared at the figure, practically bobbing in place while sweating bullets. Your features become more visible and your colours were fading in. Anxiety couldn’t help but stare, she always forgot just how stunning you looked to her.

Eventually, all your features formed and showed your full body. You stood up and opened your eyes, groaning a bit while rubbing them and taking in your surroundings.

Wait, what is this place? Why does it feel so familiar?

“Reader!” You suddenly heard an elated voice before a flash of orange tackled you to the ground, you made a shocked noise as your knees gave out and you fell onto the ground, looking down to look at who just pummelled themselves at you.. were they hugging you?

“Oh Reader, I’m so glad to finally see you again!” She happily squeaked, their face slightly muffled due to being buried in your chest.

In the midst of your surprise, you took in the appearance of the unknown being.. the orange skin, the dark hair, the striped shirt.. it all rang a bell, multiple actually. You looked around, the environment was also familiar.

Are you having déjà vu? You were almost certain you had this dream before..

“Oh my gosh, I am so so sorry!” Anxiety jolted up, a panicked look was on her face as she let go and stepped back. “I got too excited, I didn’t mean to startle you!“

Now that she was standing in front of you, you could see her full complexion. You blinked a couple times as the memories slowly faded back.

“..Wait wait wait, hold on.” You cocked your head, you weren’t even sure if the name was right, you couldn’t be too sure when it came to dreams like this. “..Anxiety?”

Anxiety went from swinging her arms in place to turning completely frozen, shock visible on her. “You… remember my name?” She squeaked out, her voice in complete disbelief.

“Did I get it right?” You asked. “Sorry, I’m not good with names and-“

The absolute joy that erupted from her was beyond comparison, she made a high pitched squeal and held her hands to her face, if stars could appear in her eyes they most certainly would. “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it, you actually remembered me! I thought you were gonna forget me and simply dismiss me as a weird dream but I can’t believe you still remember me!”

You didn’t know what to say, you were stunned by her energetic nature. “I didn’t think I’d see you again.”

Anxiety bit her lip. “Well.. uh.. do you remember how I said we aren’t supposed to meet?”

“Kinda? I mean- I don’t remember much from my dreams anyways.”

“Look- that encounter a week ago was supposed to be a one time thing. I never really intended to do this more than once.” She explained, “But our conversation was cut short and I really wanted to talk to you more and.. I don’t know.”

You walked up to her, kneeling down a bit. “Oh yeah? What did you want to talk to me about?”

Anxiety blushed, avoiding eye contact. “A-anything really! We could talk about your day, your plans for the future, potential work, the possibilities are endless!”

You hummed, thinking a bit. “What about that interruption we had last time? Something about your time running out or something?”

“Oh no, nonono. It was dream productions, they sensed I turned them off.” Anxiety pointed over to the screen, you turned to look at it.

What the? Was that a unicorn riding a bunch of centaurs? The screen was so dark and you couldn’t hear anything if you tried.

“What is this?” You squinted in pure confusion.

“Let me explain! When it comes to operating both memories and dreams. The console could become overwhelmed and it could lead to distorted memories, like uh- have you ever mixed up reality and a dream? Like thought something happened in real life but it actually happened in a dream?”

“Hmm.” You closed your eyes, trying to think about your past life. “I think so, but I can’t recall any particular ones.”

“Ah yeah, those are the results of mix-ups. Luckily, I managed to find a way around that problem!” She beckoned to the console, showing you the controls. “Turns out if I lower the opacity and the sound juuust enough to be barely visible, I can pretty much operate anything I want without the risk of a mashup!”

You were interested in the console, you remember seeing this the last time you were here, but you didn’t think it’d be so complex.

“The console? Is this my console?” You walked over to it. Jeez, there was a ton of buttons on this thing. There were pistols, buttons, twisters, levers, you name it. “Does it control my dreams?”

“Oh no, it can only turn off dreams and change the display. The actual dreams themselves are made in dream productions.” Anxiety pointed outside the window. “The console controls your emotions, like uh.. here!” She quickly stepped next to you and gently pushed a small button near the bottom.

As soon as she clicked that button and the console lit up orange, a sense of dread and worry filled your stomach. You made a surprised noise and stepped back, slightly freaked out. “What- what the?! What did you just do?”

“Hey hey! It’s okay, it’s okay!” Anxiety put her hands out. “Don’t worry, I just made you feel, nothing more!”

This was freaky, you just witnessed one of your own emotions control your brain. Surreal couldn’t even begin to describe this.

“Okay.. okay.” You breathed in, calming yourself from the small fright. “Sorry I guess I got a bit shocked.. I mean I’m literally watching my own brain work.”

Anxiety fidgeted with her hair, pulling it down slightly. “Yeah.. there’s a reason why emotions and their hosts can’t interact..”

You thought about today and the emotions you experienced. More notably, the speech you had today, how you felt so anxious and scared at first but got calmer as you went on, was that all the work of her?

“Hey, Anxiety?” You asked.

She perked up. “Yeah?”

“What happened in my head when I gave that speech?”

Anxiety felt her metaphorical heart drop and her chest felt like ice. “T-the speech?”

“Yeah.. the speech I gave to the professors? The one about Alexithymia?”

“Oh, that.” Anxiety tried to hide her nervousness. “Yeah uh.. I.. yeah.. I was...”

“That was you? When I was on stage, you were at the controller?”

Anxiety composure was starting to slip, she was trembling in place. She stuttered a bit before you heard a very quiet “Yes.” come from her.

The two of you were silent, you only stared in shock as your brain on REM couldn’t fully take in the reality of what was happening, Anxiety’s guilt and shame was overwhelming her in the noiseless scene.

Eventually, the silence got to Anxiety and she snapped, zipping forward and dropping on her knees right in front of you while clutching your shirt.

“Oh Reader, I am so sorry!” She cried out, surprising you. “I only wanted to protect you, I didn’t mean to go overboard!”

“Wait, Anxiety!-“ You exclaimed, not expecting her sudden humility.

“I was so scared we’d fail the speech and fail at life. I forgot that today was the day of the speech and I wanted to make it up by taking the lead!” Her voice was shaky, like she was bordering on tears. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to panic you, please don’t be mad at me!”

You stayed quiet for a few seconds before deciding to reply. “Why would I be mad at you?”

Her voice was muffled against your chest. “Because I-I almost made you fail the speech, if Joy hadn’t intervened I would have sent you into an attack.. why am I so stupid?!”

“Oh, Anxiety.” You reached down to softly stroke her hair, admiring the strange texture. “You’re okay, I promise.”

A quiet sob was heard against you. You replied again, comforting her.

“Look, it was a major assessment that I spent a week of preparing. Of course I’d be nervous when giving a speech, that doesn’t mean anything is wrong with you.”

She wasn’t replying, you only kept stroking her hair softly as her face was buried into your chest.

“I’m not upset at you for just doing what you’re supposed to do. It’s your job to care for me, right?” You said, not minding her clinginess. “Did I ever tell you that meeting you put my anxiety into perspective?”

“Yeah..” She quietly said, her voice was less shaky than before. “But- I don’t know. I know I’m gonna freak out again in the future despite everything, what if I put you into another attack?”

“Do you have a plan for when you get anxious?”

“Well.. sometimes I go to my special chair and have some tea, it helps a lot.”

You glanced at the chair on the side of the room. Huh, so that’s what it was for.

“How about we make a plan?” You looked down.

Anxiety finally removed her face from your chest, her eyes slightly watery. “Huh?”

“Beta-blockers prevent you from controlling me, right?”

“Well yeah but-“

“How’s this: If I feel like I’m about to have an attack, I can take them, and while they are in effect you can go to your special chair and have some tea? May even put on a weighted blanket?”

Anxiety pondered about your plan, it took a moment but she smiled warmly. “I don’t know if we have a weighted blanket but yeah, that sounds like a great idea.”

You grinned, “How about we go sit down somewhere and catch up on some stuff?”

Anxiety finally sat up, dusting her pants from kneeling for so long. “Y-yeah sure!”

You looked at the red couch that was on the right side of the console and walked over to it, Anxiety followed you, making sure to wipe away some leftover tears in her eyes.

You sat down on the soft cushioned and made a gesture signalling that you wanted her to sit next to you, she noticed this and made a silent display of happiness before sitting right next to you.

“Feeling better?” You asked, your arm lounged around the couch.

“Much.” She answered. “Sorry for having to comfort me for like.. the second time. I guess I got a little emotional back there.. which is ironic because: Hello? I’m literally an emotion!”

Her joke made the mood lighten up, the two of you laughed together with your giggles being slightly louder. “Y’know, I still can’t believe you’re just.. a full on emotion, like that’s incredible.” You admired her.

“Incredible? Like the good incredible or the existential crisis incredible?”

“What do you think?” You grinned at her, making her suddenly look down at the floor and make a flustered noise. Cute.

“By the way, I never really got to know how you guys worked.”

“‘Worked’?” Anxiety repeated, peeking up.

“Well- Could you show me your hand?” You asked, trying not to intrude her boundaries.

She hesitated for a moment, then lifted her hand up and offered it to you. You were intrigued as you put your own hands onto hers, the contact of your skin making her jump a little.

“Woah.” You were in awe. Her skin had a strange texture that you didn’t know how to describe, it was both smooth and slightly rough but the overall feel wasn’t anything like you felt before.

The more you looked at her, the more you remembered from your first encounter with her. Her skin was sparking and small light particles were arising from her. You noticed the same details when you hugged her last time.

Your thumb brushed against the back of her hand. “God, you’re stunning.”

Anxiety had been trying to hold back her feelings since she saw you, but you admiring her while you were holding her hand finally caused a dark red blush to appear her face. She quickly looked away, hoping you wouldn’t see her, only humming in response.

Admittedly, you wouldn’t ever expect to meet your own anxiety, much less that she’d be a small orange humanoid wearing a striped turtleneck. She looked strange in the best way possible, so inhuman but also humanlike.

You glanced up, she was staring away from you, making you curious.

“Something wrong?” You asked, hoping she wasn’t uncomfortable.

“Yeah, yeah! I’m fine, totally fine. Never better!” She blurted out, her tone was obviously suspicious and hiding something. Confused, you let go of her hand and rested them on your lap, Anxiety noticed this immediately. “Wait hey!-“

She must of noticed how clingy she sounded and instantly silenced, making you snort. “What? What’s the matter?”

“Nothing!” She squeaked out.

“Alright then..” You decided to change the topic, trying not to overwhelm her. “So.. do you guys have your own emotions?”

“What?” Anxiety looked at her own hand and then yours.

“Like, if I have emotions, does that mean you guys too?”

Anxiety simply shrugged in response, making a strange noise to answer. “I’m.. pretty sure we don’t.”

“Eh, that was a stupid question.” You scoffed at yourself. “I have like a million questions right now but I can’t really think of one right now.”

“Take your time!” Anxiety perked up, smiling widely. “We have all the time in the world.”

You pondered about potential topic ideas. While the most logical conversation was to ask about how your mind worked, you knew it would devolve into an existential and serious talk, and having a conversation like that right after Anxiety was sobbing into your chest.. it wasn’t exactly the best idea right now. Both for you and her.

So for now, you decided to go with something more casual and lighthearted.

“Well, for starters.” You pointed at her shirt. “Do you guys have your own little closet?”

Anxiety looked baffled and she glanced at her striped shirt, quickly patting herself down yet again. “Uh- kinda? I mean the train of thought delivers our outfits but we don’t actually know who makes them.”

Train of thought? That’s another one to the endless list of strange things that happened in this world.

“Really? Because your outfit is actually pretty cool.” You cocked your head towards her. “It really compliments you.”

“Reader!” Anxiety squeaked, covering her face.

Oh, looks like you’re getting into the playful territory.

“What? I’m just saying the truth!” You laughed out, “You look absolutely adorable!”

“No I don’t, this isn’t even anything special!” Anxiety was getting more flustered, further amusing you.

“Come on, don’t be so hard on yourself!” You playfully teased. “Say you’re cute, say it!”

“You’re not squeezing that out of me even if you tried!”

You tried to crawl towards her in an effort to close your distance. But you slipped due to accidentally kneeling on a slope, panic quickly flooded your system, making you yell as you grabbed onto the first thing that you could see.

Your hands managed to grab onto something as your body plummeted, you stopped yourself from faceplanting directly onto the couch. Whoops, that must of looked stupid.

It took you a minute to recover from your shock and look down, and then you felt your face heat up.

In the midst of your shock, you had accidentally pinned Anxiety directly onto the couch underneath you.

For a while, the two of you were stunned silent, not knowing what to say. Her pupils were wide and looking directly at you, you couldn’t look away from her.

It felt like forever, until you heard a slow, gloomy voice from across the room.

“Anxiety..?”

You instantly let go and kneeled back on the couch, confused. Anxiety also sat up, snapping her head over the side.

“Oh no..!” She whispered loudly, clearly panicked.

“What?”

“It’s Sadness!” Anxiety exclaimed, jumping off the couch. “Quick, hide!”

You realised the urgency of the situation and looked around the room and only found the console infront for you. You didn’t think much and instantly ran over to it trying to make as little noise as possible, kneeling behind it.

You heard a dash of wind and rapid button mashing, suddenly the screen that had been previously displaying a darkened dream lit up and the sound was increased. Your eyes widened as you groaned and grabbed your head, as soon as the screen brightened, mental images of dancing unicorns became more vivid in your mind. It was impossible to describe. 

“Anxiety.. what happened?” You heard the voice again.

“Sadness! What are you doing up so late?” Anxiety responded, covering up her shock.

“I heard a loud yell.. is everything okay?”

“I..” Anxiety paused for a second. “Just got a bit frightened by the dream, nothing more.”

“But.. I also heard someone else..”

“Of course you’d hear someone else, dream productions is literally on right now.”

“But..-“

“Sadness, everything’s fine. If something did actually happen, I’d get one of you.” Anxiety brushed it off. “Why don’t you go back to bed now? I’m the one on dream duty after all.”

“…..Okay..” Sadness’ voice sounded defeated and you heard the sounds of footsteps that got fainter and fainter.

You couldn’t pay much attention to the conversation, you were both watching a dream on the screen while it also played on in your mind. You were using all your mental energy not to make distressed noises, you felt like your brain was turning to mush.

There was a flash of orange and the sound of multiple mashing buttons, the display then significantly lowered in opacity and volume and the flashing images in your mind disappeared. You sighed heavily, throwing your head back onto the front of the console.

“Reader!” Anxiety exclaimed, bending down a bit. “Are you okay?”

“I.. I don’t know?” You grabbed your head, groaning. “I just.. experienced a dream while also watching it.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Anxiety rubbed your hair in an effort to soothe you. “I didn’t mean to overwhelm you- I just panicked and didn’t want you to get caught.”

You grinned at her hand softly brushing your hair. “It’s fine, really. Let’s go back to the couch.”

Anxiety pulled her hand away, nodding. “That’s a great idea.”

You sat up from your hiding spot and went back to the couch that you were previously sitting in, you silently sat down onto it with Anxiety following.

“So uh..” You felt your heart sped up again as you remembered what happened before Sadness came onto the scene.

You accidentally pinned her down directly onto the couch.

Anxiety must of thought the same thing because when you glanced at her, she was looking away, but you could see a dark shade of red painting her cheeks.

This situation was awkward, and you wanted to diffuse it.

“Y’know..” You broke the silence, leaning to the side. “You still haven’t admitted you’re cute.”

A visible snort came from Anxiety and she giggled, you softened up a bit, happy that she was more relaxed.

“Reader!” She laughed “Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously! I won’t rest until you say it!” You grinned at her. “C’mon, say it!”

“I-“ She fidgeted, the redness still not leaving her face. You hummed, moving closer to her.

“Yesss?”

“Okay fine! I’mcuteareyouhappynow?” She blurted it out as quickly as she could.

You threw back, laughing. “Well that makes two of us.”

You don’t even know what was causing all this self confidence, you wouldn’t be flirting with someone you only met for the second time. Is this what you’re really like when you’re dreaming?

Your remark made Anxiety squeak loudly and she pulled her hair down to cover her face, the sight was adorable.

“Alright, alright. Let’s calm down before things get too crazy.” You moved back, giving her space.

“A-alright.” Her voice was quiet.

“Do you wanna just talk for now?” You asked, your voice calmer.

“Y.. yeah, I’d like that.” Anxiety let go of her hair, it sprung up and the redness was still on her face albeit softer and not as noticeable.

“How about..” You thought. “Oh, funny incidents at work?”

She perked up, intrigued. “You mean like our work or your work?”

“Maybe we could exchange stories about each of our work?”

Anxiety practically beamed and scooted closer to you, leaning her head on your shoulder. “That sounds amazing.”

So for the rest of your visit, the two of you talked for hours about funny incidents that happened to the both of you, it started off with amusing stories at work that evolved into incidents in general life. But it also went to topics such as your favourite memories, daily routines and your embarrassing mistakes that you can look back at and laugh.

Turns out, Anxiety was incredibly fun to talk to, she had a great sense of comedic timing and was delighted whenever you cracked even the smallest of smiles. She always knew what to say and she was always interested in your conversations no matter how small they were.

The two of you had thankfully learned your lesson about not raising your voice as much to avoid waking any of the other emotions, occasionally you’d hear the grunt of an emotion and you’d both freeze up in utter silence, only to calm down realising that the grunt was from one of the emotions sleeptalking.

It only hit you how long the two of you were talking until you yawned, stretching a bit.

“Man.. what time is it?” You asked.

Anxiety looked at the screen. “I think it’s been around.. four hours?”

“Woah.” You were stunned, had the two of you really been talking for that long? You swore it must of only been an hour. “How far is it until I wake up?”

“We still have about another four hours to go!” Anxiety grabbed a watch from seemingly nowhere and showed it to you. “So do you still wanna talk or..?”

“I think I’m all talked out for today.” You responded with a lazy grin. “I can only talk to someone for so long.”

“Oh, of course, of course!” She flailed a bit while talking “But uh- are you sure you wanna leave right now?”

You nudged closer to her, putting an arm around her, she instantly froze in place even with her arms in the air. “Well, do you want to visit again?”

She didn’t respond, she was still frozen. You raised an eyebrow, moving back your arm. “Anxiety?”

She squeaked, finally moving again. “Again? You want to visit again?” She was in pure disbelief.

“Well, yeah! You’re super fun to talk to, and you have a great sense of humour.”

Anxiety fidgeted, brushing the side of her cheek. She felt her energy starting to rise and she wanted nothing more than to run around the room screaming, but she tried to keep her energy stable for now.

“W-what time do you wanna meet again?”

Anxiety thought about it. “Do.. you wanna do this next week? Same day?” She shrugged awkwardly.

“Perfect!” You almost instantly wrapped her up in a hug, it was a bit rougher than your usual ones but you felt too excited to care.

She made a small noise, making you snap back and remove your arms. “Oops, sorry. Too rough?”

“N-no, you’re fine.” She replied, the blush had appeared on her cheeks again, you noticed this but decided not to embarrass her further.

You stood up from the couch, holding your arms behind your back. “This was fun, I’m so glad I got to see you again.”

Anxiety also stood up, walking over to the console to prepare herself. “Next week, same time?”

You nodded, she looked content.

But before she could press the button, you ran forward and embraced her into another hug. She exclaimed in surprise and looked up as her face went red again. “R-reader!”

“Heheh, sorry. Couldn’t help myself.” You smirked, finally letting go and stepping back. “I’ll see you next week, okay?”

She was a little off-track by the sudden hug but still nodded. “Yeah, we will!” She happily responded, and she finally moved forward to press a specific button to turn off the projector.

You waved for the last time that night and your body began to lose colour and morphed back into a colourless sphere. It happened too fast for Anxiety to fully comprehend and she ran forward to grab the crystal before it hit the ground.

The room was silent, too silent. Anxiety only stared at your conscious, taking in everything that happened.

Like a robot, she made her way back to the console, grabbed the plastic packaging and put your conscious back inside. She carried the bag to her special chair and very gently placed it onto the seat.

Then she grabbed a pillow from the seat, shoved her face into it, and screamed as loud as she could.

Her mind was absolutely racing. This is not closure, this is the complete opposite.

You remembered her name, you called her cute, you held her hand, you comforted her, you wanted to see her again. You pinned her onto the couch!

Her screams were muffled but still pretty loud. *You pinned her onto the couch.* She could directly see your face while she was underneath you.

“Okayokayokayokay, calm down Anxiety! Calm down!” She smacked the pillow against her chest, trying to get the memory out of her. “Get it together!”

The weird tight feeling in her chest wouldn’t leave, even when she paced around the room while biting her knuckles, even when she tried lying down onto her chair, even when she tried to talk to herself, even long after she had already put your consciousness back into the wooden box.

She suddenly remembered the dream channel. Perfect, that could distract her for the rest of the night. She instantly darted over and heightened the brightness and sound, trying to forget her weird feelings.

Maybe she should have grabbed a chair for this.

*          *          *   

Your eyes slowly opened as you felt sunlight hit your face.

Your eyes shot open and you instantly dived down to grab your phone, you put in the passcode and opened up the notes app.

There you recorded as many details of your dream as possible. You recalled the conversations you had, how for some reason you had a dream about unicorns right in-between, how she apologised for making you nervous for your speech.

This is weird, you’ve had the same dream twice now. It felt too realistic to be a dream, it couldn’t possibly be a lucid one.

Your heart began to speed up as you thought of Anxiety. Was she in your head right now? Who even was controlling you? Hell, you never even got to see what Sadness looked like.

You would have told your colleagues about the dream but your moral dilemma stopped you. Anxiety was only a dream character, and for some reason you were respecting her privacy by not telling anyone about her?

You bit your lip, this is definitely weird. But you tried to ration it out as realistically as possible, it was probably just your brain playing tricks on you.

Say, didn’t you agree to meet her next Friday?

You clutched your nightshirt. Would your brain be that cruel to you again? Would you think about it nonstop which would cause your brain to dream it again?

Your phone buzzed as a notification slid down your screen.

Well, maybe you can scroll through social media for a bit to forget what just happened. It’s too early in the morning to get all existential.

*          *          *   

Anxiety sighed in relief as you jotted down the last details of the dream onto your phone. And she didn’t even have to press any buttons for that to happen, you did that by yourself.

The only thing she did control was deciding to distract you by scrolling through social media, afterwards she let go of the controller and stepped back.

“Morning, Anxiety!” She heard a happy voice approaching her.

“Hey, Joy!” Anxiety waved back at her.

“Night went okay? No nightmares?”

“Nope! None at all!” Anxiety quickly replied. “Another successful night by yours truly!”

“Oh you’re a natural at this!” Joy exclaimed, running over to Anxiety to pat her on the back, making her squeak and step back.

The other emotions soon followed, having awkward from their sleep. Some of them greeted Anxiety to which she responded with a wave of her own.

Joy cracked her fingers, preparing to take control of the console. “Alright everyone, today is a new day. Let’s make it count!”

Anxiety’s breath hitched as she was preoccupied by you.

After you left, she had the rest of the night to think by herself. She thought about how friendly you were to her, you even flirted with her. But it couldn’t just be the effects of REM, right?

She had hours to think, she would pace around headquarters while not paying any attention to the screen.

But she remembered when she stopped in place and felt both warmth and ice in her chest as she came to the horrifying realisation.

It wasn’t just an infatuation.

She’s in love.

Anxiety uneasily swayed in place and decided to walk over to her special chair, her mind too filled with indistinguishable clutter.

She was terrified to admit it, but she’s in love. This is exactly what she had been fearing.

A night that was supposed to give her closure only left her feelings stronger than her. And the fact that she agreed to meet you next week did not help.

She breathed deeply, trying to ignore her screaming mind and she watched the emotions operate the console.

You were already dressed and looking for a bag to bring to the grocery store, as you approached the door, she caught a glimpse of your reflection in the window.

The sight of you made her heart flip and her body grow warm.

Maybe this wasn’t that bad after all.