Inside Out 2: Riley's Tickle Trouble
Val's basement was not at all what Riley expected. It probably hadn't been touched since the late 90s…solid white walls, weirdly low ceiling, scratchy and thick cream carpet that looked like it was made out of rope, a neglected Foosball table, and a really squishy toffee-colored leather couch almost thick enough to be a beanbag. It was nice and homey, but the ordinariness threw Riley off.
She figured that because Val was the coolest and most popular girl in school and such a successful hockey captain and so inspiring and pretty and (shut up, shut up) the Ortiz family must’ve been, like, uber-rich or something. But nope. Totally normal. It was kind of comforting, actually.
A friendly little spot on the carpet, next to the edge of the couch, invited Riley to sit down there, among the towering pizza boxes. So she did.
“Okay everyone, just relax and let’s all have some fun!” Joy was peppy as always. Game time. “But wait, why are we worried about this? We’ve hung out with the FireHawks plenty of times…” “BECAUSE, Sadness: this isn’t our first time hanging out with the FireHawks, but it IS our first time hanging out with them as an OFFICIAL MEMBER OF THE TEAM,” Anxiety chimed in. “The importance of this event literally cannot be overstated,” the green girl grimaced, jabbing her finger. With one roll of his sleeve, Anger was ready to go. “I’ve been warmin’ up the swear button all day for this. Oh! Maybe we'll get to watch an R-rated movie!” "Uhhh, do you WANT Mom to kill us?"
“Alright,” Val announced to the team, with an uncharacteristically sly side-eyed smirk on. The game had been going for a while, and it was her turn. “Never have I ever…kissed a boy-band poster on my bedroom wall.”
Everyone’s hands stretched out into the air, all accompanied by varying degrees of smarm or giggliness, but Riley’s arm shot up to its full height much faster than the others’. Her lower lip curled up beneath her teeth, almost like it was trying to hide. Her eyes drifted around the room unfocused. And if she'd looked to her left, she would've noticed Nour's suspicious smile.
"Riley looks embarrassed," the latter teased. “You sure there isn't something you wanna tell us, Glow Girlie?” With her free hand, Nour reached out and playfully poked beneath Riley's raised arm.
What happened next, Riley couldn't stop. It was a reflex. She didn't even have time to think before she shrieked loudly, slapped her hand over her armpit, and scurried away on her knees. Her eyes were bulging out of their sockets and she was tingling all over.
“Nowaitpleasedonttickleme!” she begged. It all just blurted out in one rapid breath. By the time she realized what she’d said, it was too late.
A collective gasp echoed throughout the command center. Every head turned, each with a different expression. On the desk, the "Panic Button" was lit up, its soft glow blinking through the fingers of a single, orange hand. “....Oh no…was that bad? ...What did I do?!” “Hey…that reminds me…” the visage of Ally chuckled on the big Jumbotron screen, and tugged with malice of forethought on the edge of her beanie. All the emotions swiveled again to look at her. “We haven’t put Riley through the official FireHawks initiation yet.” Suddenly, five pairs of eyes were staring right in at them. At Riley. Gulp.
Gulp.
Riley yanked her feet behind her and clumsily tried to sit on them. “W-wait, wait,” she stammered. Except for Val (who was just enjoying the show), the rest of her team were all crawling toward her with their hands outstretched, twisted smiles on their faces, their fingers dancing like spider legs. Riley's shyness overcame her, and she felt herself blushing, only to be distracted when old white plaster bumped against her shoulder. She'd backed into the wall...there was nowhere to run. And her puppy-dog eyes weren't dissuading the others. “Wait, guys!”
The eight terrible arms that hovered over her descended in sync like a hungry swarm, and smothered her until all light was blotted out.
“AHHH!!”
Dogpiled on the floor. Enveloped on all sides. Riley quickly hugged herself tight and curled into a defensive armadillo ball, but the wriggly hands of her teammates all fought and shoved and tunneled their way into every nook & cranny between her arms and her torso. They scuttled like crabs at her waist, and her belly, and her armpits, and her neck, until she crumbled into screaming, helpless laughter.
Side thought: I'm guessing that Riley’s tickle laugh probably sounds a lot like her overdone “pretend I get the joke and fit in” laugh.
“Hihih HA-Heh! *heave* HA-Ha Ha-Ha Ha!! AHH!! *gasp* Gai…G-huys, stop!” (So much for ever keeping any future secrets from these girls.)
“We all had to do it, Michigan; now it's your turn…” Dani, always the bully among them, did not lie convincingly. But she did tickle very well.
"Andersen, two minutes in the Penalty Booooox!!" Ally's voice dropped several pitches in a goofy pantomime of their Coach. Her pinching claws electrified Riley’s sides and made her jump like a popped corn kernel.
“Oho my g-hahawd, I barely touched you.” Sofia, clearly having the time of her life, tucked her glasses into her pocket (for safety) and moved down to grab Riley's ankles.
"Ha-HA!!! Dohon't!" Everything went hot. Riley couldn’t breathe or see straight. Her blue hoodie held her snug in its warm cotton folds, but even its extra layer wasn’t thick enough to protect her from the barrage of poking FireHawk fingers. She was used to being wrestled and tummy-tickled practically to death by Bree & Grace...that was normal, sometimes even a little exciting. But her new friends were older girls: bigger, stronger, better at holding her down, and way meaner.
"NO! Nnnnn-NO!! Thisisnothappening!!!" Disgust was mortified. "Stop fidgeting; I can't tell what kind of looks they're giving us!!" Underneath the table, Embarrassment held his entire body in a death-grip bear hug around the central pedestal, and the fuchsia on its surface rapidly emanated from him like an inky stain. In a fit of panic, Fear followed suit and threw his four limbs around the nearest sturdy object he could find... which just so happened to be Ennui's entire face. "Wait! I-I can fix this!" Anxiety hadn't moved this fast since Hockey Camp. Joy, though? She was over the moon. Giddy, buzzing, practically levitating off the floor. "Awww, remember when Dad used to tickle us all the time? Heheheh...Riley's our little monkey!" "No! Stop it! This is not cute!" "Wait a minute; Val! Val will save us! We have-togettamessageto-er somehow!" The faster Fear talked, the tighter and tighter he squeezed Ennui's head, until both of them crashed to the floor. Anxiety gasped. "You're right! She's always stuck up for Riley! How do we signal her?!" "Guys look she's looking! She's looking at us!!" squeaked Envy. It was then, as if in answer to their prayers, that Val pushed herself up off the couch and spoke. All the others on the hockey team heeded her call. “A’ight, girls..." She was smiling warmly, practically moving in slow motion, like a knight in shining armor. Time ground to a standstill. All the emotions held their breaths in anticipation… "...let me get in on this."
At their leader's command, the four minions happily parted like the Red Sea. Dazed, Riley suddenly felt two rough hands clasping her wrists, and then two more closing around her ankles, and then her head sliding up into someone's lap. Dani's. Carpet burns stung her back. She was breathing hard. Someone had been using her diaphragm as a trampoline. By the time she got her wits about her, her limbs were stretched out like rubber bands, and Val was sauntering toward her.
No. No no no not Val. Please not her!!
“Uh-oh…awwww, yeah; get ‘er good, Val,” Ally teased.
Riley desperately squirmed and wiggled to escape, hoping to hide in a fetal position, but the hockey captain plopped right down on top of her jittery knees. She was pinned.
Say something. What are you doing; SAY SOMETHING!!!
She opened her mouth to speak, but all that came out was a squeaky, low-decibel croak, like a leaking balloon. Crud. And as Val smiled down at her, one eyebrow raised, Riley noticed something else that made her even more nervous: her hoodie had hitched up from all her writhing around, and her bare belly was peeking out.
Oh no. Her earlobes had a heartbeat. Could the others tell how red her cheeks were?! Oh no.
"Heheh…What’s this? What’ve we got here?" Snickering, Val slowly reached her left hand forward, making sure to drag each movement out for as long as possible…and then…just as the tension reached its agonizing limit…she scratched her fingernail right in the freshman FireHawk's belly button.
The scream that burst out of Riley could've killed a Symbiote.
BANG!! BANG!! BANG!! Embarrassment’s massive schnoz pummeled the keyboard like a whack-a-mole hammer, engulfed by the machine's belches of sparks and smoke. Sirens blared, red lights strobed. “Fight BACK already!” Anger dove for the controls, but a hyperactive orange fist sent him flying into the ceiling. “No! We CAN’T!! Just retreat! Submit! Roll over! O-or something!” Anxiety no longer knew what buttons she was pressing on the neon-pink-and-orange console, or if they even functioned. She just desperately pounded whatever wasn't currently blocked by Embarrassment's flailing body. “She’s right; what if we sock one of them in the face like we did to Bree during the slumber party?!” Fear whimpered. “That was YOUR fault!” Joy, meanwhile, rolled around on the floor in wild hysterics, laughing and snorting and totally oblivious to the surrounding office chaos. Beside her, Envy bounced up and down in tandem. The apocalypse was here.
“HA-HA Ha-Ha Ha-Heh…Ah-HEHH!! *cough* HHA-Haw HA!!” Riley wailed through cracking and creaking pipes. She hated how crooked her braces-wearing grin looked, how wide her nostrils flared. It was too much: Val squeezing her tummy like a marshmallow, Sofia scratching and tickling her foot through her sock, Nour prodding her in the ribs with a big toe…she was going to cry from laughing if they didn’t quit. She wanted to die - to lock herself in her room and never come out again.
“Ok, girls, I think she’s had enough,” Val declared. Her word was law…the torment immediately stopped. With one last flourish, the captain gave her youngest subordinate’s achy belly a gentle, affectionate little pat, and even sweetly pulled her shirt back down again. Aw. How helpful.
It had only been a minute or two, but Riley felt like she’d been tickled for hours. Free at last, and totally exhausted, she groaned and wiped her eyes and conked her head on the carpet, still trembling and giggling like a baby. Oh thank God.
“Haha-Ha! You’re fun, Andersen.”
"Nah, Val, I know that look; you think we were too 'mean' to her," Ally mocked as the five returned to their original seats. Val hopped onto the couch once again and crossed one leg over her knee.
"Oh, I don’t know; everyone loves tickle fights, right?"
“Uh-uh. No. Not me. I hhhate being tickled,” Dani shuddered.
“It depends; it’s not THAT bad,” interjected Sofia. “Well, except like when I’m getting my nails done, and they start going for my feet…”
“Oh, yeah, I hate that feeling,” Val laughed in agreement, resting her cheek in her left palm. “In the mall? Oh my gosh, this is so embarrassing…one time, I was getting a mani pedi, and I legit accidentally kicked this Chinese lady in the face.”
That cracked the rest of them up. "Girl, the criiiiinge," Ally snickered.
“I couldn't help it! Heh-Heh…hey, you ok over there, Ri?”
Clearly upset, the largest and pinkest retreated into his sweater. The control console was still sputtering in pain. "Not ok. Not ok. We were JUST making an impression!" "Ok, let's everybody just cool your jets," Joy smiled. “Wait she called us ‘Ri;’ does that mean something?” queried Envy. “Are we super-friends now?” “What are we even supposed to say?!” But as usual, whenever the group got stuck filibustering, it was up to Ennui to save the day. "S'cuse moi." BOOP.
Still splayed out on the floor like a snow angel, still sucking in air by the gallon, Riley weakly raised a single thumbs-up, high above her head. Do. Not. Make. Eye contact.
“Hiiiiieeee…….yaah….*gasp*...’mokay…*gasp* …neverbetter,” she squeaked.
“Well that couldn’t POSSIBLY have gone worse. So help me those girls are gonna GET it!” “Oh I messed up…Imessedupsobad…” Anxiety yanked down on her wiry hair, pulling it down to her waist, to the point where she appeared to be wearing suspenders. “I don’t know,” Sadness mused. For the first time all evening, her cheeks raised up in a tiny smile. “I think…I think they like us.”
Riley wheezed and sighed and blew a bang out of her reddened face, while the others just laughed playfully. They were way too happy about this…the kind of happy that girls only get when they discover a piece of juicy gossip. Deep down, in the pit of her stomach, Riley had a feeling…this wouldn’t be the last time her new gal-pals punished her for the crime of being unbearably ticklish.
…somehow, she didn’t really mind all that much.
**********
I wasn't originally planning to write an Inside Out 2 fic, but got a lot of positive feedback on my headcanons and my prompt ideas, so this is ‘sort of’ a reader request. Now, I am not a teenage girl. I have never been one. I don't plan on being one in the future. So, I’m not entirely sure how ‘believable’ this is. My hope was that this fic would feel authentic and familiar to some of you, and maybe drag up some high school memories (or fantasies) of those warm, squiggly, flustery feelings that come with a tickle attack from your BFFs. Just something cute and silly.
I don’t ship Riley & Val, I’m not super comfortable with that, and this fic was not intended to be interpreted that way. But, some people who read this are probably going to anyhow, and that’s fine I guess as long as you don’t push it. Lol
Also I don't actually know if the Muslim girl's name is Nour. I read on some dubbing wiki that it was, but that was the only reference to her name I could find, anywhere, online. So if I get different info I'll fix that.
