Creativity gasped as Anxiety flinched away, “Hey! Be careful!”, he snapped, and Anxiety gave a bothered glare at the royal, who didn’t do so much as to flinch under his gaze. “Creativity, he didn’t even get close to touching you! Quit being mean to Anxiety!”, Morality scolded, and the prince grimaced, nodding obediently.
That didn’t stop him from sticking his tongue out at Anxiety, who returned the favor.
Logic rolled his eyes, “Whatever. Anxiety, we have a problem. The three of us seem to have… dropped in size considerably last night.”, he explained, and the anxious side carefully laid down on his stomach so he didn’t loom over the others. Logic nodded gratefully, “It took us an incredible amount of effort to find each other alone, not to mention coming downstairs to climb onto the couch to wake you up. We are in serious need of your help.”, Logic said, and Anxiety nodded.
His lips parted as he finally calmed himself enough to speak, “Are you all okay? Did any of you get hurt?”, Anxiety asked, feeling his own anxiety pull out of his panic and pour into protecting the smaller, more vulnerable sides in front of him. Morality smiled, shaking his head, “Nope! Luckily, we’re all okay! We all somehow managed to climb down our beds and leave our rooms! Logic and Creativity came into my room and helped me down from my bed by climbing down the blanket to the floor!”, Morality recalled, and Anxiety successfully hid the pang of fear in his heart of the idea of these tiny, fragile little things climbing up and down their beds- which would be much larger than Anxiety already was to them-
Anxiety hoped that Thomas couldn’t feel the anxiety of the idea of any of the tiny sides dropping from their bed to the floor- as that would be hard to deal with.
Creativity crossed his arms over his chest, “Well, you did drop me. That was the most danger I have seen all day.”, he grumbled, and Anxiety frowned, leaning his face just a bit closer to the prince. “I’m sorry that I dropped you, Creativity. I didn’t mean to. I just knew something was in my hair- so I panicked when the thing was living. I wouldn’t have dropped you if I had known that it was you. Sorry if I scared you. Did I hurt you in any way?”, Anxiety asked, and the prince sighed, “No, you didn’t.”
Princey’s silence was challenged by a stern look from Morality, and the creative side turned back to Anxiety, “And… apology accepted.”, he added.
Morality crossed his arms over his chest, “And?”, he pressed, and Creativity threw his hands up in frustration, “What? What else do I say?” Morality gestured to Anxiety, which made the anxious side flinch slightly, “You have your own apology to give, Princey.”, the paternal side huffed, and Creativity sagged reluctantly.
The prince looked back to Anxiety, “I am sorry for waking you up like that. While Morality’s way was too gentle, I was far too rough. I shouldn’t have scared you like that. I’m sorry.”, Creativity sighed, and Anxiety blinked.
The ghost of a smile appeared on the anxious side’s face, prompting a genuinely surprised look from Princey. A genuine, soft, small, warm smile was on Anxiety’s face-
Had Creativity ever even seen Anxiety smile before? He couldn’t remember, so he probably hadn’t. But if he had, it wasn’t so… genuine as this. But the trace of a smile was alien to see on the fair-skinned, makeup-using side, and it made Creativity wonder just what he had said that prompted this.
“Apology accepted, Creativity. I appreciate it.”
Oh. Creativity had been so wrapped up in noticing that Anxiety actually looked like something other than a dark and dreary dragon-witch cave that he had forgotten his apology to the side.
Was that why Anxiety was smiling? Because he had apologized? Really? He had been forced to apologize before… but maybe it was because this one was more in depth?
Huh. Maybe he should try to do that more often…
Just to see if it makes the side smile again. Might lessen the anxiety that Thomas would have to deal with, right?
Creativity gave a smile back, “Good. I’m. I’m glad.”, he replied, and he raised an eyebrow as the smile grew into the slightest of a smirk.
He would ignore that for now.
Anxiety quickly caught on that Princey didn’t want any sass right now, and put the smirk away, exchanging glances with Logic and Morality as well, “So, do you have any idea why this happened?”, Anxiety asked, and Logic shook his head. “No, we don’t. Even Creativity confirmed that any magic from his room wasn’t involved. Nor can we find any effects this may have had on Thomas. Our tasks are being carried out just as efficiently. as usual, he did well on a test in his first period today, and he’s still doing well.”, Logic said, adjusting his glasses as he always did.
Right. Thomas was in school right now, so Logic was making sure he did well in school through all of this. Good, someone had to make sure this wasn’t going well, and who better to notice abnormalities than Logic? No one here, in Princey’s opinion.
Anxiety propped his head upon his hand, humming in thought, “I don’t feel extra anxious or stressed, either. And I’m also not any bigger, so it’s not like I have what you guys are missing… And clearly, judging by your reactions, this hasn’t happened before…”, Anxiety said, lightly tugging on one of his bangs, “Weird. This is all just… so odd. And unexpected…”, Anxiety was clearly trying his best to figure out what was going on, and Creativity nodded.
“Yes, very. Now, we need to figure out how to turn ba-”
A very loud growl startled all four sides, and three turned to the source-
The emotional side’s face was flush with embarrassment as he hugged his stomach while it growled much quieter this time, “Sorry…! I haven’t had breakfast yet! I’m hungry!”, Morality exclaimed, then giggling, “Wait, I’m not hungry, I’m dad!”, he snorted at his own joke, while Creativity and Logic groaned and Anxiety stifled a laugh.
Morality smiled as he saw the average-sized– though in comparison gigantic– side snicker at his joke, the dark-dressed side sitting up and stretching himself out. “Well, I’m kinda hungry. So I guess we should all have something to eat.”, Anxiety sighed, draping his legs over the couch as he stood up, letting out a loud yawn as he contemplated how the heck he was gonna feed three tiny sides.
((Sorry for the delay! Mobile Tumblr wouldn’t let me post it. But I can on my desktop! Part 3 is almost done, so get ready for that! And let me know if you want to be tagged in my works or this story and definitely ask me questions or send me headcanons about this!))