A/N: Multi-chapter thingy, hooray! Let's hope I don't disappoint everybody like I did with the last one I tried to do!

DISCLAIMER: Inside Out belongs to Pixar. I'm not making any profit from this fic.

Nobody likes being called a coward. It makes them feel like they're missing out on something fun. I know that. I should. It's my biggest peeve. It bums me out when Riley regrets not doing something because, well, I'm the one who stopped her from doing it. I only want to keep her safe. It's my job as one of her emotions. As you've probably gathered by now, I'm Fear. And for the record, I know I'm a coward.

Out of the five of us, I'm the guardian. Or, I should be. But I'll get into that later. I guess I should start with our leader: Joy. She's the one who helps Riley see the bright side of everything. To find the fun, as she puts it. As you'd expect, she's friendly, optimistic, full of fun, all-around happy. Sometimes she's kind of pushy, but ever since the move she's mostly gotten over it. Then there's Sadness. And yes, since we're strictly a well-oiled happy machine, she's kind of the black sheep of the group. Or at least, she was. But when we got to San Francisco, some...stuff happened. Anyway, long story short, we all realized that we completely misjudged her, and started letting her be as important as she deserves to be. That pessimism of hers used to scare me, but lately I've found out that there's way more to her than just that. See, unlike the rest of us, she's got empathy. And sometimes, that's even more important than being happy. She's thoughtful, a good listener, and - dare I say it - kind of sweet.

And then there's Anger, the guy who wants everything to be fair for Riley. Now, he's pretty good at it, but, well...let's just say that we're frequently at odds with each other. And by that I mean he always finds things to blame me for and I never bother to prove him wrong because I know that it'll only get me more dislocated limbs than I know what to do with. He shouts, he rants and raves, he goes ballistic until he gets what he wants (or until Joy tells him to go to the time-out corner). I'm not going to say he scares me, because that would be a lie. He terrifies me. But because of my pacifist nature- uh, sorry, my total lack of anything resembling a backbone - there's nothing I can really do about it.

Then there's Disgust. Her area is to make sure that Riley's always at her best, both physically and socially. So, naturally, she's got both high standards and low tolerance. Again, she knows what she's doing. But just like Anger, when it comes to abuse, I'm her favourite victim. But she doesn't beat on me. That's much too unladylike for her. No, what she does is insult me. Long and hard. If I get one more crack today about my intelligence or general appearance, I don't know what I'm going to do. But just like with Anger, I don't do anything about it because I'm aware - and paranoid - of the repercussions.

Yeah, so they're mean to me. But over the years, I've learned how to deal with it. I just kind of lay low and wait until it's all over. It's worked so far. Arguments never last, nobody ever gets hurt - too badly - so, it's fine, everything's fine, we're all fine.

Actually, if I'm completely honest, there's nothing fine about it. I mean, I'm Riley's protector, so I think I merit some respect. But that's changing now, in some ways...a lot of ways. Riley's practically a teenager now. And the things that used to scare her when she was little just don't anymore. She's at that age when being scared is the same thing as being weak. And so, sometimes, I get shoved out of the way. Don't get me wrong, I'm not okay with it. But the thing is, I can't do anything about it. At least, I can't bring myself to. I guess I'm just too scared (yeah, big surprise) of what everybody else would do. But at the same time, I'm also worried about Riley. It's not like I don't trust everybody else, it's just that they can't protect her like me. And then there's the...ongoing war between Anger and me. These days, whenever I screw up - you know, make us scared of something trivial, make us miss out on something fun, wake us up from a horrifying nightmare - Anger loves reminding me of my biggest screwup: the time when Joy and Sadness went missing, and I tried to quit. Things got too scary for me to handle, so I took the option that seemed the best to me. What I hadn't realized at the time was that I was about to abandon Riley. But now I know, and both Anger and Disgust take great delight in making sure that I don't forget it. Among other things, they call me weak, stupid, and - most hurtfully - a bad protector. And I hate to admit it, but I've started believing them. They're right. I'm not positive like Joy, understanding like Sadness, strong like Anger, or orderly like Disgust. All I can do is protect. But lately, it seems like I can't even do that. I know it's not in my job description to be angry with anything or sick of anything, but sometimes...I don't know.

Sometimes I just hate being me.

Thank you for reading! Please review and tell me what you think so far! Keep in mind that the rest of the story will be in third-person and not in Fear's POV.