"His hope?"

Joesph nodded, his eyes dropping to the floor. Laura couldn't take her eyes off baby Joy. He looked exactly like Damian as a baby, though Laura could only say that because she's seen pictures. The baby looked under a year, but not by much. That meant positive thinge must have happened and gotten him to that size.

"Life with Mom behind closed doors was hard. She was depressed, she drank and commited self-harm multiple times. Damian just wanted his mom to be happy and let them be a normal family together and didn't want to let that go. So I guess you can say I was more False Hope than anything. But I changed."

Laura nodded quietly, looking up to try and meet the emotion's eyes. Trauma and Content were clutching their sleeves. It was clear Joseph wanted to do the same thing, but his arms were quite full.

"Damian.." Laura spoke up, looking at all the emotions at once. "You don't need to be hiding like this.. please I want you to be happy. Truly happy."

Trauma's eyes blurred with tears and he looked away. Content, or Mask, lowered his eyes. Joseph chewed his lip. "We can't-"

"Like hell you can't!" Laura raised her voice in frustration, all three emotions flinching. "I want to help you, Damian.. I want to help you.. I love you.."

Trauma wiped his face with his arm. Hope stared at her, almost shocked. Mask still kept his eyes on the floor.

"I love you.. I love you.. please Damian.. let me help you. You don't let anyone help you. You shut people out. You push then away. How can you expect to grow happy some day of you keep doing that?!" Laura struggled to keep away tears, her voice full of exasperation as she made wild gestures to the baby emotion in Hope's arms. "Let me help you.. let me love you.."

Trauma suddenly surged forward and engulfed Laura in a hug. Laura blinked, momentarily stunned before accepting and returning the hug. Mask wiped his eyes with his sleeve. Hope smiled through his tears.

"I'll try.." Trauma croaked.

"I'll help," Hope piped up.

Mask stood silent. Hope glanced at him. "You can still help us," Hope smiled, handing the baby Joy to the other emotion. There was a golden light and suddenly the emotions were different.

Joy was bigger. He was now the size of a six year old, his black locks messy and falling on his eyes but he was smiling. Mask was standing next to him, the size of a four year old. He had shrunk, but didn't go away completely. Both of them smiled at Laura, Joy's grin brighter than Mask's, and ran towards Hope. They turned into a glow of golden light and the now golden mist swirled around Hope.

"Thanks Laura.." he said softly, smiling at her.

"Thank you.." Trauma whispered too.

Suddenly, Hope turned and threw his arms around Trauma. Trauma tensed before slowly accepting the hug. There was suddenly a large, white glow. It was bright, like the others and caused Laura to shut her eyes to protect them from it. When she opened them again, Damian was standing there. In his white hoodie.

"... S-Sup," he waved weakly before his knees gave out underneath him. Laura quickly lunged forward, holding the Hades boy up with tears in her eyes. "What happened..?"

"Nothing.." Laura mumbled, hugging her boyfriend close. "Just know that I love you.. so so much.."

Damian stiffened a bit before hugging back lightly. "You're so weird.." he mumbled in an amused tone. Then in a soft, almost whisper-like voice, he said:

"I love you too.."