Characters who are Sour Outside, Sad Inside in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- Amulet Serosity downplays this with Pacifica; rather than being a full-blown Jerkass, she's more of an Elective Mute who keeps most of her snarkery to herself and is a Terse Talker with those she's willing to speak to. This cold front conceals just how troubled she is deep down.
- Child of the Storm:
- The series implies on several occasions that Carol was like this, being abrasive, hot-tempered, defensive, touchy, sharp-tongued, and mistrustful. She segues into Jerk with a Heart of Gold around when she meets Harry. While she's a softer touch around him, she's repeatedly described as 'spiky', and with good reason. It transpires that a psychologically abusive father, an initially difficult relationship with her mother, and a fair amount of sexual harassment are to blame.
- Harry becomes like this after the trauma of the Forever Red arc in the sequel. While he eventually becomes kinder again, he's still covered in mental scars, and a bit grumpier and more cynical than before.
- Last Child of Krypton: When Kaji says he is worried about Asuka Shinji answers she seems pretty hard-headed and capable to hold her own. Kaji warns him that she is not as strong as he thinks and she is in reality very fragile.Kaji: How's Asuka doing?
Shinji: Fine, I guess. It's only been one day.
Kaji: I'm a little worried about her. She's not as strong as you think she is.
Shinji: She seems pretty hardheaded to me, [...] She held her own against some of the guys.
Kaji: Glass seems hard, [...] until you hit it the wrong way, or drop it, then it shatters. - Superwomen of Eva 2: Lone Heir of Krypton: Asuka tries to pretend she is tough, angry, and bold so that nobody notices she is hurting inside and has many troubles, especially after Arael's Mind Rape.
- Thousand Shinji: When he met Asuka Shinji quickly realized underneath her angry, jealous front there was a huge sadness, fear and she was more fragile than she looked and her soul had many scars."Asuka glared up at him, and slowly the anger seeped out of her body... for now. Shinji could still feel it burning beneath the surface, ready to explode once the time was right, like how a burning room without flame could flashover when oxygen was introduced, producing a super hot fireball."
The smoke that covered up this fire, however, was sadness, the half-burned fuel for her frenzy. Peering into her soul, Shinji could feel a near-infinite well of sorrow hidden behind enough fortifications and trenches to make a World War One general wince at the thought of assaulting it.
She began to cry, and Shinji let go of her to allow her to regain her composure. She was more fragile than he had first thought. He would either have to repair her damaged heart or break her completely so as to rebuild her. If the situation continued, she could, and probably would, break in an undesirable fashion, most likely becoming useless.
- In the Avantasia Protag AU series, Scarecrow often pushes his family away and acts unpleasant, but he really has depressive episodes and is mentally ill.
- Dominoes:
- Shinichi is a cold, cynical and calculating teenager whose father is an abusive Control Freak — and who also happens to be arguably the most powerful man on Earth, and has convinced all of Shinichi's 'friends' that his treatment of his son is For the Greater Good. Even Shinichi's own girlfriend Ran buys into Yuusaku's manipulations. On top of all this, Shinichi is a psychic empath, forcing him to clamp down even harder on his emotional suppression.
- While KID maintains his cheerful facade, Kaito is a bitterly jaded young man thanks to witnessing his father being murdered by Yuusaku, who then covered the incident up and framed Toichi for his own death. Despite generally acting like a massive Jerkass, Kaito is also the only one who openly expresses empathy towards Shinichi, precisely because he relates Shinichi's circumstances to his own.
- In Between Heroes and Villains, Tommy lashes out a lot on those who are concerned for him, yet also has a lot of Heroic Self-Deprecation. It's explained by the author to be because of undiagnosed depression and likely PTSD as well.
- The source of Argus Filch's crankiness in The Parselmouth of Gryffindor seems to be his resentment at the way everyone treats him for being a Squib.
- The Rigel Black Chronicles: It's not really surprising that Caelum Lestrange turned out this way from being raised by psychotic sadist Bellatrix Lestrange. He considers himself to be doing a public service by puncturing unwarranted optimism wherever he goes.
- The Story of Apollo, Daphne and Luca: An Italian Tragedy: After Alberto's surpride arrival at Genoa, the normally cheerful and upbeat Giulia develops a more hostile and cold personality as a coping mechanism to deal with the fear of being side-lined by Luca and Alberto once they will start dating.
- Lies of omission: Having been raised in an abusive household that emphasized putting on an air of decorum, Peter can come across as a bit of a snob to everyone at Avengers Tower, but it's clear that he only acts that way to hide an emotionally fragile teenager starving for genuine affection.
- Advice and Trust: After their First Kiss, Shinji and Asuka have a long talk and Shinji discovers Asuka may look harsh and tough but inwardly she is so sad, pained, and fragile as him.
- The Child of Love: Asuka's rage and viciousness is nothing but a shield she uses to hide her pain and push everyone away because she is frightened of them. If she is being really mad and rude it is a sign that she is breaking down.Hikari: You know how she is. Always so arrogant and strong. But deep inside she's one of the most fragile people I know.
- A Crown of Stars: Surviving in a post-apocalyptic world had aggravated Asuka's mental scars. Outwardly she was harsher, angrier, and more jaded; inwardly she was utterly broken, depressed, and self-loathing.
- Asuka again (noticing a pattern here?) in Doing It Right This Time. Having had quite some time to reflect upon just what an amazingly counterproductive coping mechanism this was, she throws herself into the do-over with every intention of "using less tsun and more dere" this time around.
- Evangelion 303: Asuka initially came across as abrasive, rude, and arrogant, but in reality, she had very low self-esteem and little self-confidence, and she pushed people away because she was frightened of them.
- Ghosts of Evangelion: Due to severe trauma and anger management issues, Asuka uses her anger to hide her hurt. If she is being mean it's because she's inwardly upset, nervous, or frightened.Asuka: (nervously) Do you want me to help you?
Shinji: Why would you want to? You don't even like me.
Asuka: (frowning) That's not true. My mama asked me where I wanted to play, and I said here. I like being with you.
Shinji: But you're always mean to me.
Asuka: That doesn't mean I don't like you. I'm just afraid you'll go away, and it makes me nervous and upset. So I get mean even though I don't want to. - HERZ: The angrier and more hostile Asuka behaves the sadder and more awful she feels inward. When she was thinking of leaving Japan in the backstory and Shinji pleaded with her to stay with him, she berated him because she thought he could not possibly love her since she was an ugly, worthless freak and he was just mocking her.
- Higher Learning: At the beginning of the story, Asuka pretends to be a tough, bold girl who does not need anybody. However, as the war goes on her traumas get worse and the mask shatters progressively until she shows herself as a depressed, sad girl who clings to Shinji desperately because she thinks she has nothing else.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide: When Asuka opens up to Shinji, he realizes that she is and has always been very hurt and broken, but she's been hiding it since she was a child. Later on, he and Misato talk about her issues."She's been keeping all that inside of her for a very long time, I'd imagine," she said in her most tender voice. "She never has been the outgoing sort. Not with her feelings. I guess she was so hurt that all she could do was build a wall around her heart."
- Once More With Feeling (Crazy-88): Although Shinji is not afraid of arguing with Asuka anymore, he does his best to not hurt her pride because after going through Instrumentality, he knows that it's a mask and underneath, she's a scared little girl who thinks being a pilot is everything she has.Then the Second Child had arrived, bringing with her conflict, friction, and more than a few painful contusions to his head as she continually let him know exactly what she thought of him as an Eva Pilot, a man, and a human.
All of it a giant lie to shield the four-year-old girl desperately hiding deep behind the moats, minefields, and electrified fences she had placed around her heart. - The One I Love Is...: Shinji used to think Asuka was a brave, bold, self-assured girl to the point of being obnoxious although he had seen some glimpses showed Asuka was weaker than she looked. Then in chapter 6, she started tearing herself apart and he was shocked because she was so fragile and insecure and frightened as him.
- Scar Tissue: Asuka displayed an abrasive behaviour to hide her traumatized, depressed real self. After having been defiled, eaten alive, and being forced to share her innermost thoughts and memories with literally everyone, her temper became more volatile and uncontrollable. However, the more aggressive she got, the more awful she felt afterward.
- The Second Try: After returning to the past Asuka is depressed, worried, and pained the whole time because she and Shinji are forced to go through their worst trials again and worst of all their daughter is missing but she has to keep pretending to be a brash, temperamental, hostile thirteen-years-old kid rather a mature woman in her twenties. She also wore a mask to hide her fragility the first time around but it is worst now because she is feeling more depressed and now she realizes how childish was her act.
