Chapter Text
Branch stared down at his reflection in the river, face shifting every so often as he tried out different scowls and expressions. He’d been at this for nearly an hour and he couldn’t for the life of him understand why Poppy thought any of them were cute.
The night prior had been spent trying to figure out the same thing and rationalize it away in any possible way he could. Her friends could’ve easily been lying to him to try and fluster her, but then her reaction wouldn’t make sense, Poppy was usually pretty level headed when it came to pranks being pulled on her. Maybe it was an old sentiment that she had when they were younger and she was just embarrassed that it was brought up again? It sounded right, but then she would’ve at least said that. There seemed to just be no other explanation than her friends telling him the truth to tease her.
But why?
Admittedly, he didn’t understand the dynamics of any friend group, so there was definitely something he was missing, but Poppy seemed really upset. Was it meant to hurt her? No- no, they wouldn’t do that on purpose, that much he knew. Maybe it was supposed to just be teasing? But if it was just a small crush, then Poppy wouldn’t have looked like she was on the verge of tears over him simply knowing she thought he was cute.
The reminder sent another shock wave through him and a fire lit behind the skin of his cheeks, turning the skin a darker gray. He huffed to try and get rid of it, scowling back down at his reflection. How in the world could anyone find this cute ?
His brows were way too fluffy and his eyes were too beady to be anywhere near attractive enough to catch a princess’ attention, not to mention the fact that he was completely gray all over. To Trolls, the most attractive ones were the ones with the brightest colors, the more eye-catching, the more beautiful. Poppy herself fit this narrative perfectly, bright pink skin, hair, and eyes that all tied together and drew everyone’s gaze to her. And she thought Branch, the weirdest, most disgusting troll was cute…? She had to be joking.
He glared down at himself for a little bit longer before taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly through his teeth. Why, for music’s sake, was he so hung up on this? Why did he care so much if Poppy thought he was cute or not? It’s not like it mattered.
“So…you’re not mad at us anymore?” A voice said off to the side, making Branch tense and shift to hide, feet carrying him towards the sound.
He silently pushed a leaf to the side and caught sight of Poppy and the same friends from the day prior, DJ Suki with them now as well, hanging out a ways further down the river. DJ sat the closest to Poppy, seeming to glare the others down the best she could with her big eyes. Poppy herself looked like she was doing her best to ignore the others in the most polite way possible, absentmindedly braiding and unbraiding and rebraiding a strand of her hair. She was the closest to him out of everyone and was just watching the river.
“No, I’m definitely mad, but I’m not gonna be mean about it,” she said, not looking up at her friends as she twisted the braid in her hands. She leaned on DJ and just kept watching the water, feet barely moving within the cool waves. Even if she wasn’t saying it, she was still extremely upset if her lack of whimsy at being in the water was any indication.
Branch recalled a time when they were just little trollings, no older then eight, and she’d slashed him with water while he’d been trying to gather it for a bath. At the time, he had been so angry and shouted at the giggling princess, but looking back, it was a fond memory. He remembers being so mad that he’d splashed her back and the two had ended up playing together in the water for nearly an hour before he realized what he’d done. It had been the first time he’d played with another troll since his brothers had left. It always made his heart buzzy just thinking about it.
“But we already said we were sorry!” Creek groaned, snapping Branch out of his mental daydream, “Why haven’t you forgiven us already?”
DJ Suki scowled and stood up, turning to face the others with her back to Branch and Poppy. “Uh! Maybe because you really hurt her and she’s not ready to accept an apology yet? This isn’t about you guys!”
Creek scowled at her and balled his fists at his side. “Well what else do you expect us to do?” He shouted, seeming to take over the argument for the whole rest of the group, “Go find him ourselves and explain the situation? I’m pretty sure he’d bite me!”
“And you’d deserve it!” DJ snapped, stepping closer to better argue with the purple troll.
Poppy, seeming to be tired of all of this, carefully got up and walked a little ways away from the group, just two feet away from where Branch had been hiding. She silently turned her back on her friends and twirled her fingers in the muddy grass in front of her, the wet dirt staining her fingers a dark brown.
Branch froze a little bit, very much aware that the smallest movement would catch her attention and he’d be caught watching. If it had been anyone other than Poppy, he would be able to play it off as just being around at the wrong time, but he couldn’t even think of an excuse he could have if she did find him, tongue twisting on itself in his mouth. Why was he always like this around her?
He’d always been a little more awkward around her than he was around other trolls, his words almost always having a little less bite to them than they did with anyone else. He would often find himself spacing out while she spoke, seemingly entranced by her voice, before having to play off his lack of knowledge for what she was saying with a huff or an eye roll. Even now, knowing he could easily leave if he was careful to make no noise, he couldn’t bring himself to move, eyes transfixed on the troll in front of him and ears completely ignoring the now raging argument not even a few feet away.
Now that she was closer, he could make out the explosion of silver freckles splayed out across her cheeks. She’d gained more since the last time he’d been paying attention and he subconsciously began to count them. While he’d never admit it, he liked the shiny dots all over her face, they always caught the sun in just the right way that they never blinded him, instead bringing his gaze to the troll should he ever try to avoid it. It was part of the reason he could hardly ever stop staring at her whenever he saw her at the edge of the village. She was one of the only trolls who even ventured that far away from the structures of their home and he was always questioning why. Didn’t she know how dangerous it was to be that far out?
His eyes slid across her face, numbers floating around his mind with each freckle he saw. Her cheeks, while usually overturned with the huge grin she always wore, were settled into a relaxed expression, fuschia eyes far away. The overbite that always stuck out was nowhere in sight, lips curled around her teeth in a small pucker as she seemed to mumble to herself. It was almost like she was daydreaming. Talking to herself.
Branch’s eyes finally settled on the last freckle, settled right next to the left hand corner of her mouth, and he mumbled the last number without even thinking. “Four hundred and seventy-two,” he whispered, posture instantly straightening when Poppy’s eyes snapped from the grass to meet with his own.
The two froze, eye contact keeping them in place there on the bank of the river. Branch’s heart was in his throat and his tongue tied more, speech rendered impossible in lieu of staring at her. Sugar, he was so sure she’d been too lost in her daydreaming to hear him, maybe she was paying more attention than he thought.
After an eternity, she finally broke their silence and blinked. “What…did you say? 472 what…?” She asked, glancing around herself to see if he’d been referring to the area around her.
And, looking back, he wished he’d been smart enough to come up with a lie on the spot. Instead, the only thing he could think to say was the truth.
“Your freckles,” he whispered, biting the inside of his cheek, “There’s 472 of them,”
She blinked again, one of her hands slowly coming up to feel the skin across her nose. As her finger delicately traces the little dots of her face, she stared at him, wheels turning in her head before realization lit her face up in the tiniest smile he’d ever seen on her.
“You were…staring at me long enough to count them all?” She whispered, cheeks turning an even darker shade of pink and making the markings stand out even more.
His mouth went a little bit dry and he nodded, ducking back behind the leaves with a soft growl. “Yeah. So wH- so what?” He asked, internally screaming when his voice cracked. Puberty would be the death of him.
Poppy giggled a little bit and glanced back at her friends still in the midst of their bickering before carefully crawling behind the leaf with him. He tensed up immediately upon someone being in his personal space and backed up a tiny bit, but stayed close enough that their knees could touch when she settled in a seated position just across from him. The almost razor thin bit of skin connecting them felt like it was being set on fire and frozen in ice all at once, the sensation making his heart speed up to a million beats per minute. His stomach was doing flips when she regarded him with a calm smile he hadn’t seen since she’d been sick with the flu when they were ten.
She stared at him for a moment longer before leaning back on her hands. “So, um…are we okay?” She asked after a moment, gaze falling from him to settle on the leaf hiding them from the other teenagers, “After yesterday?”
He huffed softly and shoved his hands into his lap to try and get the sweat to stop forming. “If you mean we can go back to the way things were before…yeah,” he muttered, trying his hardest not to look at her.
It didn’t fully work and he saw her smile a bit more, her hands shifting so she could angle her face to make eye contact once again. “So we’re still friends?” She asked, that cheeky grin back on her face.
He rolled his eyes, settling into their familiar banter. “We aren’t friends, Pop, I’ve already said this,”
She merely giggled and leaned forward to be in his personal space, their noses touching for the briefest moment before he could manage to move away. “And I’ve already said that we are. You’re one of my best friends, Branch, you can’t escape me,”
“You say everyone is your best friend,” he said, fixing her with the exasperated glare he always did and carefully shoving her face away, “It means noth-”
He was interrupted when Poppy started to giggle with glee, her hands coming up to grab the one on her face. “Woah! Dude! Your hands got bigger! They’re, like, twice the size of mine now!”
As if to emphasize her point, she carefully held their hands up with the palms touching, eyes trained on the two appendages. She was right, after all, her entire hand almost perfectly fit into just his palm, but he couldn’t bring himself to pay as much attention to that as she was. His eyes were trained on the pair of hands, yes, but he was entirely focused on the bits of lightning that seemed to spark under his skin where he all but held her hand in his. Cotton filled his mouth and he became acutely aware of how sweaty his fingers were.
Poppy, sweet as ever, just flushed a little more and began to softly hum, eyes becoming half-lidded as she intertwined their fingers. She seemed to be lost in another day dream and carefully brought their shared hands closer to her face to inspect, a sigh escaping her. Was she even aware of what she was doing?
It took Branch nearly a full minute to properly find the words he needed to, extracting his fingers and knocking Poppy out of her train of thought. “Yeah, uh, they’ve always been bigger than yours,” he said quickly, standing and wiping his hands on his shorts, “Maybe you’re just tiny,”
She stared up at him for a moment before standing as well, regarding him with that calculating look she always had when interacting with him. “Maybe…but I like it. Is that weird?”
He nodded before he could stop himself, stepping back. “Yes- it’s weird that you seem so intent on liking me. You’re the one troll who does and that makes you weird,”
There was a slight pause in their conversation and he shifted to turn on his heel and hide in his bunker for the next 15 years, but her pretty voice stopped him once again.
She shrugged and grinned at him, hands clasping in front of her. “Well then I guess I’m gonna be weird, huh?” She said, fixing him with another one of her signature overbite grins.
His heart all but stopped at those words and his face heated up once more, eyes falling from her and onto the grass below them. He quickly turned around and began to walk away while scrubbing at his face to get the dark blush to recede. “You- what- you can’t just- shut up!” He hissed, stomping his way towards his bunker to escape the moment forming between them before it became dangerous.
Behind him, he heard her giggle, mud squishing under her feet as she jumped. “Bye, Branch! I’ll see you tomorrow?” She called.
He scoffed and tried to reason that he had no reason to leave his bunker the next day, having more than enough cataloging of his supplies to keep him busy and hidden for the next few days. But a part of him really wanted to see her again and it made him stop to glance back at her through the trees. Her bright demeanor instantly shifted to that of curiosity when she caught sight of him looking back at her, bounce in her step slowing to a stop. Her breath caught and she just stared at him, a glimmer of hope shining in her eyes. Her sparkly eyes.
“Yeah,” he mumbled, shoving his hands into his pockets, “I’ll be collecting wood in the east edge of the forest for a little while, you can hang around if you can find me,”
Poppy beamed so bright that it almost blinded him, cheeks shooting up so far from the effort of the smile that her eyes squished shut. Her fists shook at her side and she squealed, bouncing once more.
“Okay! What time will you be out?” She asked, opening her eyes to stare at him in wonder.
He smirked before he could stop himself, bowing slightly as he stepped away. “That’s for me to know and you to find out, Popcorn, you’ll just have to find me,”
He turned around before he could see her expression, but he caught the tail end of her offended gasp as he bolted towards his bunker again. His heart pounded against his chest while he raced towards the solitude of his bunker for the night to try and escape her playful wrath. If she decided to pursue him in a chase, he knew he wouldn’t be able to outrun her and he’d have another wrestling match from their youth on his hands. It was a memory that made him chuckle just a little bit as he slid into his bunker, narrowly avoiding the traps he’d set up around his elevator.
He wasn’t able to say for certain why the princess always seemed to pull a good mood out of his usually cloudy world, but it was like she had a talent for it. A talent that the tiniest part of him hoped would never go away.