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Clay had made the slow journey back to the bunker, alone. He hadn’t put in the energy to try and catch up to Branch after their less than stellar talk, he knew whatever he had to say would probably only further the gap between them. As he took the elevator down into the main room he couldn’t help but sigh and be prepared to face the music. If he was right he probably made it back by lunch time and he was sure Branch must have gone home and told the rest of the brothers what happened.
But by the time the elevator stopped, and he lifted his head up, he was surprised. Expecting the angry faces of his brothers only to be greeted with a smile and pushed onto the couch by JD. “So how’d it go little bro? Branch honestly seemed pretty jazzed about your plans today. Where is he, by the way?”
“Wait, he’s not home?” Clay’s grip tightened on the notebook he was holding.
Floyd sat up in his chair “No? We figured he was right behind you, or he had something else to do.” His eyebrow raised and he tilted his head. “What happened while you two were out?”
Clay looked down at his knees as JD sat on his other side, effectively trapping him between all of his brothers and the table. There wasn’t any getting out of this even if he wanted to, and it’s not like he did, he’d just prefer not to have to deal with it right now. He sighed and looked anywhere but at his brothers as he started “I messed up, like real bad I think.” he sighed before continuing “We were out grabbing supplies for the bunker, resetting stock or whatever, and we got to talking, like you guys have all been doing recently, and I mentioned some stuff about being gray and then he stormed out on me.”
He could feel all of his brothers stares on him as he gave a less than great account of what happened, and he really hoped they didn’t try and push for more, of course though, Bruce had to start talking “Ok now what exactly did you say about being gray? It had to have been rough if it was enough for Branch to walk out on you.”
“He was talking about how being gray doesn’t necessarily mean you’re unhappy and vice versa and I asked him “What do you know, it’s not like you’ve been gray” and then he yelled at me about how I was never there so I couldn’t know if he’s been gray or not, which yeah he was right about, and then he walked away.” Clay set the notebook down on his lap and started tapping his knees with his paws. “Sooooo yeah? That’s how that went.”
Floyd blinked a few times before crossing his arms “Aren’t you supposed to like, be smart?” JD and Bruce yelled at him before he put his paws up. “What? Why are you upset, I’m right! It doesn’t take a genius to tell Branch has gone gray, recently too, and if none of you have noticed that we have bigger fish to fry then Clay’s botched conversation.”
The room was silent as Floyd watched the looks on his brother's faces change rapidly. “Oh my god you guys didn’t know, how did you not know? His hair is like, black, and he’s at least 5 shades lighter than all of us, including you Clay.”
JD rubbed the back of his neck and avoided eye contact with Floyd “I mean I figured he just naturally looked like that as he got older, some people change their hair man.”
“What he said, and the color of our brother's fur hasn’t exactly been on the forefront of my mind dude, there were like way bigger fish to fry when we all reunited.” Spruce shrugged.
Clay looked up at Floyd and grit his teeth “I kinda just thought he shifted hues like I did man, I really didn’t think that much into it.”
“Well clearly you should have, because now you’ve gone and upset Branch by mentioning one of the worst things that can happen to a troll, and none of us know where he went” Floyd put his face in his paws groaning. “Talking to you guys was supposed to prevent this kind of thing, not fuel it even more.”
Clay put his paws up defensively “Listen man I didn’t know! I wasn’t trying to cause any more issues.”
JD slammed a paw on the counter getting everyone’s attention. “Come on guys fighting won’t get us anywhere!” He then smiled and hummed. “Wow, I never thought I would be the one to say that.” He then shook his head and stared down at his younger brothers “Our baby bro is hurt and it’s our job to fix that! And the first step to fixing it is finding out where he actually is.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s obvious where he went, like we all know who he would go to when he’s upset” Bruce crossed his arms and laughed before seeing everyones blank looks “Right guys? Come on man you can’t tell me I’m the only one who thinks he’s with-”
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Poppy entered her pod after an insane number with the snack pack, deciding to take an hour to herself so she could nap and have even more energy to be able to congratulate Branch for talking to all of his brothers. Until she saw a suspiciously troll shaped lump under her blanket, with indigo hairs sticking out of the top. She approached the bed with caution and gently sat down.
“I take it the talk didn’t go so well then? You’re here a lot earlier than you were supposed to be.” The blankets were pulled down and there her boyfriend was in all of his tear stained, puffy eyed, upset glory. “Yikes, definitely not good at all.” She laid down sideways on the bed to face Branch. “Do you want to tell me right now, or do you want a hug first?” She opened up her arms and they were immediately filled with the troll next to her.
All she did was lay there in silence and pat his back as he held onto her tightly, worried she might disappear if he let go too soon. After what seemed like an eternity Branch pulled away and looked at Poppy, inhaling deeply before he spoke. “We- It was going fine, but then clay mentioned something about gray trolls and it kinda… derailed.”
“Oh sweetie, they still don’t know, do they?” Poppy took Branch in for another hug before separating and looking him in the eye “Were you at least able to tell him you’ve been gray before or?”
“I ran off before it got that far, he kept on brushing me off and mentioned how I’d never been gray before and I just, I left. I got scared that I was gonna say or do something that I’d regret so I left.” He covered his face with a paw and grumbled into it “I’m a coward, a spineless coward who can’t handle speaking up to his older brother when he really has to.”
Poppy gently pried the paw off of Branch’s face and gave him a kiss on the nose, their tails entwining. “You aren’t a coward, you’re like the least cowardly person I know! You just got rightfully upset and left, there's nothing wrong with that. You already know you don’t have to put up with someone if they’re upsetting you.”
Branch’s lip quirked as he rolled onto his back, staring up at the ceiling. “I know, I just wish I handled it better? I hate that I always seem to freeze up and get defensive whenever someone mentions anything about going gray. It’s been almost a year since I got my colors back and I feel like I should care less now.”
“Branch you were gray for twenty years, I think you’re allowed to be upset” She placed her paw on his cheek and smiled. “Even if you got your colors back 15 years ago it’d still be ok if you were upset, you don’t ever have to push your feelings down because you think they aren’t good enough you hear me.”
Poppy rolled to lay on top of Branch cupping his face with both her paws as she kissed him over and over “You” kiss “are” kiss “allowed” kiss “to be” kiss “upset!” Branch rolled out from underneath her before she could plant the final kiss on his forehead and laughed.
“I get it, I get it, you don’t have to keep telling me… or showing me for that matter, my feelings aren’t stupid I hear you loud and clear Queen Poppy!” Branch sat up with both his paws in a surrender position.
“Great, now let’s figure out how to talk to your brothers and fix this situation! You can’t hide in here forever to avoid your brothers, no matter how much I might enjoy that.” Poppy smiled and held Branch’s paws in her own.
Just as Branch opened his mouth the door to Poppy’s pod was knocked on, and the couple both looked at each other, looked back at the door, and then each other. Poppy hopped off the bed giving Branch a motion to hide back under the blankets while he still could, before she cleared her voice and opened the door.
She was greeted with the sight of Floyd giving her a sheepish smile, with the rest of the brothers standing awkwardly behind him. “Hey, is Branch in here? There was a situation that you’d probably already know about if he was here and we all probably need to talk.” Poppy closed the door slightly, before turning to look at Branch, he sighed and nodded.
With that she fully opened the door and motioned them to come inside. “I’m gonna let you guys talk, alone. But if I hear any fighting I’m coming in and kicking you guys out ok! You guys can figure this out another day if all you’re gonna do is argue.”
“Poppy, we’ll be fine-” She cut off Branch with a kiss to the forehead and ran towards the door. “Nope, nobody will be making my boyfriend cry anymore today, you hear that!” She pointed to Clay who only deflated under her gaze. “Now behave and talk your issues out like people have to.” She closed the door behind her leaving the brothers to all stand and look at each other in silence.
Clay took the first move, sitting down on the floor next to the bed and sighing. “Look Bit-Branch. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed anything, and I hurt you,even after I told myself I’d try and be a better brother.”
Branch slinked off the bed to sit shoulder to shoulder with Clay. “You couldn’t have known, it’s not like I tried to talk about it.”
“I mean, Floyd knew, but he just kind of knows everything.” Bruce rubbed the back of his neck and sat next to Clay. “But if we were a little more observant we probably could have- should have noticed something.”
JD slowly took a seat next to Bruce “We’re some really crappy brothers for not being able to notice you’ve went gray, god we’re definitely even worse for not being there for you while you were gray, but we’re here now.”
“And I think we’d all be very willing to listen to what happened, if you wanted to tell us?” Floyd sat at Branch’s other side, laying his head onto Branch’s shoulder and smiling.
Branch stared down at his paws fiddling with each finger, messing with the stitches Bruce gave him a couple of days ago before sighing and finally putting both of his paws down on each knee. “It was a little over twenty years ago.” He refused to look up, he couldn’t see the looks on each of their faces or he’d run and hide, like he always did, so he swallowed and continued. “You guys had been gone for about a year, and it was just me and Grandma. We were still in the troll tree and she was doing laundry and I was singing, and I also wasn’t paying attention.”
His tail thumped against the floor as he closed his eyes and steeled himself, preparing for pushback. “A bergen came, and not just any bergen, it was the chef. She was honestly about to take me, and it would have been fair, it’s not like I was paying any attention to my surroundings, but grandma was there, and she pushed me out of the way so she was taken instead.” He moved the paws from his knees to cover his eyes as he took time to just breathe.
“So then grandma was gone, and you all were gone, and I failed to do the one thing Floyd asked me to do, and not only that I was alone. Nobody wanted to take in the little gray troll, let alone the washed up boy band star who made everyone around him either leave or die. And so, on that day, I promised to never sing again, never dance, and absolutely never party. Which is why I was worried Clay, I pushed my stupid kid insecurities on you because I didn’t want you to be too much like me, old me, and being a grump for 20 years all because “safety reasons” kind of just isn’t fun, I would know!”
Branch finally took his paws off his eyes and looked at his brothers, expecting anger, disappointment, honestly he wouldn’t have been surprised if they had just left. Only to feel his left paw taken by Clay and to be forced into a hug. “I am so, so sorry I ever worried you like that bro. I was honest when I said I enjoyed what I did but I realize now that I definitely should have said that better.” Clay broke away from the hug only for Floyd to tackle Branch into another one.
“And I’m sorry for ever making you feel like grandma was your responsibility, I said it to you when you were a kid so you didn’t feel left out, but I forgot to think about how that might affect you if anything happened. You were just a kid, a baby, what happened wasn’t your fault and could never have been your fault.” Floyd moved away from the hug pressing his head against Branch’s, wiping away any stray tears that started to fall. “I always regretted not coming back, I should have come back.”
Bruce snuck in on Branch’s left and gave him a hug from the back. “I agree, I let my anger separate myself from all of you and I never reached out after I felt like I had gotten over it. I could’ve helped you through so much, we all could have, but we weren’t there.”
“I shouldn’t have ever driven you all away in the first place.” JD set a paw on top of Branch’s head “I was the reason why everyone left, and why you eventually ended up alone. All of us knew Trollstice was a thing and yet we all forgot to consider that grandma, or you could have been taken at any moment. I am just-” JD breathes in, wiping away a stray tear from his own eyes. “I am so sorry that I ever helped to create a situation where you truly had to fend for yourself, that’s not how big brothers should ever act.”
Branch just stared up at JD lip quivering, before he does his best to pull all of his brothers into one hug. It’s a bit awkward, considering their positions and how they were all fully grown, but it was the most comforting thing he had felt in a while, and that’s what truly mattered.
An hour later, Poppy lightly knocked on the door, only to open it slowly and see the brothers all sleeping on each other in a pile on the floor. She had to cover her mouth and resist the urge to not scream before she took a picture of the five and quickly left the pod again allowing them all to rest, besides she was so totally gonna have to share the pic with Viva like, immediately.