Chapter Text
Poppy swung her legs slightly from where she sat on a small log with her friends, listening intently while Biggie rambled on about the small egg he’d found the day prior in the forest and how his mom had said that eggs like those made tiny little caterpillars. Maybe he’d be able to keep the little guy and have the pet he’d been begging his parents for for years. Satin, Chenille, Creek, and Cooper were brainstorming names with him, but the teenage princess wasn’t fully paying attention. Her eyes were trained on the foliage beside them.
Every once in a while, she could see black hair poking out of the leaves, gray skin sometimes making an appearance as well. Branch, the only gray troll in the entirety of the village, was just off to the side, collecting what looked to be berries, but Poppy couldn’t really see, she wasn’t even really paying attention to what he was doing, just watching him .
The way his brows would pinch together whenever he inspected whatever he was holding, his tongue sometimes sticking out ever so slightly. She couldn’t see his face every time, but she knew the look very well, she could imagine it easily. He always looked so focused on his tasks and almost never noticed her staring, something she definitely took advantage of to stare openly. She knew she had the tiniest crush on him and she made no moves to hide it, but she was content with just watching. There was absolutely no way he felt the same and she wasn’t quite ready to face the brutal rejection he would give her.
A tap on her arm brought her away from her thoughts and she turned back to her friends with a soft, questioning hum. “What was that?” She asked, a small smile evident on her features.
“I was just asking if you had any name suggestions,” Creek asked, fixing her with a confused look, “What’re you staring at?”
She hummed and nodded her head back towards the forest. “Watching Branch gather stuff,” she said simply, smiling even wider when she was able to finally catch a glimpse of his concentrated scowl. She kicked her legs again in excitement.
Her friends fell silent for a moment and she glanced back to see them all eyeing each other in concern.
“What?” She asked, moving a piece of hair from her face, “Why’re you all looking at me like that?”
“Just…wondering why you’re watching Branch,” Chenille said, shifting to try and catch a glimpse of the boy as well, “Do you have something to give him?”
Poppy shook her head and swung her feet again. “Nope! Just like watching him. He’s got the cutest little scowl when he’s studying something,” she said, unable to keep the grin off of her face, “But maybe I should go get him something, I found a few pretty rocks he might like-”
Cooper blinked and tilted his head almost perfectly sideways at her. “Cute? Are we talking about the same Branch?” He asked, fixing the troll in question with an even more confusing look, “The gray one? The one that told you the party you were throwing to celebrate the Trollstice anniversary last month was stupid and would probably attract trouble? That Branch?”
“The one who threw out the invitation to your pool party at the river last week?” Biggie piped up.
“The one who has yet to treat you with the respect you should be getting as princess?” Creek asked, watching Branch with a wrinkled nose, “You think he’s cute ?”
Poppy huffed, the force of it blasting her bangs from her eyes for a moment. “Yes, that Branch!” She said, crossing her arms, “What’s so wrong with thinking-”
“Thinking what?”
She nearly jumped out of her skin and spun around, hands coming up in fists to shield her face. Branch stood just behind her, bent down to be eye-to-eye, probably with the intention of scaring her, but it just made the poor girl flush with how close he was. She could see the little beauty mark just below one of his icy blue eyes and zeroed in on it as she lowered her arms in relief.
“Oh, hi Branch, didn’t know you could hear us,” she said, a dopey grin on her face.
He scowled again, his nose scrunching slightly. “Well when you shout my name like that, I’m gonna hear it,” he huffed, standing up straight and crossing his arms, “So you guys are talking about me?”
She saw exactly where this was going and her head snapped to look at her friends, dread pooling in her stomach when she saw each of them share a mischievous smirk. They wouldn’t.
“Yeah, just about how Poppy-” Cooper started, but got cut off when the princess nearly knocked him over from trying to cover his mouth.
“Nothing! It’s nothing!” She yelled, turning back to Branch with a flushed face, “It’s absolutely nothing,”
Branch blinked at her before raising an eyebrow and fixing her with a deadpan stare that put butterflies in her stomach. “Uh huh…” He murmured, glancing between each of the other trolls and taking in all of their grins, “Somehow, I don’t believe that,”
“Oh, you shouldn’t,” Biggie said, barely able to lean back and avoid Poppy when she pounced, “Poppy was just saying-”
She shoved her hands against his face with a slight shriek, reaching out when Creek opened his mouth as well.
“She was just telling us how she thinks you’re c-” he burst into giggles when her hand nearly slapped his mouth, reaching out to hold her hand so the twins could finish. Branch bristled slightly, foot tapping with impatience.
“She thinks you’re cute!” The twins said in unison, giggling loudly when Poppy jumped on them and tried covering their mouths as well.
Her ears turned a deeper shade of pink and she tugged on them, groaning. “You guys! I didn’t-” she started, turning to Branch with a low whine. Maybe she could repair the situation and convince him she hadn’t. If he believed them, he’d probably start avoiding her again and she’d just gotten him to a point he’d talk to her if she wasn’t too jumpy! She couldn’t wait another three months for him to make eye contact again and say more than shout about the Bergens. It would hurt far too much.
Branch, for his part, was just standing there, wide eyed. His arms were still crossed, but his foot had stopped tapping and he was just simply staring at her. His cheeks became a little bit darker and his eyes flitted between everyone in the group for a moment before he snorted, the sound not quite as confident as he was trying to be.
“Excuse me?” He asked, brows knitting together, “Is that a joke?”
Poppy nodded quickly. “Yes! Yes, they’re just joking-!”
Cooper giggled and leaned slightly to catch Branch’s eye. “Nope! She said the scowl you get is really cute! She’s been staring at you for twenty minutes!”
She turned an even darker shade of pink and sucked in a breath, hands clenching by her side. “Shut up !” She whispered, glancing at Cooper to fix him with as menacing of a glare as she could. He just laughed in response.
Branch scowled even more and curled in on himself. “You were watching me?” He mumbled, ears getting darker, “That’s- why would you- you think-”
His arms uncrossed and he reached up to cover his face as best he could while trying to act cool, one hand settling against his cheek and covering half of his mouth while the other tugged on his ear. He fixed Poppy with that scowl she loved so much and stared at her for a moment before huffing and hopping off of the log they’d been standing on, gathering the basket he’d left on the ground. There was a moment where he paused before he just huffed and ran off back into the forest with his haul, disappearing from sight within the blink of an eye.
Pins and needles spread across Poppy’s skin and it felt like lead spread through her mouth, the air becoming slightly colder and the world becoming muted. Distantly, she could hear her friends giggling and talking, but her attention was fixed on the leaf the sixteen year old had disappeared behind. He hadn’t even reacted beyond blushing and trying to hide it before he’d run off and Poppy knew all of her progress to get closer to the reclusive troll got tossed out the proverbial window. He was never going to talk to her now. Tears filled her eyes.
“Did you see his face?” Creek laughed, covering his mouth to try and hide the giggles, “Oh man, he looked- Poppy?”
She wiped her face and quickly climbed off of the log, walking past her friends and heading towards her pod. “Leave me alone,” She mumbled, ignoring the sounds of footsteps behind her.
Satin and Chenille caught up first, walking beside her and boxing her in.
“Woah! Poppy, we were just joking, we didn’t think you’d be upset about him knowing,” Satin said, sharing a concerned look with her twin.
“Yeah! We figured it wouldn’t cause any harm,” Chenille piped up as the boys fell into step with them. Poppy said nothing in response, wiping her cheeks as the tears fell quicker.
Cooper tried to step in front of her, walking backwards. “We really didn’t think it would be that big of a deal-” he tried, frowning when she just pushed past him and began to swing up to her pod.
Biggie swung after her and tried to block her door. “Come on- we’re sorry! We didn’t think he’d just run off,”
She sniffled and pushed past him to crawl into her pod, turning and coming face to face with Creek. “Well he did. And now he probably hates me again,” she mumbled, trying her best to look more angry than upset, “Thanks a lot,”
Creek carefully took her hand as she went to close the pod’s window. “Poppy, come on. Why would you even like a boy that hates you? If anything, we helped you get it out of your system. You can move on now,”
She glared at him and pushed his hand away. “I’m allowed to be upset that one of my first real crushes just ran off after you guys basically confessed for me,” she said, trying to stop her tears, “Just leave me alone,”
With those words, she snapped the window shut and all but threw herself onto the small bed. She curled up under the fluffy duvet and hiccuped, a headache beginning to form just behind her eyes.
She hadn’t been ready to tell him. She had hoped she could slowly get closer and help him to be happy before she told him just how cute she thought he was. A part of her had hoped to see a smile- a real smile, not the dry smirk he gave her all the time- before she could decide to really tell him how she felt. Make sure he was ready before she poured her feelings out for him to see, in hopes that he’d at least be gentle about it.
But nope, in response to her heart being torn away from her and shone bare for the world to see, he’d run off without another word. He hadn’t even looked back at her to give her even a hint about how he felt about the sudden confession. It hurt more than him yelling at her ever had.
Small sniffles drowned out her friends’ murmuring just outside her pod, and the footsteps a few minutes later when they eventually gave up and left her alone with her thoughts. She was crying too much to really care, just wanting a few moments to herself before she could work through it and move on. She couldn’t be upset for too long, that’s not how the princess was meant to act. She was fifteen and didn’t need to be so upset about something like this, her people didn’t need that.
She just needed a few minutes.