Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“When you miss me, you can wear this. It'll be like I'm right here with you.”

Those words echoed in Branch’s mind over and over as he sat silently on his bed, looking down at his leafy vest. A look of sadness was apparent on his face. He had been like that for an hour, and he would’ve been like that all day if it wasn’t for the sound of his bedroom door opening.

“Thought I’d find you here,” Poppy’s voice grabbed Branch’s attention and he quickly snapped his head in her direction, nearly causing him to drop it on the floor. But he was lucky enough to catch it before it did end up on the floor. “Are you considering wearing your normal vest instead of the fancier version of it you decided to wear this morning?”

“I didn’t decide to wear a fancier version of this this morning.”

Poppy laughed softly, rolling her eyes. “Then why are you just sitting there staring at it?”

“Uh….” Branch quickly put it back on and got up, turning to face her. “No reason. Absolutely no reason.”

“Uh huh...” Poppy folded her arms, a smirk appearing on her face. A brief silence was quick to make itself apparent between the soon to be husband and wife, who stood there for a short moment before Poppy grabbed hold of Branch’s hand and pulled him out of his bedroom.

“I’m not fully ready!” Branch stressed.

A silent snicker escaped Poppy’s throat as she fully pulled Branch out of his bunker. “Yes you are!”

“Has anyone seen—?”

“We’re here. We’re here. Sorry we’re late. We’d just started on our way but found this note attached to the entrance to Branch’s old pod. Here.” Bridget lowered her right hand so Branch could take it. And the moment he did, his eyes widened. 

“Branch? Are you okay? Who’s it from?” Poppy moved to get a closer look.

Branch bit his lip as he read the note over and over again in a state of utter silence. “My…brother…”

Poppy stood there, processing things for a moment. “Wait…your what?”

Branch turned to her and handed her the note, having since finished with reading it. Poppy took it from him, reading over it herself.

“Dear Branch, Troll Tree,” Poppy started to read out loud, so that all of the trolls that’d come to stand around her and Branch could hear. She paused, narrowing her eyes as she reread the last two words. “Wait? Troll Tree? Troll Tree? Why would this brother of yours think we would still be living in our old home?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Branch said. “Keep reading.”

“I am being held against my will by superstars Velvet and Veneer. Come to Mount Rageous at once and bring our brothers. Love Floyd.” She paused the second she was done reading and looked at Branch. “Wait? Brothers? As in plural?”

Another pause. Branch bit his lip before nodding, the name repeating over and over in his mind. Floyd. Floyd. Of course he’d assume they were still living at the Troll Tree.  

“Well… why didn’t you tell me anything at any point?” Poppy turned around to hand the note back to Bridget before she turned to Branch and gripped at his shoulders. “Is this why you were sitting on your bed for an hour doing nothing but staring at your vest—?”

“I… didn’t want to talk about it, okay!” Branch stressed out. 

Poppy raised an eyebrow with a serious look on her face, but didn’t say a thing. For a moment at least. To her, it seemed like Branch was hiding more than just having brothers. 

“Should we just go ahead with our wedding—?” Branch asked, breaking a silence that had formed at some point in the last three minutes.

“No. Wedding and your coronation later. Tell me more about these brothers of yours.” 

“No. Wedding and my coronation now,” Branch compromised. “Then I’ll tell you everything.”

Poppy opened her mouth in order to respond, but couldn’t think of anything to say. Instead, she gave him a nod. A compromise was a compromise she supposed. Another, albeit brief, silence hit before she and Branch turned their attention to her father, who gently held what would be Branch’s crown in his hands. Poppy motioned for Branch to step forwards at the same time as her father did. 

As Peppy moved forward as well to place the crown on Branch’s head, after vows were given, and announced “Our new King” to the crowd of trolls and the Bergens, Poppy gave her now husband a small smile and a kiss.

“Right. So. Tell me about your brothers,” Poppy said, the two of them stood in her hot air balloon. Already on their way to Mount Rageous. How many do you—?”

“Four,” Branch answered softly before Poppy could even have a chance to finish asking.

“Why didn’t you tell me about your brothers sooner?”

“Let me think…” Branch tapped at his chin. “I didn’t tell you about them because I didn’t want to talk about it.”

Now Poppy was even more curious than she had been. “Talk about what? Did something happen?”

“Nothing. I don’t want to talk about that either.”

“Branch, come on. Please open up to me.” Poppy scooted closer to him, taking his hands in her own. “Did anything happen to you in your childhood to make you not want to talk about it?”

“Childhood? I was a toddler when it happened.”

Poppy looked up at the sky for a moment before turning her attention back to Branch. “A toddler when what happened?”

“I…” Branch bit his lip and stayed silent for a moment. “My brothers walked out on me.”

“Even Floyd?” Poppy guessed.

“Yes. Even Floyd. And he promised he wouldn’t be gone forever and he’d come back.”

“I’m sorry he didn’t.” Poppy gripped Branch’s hand. “So why did they all walk out on you?”

“An argument. With each other. Well.. Floyd and I weren’t involved. It was the rest of our brothers,” Branch muttered, looking away. “And that’s all I’ll say…”

He wanted the conversation to be over now, but Poppy was insistent on it still happening. “An argument about what?”

“Can we not talk about it?”

Poppy gripped Branch’s hand tighter now. “Not when there’s something you’re avoiding telling me. In the meantime, how about we listen to some music now? I brought a radio and a bunch of my old BroZone records with me—”

“Okay! Okay!” Branch stressed, expression matching. “I’ll tell you what my brothers were arguing about!”

Already halfway through putting one of her records into her radio, Poppy stopped and turned to Branch with a confused smile on her face. “What’s that got to do with me bringing BroZone records? Do you like listening to them too?”

A pause. Branch looked away, not saying anything.

“Branch, okay,” Poppy said, breaking the silence before it could go on for much longer. “There’s seriously something you’re not telling me.”

Another pause. Branch sighed softly. “I…” He looked away from Poppy again, unsure of exactly how he was going to phrase out the rest of his sentence. Yet he didn’t need to. Poppy did so for him.

It didn’t take all that long for Poppy to realize. The fangirl side of her was quick to make itself known. “Uh, no!” She grabbed her now husband’s shoulders, shaking him. “No way! There is absolutely no way that you were part of my favorite band!”

Branch focused his attention to the bottom of the basket of his wife’s hot air balloon and let out a sigh. “Yeah. I was,” he said softly, adding a nod. “I’m sorry for not telling you.”

“It’s fine.” Poppy nodded as well and patted Branch on the back. “Now, about meeting Floyd first—”

Chapter Text

“Do you know where this Mount Rageous place even is?” Poppy leaned on the left side of the basket of their balloon, her head turned as she looked in the distance but all she could see was a literal nothing for miles. “We don’t even have a map with us.”

“We’ll know when we see it,” Branch reassured her, having laid down on his back by the right side of the basket. He looked up at the sky above, hands behind his head. On the different shapes of the clouds. “I wish we were there already. I really want to see Floyd again. After all this time.”

Poppy turned towards him. “Are you searching for a cloud that is shaped like him?”

“No. I just want to look at the clouds.”

“Do you have any old pictures of him to show me?” Poppy asked, having turned her attention back towards the distance.

“No.” Branch sat up now. “Or at least I don’t think so. The only thing I have that reminds me of him is my vest. I decided to keep it on for our wedding because I was thinking about him.”

“Throughout our entire wedding?” Poppy asked.

“No,” Branch responded. “Before our wedding and after I got that note. I’m—”

“Worried about him?” Poppy finished for him.

Branch wrapped his arms around his legs. “Yeah, I—”

“Wait, wait,” Poppy said, cutting Branch off before he had a chance to even finish his sentence. She pointed. “I think I see it over there in the distance. At least I think that’s it.”

Finally. Branch stood up, moving to join Poppy and looking in the same direction as her. The moment they got to the mountain, confirming that it was the place they were looking for by way of a sign, they lowered their balloon down just outside the door of the Rage Dome and began on their way inside. The pair being very careful not to get stepped on by any of the residents. 

“How are we going to—?” Poppy asked the moment they slipped inside.

Branch looked up, cutting Poppy off. “I think it’s easier to get to him through the air vents.”

“Wait, wait? Don’t you think it’s much easier for the two of us to—?” Poppy started before Branch grabbed hold of her hand and used his hair to swing them up to the air vents. 

“Floyd, Floyd,” Branch spoke in a quiet voice, both him and Poppy using their hair to swing their way down into the room they located his fourth older brother in and moving closer to the diamond bottle that contained him, Poppy stood behind him.

Floyd opened his eyes slowly and turned to look at them. Twenty five years. Twenty five years since he had last seen Branch. And here his younger brother was. All grown up.

“Branch! I can’t believe it. You’ve really grown.” Floyd moved to stand up now, a smile on his face. He looked his younger brother up and down, a laugh escaping his throat. 

Branch returned the smile. A brief bout of silence hit. He turned to gesture to Poppy, but, before he had the chance to introduce her to him, Floyd had already turned his attention to her.

“And who’s this?” he asked out of surprise and curiosity.

“This is Poppy…my wife.”

“Wife?” The surprise on Floyd’s face became more apparent. “When did you—”

“We just got married,” Poppy answered before he could have a chance to even finish. “Like today.”

Just the fact that he’d missed his brother’s wedding made Floyd sad. He looked downward for a moment before he looked back up at the two of them. On the crowns on their heads. 

“Don’t tell me. You’re…?”

“Yep. I’m King—”

At the sound of footsteps stomping their way down the hallway, cutting Branch short, a panicked Floyd glanced between Branch, Poppy and the door. “Both of you need to leave. Now.”

“No. Not until we get you out of here,” Branch said. 

“Guys, you don’t understand, this is a trap. Please. You need to—”

Before he could finish, the door slid open. The annoyed voice of who they could automatically guess was Velvet’s sounded. “What we need is more trolls!”

Followed by the sound of Veneer’s more nervous voice. “Sis, I don’t know. I—”

“Guys, seriously, please,” Floyd lowered his voice so his captors wouldn’t hear him. “Please do it for me. Run. Save yourselves."

The husband and wife glanced at one another before they turned their attention towards the air vents above. They were just about to swing their way back up into them when a giant hand slammed down onto the table just inches away from them. The three trolls looked up just in time to see Velvet and Veneer towering over them and looking down.

“Ah, perfect. We got two more trolls to use.” Velvet reached down to grab hold of Poppy and Branch, but the two of them were quick to dart out of the way. A brief pause. Velvet tried again. And again. This continued until Floyd rolled his diamond prison forwards a little bit, glaring up at Velvet.

“If you don’t leave them alone, I’m not going to give you guys any more of my talent!” 

Velvet stopped, hand hovering over Branch and Poppy, and looked towards him. “Oh, really? You don’t want to give us any more?”

Floyd scowled at them, his arms folded.

Taking his silence as an answer, Velvet reached a hand out to grab a hold of Floyd’s diamond prison and sprayed some more of his talent onto her vocal cords, much to the shock of Branch and Poppy. She kept the diamond prison in hand, opening her mouth and singing a little. Something that made both Branch and Poppy just as angry as Floyd was. A brief silence. Velvet was mere moments away from handing the diamond prison to Veneer when Poppy’s voice sounded out. 

“Stop! Leave him alone!”

Velvet leaned down. “Or what? Do you want us to replace him with you two?” 

Poppy said nothing. She just glared at the twins, a silence quickly making itself apparent. That silence was broken when Velvet sprayed a little bit more of Floyd’s talent onto her vocal cords and handed the diamond to Veneer for him to do the same. He took it, did the same thing and put the diamond down. Even if a look of uncertainty was apparent on his face.

A look of stress appeared on Floyd’s face. “Please. I’m running out of talent to give.”

“Oh, really? And what do you suppose my brother and I do after we drain you of all of it? Continue by draining the talent out of her….” She pointed towards Poppy. “Or out of him and the rest of BroZone?” She pointed towards Branch now. “I forged a letter asking for them and sent it to him. I figured that by now he would have already gathered the rest of BroZone and brought them with him but…”

Floyd’s attention quickly flicked to Branch and Poppy before he looked back up at Velvet. He became angry again, pointing at her. “Leave my brothers and my sister-in-law alone!”

“Ugh, fine. We will for now. But you know we’re still coming back here for more later,” Velvet said, grabbing hold of Veneer’s hand and dragging him out of the room. 

Just as soon as the twins left and the door slid closed behind them, Poppy looked to Floyd. “What did you mean by “giving them your talent”?”

Floyd sighed and looked down, lightly resting a hand on the inside of his diamond prison. “Velvet and Veneer are a pair of fame obsessed succubi with no talent, so they’ve been stealing mine for the last two months. It’s gotten to the point where I really want out.” He paused before deciding to change the subject. “Do you guys still live at the Troll Tree?”

Branch and Poppy shook their heads.

Floyd glanced between them. “Did something happen?”

Poppy nodded. “Yeah. Our whole tribe had to escape the tree the night before Trollstice to keep me safe.”

Floyd gave her a sad look before he turned his attention to Branch and looked him over, a mixed  look of confusion and concern having become apparent on his face now. “Hey, Branch, if you don’t mind me asking, why have your colors faded? Is Grandma okay—?”

Branch folded his arms, a scowl on his face. “Floyd, I had to take care of myself for over twenty years after Grandma got eaten because of your decision to break your promise to me that you weren’t going to be gone forever.”

A shocked expression quickly appeared on Floyd’s face, replacing the confusion and concern from earlier and he covered his mouth with one hand. His eyes widened. “Branch, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” An apologetic Floyd put his right hand on the inside of the diamond bottle, a tear dripping from his right eye. “I never should have broken it. I should have come back.”

Branch huffed, once again looking away. “It’s too late for that.”

“Branch, an apology’s an apology.” Poppy put a hand on her husband’s shoulder. “You need to accept it and move on.”

“It’s going to take me some time then. I’ll forgive him when he’s out of this diamond.”

“Branch, you know what you need to do to get me out,” Floyd said, looking between Branch and Poppy. Though he knew he didn’t need to say anything further. He knew Branch already knew what to do once the rest of the band was found and gathered.

“I already do. Floyd, I promise you we’re going to get you out. That’s a promise I’m not going to break. That’s a promise none of us are going to break.”

Floyd smiled, resting both of his hands on the inside of his diamond prison.

Chapter Text

“Could you tell me some memories from when you guys were younger?" Poppy asked Floyd, her having decided to spend a little bit more time with him before she and Branch really needed to leave, now sitting cross-legged on the dressing table much like Floyd was doing in his diamond. 

Branch himself was leaned against the nearest surface that he could find. In this case a mirror. As much as he had wanted to go out quickly to find the rest of the band, but Poppy, being Poppy, wanted to know more about him. Though he still supposed they could set aside some time before they really did need to leave to find the others.

Floyd chuckled. "How much do you want to know?”

"Does ten months worth of memories count?"

"Woah." A soft laugh escaped Floyd's throat. He looked at Branch, who nodded in agreement, before looking back at her. "That's way too many memories worth talking about, Poppy."

“Hm.” Poppy tapped lightly at her chin. "Just your absolute favorites then?"

“Once again way too many. How about a compromise? Two?”

“No! Four!”

A silence hit before Floyd spoke up. “There’s not enough time for Branch and I to tell you about four memories, Poppy. Knowing Velvet and Veneer, they’ll be back sooner rather than later for more of my talent.”

“Okay, okay. Fair. Two it is,” Poppy was forced to finally agree with a groan. “One memory each. You first or Branch first?”

“Hm… Branch?” Floyd asked after a moment, looking at him.

Branch shook his head. “No. I think you should go first. Poppy was asking you to tell her some memories after all. Which two have you decided on?”

“Hmmm…well… how about at least one memory from the week before the band broke up?”

“I don’t want to talk about any of those memories,” Branch grumbled. “Choose something else.”

“How about something around the time you were born then?” Floyd compromised with a smile. “I bet Poppy would want to hear one of those stories…”

“Yeah, he’s right, I would. Actually, two from around that time.”

“How about the first time he followed me around the Troll Tree?”

“He had a tendency to follow you around the Troll Tree?” A rather amused look was quick to appear on Poppy’s face. “Was it just you or was it any of your other brothers?”

“Just me, for some reason. Not any of the others.”

“So like a sort of favorite brother type of bond,” Poppy said with a smile on her face. She briefly looked at Branch, who returned the smile. Poppy returned her attention to Floyd, who nodded.

“Pretty much,” Floyd said. “The rest of our family found it adorable because he was super attached to me and I got used to it within a week. That and he had a habit of refusing to stay in our family’s pod unless I was there with him.”

Such made Poppy question why her husband very often stayed by himself in his bunker for the last twenty years. “But he still had your parents and grandmother to watch him, right?”

“During concerts, yes. He always stayed backstage with them, and later on with just Grandma, waiting for us to finish performing and return. Always ran straight to me first.” He turned to look at Branch. “Right, B?”

Branch nodded, folding his arms. “Yeah, pretty much. All the time.” 

Floyd smiled and looked back at Poppy. “Actually….I still remember the first time he refused to stay home alone…”

“But I don’t want to stay home by myself,” a four month old Branch whimpered with a pout, holding on to the nearest member of his family that he could find, in this case Floyd. “Someone needs to stay home with me.”

A nine year old Floyd tried to pull away to no avail. “Branch, it’s only for fifteen minutes. You’ll be fine—”

“But I’m four months old and you’re my favorite brother.”

“Branch—” Floyd tried again, but his younger brother pouted and gave him puppy dog eyes. He turned his head and glanced at his parents and grandmother, all of whom were in mid discussion.

Eventually, their mother, Rosebud, turned to him and gently placed a hand on his shoulder. “Well, he actually does need to have someone with him…”

Floyd glanced around at his family. “What about the concert?”

“That’s not until tonight, baby bro,” Clay stated, looking at him. “It’s the middle of the afternoon. Like you said, it’s just for fifteen minutes.”

“But there’s not much for Branch and I to do.”

“Sure there is,” a gleeful Branch told him. “We could draw together, build a pillow fort and knock it down so we can have a pillow fight… no, we can build two pillow forts and use those pillows for a pillow fight instead of knocking them down!’

“Well, if that’s all you want to do, then I suppose—”

“And, fifteen minutes later, our family returned home to a messy pod with pillows and various art supplies strewn all over the floor,” Floyd finished his story with a laugh. Poppy laughed as well and gave Branch an amused eye roll. “It took us ages to clean the entire pod up because Branch wouldn’t stop throwing pillows at us—”

At the sound of familiar footsteps coming back down the hall, cutting Floyd off before he could have a chance to finish his sentence and cutting Branch off before he could have a chance to bring up a childhood memory of his own, a panicky Floyd looked between the two before turning his attention towards the door.

“You guys really need to hurry up and get the others. Now!”

Poppy and Branch looked at each other and firmly nodded in unison. They would do so as quickly as they could.

“Hurry,” Floyd repeated. “Please!”

“Don’t worry, Floyd, we will. Like I said earlier, we promise you we will,” Branch was quick to let him know, giving Floyd a reassuring smile and resting one hand on the outside of the diamond bottle, Floyd doing the same, before he used his other hand to grab a hold of one of Poppy’s hands, as she herself gave a nod of agreement, before he swung the both of them back up into the air vents. 

Chapter Text

"I suppose we start with John Dory first....?" Branch stated, looking around for the Neverglade Trail and finding no sign of it. 

"No," Poppy tried to compromise. "Spruce...? Clay...?"

"They're going to take a lot more convincing to do the Perfect Family Harmony than John Dory is," Branch explained. "Knowing John, he would agree to do it relatively quickly. That's why I want us to go find him first. If we could only find out where the Neverglade Trail is—”

"You mean the trail right down there?"

What? Branch turned around, making his way over to the side of their hot air balloon where Poppy was and peered down at the ground where she was pointing. 

“Were we flying over it the whole time? I thought—?”

Poppy turned her head to look at him, stifling an amused laugh. “The Neverglade Trail isn’t going to obviously be anywhere in the sky. Why were you not looking down for it to begin with?”

“Thinking about Floyd and hoping we can gather the others and get them back to Mount Rageous to save him before it’s too late distracted me, Poppy. If only we could find John Dory without accidentally flying over him—”

Before he could finish his sentence, Poppy cut him off. "There he is..."

Branch joined her, rolling his eyes with a huff when he caught sight of a bus rather than his oldest brother. "Poppy, that doesn't even look like a troll.”

"No." Poppy let out a soft laugh. "Right beside the bus. In front of the campfire. Do you not see the campfire?”

Poppy was right. If Branch squinted hard enough, he could very clearly see his oldest brother. “Yes, I see the campfire, Poppy. As if that isn’t obvious. Should we land down there or—?”

“No.” An amused look appeared on Poppy’s face. “I think we should have a little fun and cause our balloon to crash into the middle of the trail. As for how we’re going to do it, I’m not really sure…”

Branch lowered his voice. “Poppy, are you serious right now?” 

“Yeah. How else are we going to grab his attention?” she said with a laugh, sporting a grin.

“I don’t know?” Branch rested a hand on his chin. “Maybe by landing the balloon safely and carefully and making our way towards him?”

“That’s boring.” Poppy began to look for the best way to carry out her crazy idea. “I still say we crash the balloon into the middle of the Neverglade Trail.”

Branch started to panic. “Poppy, no.” 

“Poppy yes!” she responded in an enthusiastic tone, finally having figured out the best way to do so. “Now help me crash the balloon.”

Branch sighed, lightly rubbing at his forehead. “I really have no choice, do I?”

“Nope. Not in the slightest.”

“I still can’t believe you still decided to crash it,” Branch groaned as he pushed his way out of the torn and dirty balloon part of their hot air balloon. Poppy followed suit. 

“What can I say?” She shrugged and stood at the same time as Branch. “I still wanted to have fun. And it was still with your help.”

“I still shouldn’t have agreed though. Why do I even talk myself into these crazy ideas of yours?”

“Because you love me,” Poppy said with a soft laugh and a large grin, giving Branch a kiss. “And because you’re the best husband and king in the world!”

“Yeah. I do.” Branch gave Poppy a smile in return and looked down at her dress and leg warmers, a confused look very quickly replacing said smile when he noticed the lack of dirt on them. And on Poppy as a whole. “Wait…. Hang on a minute….Poppy, how in the world are you not covered in dirt?”

“I don’t know. Magic, I guess,” Poppy said with a shrug. She gestured at Branch’s own clothes. “Also, pretty sure Floyd’s going to get mad at the state of your vest when you see him again. Considering he was the one who gave it to you.”

Branch looked down at himself. “He’s not going to know if I clean it first. But that’s not important right now. What’s more important now is we talk to John.” 

“But he’s not sitting by the bus or the campfire anymore.”

Branch stopped before he could come up with a response and glanced around. Poppy was right. John Dory, for some reason, was no longer in sight. But the door to the “bus” that he had previously been sitting in front of was open. But the campfire, on the other hand, was still burning. And Poppy… well, she was standing over by the campfire and reaching one hand out towards it. Branch’s eyes widened in a panic and he could only stay stationary, staring at her. Oh, dear lord.

“Poppy,” he eventually found himself sighing softly, lightly resting his right hand on his forehead. “Please don’t burn yourself.”

She paused, her arm now stopped and halfway towards the campfire. “Who said I wasn’t going to do that?” 

“Me. This is a crazy idea of yours that I’m seriously going to have to talk you out of.”

Poppy rolled her eyes and retracted her hand, looking at him. “Come on. Fun and crazy don’t mean the same thing, you know. And, believe me, that idea of mine was more fun than it was crazy.”

“There’s nothing fun about burning yourself, Poppy. Come on.” Branch sighed, stepping forwards and very quickly pulling her away from the campfire. “The more crazy ideas you come up with and try to attempt to do, the more likely it is that we’re going to run out of time to save Floyd by the time we return to Mount Rageous.”

Poppy pouted, folding her arms. “Fine. Fine. No more crazy ideas. Getting Floyd out of that diamond bottle is more important…”

“Good,” Branch said in relief as he and Poppy turned, the two of them coming face to face with the bus, which had stood up and was looking at them.

The husband and wife’s eyes widened as they looked at one another then back at the bus.

The exact same thought popped into their minds. 

Wait, what?

Chapter Text

That night, Poppy and Branch slept beside the campfire, which Branch managed to somehow keep going the entire time, the newlyweds cozied up together in a makeshift blanket of twigs and leaves. The next morning, they were roused out of sleep by the familiar smells of fresh toast and coffee. And the fact that their makeshift blanket had been replaced by something more comfortable.

They opened their eyes and sat themselves up to find one plate of two pieces of toast and two steaming mugs of coffee sitting on the ground in front of them. Across from them, on the other side of the campfire, which was since put out, John Dory was sat. Glancing between the two of them. 

“Morning,” he said with a laugh. “I was wondering when you guys were going to wake up.” 

Poppy yawned softly and stretched her arms, Branch doing the same shortly after. “Have you been out here a while?”

“No. For the last few minutes,” John Dory replied before he directed his attention toward Branch. “Never thought I would see you again, Branch.”

“You too, former brother,” an annoyed Branch softly groaned out in response, rolling his eyes. John Dory picked up on the annoyed tone of his youngest brother’s voice. 

“And you’re just as angry at me as Spruce and Clay were way back then, aren’t you?” John Dory guessed. 

Branch turned away from him, folding his arms. “How’d you know?”

“It’s the tone of your voice, B,” John Dory explained. Branch turned away from him, looking even more annoyed than he had been. “Branch, come on. I picked up on that tone in Spruce and Clay’s voices to know that.”

“…I’m thirsty.” Poppy was quick to change the subject before an argument between her husband and her brother-in-law could start when she turned her attention toward Branch. “Can I steal your coffee?”

He might be an inch smaller than Poppy, but Branch still held his coffee above his head. Right out of his wife’s reach. “You have your own coffee.”

Poppy pouted at her husband, giving him her best puppy dog eyes.

“Poppy, I…”

John glanced between the pair, an amused look present on his face. He laughed. “Just let her have your coffee, Branch.” 

Branch opened his mouth to protest, but nothing seemed to come out. When John Dory gestured towards Poppy with his head, he rolled his eyes and turned to Poppy, who’d managed to grab hold of his half drunken coffee before he had a chance to give it to her. 

She gave him a kiss. “Thanks, Branch.”

John Dory watched Poppy with amusement as she drank the rest of her husband’s coffee and poured her own coffee into the empty mug. “Got yourself a girlfriend, Bitty B?”

Branch reached a hand out to grab a piece of toast and took a small bite of it. “No. She’s my wife, John. Poppy and I just got married yesterday. Right, Pop??”

Poppy nodded in response before she dipped one of her fingers into Branch’s mug of coffee and popped it in her mouth when she took it out, leading to Branch giving her a ‘we don’t do that with coffee, Poppy. Please don’t tell me I gave you mine just so you could do that’ kind of look before he turned his head again and glanced at Rhonda. He opened his mouth to ask John about her, but Poppy beat him to it.

Her finger hovering above Branch’s coffee again, Poppy was quick to change the subject. “That bus of yours both looked at and licked us before we fell asleep.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. Rhonda has a tendency to do stuff like that when she sees someone new,” John apologized with a soft chuckle. Though it’s kinda sorta hard to tell if it’s because she likes you or if she marks you as prey. Believe me…she did the same thing to me back when I first came across her hiking this trail all those years ago. I’m just lucky she didn’t mark me as prey. Want me to show you inside?”

Branch and Poppy glanced at one another. A silence hit before the two of them nodded before he grabbed a hold of their hands and pulled them inside. 

“How long have you been living here on the Neverglade Trail and when did you make the decision?” Poppy asked, her and Branch glancing around Rhonda the moment John Dory came back inside with the mugs and plate that they’d left outside and gently put them in the sink. 

He turned on his heel to face them. “Hard to say. I think I’ve forgotten but it was sometime in the last ten-fifteen years.”

“And when exactly did you meet Rhonda?” Branch asked, his attention on her driver’s seat. 

“If I recall correctly, I think it was shortly before I decided to permanently live here. She’s kinda sorta like my house,” John responded, glancing out the window. At the clear, mid-morning sky above. A brief pause, then he turned to look at them when he changed the subject. “Are you guys hungry for a mid-morning snack?”

“More toast,” Branch said, glancing over at Poppy who nodded in agreement. “There is something we need to talk to you about after all. It’s about Floyd…”

“So, Floyd’s in trouble? Trapped in a diamond bottle?” John poured himself another mug of coffee before he moved to sit on the couch in between Branch and Poppy, both of whom had a plate of toast each on their laps. Branch had his plain. Poppy on the other hand was, for some reason, spreading chocolate ice cream from a tub that she’d somehow managed to store in her ponytail onto hers. She explained she was in the mood for some when Branch gave her a confused look.

Branch and Poppy nodded, Branch choosing to be the one to speak up first. “Yeah, for the last two months he told us. You already know what needs to be done to get him out, right?”

“Yeah. I do.” John Dory nodded with a smile on his face before he added, “The ‘Perfect Family Harmony’. If we manage to pull it off this time.” He paused briefly and looked down at Rhonda’s floor, very clearly deep in thought. “I hope we manage to hit it this time.”

“So?” Poppy dabbed some of her ice cream around her mouth and in her hair before doing the same thing to Branch. Yet her attention was focused on John Dory. “Are you—?” she started to say. Though she didn’t need to finish herself

A grinning John Dory stood up and went to put everything in the sink again. He spun on his heel to face them. “Yeah, of course I’m in! Why wouldn’t I be? Plus, it’s a good thing you guys came to me first.” He paused. “The only question is how we’re going to manage to convince Spruce and Clay. They’re—”

“Gonna be much harder to?” Branch finished for him. “Poppy and I have kinda already figured that out. Regardless, should we go and find Spruce next or Clay?”

“Does it really matter who we go searching for next?” Poppy responded with a smile, standing up on the couch and starting to bounce on it. Her eyes followed John Dory as he came back over to sit on the couch. “Can I look at pictures of Branch back when he was young?”

“Sure,” John said. “I got a lot.”

“I can tell she’s quite the optimist. You found yourself a good choice for a wife, Branch,” John Dory told him with a silent laugh as they watched Poppy, who was laying face down in the middle of Rhonda’s floor with the pictures he’d given her now all strewn all around her. And then there was the one that was sticking out of the top of her ponytail. 

How it ended up in there, Branch had no idea.

Branch quickly moved towards her to remove it. “I think that’s enough, Poppy.”

“But I want to stay right here and look at all these pictures all day,” Poppy said, her voice muffled.

“It’s going to be hard if you’re laying face down on the floor with the pictures all around you.”

“Okay then, maybe I should move to lay on my back now.”

“No,” Branch said, helping her to her feet as John gathered up all the pictures. “We need to hurry up and gather Spruce and Clay before we go back to Mount Rageous to save Floyd and free him from that diamond. Mission first, Poppy, then you can look at the pictures.”

Poppy turned and moved to sit on the blue couch at the back of Rhonda. “Right. Mission first, then pictures.”