Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“How come I haven’t seen this picture before,” Poppy muttered to herself as she sorted through a box of pictures John Dory had given her. “Or this one. Or this one…”

“Poppy, we’re supposed to be helping John Dory out with cleaning out Rhonda!” Branch said as he put a box he found down beside him and turned his attention to his girlfriend. “I can’t believe you agreed to help only to start looking at pictures.”

Poppy looked over at Branch from where she was sitting cross legged on the floor, a small picture in her hands with several others scattered around her. “I am,” she explained. “I just keep finding more and more pictures of you that I haven’t seen before.”

“That’s still not helping, Poppy,” Branch said, rolling his eyes.

“It still is, Branch,” John Dory said as he finished with wiping off Rhonda’s controls. “Sorting through pictures is cleaning.”

“Poppy’s just finding pictures and sitting there, looking at them,” Branch said with a groan. “That’s not—”

“So what if I want to look at pictures. Sorting through them is keeping me occupied. And like John said, it’s still cleaning. If you were cleaning your bunker, would you sort through pictures?”

“I’d take time cleaning whatever needs cleaning. If it’s pictures that I need to sort through, I wouldn’t just sit there and look at them.”

“Branch, you need to look at pictures if you’re sorting through them,” John Dory explained to him. “What if you wanted to put pictures in a photo album or recreate some of them in scrapbook form?”

“I don’t—that’s not—”

Poppy cut Branch off before he had a chance to finish his sentence. “We need a break.”

“We don’t need a break—”

John Dory stopped and went to make lunch, getting three plates and cups out. “She’s right, you know. We do really need a break after being at this all morning. What do you guys want?”

“Toast—” Branch started to say before he was cut off by Poppy.

“A plate of ice cream!”

Branch could do nothing but stare at her, stunned into silence. “A plate of ice cream?”

“What else do you think I should have?”

“Oh. I don’t know? Maybe something other than a plate of ice cream?”

Poppy chose to ignore her boyfriend’s words. “I’m still having a plate of ice cream.”

“How about I give you a bowl of ice cream on a plate instead?” John Dory tried to compromise.

Poppy started gathering up all of the the pictures that she had found and went to sit down on the couch at the back of Rhonda. She put them down beside her. “Then I’ll just pour the ice cream onto the plate and eat it with a fork instead of a spoon.”

“Poppy, that is not how you eat ice cream.”

John Dory laughed as he came over with two plates in hand, setting them down beside them. A pause. He sat down in between them. “Branch, just let her eat ice cream the way she wants to eat it.”

“Aren’t you having lunch too?” Poppy asked, looking at John Dory, a fork in one hand and a picture in the other.

How did he forget that? A brief silence hit, breaking when John Dory got up and returned a minute later with a mug of coffee in hand. He sat down in between Branch and Poppy again. He took a sip and put it down beside him.

Putting her fork down after finishing the scoop of chocolate ice cream that sat in the middle of her plate, Poppy passed John Dory one of the pictures she had found. “Could you tell me the story behind this picture?”

“Sure,” John Dory said with a nod and a laugh, taking the picture, which depicted the frosted version of Branch’s perm, from her and turning it so that she could see. “I’m telling you, I sent Floyd to check in on Branch after none of us had seen him all day and he came back with a guilty looking Branch and two spray cans of frosting.”

“Can we not talk about that? I just want to keep cleaning.”

Poppy looked up at Branch, giving him a pout. “And I want to keep looking at pictures and listening to stories. Cleaning can wait.”

Branch rested a hand against his forehead, looking down at Rhonda’s floor and letting out a sigh. “Poppy, sometimes I question why you spend more time looking at pictures of me and my brothers that were taken back in our childhood and less time being Queen.”

John Dory nearly dropped and smashed Poppy’s plate as he snapped his head in his youngest brother’s direction. “Wait?” he found himself uttering out after a brief silence. “Queen?”

Shoot. Branch opened his mouth to speak before John Dory came back over to sit in between them and cut him off.

John Dory put a hand on Branch’s shoulder. “When were you going to tell the rest of us you were dating the Queen?”

“I—”

“Did you not pick up on anything when my sister asked me if the previous King was my dad?” Poppy said, cutting Branch off before he could have a chance to even say anything.

A pause. John Dory shrugged. “I would have automatically assumed you were still a Princess by the way she asked that. But that’s not important right now. Should we get back to cleaning or should I keep telling you the stories behind some of those pictures you found?”

Branch wondered how the rest of his brothers would react. “Get back to cleaning—”

“How about you tell me stories as we clean, John!” Poppy suggested with a smile, cutting Branch off before he could even have a chance to finish his sentence. “Tell me about Floyd catching Branch attempting to frost his perm in full.”

“I think it’s best you ask Floyd to tell you that story in full,” John Dory said as he handed Poppy another box of pictures. “I bet you he’d be more than happy to bring it up with you.”

Chapter Text

“Of course I’d love to tell you that story,” Floyd told Poppy with a laugh as they and Branch headed to one of the bakeries in the village’s marketplace following an evening walk that was suggested by Poppy. The moment they sat down, Floyd kept his attention on Poppy. “Where should I begin?”

“Uh…the beginning? Where else would you start a story?”

Floyd let out a laugh before turning his attention over towards Branch. “Optimistic much?”

“Pretty much yeah,” Branch said with a nod. “I kinda got used to it after a while—”

“The story?” Poppy interrupted, causing Branch and Floyd to return their attention to her. 

The moment the drink she usually ordered, a milkshake, was put down on the table in front of her along with a glass of punch for Floyd and a freshly made mug of coffee for Branch, Poppy took a sip of it, looking expectantly at Floyd. A pause. Floyd took a sip of his punch. 

“Okay….” Floyd tapped at his chin. “Let me think…”

“Hey, Floyd? Could you go check on Branch? We haven’t seen him all day and….” Before John Dory had a chance to finish, Floyd had already stood up and went to make his way down the hallway of their pod towards their bedrooms. He looked in his and Branch’s shared room, but Branch didn’t seem to be in there.

Where could he even be? Floyd now went to look through and check the room that John Dory, Spruce and Clay shared (the one room that Branch appeared to hide in the most whenever he wanted). But Brach wasn’t in there either.

“Branch?” 

No response.

“Branch?” Floyd tried again.

Still no response. 

Where could he be?

Floyd was about to give up and head back towards the living room with no luck when he turned his head and immediately took notice of the fact that the bathroom door was open just a tad with its light on.

“There you are, Branch,” he whispered to himself as he turned around to fully open the bathroom door to find Branch standing, on a step stool, in front of the bathroom sink. Beside him was what appeared to be two spray cans of frosting laying on the edge of the sink.

Two spray cans of frosting?

What did he even need those for?

“Branch?”

Like earlier, there was no response. Branch appeared to be super focused on whatever it was he was doing at the moment.

“Branch?” Floyd tried again. Still no response.

Branch only looked up when Floyd cleared his throat. He stepped to the side a little, trying to hide the two spray cans of frosting that were sat on their side on the sink and failing at it.  

“What did you need those for?” Floyd laughed, eyes drifting from Branch to the poorly hidden spray cans behind him. He gestured toward the spray cans.

“Nothing…?” Branch lied, looking rather innocent.

“Branch,” Floyd spoke up after a brief period of silence. He knelt down to look Branch in the eyes. “Come on. Please tell me why you have the hair frosting and what you need it for…”

Branch said nothing for a moment, another silence hitting. 

Floyd paused and fixed his green, leafy vest before gently putting a hand on Branch’s shoulder. “Branch, come on. Tell me.”

“I just wanted to…” Branch paused briefly, biting his lip. “Just wanted to frost my perm.”

Ah. That explained the spray cans. “Because…?” Floyd urged.

“…because I watched you all frost your hair and wanted to do the same thing with my perm,” Branch said softly before he lowered his voice to a whisper. “Please don’t tell anyone, Floyd.”

“Well, I’m gonna have to, Branch,” Floyd told him in a calm tone, moving to step around Branch to pick up the two spray cans of frosting. A small bout of silence hit. “You know that.”

“Why?”

“Because they’re going to need to know about all of this,” Floyd explained as he turned to leave. But not before he motioned for Branch to follow him.

Although he felt a mix between nervousness and guilt, Branch, looking down at the floor of his family’s pod, still managed to do so. 

“Found him,” Floyd said as he reentered the pod’s living room. The others all looked up just as Floyd set the spray cans down. 

A brief silence hit, filling the room. They looked from Floyd to Branch and John Dory, Spruce and Clay couldn’t keep themselves from laughing. Their Grandmother gave them all a stern look, causing the three of them to quiet down. She moved towards Branch, kneeling to look him in his eyes.

“Branch,” Rosiepuff calmly said, running her hand over the messy, single strand of frosted hair near the top of his perm. “What was all this for?”

“He attempted to frost his perm after seeing the rest of us frosting our own hair because he wanted to,” Floyd explained after Branch said nothing and a silence filled the room.

The only thing Rosiepuff could find herself doing was laughing.

“I still get to keep the perm, though?” Branch mustered, looking around at everyone. “Right?”

“No. I’m afraid you can’t have your hair permed any more, brother,” John Dory explained, the first to speak after another silence, as he, Spruce and Clay came over to join them. 

Branch focused his attention away from their grandmother and Floyd and pouted as he looked up at his oldest brother with the saddest look that John Dory had ever seen in his blue eyes. The oldest of the five bit at the inside of his cheek, staying silent. He briefly turned his attention towards the living room floor, thinking to himself for a brief moment, before looking back down at his youngest brother.

“I…we can still let you frost your hair with our supervision and our help of course. It…just can’t be permed,” John Dory eventually compromised. A smile was quick to replace the sad look on Branch’s face and he moved to hug John Dory’s legs.

“Wow,” Poppy said as soon as Floyd finished telling his story. She took another sip of her milkshake and a small bite of her pie. “Just how many months old was he—”

Before Poppy could even finish her sentence, a total of nine trolls came up to her and she turned around to face them, standing up now.

“Poppy, we’ve got a couple of trolls who are going around telling others to break random rules,” one of the nine said.

“Random rules? How many—”

“Poppy, one of my friends is refusing to speak to me,” another troll piped up.

Poppy turned to her now. “Well…is there something you could possibly have done to cause that to happen—”

“We’ve got a troll who’s been vandalizing and trashing others’ pods as soon as they exit them,” a third said.

A brief moment passed by before all nine trolls started to talk over one another. Poppy looked around at each of them, finding herself unable to say anything.

For a moment that was.

“That’s…uh…quite a lot of problems. Way too many for me to handle all at once—”

“Hey!” Floyd stated in an angry tone of voice, his glass of punch still in his hand, cutting Poppy off, as he stood up, and focusing his attention towards the group of trolls surrounding Poppy and talking over one another to the point where Poppy couldn’t pick up what they were saying. “Could you all please stop bothering her and leave her alone?!”

The group of nine trolls all ceased with their talking over one another and turned their attention to Floyd. It seemed like none of them knew what to say, a long silence filling the air as even the trolls that were seated at the tables around them had since stopped eating to turn around and look at him. Several quiet whispers of ‘he doesn’t know?’ filled the air, breaking the silence.

“Good. Now—”

Poppy glanced over her shoulder at him, cutting him off before he could even finish his sentence. “Thank you for taking your time to stand up for me, Floyd,” she told him. “But I’ve got this all handled.”

The only thing Floyd found himself doing after a short silence was standing there. “You do?”

Poppy nodded, turned now. “Uh…yeah. It’s part of being Queen.”

Floyd dropped the glass of punch he was holding and it smashed when it hit the ground. He could only stare at her. “Queen?!” he said out of shock before he paused briefly and looked over at Branch. He gestured towards Poppy. “She—”

“She’s been Queen for 1-2 years now.”

Floyd turned his attention to Branch now, grabbing his younger brother’s shoulders. He shook him hard. “YOU MEAN TO TELL ME YOU’RE DATING THE QUEEN?!”

“I have been for a little over a month now,” Branch told him, taking a much needed deep breath of relief when Floyd let go of him. 

Floyd grabbed a hold of Branch’s hand and pulled him back over towards their table. “It’s only been, like what, a few days since we all reunited and you’re only just telling me something like that now—?”

“You know what…I should have just told you that the day we reunited,” Branch stated in a calm tone of voice as they sat down at their table and watched Poppy go right back to dealing with whatever problems the group of nine trolls had that they chose to interrupt their dinner for.

Chapter Text

“It really is a shame Viva and Clay decided not to join us this time,” Poppy said with a slight hint of sadness in her voice, using the blue couch at the back of Rhonda as if it was a trampoline much to the amusement of John Dory, Bruce and Floyd and the annoyance of Branch.

“You know Clay and Viva had to stay behind, Poppy,” Branch was quick to remind her. Someone needed to take care of your duties anyway.

“Look on the bright side,” Poppy said, ceasing her jumping and standing on the couch. “Maybe they’ll want to join us the next time we go to Vacay Island.”

Branch folded his arms, attention focused away from Poppy briefly. “And maybe next time I’ll stay behind at my bunker.”

“Branch, the least you could do is to have fun with the rest of us,” Poppy said, pointing at herself then Floyd then Bruce and finally John Dory.

Branch rolled his eyes and grunted out something amongst the lines of ‘not if you run out of energy.’

“What do you think we should do during our two hour vacation?” Poppy asked when a silence hit.

Branch groaned, shaking his head. “Poppy, the last I checked, vacations aren’t two hours long. Maybe one day.”

“That’s not really suggesting any ideas—”

“Does it matter how long a vacation should last or what activities we have planned out, guys?” Floyd asked, cutting the both of them off before an argument could ensue. “If Poppy wants it to be two hours then it can be two hours. If you want it to be one day, Branch, then it’s one day. I’d say it’s up to you, Bruce.”

A confused look crossed Bruce’s face. “I thought I was being dropped off there for a couple weeks before coming back to the village and the rest of you were going to have your own vacation?”

“We are dropping you off at Vacay Island,” John Dory explained. “But if I remember correctly, you agreed to spend the vacation with us before you stay here and we head back to the village.”

Bruce rolled his eyes. “Serving you and giving you food and drinks isn’t spending a vacation with you all.”

John Dory opened his mouth to speak again, to explain that that meant he was still going to spend some time with them regardless of the reason, but wasn’t given the chance to when the familiar sound of something clinking against Rhonda’s door cut him off.

Followed by the annoyed voice of Branch.

“Poppy, please don’t throw stuff at Rhonda’s door.”

Poppy started jumping on Rhonda’s couch again. “Who says I can’t have fun?”

“Me,” Branch grumbled in response, looking down at Rhonda’s floor and rubbing at his forehead.

Poppy stuck her tongue out at him. “Okay, my spoilsport of a boyfriend. I guess I’ll stop having fun and our vacation will be less fun and enjoyable and more boring.”

“I never said anything about that—” Branch started to say before he was cut off by Poppy.

“Hey, John, since no one’s driving Rhonda, can I drive her the rest of the way to Vacay Island?” John Dory turned around just in time to find Poppy standing on the driver’s seat and mischievously grinning at him. How in the entire troll kingdom did she get there in one second?

John Dory chuckled softly. “Not if you do it standing up, Poppyseed. Do you want me to help you?”

“No. I’m good,” Poppy said, turning to sit down now and grabbing a hold of the steering wheel. “How fast do you think I should—”

Branch looked up now. “Poppy, you’ve never driven Rhonda.”

“That doesn’t mean I don’t know how to drive a vehicle, Branch,” Poppy replied as she stood on the driver’s seat a little to look out of Rhonda’s window. “Oh, look. We’re almost there. John, do you want me to press the hustle button to get there faster or should I drive Rhonda off the edge of the cliff like the last time you drove her here?”

“I—”

“Just let her do it, brother,” Floyd said from where he was laying on his back on the couch. John Dory turned his attention to him before looking back at Poppy.

“I’ll let you drive her off the cliff again,” John Dory said after a silence. At the back, Bruce, Branch and Floyd shared a look of concern. They looked over towards him.

“John, are you sure that’s a good idea?” Branch asked, tone unsure, the first of them to speak following another silence.

Floyd nodded in agreement. “The last thing that we all know you would want is for Poppy to crash Rhonda into Vacay Island, brother.”

“And I don’t think it’s a good idea for someone with that much energy to drive,” Bruce added. “My own kids—”

Poppy turned to look in his direction, letting out a laugh. “—are technically all allowed to drive a boat.”

“I’m waiting until each of them becomes a teen,” Bruce groaned, shaking his head.

A brief bout of silence hit, it breaking when Poppy returned her attention back to Rhonda’s window and turned the steering wheel. She let out a soft, mischievous laugh as she made Rhonda go at a faster speed than usual. John Dory rubbed his forehead. That was not at all what he meant when he told Poppy she could drive Rhonda.

“Poppy, that’s not proper Queen-like behavior!” Branch stated, letting out an annoyed sigh.

A few moments passed, a silence filling Rhonda rather quickly.

Bruce, who was right in the middle of a conversation with Floyd, looked across at him, stunned. “Queen?”

“I would have thought you already knew because of the Rock—” Branch started to say as he turned his attention to his second oldest brother, only to be cut off by Bruce before he could even finish his sentence.

“Yes, I heard all about the Rock Apocalypse through the radios at Vacay Island, Branch,” Bruce said, cutting Branch off before he had a chance to finish his sentence. “Why wouldn’t I have?”

Branch opened his mouth to speak, but nothing seemed to come out. A silence eventually hit, breaking when Bruce spoke up again.

“Like John Dory, I was focused on the fact that you were still alive rather than the fact that they referred to Poppy as Queen Poppy. Regardless of that, I have to admit that you’re extremely lucky to have landed the Queen as a girlfriend, Branch,” Bruce finished, giving his youngest brother a small smile and patting him on the back. “I—”

“Please just let me keep on driving Rhonda, John,” Poppy said, cutting Bruce off and causing him, Branch and Floyd to look in their direction just in time to find the pair start to fight over the controls.

John Dory tried to usher Poppy out of the driver’s seat. “You’re going to cause Rhonda to break down if you’re not careful, Poppyseed.”

“Same with you,” Poppy responded.

“Poppy, come on,” John Dory retaliated. “Let me take over with driving Rhonda. She’s my house bus after all.”

“Says the one who gave me permission to drive her.”

“Says the one who decided to make Rhonda go fast after I allowed her to drive—”

“Guys, please stop arguing and fighting over Rhonda’s controls before you both cause her to crash,” Floyd was very quick to interrupt, causing John Dory and Poppy to cease their argument and look in his direction. But not before John Dory stopped Rhonda. When another silence hit, John Dory was quick to break it.

“You know what,” John Dory said with a soft sounding sigh as he once again tried to usher Poppy away from the driver’s seat. “I’m not going to let you drive Rhonda anywhere without any supervision from now on, Poppyseed.”

She pouted at him, a silence hitting before she eventually decided to climb out of the driver’s seat. “Why not?”

“Because you’ve got way too much energy and will end up getting all of us killed one of these days—”

“You know what I can’t wait for?” Poppy cut John Dory off before he even had a chance to finish his sentence when she let out a laugh. “The day you allow Viva to—”

“I’m not going to allow Viva to drive Rhonda anywhere either for the same exact reasons, Poppy,” John Dory said with a groan.

Chapter Text

“See, Clay, I assure you Bridget and Gristle are friendly.”

Clay watched Viva speed across the top of Bridget’s head, braiding the Bergen’s pigtails in the process before going to sit on her shoulder. “Viva may think that, but I definitely don’t.”

“It took me an hour to understand that the Bergens weren’t going to eat us anymore,” Viva said, patting Bridget’s shoulder with a hand. “And that was not long after I had the Putt Putts make the mistake of almost having these two murdered when they showed up at the golf course.”

Poppy’s eyes widened and she sat on Bridget’s hand to be lifted up to sit on the Bergen’s shoulder. “Wait?! When you had the Putt Putts almost do WHAT?!”

“I said it was a mistake, Poppy. A misunderstanding.”

Poppy pointed at herself then at Viva before placing a hand on Bridget’s shoulder. “You could have told me a month ago!”

“It’s not my fault,” Viva explained. “I was too embarrassed and too nervous to even bring it—”

“Okay, I’m just going to go ahead and leave now. No more interacting with Bergens,” Clay said, cutting Viva off before she could even have a chance to finish her sentence.

“Clay, wait!” Viva called out as the aforementioned troll used a sticky hand to swing his way out of the throne room.

A pause. Poppy shared a glance with Viva before looking up at Bridget.

“Hang on. Could you give us a minute?”

Bridget nodded, allowing Poppy and Viva to slide down her arm onto her hand before lowering it so that they could climb off it to go after Clay. But still, they understood why Clay would want to leave in the first place. And it wasn’t long before they found Clay standing on the stairs of the Bergen castle, turned away from them.

“Mr. Clay!” Viva called out, grabbing his attention and causing him to turn his head and look in her direction.

A silence hit, Clay breaking it. “What?”

“Could we please talk for a moment?”

Clay turned his attention to Poppy now. “About what?”

“Why in the world did you automatically decide to leave?” Poppy asked out of concern.

Clay just shrugged. “Dunno. I just felt like it.”

“Please don’t tell me you’re still nervous being around a Bergen after an hour and a half spent in Bergen Town?” Viva asked, after exchanging a glance with Poppy.

“Do I look nervous to you, Viv?”

“Clay, it’s fine. I’m being honest. Bridget is friendly. Gristle is friendly. All the Bergens are friendly,” Poppy tried to explain. “You saw Viva braiding Bridget’s hair.”

“I know she did, but I refuse to believe they’re friendly.”

“Bridget and Gristle didn’t do anything to you. Or to me. Or to Viva.”

Clay raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, and?”

“I’m afraid you’re going to have to go back into the throne room and get used to being around a Bergen by getting to know Queen Bridget and/or King Gristle, Clay,” Poppy said.

Clay decided to act like a statue. “Yeah, no. I am not going back in there.”

“I’m sorry,” Viva told him. “But she’s right when she says you’re still going to have to.”

“No,” Clay mumbled.

Poppy put a hand on Clay’s shoulder. “That’s an order from the Queen of Pop. My order.”

“I’ll only take orders from Viva,” Clay grumbled.

Viva gave him a mischievous smirk. “The only order that I’m going to give you is you have to go back in there and interact with either Queen Bridget or King Gristle.”

“Never mind,” Clay muttered, turning. “Can I leave now?”

Viva grabbed a hold of his hand, stopping him short before he could even do so. “Clay, you’re going to have to go back in there no matter how many times you try to protest.”

“Yeah, no,” Clay yawned.

“Clay, come on. You have to. Like I explained earlier, these are my orders as Queen.”

Clay’s attention focused on Poppy again. He changed the subject. “When exactly did you become Queen?”

“About a year or two ago…?” Poppy paused briefly before she decided to change the subject back to what it had been thirty seconds prior. “Please go back to the throne room and—”

“No.” Clay turned to look at Viva now. “Viva, please agree with me.”

“I’m afraid that I’m going to have to side with Poppy, Clay,” Viva told him with a sigh much to his annoyance. “I’m used to the Bergens being friends with our tribe and no longer eating us. The rest of the Putt Putts are used the Bergens being friends with our tribe and no longer eating us. How long is it going to take you to—”

“How about never?” Clay said, cutting Viva off. “There’s no way I’m going to be anywhere near one for as long as I live.”

“Clay, look. You didn’t know about the Bergens, what they did and why there was a small group of trolls that’d been cut off from the rest of the tribe during an escape from our old home until after you first came to the Golf Course,” Viva argued back, pointing towards the Troll Tree.

“Yeah, well then, John Dory, Bruce, Floyd and I were all lucky enough to have left the Troll Tree before the Bergens struck,” Clay said with an annoyed groan and eye roll. “Disbanding BroZone was a good idea either way. Imagine what would’ve happened if—”

“You guys just reunited and you’re still talking about that,” Viva said, cutting Clay off mid-sentence.

Clay gave her a look. “What’s that got to do with forcing me to go back to the throne room and making me interact with and befriend a Bergen?”

“We’re not forcing you, Clay. We’re asking you,” Viva said, draping an arm around his shoulder. She tried to lead him back into the castle but the only thing Clay did was go back to acting like a statue.

“No.”

“Clay, please go back into the throne room and get to know Bridget and Gristle,” Poppy told him. “Once again, these are orders from me.”

“No,” Clay repeated.

“Then I’ll go back to Bridget and Gristle and ask them both to come out here,” Poppy tease-threatened.

Clay turned to step in between Viva and Poppy. “I’m out of here.”

Before Clay could leave the castle completely, Poppy and Viva grabbed a hold of his arms.

He struggled to get away from them and failed. “Can the both of you let me go and allow me to go straight back to the village?”

“What happens if we don’t?” Viva asked, a smug look on her face.

“I’m going straight back to the golf course and staying there with no intention of ever going back to the village.”

Poppy couldn’t help but let out a chuckle at that statement. “You remind me so much of Branch.”

“And the relationship between me and Viva reminds me of the relationship between you and Branch,” he responded.

“As if that isn’t obvious.” Poppy paused before she changed the subject back to what it had been. “I’m still telling you as Queen that you need to get to know a Bergen yourself.”

Clay rolled his eyes, looking off to the side. “Yeah, no. Absolutely not.”

“Alright, then. You’ve left me no choice. I’m going to get Bridget and bring her out here.”

“Please no.”

“She’s being serious, Mr. Clay. Now come on, let’s just go back to the throne room.”

A pause. There was really no more need for an argument, was there? Clay allowed Poppy and Viva to take him back into the throne room.

“He tried to go straight back to the golf course?”

Poppy and Viva nodded simultaneously.

“Why?” Bridget spoke, after a brief silence.

“I was planning on reactivating the clown head because we used to use it as a way to murder your kind.”

Bridget and Gristle shared a rather concerned glance much like Poppy and Viva before looking back at Clay. What in the entire troll kingdom?

Viva elbowed Clay, looking rather annoyed. “Clay, we agreed that we were never going to do that again after a long talk we had a month ago—”

“I take it it went well?” Branch asked, cutting Viva off in the middle of her sentence as he, Floyd, John Dory and Bruce all joined them in the throne room.

Poppy scratched the back of her head. “Not exactly. Clay bolted from the throne room and wanted to leave to go straight back to the village. Do you want to know how long it took us to convince him to go back to the throne room and get to know Bridget and Gristle? Half an hour!”

“Half an hour?” Branch repeated, before turning his head and focusing his attention to Viva. “Impressive. Viva, how long did it take you to get to know Bridget and Gristle—”

“An hour and you do not want to know what almost happened before the Putt Putts and I got to know how friendly they were—”

“The clown head murder device?” Branch guessed. “Impressive. I wish I thought of something similar to protect the village from Bergens before the truce was arranged. Speaking of which…Poppy, do you think we should do something similar to ward off other threats?”

Poppy gave him a stern glare. “Don’t even think about it—”

“Hold on. Wait a minute,” Floyd said, cutting her off mid sentence when he changed the subject to something completely unrelated. He looked toward Branch. “If you marry Poppy, then that means that you’re going to become King.”

“Thank you for pointing out the obvious, Floyd.”