Archive of Our Own ^beta

“This has been one productive detour,” Poppy said with a giggle, high-fiving Smidge. 

It had been a day since they’d landed on the island, and Branch was still in worry-free mode. It was nice to see him relaxing, for once. He deserved it more than anyone. 

However, it had been long enough that detour was beginning to turn into totally-not-stranded , and the group was struggling to come up with ideas. 

Now that Branch was so worry-free, he’d abandoned the half-built boat entirely. With the wormhole so high in the air, it would take some thinking to get up there. 

Not that she wanted to promote paranoid thinking back into her friend, but it would be nice if he could at least get back to work on that boat.

“Hey, Branch?” Poppy called out, finding him lounging on a hammock between palm trees.

Without even opening his eyes, he sing-songedly reminded her: “it’s Frond~”

“Oh, right!” She nodded, smoothing out her dress as she rocked back and forth on her feet. “Right… so anyway, the others and I are working on a way back home. We were hoping you could help us out with that boat…?”

“Home?” He echoed, finally lifting up his sunglasses and fixing her with a vacant, pleasant smile on his face. It was tinted with confusion. “Whatever do you mean, Poppy?”

She laughed awkwardly. “I mean… it’s not like we can stay here forever . We have to go back to the village at some point.”

Branch — er… Frond — sighed wistfully, a million miles away. “Do we really?” He asked, relaxing back into the hammock. “It’s so perfect here…”

“Sure, it’s nice!” She agreed, “for a vacation, maybe. Not like… permanently.”

“But… the island is safe . The island provides , Poppy! Isn’t that so nice ? Not having to worry about a thing?”

“I… I guess, yeah, but—”

“It gave you this,” he said, rolling out of his hammock, landing on his feet and taking her hands in his. “It gave you a version of me that you actually like .”

Something about that left her stomach rolling unpleasantly. She swallowed, mouth suddenly dry as she searched his eyes for… what, she didn’t know. Something that showed her neurotic stickler of a best friend. She’d been thrilled to see him finally relaxed, but this was beginning to freak her out.

“I like regular old Branch just fine,” she huffed, offended at the judge of her character. “He’s my best friend.”

He scoffed, dropping her hands and turning away. “Yeah, well. You would have gotten tired of him eventually.”

“That’s not true and you know it! Just because you can be a little obsessive sometimes doesn’t mean I love you any less! I love you , Branch, flaws and all.”

“It’s Frond ,” he snapped, hands balled into fists at his side. Gently, Poppy reached out a hand to place on his shoulder, but he jerked away, spinning to glare at her. It was the first time since he’d become Frond that he’d been the least bit hostile. 

“You don’t need to change your whole identity just to take a vacation,” she said, clasping her paws together. “Why are you so insistent on this?”

“Because I am!” he yelled, fire in his eyes, “Because I have to be! Because Branch is an unloveable depressing freak ! But Frond is — he’s actually good enough ! He’s exactly what everyone wanted , he’s perfect! ”

Her heart ached. She wanted to reach out, to hug him, but she knew he would only shrug her off again. “Is that what you think?” she asked softly.

“It’s what I know,” he sighed, hostility waning. He looked tired, and it was the closest to him that he seemed in the day they’d spent here.

He sat down in the sand, and when he didn’t protest, Poppy joined him.

“Everyone leaves eventually,” he said, staring out to sea. Poppy was focused solely on him.

“I won’t,” she said, the words tumbling out of her of their own volition. “I’d never .”

“Hm.” He was quiet for a moment, the two of them listening to the waves hitting the sand. It would have been peaceful, if Poppy wasn’t so weighed down with concern.

She wished she knew what to say. Usually she considered herself to be pretty good at comforting other trolls, but for once… she was at a loss. She had no idea how to fix this.

A smile tugged at Branch’s face. He huffed out a laugh.

Poppy turned to look at him, hopeful for a moment. Maybe this had all been some elaborate prank to teach her about being careful what you wished for? One thing was for certain, she’d never take her friends for granted ever again. She loved them all exactly as they were.

Unfortunately, that’s not what seemed to be happening right now.

Branch began to really laugh , a sound somehow unnatural.

This was getting past the point of unnerving . She’d even classify this as scaring her, by now. “B—Frond?” she prodded carefully. “What…?”

He almost doubled over , tears beginning to come from his eyes as he laughed. “I’m finally perfect,” he gasped through his cackling, “I’m finally — finally perfect and — and it still doesn’t matter because I ruined everything !” he cried, clutching his sides.

He took a few calming breaths as he leaned towards her, hands cupping her face. For whatever reason, there was a warmth tingling in her cheeks that almost reminded her of how she used to feel around Creek. The way he was looking at her felt intimate . It felt sacred. 

“Don’t you get it?” He asked softly, tears streaming from his eyes. There was a thinly hidden devastation there, just below a layer of false humor. She’d never been able to say that a fellow troll laughing felt wrong to her, before. “This island… it’s perfect. Something about this place — it makes us better. Wasn’t that what you wanted? For me to be a better troll?”

Yes, but not like this . She just wanted him to grow. She wanted him to open up. To blossom like a flower. An adorably paranoid flower. 

He let go of her face to gesture to himself, a massive grin across his face. “See! I did it! I’m finally normal ! This island fixed me! ” He stood up, and Poppy nearly tripped over herself to keep up. “We can stay here,” he was saying, “we’ve got each other, and our friends, and there’s plenty of food! And nothing is going to hurt us. Nothing is trying to eat us, or kill us, no one can leave me again!”

Poppy finally began to clock what it was about him smiling that had her so on edge. He looked manic.

“It’s all I’ve ever wanted,” he admitted quietly. She wished she could share the sentiment. “I mean, look around. It’s a beautiful place. We can build shelter if you really want — not that we need it. But every day can be singing, and dancing, and hugging ! Doesn’t that sound amazing?”

It might have, at some point. Under any other circumstance. If her best friend wasn’t sobbing and laughing at the same time, maybe.

“Poppy?” Called DJ from a bit further down the beach, startling the queen out of her spiraling, confusing thoughts. “Did you fix Branch, yet?”

And something about that just sent him right back into a laughing fit. “Why would you want him ?” He asked, “that obsessive freak? He’s just like him! ” He screamed his laughter, and the tears were returning. Poppy didn’t know what to do. “Insisting on controlling every little thing. God , I hate him so much!”

DJ, who wasn’t all that close to the pair, stopped in her approach. “Kay, I’m just gonna… oh, what’s that Smidge?” She took off back in the other direction.

Great.

“Who do you…?” She could hardly bring herself to say the words. Trolls didn’t really do hate. At least not when it came to other trolls. Things had to be… seriously extreme for that word to be thrown around.

“I hate him,” he repeated, cackling , “he was supposed to be better and all he turned out to be was a freakish little clone .”

He was usually the one grounding her . She didn’t know how to go about grounding him ! This was all wrong and — and she wished they’d never found this cursed island in the first place! She wanted her best friend back! She wanted him to stop crying! How could he cry when she didn’t know how to fix it?

“Guys!” Came a frantic shout from where DJ had previously retreated. This time it was Smidge running up the dune. “Oh my guh, there’s a huge storm coming in! We need to leave ASAP!”

Oh, no.