The ink across the coarse sheet of parchment paper seemed to spread like wildfire with each stroke of the fine-tipped point, scribbling note after note of plans for weeks to come. The writer, it seemed, had become particularly flustered at how unorganized it all seemed. Usually, ideas would come to her head as easily as the ocean rolling up onto the shore, but for some reason the tide had pulled out today indefinitely.
Her ears and cheeks were on fire from the concentration, and in a quick movement just moments ago, she had opened one of the windows in her office to allow the outside breeze to circulate through the stuffy quarters. She never did truly care for this part of the royal pod. It reminded her of her duties as Queen, and although she would always carry them out diligently and without fail, it never warranted much favor with her in terms of amusement. She would much rather be in the company of her family or friends, for she knew that with them, there never truly was a dull moment.
As if on cue, Poppy heard the pitter-patter of footsteps echoing closer and closer to the door, and she looked up in anticipation. The door swung open, and the space created appeared vacant. She furrowed her brow.
"Hello? You can come in!" She called out in a clear, welcoming tone. No answer. "Hello?" She called again.
However, she turned her gaze to the front edge of her desk, where a tuft of ultraviolet blue hair had appeared front of her. The small curl at its peak bobbed in the breeze, and she released an amused chuckle. Leaning forward across the desk, she met the eyes of her daughter and beamed.
"Hi, sweetheart." Poppy mused happily.
"Hi, Mommy!" The little girl bubbled back, bouncing around the desk and wasting no time in climbing up into her lap. Poppy obliged, opening her arms and allowing the tiny troll to nestle herself on her legs and front torso before wrapping her arms delicately around her petite body.
"Aren't you supposed to be in school?" The Queen asked, brushing aside the girl's bangs and giving her a kiss on the temple. She was very warm to the touch, a trait that was normal amongst trollings.
"We had early release today! Miss Wormwood gave us a project!" She responded.
"Oh? And what kind of project?" Poppy asked, continuing to run her hand along her daughter's messy locks. The child had quite the head of hair for a girl her age, and so vibrant. It was absolutely no challenge to ever pick out Willow from a crowd, making things a million times easier for Branch and herself. The little girl turned to respond, but another visitor entered without so much as a knock.
"Your Highness." River, a village council member, burst into the room with a bit of urgency. Both trolls looked up and he immediately stopped in his tracks. "Oh, I'm sorry. Am I interrupting something?"
"Not at all, River. Come in." Poppy insisted, beckoning him over. She did not remove Willow from her lap, however, and the little girl began to busy herself with the little knick-knacks that Poppy had strewn across the surface of her desk. She barely paid any attention to the conversation the two adults were having until she jumped a little at her mother's raised voice.
"You mean to tell me that you lost the blueprints?" The Queen sounded rather agitated, and it made the little girl uneasy as she felt the vibration of her voice against her back.
"It was an honest mistake, Queen Poppy. Some of the boys, they were horsing around and it fell into the brook." River explained.
"Why don't you-!" Poppy began, but quickly cut herself off as she heard a whimper from beneath her chin. She looked down into the worried face of her child, and she immediately lost all agitation in her body. She sighed, closing her eyes for a moment to collect herself. Then she regained her eye contact with the blue and silver troll.
"Just…..come back tomorrow and we'll have fresh copies for you." She said softly, snaking an arm around her daughter again and beginning to rock her a bit to soothe her. River nodded.
"Will do, Your Majesty." He conferred, slipping from the room with haste. Poppy turned the entirety of her attention back to her kin, who stared up at her with a still somewhat apprehensive look in her eye.
"I'm sorry I scared you, sweetie. Mommy can get a bit stressed out about all of this." Poppy apologized, resting her cheek atop the child's head and hugging her close. Willow returned the embrace, the side of her face smushed between Poppy's chin and chest.
"It's okay, Mommy." She muttered. The Queen pulled away, offering a soft, sweet smile.
"Now let's go find Daddy, okay? He should be home by now." The small blue troll nodded, allowing Poppy to sling her up onto her hip and carry her out of the office. She shut the door behind her, beginning her walk down the hallway and through the final door to the administrative part of the royal pod. She felt the weight immediately lift from her shoulders the moment she shut that door, and with another sweet smile at her daughter the two ventured forth into their home.
Poppy eyed the jacket hanging on the coat rack near the front door, and she knew her husband had indeed returned home for the evening. The smell of boiling pasta soon filled her nostrils, and she smiled. Though they tried to split the work evenly, Poppy knew for a fact that when her husband chose to cook, it never disappointed. Branch had quite a knack for it, even though he always humbly denied it and deemed Poppy the skilled one of the household.
"Daddy!" Willow cried, and Poppy scarcely could allow her arms free before the little girl bounced from her and over to the love of her life, who had stopped stirring the pot on the stove for a moment and beamed down at their little girl. She collided into his legs, hugging them tightly and giggling with her face upturned at an almost ninety-degree angle to look at him. Her eyes sparkled brightly in the sunlight that poured in through the small window above the kitchen sink, the pure white linen curtains billowing softly.
"Hey, twig." Branch mused lovingly, running a hand from her bangs to the base of her head and stroking her cheek with his thumb. Willow giggled loudly at the contact, squirming in her spot. Poppy smiled at the scene, her heart soaring at the look of pure adoration on her husband's face.
"Somebody got to come home early from school today." Poppy spoke up, and Branch temporarily tore his gaze away from his child and up at her. The two shared a brief smile together before Willow's high-pitched voice interrupted once more.
"Yeah, Daddy! And we got a project to do!" She shrieked.
"Really?" Branch replied with exaggerated excitement, making Poppy snort in amusement. The little girl couldn't bob her head up and down fast enough.
"Uh huh! And you and Mommy get to help!" She informed him.
"Well, that's great, twig. What is it?" Branch asked, the smile permanently spread across his face as he watched his daughter's face falter for a moment in thought.
"It's in my backpack. Be right back!" The little girl tore herself away from her father and scampered away back in the direction of Poppy's office, her little legs staggering beneath her. Branch gave another chuckle as he watched her run away, and the Queen took the liberty to saunter over to him in their daughter's absence.
"Must be something good. She rarely shows that much excitement about schoolwork." Branch hypothesized as Poppy drew near, running a hand from his stomach to his shoulder, squeezing at it gently as she brushed her lips against his cheek.
"Hm." She responded quietly, applying more pressure from her lips once reaching the warm curve of his cheekbone.
"You think it's another volcano? I don't think I could take making another one of those things. Last time, I'm pretty sure we almost blew up the living room."
"Hm." At the sound of her repetitive answer, Branch turned into his wife ever so slightly.
"You're not listening to anything I'm saying, are you?" He mumbled. She giggled, shaking her head.
"Not a word." She uttered back, shifting her head just millimeters downwards and pressing a kiss to the corner of his mouth. His eyes made a roll around his sockets dramatically.
"Figures. Paying attention has never been a strong suit of yours." He playfully criticized, and to his delight, the taunting worked. She yanked herself away, looking into his eyes with an equally as playful look of irritation.
"I'm sorry. I don't recall asking for your opinion on that." She retorted, placing a hand on her hip.
"Don't need it. I reserve the right to mock you." He teased on a voice that spiked her carnal interest, but before she could respond to the bold declaration, their daughter had once again appeared on the scene, and with reluctance the two pushed apart enough to make it appear as if they hadn't just been all over one another.
"Here it is!" Willow cried, waving the bright floral folder around in her hand. Poppy laughed at her as Branch turned back to the cooking pasta on the stove. The little girl scrambled to hoist herself up onto one of the tall chairs at the island in the center of the room, earning her another laugh from her mother.
"Hold on there, eager mcbeaver." Poppy ordered, coming behind the tiny troll and hooking both hands in her armpits to help her the rest of the way up. Willow plopped down in the seat promptly upon contact, slapping the folder down and opening it up. Inside was a large diagram of a tree, with many branches and leaves spread out across the entire page. It was arranged in such a way to where there was a clear flow all the way down to the trunk.
"It's a family tree!" Willow exclaimed.
The clatter of a kitchen utensil made Poppy's gaze snap up to look at her husband. He had stopped stirring the pot again, his posture stiff and his eyes locked straight forward. His ear twitched gently in their direction, and the Queen could feel the atmosphere change. However, their little girl was oblivious to her father's distress.
"Miss Wormwood said that it's for Heritage Day. We're going to put them up in the hallway!" She continued. Though she gave a glance to her daughter every now and again to show she was listening, Poppy kept a watchful gaze on Branch as their daughter spoke. He did not move a muscle save for a small tilt to the side to listen better. It was no decision at all in her mind on what she needed to do next.
"That's really something, sweetie. Why don't we start with my side, okay?" Poppy explained gently and in a tone that would not spark any sort of alarm in the little girl. Through her peripherals, the young Queen eyed her husband's rigid shift in movement as he turned to the cupboards to begin setting the table.
For several minutes, Poppy filled Willow in on her parents, Peppy and Petunia, explaining everything that she could about her side of the family to the little girl. Meanwhile, Branch had finished setting up the table and was now serving dinner quietly to the two female trolls. It wasn't long before they sat down to eat together, the lively chatter still prominent between the mother and her daughter. However, the moment the Queen had dreaded came before she could prevent it. Willow had turned her head to Branch, her big eyes looking at him in curiosity.
"Daddy?" She asked as respectively as she could.
"Yeah?" Branch replied blankly, not looking up from his plate. Poppy's grip on her fork tightened. She did not like the tone he had taken on.
"What about your family?"
The room took on yet another strange atmosphere as the dreaded inquiry was now thrust into the open. Though she had tried her best to combat it, Queen Poppy should have known better than to challenge her daughter's inquisitive nature. It was quite a prominent personality trait for the tiny troll, something that was usually celebrated and supported quite passionately by Branch and herself. However, observing the conflicted gleam in her love's blue gaze only confirmed that now was not to be one of those times. Branch had only slackened in posture by the most miniscule amount, his eyes remaining on his daughter as he inhaled to speak.
"Willow, I think you should just turn in that paper like it is and tell Miss Wormwood you don't know anything about my side." The statement was quite a desperate plea in nature, as if he knew that any other approach would make it appear as though it was Willow's fault that he had such strong feelings about his own family and past.
"But I want to know!" Willow claimed, starting to realize her father's discomfort on what she was asking. He shook his head, closing his eyes for a moment to pinch the bridge of his nose.
"Willow, please don't…" He pleaded for her to stop, hoping that with her decent track record, the tiny girl would do as she was told. To his irritation, she persisted.
"Daddy, I just want to know their names for my paper!" Willow begged, trying to make it sound as painless as possible.
"I SAID DON'T." She jumped at the bite in his response, a volume that she had never heard out of him in her entire time of being alive, even if it was miniscule. Her magenta eyes were wide with shock as Poppy glanced between them both worriedly, giving a particular look of absolute sympathy at her child's crushed expression. Branch hung his head and sighed, resting his forehead on a propped-up hand. Several moments of dead silence passed, then the young troll slowly pushed herself from her chair and landed gently on the ground. She sheepishly turned to her father again, twiddling her fingers in embarrassment.
"I'm sorry, Daddy. I didn't mean to upset you." Her voice was small, almost whimpering in nature. As if anything she said would set him off. At the empty response she received, she looked between her parents before speaking again. "I think I'll go to bed now."
Poppy had remained frozen during the entire exchange, and it was only with the disappearance of her daughter around the corner that her stoic demeanor fell and she glared at her husband. He rose from his seat to collect the dirty dishes, not making eye contact with her.
"She was just asking a question, Branch." Poppy seethed as she watched him gather everything up and start to carry it over.
"Poppy, please. Don't start with me. You know how I feel about this stuff." The King shifted uncomfortably as he began to place his dishes in the sink. He did not need any sort of special gift to know that his wife was boring two gigantic holes in his back with the simple heat of her hard glare.
"Yes, I do. But she doesn't." Poppy had raised her voice now, jabbing a finger in the direction of which Willow had sulked off to. It was with this that he finally met her eyes, however much they felt like daggers into his soul. "There was absolutely no need to yell at her."
"You don't think I know that? She's entirely too pushy sometimes, Poppy, and you know it." He yelled back. He had shoved himself closer to her in their fit of yelling. It was not often that the King and Queen fought, but they gave it their all when the mood struck them right.
"You're just mad because she's asking you something that none of us have had the guts to." She snapped. Branch blinked a few times, his eyebrows furrowing together.
"What are you talking about?" He muttered.
"You haven't exactly told me anything about your parents either." Poppy reminded him on a shaky voice. He could tell she was upset for having to explain any further on a pain that had obviously been plaguing her for quite some time. But, once again, his mouth took on a persona of its own.
"And I think we should keep it that way." He replied before he could stop himself.
"You're not the only who's lost someone, Branch. Stop acting like you're special." The Queen shrieked, her face beginning to darken in color at the blood rushing to her cheeks and neck. Branch ignored the obvious jab at his pride and instead began to run with it.
"Maybe not, but that doesn't mean I want to talk about it." He answered.
"Ugh, you're such a drama queen!" The pink troll declared, throwing her hands in the air.
"King." Branch corrected, trying to make a joke and lighten the mood. As much as he wanted to, he knew that an argument with Poppy was futile and would only make both of them retire to bed fuming. However, his wife seemed to be past the point of no return and ignored his attempt to soften things up.
"I meant what I said." She replied flatly, turning on her heel and beginning to step away.
"Where are you going?" He called after her.
"To bed. Since it's obvious that neither Willow or I am getting anywhere with you tonight." The Queen replied with a snarky attitude, throwing her statement over her shoulder carelessly as she continued to distance herself from him.
Branch watched her go and let out a heavy sigh, feeling completely drained from the whole ordeal. He turned to look out the window into the fading light. Daytime was becoming more and more scarce as they began marching into the fall and winter months.
The old wounds in his heart began to burn with fresh agony within, infecting his thoughts with feelings he had long since buried in his conscience. Though Branch had come a long way since his gray years, it seemed as if he still had some weight to carry. Even with his beloved wife and daughter, he could not bring himself to confide in them the last untold story he had held dear for so many years.
His parents.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Wow, I'm writing about a lot of fights between Branch and Poppy lately, aren't I? Lol
So, this fic was personally inspired since I myself had to do a family tree diagram when I was in third grade. I thought the idea was a sad and intriguing one, since there is not a whole lot of exploration into the story of Branch's unseen and unmentioned parents. So, naturally, I decided to delve into it a little for myself, and this is the result.
This story will most likely be no more than three chapters, so I hope you enjoyed the first installment. As for my other pending stories, fret not. They are in the works and I hope to have at least one new chapter up for one of them by Saturday.
With that, I bid you adieu and good night. Until next time!
Sincerely,
Heartforhumanity845