Every time I fall asleep, I scream 'cause you're not there...


The next morning dredged up memories from the previous night as Branch struggled to rise from his bed, fighting to ignore the shooting pains that bolted like lightning across his bandaged chest. He wheezed a sigh through his teeth, frowning in thought while he settled himself against the headboard.

What had Poppy been doing? Watching him while he was sleeping? A very unnerving concept, he knew. One he really hoped wasn't the case. If it was, the princess had better give him a really, really good reason as to why the next time he encountered her.

Why?

Well...

Watching people sleep is a little creepy.

Branch shook his head, shoving the thoughts away as his stomach grumbled with hunger. Pushing away the covers with his feet, the grey troll carefully maneuvered himself to the edge of his bed, shakily slipping from the mattress to the floor. His feet wobbled where they rested, and he grimaced as he went to stand.

He faintly remembered the events before getting hurt, how he had shoved Princess Poppy away from a massive fagrin before a sharp, white-hot pain nearly rendered him unconscious. And then… Branch frowned again, his jumbled memories seeming to slip from his grasp.

What happened after that?

He was sure he did something, but what was it?

With a humph, he abandoned the train of thought before gingerly making his way from his room. He would try to remember later. For now, he was starving.

Roughly ten minutes of limping through twisting hallways, five more minutes of rest when the burning of his wound became too great to bear, brought him face to face with a small, mint green troll with a white headband and what appeared to be a labcoat. A doctor, Branch remembered. Or maybe a nurse? The troll glanced at him as he trudged by, before doing a double take.

"Hey!" She cried shrilly, her expression immediately contorting in outrage, "what are you doing out of bed?!" Branch flinched away in surprise, taken aback.

"H-huh?"

"You! Go back to your room!" She hissed, making a shooing gesture at him. "I swear, if you open up those stitches of yours again, I'm gonna have you keelhauled!" Had the minty troll not been a good inch shorter than him, nor had a voice higher pitched than some children, nor was wholly unintimidating, he might have been scared. Clearly that wasn't the case, so in lieu of feeling fear, he merely stared at her blankly. The little doctor gave a short, irritated sigh.

"What?" She huffed, "Are you hungry or something? Is that why you left your room?" Branch bit the inside of his cheek, suddenly feeling awkward and embarrassed, irritation twinging at the head. He nodded slightly, glancing away from her scathing glare. She gave a grunt of acknowledgement and shooed at him again.

"I'll bring over some berries and grains when I go change your bandages. Now scram!" She ordered, jabbing her pointer finger back down the hallway. Huffing beneath his breath, Branch turned and limped down the hallway as fast as he could, his injury throbbing annoyingly at every movement. Seeing his obvious discomfort, the smaller troll loudly added, "And be careful!"

Branch rolled his eyes and slowed his pace, feeling his chest protest against the previous amount of exertion. Trudging irritably into his room, the grey troll eased himself onto the bed, laid back and let his eyelids droop. He'd barely done anything that day, a mere twenty minute walk and yet, he felt as if he'd just run a marathon. Which made absolutely no sense! He wasn't that hurt!

Okay, that might not be true. Branch didn't really know the extent of his injuries, in all honesty. Not that he really had the chance to ask anyway. He sighed, rubbing his face with a groan.

A few minutes later, the little green troll rolled a trolley into the room, food piled high upon its surface. She was scowling, pieces of her hair drooping and dangling in front of her face. Branch quickly made to sit up, gasping at the bolt of pain that ran through his chest at the movement. He collapsed back onto the bed as the doctor troll groan irritably.

"Don't move," she commanded as she padded over, a few large berries cradled delicately in her little arms before they were dropped unceremoniously onto his leafy blankets. The mint green troll sniffed and grunted "eat" before wandering away and pilfering through the drawers of her trolley.

Branch obeyed swiftly, snatching the blueberries from the pile first, sniffing them for poison before scarfing them down. He sighed with relief as the tangy, sweet juice ran down his throat, his tongue sifting through the pulp to weed out the seeds and spit them out. Next he grabbed the strawberries, and the process repeated until all that was left was a sunflower seed, which the doctor plucked from his fingers and devoured. At his look of indignation, she gave him a deadpan look that could have rivaled his own.

"Hey, I haven't eaten tripe all morning and sunflower seeds are my favorite. You can eat more later, but for now I gotta change your bandages," she said, holding up a massive wheel of white cloth. Branch grunted in reply.

Several swears, alcohol stings, bandaging, badgering, and many angry mutters later, Branch was glaring up at the ceiling with a new set of clean bandage wrap. His injury throbbed steady, pulsing with heat and agony. The disinfectant really went all out on his poor little gash, stinging so sharply he had actually cried out and flinched heavily away, prompting the irritated little mint troll to snap and yell at him for three minutes straight.

"Thanks," he ground out to the doctor, turning his head to gaze at her. She glanced back.

"Yeah, no problem," she returned, tipping her hat and wandering to the door. She gave him one last look before leaving, saying, "If I catch you outside your room again today, I might not be so nice when I change your bandages again, clear?"

"Transparent," he monotoned with a roll of his eyes. The mint troll humphed and left, the curtain of vines swishing quietly in her wake. Staring after her, Branch gave snort.

"That was what she called nice?" He asked beneath his breath to nobody in particular. "Man, I can't wait to see one of her bad days."


Disclaimer: Yada, yada, yada we get it.

A/N: In addition to the update frequencies mentioned in the last chapter, chapter lengths also vary. Honestly, everything about everything really depends on if I'm feelin' it or not. Unfortunately for everything about everything, I'm grotesquely unorthodox and rather unpredictable even for myself.