This is not what I expect from someone that I love.
Branch sighed wearily when the duo left the room, uncrossing his arms as he ran a hand through his onyx blue hair. The grey troll spared a glance towards the clock by the entryway, noting the positions of its hands. Nearly noon, he thought with a wince. It was around noon when the Minty Menace, (as he liked to call her), flounced her way into his presence, bringing crushing despair and burning agony alongside her vile-smelling disinfectant. He huffed and crossed his arms at the thought of the tiny doctor, the little cretin.
Rolling his eyes, he glanced over his reflection in the mirror, gazing into his own vibrant, electric blue eyes. Wait. He did a double take. What the…?! The baffled troll gaped at his mirror self, staring in awe at the bright colors adorning his eyes. A deep blue color, bordering indigo, ringed his irises, fading in intensity as it approached his pupil where a starburst of silver fanned around its blackness. I...I'm dreaming, he realized, feeling a faint twinge of disappointment as releasing a breath he had been holding. Then he pinched himself.
Ow.
…
Maybe not?
His stomach twisted and churned while Branch gulped, frowning in confusion at his reflection, who merely glared back. He looked down at his hands, dimly noting their soft blue hue as he turned them over and back, almost desperately searching for even the faintest splotch of familiar grey skin, only to find nothing. His clothes too, looked brighter, taking on the appearance of fresh foliage.
My colors..they're coming back…
A flush of excitement settled atop his cheeks and he smiled at the blossoming of color adorning his features. His body seemed to hum with a warm, gentle kind of happiness. Not so jumpy, bubbly like Poppy, but a cooler type of joy that was distinctly himself.
"Are you okay?" the doctor's worried voice asked behind him and he jumped at the sound, turning his head to peer down at her as she rolled a food trolley into the room.
"Yeah," Branch replied, wandering over, gazing at the drawers of the cart warily, "Why?" Mint's lips twitched as she worked to keep a smile from her face, the muscle in her jaw flexing and unflexing in her efforts.
"You're looking a little blue," she said, dropping the act and grinning madly. She promptly burst out laughing as Branch stared her, expression scrunched in confusion.
"What…?" The doctor only laughed harder. Branch watched as she crumpled to the floor in uncontrollable giggles. What really appalled him was the tickling urge to laugh as well that rose from deep within his chest. He suppressed it, however, but allowed himself to give a her confused, lopsided smile. Mint's laughter finally subsided after several minutes of obnoxious snorting, giggling, and wheezing.
"Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo, okay!" The doctor said breezily, her loopy expression instantaneously shifting into an eerie look of calm as she leveled a coolly smug gaze at him. "Bandage Time."
Branch groaned.
This time, much to Branch's relief, the bandage changing process didn't hurt much at all. There were no "accidental" stab wounds from any sort of knife or scissors, no unnecessary prodding at his wound to make him flinch and hiss, no ridiculous amount of bacterial disinfectant to make his injury sting on purpose (though that might not be a problem now that his cut had scabbed over), not even a single teasing remark was made about his "painfully obvious infatuation with the princess." (Her words, not his.)
Mint's cool, smug replacement attitude however, was still quite the stressor. The sneaky glances and stifled snickers only furthered his suspicions that sometime very soon, she was going to ask him something rather-
"Hey, Branch?"
Here it comes. He stiffened a little as the doctor dabbed around the mostly healed cut with the cold disinfectant.
"What?" His muscles were stiffening, shrinking him away from Mint's malicious smirk.
"Knock, knock."
…
"What?"
"Knock, knock!" Branch openly gaped at her for a long moment. Then his gaze narrowed suspiciously, eyeing her oh-so-innocent, sugary sweet smile.
"No," he replied in a flat tone. The doctor stuck her tongue out at him and poked the scarring edges of his wound, eliciting hissing and swatting from the other troll. "Stop that!"
"Knock, knock!" The little mongrel insisted.
"Ugh, fine!" Branch relented, "Who's there?" The grin the bloomed onto her face made him regret his decision immediately.
"Hatch."
"Hatch who?"
"Gesundheit." At his disgusted grimace, she commenced to falling to the ground in fit of uncontainable giggles while he sat up and sighed, peering irritably down at her.
Thirty minutes later had him freshly wrapped in bandages and significantly peeved by the onslaught of terrible jokes, the last of which Mint was still snickering about. Branch grumbled inaudibly beneath his breath, arms crossed as he muttered unflattering comments towards the doctor, who still had that infuriating smirk plastered across her face as she put away her things.
She glanced at his fuming form every now and again, and he always met her gaze with a glare. She either responded with a snort, eyeroll, or a razzberry. This time it was the former two. After she turned away again, a soft, companionable silence lapsed between them as she busied herself once morse with setting her trolley to rights. It had look quite messier than normal when she had walked in here earlier. Probably from this morning, he thought to himself. She'd mentioned that she took care of fussier patients in the mornings. He wasn't sure if she considered him a morning patient, but he liked to think that he wasn't quite as difficult to deal with than whoever put her trolley in disarray.
"So," she said, cutting into his inner musings, "when're you gonna ask out Poppy?" He promptly choked on the air he inhaled sharply.
Coughing harshly, he managed to strain out a strangled, "What?!" Mint merely rolled her eyes.
"Come on, lover boy." She rolled her eyes. "It's obvious that you're head over heels for her. I'm just asking when you're gonna make a move, that's all." Branch clenched his fists in his jacket, his cheeks becoming tinged with indigo.
"I don't-"
"Admit it Branch, you can't even try to deny it. You were sleeping with her this morning." Can't argue with that logic, he thought begrudgingly, feeling the flush in his cheeks creep up to his ears as he averted his gaze away from smirking troll. Branch gulped uncomfortably, finding himself unable to deny the truth. He just hoped Mint had a patient confidentiality policy.
"Alright!" He finally huffed exasperatedly before grumbling, "I like Poppy." That irritatingly smug smirk was so swiftly replaced by a genuinely happy smile that Branch had to blink a few times until he realized her expression changed.
"That wasn't so hard, was it?" The doctor asked, her tone still chipper and incredibly annoying, "Now, step two: Get the girl." The grey troll stared at her blankly for a long moment. Mint obnoxiously grinned back.
Without another word, Branch got up and walked out of the room. She blinked after him, watching in surprise as he disappeared behind the viney entranceway.
"Hey!" She cried in outrage after realizing what had happened, standing and racing through the curtains. "Get back here!"
So, how're the patients doing?" Guy Diamond inquired as they walked away from the diminishing crowd, startling Poppy out of her thoughts. She gave an awkward chuckle to hide her jumpy reaction.
"O-oh, they're getting better. They receive a lot of care and love from the workers, the children patients especially. They're in good hands," she replied with a bright smile. The princess looked ahead once more, asking, "Where are we going now?"
"The rest of the Pack wanted to hang with you down by the Meadow Springs," he said, adding with a sheepish smile and gesture towards her clothes, "You don't have to swim if you don't want to. We know how much you love your dress."
Poppy's smile softened, her gaze flicking down at the felty blue material. It was your mother's, she remembered her father saying fondly, You look lovely sweetheart. His smile looked sad, as if he were remembering something, his eyes holding a faint watery shine. She would never forgive herself if she were to ruin it. The princess raised her eyes to Guy again, shrugging a shoulder.
"It's alright," she responded, toying with the hem with her fingertips, "I could just take it off." Guy shrugged, but didn't comment as they neared the edge of the village, both trolls ducking into the thick bushes concealing the path to the Meadow Springs. The trail was worn by years of use, void of plant life and littered with small stones half buried by powdery dirt. They continued their hike ducking beneath stray fronds and stepping over fallen twigs and large rocks.
"So, why were you visiting Branch?" Guy asked conversationally, adding, "the usual stuff aside." He noted Poppy's start and reddened cheeks at the topic with raised eyebrows and piqued interest. Her nervous laugh was also startling. He'd never heard laugh like that.
"Uh, heh, w-well," she stammered, reaching back a hand to scratch the back of her neck, "I guess I just, uh..wanted to thank him for…" She glanced toward the path, her expression softening, "...y'know..saving my life." Guy Diamond felt a pang of guilt poke at the back of his mind. He supposed he should have thanked Branch too. Without the grumpy grey troll, Poppy wouldn't be walking next to him. In fact, nearly an eighth of the village at least would be six feet under as well, and that's being optimistic with the numbers. Instead, of course, he'd mocked and insulted the anxious troll. Alost never out loud, yeah, but he still did it. Guy sighed inwardly. Branch may be grumpy and mean and unenthusiastic about pretty much anything "troll-like", but Guy couldn't deny that the grey troll was a good person, inside at least. The sparkly troll was so lost in thought that he hadn't realized that Poppy had been speaking.
"...and he hugged me back! Though he did seem really awkward about it. I'll just have to hug him more, then he should start to get used to it. Right, Guy?" Guy Diamond blinked and looked over at the exuberant pink troll.
Flushing with embarrassment and shame for not hearing a smile word his friend said, Guy replied, "Sure." That seemed to be the answer Poppy was looking for, because she brightened even further. Literally. Her smile was wide across her cheeks, eyes shining with excitement as she washed her surroundings with jubilant pink glow that seemed to emanate from her body. Surprise was undoubtedly etched into every corner of Guy's face as he gaped at her, unable to recall a time where he had ever seen her so happy. What was she even talking to him about? Surely the mysterious topic was the one behind her nervous stuttering and joyous glowing. He cursed himself for not knowing. Poppy let out a giggle, garnering the sparkly troll's attention as she began to skip forward.
"C'mon Guy!" She called behind her, "We're almost there!" Sighing with a small smile, Guy picked up the pace behind her and was soon running beside her. She still skipped, somehow keeping up with him despite the inefficiency of the movement. Probably due to her physically fit body. Guy Diamond winced inwardly, the existence of his beer belly and love handles becoming all too noticeable. Maybe he should work out. He snorted to himself at the incredulousness of the notion. Nah. He was cuter and cuddlier just the way he was.
The duo skittered along the dusty path, inching closer and closer to the meadow. Music flittered faintly in the air, an undertone of jubilant chatter mingling with the upbeat tones. The musky scent of damp foliage clung to the cool forest air as they neared the last bush separating them from the springs. The two trolls grinned at one another before bursting with happy shouts through the leaves into the hot and humid clearing.
For the record, this long awaited update was not entirely my fault. I'm sure you don't care for details, I'm just putting it out there that this story would've been updated a long, long time ago if SOMEONE (my brother) didn't take AND HIDE the ONLY THING I WRITE ON (my iPad).
Also, I would like to point out that this story is T-rated for several reasons.
Swearing; The characters in this story swear, mainly within their own minds, but the adult characters may let a few slip out. I realize that there are young readers on Fanfiction, but there are worse things on the Internet that I can't stop from encountering strong language so I don't see the point in censorship because this is a T-rated story for goodness sake. If children are reading this, then I hope you take note of any S.A.T. words 'cause you'll need 'em when you're older. And to anyone still opposed to my response, I will try to cut back on swearing, I guess. I mean, I have no sympathy for any innocent-minded child who stumbles across a story with a shit-talking author who drops the f-bomb every...(psst, have I used the f-bomb in any chapter yet? Author's notes aside of course.) Anyway, I have no sympathy because I read my first smut fic when I was eleven. Granted that was a terrible idea because I literally died laughing because that's really what they do? Why would anyone wanna do that?! It's so stupid! Yeah, no fucks given here with swearing a'ight?
Death is also present in this story by the way. Granted the only deaths that have taken place so far are within someone's mind and were written out in five words or less, but that shouldn't take away from the gravity of the point. So, uh, trigger warning?
Anyway, here's the update that should have come but didn't.
*glances at reviews*
...
*sweatdrops*
Heh...heh...
*runs*
