Poppy's perspective

Poppy met branch at the edge of the village the next day. Branch was already there waiting, despite the fact that Poppy was there early. With a skip in a step, Poppy walked up to him and kissed him on the cheek as greeting before grabbing his hand.

"So where are we heading?" Poppy smiled at him.

"Uh...actually..." the sound of his voice made Poppy inspect him closer. Branch wasn't a happy troll, true, but he seemed kind of sad.

"Hmm?" Poppy pressed gently, cocking her head to the side, waiting patiently.

A thoughtful look crossed his face for a second, and then his mood lifted. Kind of. He still looked sad, but the sadness wasn't there.

"...actually...you wouldn't know where it is" Branch looked away, Poppy knew that wasn't what he originally intended to say, but he seemed okay now so Poppy didn't push it. Instead she focused on what he actually said.

"So, not your bunker then?" Poppy really was expecting it to be the bunker, she guessed that her surprise was showing thanks to Branch's reaction.

"What?" Branch's disbelief surprised her, "who would take anyone on a date in a bunker? Heck, who would take anyone on a date in their own home?"

"Creek tried to take me on a date once" Poppy remembered with amusement, "he showed up at my pod and insisted I come with him on a date right that second, then he took me to his pod and we had lunch there. That was the entire date. No candles. No fancy food. Not even a tablecloth."

Branch snorted. He'd actually been so amused that he snorted! Poppy mentally patted herself on the back for bringing up the story.

"Of course Creep doesn't know anything about romance" Poppy could hear the smug amusement in his voice. Then she realised what he said.

Poppy did a better job of holding back her laugh than Branch did. Still, she had to hide her smirk. She shouldn't encourage Branch to talk like that about Creek, but honestly Creek could be a little creepy when he tried to be romantic, she doubted he did it on purpose, it just wasn't Creek's field of expertise.

"Uh, come on" Branch lead her through the forest, not letting go of her hand.

Poppy found herself surprised at how far out they were going. She'd never been so far from her home, yet Branch seemed to know exactly where they were.

It didn't take Poppy long to realise they were going up a hill, or a mountain in troll eyes. They were reaching a point where, if she looked back, she could see the cluster of trees that held their village.

Eventually they stopped at a tree and Branch shot his hair up to the closest branch. Poppy followed his lead and they pulled themselves up. When they landed, Poppy began to giggle.

"What's so funny?" Branch asked, looking at her, confused.

"Branch! You're on a branch!" Poppy found this extremely amusing, "Branch on a branch!"

Branch rolled his eyes at her and went up to the next branch. Poppy kept giggling and followed him, making up a random song about branches as they went. She didn't fail to notice that Branch's annoyed expression also held some amusement. She incorporated it into the song, causing Branch to miss when he shot his hair up again. Poppy had to pause her song to laugh as Branch went ahead.

Eventually they reached a point where Branch stopped on the branch above her and beckoned her up. Confused, Poppy shot her hair up one last time and pulled herself up, gasping in surprise when she saw the set up.

Close to the trunk of the tree, there was a green picnic blanket with a plate and cup for each of them with pillows against the trunk so they wouldn't have to lean against the tough bark. Glowbugs sat comfortably around the branch they were standing on, lighting up the area for when it got dark. And there was a bit of colour just out of her sight.

Poppy moved around to the other side of the branch to see what the colour was from, and was surprised to see flowers! Three of them, one purple, one yellow and one red.

Seeing what she was looking at, Branch rushed to grab the flowers and bring them to her.

"They're poppy flowers" Branch told her as he held them out.

Poppy blinked in surprise, taking them, "I thought they only came in red...?"

"Very few things in nature only come in one colour" Branch informed.

"Wasn't the closest field really far away?" Poppy wondered, gently touching the petals of her namesake.

"Yep" Branch said, some pride showing on his face, "I went to get them right after the party."

"So that's where you were yesterday morning?" Poppy looked up, shocked. When Branch nodded, Poppy looked down guiltily, "now I feel bad for sneaking into your bunker."

"You didn't before?" Branch asked, amused.

"Nope" Poppy laughed, walking up to him and kissing him on the cheek, "thank you Branch, I love them."

"No problem" Branch squeaked out.

"And I LOVE this set up!" Poppy turned to the picnic, gently placing down the flowers before jumping over to the pillows, "and these pillows! Where did you get them? They're adorable!"

The pillows had trees stitched into them with little forests in the backgrounds.

Poppy turned to Branch and saw him blush and rub his neck, "I made them."

Poppy stepped back to him and grabbed him by the shoulders, looking into his eyes seriously, "make me some."

"Uh, sure" Branch seemed weirded out by how serious she became over pillows, but his answer satisfied her and she plopped down on the picnic blanket before leaning against a pillow and sighing happily.

"They're really soft" Poppy commented as the grey troll sat down next to her.

"Thanks" Branch said awkwardly, then he noticed something in the distance, "right on time."

"Hmm?" Poppy looked to Branch for explanation, Branch simply gestured vaguely to something in front of them.

Poppy looked in the direction Branch had directed her to and found herself staring at a bright orange setting sun, which coloured the sky various shades of yellow, red and pink.

I normally don't do this at the ends of chapters but I wanted to be spoiler free. Copying and pasting for the Branch chapter for the readers that skip Poppy's (I know they're there).

Anyway, I'm unsure on whether I should write the full date out on the next two chapters or have a simple flashback and focus on everyone's reactions (by everyone I mean the snack pack's). Leave a review and tell me which you'd prefer. Don't worry, you wont miss out on the Broppy if you chose the latter.