Chapter Nine: Fast and Furious Queens

Magenta eyes blinked open lazily. Rays of light streamed down from the trees right in her face, making her groan in frustration. The sun itself made her conscious of the time - it was way past the first Hug Time - but she needed to stop that bothersome light and sneak back to the comfort of her warm pillow and drift into a few more hours of sleep.

Her pillow, however, seemed to shift as well, making it impossible to comfortably close her eyes in the new position. Poppy adjusted herself against it, turning around so it was on her back. She felt so cosy and she could almost reach dreamland again when she felt hot puffs of breath on her neck.

At that moment she was completely awake. The events of the night before washed through her rising ambiguous feelings. She had comforted Branch and he had returned the favor. They had kissed and fell asleep in each other's arms. The recollection was the easiest way to calm her pounding heart. They had fallen asleep tangled in each other before, sure… it had been a quick nap, not a whole night, but still… it wasn't new, right?

His arms circled her around the waist, his front was almost completely touching her back and it felt so good, so familiar and… hair, she had never felt so protected before. She could stay there forever, swimming in his scent, concentrating on the way his lips were barely touching her neck….. It was such a heavenly feeling…

But, she needed to pee. Badly.

So, Strategy Number One was to slip away from him as quietly as she could so he wouldn't wake up and save them both from the embarrassment. Easy. First, she unzipped the sleeping bag, using half her arm to do it, since the other was securely pinned because of Branch's own arm holding her. Then she hooked a leg up to slip it through and hold the opening for the other leg.

Good, she was half free. And she was bursting. Slowly, she lifted her upper arm so she could slip under his while holding it up. A very distracting bicep hardened when she was almost out of the sleeping bag, and she felt him bringing her back against him like she was a teddy bear. Was she doomed?

Looking above, she saw a tree not far away from them and decided to go for Strategy Number Two. Using her hair, she reached the tree and circled her pink locks firmly around it. Thinking that if she pulled and slipped out of his arms from above, then maybe he wouldn't protest or wake up. She gripped tightly and pulled, feeling her body slowly moving up and his arms holding tighter, preventing her from going away. It was completely useless.

She was left with Strategy Number Three which consisted of waking him up and facing the embarrassing situation once for all.

"Branch…?"

He muffled a protest against her neck and his hands moved lower.

"Branch, let me up."

"Tired…" he said, still holding her.

"Just lift your arms then…" she squirmed some more, and his hand that had been on her side slipped down on her hip and brought her back to him. That woke him up.

"What?" he instinctively asked, jolting awake and immediately sitting as far as possible from her.

"Oof, thanks," she said, trying to pretend she wasn't equally shocked... Okay, pee… "I'll be right back."

She left him completely frozen in place, staring at her as she disappeared among the trees. Serves him right to wake up startled, she tried being nice, but he wouldn't let go, would he? And it was past the time they were supposed to get back on the road, if they wanted to make it to Volcano Rock City before nightfall.

Briskly, she refreshed herself, splashing the cold water in her face to take the sleep away. Poppy started putting together some scrambled eggs for breakfast. They were going to need their strength for a day of walk laying ahead of them.

"Branchieeee!" she squealed when she hopped back to where they had set up camp. "I'm cooking some scrambled eg-"

"Poppy, go away!" he growled in frustration, still sitting on his sleeping bag.

"Are you okay?" She raised an eyebrow suspiciously. He had never said those words, in that tone, after he had regained his colors.

"Can you just…? - more growls - Okay, turn around."

Poppy did what he asked, but crossed her arms stubbornly. She didn't like it one bit when he ordered her around without giving any explanations.

She heard him stand up.

"Scrambled eggs would be lovely, thanks." And a rustling in the bushes indicated that he had ran off, leaving her by herself in the middle of the camp.

She shook her head. "What a weird boyfriend."

"I am ready!" Poppy called from above and Branch finished his coffee with one big gulp before going up the elevator to meet her. It was early, they had barely grabbed a wink of sleep, but she said she would help him clean the bunker first thing in the morning, and she kept her word. He had to admit, he had never seen someone look so excited with brooms, mops and plastic trash bags.

Unbeknownst to him, she was flipping inside with excitement. Finally, after so many years, she was allowed inside the bunker. She wasn't exactly invited, because she offered to help him, but he didn't deny her! They had actually connected!

"That amount of happiness first thing in the morning is sort of annoying." he said, opening the trapdoor and giving into his old usual ways. It was only when he saw her smile faltering that he realized he had gone too far. "But completely inspiring!" he amended, and her toothy grin was back on her face. He sighed, relieved. "Come inside."

Branch had two buckets and a mop, and he had previously told Poppy he could clean it by himself, but she insisted that hiding everyone in the bunker was her idea, so it was only fair that she helped him put everything back in order.

Her eyes went from curious to desolate as the elevator went down. Her happiness became guilt and concern when she saw all his jars broken on the floor, his ration stock was down to nothing and glitter was all around the walls and floor. He had been the hero of their adventure and in return he had had his home trashed. The crushing guilt was almost too much for her to take

"So, this is the lounge room…" His eyes fixed for a few seconds on a small curtain on the wall where he hid the invitations Poppy had given him. "... and I'll be the one cleaning here, so let's get you in another room." The kitchen was a much safer place for her to be. There were no hidden secrets there.

The kitchen was a mess - probably the messiest place in the whole bunker - and it was nearly impossible walking into it without stumbling on a chair, or on silverware scattered on the ground. The drawers had been removed and used as pieces to build up an imaginary castle for the kids.

"Okay, here I go…" Poppy quietly walked inside. Overlooking the mess, she was surprised at the neat job Branch had done building his home underground. Everything was carved and shaped by hand. It was beautiful. "Where should I put…. everything?"

"Well…" he scratched his head, making his whole hair shake. "I don't really mind, organize it as you please."

"Oh, but this is your home. I mean, do you prefer the silverware on the top drawer or in the middle one? And the pans, do you like them by the stove or in the cupboard…?"

"I just… randomly put things there," he explained, making Poppy look a bit concerned about his methods. "But like I said, you can do as you please."

He left her alone, returning to the lounge room to find a safer place for his secrets. He knew she was going to come in more often. He wanted her to.

Poppy dove into the task at hand with much enthusiasm. The first thing she did was to get a wet cloth and dust off each drawer before getting them back in place. Strategically noticing the position of the stove, she decided to place the silverware in the first drawer on the right, since Branch was right-handed, it would be easier to reach for something while he was cooking.

She cleaned each fork, each knife, each spoon. He didn't have many - after all he never had any guests - and arranged them the best way possible. Then, she moved to the cupboard and cleaned inside, picking up the pieces of glass that had been broken in there. She wanted to do the best job, it was the least she could do for him.

When she finished cleaning everything, with a broken heart she noticed there wasn't a single cup left. The kitchen was shining and smelling good; the chairs were arranged around the table; his floor and walls were spotless But she needed to find a cup!

"Branch! I finished the kitchen," she called, picking up her cleaning items and moving to the store room. It appeared even messier because it was smaller than the kitchen. While she scrubbed and dusted, she wrote down every item that was missing: chocolate, marshmallows, cookies, brownies… then milk, and fruit… He was right. His rations wouldn't last two weeks with everyone in there.

She heard the sound of water flushing, and once she finished aligning the ration jars, she followed the noise until she found him in the bathroom, trying to fix a flooding toilet.

"Oh frosting…" He cursed under this breath when he saw the water going up after trying the flush again. "Can you turn that counterclockwise?" He pointed at a valve, eyes fixed on the toilet. Poppy did as she was told and the water stopped, blocking the supply line.

"How do you get water down here?" She saw the wood carved sink and the stone top. It must have taken him ages to get it as it was.

"I dug deep enough to find a subterranean stream," he explained, "The cleanest water you'll ever drink, by the way - then I installed a pumper and the water goes straight to the sinks."

"Seriously? All by yourself?" Poppy was really impressed. She needed many workers to build a small pipeline from the lagoon to the pods.

He shrugged, still not looking at her. "I had time."

"Well, since it seems you'll be busy for a while, where else can I clean?" She was still excited about helping him. She was tired, but she had energy to go for a couple of hours more.

"You've helped a lot already, Poppy, thanks." Branch didn't look up from the toilet that he was unplugging from the ground to see if the problem was in the sewer pipe. The smell wasn't the best.

"I've cleared my whole agenda to help you… I want to be here," she protested. "Unless I'm bothering you by staying…"

Normally he was going to say that, yes, he was bothered, that he wanted to be alone to fix the toilet in peace, but somehow, those thoughts didn't ring true anymore. He wasn't bothered at all… actually, he was happy that she was there.

"You can go to the bedroom, then…"

"Really?!" she squealed happily, making him chuckle at her misplaced vitality. "I'm not going to see anything compromising, am I?" she said, already out of the door.

"You'll see a lot of leaf vests, brown shorts and white, neatly folded underwear. There's nothing compromising about that."

Actually, he was really proud of his wardrobe organization. What was she expecting? A body under his bed?

Oh Hair, the bed!

Branch cleaned his hands and quickly swung the door open, almost running into her. He saw her standing silently, looking at the bed that she had gifted him years before; still looking like new, with the pillowcase and matching white sheets. He had never shown her how grateful he was to have such comfort.

She was gripping the broom like her life depended on it. He slowly walked around her, noticing that she was just a little smaller than he was. As he tentatively touched her shoulder, she turned to face him with eyes full of unshed tears and a smile so joyful that she looked like someone who had just won a very long battle.

"Poppy…" he whispered, leaning down and pulling her into the first hug he had initiated, "...thank you."

It dawned on him that she had been his friend for a long time, even if he hadn't been hers. He was set on making it up to her. He would go to her parties, he would help her around the village, he would support her through good and bad times… and he would get to know her friends better. If there was something that the whole 'saving Creek' thing showed him, it was that they were good friends. They were loyal and fun.

Somehow it got easier to fix the toilet after that. He put everything back in place and heard Poppy announcing she'd have to go up to ground level for a while, but that she'd be back shortly.

While she was gone, he looked around to see what was left to do. There wasn't anything out of place. The kitchen was shining like he had never seen before. His rations were organized and labeled and his wardrobe was smelling clean. Even his socks were folded. He couldn't believe her!

The elevator started descending and he hurried to meet her. He would have hugged her if she wasn't holding more boxes than she could carry, having to balance them around so they wouldn't fall.

"Careful there," Branch took the top box as soon as she touched the ground. He noticed he needed a handrail around the elevator. She was clumsy and she was bound to visit more often. He curiously looked at the brown box in his hands. "What's all this?"

"I'm sorry, I had to hurry before Sky closed the shop." Poppy put everything down and sat on her ankles, patting the ground next to her so he would join her.

One by one, she opened the boxes and showed him everything she had brought: an extra set of silverware, chocolate, marshmallows, new plates, new sheets… He found himself speechless with each new item she unwrapped.

"Well, and I saw that they broke all your cups…" Poppy explained, "Sky had run out of glasses and there was only one mug left." She picked a single mug with different tones of beige and brown, larger on the bottom and thinner on top. "It's not the most attractive one, but at least you have something to have your coffee in tomorrow. I promise I'll get a new one as soon-"

"Poppy!" Branch silenced her with a finger on her lips, staring at the mug like it was the most precious thing he had ever received. "It's perfect, thank you."

Of course, the next day she showed up with glasses and more mugs, but that beige surely was his favorite.

Volcano territory was very different from Pop. Poppy and Branch noticed the difference when they crossed the first lava river, walking over an iron bridge that looked like it had been rebuilt a few times. Some parts of the handrails had melted down and there was a board covering a hole on the floor that looked like it wasn't going to stay there much longer, longer – it was bright red and melting like molten metal.

Needless to say, Branch almost freaked out at the unsafety of that bridge. His sharp eyes studied every joint and every screw and the fear that the bridge would collapse any moment made him hold hands with Poppy and run as fast as he could. The bridge didn't collapse though, and his girlfriend couldn't help but laugh at his overprotectiveness like she usually did. It was funny - and dangerous - so he ended up joining her.

According to the map, the City was up north and the way towards Moon Island was east, meaning they would be delayed for several hours just to attend a party. But Branch didn't protest anymore; after all Poppy was buzzing with excitement for this one small event. What kind of boyfriend he would be if he didn't make his girl happy, right?

Once, Branch read in a book about the physics of sound that when something moved too fast, the sound would come with delay. It happened with thunder. The light would come and a few moments later the sound of it was heard reverberating through the sky. Well… they didn't hear the approach of a very fast beetle and both almost got run over by it. Falling back on their butts by the side of the road, they saw a black insect speeding forward and, a second later, the buzzing sound followed as if chasing its source.

"What was that?" Poppy asked in confusion, just to almost be hit again by two other insects. This time, Branch noticed each bug had a troll on top of it.

"What the…?" he wondered aloud.

"Poppy! Branch! He-e-eyyy!"

They heard a familiar voice and turned to see Barb flying on a beetle herself, having commanded it to stop so she could talk to them. "What are you pukebirds doing here?"

"Barb!" Poppy squealed at her grinning friend, who high-fived her.

"Have you come to see the race?" Barb asked excitedly.

"What race?" Branch stood up as well, dusting off his clothes.

"What race?" Barb mimicked his puzzled face, making Poppy giggle at the poor impression of her boyfriend. "Only the coolest, hard-rock, furious, super race of them all, boy-toy." At that, Poppy stopped giggling.

"You know… as much I like you, you shouldn't call him boy-"

"Wanna race, popcorn?" Barb nodded her head excitedly, interrupting the pink queen before she could finish what she was going to say. "It would be maaaaaaaad! A race of two queens! Let's race, shall we? Hop on!"

Poppy and Branch exchanged a worried look. It was now that Poppy realised maybe the small detour wasn't the greatest idea. Barb's hands quickly reached down and grabbed the pop queen by the collar of her dress. Branch didn't waste any time and also jumped up on the beetle, settling himself securely behind Poppy so she wouldn't fall.

"I gotta make an announcement!" Barb gave a kick to the insect under her, which roared to life like it had an exhaust system. "With the two of us racing, we'll raise double the funds this year!"

"Wait, funds?" Poppy asked, holding tightly onto Barb as they took off. TThis beetle was crazy fast..

"For the stray trolls in the rehab center." Branch heard Barb saying and leaned forward to pay close attention. "You know how we rage around the lands… if we come across a wanderer; we invite them to come over. Someday I'll show you the center. It's really cool."

The knowledge that Barb did charity didn't sound as strange as it would have during the world tour. The Hard Rock Queen, desperate to make her music the dominant one, initially appeared as the vicious troll they thought she was , but as soon as they learned that she was just seeking her dad's approval, they realised she wasn't so different after all.

With the fast beetle it took them less than twenty minutes to get to the heart of the land. The City was built around the Volcano, with small buildings, houses and stores that fueled their economy with discrete trades. Apparently; the biggest hit was a comic store that had some hard rocker geeks lined up in front to get inside.

"If you had come last week you'd have seen the coolest air guitar competition." Barb laughed, landing her bug in the middle of a dark dusty road. It seemed that the sun didn't shine as bright in the city as other places. The thin smoke of the vulcan covered the sky, creating a grayish atmosphere.

Barb jumped down and Branch carefully slid out of the beetle, raising his arms to catch Poppy on her way down.

"Okay, you two are tooth-rotting sweet, but Popsqueak, you're staying on the beetle," Barb announced, crossing her arms after whistling loudly. "You need to learn how to fly it properly."

Riff came out of a door with an oversized jumpsuit uniform and with water and some food for the beetle. The building he came out from looked like three metallic containers put together, with roll up doors and several tools hanging on the walls inside. It was the perfect pit stop box for beetles.

"Yo!" he said to Branch who replied a puzzled ''S'up' in return.

"So, man," Barb called to Riff, "would you mind showing Branch around? I need to get Popcorn prepared to race!"

"Wait, you girls are racing tonight?" Riff lifted his hat so he could see Barb's face properly.

"Yeah! Spread the word!"

So, with a longing look, Branch watched his Queen hesitantly taking off on the black insect, with Barb laughing excitedly behind her. It was true that she had learned how to pilot those kinds of bugs before, but racing? A real race with an audience and everything? He started feeling uneasy about her safety. When she had her competitive streak ignited, Poppy would turn a blind eye to a few scratches.

.

"So…" the teal troll followed Riff into the pit stop, looking around at all kinds of gizmos they had. "... they at least wear helmets, right?"

"Sure, they do!" The drummer pointed at the wall where a helmet was hanging. It was too big to be for a troll. "Those bugs are very expensive."

"I mean the pilots."

Branch felt exasperated. They cared about the insects, but they didn't seem to give much thought about the trolls riding them. He started taking a good look around. TV monitors showed different angles of the circuit, the finish line seemed to have more than a few cameras aimed at it, and the entrance of the pit stop also had different angles broadcasting on the monitors that could be closely watched.

Riff was welding two pieces of metal together with haphazard sparks flying around. He was using just gloves for it and Branch nearly had a fit.

"Have you ever heard of protective gear? The light itself can burn your eyes." Branch could see there were safety helmets and goggles lying around. So obviously Riff wasn't intent on wearing them.

"They make me sweat." He didn't bother looking away from his job until the two parts were completely joined. He tried it on the chest of a stuffed model of the beetle. "Cool."

"Hm… What are these for?" Branch was impressed with the welding technique, even if the protection wasn't up to scratch.

"It's armor for the beetles." Riff explained, adjusting the metallic plates to see if they were covering the sides completely. "If we cover the different layers of the front skin they fly faster."

Faster… those things were fast enough to leave someone's skin behind at the takeoff. Besides… the absurdity of adding weight to a flying animal was just too much for Branch to keep silent.

"Didn't nature make the insects aerodynamic enough for you?" Branch queried, a small swell of pride rising in his chest. Maybe he had a very criterios brain and he could help them around a bit…

"Do you have a better idea to protect them during a crash?"

"Well… yeah. As a matter of fact, I do."