Poppy gripped Branch's hand tight while they stood on the edge of the balloon basket. His fuzzy cheek rested against hers as they watched the village sail away. Holiday lights faded into tiny glowing specks. Chill winter air whooshed over exposed toes.

"Whoo! Brrr," Branch said. All hyped up by the celebration they'd sorta forgotten how much colder it became at night. Together they hopped into the basket to warm their feet on the cushy floor.

Branch's hand remained clasped with hers. She'd been so worried he'd be upset by his gift, or, er, lack of one. She'd tried hard to think of the perfect thing. Yet Branch didn't like stuff. He was super practical, and when it came to useful tools anything he didn't have he built himself! It made gift-giving a real challenge.

Besides "something useful," the only other thing he asked for was, well.

To spend time together.

"Oh! Here, give me your hand," she said.

Wary this was going to be something sneaky, Branch offered her the hand she'd been holding most of the night.

"No no, the other one."

Ah yes, there it was. The one with the fingers glued together. Poppy took a tiny bottle of liquid and a Q-tip from her hair.

"You actually carry that around with you?" Branch said.

"Believe me, you have no idea how many gluing accidents happen in the run of a day." Holding his wrist, she gently slid the wetted Q-tip between two stuck fingers.

Branch burst into a giggle fit as his palm jerked out of her grip. "Haha! Tickles. Ugh."

She got to watch him bite his lip, squiggle and squirm in order to hold his hand in place while she fluffed the cotton tip along the crease. With a little patience she brushed the Q-tip deeper. Brush, brush. Branch was dying, scrunching his toes and making all kinds of repressed muffled squeaks, but eventually the glue holding his fuzz together dissolved. "Aaaand done!" she said.

He took his hand back, wiggling his fingers. "Never doing that again."

"Don't worry. You can pay me back when I get my whole hand glued together. Totally doesn't happen on a daily basis, I promise." She capped the bottle and put it away.

Apart from the disappointment that she couldn't find a present special enough for her special troll, she was calling this Secret Holiday Gift Swap a success. "A holiday song swap for next year really is the perfect idea," she said. "Ooo! We should mix up the invitations so everyone gets a troll in a different genre than their own."

Branch chuckled. "You're always thinking about work."

"It's not work, it's fun!"

"Mmm."

She often dragged him along without permission. "You don't mind helping with queen tasks, do you? You don't have to…"

"Oh no no no, it's not that. I just… heh. Sometimes I want to be together when we're not doing anything."

"What, no hug time or singing or dancing?"

"Yep. Just you and me," he echoed, giving her a playful nudge.

Wow. When were trolls not doing any of those things? She sang in the morning while she showered and danced throughout the day. Official hug time stopped when the sun went down. The only calm spot she had was getting ready for bed and sleeping—assuming there wasn't a sleepover. Ohmygosh, did Branch want to sleep with her? Wait, no, that's not what she meant! Not like that!

Her face went red.

Branch's gaze flitted around nervously. "What? What did I say?"

Um. She wrung the balloon basket rim. Fibers crunched under her hands. She did not want to freak him out. "Being queen doesn't leave me with a ton of private time. I have some at night before bed."

"Oh." He paused. "Wait, is that an invitation?"

"No! I mean, yes, er, no, if you want. You can. Come over sometimes. It'll be like camping. Yeah we've totally done that before, right? Like, so many times."

He caught her intimate train of thought. Branch's shocked eyes grew wider and wider. "What? Oh. I didn't mean—it's your alone time—I wasn't trying to. I mean I'm not saying no. Because I want to."

Equally flustered Poppy stared back. He wanted to what? Already?

"Visit! I want to visit. Not the other thing." He stumbled over the topic. "Not that I don't want to eventually. I'm not. I." Embarrassed out of his mind he hid his face in his hands. "Throw me overboard now."

One pair of fingers parted so he could peek at her through the cage of his big hands. He really was the cutest. The velvet bowtie put the cherry on top.

"You can visit any time you want," she said to rescue them from the conversation. "Preferably not at 2:00 in the morning with a guitar. Val has that one covered."

He laughed weakly. "I think I can avoid that."

"We can even have a secret knock!"

Branch's eyebrows went up in the way they did when he was biting back a smart remark.

"What? You want to say something sarcastic. I can tell."

"No, it's nothing."

A sly grin quirked her lips. She tickled her fingers over the velvet bowtie. "Saaay it Branchifer."

His wide smile was absolutely delightful. "I thought you banging on my doorway was your secret knock."

"You have a boulder for a doorway. And the bunker's so big. How do I know you'll hear me otherwise?"

He opened his mouth. Closed it. "You do have a point."

"Right, so, secret knock." She pulled the cowbell from her hair and tapped out, I'm in Luck, I'm In Luck, I'm In Luck.

"Sounds good to me," Branch said, stretching and making his way to the tall side of the balloon basket. He put his back against the wall and slid down to sit with a sigh.

Poppy hopped over. One neat twirl and she plopped down beside him.

Deep wintry blue had taken over the skies, suffused with the glow of a full moon and hundreds of shining stars. Pure quiet hushed the atmosphere. It was like a magical journey just for the two of them.

Chill air nudged Poppy closer to Branch. The unique velvet texture of his shorts brushed against her leg. Side by side they watched the stars.

Now seemed as good a time as any.

"Here," Poppy said. "I got you these."

She removed the heart-shaped box from her hair. Holiday greens and reds and twizzly ribbons decorated the box. An arrangement of pinecone and holly mixed with the bow on top.

Surprised, Branch placed the box in his lap. A finger traced the pinecone's spiny texture. For a couple seconds he marveled at the decor as if by studying it he might be able to piece together its magic. Then his curiosity shifted into dry humor.

"Poppy," he said in his skeptic's voice, "You couldn't figure out what to give me but you brought me chocolates?"

She waved her hand. "Psh. Chocolates barely qualify as a gift. I was going to give them to you anyway, so they don't count."

"Right."

He slipped the cover off. Each chocolate had its own little compartment. The sweets were the fancy kind with all the different fun shapes and fillings.

"Which one's your favorite?" he asked.

She pointed out the chocolate shaped like a ribbon-wrapped gift box. It had strawberry buttercream filling.

Branch popped it out and ate it.

Poppy gaped. "Hey!" And here she thought he was going to share! She rocked her shoulder against Branch's, but he just smirked while chewing and moved the box where she couldn't reach it.

This troll…!

He swallowed and rustled through the heart container. "Okay," he said. "Close your eyes. It's a surprise."

She could hardly scheme a good comeback when he looked as hopeful as he did now. "You're lucky you're so adorable. Alright, I trust you..."

Poppy rested her eyes and giddily waited for the unexpected. She could feel Branch shift next to her. Felt vest leaves rubbed her arm and his ear tickled though her bangs.

In the dark she felt, rather than saw, the shadow of a presence approach her face. A small hard circle landed on her lips. Its cold smoothness took her by surprise.

Her eyes popped open to see Branch had reached over to hold a chocolate to her mouth. Blurry aquamarine flocking supported the candy. It was supposed to be romantic but in reality the experience was super quirky!

Giggling back memories of dream sushi, she loosened enough to get the candy into her mouth. For a fraction of a second Branch's fingertips pressed to her lips. Haha, oh, this was weird! She held the chocolate in her cheek and muffled, "That feels funny."

"Too much?" he asked, bringing the box back to his lap and looking apologetic.

"No. Look." Caramel and chocolate melted in her mouth the more she spoke. With a silly grin she scooted around to face Branch better. She nabbed a new chocolate out of the box.

Blue eyes followed her hand as she guided the morsel forward. She felt so silly doing it, like they were playing imaginary romance. The chocolate tapped against his lips. Wow, it'd be even more bizarre if he didn't eat it now. What would she do? Hang out here holding a candy against his face?

Branch's smile held but his brows dropped into the flat Poppy-being-ridiculous line. He lipped the chocolate out of her grasp. "Okay. It's weird," he said through the mouthful.

"I know, right?" She eagerly tilted forward. "Do it again!"

In good humor he snorted and rolled his eyes, choosing to play along and pick out another chocolate. Now they were being ridiculous together. Branch lightly placed the treat to her lips. She refused to eat it. He raised an eyebrow and applied more pressure into her dumb grin.

She didn't take the chocolate. Against her skin it heated up and started to turn slippery. Branch tried to wiggle it in, but it only resulted in a growing splotch of chocolate lip gloss. His gaze flicked between her and the chocolate as he tried to think of some clever way to outwit her. Poppy found the entire charade extremely amusing.

She nommed the messy sweet out of his fingers. Tasty rich flavor skirted her mouth. She worked at licking it away.

Meanwhile Branch studied the chocolate tray and then chose one moulded into a music note. He savored the taste before saying, "We need to stop or there won't be any left."

Uh-huh. Poppy nodded and eyed the remaining treats. Branch let her pick one.

They ate the entire box.

"Poppy, does anything go according to plan when you're around?"

"Oh, that's easy. I don't plan."

"I've noticed." But he was smiling as he stored the heart box in his hair. She wondered if he might keep it with his card collection.

His hand emerged with a clipboard and pencil. He hung the pencil at the corner of his mouth while he flipped a few pages. Then he scratched an X into the paper. "So, feeding each other is a definite 'no.'"

She snorted. "Come on, it wasn't that bad."

"You said the same thing after your foot got caught in a puffalo bridle and you were dragged through Rhyme-a-Saurus Swamp. For two hours."

"And I stand by what I said. Not that bad."

"Ooo-kay. Let me rephrase. Was it your favorite? Top two-hundred?"

She massaged the back of her head. "Well…"

Smug Branch. "I didn't think so."

Poppy situated herself sitting beside Branch again, the balloon basket wall sheltering them from the night. She tried to peer around the clipboard on the pretense she wanted to see his notes… which, she did. But also she wondered how much of a side-cuddle she could get before he noticed. "What is this anyway?" she asked, mashing up against his warm fuzziness.

He folded the clipboard to his chest. "It's kind of embarrassing."

Fair. She wiggled deeper. Legwarmers shuffled against the fiber floor. He was so cozy! If only she had a blanket to shut out the winter air.

Branch steeled himself with a sigh and let the clipboard drift back into view. "It's a list of couples' activities. I tried to get suggestions from at least one troll in every genre. Some of it is pretty crazy."

"Branch!" she teased. "You don't need a giant list of stuff for us to do."

"I don't need it. At least not yet." His fond smile faded. "Eventually I'm going to run out of ideas and I'm trying to prepare for when it happens."

Poppy played with one of his hands. "You're worried about that?"

Branch had his head tilted to watch the starry sky, no smile. His ears sank the tiniest bit. "I don't want you to get bored of me," he said quietly.

Oh, Branch. When he made himself vulnerable she wanted to scoop him up and squeeze him to her heart and protect him at all costs. "Hey," she said, guiding his chin down with a finger. Uncertain eyes met hers. "That's not going to happen."

She could listen to one song on repeat for ten hours. She'd had the same best friends her whole life. She wasn't going to grow bored of the guy who could be such a complete contrast to everything else. Get comfortable with him? Sure. Bored? Nah.

He lightly huffed out a half smile. She could tell he didn't 100% believe her, but the reassurance made him feel a little better. Poppy glided her fingers up to his cheek. His half smile widened.

"If we do get bored we can always—" she crawled further into his lap and read "—'deep sea dive for pearls.'" Huh. "What's a pearl?'

"It's like a round, smooth jewel. King Trollex says its customary for techno trolls in love to look for a pearl together. He sounded kinda serious about it." Branch flipped the page. "There were a lot of other less intense ideas. Seaweed picking, coral shopping, turtle surfing, raves."

Poppy daydreamed about pearls while cuddled partway in Branch's lap. He flicked through the checklist to mark off a few other things. Each time he moved she felt muscles tense and flex underneath her. It was silent save the ruffle of paper and occasional scratch.

Happily lying there she thought it might not be such a bad thing to be bored, because this was kinda nice. Maybe if he came for night visits he'd let her sprawl over his legs while he wrote. Or he could lay across her lap while she read a scrapbook.

When she got back to her pod tonight she was going to read his holiday swap gift at least twice… assuming she could look at the glitter spattered You Make Me Happy without crying. She'd had to close the book there on stage.

Wow. Today had been amazing.

...

Her snuggly pillow wiggled gently. Branch's voice was soft and close. "Hey, you're not falling asleep on me are you?"

"Huh? Oh. No," she whispered, cracking her eyes open. "Maybe." Past the peaks of teal toes she saw the far edge of the balloon basket and the night sky. Something shimmered in the blackness. Lots of somethings!

Gasping in amazement she jumped up and raced to the edge.

The night skies of Symphonyville were full of gold and glitter. Ethereal musical scores faded in and out of existence, their five line staffs slowly rolling in shining ripples across the sky. Sparkling white gold contrasted against the black canvas.

Poppy leaned out until she could no longer see the balloon. The entire world became musical light in the dark. "It's beautiful," she breathed, the cold crystals of her words puffing into the night.

"Yeah. Beautiful," Branch whispered, coming up beside her. He'd put his earmuffs back on.

"How did we not know this was here? It's amazing."

"It wasn't exactly safe to come out of hiding before."

"But it's safe now. Oh man, think of all the things we must be missing."

"I wouldn't say it's safe…"

Poppy settled down on her heels and tipped her head to give Branch a uh-huh-sure grin. He smiled back. They jostled each other, but at the end of the day neither of them had a ton of energy for it. A bump in the arm instead became a light nudge. Grasping for a hand turned into hers settling over top of his. His head rested against hers, soft green earmuff covering her skin.

At the edge of the balloon overlook they cozied into each other. Music shimmered in the sky. Poppy nuzzled her cheek against Branch's. He pressed closer, keeping her warm.

She felt like the luckiest star in the whole world.

x x x

The balloon returned them to Trollstopia long past bedtime, landing beside the root platform at the base of their home tree. Pod lights were off. Holiday lights glowed in the darkness, their colors softly reflected off thin white snow. It was quiet.

Time to say goodnight.

"I'll walk you home," they both said at once. Then laughed. Okay.

Poppy let Branch have this one.

They walked through the hushed village, trailing footprints in the crispy layer of snow, fingers intertwined. A strange feeling of yearning started to build in Poppy's heart. Like maybe she should kiss him again. Like maybe she should ask him to stay tonight.

Around them decorations passed by. Giant presents and sparkling snowflakes and glowing colors left one by one. Slow as she walked her pod showed up too soon.

They stood in front of it, facing each other. Both of their hands were linked. They stared at them.

"Thanks for today," she said.

"Yeah…"

They fiddled with each other's palms. She watched their colors play together. Felt the texture of his flocking. Surprisingly soft, like him.

"Um," Branch said, tracing the line of one of her fingers.

The light exploration stopped. Their hands clasped, fingers meshed, no longer fidgeting. Neither wanted to let go.

Poppy felt the faintest pressure in Branch's direction. He gingerly lowered their joined hands to draw her closer. She followed.

Suddenly bashful she fixed her gaze on the shrinking gap. Leafy vest filled her view like it did right before a hug, except this time there was no hug. He led her right to him.

Their faces were almost touching. She felt his feathered breath on her cheek, heard his slight inhale. His grip tightened the tiniest fraction.

Gentle lips pressed to her cheek.

He didn't rush. The kiss lingered. A hot, tickly sensation spread over the spot. It was so sweet and so good she couldn't help her giggle. She squeezed Branch's hands. His lips pressed a little more deeply. A warm exhale fanned over her skin before he pulled away.

Even without touching the heat of the kiss remained. Both her cheeks were aglow from it. She couldn't stop smiling.

Shy crinkles teased the corners of Branch's eyes. "See you tomorrow?"

She gave his hands another loving squeeze before finally letting go. "See you tomorrow."

Poppy stood on the snow covered limb and watched Branch head to the bunker. He looked over his shoulder a few times.

Only when she couldn't see him anymore did she go inside.