I changed my username from billieandbroppy to billie-trolls-writer

More notes at the end of the chapter

Enjoy 3

Everything was shaking. The ground above him rattled. Earthquake? No.

Footsteps. Giant footsteps.

He knew this day would come. He knew this would happen. He tried warning everyone for years. But no one listened.

What was his plan? He was supposed to stay in his bunker- right? That was what he had been planning for practically his whole life? One of the top reasons why he built this entire bunker in the first place?

He was supposed to stay here where it was safe. Where no one would find him. Where no one could take him. Right, yes that was it.

But what about everyone else? What were they to do? All he ever wanted was to keep them safe. He didn't want anyone ever having to go through the same thing his grandmother, or probably his parents did. They all thought he was just crazy. They all told him he "ruined everything." Why didn't they listen? Hot tears started to stream down his face. The Earth shook more and more as the footsteps approached. What was he going to do?

He had imagined this very situation happening every day since he turned gray. Every single night. And now that it was finally happening, he felt so lost. So what now? The entire village!

Everything. Everyone. It would all be destroyed. And his plan was to hide underground. How selfish could he be?

He felt the shaking around him intensify as the bergens walked right over the outside of his bunker. He covered his ears with both his hands and tucked his head between his legs, sulking in deep breaths to cover up him wating to yell. Glass jars fell off of shelves making him flinch.

Fear. Fear was the only emotion within him that he could make out at that moment. The rumbling got louder amd closer and he sqeezed his hands against his head tighter.

Then it was silent.

The only sound being his fast beating heart and his ragged breathing. He stayed near the entrance for what felt like hours. He held on tightly to the wall as if he'd fall if he were to ever let go. Finally, he gathered the courage to go up. He sucked in a shaky breath before completely opening up the entrance.

On his walk to the village, he saw everything was completely wrecked. Pods were torn off of its branches, trees were knocked over.

But worst of all, everyone was gone.

Branch wailed. He wanted to scream. How could he let this happen? He was the only one left. It was all gone.

Amongst all the damage lay a single green headband with blue flowers. Poppy. All he wanted to do was cry. He tried to, but nothing came out. It felt like he could no longer breathe. No- he literally could no longer breathe.

Shooting up from his bed, he tried to catch his breath. Holding onto the edge of the bed frame, he coughed and choked until he could finally get some air in again. His throat burned like hell.

A dream. It was just a bad dream. Branch was no stranger to nightmares. He had them frequently, sometimes even multiple a night. But none had ever left him in actual physical pain. His whole body was shaking. It had felt so real.

He steadily climbed out of bed. The time read 3:32am. Getting dressed, Branch walked back up to the bottom of the elevator. He looked around at all the scratches and carvings he made on the wall. Things like "eat us" and "run".

He walked to the village, much like he did in his dream. Deja vu struck him like a freight train.

Everything was fine. It was all there. The hanging pods, the soft glowing lights. It was all okay. Looking down at his gray hands, he noted how completely out of place he looked with all the bright colors around him. Even in the dark of night there was still color, brightness and joy in the village.

He walked around for a bit while he thought. You just stood there. Hiding in your bunker like a coward, while everyone else suffered. Would he actually do that? Was that actually his plan? He felt himself crumbling. They would be found one day and the only thing that he thought of doing was hiding underground by himself.

He couldn't let anyone else get killed because of him. He wouldn't be able to take it. He sat down putting his arms around his knees and cried.

He didn't care that he was in public, he didn't care if people could hear him. That was the only thing he could do in that moment.

He missed his grandma. He missed his parents. What would they think of him now? He was a wreck.

He let everyone die! Everyone had to suffer a miserable death at the hands of a blood thirsty bergen and it was all his fault.

He sobbed to himself for a long time before he felt a hand on his elbow. His head shot up.

"Branch? Is...everything okay?"

Poppy.

He retreated his head back down to his knees out of pure embarrassment. He felt pathetic.

"Branch. Can you speak to me? Is there anything that I can do? I can go get you some wate-" She tried standing up to go back to her pod but was stopped when she felt a tug on her arm. She looked down to find Branch's hand clinging onto hers. His eyes were red from crying.

"D-dont go" he said in between sniffles. Sure, he really could use some water right now. His throat still burned. But he couldn't let her leave. Not yet. Not when he had just thought that he'd lost her for good.

It was strange, to say the least. Branch was someone Poppy had always saw as strong and he was now crumbling right before her eyes. "Okay." She squeezed the grip on his hand reassuring him that she wasn't going anywhere. "I won't leave you."

They stayed like this for a while. Eventually, Branch stopped trembling and he lifted his head once more. Poppy could sense the embarrassment in his eyes and slowly reached for his other hand.

This was new, she wasn't ever able to even get near Branch without him snapping at her. Whatever happened must have been pretty bad for him to allow me to care for him. He had asked her to stay, and there was no way she was going anywhere until she knew he was okay.

Branch took deep breaths as Poppy explained that she wouldn't ask any questions, and she just wanted to help make sure he was fine. She didn't try to hug him, or make him even more uncomfortable than he probably already was. She just sat there, holding onto his hands.

Poppy tried to lean forward and press her forehead against but and felt him jolt. Okay, so forehead touching was too much physical contact. Noted.

"I'm sorry." Branch's apology came from a weak voice. He shook loose his hands from hers and scooted backwards away from her. He was loosing his vulnerability.

She only wanted to help him. She really hoped that she wouldn't scare him off back to his bunker again, not when he was in this state, and certainly not when she was so close to being able to bond with him. He looked scared, like a lost puppy. He started standing himself up, and Poppy already knew he wasn't coming back.

"Wait please, I just want to help you!"

She was too late. He was already rushing his way back home.

Poppy stood there, the familiar yet unfamiliar feeling of Branch's larger warm hands in hers lingered. Why wouldn't he just let her help? She didn't even know what he was doing in the village so late at night in the first place, or why he was crying so hard. They never spoke of that moment for a while, and she wouldn't get her answers for a very long time.

Im sorry for leaving for months and then having the first thing I come back with be angst--

Buut, I may or may not make a part 2 to this...perhaps...if you all are interested... ;)

Also yeas, I am still working on my main fic I haven't abandoned it yet I have about 90% of the nest chapter written and then there should be one more after that before I can move on and show you guys what else I have planned for future works :)))

So with that being said, please let me know if you want a continuation of this and pretty much anything else you have any questions about or any requests. I'm sorry again and I hope you're all doing wellll.