Chapter 59

The group ate together at a large, round table, Poppy sitting Creek next to Brainy before plopping down at his other side. When everyone was seated, Branch was across the way from Creek, which would have bothered him not too long ago but now it was uncomfortable for a different reason. As Poppy carried most of the conversation, Branch would just feel eyes on him and always find Creek staring at him.

When Branch caught Creek staring, Creek didn't look away. His expression was the blank one, which was becoming more common on Creek's face as the day wore on but his eyes were contemplative, as if searching for something in Branch that made Branch want to look away but he just couldn't, the sole bit of color left on Creek in his eyes drawing him in. Each time it was Creek that looked away, attention drawn by something else, usually Poppy asking him a question. Branch wondered if Creek even realized he was staring at Branch or maybe Branch was just in the direction Creek was gazing off into.

"And since Papa says your have some control over your magic," Poppy continued speaking to Creek from her previous thought. "We can probably head home tomorrow once we get your pants from Tailor's. We'll come back for you to have more magic lessons and, bleh, sessions with Therapist Smurf in a week like we're doing for Branch's, bleh, sessions."

"My Poppy, I'm beginning to think you don't like Therapist Smurf," Creek teased though his expression stayed the same, blank. He poked her cheek as she pouted, "Not to upset you but I was thinking that maybe Therapist should come with us to the Troll Tree."

Eyes widening, Poppy looked like Creek had suggested they invite Azrael over for tea, "You can't be serious; why?"

Shrugging, Creek turned back to the food he was picking out, "Therapist Smurf said he'd like to train a Troll in his practice and I thought he should meet some potential candidates."

"Did you have someone in mind?" asked Smurfette.

"Yes actually," Creek nodded, "Though he already has a job so he might not be interested."

"Who were you thinking?" asked Branch.

Again, Creek looked at Branch, the stare shorter this time before he asked, "Do you remember Cinnamon?"

Branch glanced at Brainy, quickly noting that the name didn't register with the Smurf.

At the same time, Poppy grinned, "You mean Cinnamon Roll?"

Sighing, Creek turned to Poppy, "Love, it wasn't funny then and it isn't funny now."

Unable to contain it, Poppy giggled, "But he's too good; too pure for this world."

The Smurfs looked at each other, not understanding the joke.

Looking between them, Branch turned to Creek, "Cinnamon is a very sweet Troll-"

Poppy laughed so hard she snorted.

"-But I'm not sure he would be the best choice for a therapist," said Branch. "Or rather, not your therapist."

"Why ever not?" asked Creek.

"Um," Branch tried to think of the best way to put it, "Wouldn't it be a conflict of interest?"

"Why would it be a conflict of interest?" asked Brainy.

Eyes darting between Creek and Brainy, Branch hesitated to answer.

Realizing what Branch was getting at, Creek turned to Brainy and stated simply, "Cinnamon and I used to date."

Frowning, Branch wondered if it would be insensitive to throw a spoon at Creek for being insensitive.

"Oh," said Brainy slowly, not sure of what else to say. He knew Creek had dated plenty of Trolls but never had a name to one Creek seemed to still think highly of before. The knowledge just caused his heart to ache.

Seeing Brainy's face, Poppy sobered a little and jumped in to change the subject, "So, um, about tonight though. Should the sleeping arrangements stay the same as they have been? Or maybe we should have a giant sleep over at one of the mushrooms?"

"I'd rather be alone," commented Creek.

"Not happening," Poppy and Branch stated together.

Humming, Creek did not reply at first, looking into the contents of his drink, "Is that because you don't trust me to be alone?"

Poppy blinked and immediately asked, "Why wouldn't we?"

Grabbing Poppy's chair, Creek turned it and hugged her tightly.

Hugging back, Poppy smiled through her confusion.

Watching them for a moment, Branch looked over at Hefty, smiling softly when he saw Hefty already looking at him. He reached under the table for Hefty's hand and squeezed it before turning back to Creek, "It's not that we don't trust you Creek." He waited for Creek to look up at him before he continued, "I just know that when I turned gray, all I wanted was to be left alone and, I can see now, that was probably the worst thing for me. We just want to be there for you."

Again, Creek stared at Branch for a moment, then sighed as he turned to Poppy, "I can't say I'm too fond of the idea of a crowd. Would a Troll 'sleep over' be acceptable?"

"Of course!" Poppy grinned, then turned to Branch. "We should make a Creek sandwich."

"Poppy," Creek and Branch spoke her name at the same time. Branch's was in an embarrassed attempt to scold her while Creek was a fond sigh.

Shaking his head, Creek turned to Smurfette, "She doesn't mean half the things she says; at least not in the way that they sound."

Thinking it over, Smurfette absently brushed back some of her hair, "How does it sound?"

Blinking, Creek turned back to Poppy, "She's the perfect girl for you; marry her."

Smurfette blushed as Poppy giggled and practically jumped onto her lap to kiss her.

Shaking his head, a bit, Hefty tried to speak casually, "Well, if they're having a Troll sleep over, why don't we grab Clumsy and have a Smurf one?" He swallowed, "It's been a while since we've all hung out and, um, talked."

The look of concern from Branch, Hefty expected. He knew he was right to listen to Creek's warning when Brainy gave him a similar look, combined with suspicion.

Not suspecting a thing, Smurfette smiled and nodded, "Hopefully Smurf Storm will return Clumsy to us for a bit."

"I hadn't realized that they dating," commented Creek.

"Not officially," said Hefty, "Though they might as well be married with how much they're together nowadays."

"Jealous?" asked Creek, growing a tiny smile when Hefty frowned at him. "I imagine tiny Smurfs will be running around soon enough."

"Um, Smurfs don't have children that way," Brainy blushed as he reminded Creek of that fact.

"Yes, you get yours via bird," nodded Creek, "But that's when all the male and female Smurfs lived in separate villages. Now that you're together you may find you lot can have children via copulation like Trolls can under the right circumstances."

The group stopped and stared at him, even his fellow Trolls.

"What are you talking about?" asked Branch.

Looking between Branch and Poppy, Creek frowned, "I know its not a class in school but surely you know Trolls can have children biologically; why else would we have the parts for it?"

"Physical pleasure?" suggested Poppy, making the entire group stare at her now with varying degrees of blushing, "What?"

Rubbing his temples, Creek shook his head, "Really, the things that come out of your mouth sometimes, Poppy."

"Yeah, Poppy has no filter," commented Hefty, ignoring Poppy's protests, "What were you saying about Trolls, and possibly Smurfs, having kids biologically?"

Raising an eyebrow, Creek eyed Hefty a moment, then shrugged before he began explaining, "My uncle explained it to me. He said that Trolls link with the Troll Tree to have children via the pods through their hair because our people have evolved to consider having a Troll Tree as being safe. The Troll Tree was the safe home base where children could grow while parents could go gather supplies and such without incapacitating or endangering the mother via pregnancy. But if Trolls are away from the Troll Tree for too long, or don't have a connection to one, they can still have children biologically, which is why we've never evolved to 'drop our bits' so to speak. In fact, my great grandmother was a biological child before her tribe joined the one we're part of now."

"Wait, there are different Troll tribes?" asked Brainy.

"Of course," Creek nodded, "There are Troll Tribes all over the world, at least according to my uncle. My great grandmother's tribe left their old tribe because they wanted to explore and met many other Trolls Tribes before settling here, though I'm sure they wouldn't have if they had known about the Bergens that would discover them a couple of decades later."

"Is that why you have an accent?" asked Brainy.

Pausing, Creek considered a more flirtatious response but pushed it back before nodding, "Yes, both my Father and my Uncle carried it on from their mother and her mother before that. There's a few other Trolls with accents I could introduce you to, if you like?"

Brainy frowned and the table got quiet again.

Turning away from Brainy, Creek turned to Hefty, "But my uncle never mentioned male pregnancy being possible so you are out of luck in that arena, I'm afraid."

Both Branch and Hefty blushed a mixture of annoyance and embarrassment.

Sliding off Smurfette's lap, Poppy pulled Creek to his feet, "Maybe we should go before this conversation gets any more uncomfortable?"

After another pause, where Creek seemed to be gauging Hefty this time for something, Creek gave Poppy a nod, "Whatever you say, love."

"Alright, then give Brainy a kiss good night," beamed Poppy.

Creek didn't have to look to know Brainy was blushing, "I thought we were aiming to make things less uncomfortable, not more."

"Come on," Poppy tried to turn Creek back to Brainy but Creek wouldn't budge, "Just lay one on him, you know you want to."

"Unless that's a direct order from, your highness, then the answer is no," Creek frowned at her.

Pouting, Poppy stopped pushing, "Fine, let's go then." She paused to give Smurfette a hug and a kiss good night.

Seeing Branch and Hefty awkwardly look at each other, Creek sighed, wishing they wouldn't act this way in front of him, "I'll wait outside." He hesitated but turned to Brainy and said, "Good night," before heading out.

Brainy remained silent as he watched Creek go, torn between wanting to follow him and give him some space. Sighing, he looked down and fiddled with the table cloth.

Pulling Branch close, Hefty hugged him tightly, kissing him, his cheek and his forehead. He almost couldn't pull back when Branch gave him a secondary squeeze but forced a smile to his mate before pulling back to go talk to Brainy, "Chin up, Brain-man, you'll get through to Creek eventually, just like I did with my stubborn Troll."

"I'm right here, Doofus," Branch rolled his eyes but his voice was fond.

Hefty smiled more genuinely at Branch before turning back to Brainy, putting a hand on his shoulder, "Creek just needs time to heal a bit before he can accept that someone feels that way about him, so don't give up, okay?"

Looking up, Brainy was trying not to frown, "Are you going to tell us how you know so much about these things?"

Without thinking, Hefty's hand squeezed Brainy's shoulder a bit but he sighed, almost in a defeated manner, "Yeah, I am."

Eventually the Smurfs found Clumsy with Smurf Storm and convinced the no-funny-business girl to release Clumsy to them for the evening. When Smurf Storm finally relented, the group thought for sure they'd see a kiss between the two but Stormy only patted Clumsy's shoulder before she left. Still, with how much Clumsy was smiling, you'd think Stormy just finished covering his face with kisses.

For the sleepover they immediately eliminated Brainy's place. The place was too dangerous with all of Brainy's chemicals experiments there. Hety's mushroom was also not an option due to all of his weights and the fact he hadn't had the chance to clean up much yet after his night together with Branch, not that he was going to share that information. That left Smurfette or Clumsy's homes and in the end they decided on Clumsy's since it already had a ton of extra blankets and pillows there from when a Smurf would camp out there to take care of Clumsy if he was injured and the Recovery Mushroom was not available.

"Gee, it feels like ages since we've all done something together," grinned Clumsy as he laid out all the blankets and pillow until they had a giant make-shift bed on the floor for the four of them. "But Stormy's been showing me so many new things; she's pretty amazing." He smiled at the others in a love-sick fashion, "Isn't she amazing?"

"Yeah," Hefty smiled despite the nervous energy building inside of him, "I'm happy for you, Bro."

Grinning, Clumsy half fell into one of the pillows but was unbothered as he looked up at his friends, "I'm happy for you guys too; all of your Troll partners are pretty great."

Smurfettte smiled but then looked over to Brainy in concern, whom had taken to staring at his knees.

"Brainy?" asked Clumsy, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Brainy adjusted his glasses, "Um, Creek isn't my partner though."

Sitting up, Clumsy scratched over his hat, "He isn't? But I thought you liked him."

Sighing, Brainy adjusted so his knees were to his chest, "I do but it's complicated."

"We recently found out that Creek went through something," Smurfette fiddled with her hair, "through something horrible. He's talking to Therapist Smurf but it might be a while before he'll be ready for a relationship."

Clumsy scratched over his hat again, still confused.

Twice, Hefty considered getting up to walk around during this conversation but worried that if he stood, he'd leave, so he kept himself rooted to the spot, "All of that is part of why I wanted to have this sleep over. I wanted, I need to tell you guys something."

Looking up from his knees, Brainy turned his gaze to Hefty. As the final pieces clicked into place he froze but bit his tongue to keep from speaking. All he could do was watch Hefty avoid his gaze.

"What is it Hefty?" asked Clumsy, completely unaware of what it could possibly be.

"It's," Hefty swallowed, "It's not good, but Creek said Brainy was close to figuring it out and it didn't feel right to leave that to Brainy to handle on his own. The three of you are my closest friends and I never wanted any of you to know but I shouldn't have hidden it either. It was my problem, not yours."

"Hefty," Smurfette reached out and put her hand over Hefty's to get his attention, "As you said, we're your friends. Your problems are our problems too."

"Yeah," Clumsy smiled and nodded, "We're Team Smurf, we're in this together."

A slight smile twitched onto Hefty's lips and he slowly turned to meet Brainy's gaze.

Staying silent, Brainy reached out and held Hefty's other hand.

Squeezing back, Hefty took a deep breath and began his story.