Chapter 69

After Brainy and Creek left Tailors, the rest of the group split up to prepare to return to the Troll Tree. Clumsy volunteered to ask Therapist to join them and the rest headed to their respective mushrooms to pack.

Almost the moment the door was closed behind them, Hefty locked the door and took Branch into his arms, just holding him.

Raising his arms, Branch simply held him back.

"Smurf it all Branch," Hefty sighed, breathing in Branch's hair, "You have no idea how happy I was to wake up this morning and see you there."

"As happy as I was that Smurfs don't lock their doors?" asked Branch, sparing the door a glance. "At least not most of the time?"

Chuckling, Hefty nuzzled Branch and kissed his forehead, "There's not reason to," he grinned, "Most of the time."

Rolling his eyes, Branch wiggled a little in Hefty's hold, trying hard not to smile when Hefty tightened his embrace, "We don't have time for that."

"Oh, and what's that?" asked Hefty, leaning down to kiss Branch.

Humming into the kiss, Branch kept it short, to lessen temptation, "You know perfectly well what. We only have an hour and I need to be able to walk later."

"I could carry you," Hefty offered, kissing Branch's neck.

"You would like that far too much," Branch tilted his head for him.

Unable to help it, Hefty snorted, pulling Branch closer, "Yeah, I would; both villages would know you're all mine."

Blushing, Branch kissed Hefty's cheek, "I am all yours but I really don't feel the need to make our, um, activities a public service announcement."

Pulling back a little, Hefty was trying not to laugh, "Activities?"

"Shut up," Branch shoved Hefty off of him, blushing further as Hefty could no longer hold in his laughter. "Pack your bag so we can go."

Wiping some moisture from his eyes, Hefty's laughter calmed, "Alright," he kissed Branch's burning cheek, "Love you."

Blush lightening a bit, Branch smiled softly, "Love you too."

They both went over to their bags to start packing, which would be easy enough because neither of them ever fully unpacked.

"I was serious though," Hefty commented.

Branch thought over what their conversation, "About carrying me?"

"Well, that too," Hefty grinned, "But about being happy to see you this morning. I mean, last night was," He stared into his bag, hoping it would give him the words he was looking for, "well, rough, but knowing you were in the village made it a little easier. And having you near after, just took a lot of weight off. I mean, I know things are still rough with Creek but it doesn't seem as bad as it would without you." He looked up at Branch, "Does that make sense?"

Nodding, Branch took Hefty's face into his hands and kissed him softly, "It makes sense." He smiled softly, staying close, "I don't think I would have been able to handle all this without you."

Reaching out, Hefty pulled Branch closer again and put their foreheads together, "I'll always be here, whenever you need me."

"I know," Branch caressed Hefty's cheeks with his thumbs, "And I want to support you in whatever way I can as well."

"Marry me?" Hefty asked softly, barely above a whisper.

"Later," Branch promised in an equally soft whisper, kissing him again.

"Holding you to that," Hefty swore.

"I know," Branch smiled.

They just stood like that, wrapped up in each other and bags forgetting for the moment.

"How was the Smurf sleepover last night?" Poppy asked, helping Smurfette fold things to put into her backpack. She smiled and teased, "Should I be jealous of you all cuddled up to Hefty last night?"

Face flushing, Smurffette giggled a bit out of embarrassment, "Clumsy was sleeping on Hefty's arm too."

"I'm not going to marry Clumsy," Poppy tossed the crookedly folded dress she had been working onto the bed.

"Stormy wouldn't like it if you were," said Smurfette, smiling at Poppy, "Not to mention the fact that I want you all to myself."

Beaming, Poppy gave Smurfette a smooch, "I'm perfectly fine with that as long a I get you 100% all to myself as well."

"Deal," Smurfette nodded and smooched Poppy again.

"But seriously," Poppy tried to refold her previously discarded attempt, "Why were you both using Hefty as a pillow? It looked like there were plenty of actual pillows around."

Smurfette shrugged, "We just sort of ended up staying like that, not wanting to let go of Hefty after everything he told us."

"What did he tell you?" asked Poppy. "Really good news?"

Pausing, Smurfette realized that Poppy didn't know about Hefty's past. Branch knew and Creek knew but Poppy did not. Almost like Clumsy knew about Hefty's ordeal but not about Creek's. She wrung a dress in her hands, trying to figure out what she should say.

"Smurfette?" Poppy could almost feel the tension growing in her Smurf partner. She reached out and gently turned her face towards her, "Talk to me."

"I," Smurfette looked away, "I can't."

"Smurfette," Poppy said softly, unsure of what to think, "Was it bad?"

"I'm sorry," Smurfette began stuffing things into her pack to keep her hands busy, "But its not my place to say."

Putting her hands onto Smurfette's, Poppy wrapped them into hers and held them, "It's okay," she gave each hand a kiss, "Friends keep friend's secrets; you don't have to tell me." She paused and gave Smurfette's hands a squeeze, "Unless I can help somehow?"

Shaking her head, Smurfette squeezed Poppy's hands back, staring at them, "There's nothing we can really do except be there for him if he wants us to be." She looked up and kissed Poppy's cheek, "Thank you for understanding."

Poppy smiled adoringly at her, "Anything for you."

Sitting on Brainy's bed, Creek watched Brainy gather up a few things to take to the Troll Tree. He couldn't help but be amused at the addition of a "Smurf Scout Manual" and Brainy looking torn on what second book to bring, "I have books at my pod too, you know."

"I know," Brainy continued to look between the two books he was holding. "But you never know what will be useful."

"You'd pack that entire shelf if you could, wouldn't you?" asked Creek.

Face flushing a little, Brainy glanced at the shelf, "Maybe not everything."

Standing, Creek went over and looked at the shelf. Most of them seemed to be informative texts or instructional books, tools for learning a variety of different kinds of knowledge or skills, "I can see how it would be hard to narrow it down in usefulness but what do you read for fun?"

Frowning, Brainy looked at the books in his hands, then the books on his shelf, before looking at Creek in adorable bewilderment.

"For fun," Creek repeated, "Or maybe relaxation would be better since learning seems like it would be fun for you."

"I re-read a lot," Brainy offered, still not seeming to understand.

Taking the books Brainy was holding, Creek looked over the covers. One was 'A Beginner's Guide to Traveling' and the other was, oddly, 'Meeting New People and Making Friends'. "I would think you'd be an expert in both these subjects."

Surprisingly, Brainy scoffed, "Hardly. I mean, we haven't done a whole lot of traveling away from the village and, well, most Smurfs think like Singer about me."

Creek frowned, "How is that possible? You're one of the sweetest people I have ever met, Troll or Smurf."

A slight blush crossed Brainy's features, taking the books back from Creek and putting them back on the shelf, "You're sort of the exception to the rule."

"That thinks you're sweet or that you're sweet to?" asked Creek.

"I don't know," Brainy admitted, letting his hand rest on the book bindings, "Every Smurf just gets annoyed with me all the time. It used to be worse, they used to throw me out of the village when I got to be too much, but Therapist is helping me be less annoying."

"They used to what?" Creek's frown deepened. How could they throw Brainy out of the village? Especially alone? Brainy could have been captured by Gargamel, or hurt! Surely protective Hefty and sweet Clumsy wouldn't have allowed it. Singer was definitely a guilty party in this, Creek just knew it. But who else was Creek going to rip to shreds the first chance he got?

"Creek?" Brainy touched Creek's hand, Creek not realizing that he had clenched them into fists until Brainy touched him, "Are you okay? Your eye were," he nibbled his lower lip, "Your eyes were turning darker."

Raising his free hand, Creek touched under his eye and wondered what other surprises his odd eye coloring would cause, "I'm fine."

"What were you thinking about?" Brainy tried again.

Creek didn't meet Brainy's gaze, "Strangling your fellow Smurfs."

Though surprised, Brainy took Creek's hand and held it, "It was my own fault for annoying them to that point."

"I hardly see how you could have been annoying enough that they would endanger you," Creek countered, eyes creeping into black again.

"I'm sure they didn't think of it that way," Brainy quickly tried to reason, "Smurf, Hefty once jumped out of a stuck elevator to get away from me."

"What's an elevator?" Creek asked, confused and a little surprised that he didn't immediately want to add Hefty to his strangle list after hearing that.

"Sort of like a lift?" Brainy attempted to explain, "A thing to help you go up or down faster than taking stairs."

"Branch has something like that in his bunker," commented Creek, then sighed, "How can you be fine with how they treated you?"

Unsure of how to answer, Brainy shrugged.

"Well, it explains how you tolerate me so well," stated Creek.

"I can't tell whether or not that was insulting towards me but it definitely wasn't in your favor," said Brainy, lifting a hand to cup Creek's face, "I don't tolerate you, I like being around you."

"You're such a strange Smurf," Creek sighed, leaning into Brainy's hand a bit.

"It seems to be working in my favor," Brainy blushed as he smiled.

"So strange," Creek repeated, raising his own hand to mirror Brainy, placing his hand on Brainy's cheek. He placed a small kiss on Brainy's other cheek, "You should finish packing so we can go meet the others."

Blushing, Brainy happily nodded and went to finish, forgetting about picking a second book.

The group was almost to the wall when Clumsy asked, "Did anyone tell Papa that we were leaving?"

Each Smurf looked to the other and when no one answered, they turned to go back to the village.