Made for Each Other

Branch had never run so fast in his life. Desperation clenched his stomach, made it impossible to breathe properly and soon his muscles were burning with the lack of oxygen. He just couldn't stop to put himself together. He had to hurry. His mind was swimming in a mix of alternative realities and his own world.

He had to know that Poppy was fine.

His feet led him towards the daisy field. Like an unknown force that pulled him towards her like a magnet. Branch would have scoffed at the absurdity of the thought, if he wasn't consumed by despair. He had to make sure she wasn't there. Then he could turn around and look in other places, but he had to check among the flowers first.

The survivalist was sure he wasn't going to find her there, but his heart sank to the lowest of hells when he spotted pink hair pointing up in the distance.

"No. No. No." He said to himself, feeling his lungs constricting, triggering a panic attack that he hadn't felt for years. The alternative reality and his own world seemed to clash in his mind. He recollected his steps in his mind. He was in his own dimension, wasn't he? Confusion. Chest wheezing. Air didn't seem to be enough.

As he approached, Branch could see her laying there, her pink hair waved gently with the breeze and she had her hands behind her head, with an angelic smile over her lips. His feet slowly stopped running. They ached with the lack of air and the forceful exercise. The rush diminished to a walk after he stumbled on his weak knees.

Poppy was fine. She was just warming herself under the autumn sunlight.

He had never felt so happy. Not even when he confessed his feelings, he had felt so much gladness!

Branch barely took in the moment. Her glossy lips were slightly parted, her soft blue dress was wrinkled underneath her. The grass and the daisies were pushed aside into a comfortable bed, like they willingly bent to accommodate the queen.

Dropping heavily in front of her, giving into the emotional turmoil, Branch startled his girlfriend to the point of causing her to abruptly sit up, still looking groggy from sleep and fearing there was a predator about to attack her. But it took her one glimpse to his frightened face to understand that his anguish wasn't about giant critters or birds.

"Branch…?"

Poppy stared at him, understanding that he wasn't an illusion. He had returned and he was terrified! She could hear his lungs wheezing, the color was gone from his face like a ghost. His lips were a shade whiter than his cheeks, looking dry; and cold sweat covered his forehead.

He had been gone for days. What had happened that made him so scared?

Confusion slowly crawled up to her features as Branch's hand softly touched her cheeks, as if he was afraid that she would vanish like smoke in the wind. He made sure he touched her face, her shoulders, arms and hands, seeing that she was there and she was fine and she was real. He couldn't pretend he wasn't shaking. His hands were trembling so uncontrollably he quickly pulled them away from her.

"I'm so glad…" He whispered to himself, not caring if he confused Poppy even more. Embracing her tightly, he could say she was in total loss of words at his behavior, still, he couldn't bring himself to offer an explanation because as relief tingled his bones, his eyes filled up with tears and he couldn't speak before a wave of sobs silenced him.

Poppy wrapped her arms around him in return, feeling her heart pounding madly, fearing he had gone through something horrible. He buried his face in her shoulder, wetting her dress with a river of salty tears. Her hands ran over his back, trying to give him some comfort while a million questions ran through her mind.

He was so vulnerable she couldn't bring herself to say anything. Poppy wasn't going to ask for explanations when he could barely breathe.

Branch slowly lowered himself until his head was on her lap, succumbing to the tingling pain the lack of oxygen had caused.

Poppy ran her fingers softly through his hair, combing it with her fingers. The gentle caress helped to calm him down and, slowly, the sobs were quieted and the arms that tightly gripped her around the waist relaxed.

"Are you hurt?" Poppy whispered when she felt it was the proper time to ask and Branch merely shook his head to answer her. With her primary worry answered, she gave him all the time he needed to catch up with his thoughts.

It was a beautiful afternoon. The sun was warm, but not as warm as it was during summer. The golden light wasn't heating the ground or the flowers. The contrast of cold and warm had made Poppy drop breathe deeply, taking in the perfume of the flowers and the fresh grass around her.

"I'm sorry." Branch found his words after a while. Poppy looked down to see that he was staring up at her, with his blue eyes still wet. "I wasn't supposed to scare you."

"I'm worried something bad is happening." A delicate pink finger wiped away a tear that stubbornly fell down his face. "Can you talk about it?"

Realization that he had to be honest with her made him queasy. It wasn't his intention to tell her he had been through some multiverse exploration. He didn't want to tell her he went through it because he was afraid he wasn't a good boyfriend and then, after seeing a good amount of unspeakable possibilities, Branch just couldn't be totally forward with her.

But he had some questions that needed immediate answers. To calm his racing mind and try to diminish the fervent brain activity, Branch took a small notebook from his hair and opened it to read down the notes he had taken while scrolling through the universes.

"We need to talk." Branch sat up and when he looked into Poppy's eyes, he realized he had scared her with his announcement. Her eyes had widened like saucers.

He should have realized she was as insecure as he was. Sending her mixed signals wasn't helping. She was afraid he had returned to break up with her.

"Nothing will ever break us apart, let me assure you of that." Branch said and Poppy visibly relaxed. "I just have some things I need to understand."

"I'm here to help." The pink girl hugged her knees, looking incredibly young like that.

"Okay…" Pulling paper sheets up and down, Branch checked the items before speaking up. "I want to know what happened after I was hit by the ultimate powerchord."

"Oh…" Poppy blinked a few times. The question was obviously not what she was expecting. "Well… nothing bad happened."

"Did I hurt you?" Branch insisted.

Closing her eyes, Poppy remembered that he had captured her with his hair, his glowing red eyes had scared her and his grip was so strong that she couldn't move. But he hadn't exactly hurt her…

"... you held me so Barb could hit me with the powerchord as well, but that was all." Hoping her answer would be enough, she offered a smile, but Branch didn't smile back.

"I didn't directly hurt you, but I helped Barb to capture you." The teal troll looked down to his note, remembering the dimension where he had pulled her hair roughly to take her back to the queen of rock.

"You gave me time to prepare." Poppy insisted. "You saved us all when you jumped in front of me. I could never thank you enough."

"I don't know how you can be so forgiving…"

"You were under a spell, Branch." He could tell that Poppy felt frustrated to have to defend him from his own judgement, she couldn't help but allow the usual determination to build up. "None of it was your fault and I don't want to hear you blaming yourself ever again."

"... I did something when I wasn't under a spell." A daisy under his hand got his attention and he played with it to avoid looking into Poppy's eyes. "... when we fought, I abandoned you."

"Branch…"

"As angry as I was, I shouldn't have left. I wanted to come back to the village, but it was wrong leaving you alone… with the String nonetheless! You were vulnerable, you were captured and I wasn't there."

"Why are you reopening old wounds?" Poppy quietly asked, "It's in the past."

"I've been…" By all that was Troll-y, he had to come clean. He had to tell her what he was up to. "Exploring possibilities."

"What do you mean?" She put her hand on her chin, cocking her head to the side in confusion.

"A while ago…" Branch took a deep breath and ripped the daisy from the ground. "...when you went with R&B to another reality, I was afraid about the safety of the trips and I went to Lownote Jones to understand how he had control of the portals to other universes. It turned out to be a good way to look into the possibilities of our relationship." Poppy merely blinked, perhaps not finding anything surprising in his old paranoid ways, so he continued, "I honestly just wanted to know how to make you the happiest, but as I explored…"

"Oh Hair, Branch… what did you see?" Visibly worried, Poppy dropped her arms to the side, intensely watching him.

"We are happily together in most universes." He quickly raised his hands to prevent more misunderstandings. "I even saw my grandma."

Poppy watched his face as he spoke. Seeing his grandma was probably a big gift to him. Branch deserved so much happiness and life had treated him unkindly.

"I just… reached my limit when I found one universe when we weren't together." Branch knew he had to get that one out. It would probably hurt her as much as it hurt him, but he had to tell her because there was a possibility, he could push her away one day. "From what I saw we had become friends, but I got back to my old ways… you know." Shrugging, he made sure Poppy was following his thoughts. "I didn't want to go out of the bunker no matter how hard you tried."

"This is not going to happen-" The queen tried to protest, but Branch interrupted her.

"You died, Poppy." His voice wavered and her lips sealed. "You were so sad that you died. I caused it because I couldn't open the freaking door."

The birds chirped in a close tree. The breeze ruffled the flowers. The sun was almost completely gone and the cold night air was felt for the first time, causing the temperature of their bodies to drop a couple of degrees.

"I understand now…" Poppy tugged her hair behind her ear because the wind stubbornly blew it on her face. "And I hope you will understand what I will tell you." Snuggling close to keep each other warm, she stared at the orange sky on the horizon. "Even if you have episodes of sadness, or if you feel like locking the bunker to prevent the excess of socialization, you know you're not the old Branch anymore. Even I understand the need for peace and quiet. You're not falling into grayness just because you want some private time. It's perfectly normal!"

"I don't want to disappoint you…"

"You couldn't even if you tried." She smiled. "The fact that we were together in most universes proves my suspicion then."

"You were suspicious about what?" Raising a curious eyebrow, Branch wrapped his arm around her, feeling how cold she was. Perhaps it was time to go back home.

"That we were made for each other."

Hair, he had hoped that as well. He felt her finger on his chin and allowed her to pull him to face her, wondering if she wanted to say something, but he saw the reassuring smile and that sparkle in her eyes. Her big magenta orbs trailed down to his mouth and he lost it.

Before she could ask what was going on, Branch inched forward, capturing her in a sweet kiss that caused her to gasp. It was an opportunity he wouldn't let pass. Wrapping her arms around his neck, he took advantage of her parted lips to deepen their kiss in a way he had been watching for the past hours.

A fire quickly built up on the base of his stomach when he tasted her tongue for the first time. Poppy was the sweetest of honeys and she moved like liquid fire, touching and urging him to do the same. Through their previous shy explorations, Branch indeed wondered how it would feel like to go further, to invade her mouth with his love until they both had jaw cramps.

He tentatively ran his palm down her arms. He wanted to rest his hands on her legs, but stopped himself when he felt her skin rising with goosebumps. It was growing too cold to be outside with their light clothes.

So, with a burning heart, he broke them apart and waited until she fluttered her eyes open to understand that they were done with the brief make out.

"You're cold." He explained before she could voice her indignation. "We should go somewhere warmer before you get sick."

"Branch…" She whispered after standing up. He got her hand in his before they slowly walked towards the village.

"Yes…?"

"I wish you'd kiss me like that from now on."

Notes: Hey, everyone! Quick note to let you know this chapter was written at the same time as he last one (and so was the chapter art). Just one more chapter and I'll start season 3!