-O-

Picturebook Romance

A Trolls fanfic

By Dreamsinger

Chapter Eleven

A Special New Friend

My dark thoughts were interrupted by the pings of many Hug Time bracelets flowering, their delicate chimes weaving a lovely melody in the air that was welcomed by everyone who heard it, even me. Today every Hug Time would be precious to me, since it meant I could hold Poppy close and no one would think twice about it.

Poppy came into my arms in a moment, squeezing me tightly as if it had been years since we last hugged instead of an hour. Wait, did she hug me last time? I know Tuney and Savvy did, but…

"I missed you," she whispered, nuzzling the side of my neck. I knew she meant she missed being close to me.

Without caring about how it might look I brought one hand up and cupped the back of her head, sliding my fingers into her silky hair. "Missed you, too."

How strange and wonderful a thing it was to feel so close to someone! I felt a sudden impulse to kiss the pink ear in front of my face and barely stopped myself. Poppy, you're too cute. I'm starting to regret asking her to hold off on our first kiss until our official date.

"Still, the longer the wait, the sweeter the prize. And you're a prize worth waiting for," I murmured into her ear. "An irreplaceable treasure more precious than the entire inventory of my bunker."

She made a cute sound of pleasure, sliding her hands up my back and pressing herself up into me. I closed my eyes for a moment, savoring her warmth and her sweet scent all around me.

Eventually some nearby sound made me open my eyes to see several trolls looking at us curiously. Nobody was hugging anymore. I loosened my grasp, but Poppy clung to me for a long moment before letting go with a reluctance that had to be obvious to anyone watching.

I cleared my throat. "So, what were we doing again?"

"Chocolate."

"Oh, yes."

-O-

When morning finally arrived, my foster parents took me to King Peppy's pod. As I stood with shaky knees in front of the larger-than-life hero who had led our triumphant escape from the bergens, the king said in a surprisingly conversational tone, "Well, my boy, yesterday was a bit of a mess, wasn't it? I've been speaking with my daughter and the other trollings about what happened, and now I'd like to hear your side."

My jaw was so tense I didn't trust myself to speak, so I jerkily shook my head, trying to suppress a nervous shudder. There was no excuse for what I'd done anyway. I saw the king glance down and realized my hands were shaking, so I hid them behind my back.

His bushy eyebrows rose, and for a moment I thought I saw his face soften. "Are you sure you don't want to say anything?"

I nodded.

"All right, then. I've also spoken with those trolls who have taken care of you over the past four years. Your current foster parents tell me you seem to have an overabundance of ah, shall we say, nervous energy. Would you say this was the case?"

Nervous energy? I guessed I did, but I didn't understand why he was talking about something like that instead of just getting down to business. Why doesn't he just banish me and get this over with?

He was waiting patiently for my answer, so I nodded, mostly to hurry things along so I could get out of there.

The king went to the door and made a 'come in' gesture. As two male trolls entered, he turned to me. "Do you know these trolls?"

I perked up, interested in spite of my disgraced state. One of the trolls was Jaunty, a bright-magenta glitter troll with hair and nose of the same aqua hue, and the other was his husband Courtley, who had light purple skin, dark purple hair and a medium-purple nose. My tongue unfroze. "You're two of the best athletes in the village."

King Peppy nodded. "Right you are, my boy. You'll be living with Jaunty and Courtley from now on."

I gave the three grown-ups a wary, confused look. Another new home?

I'd lived with glitter trolls before, of course. Their sparkly skin and foofy glitter farts left soft little flakes everywhere. It was kind of messy, but being organic, at least they were biodegradable. If not sealed with some kind of shellac within a week or so they dissolved into dust. I was used to doing a lot of dusting and sweeping because of that, so it wasn't a big deal to me. I was more concerned about what King Peppy was going to say about what I had done to his daughter.

Isn't he going to make me leave the village? If I were King Peppy, I wouldn't forgive me.

To test the waters, I said cautiously, "Really?"

"You bet," Jaunty answered.

"Glad to have you, lad." Courtley grinned at me. He spoke with an accent similar to Biggie's, but with broader-sounding vowels and a sing-songy up-and-down lilt. "King Peppy asked us to try and help you channel all that energy more positively."

"Oh." I waited, biting my lip, sure that there had to be something more, but they all just looked at me, smiling, until finally I couldn't stand it anymore.

In a tiny voice I asked, "So you aren't going to ask me to leave the village because I hit Princess Poppy?" As I said it I winced. It sounded so horrible. So bergen-like.

"Of course not!" came a high-pitched voice from nowhere and I jumped, literally, flipping in the air and grabbing hold of the ceiling lamp with my hair. "Who's there?" I demanded as I swung lightly from the lamp.

From the King's magenta mane, a little pink head appeared. "Princess Poppy?" I gasped. I hadn't expected to see her here. She leaped down from her father's hair and I loosened my hold and dropped down in front of her, reaching for her face. She flinched and took a wary step back. Shame burned through me, forcing my already low ears even lower.

"I'm not gonna hurt you," I promised, trying to sound reassuring. "I just wanna look at your face."

Big pink eyes looked up at me and on impulse I knelt in front of her. She nodded. "Okay."

I took her face in my hands, gently tilting it so I could see where I'd struck her. It wasn't swollen, but I couldn't tell if the dark rose color was a handprint or just her normal cheek-blush color. "Does it hurt?"

"No."

I let her go and we stared at each other.

"I'm sorry!" we said at the same time.

I blinked. "Why are you sorry? I'm the awful troll who hit you!"

"I'm sorry 'cause I hurt your feelings. I wasn't thinkin' about how you felt when I called you…the bad name."

"Bergen."

"Yeah. I didn't mean it! You're not like them at all!"

I hung my head. "Yeah, I am. I'm a mean old bergen-troll and I deserve to be banished from the village."

"No!"

Suddenly her arms were around me, squeezing me so tight I was reminded of the way my father used to hug me, using too much strength and accidentally squishing me because he loved me so much. Poppy was hugging me with all her might. It was a good thing she was only six years old.

And then I found myself hugging her back, the first hug I'd felt like giving in forever. It felt unexpectedly good. "I promise, Poppy, I will never, never do that again. Ever!" My voice cracked and I felt the tears start, too overcome with relief and gratitude to hold it all in. I managed to keep from wailing aloud, but I couldn't hide how my body shook with silent sobs, or the hiss of air through my tightly-clenched teeth.

"Branch?" Poppy sounded confused. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, just crying…" I pulled in a shaky breath, trying to collect myself so as not to upset her. "I do that sometimes. It's no big deal."

"Oh, Branch…" Somehow her hug changed, became softer and warmer, more of a cuddle than a hug. "It's okay, Branch," she said in a motherly tone. "It's all right… I forgive you. Do you forgive me?"

"Y-yeah."

Now that we'd worked things out between us, big strong arms closed around me as the three grown-ups offered their comfort, too. And just this once, I let them. I was too exhausted to keep fighting right now.

Their body warmth began to make me feel sleepy, and the tight inner coil inside me began to ease like it hadn't in a long, long time. I couldn't help but give in to the release, longing so badly for the remembered feeling of being warm and protected and loved, like when I was little. I snuggled deeper into the hug and took the first full, deep breath I could remember since…I didn't know when.

Everyone continued to hold me, seeking comfort as well as giving it. Trolls, as I well knew, didn't really know what to do with sadness except to try to make it go away, but right now they all seemed to accept what was going on and roll with it, wordlessly offering me their support. They're not the real enemy here… Somehow I'd forgotten that. A vague hint of guilt at how I'd treated everyone passed through my mind, but it couldn't take hold as I felt my muscles relaxing, my eyes closing, my breathing deepening, and finally I let myself slip away into slumber.

-O-

When I opened my eyes, I was in an unfamiliar pod. Poppy lay on the floor by the bed, a half-finished scrapbook in front of her, contentedly using a little pair of scissors to snip away at a piece of felt. Dozens of brightly-colored leftover pieces lay scattered around her like flower petals in spring.

When I sat up, she looked up at me and beamed. "Hi, Branch! Boy, you sure sleeped a long time."

"Huh?"

"You fell asleep when we were all hugging. Daddy said we should let you sleep, 'cause you were super tired, so Jaunty and Courtley took you home and got your stuff from your old pod. I helped!"

I rubbed my eyes and yawned, not minding her perky chatter now that I'd had what felt like a good long rest. "An' now I'm makin' you a scrapbook so you won't be lonely. See, it has me in it, and you, and Daddy, and Courtley and Jaunty. You sleeped all day, you know that?"

"Slept," I corrected automatically.

"Slept," Poppy repeated dutifully.

"I slept all day?"

"Yup, all day."

Suddenly I was starvingly hungry. My belly growled, and Poppy glanced at me with wide eyes and then fell over, giggling merrily. I felt a wry smile turn up the corner of my mouth.

"So, um… Is there anything to eat?"

"Perfect timing, dude." Jaunty's cheerful voice came from what looked like a kitchen alcove. "Come and help us make supper."

Poppy and I both helped prepare the meal. It turned out that she had asked her father if she could wait until I woke up before she went home, just in case I was still upset. After the way I had treated her, I couldn't help but be touched. Most of my former foster siblings had been more leery of me, never knowing what sort of mood I might be in at any given moment, but Poppy treated me as naturally as if I were a real big brother to her.

It seemed I'd made a good impression on my newest foster parents, too.

Courtley said, "Well, I must say, Branch, Jaunty and I were really impressed by that forward flip you did."

Jaunty added enthusiastically, "Awesome reflexes, dude!"

I eyed them both. "Really?"

"Absolutely, dude. You've gotta show us how to do that one."

"Yes, and we can't wait to see your other moves."

"Oh." I was pleased at their praise, ignoring the ever-present cloud of melancholy that always hovered vaguely in the back of my mind. "Um, sure."

Poppy beamed at me and tugged on my hand. "Come on, Branch. Show me, too!"

I smiled down at her. "Not right now. You need to be getting home. It's gonna be dark soon."

"Aw, please, Branch?" She gave me the big puppy-dog eyes, her lower lip sticking out, and I hesitated. I couldn't just tell her to go home like a stray pet.

Jaunty saw my dilemma and jumped in to help me. "He's right, little lady. How about you come back tomorrow? I'm sure Branch will be glad to see you." He turned to give me a significant look. "Right, Branch, my man?"

It took me a second to catch on. I wasn't the best at reading social cues. "Oh. Uh, yeah. Um, how about I walk you home now?"

"Why?"

"So nothing happens to you," I said in surprise.

"What could happen to me?"

I opened my mouth, then closed it. She believes the village is safe. I sighed. I really don't feel like getting into all that right now.

Courtley met my gaze, then said, "I think it's just Branch's way of showing you he cares."

"Oh!" Poppy brightened. "Well, that's nice. I care about you, too, Branch."

She let go of my hand to go collect her scrapbooking things. I watched her for a moment, a soft smile gentling my face before I saw Courtley and Jaunty watching me and pulled the corners of my lips down. I braced myself, expecting one of them to say something about how I was wrong; that there was no danger and that I was wasting my time worrying when I could be doing something fun instead.

Instead they gave me matching mellow smiles. "Have a nice walk, dude."

Huh. Maybe living with them won't be that bad.

-O-

It wasn't bad at all. I liked Jaunty and Courtley, although it was less a parent-child relationship and more of a coach-team camaraderie, which suited me just fine. I was far more comfortable playing sports than I was talking about my feelings.

Also, I didn't fight it any more when someone wanted to hug me. Instead I made myself go limp at the first touch, submitting to the embrace for as long as I could before squirming away. It was the best I could do to put on a semblance of acting like a normal troll.

Over the next two years, when I wasn't in school, between the two of them Courtley and Jaunty did a good job of keeping me moving and too busy to brood. I generally fell asleep every night as soon as my head hit the pillow, sleeping too deeply even to dream, which meant I was more rested and had far fewer mood swings. And when I did get upset, I had better control over my actions. I never wanted to repeat what had happened to Poppy.

The little princess seemed to have decided I needed a friend. She and I were in different grades so I didn't see much of her at school, but once in a while she would stop by my pod and drop off an invitation to some party or event. With Jaunty and Courtley encouraging me I sometimes put in a brief appearance, if I was interested. I even kept some of the invitations. They were cute, and they reminded me of Poppy. I liked to look at them and wonder what kind of queen she would be someday.

Maybe she would actually be interested in important things, things besides singing, dancing, hugging and other wastes of time. Maybe she would take the impending invasion of the bergens seriously. If I could convince her the threat was real, maybe I could actually trust her to help me prevent a catastrophe.

-O-

And in the end, she did earn my trust. Even though to my frustration, I never was able to convince her that the bergens were a genuine threat, but I remember the camouflage game became pretty popular in the village; for pranks, if nothing else. When the bergens found us, most of the trolls were able to hide from them, just as I'd hoped.

And then my beautiful princess went on to surpass every expectation I'd had of her, proving herself to be so brave and smart and compassionate, so determined to find a new way to solve the old problem I'd struggled with for so many years – and she succeeded. It's no wonder she was able to bring out my colors. Poppy is the most amazing troll in the world…

I came out of my reverie at the scrkscrkscrk of scissors and the sight of Poppy flopped on her stomach on the ground, a rainbow of felt snippets scattered all around her, and experienced a moment of déjà vu.

"Scrapbooking? Now?"

"Uh huh. Gotta scrapbook when the inspiration hits, Branch. Say, do me a favor and direct traffic around me, okay?"

"But-"

"You know you want to…" she said as enticingly as if she were offering me some wonderful treat. Well, in a way, she was.

I pulled in a breath to protest, then let it out with a sigh and a smile. She knows me well. I looked up at the backlog of trolls politely waiting for their queen to move and decided to give her a hard time anyway, on their behalf.

"A favor, huh? So what do I get in return?"

Her reply made me blush all the way to my ears, delivered in an unmistakably sultry tone with a coy glance up at me. "Well, that depends. What do you want?"

"Ooo-hoo…" Brightly-colored sheaves of hair whipped back and forth between us as the watching trolls caught wind of what was going on.

I slapped my forehead and moaned, "Poppy…" What part of 'low-key' does she not understand?

The watching trolls chuckled.

"It'll only take a minute," Poppy said reassuringly. "I'm not doing an entire scrapbook; just a few pages."

"Oh, really? That's unusual."

"It's a work in progress."

She waited a moment, then asked me, "Aren't you going to ask about it?"

I shrugged and gave her a knowing look. "I assume you're scrapbooking anything to do with our unofficial da- I mean, anything to do with, uh, 'ice cream'."

"Ice cream?"

"Yeah, you know, the new ice cream we were enjoying yesterday?"

Her eyes lit up as she caught on. "Ohhh, right. The wonderful ice cream we…discovered we shared an interest in."

"Right. And I didn't ask to ask to see your scrapbook yet because you're going to insist on showing it to me when it's finished anyway."

She grinned at me. "You know me so well."

-O-

When Poppy looked up a few minutes later from her scrapbook-induced trance, she beheld her handsome boyfriend with his hair fashioned into an ingenious and elegant set of signal flags that changed colors to guide the approaching trolls and let them know when to stop and proceed. The young queen watched him for a minute, her affection for him a warm flutter in her belly. Her man was in his element, a big smile on his face, grooving to his own beat as he danced and swayed, happily creating order out of chaos.

It had taken her a long time to understand his sometimes contradictory nature. It was a mistake a lot of trolls made with Branch – she had, too – to focus on the way he complained and his tendency to worry over the little things, rather than on who he was at heart.

The darker the situation, the more Branch shone. Where other trolls panicked, there he was, steady and focused and prepared to deal with adversity, always ready with a plan of action or by making quick decisions on the fly. She remembered when they were trollings, how he had taken the initiative to create a game to help the trolls learn how to hide themselves from anything that might threaten them. Even though things had probably worked out for the best, if Branch had been there when Chef first attacked, she wondered if any of them would have been captured at all.

She had always looked up to him, had always known she admired him, but it hadn't been until she'd had that dream that she'd finally realized that she was attracted to him, too. He'd always had a certain magnetism, an inner strength that drew her to him, but right now, looking up at him, his lithe, powerful form radiated such sheer sensuality that she was unaware her mouth was hanging open until she licked her lips and a drop of drool landed on her hand.

Oops. Quickly she wiped her mouth on the back of her hand and gave her new scrapbook a quick glance to make sure none had gotten on it, then closed it and stuffed it into her hair. Oh, he's caught you good, Poppy girl! You're completely under his spell. She smiled to herself. And you're enjoying every minute of it.

"So, Branch," she said as she rose from the grass. "What's your secret?"

"What?" All his hair flags turned red as he stopped dancing and gave her a delightfully guilty look. "Y-you want to know all my secrets?"

She couldn't hold back a light laugh. "Eventually." He's so much fun to tease! "But right now I just wanna know: How do you manage to look so cool and so cute at the same time?"

His ears flicked back in surprise and he turned his face to the side, trying to hide his embarrassed smile, but his cute lavender cheeks gave away his pleasure at her compliment. "Poppy," he said in mild reproof, but they both knew he didn't mean it.

As the waiting trolls around them chuckled, he glanced at them, retracted his hair back to its normal shape, and made a sweeping motion with his hand. "Okay, people, move along now. Nothing to see here."

She glanced upward, admiring the way the sun's glossy sheen made his beautiful purple hair shine. "Hey, Branch. Forgetting something?"

"What? Oh." The tips of his hair lengthened and fluffed outward.

It struck her then that the aquamarine troll's hair perfectly reflected his heart, which had once been like a flower bud, closed up to protect himself from being hurt, and now it was blooming as he bravely opened himself up to new experiences. Experiences like being in love.

She thought about the way Branch always responded so strongly to her touch, as if all this time he had longed to have someone hold him and caress him and experienced a rush of love for him so powerful she had to close her eyes as the wave passed.

Out of all the trolls in the village, this contrary, nonconformist, independent rebel had chosen to love her, to open himself up to her.

Has he never truly cared for anyone else? Or let anyone care for him? Well...I guess we'll see, won't we?

"I'm on to you, Poppy."

"What?"

She opened her eyes to see him giving her a sly look. "Despite what you said, I think you actually want to spread the news about our ice cream."

"You have ice cream?" a random passing troll asked eagerly. Instantly every other troll in the area zeroed in on Branch.

Branch shook his head, nixing that notion with a wave of his hand. "No. No. It's metaphorical."

"Aww," the watching trolls said disappointedly, and they began to wander off back into the Beadfest, past the tall mushroom where the twins' fashion demo was winding down.

Poppy used her hair to rake up the remains of her scrapbooking project from the grass and drop it into a nearby trash can. "Well, I think you're the one who's enjoying keeping our special ice cream a secret."

He shrugged. "What can I say? I'm the mysterious troll of your dreams, remember?"

She rolled her eyes as he continued, "That reminds me, Poppy, you've simply got to tell me the details of your dr-"

Just then a large group of trolls flooded the area as they turned away from the mushroom the twins had been using as a fashion model runway.

She lost sight of Branch for a minute, then spotted his hair extending upward like an antenna and reached out to twine her hair with his. They came together and Branch took her hand again as they made their way to the chocolate stand. He didn't let go of her hair, and the pink troll knew it meant that even though he liked secrets, it was his way of letting the world know just how much she meant to him.

Author's Note:

Here we see the seeds of the Branch who eventually sought solace in isolation and self-sufficiency. But no matter how much he tries to prepare himself, deep down he really doesn't want to be alone, and his reaction when King Peppy's decision is not the banishment he expected shows it.

This is young Branch's first significant interaction with Princess Poppy, when she becomes aware that he is different from other trolls and befriends him, even though she annoys him more often than not over the years, like a pushy little sister who dotes on her big brother so much that he sometimes goes to great lengths to avoid her, lol. And both here and in the movie she is also the source of forgiveness that leads him down the path to healing, giving him the solace and eventual happiness he couldn't achieve on his own.

Courtley and Jaunty were inspired by the two easygoing main characters from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. I figured they might have an easier time handling Branch's intense nature without as much family friction, plus I love the irony of the kid wanting to be serious and the parents telling him to go have fun! Jaunty has a southern California valley-girl way of talking, while Courtley has a lovely accent similar to Irish English.

I'm actually using many of the little Trolls toy figures that come in those blind bags (the ones where you can't tell which one you're going to get unless you can feel it through the bag) for my characters. Jaunty and Courtley are two of them, and there will be quite a few more. I'm even customizing some by painting them, if I can find ones whose hair is the right color. I'll be posting pics of them on my Tumblr blog, .com

I chose 'ice cream' as Branch's code word for anything to do with their romantic relationship in tribute to a favorite old Nickelodeon cartoon series called Hey Arnold, which has an emotionally complex, perpetually grouchy and lovestruck character called Helga who is in love with the main character but hides it from everyone by acting like a bully, especially toward him.

At least, she thinks she does, but quite a few characters figure it out by the end of the series, and the two full-length movies actually give us a satisfying conclusion, which doesn't happen often on TV these days! 'Ice cream' was the code word Helga used to kind of skirt the edges of talking about her love to her best friend, who was a model of loyal discretion. Seriously, if you can accept the weird character designs, the show has some beautifully done episodes that touch the heart.