-O-

Picturebook Romance

A Trolls fanfic

By Dreamsinger

Chapter Fourteen

Show Your Colors

"Poppy!" Branch shouted.

As she lay pinned on her back, the queen of the trolls was treated to the magnificent sight of a very naked Branch hurling himself heroically overhead. He flipped in midair, his hair brushing the canvas ceiling before landing lightly astride the stiflingly heavy pile of clothes covering her. She barely noticed the extra weight, too full of admiration for the perfect example of masculinity rising above her to care.

A moment later the weight lifted off of her as, muscles bulging, he heaved the entire mass up, rack and all, lifted it over his head and tossed it to the side.

Her mouth dropped open. Forget 'handsome', my man is magnificent!

Branch dropped to his knees beside her and took hold of her shoulders. "Poppy, are you all right? Did you hit your head? How many fingers am I holding up?" He shot the questions at her in the same over-anxious, demanding tone way that used to annoy her but which she now found kind of endearing. He never acted quite this mother-hen-ish when anyone else was hurt.

Her heart went all mushy. As he bent over her in concern, his creased blue eyes and sheer animal magnetism pulled her in and her hand found its way to his body quite naturally, as if she had done it a thousand times before. She gave him a playful smile and slid her hand down his chest. "Well, hellooo gorgeous."

His eyes widened as his already pounding heart gave an extra thump under her palm.

"Oh, no. She did hit her head. She's delirious!"

"Poppy?" the twins called together, and their long silhouette appeared behind Branch, but right then Poppy had eyes for no one but her love. She rolled her eyes and chuckled affectionately, transferring her touch to his face.

"I'm fine, silly. But thanks for the concern."

His eyebrows went up, then relaxed as he breathed a sigh of relief. Then he pulled her to him, pressing her tightly against his bare skin. "Oh, thank goodness. Poppy, don't do that to me."

He'd been genuinely terrified. She could feel his heart bouncing against her breastbone, and her amusement instantly shifted to contrition. She brought up her arms and wrapped them around his waist. "Sorry, Branch," she said apologetically.

With no clothes on, his enticing body heat instantly penetrated her skin, and instinctively she let herself go pliant, molding herself to fit against him. This felt right, this closeness. It felt so, so good to her. She rubbed her face onto his bare shoulder, breathing in his sweet-and-tangy scent as he pressed his head against hers.

"Awwww…" came the twins' sentimental coos. Poppy's eyes popped open and she felt Branch stiffen as both of them realized that he was hugging her completely naked.

They jerked away from one another and Branch tumbled backward, his feet flipping into the air and almost clobbering her in the face.

The twins burst out laughing. "Silly boy!" "Oh, Branch, you are such a card!"

"Oh… Ha ha, yeah, that's me; always joking…" he said weakly as he stood up and offered Poppy his hand.

She took it and pulled herself slowly to her feet, letting herself enjoy the view as she rose. Ohhh, yeah.

He saw the way she was looking at him and tried to hide an embarrassed smile, looking bashfully to the side as a lavender blush delicately tinted his cheeks. Sooo cute! Delighted, Poppy was tempted to see if his other set of cheeks was lavender, too.

"Poppy, are you sure you're okay?" asked Satin.

"We're so sorry!" Chenille apologized.

Branch frowned and put his hands on his hips. "I told you these displays were a safety hazard-" he scolded, but Poppy stopped him.

"It's not their fault. I was climbing on one and I got distracted and lost my balance."

"What distracted you?"

She raised an eyebrow, crossed her arms and cocked a hip, looking for all the world like the aquamarine troll at his most sarcastic. "Care to guess?" Her eyes flicked downward, and back to his face.

Automatically Branch glanced down too. "Oh." Cue the blush. "Again?"

"'Again' what?" the twins repeated.

"Nothing," Branch said hastily.

"O…kay." Chenille and her sister glanced back and forth between the couple, then stared at his bare body. "Ahem, well, Poppy, did you have a suggestion for clothing based on Branch's body type?"

"He's definitely the hunky type," Satin declared before Poppy could answer.

Chenille put her hand in the middle of his chest. "I think we should emphasize his warrior-physique. Feel how solid his muscles are."

Satin countered with a hand on his butt. "Yes, but the warrior look is all wrong for Beadfest! We should be emphasizing his cuddly, teddy-bear image."

Branch was starting to look uncomfortable. "Um, guys…"

The sisters continued to argue, their hands sliding around on Branch's body in a way that Poppy would normally not have given a second thought about, but today… Why does that bother me? She frowned. Well, anyway, even though casual touching is usually no big deal, even for Branch, right now he's starting to get that panicky look again.

Poppy interrupted, "How about one of you help me, and the other helps Branch?"

"I'll help Branch!" both of them volunteered instantly as they finally let go of her boyfriend, and then glared at one another.

"Girls!" Poppy shouted, feeling like a referee for the thousandth time. She controlled the urge to stamp her foot and instead invoked her queenly status to make a command decision. "Chenille, please help me. Satin, help Branch, please."

"Yay!" cheered Satin, her fists in the air.

"Aww." Chenille pouted.

Satin seemed to feel sorry for her sister. "Hey, I have a great idea. Since you two are here for the same reason, why don't we have a mini fashion show? You could even wear matching outfits!" She clasped her hands together.

"No matching outfits!" Branch cried reflexively. "And we don't have time for a fashion show. We have to keep an eye on the festival."

Poppy stifled a grin. However it happened, we seem to have switched sides about keeping our relationship a secret, but somehow it feels right to have him being the secretive one. Or maybe each of us is just trying to please the other?

The twins gave Branch the same puppy-dog eyes that Poppy used herself at times, knowing he had a hard time resisting. Satin pleaded, "How about just for a quick photo shoot?"

"Afterward, each of you can keep whichever outfits you like best," Chenille offered.

"Well…" Branch grimaced. "Poppy?"

Poppy shrugged. "I'm up for a photo shoot," she said cheerfully.

Her grumpy boyfriend crossed his arms and groaned. "Okay, fine! But I want copies of the photos."

"Ooo! Me too!" Just what I need for my 'ice cream' scrapbook!

"And only five outfits."

"Aww, only five?" Poppy said disappointedly. "But Branch-"

"Otherwise we'll be in here all day." He stepped closer to her and put a hand on her shoulder, and suddenly his summer-blue eyes were all she could focus on. "Come on, Poppy, don't you want to spend the day having fun with me at the festival?"

He gave her a charming smile, and whatever she'd been protesting about evaporated from her mind. "Sure," she agreed before she realized it. Man, he's getting too good at this. Has he been practicing that smile?

The twins decided it would be more fun to create a little dramatic mystery by putting up a wide wooden panel in the center of the tent so their friends couldn't see one another while they tried on clothing. Poppy and Chenille stayed in the open area near the front that Branch had inadvertently created with his outstanding throw, while he moved to the open area in the back that the twins reserved to make alterations to their customers' outfits.

The young queen had overheard most of the conversation between her boyfriend and the sisters, entering the tent in time to register the twins' scorn as they commented on Branch's new 'outfit'. I think even Branch picked up on it, which is saying something. His taste in clothes is definitely 'function over form'.

Because it was rare that she got to see Branch interacting with other trolls when she wasn't around, Poppy had used her hair to lift herself off the floor just high enough to peek over the rack in front of her. After a while, she'd gotten so interested in their conversation - and in her boyfriend's ever-fascinating bare body - that she'd forgotten where she was and let herself down, right onto the rack at just the right angle to tip it forward. Hastily she'd yanked it back toward herself, and the mass of heavily beaded clothing had neatly tipped over on top of her before she'd registered what had happened.

It had surprised her at first, to realize that the twins had noticed him before she had. That's a good thing, though. He needs to hear more people tell him they like the way he looks. I still have a hard time believing he's so insecure about his appearance. If he is, why wear such scruffy shorts? Although she had to admit she loved his intricate little leaf vest, so cute and frilly; a real treat to her scrapbooker's eyes.

She decided she would have to give the twins something nice to thank them for being so good to her boyfriend. Even if they did go a little overboard with the touching. Even at the best of times, Branch has never been a cuddler. The last thing I want is to have them make him even less receptive to my touch.

And…maybe I'm…kinda…sorta…a little bit jealous. She sighed. I wanted to be the one touching him.

"What do you think of this outfit?" Chenille pulled out a bright orange-and-yellow geometric top, yellow knitted yarn vest and white bell-bottomed slacks.

"Very retro," Poppy said honestly.

"I know. Retro is 'in' right now."

"It's cute, but I feel like it's a little too retro. My dad wore an outfit just like this when he was dating my mom. I have pictures."

"He did?" Chenille looked aghast and tossed the outfit over her shoulder. "Well, that settles that. No retreads allowed! Let's move on. Here, try this one."

Not all the clothes had beads on them. Periodically, to clean out their closets, the twins brought a large selection of clothing to an event and, if needed, altered them on the spot. Poppy had snagged more than a few of her favorite outfits that way. A trip to the twins' tent was always rewarding.

As she tried on everything from ball gowns to bikinis, Poppy, who normally enjoyed herself immensely when choosing clothes, began to realize that she had an agenda. I wonder what sort of clothes would appeal to Branch?

"Mind if I choose some?" she asked her friend, careful not to mention her ulterior motive.

"Of course, go ahead." Chenille watched her curiously, offering her own feedback now and then.

Feeling a little like a troll from a fairy tale who needed just the right gown to wear to a ball, the troll queen modeled a series of outfits:

-A white t-shirt with a huge yellow glitter-smiley face on the front and pink cotton shorts sprinkled with more glitter.

"That's fantastic, but maybe glitter isn't the best choice for today," Chenille said.

"No glitter?" Poppy blinked, then shrugged. "Okay." Actually, that's not a bad idea. Branch isn't all that wild about glitter anyway.

-A mint green satin ball gown with curving peach-colored sashes swooping around the bell-shaped skirt.

"Not that you couldn't pull it off, but are you sure you want to wear that for an outdoor bead festival?"

"More outdoorsy, huh? Okay, how about this?"

-A red and black flannel checkered shirt, denim pants and sturdy boots.

"Very sporty, but today is a little too warm for flannel, isn't it?"

"Something cooler. Gotcha."

-A metallic gold crop top and tiny metallic gold shorts

"Oh, that look is super sporty, but maybe not fancy enough for a festival?"

"Fancy, huh?"

-A lavender dress with a super-fluffy skirt made of numerous layers of delicate chiffon gauze in a rainbow of pastel colors

"That is adorable on you! But what about something a little different than your usual look? Maybe something a little more formal?"

"Formal, hm?"

-A plain white long-sleeved blouse and dark gray suit jacket with a matching pencil skirt and subtle glitter pinstripes

"That's definitely an outfit that commands respect, but…don't you think it's a little too severe for a festival? Also, it has glitter on it."

"Aw, man, why is this so hard?"

Chenille finally put a hand on her arm. "Poppy, what exactly are you looking for?"

"Do you have anything that can emphasize my hips?" Poppy asked before she thought. Oops! What if she asks why?

Chenille blinked. "Your hips?"

Poppy caught herself rubbing her elbow with her other hand and made herself stop squirming. "Yeah, uh, so do you?"

Chenille's maroon eyes looked at her for a long moment while Poppy bit her lip, waiting for the inevitable question. Even though Chenille was her friend – because Chenille was her friend – having the truth come out right now would be both good and bad. Good because Poppy still felt vaguely guilty for wanting to have an exclusive relationship with just Branch and no one else, and for prioritizing her time with him over others, especially her oldest and dearest friends.

Bad because as her friend, Chenille would of course be overjoyed and would want to spread the happy news. The next thing they knew, Poppy and her boyfriend would be swamped with invitations to dozens of parties that would be fun, but would also leave no time for what she instinctively knew was really important right now: quiet time alone with Branch.

Branch is still so nervous when we're alone together. I want to see more of his sweet, tender side. Not to mention...I want us to be lovers, someday. That's not going to happen if we can't spend time alone with each other. We've barely begun to grow together, like a poppy flower entwined with an oak branch.

But the periwinkle-blue troll only smiled. "No problem! How about something nature-inspired?"

Relieved, Poppy snapped her fingers and pointed both index fingers at her friend. "I like where you're coming from!"

As soon as Poppy saw it, she knew it was perfect.

"It's wonderful!" Poppy impulsively hugged her friend, noting that the beads decorating her clothes didn't hurt or get in the way. The warm colors went well with her warm-pink skin and brilliant magenta hair, and best of all, the short skirt flared when she moved, drawing attention to her hips. "I love it, Chenille!"

Her periwinkle-blue friend affectionately hugged her back. "I'm so happy for you."

"What?"

"Um, nothing… Well, we need four more. Here, what do you think of this outfit?"

"Oooo," Poppy said appreciatively, forgetting about her friend's odd reply.

-O-

"So you can be apart from Chenille. Sort of," I said as I followed Satin as she lumbered through the narrow aisles in her heavy beaded dress, extending her hair as she went, as Chenille did, to stretch the length of hair that bound her to her sister.

"Of course we can," Satin explained, sounding slightly out of breath. "It's tiring to do it for too long, and there's a limit on how far, of course, but in here it's fine."

It was strange to see her without her sister, who was helping Poppy behind the panel near the front of the tent, but it made me realize that she really was an individual, who just happened to always have a sister nearby. "Does it ever bother you, to be treated as if the two of you were a single unit?"

Satin stopped and stared at me for a long moment. "Sometimes. I'm so used to it I don't notice most of the time, but to be honest, yeah, it bugs me."

"Maybe you should do this more often," I suggested, gesturing in the air to indicate the empty space between the sisters. "If people saw you by yourself, it might make them start to think of you as just Satin. Like I just did."

Satin looked thoughtful. "Maybe we will."

"'I'," I corrected.

"What?"

"You said 'we', not 'I'." I smiled wryly. "I think you may even think of yourself as a unit. It's an easy habit to fall into, isn't it?"

Satin was silent, then said, "You know, Branch, I never really understood why you wanted to live away from everyone, all alone in your bunker, but even though it made you kind of paranoid, it also seems to have given you some kind of insight that the rest of us don't have."

I stared at her, not sure whether I should be insulted, but then she smiled and put a hand on my arm. "I'm glad you decided to come out and share it with us. With all of us, I mean, not just me and Chenille."

She chuckled, and I joined her. It felt good to have friends.

Satin pulled out the sleeve of a bright red disco suit, glanced at me, and let it go. "Nope."

"You don't think I'd look good in that?"

"Not your color."

"Oh."

She glanced at me, tapping her chin and frowning thoughtfully. "We were surprised to see you in different clothes today. Although, actually, Chenille and I have always liked the whole vest-with-no-shirt thing. It's super cool."

"Oh, really? I'm flattered."

"The patched shorts, not so much."

"Thank you for that completely unsolicited comment."

"You're welcome," she replied sincerely.

I rolled my eyes and smirked. Chenille would have caught my sarcasm.

Actually, I had a good time exploring my options. I never used to spend much time on fashion – the advantages of a wardrobe consisting mostly of camouflage-patterned clothing were obvious – but I did have clothing meant for other purposes.

What I didn't have, though, was clothes meant to impress my new girlfriend and make me look my best, but Satin's earlier comment about colors gave me an idea.

"Speaking of colors, do you have anything to make me seem brighter?"

"Brighter?" Satin gave me a puzzled look.

"My colors, I mean. Bright colors are considered more attractive, aren't they? So I was hoping you could help me pick clothes in colors that would make my colors seem brighter."

"Your skin is about the same intensity as Chenille's. You don't think your colors are bright enough?"

I dropped my gaze. "Um." I didn't want Satin to think I was insulting her sister, but despite what Poppy had said about finding me attractive even when I had gray skin and black hair, I was sure that the brighter I was, the better I would look in her eyes. My dark purple hair and light blue-green skin were definitely colorful, but neither was as bright as I would have liked.

"I suppose I couldn't expect you to understand," I said quietly.

Satin glanced over at the thick wooden panel, behind which we could hear the occasional muffled comment between Chenille and Poppy, and leaned close to me. "You might be surprised. A lot of trolls like to do things to enhance their appearance. For example, we like to dye the bridge of our hair. It gives the impression that it's the same color."

"Huh." I'd noticed that their multicolored hair, while similar, was actually different colors at their heads– Chenille's was aqua-blue, while Satin's was more of a turquoise-green. I'd stayed at their pod for about a month as a trolling, and I remembered that their hair had been a bluish color, but I'd never realized that the pink and peach colors they currently wore had been dyed. If anything, I'd assumed they just kept their hair permanently turned to the colors they preferred by using the natural hair-changing ability all trolls were born with. Unless they lost that ability, as I had when I went gray.

Losing the ability to camouflage myself by changing my hair color had made me seek out other, more creative ways, including camouflaged clothes and using natural cover. My gray skin had actually proven to be a solid advantage in that regard; one I had come to appreciate, giving me the ability to blend into shadows far more easily than my bright-colored fellows. At times, I had actually caught myself wishing I still had it. Of course, losing that ability had given me back the other one, so it all balanced out.

"So the best colors for you…" Satin looked me critically up and down. "Well, one way to make your colors pop is to wear colors dark enough to make your colors seem brighter by association. For example, purple, magenta, or raspberry would go with your hair and also make your skin color look brighter."

"That makes sense."

"Another way is to choose the complementary color on the color wheel. The opposite of purple is yellow, and so on."

"Oh, I see. Any shade of yellow?"

"No. Your hair is a cool purple, so to make it pop more, we need to give it more energy. Warm colors have more energy than cool ones, so we might choose a warmer yellow. Only, it might not go with your skin color, so I think you need to decide whether you'd rather focus on your skin or your hair."

"My skin, I guess." Poppy said she liked my black hair, so she probably likes dark purple, too.

"Okay. Your skin is a blend of blue and green, so the complementary colors are orange and red. Not too saturated, though; your skin is very light and it would be easy to overwhelm it."

"So, warm peach and pink, then?"

"Right; also coral, salmon, bubblegum, and even some of the warmer lavenders. Cream or tan, if you want warm neutrals. Although one thing you might want to consider is that since your natural colors are all cool colors, I think white would look very good on you, clean and fresh and soothing."

"I don't normally wear white. It gets dirty so easily."

"Oh, live a little! This is a special day, isn't it?"

"Yeah." I gazed fondly toward the wooden panel, smiling dreamily as I listened to the muted murmurs of the girl who meant more to me than words could say. "It is."

Satin looked from me to the panel and smiled. "You know, you're actually lucky, because your colors are more neutral. You can wear a wider range of colors than, say, Poppy. It all depends on the look you're going for."

"Whatever makes me look, uh, hot." I tried not to blush, but from the heat in my ears, I don't think I was successful.

Satin clapped her hands affectionately on the sides of my face, beaming at me. "Oh, my, who would have guessed you'd turn out to be such a cutie pie!"

I froze, my eyes flicking to her face, then away, then back at her as I tried to process all this affection coming at me. Satin was the friendlier of the twins, but the vibe I was getting off her was almost like a sister, or a mom. What do you say to a random comment like that?

"Um, thank you?"

As I turned away to scrutinize my surroundings, I mentally rolled up my sleeves. As long as I'm doing this, I might as well do a thorough survey of my choices. I hope I can find something that'll really impress Poppy.

-O-

Well, well, would you listen to that!

The heavy wooden panel kept her from hearing some of what Branch and Chenille said, but it tickled Poppy to listen to her boyfriend discussing fabrics, styles and themes as if he'd done it his whole life, rather than dismissing the very idea of fashion as a frivolous waste of time.

Who would've guessed he'd get so into this? Poppy thought in delight. It just goes to show, everyone should try something new once in a while. It's a great way to add a little spark to your life. I can't wait to see what he chooses!

Author's Note:

Notice that Poppy thinks Branch is so 'into this' because it's new to him, not because he's hoping to impress her, haha. If you consider the TV show canon, then he's actually already done a photo shoot with the twins, anyway, and had a lot of fun. Poppy wasn't in that episode, so I assumed that she wouldn't know he'd already developed an interested in clothes.

The "super cool" thing Satin was talking about actually came from an extra on the dvd where they showed some lines the twins were supposed to say in the movie that got cut, indicating to me that the twins were supposed to admire Branch's looks.

So I was trying to figure out what characteristics trolls might consider attractive when looking for a mate. Female trolls don't seem to have breasts, so I figured it would be hips, legs and/or hair for females. And for the males, since both sexes have superstrong hair, the males probably don't attract a lot of females simply by virtue of being big and strong.

Then it occurred to me that since color seems to be important, culture-wise, that maybe brighter colors would be one thing that does draw the eye, at least unconsciously. So I figure Branch would notice this, and conclude that his colors weren't bright enough. I also decided that other trolls besides him probably used makeup and other things to enhance their natural coloring to impress potential mates. Plus, in TBGO Satin mentioned that their hair was dyed.

In figuring out what colors looked best on Branch, I realized that some of the colors the creators chose for him matched my expectations, like the warm-orange and warm-green scarf in Trolls Holiday. His shorts are a fairly warm-reddish shade of brown, too. But to me they're a little oversaturated - his skin has the tendency to look pale against them. I'd be curious to see what movie-Branch looks like in lighter colors.

In the TV series, he has teal-green skin and mid-blue hair, both cool colors, and as I thought, he looks really good in white. The creators must think so, too, since we've seen him in a white martial arts uniform, a white bathrobe (even though he already had a green moss bathrobe established in Trolls Holiday) and a cute little white vacation-shirt in the Wormhole episode.

One thing I noticed was how Branch and Poppy were definitely designed to look good on screen together. The creators tend to like dressing Poppy in shades of blue and light green, too (reminiscent of Branch's skin) and actually, most of her clothes in TBGO are surprisingly subdued, colorwise. All I can think is that they discovered that a lot of colors clash with her hair/skin and so they went with muted colors for her, for the most part.