Please enjoy.

OoOoOo

Once the brothers were gone, Viva turned to Poppy. "I've never seen you two fight before," she admitted.

Poppy frowned, not liking the wording of that. "We weren't fighting," she corrected, a little sharper than she meant to. At least, she didn't think they weren't. They had fought plenty of times before, pre-relationship of course, and it wasn't usually like that. Branch didn't seem mad at her, more like mad at everyone else.

Viva shifted on her feet. "What did Branch mean earlier?" she asked much softer than she had before. Her pink eyes were tinged with sadness. "Are people really treating you different?"

Poppy wrung her fingers together, half hoping the ground would swallow her up. She didn't want to have this conversation, she didn't want to admit that things were different. Everything had been going so well and she felt like she was messing it all up. "I mean, kinda?" She giggled nervously. "But you know how dramatic Branch can be. Really, it's nothing."

"Poppy-Pie," Viva urged, gentle but firm. "You can tell me, you can tell me anything. You know that right?"

"O-Of course I know that." The words felt heavy on her tongue. She loved Viva, more than anyone excluding Branch, but something about the claim rang true. If she told Viva the truth, it would upset her. She didn't want Viva to be upset, especially not with the villagers. She had just started to get used to Pop Village.

Poppy couldn't ruin that. So, she smiled. She smiled so wide that her cheeks began to hurt. "Everything is fine," she said, more forcefully than she intended. "The villagers probably just feel weird about the whole being kidnapped thing. Besides, we haven't had a trial since Dad was a kid, of course everyone's on edge."

A spark flashed through Viva's eyes. "Speaking of Dad..." she spoke up. "How did he take the trial? We both know he's not good at this kind of thing."

Now wasn't that an understatement. Pain ripped through Poppy's heart at the reminder of her father's words. Even though she knew he was just looking out for the good of the village, it still hurt. But she couldn't tell Viva that!

Things were still tense between her sister and father. Viva loved Peppy of course, but not even she could deny that she was (rightfully) hurt that she had never been mentioned again. Not even to mourn. The three of them had talked about it some time ago, to which their father had apologized. But they were still working on rebuilding their relationship.

Poppy couldn't ruin that! Even if her dad was right, Viva was overprotective. She would get upset and they would fight and the family that Poppy had just gotten back would be broken again.

No, absolutely not.

So Poppy laughed, waving it off. "Oh, you know Dad," she replied flippantly. "Mr. Forgetful! He didn't even remember the trial, I had to remind him!"

Liar. You're a liar, Poppy.

A tense smile overtook Viva's face. "Oh, good." She giggled, a bit more relaxed. "That's so Dad!"

She bought it. That somehow made Poppy feel worse. Trying to distract herself, Poppy reached into her bag and handed Viva an envelope. "Your court summoning," she explained. "I almost forgot to give it to you." That was another thing she had to do, hand out the rest of the summoning letters. With how upset she had been last night, she had forgotten.

She was being careless, and that wasn't something she could afford to do right now.

Viva took it, opening it excitedly. "Is it weird to say I'm excited? I can't wait for you to bring the hammer down on those two traitors! Am I allowed to ask what you've got planned?"

Community service?

That hadn't always been the plan. Her chosen punishment had been lifetime banishment (which Branch was against, since it left them unsupervised and gave them an opportunity for revenge) before her talk with Peppy. But ever since she had visited her father's pod, she had been having doubts.

Was that too harsh? Was that her hurt and anger at them talking, and not her rationality as queen?

The more she thought about it, the more she thought that maybe her father was right. Maybe she had been letting her feelings get in the way of her responsibilities. After all, it wasn't like the Pop Trolls were used to harsh punishment. The whole thing could be too overwhelming for them.

Poppy smiled and winked. "It's a surprise."

Viva grinned. "I'm sure it's a fantastamazing punishment!" she cheered.

She wished she had the same confidence her older sister did.

OoOoOo

Branch met her in a little clearing in the forest, somewhere they both went a lot. Whether it was for her to breathe away from the pressures of being queen or for Branch to escape... life (also, John Dory), they somehow met in the middle more often than not. Most days, they would sit here for an hour or two and either sit in comfortable silence or talk about random, insignificant things.

Poppy cherished those moments with Branch. He was her best friend in the world. But today, she felt dread.

He was already sitting on their log when she got there. He was talking to himself, like he often did, before he caught sight of her. He gave her a gentle smile. "Hey," he greeted.

Poppy tried to smile back, but it felt like a grimace. "Hi." She shuffled forward, joining him on the log. They sat in silence for a minute, enjoying the gentle sounds of the forest. If Poppy could, she would stay like this for the rest of her life; surrounded by peace next to her favorite person.

But nothing lasted forever.

"You can't really think that the way they're treating you is okay."

Poppy flinched. There was no trace of anger in Branch's voice, but there might as well have been. "I think they're just scared," she retorted. "And confused. You know they're not good at dealing with stuff like this."

Branch scoffed. "Dealing with what? Anything that looks or acts different?"

She turned to face him so fast that she might have given herself whiplash. Was that what this was about? Was Branch so upset because of how the village had treated him? She suddenly felt guilty; she should have been paying more attention. Of course he hadn't forgotten that, it had gone on for twenty years.

"I'm sorry," said Poppy quietly. Her eyes burned, but she held in the tears. She should have done more for Branch. She had always tried to be nice to him, but not everyone was like her.

But Branch shook his head. "I don't care how they treat me, Poppy," he told her. "I got used to it." He looked at her with startlingly blue eyes. "But they're not allowed to treat you that way. Not after everything you've done, you do, for them."

She bit her lip before it could start to tremble. "It's okay Branch," she assured them. "They'll come around." In all honesty, the villagers had been put on the back burner in her mind for the past day. She was much more worried about the trial now.

But Branch's ears flicked in annoyance. "It's not okay," he insisted. "I know your dad taught you that you had to take shit from other people, but you don't."

Poppy bristled at the mention of her father. "He didn't," she replied. And a few days ago, she would have believed that. But her last conversation with him kept replaying in her head.

"You might feel a certain way, but it's important to be sure you're making the best choice for the village."

He scoffed. "Please, he'd probably tell you to go easy on Creek and Daisy for the sake of the village or some stupid crap like that." He meant it jokingly in that dry, sarcastic way of his. But her heart leapt into her throat at just how accurate he was.

Once it was apparent that she didn't have a retort, Branch turned to face her fully with wide, alarmed eyes. "Poppy," he said slowly, baring his teeth in a poor attempt at an awkward smile. "Your dad didn't actually say that, right? He might be a questionable leader sometimes, but he would never treat you like that. Right?"

It was on the tip of Poppy's tongue to lie. But... she was so tired. Tired of pretending, tired of lying to Viva, to Branch. She was tired and she didn't want to pretend anymore.

So, she said nothing.

Branch stared her down with an indescribable expression. They sat in silence- not their peaceful silence, a horrible foreboding silence- before he abruptly stood. Without a word to her turned on his heel and stomped away.

Towards the village.

It took Poppy much too long to realize what he was doing. She sat there, blinking after his retreating form. Then, it hit her over the head. "Branch!" She scrambled to her feet, quickly giving chase. "Branch, come back!"

She cursed herself as she ran. How was she going to get herself out of this mess?

OoOoOo

I REMEMBER WHAT I WANTED TO SAY. Some folks have been speculating that Creek sexually assaulted Poppy. I don't blame you guys for thinking that! But I'm here to assure you all that's not the case. If it was, I would have put it in the warnings on AO3. Also, I don't use sexual assault in my stories like that. I used to when I was younger and ignorant, but not anymore.

So don't worry! Outside of the violence, the worst Creek did was maybe touch her face (which is a bad idea because I've already established she bites). Anyway, I hope that cleared that up!