This takes place before the movie when Branch was grey! Enjoy! ❤️

Chapter 1

It was a cold day in the village. It was the middle of winter and everyone was wearing their warm jackets. Except 1 troll in particular.

Poppy.

She thought that it would be a good idea to wear her blue ombré short sleeved dress in the heart of winter, Poppy,

Go get your crap together please.

She was walking around the village and everyone was worried about her. She was getting cold but she just shrugged it off. She thought singing and dancing would warm her up but it didn't. Why didn't she put on warm clothes you may be wondering?

Because she was as stubborn as a mule.

As much as she was kind and caring, she was pretty much the definition of stubborn. If you looked up 'stubborn' in the dictionary, the description would be, Poppy. The snack pack found it hard a lot of the time to tame the stubborn mule side of her but, may I remind you, she was stubborn so she didn't listen.

She decided to go to Branch's bunker because she wanted to see what he was doing, ya know,

just because.

So she walked up to his bunker. It was way chillier here than back at the village. It was getting harder and harder to shrug off, as if a pile of snow just fell onto her and she couldn't get out from under it. She looks at both of her shoulders to see nothing but her bare pink skin.

She had arrived at his house, and she heard, sobbing? She needed to investigate. So she decided to knock on the rock he calls a door. And my God every single knock she felt her knuckles break. It was so cold, her knuckles was as fragile as a snowflake. But she proceeded to knock.

"B-brrrranch-ch-cha, arre y-ya-you d-doi-nggg o-ok-ka-ay?"

It was freezing. Branch then opened his mat, you could see his eyes just recovered from a waterfall of tears. His eyes were the only thing you could see through the little mat peep hole too be honest but boy could she get lost easily.

'The heat from his good looks could warm me up any day winters day.' Poppy thought, wait, what the hell was she thinking about.

"What do you want Poppy?" Branch spoke quite harshly.

"I want you to let me inside and tell me what's wrong!" Poppy said, waving her finger around like mad but with a gentle yet stern face.

"No can do Poppy." Branch said blankly.

"Branch, you are going to let me in this instant, or I'll stay outside in the cold, harsh air and freeze in my dress, but- but if that's what it resorts to, then I will make you let me in!" Poppy spoke, as confident in the cold weather as possible.

Branch really didn't feel for Poppy's stubbornness so he just let her in.
They were going down Branch's life in silence, until Poppy decided to break the ice (A/N Winter puns 😂)

"Wow! Your bunker is, AMAZING!" Poppy exclaimed looking around trying to take in everything at once. There were separate compartments for everything. The organization made Poppy feel a bit relaxed. She didn't know why but she enjoyed it. Then she remembered Branch was crying earlier on.

"Hey Branch? What's wrong?" Poppy asked.

"What do you mean? Nothing's wrong I'm- I'm fine." Branch said, flopping his hand forward in a weird manner indicating for her let go of the matter and move on. Not on her watch she isn't.

"Well, earlier on, I saw you- I MEAN, I heard you, ya know, crying and I wanted to uh-know if you're A-ok?"
Poppy asked, lacking her confidence from earlier.

"Poppy, that business remains classified to you, for now at least" He muttered the last part, "But- but let's focus on you- you!" Branch was trying to change the topic, "I'm just concerned about you! Because you- you were walking outside in your dress- A-ARENT you cold?" Branch fake smiled.

"Awh, Branch, you are concerned about me!" Poppy said in aw, the immediately went into defensive mode, "what have you done with the real Branch?"

"I might be grey but I still am part of the village even though not a lot of people think or treat me like it." He looked away and muttered the last part.

"And so with that, the future queen getting sick would cause chaos." Branch said, "and you know how much I hate noise."

She's definitely buying this. I mean the hating noise thing isn't false but I think she's starting to forget about me crying earlier.  Branch thought to himself with victory in his eyes.

I'm not buying this. Thought Poppy, I mean the hating noise thing wasn't false but I'm not going to forget about the crying thing earlier.

Yeah, but what can you say, great minds think alike am I right?

"Branch, stop trying to distract me, yes, I am cold but I still want to know why you were crying." Poppy said.

"Poppy, not now..." Branch said, but Poppy persisted

"Branch, please talk to me." Poppy persisted, Branch was starting to lose it.

"Poppy I said not now." His voice was much more stern this time.

"Branch, tell me now! What was wrong-"

"I SAID NOT NOW!" Branch shouted, standing inches away from her face, his breathe coating her face. Poppy just stood there in shock. Branch had never shouted to her like that before. He immediately regretted it but instead of apologizing, he walked away, turned his back to her and sat down.

Poppy started to recover. Her expression softened, and started walking over to Branch, her left hand over her chest,

"If you don't wanna talk, don't talk then, if you wanna tell me I'm a stupid annoying pink troll who doesn't know what she's doing, tell me, but I'm going to be queen soon, and it's my job to keep everyone in the village happy, so that's why I come to your bunker everyday to check on you, and I have to try everyday until you finally find your happy place, where ever it may be. But I just want you to know, that we can explore your world together until we find the place you've been looking for." Poppy spoke, she was now sitting next to Branch and looked up and him.

"Poppy, you're not annoying, and I'm sorry I shouted at you. I'm just, I'm just not ready to talk about it. But thank you for being here for me, you're the first troll that cared for me ever since, never- nevermind that." Branch said.

Poppy was still curious about why Branch was crying, but forcing it out of him wouldn't help, so she'd just have to wait for him to open up. So she hugged him tightly.

He was a bit shocked at first at the sudden contact, but he returned the hug anyway. Poppy was also surprised because he had never returned a hug from her before, he would usually just stand there and wait for her to let go, but he returned it, and she was glad.

"Hey Poppy?" Branch asked.

"Yeah?" Poppy said, still muffled in his chest.

"You should probably go now." Branch said, breaking apart from the hug.

"Yeah, I should, but do I really want to?" Poppy spoke, whining.

"If you want the village to be in complete chaos, you'd stay." Branch said.

"Fair enough." Poppy said, she got up and walked to the quote on quote 'door'.

"Hey Poppy? One more thing." Branch said.

"Yes, Branch?" Poppy said, turning around.

"Dress warmly please, I don't want to look after you while you're sick." Branch said.

Then Poppy just walked out.

I wouldn't mind Branch looking after me for a day... sounds nice...

And Poppy walked around the village still with her dress on.

She'll never learn will she?

But here stupid actions provide us with more Broppy I guess so keep doing what you're doing Poppy.

~

AAAAAAND That's the end of my first short story in this book! This book would probably be continuous, (or at least until I just suddenly disappear from Wattpad one day but you don't need to worry about that happening anytime soon 😂) but yeah. I'll probably only write in this book when I'm bored. I'm more focused on my main book Called, The Tale Of Two Trolls. (You should go read it if you haven't :,)  Anyways, chat later!