A/N: Requested by dolliebabydoll15 on Tumblr, who wanted Taylor Swift's song "Teardrops on My Guitar" to be utilized. Also, I apologize in advance if any of the changed lyrics are cringe, I'm not good at this kind of thing 😬

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Despite Branch's physical presence within the caterbus - his girlfriend by his side and Tiny Diamond at the wheel - it was his mind that was a grand distance away.

The situation couldn't exactly be helped - he'd known this from the start. There wasn't much he could do without the Family Harmony breaking the diamond imprisonment. And the plan hadn't been thought of much aside from actually infiltrating the Rage Dome and reaching Floyd. This little fact had made itself obvious when they'd arrived and done little more than have a brief reunion.

But just because it had been brief didn't mean that it hadn't been meaningful. No, in fact, it very much was.

And the fact that it was is what brought the blue Troll to his troubled state. He couldn't forget the way his brother's face lit when he saw him, nor the warmth that blossomed within his own chest for his own joy at seeing him too. And Branch was very much delighted when Floyd had realized that he was a man and not a baby anymore, unlike their older brothers' beliefs. But he supposed he shouldn't be surprised. Floyd was the bro who had always known him best. Which is why he'd known that Branch would remain in grave danger should he have stayed behind.

Still though, hardly a minute's time for a reunion was certainly not enough to make up for the twenty-plus years absence, and he missed him dearly.

So, as Tiny Diamond maneuvered Rhonda throughout the hallways of the Rage Dome and Poppy comforted the still teary-eyed Crimp, Branch comforted himself in the manner that Floyd had told him of years prior: by singing.

"Floyd looks at me, I fake a smile so he won't see

That I want and I'm needing everything that we should be..."

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Naturally, Floyd missed Branch as well. He'd sang to himself quietly plenty of times before within the diamond imprisonment.

And so, tuning out his other brothers' argumentative words, and Velvet and Veneer's excited chatter as they made their way to the racecar that would bring them to the Rage Dome's red carpet, he lamented a tune.

"I'll bet she's beautiful, that girl he talks about

And she's got everything that I have to live without..."

He hadn't caught Branch's companion's name, but with the assumption that his little bro was now a man, the pink-haired Troll who'd come to assist in the rescue was likely his brother's girlfriend. He wouldn't know of how they'd met, but he did know that she probably had been by Branch's side far longer than himself. A tinge of jealousy pricked at him - envy for the time she had gotten to know him as he was now - but Floyd cast it away to sing some more.

"Branch talks to me, and we find that we're still so chummy

And I'm glad to see that he's all I ever thought he'd be..."

Time had passed, it was true, but the magenta-haired Troll was delighted to find that Branch was still elated to see him. His brother was truly grown now, and it was something that filled Floyd with great pride.

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Branch, on the other hand, wished he could say the same for Floyd's condition. His older brother was looking quite sickly within the imprisonment, oddly transparent and hair streaked with white.

"He said I had to go, but it just isn't right,

I wonder if he knows I thought of him for many nights..."

He'd told his brother he wasn't leaving without him, and yet he did. While it was apparent that there were no better options in the rush of the moment, it still wasn't sitting well with Branch. Emotion poured into the last verse of his song as a result.

"He's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar

The only thing that keeps me wishing on a wishing star

He's the song in the car I keep singing, don't know why I do..."

When Branch was finished, letting the last notes linger off into the air, he slumped his shoulders and sighed. The song helped him feel a little better, but he wouldn't feel true relief until he knew his brother was freed. He felt a hand pat him on his back, and looked up to see Poppy. She flashed him a gentle smile of reassurance, and he reciprocated along with a small nod, focusing back on the mission and what they had to do next. He wasn't sure exactly what was going to happen, but somehow and in some way he would ensure that Floyd - and the rest of their brothers that had been wrongly captured - would come out of this fix safe and sound.