A/N: A request by ladywitch17 on Tumblr 🙂

                            __________________________________________________

This was a little strange.

Branch had seen, interacted with, and even helped take care of little Trollings before in Pop Village, so that was nothing new. What was strange, though, was that the little Trollings who were bouncing all around him now were actually related to him. Because they were in fact his nieces and nephews. And that meant Branch was an uncle!

The only time he'd thought that there would be any little Trollings who were his family was if he and Poppy ever got to that point. He would be lying to himself if he'd said that he hadn't had that lovely daydream sometimes, of a domestic scene in which he'd come home from a day's work, share a couple of sweet smooches with his beautiful pink Pop Queen, and be attacked on all sides with hugs from their children...

He would sigh if he could, only the air was knocked right out of him in that present moment, when one of the Trollings knocked right into him, having not watched where he was going as he wrestled with one of his brothers.

Branch's head was in a whirl as he tried and failed to count just how many in total there were, and he turned to observe Spruce, his older brother and the father of all the kids, standing to one side. The purple-haired Troll had an amused look on his face as he watched the children get up to their antics, and Branch shook his head. With Spruce's romance-seeking behavior in his youth, it really didn't surprise him that he'd gotten down to business so quickly, and now had a whole posse of kiddos to showcase for it. It did surprise him, however, that Spruce managed to maintain his marriage for as long as he seemed to have done.

His Trollings all had different features, yet Spruce was present in them all - whether it was the blue eyes, or the purple hair, or even a hint of abs in some of the older boys of the bunch.

But they were all the same in their curiosity about Branch and his companions - Poppy, John Dory, and Tiny Diamond - and why they were there.

Branch felt a tug at his leaf vest and heard a little voice below him right afterwards.

"Hey! Hey, Mister!"

"Uh... yeah?" he responded awkwardly.

"What's your name?" the Trolling asked, blinking her wide blue eyes at him.

"Branch."

"Branch?" she repeated, testing the word out on her tongue, and then looking back up at him. "Huh. Does it mean anything?"

"It's something you find in trees," he said with a shrug.

The Trolling cocked her head at him. "Huh? Whaddya mean?"

"Well..." Branch began, "It's, um, you know... that part of the tree that kinda sticks out and has leaves on it?"

"Ohhh," the Trolling said, nodding her head. "You're talking about a frond! Like those!" She pointed up to the very top of some nearby palm trees.

"Err, well, not exactly - " Branch started to correct, but was cut off when the little Trolling interrupted him with "Well, it's very nice to meet you, Mr. Frond!"

Branch, however, was not the only one being questioned. Poppy in the meantime was occupied with a little Trolling of her own.

"Is that guy your baby?" the Trolling asked, pointing at Tiny Diamond.

Poppy giggled. "No, he's not."

"Ohh... I guess that makes sense," the Trolling concluded. "He doesn't really look like you... or your husband!"

Poppy was taken aback by this. "My husband?" she asked.

"Uh-huh. That guy, right over there! He is your husband, right?" Poppy followed the direction his finger was pointing, and blushed heavily when she saw that it was at Branch.

"Oh! UH... n-no!" she squeaked, and then cleared her throat. "He's, uh, just my boyfriend!"

The Trolling looked confused for a second, and then shrugged. "Huh. Could've fooled me. My Daddy looks at my Mommy the same way that guy looks at you. And usually it's right before they kiss!" He scrunched his nose and made a face. "YUCK!"

"Heh heh, yeah... yuck..." Poppy tittered in agreement, but not thinking it would be so horrible if Branch's lips ever made their way onto hers.

As Poppy did her best to recover from that little Trolling's suggestions, Tiny Diamond was handling his own pair of Trollings.

"How old are you?" one of the two Trollings asked him.

"One and a half," Tiny proudly declared, crossing his arms.

"Really?" the other Trolling said. "Wait, so doesn't that mean you're a baby?"

Tiny was appalled to hear this. "A baby? I'm not no baby, I'm a man!"

"Hmmm," the first Trolling hummed in thought. "His voice is pretty deep. Maybe he's right! But then, why are you so small?"

"And why are you naked?" the second Trolling piped up.

"I have clothes on," Tiny insisted, holding up his yellow-tinted glasses at them. "See?"

"Cool!" the first Trolling said, swiping them from his hands and running off with the second Trolling giggling after him.

Tiny gasped. "HEY! Those are mine, come back!" he yelled, running after them.

Yet another Trolling was having his share of time with John Dory. This Trolling whispered at Spruce in confusion, loud enough for JD to hear.

"Daddy, who's the funny-looking guy?" he asked.

JD huffed. He could take Tiny calling him a random dude, but this was pushing it! "Funny-looking? What exactly makes you say that?" he asked, crossing his arms.

The Trolling giggled. "Who wears a snowcoat in the summer?"

Oof, got me there, John Dory realized, suddenly all too aware of how warm his jacket was making him feel underneath the blazing rays of Vacay Island's hot, hot sun.

"Junior," Spruce said warningly to the Trolling, "That's not the way we talk."

John Dory smiled in relief for the reprimanding, at least until Spruce said, "It's 'who's the funny-looking Troll,'" to which that smile promptly disappeared.

Spruce smirked, and then said, "And I told you, Junior, he's my brother. Your uncle."

"Wow, really?" Junior said. "But Daddy, how come you never told us you had a brother?"

"That's exactly what I'd like to know," a new voice piped up, loud enough to have also grabbed Branch, Poppy, and Tiny Diamond's attention as well. Spruce flinched a little when the female Troll who'd arrived crossed her arms and gave him a pointed look.

"H-hey, baby," he said, "I, uh... I guess the subject never came up!" Spruce flashed her a charming smile that would've probably made any girl fall to her knees in adoration, though the effect failed to work on her.

"Bruce," she said firmly, "What exactly is going on?"

Spruce sighed. "Babe, I have to tell you something... starting with 'Bruce' not exactly being my real name..."

It was then that the purple-haired Troll went on to tell his wife all about the way he used to belong to the sensational boyband 'BroZone,' and how he'd had not one, not two, not three, but four siblings that he'd refused to speak of. At least, until two of them came right back into his life.

"Bruce," she said, frowning in disappointment. "Or Spruce, whatever your name is - I can't believe this."

But while she couldn't believe that he would keep something so vital like this from her, the children couldn't believe the musical aspect of it all.

"You sang in a real band, Daddy?" one Trolling asked eagerly.

"With your brothers?!" another piped up.

"He sure did," John Dory answered for her. "And I betchu we still got it!"

This got the children very excited, and they all began chattering at once.

"Ooo! Daddy, Daddy, sing one of your songs with your brothers!"

"Yeah! We wanna hear!"

"How many brothers did you say you had again?"

"He said he had four!"

"But how come there's only two here now?"

"It doesn't matter, Daddy can still sing with them!"

"Yeah! Please, Daddy, can you? Pleeeaase?"

Spruce glanced over at his wife. She just glared at him.

"Babe," he whispered to her, "I promise you'll like it, 'kay?"

She snorted and turned away from him.

Confident that he'd be able to change her mind, Spruce turned back to their kids and gave them the answer that they'd hoped for. "Okay, sure." He didn't usually like to spoil his kids, but sometimes he found that as a Dad it was too difficult to resist.

"YAAAY!" they cheered happily.

Spruce chuckled, and peered at John Dory and Branch. "Sooo... any ideas for what we're gonna be singing?"

John Dory began thinking, but was surprised when Branch made the first suggestion. "Anybody up for 'I Want You Back'?" the blue Troll asked.

"Hooo, yeah, you just read my mind!" JD exclaimed, giving Branch a playful punch on the shoulder.

Branch frowned at him, still not comfortable with his physicalness, while Spruce agreed, liking the idea and eyeing the stage inside the tiki hut just beyond the dunes.

"You're on!"

                            __________________________________________________

A/N: Uncle Branch and Dad Spruce is something that I need to see happen in the movie for sure! 😍