Sulit

A/N: This chapter will explain my personal headcanon of how Troll babies are born. If you guys start pointing out Tiny Diamond's birth and try to contradict it; I know, I know. I know what happened, I've seen the movie. But who knows how that actually works? So this is how I think it works. If you disagree, don't post comments about it. If you must point it out, send me a private message. 

Anyway, now that that's out of the way, let's get on with Chapter 3. Roll it! 

Chapter 3

Discussing What Happens Next

Poppy had a feeling that this was going to happen, and in just the way she had pictured it, too. She pretty much expected it from the very beginning as she looked at Branch's gaping face. She also expected him to immediately take the test from her and make sure that it wasn't another prank by rubbing the middle part of it with his thumb to see if the glittery substance that showed the positive result would come off. It didn't, proving that this was indeed real.

But what she didn't expect was Branch grabbing her arm and then dragging her into what she supposed was his living room. He quickly placed her on the couch with a heavy plop, the test falling from his hand and onto her lap, and then started pacing back and forth in front of her, talking pretty fast, his hands flailing around as he did so.

"Oh, this is not happening!" He exclaimed in a panic. "This can't be happening! You can't actually be pregnant! And definitely not with my kid! Oh, your dad is going to banish me from the village permanently, and then kill me with his bare hands and hair!"

"Chill, Branch!" Poppy said, standing up from the couch after tucking the test away in her hair and stopping the paranoid survivalist in his frantic pacing by grabbing his arms. "I get that you're worried! I am, too! My dad will be pretty steamed at both of us, killing you first, and then me after he grounds me for the rest of my life! But right now, we need to figure out what to do."

Branch's nervous crystal eyes bore into hers, the ocean blue color briefly sending goosebumps onto her skin. The only bright color left in him; it always gave her shivers as well as hope that he would regain the rest of them if his eyes were still colorful. He then shut them to take a couple of deep breaths to try and calm himself.

"For once, you do have a point." He said before exhaling heavily. "Okay. First things first, I'm going to ask you a few serious questions, so I want you to take them seriously as well."

"Okay, okay." Poppy answered, briefly rolling her eyes. But she knew that Branch was right. This was not something to be taken lightly, so she was going to have to take it very seriously.

"Also, don't be so defensive about them." Branch added. "It's just so that we can both be on the same page, so that we can figure out what to do."

"Okay." Poppy said, nodding her head.

Branch took a deep breath, looking a bit nervous as he anxiously rubbed his hands together. "...Do you even want this baby?" He asked.

Poppy's eyes instinctively trailed down to her still-flat stomach, her fingers slightly twitching, wanting to touch it. Did she want this baby? She did wonder about her future sometimes, when the time came that she would be queen and was expecting the next future heir to the throne, although she didn't think very much about the details that would lead up to it. She thought that she would've been married and then had gotten pregnant. But instead, she is with child out of wedlock.

When the egg came, would she actually be willing to leave it in the care of someone else? Would the child eventually learn that he or she was adopted, and then spend the rest of his or her life wondering why they had been given up by their birth parents? Would they wonder if they were even wanted by them? And if Poppy ever saw them around the village with their adoptive family, would she feel heartbroken knowing that her own child was growing up without ever learning that she was their birth mother? Would she even know that he or she is her son or daughter just by looking at them? The thought of her watching her child grow up without her would be too much pain for her to bear.

"Poppy?" Branch's voice pulled her out of her thoughts, and she met his eyes again. "You okay?" He asked her.

"What?" Poppy questioned, not understanding what he meant.

Branch just pointed over to her face. "You're...." He trailed off, not wanting to finish his sentence.

Poppy gently touched her cheek and felt a warm trail of wetness on it. She was crying. "Oh." She said, not having noticed it. "Sorry. I guess I.... was just lost in thought."

"I.... I get that.... you probably don't want it." Branch said, as if he was almost hesitant himself to even say it, much less out loud.

"No, it's not that." Poppy cut him off, rapidly waving her hands back and forth. "It's just that...." She trailed off, not sure how to explain what she was feeling, since all of this was pretty new to her.

Branch watched her with deep, observing eyes. He noticed how her eyes were briefly flickering down towards her abdomen, her fingers slightly twitching at her sides as they wanted to touch and rub it gently. One of them managed to briefly brush against the area, clothed by her dress. He soon came to the realization of why.

"Poppy." He said, taking one step closer to her. "You don't have to give it up. I was just asking if you feel like you want this baby and care for it. But I can already see that you care too much about it to give it up and send it into foster care."

Poppy didn't answer him, even though she knew that he hit the nail right on the head. Even though she had only found out about her pregnancy just hours earlier, just the thought of watching her child, the one that was currently developing inside of her, grow up without ever knowing who his or her parents are was already too much to bear. But there was one other thing about it that was bothering her. Even if she wanted to keep the baby, she wanted both of its parents to be a part of its life.

"What about you, Branch?" She asked him tentatively, almost looking afraid. "This baby is just as much a part of you as it is of me."

Branch was silent for a few long seconds, and his heart almost shattered into pieces at how Poppy was looking at him with nervous, doe-like eyes. She was right. This baby was also his, just as much as it was hers. He was going to be a father. And Poppy, the only Troll who kept coming back to him and was slowly chipping away at the wall he had built around his heart, where it was also locked behind a door without a key; was its mother. She was carrying his child. 

In his deepest, darkest dreams, he had once hoped that one day, he and the beautiful pink Troll would be in this very situation, but as a couple; whether as just dating or even, he hardly even dared to hope, married; although the latter would be preferable. But he and Poppy weren't a thing, much less even friends. Well, she thought of him as a friend, but he doesn't think that she's his friend, which does make things a bit more complicated.

But.... he was all alone. There was no one left of his family. He was the only survivor. His parents were taken when he was just an infant himself, he never knew his grandfather because he was taken the year before he was born, and his grandmother was taken in front of his eyes by those Bergens when he was only a child. Family was something that he cherished and craved, but he was still haunted by visions and dreams of them. However, the child that Poppy was carrying in her, it was a part of him, of his family.

Branch then realized that he was silent for much too long, when he saw embarrassment slowly appear on Poppy's face, and her eyes were beginning to well up with tears of shame. Without realizing what he was doing, he carefully took Poppy's hands in his.

"You might not know this about me, Poppy, but I'm the last living member of my family." He said, making the princess's eyes widen in shock. "Everyone is gone. My parents, my relatives, everyone. But this kid, as much as I would want to not believe that this actually happened, it's a part of me, and most likely the only part of my family that's left besides me, even if it hasn't been born yet. I want to be a part of its life, but only if you want me to."

"Of course I do want you in its life!" Poppy said, instinctively squeezing his hands with hers. "This child, this baby, it's a part of both of us. I want it to get to know both of us."

"Even though its father is the village gray grump who rains on everyone's parade?" Branch asked with disdain.

Poppy knew that it was kind of true about him, but this child, it will love its father unconditionally; she was just sure of that. "This child will love you. I don't think that it will hate you or feel ashamed of you." She answered. "I really do believe that."

"How?" He asked.

Poppy lightly bit her lip nervously. She wasn't sure if she should say this right now, but it was what she believed, and he needed to hear it if they were going to get through this. They were in this together, whether or not they wanted to.

"Because I don't hate you." She said.

Branch's eyes widened. "You, you don't?" He asked.

"Well, 'hate' is a strong word, but no." Poppy answered. "I don't care what everyone else says about you. Yes, sometimes I do get frustrated or annoyed or.... disappointed, but I can never hate you. Like I said earlier, you're different, and.... I kind of admire that."

The gray Troll in front of her raised a brow. "Really?" He questioned, not really believing it.

"Yeah." She replied, nodding her head. "Even if you don't believe me, it's the truth. I like that you are honest, even though you could be a little bit nicer about it."

"Not how I swing." Branch said, a smug little smirk on his face.

Poppy just rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I also like that.... you treat me.... normally."

"Huh?" Branch asked, his head slightly tilted to the side, his ears copying their motion, which Poppy found somewhat adorable.

"What I mean is that.... you don't treat me as if I'm made of glass or china or something breakable." The pink Troll princess clarified. "Everyone else, sometimes even the rest of our friends, they overreact if they think that something's wrong with me."

"Your friends." Branch corrected her. "And I remember that. It was the day that you literally crashed into me when you were trying to hide from a mob of them back when we were teenagers. They still haven't learned to not go all crazy over a simple little sneeze?"

Poppy bit back a snicker. She also remembered that day quite well. "Apparently not." She said. "When I suspected that I was pregnant for the past couple of weeks, it took so much effort to continue to assure them that I was fine and just on doctor's orders until I talked to you about it."

The gray Troll lightly bit the corner of his mouth to hide a tiny grin. "Good thing that you did." He said before his little smirk vanished. "Otherwise, there would've been a flash mob throughout the entire village, ready to tear apart the Troll who impregnated you, limb by limb."

"And then they would've never left me alone." The pink princess added, grimacing at both of the mental images. "They would've kept bombarding me with questions about who the father is and doctor's notes and...." She briefly shuddered at the thought, "bowls of soup."

"Um, have you.... started eating weird things already?" Branch asked, standing up and walking over to a bookshelf that was in the room. "Like cravings?"

"If you call eating fruits and veggies on a regular basis, and getting sick at the mere sight or smell of sweets or any kind of candy or sweets, then of course I've been having cravings." Poppy replied, her eyes narrowed playfully at the gray Troll's back, her eyes crossed against her chest. "Knowing you, those kinds of things are mostly what you eat, so you can already bet that this kid is yours if it already has developed your sense of taste."

Branch felt a strange little twinge of pride starting to swell up in his chest. The baby was just in the beginning stages of its development, and already, it and its mother were eating much more healthy things than the normal sugary diet of Trolls. That definitely sounded like it was his, for sure. Was this how a new expectant father was supposed to feel?

Finally, the gray Troll found the book that he was looking for and pulled it out from its spot, the book having a pale yellow cover. He then sat down at the couch, opening the book and flipping through the pages. He looked back up at Poppy, and after a couple of seconds of them just staring at each other, he tentatively patted the spot next to him on the sofa. As much as the pink Troll wanted to leap for joy at him finally allowing her to come closer to him, this was a serious matter they were discussing. So she slowly came over and carefully sat down beside him.

"So you just found out today?" He asked. "About you being pregnant?"

Poppy nodded. "And you said that you've already been having symptoms for about a couple of weeks." Branch pondered out loud, skimming through the pages of the book before finally stopping at a specific one. "Judging from the symptoms and the time frame, I would say that you're about seven weeks along already."

"How do you know that?" She asked.

Branch removed his gaze from the book to glare at her. "Did you even pay attention in your Troll anatomy classes?" He asked.

"I did!" Poppy retorted back, which only made Branch raise a brow. "Sort of." She amended sheepishly, cheeks flushing a darker pink.

The gray Troll sighed heavily before turning back to the book. "Since you're about seven weeks along, you'll still be experiencing those symptoms for about another two months or so."

Poppy sighed. "Great." She muttered, looking down at her flat abdomen. "You're only starting to grow, and already, you're causing me grief."

Branch bit back a snicker as he continued to skim the pages of the book. "Relax. Those symptoms will stop around the fourth month, when you enter the second trimester," he assured her, "but that's also when you start to show."

"...Okay." Poppy answered slowly. "So don't wear anything that might show it off or reveal it. I'll have to come up with something to cover it up somehow."

"Around the end of the fifth month, that's when the egg starts to form." The gray Troll continued. "You'll start to get a sense of when the egg is ready to come when you start feeling that the baby is moving around more than usual, and then getting pretty bad cramps."

"So what should I do when I feel that the egg is coming?" The pink Troll princess asked.

"Well, you can't exactly go to Doctor Plum." Branch answered hesitantly. "Otherwise, the news of you being pregnant will spread like wildfire."

"Yeah." Poppy agreed, lightly biting her lip. "Well, I can just come here."

Branch's eyes widened in shock, almost looking like they were ready to pop out from their sockets. "Come here?!" He exclaimed.

"Well, do you have a better idea?" Poppy retorted back. "Other than bringing the egg out in the middle of the forest, where not just other Trolls would hear me, but also any other kinds of predators?"

A thousand scenarios immediately flooded Branch's mind when it came to the time when Poppy would bring the egg into the world, all of them ending in one of six ways. The egg would be lost, or Poppy, or both, or the entire village would either scour the entire village looking for the illegitimate father of the egg, or that he would either be banished or killed by Peppy's own hands for plucking his daughter's flower.

"...Fair point." He said, looking away, and Poppy could see a faint lavender blush appearing on his cheeks, stretching upwards towards the tips of his ears. As much as she wanted to feel smug that she finally got one up on the gray Troll, all that was ringing through her mind was how oddly.... adorable he looked with that little blush on his face.

"Anyway, after the egg comes, then it needs to be incubated in the parents' hair for the next four months until it hatches." Branch continued, dispelling the blush from his face.

"...Should we take turns?" Poppy asked him shyly. "Incubating the egg? I take it for one month, then you take it for the next month, and so on?"

Branch lightly bit his lip. "That can work." He answered. "And the second either of us feel the slightest movement from it, we find each other and get down here."

He then closed the book and handed it to Poppy. "You might as well take this and read it." He added. "So that you're not freaking out over other weird things that could just be a symptom."

Poppy was a little bit disappointed to see that the book he handed her wasn't a scrapbook, just a normal book with more of the written word than felt pictures; but then again, maybe there are certain topics that shouldn't be scrapbooked. Troll pregnancies being one of them.

"How do you even have this book in the first place?" She asked him curiously.

A similar pale lavender blush coated the tips of his ears as he answered her question. "These were books that my family was in charge of safekeeping." He explained. "Your dad thought that it was best that we keep them, because there are some things that I read about that made me question a lot of things."

At least, the old me. He thought bitterly to himself. Now, I would just use those books for research and self-teaching. Plus, after I hid myself away from the village about ten years ago, and not attending the village schools anymore, I had to learn how to build this bunker somehow. And I kind of readied myself for some pretty sensitive topics that most Trolls don't take into full consideration until after they find themselves in a precarious situation. Yet, even after all that, look what happened between me and the one Troll that gets on my nerves more than anyone, and who I can't push away completely.

When the pink Troll princess saw the lavender coating on his cheeks and ears begin to darken, and she glanced at the book in her hands, and then back up at the gray Troll in front of her, she was suddenly hit with a giant proverbial hammer when she finally got his implication. He must've learned about Troll sexual intercourse, among other mature things. Red-hot heat flared all over her face and then pooled inside her stomach like lava.

After a few long moments of awkward silence, Poppy cleared her throat. "I see." She said, her voice almost squeaking. She then cleared her throat again to dispel the nervousness.

"A couple of more questions before I go back home for the night." She said. "Do you....um, think we might know if it's gonna be a boy or a girl before it hatches?"

"Not sure." Branch answered, secretly grateful that the pink Troll was trying to steer their focus away from an uncomfortable topic, for both of them. "Unless you want to risk a visit to Doctor Plum to try and find out, we'll just have to wait until the egg hatches to see its gender. We could only guess based on the colors of the egg when it comes, although the colors could be deceiving. I mean, the egg could be pink, and then it would hatch to reveal a boy!"

Poppy snickered. "That's what happened with my dad when he was born." She said. "At least that's what he tells me."

Branch snorted again. There was another short period of silence before the pink Troll princess turned to the gray survivalist next to her and asked him her final question. "...Do you really think we can't trust anyone to keep a secret?" Poppy asked him.

Branch looked over at her dryly. "I'm surprised that you, Miss Little-to-No-Filter Blabbermouth, can keep your own pregnancy a secret from everyone. Including your friends and your dad."

Poppy was about to order him to take back his insult, but then quickly realized the hard truth about it. Trolls were not the greatest about keeping secrets, except when it was for a surprise party. Other than that, they can be open about anything and everything. Maybe a little too open.

"...Fair enough." She muttered, crossing her arms against her chest, pouting childishly, making Branch snort in amusement with a roll of his eyes.

"You're impossible." He muttered under his breath. "Is that all?"

Poppy wanted to keep talking with him about what else would happen next between them now they were having a baby, and that this was the longest that she had ever had an actual conversation with Branch, but she then felt a yawn coming on and she had to stifle it. "Maybe another time." She said, stretching up her arms. "I'm getting pretty tired."

"You gonna make it home okay?" Branch asked her as she slowly stood up.

The pink Troll princess nodded. "I'm pretty sure." She said, getting the book that the gray Troll handed her earlier and tucking it away in her hair. "Although I did have to take the long way here so that I don't risk waking anyone up."

Branch sighed. "I'll walk with you." He said, standing up himself. "At least until you can see the village and your pod."

"Fine." Poppy shrugged as they both headed over to the elevator shaft. She was too tired to try and argue with him about how she'll be fine.

********************

The long walk back to the village was a little too quiet and awkward for Poppy's taste. Maybe it was the same for Branch, but she couldn't tell. He was always scanning around them, ears carefully twitching in all directions in case there was possible danger nearby. She wasn't quite sure what to say to him, wondering what else needs to be done for the baby.

Just then, just as they were about to reach the vicinity of the village, she realized that there was one more thing that they forgot to discuss earlier. "Where's it gonna stay?" She asked quietly.

Branch whirled around to face her. "What?" He questioned.

"When the baby is born." Poppy whispered, clarifying her little question. "Where is it going to live? With you or me?"

Branch lightly bit his lip. "I.... don't know." He answered quietly. "My bunker isn't really baby-proof, although I'm lucky that no kids have accidentally stumbled on one of my emergency exits. But maybe I can start working on it tomorrow just in case. Why?"

Poppy nervously bit her lip. "I.... don't think it can stay with me." She said, looking down at the ground, feeling tears welling up in her eyes. "If I do, then that's when Trolls would start to wonder. And I hate lying to them! It's hard enough that I'm keeping my pregnancy a secret from them. But if they start asking questions about where I supposedly "found" the baby, if it's even mine, and then if so, then who's the father; I don't think that I can handle it!"

She then collapsed onto her knees, quiet sobs making her body quake. Branch just watched her, unsure of what to do. He had read that pregnant Trolls often experience mood swings during their pregnancies, but it was hard to tell if the mood swing was also an amplification of her current emotions.

Finally, he knelt down beside her and slowly placed his hands on her trembling shoulders. The crying princess looked over at the survivalist and then threw her arms around his neck, seeking some sort of comfort. The gray Troll didn't necessarily hug her back, but he did hold her close, waiting until she was somewhat better.

Once she had stopped crying, she then looked up at him, his bright blue eyes practically glowing in the dense darkness of the night, the color oddly soothing her because of how bright they appeared to be, even though the rest of him blended in perfectly with the midnight shadows. His eyes were like the ocean at its calmest; big, blue and tranquil.

"You know they say that it takes two to tango?" He asked her gently, and she nodded. "Basically, you were right to come to me first. This kid," he briefly flicked his eyes downward towards her flat stomach, "it's both your responsibility and mine. So we're going to find a way to make this work. For the baby's sake more than ours. Its happiness and its very life are up to us. And I know it sounds scary, but this is one time that we are going to need each other, because neither of us can do it alone. Okay?"

Call Poppy crazy, but she could've sworn that her heart was beating extra hard at Branch's oddly gentle words. She had almost never seen this side of the gray Troll survivalist before. She had suspected that he did have a softer side to him, and she had seen it firsthand a couple of times herself when she had been in a couple of tight spots, and he was there to get her out of them when no one else noticed. And every single time, she was positive that there was something fluttering around in her stomach whenever he would help her, even if he acted a bit annoyed that he had to save her ,"sorry cotton candy hide" as he called it, again.

But this time, she could tell that he was actually being genuine; and he was right, they really do need each other right now, whether they wanted to or not. "Thanks." She whispered, not wanting to break this somewhat spellbinding moment of bonding between them. Well, that's how she viewed it, she wasn't sure about what Branch thought about it.

For a second, Poppy thought she saw the faintest hint of a smile flash across Branch's face. But then, she blinked, and it was gone. He wasn't frowning, but his lips were stretched in a thin line, as if he wasn't sure if he should smile or not. Then, he realized their current position, and he immediately retracted his hands and shot right back up on his feet, as if she had shocked him with a hand buzzer on Prank Day.

Prank Day. She felt heat pooling around in her stomach again when she recalled the day that this whole thing started. She might never look at Prank Day the same way again if she keeps getting haunted by steamy visions of sweat and muscles.

No, no! Bad Poppy! She thought to herself, scolding her and shaking her head to dispel those hazy memories. Don't go there now.

"Yeah, yeah. Now hurry on back home before someone wakes up and finds us here." He said, quickly crossing his arms against his chest, briefly rubbing them. "It's getting a little nippy."

Poppy bit back a smile and then patted his shoulder before heading back over to her pod. Once she was at the entrance to it, she turned back around and saw that Branch was still standing where she had left him, waiting to see if she was going to go inside. When she gave him a little finger wave, he seemed to have straightened up frigid before he gave her a short, curt wave before zipping back down the path and into the shadows.

The pink Troll lightly bit her lip as she entered her pod, trying to hold back an amused giggle. She never thought about it, but Branch being flustered was actually pretty adorable. She had always suspected that he was a little bit shy due to his reclusive nature, but he hides it by being grumpy and cross. Who knew that he had an awkward side? It was kind of cute, if she was being honest.

As she began to get ready for bed, taking out the book Branch lent her and her pregnancy test from her hair; disposing the latter into a nearby trash bin, Poppy took a brief moment staring at herself in the mirror in her undergarments. She slowly started rubbing her belly in soothing little circles. Suddenly, the weight of her discovery was lifted and she began to feel lighter than air, smiling uncontrollably as the complete truth of it came to her.

I'm pregnant. She thought to herself as she looked down at her flat stomach. A trolling was inside of her. Her little trolling.

She then threw on a simple lavender nightgown and then laid down flat on her bed, still rubbing her abdomen gently. "I'm pregnant." She whispered. "I'm going to have a baby."

*********************

Down back in his bunker, Branch was thinking the same thing as he took off his clothes and put on a pair of brown cotton pants, leaving his chest bare as he flopped down on his bed, lying on his side. The reality of his and Poppy's conversation came at him with full force, and he was feeling very conflicted on what to make of it.

She's pregnant. He thought. With my kid. I'm gonna be a father.

A whole flurry of different emotions was rushing through his heart and mind. Fear, anxiousness, worry, and.... joy? How could he think about being even remotely happy that he is going to be a dad when he had impregnated the princess, the mother of his child, when they were both intoxicated?! They weren't in their right minds! He was sure that if word ever got out that Poppy was pregnant with his kid, Peppy will tear him apart with his bare hands and hair and feed his remains to the birds.

And the child, it will be ostracized behind everyone's back, like he was. Well, Branch was treated like that because he was gray, but the baby, it will most likely experience that kind of life because it will be an illegitimate heir. It might even be gray, which is a total telltale of who its father is! He was pretty sure that's another reason why Poppy said that it couldn't stay with her when the baby comes. Letting him raise it down in the bunker was pretty much the only option, since Poppy is already too much attached to the baby to send it into foster care. But Branch was pretty sure that as the kid grew up, he or she will start to wonder why they live away from the village, and why everyone hates their father except for their mother, and why she doesn't really love him.

Well, what happened had happened, and there was nothing that neither he nor Poppy could really do to change it now. She was having their baby, and even if she won't ever accept him in her life as anything more than a friend-slash-social experiment, he'll do everything that he could to help her with the baby; bringing it into the world, first as an egg, then making sure it will hatch okay, then raising it in a safe environment while also being happy. For its sake more than theirs. Even if he himself couldn't be happy again, he'll at least give the kid a chance to be happy in life. Tomorrow, he'll get started on baby-proofing the entire bunker. And working on a nursery, apparently.

A/N: Well, now Poppy and Branch are going to work together to keep their baby a secret from the village. Well, at least its origins. They would pretend that they don't know who its parents are, and that Branch would be the one who will mainly raise it. 

But fun little question: What do you think the baby will be? A boy or a girl? There's no vote, I've already decided what it will be, but I want to see how many of you will be correct when the egg hatches. 

Until the next chapter, I'll see y'all! Please leave a comment about what you think, and remember to stay healthy! 

Got to fly! ;)