Sulit

A/N: A brief little disclaimer about some of the information in this chapter and in the next one after. I know next to nothing about this sort of stuff because I'm not married, I don't have kids, nor have I been with anyone in an intimate manner. I literally had to look up certain stuff to get the next two chapters done. On the bright side, it helped me develop my personal headcanon of this matter.

Well, I think you guys might know what's going to happen in this chapter. So let's see if any of you are correct. Roll it!

Chapter 2

Facing the Music

It had been a whole month ever since the incident. Things seemed to have gone back to normal, but what happened was still haunting both Poppy and Branch. Whenever they would see each other in the village, Branch would immediately head off in another direction to hide his fierce lavender blush. Poppy would also blush a bright red when she would see him, but he would bolt before she could utter a word.

She knew that she really needed to talk with him about what happened. This was a serious matter, and it was something they needed to resolve before their odd relationship deteriorated completely. Poppy knew that she and Branch had opposite points of view, and that they hardly ever saw eye to eye, but in a way, she does enjoy his company; when only she was around, he seemed to be more.... open, for lack of a better word. He still wouldn't talk about a lot of things, but she could see that little by little, he was beginning to share more about himself. He may not technically consider her his friend, but he was hers.

But lately, she had been noticing some weird things happening to her. She had been getting headaches, feeling light-headed, and was eating a little more than usual, and it was usually more fruits and berries than her usual sweet-tooth diet. Poppy was getting a little suspicious about what might be going on, but she wanted to be completely and absolutely sure.

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One day, Poppy was sleeping deeply and soundly in her bed as warm sunlight streamed through the window of her bright pink pod. But the thing was, she was supposed to be up about an hour ago. She had already missed the morning song to start off the day, and some of the Trolls were getting a little curious as to why the princess didn't show up for the song.

Her father, King Peppy, quietly came into his daughter's pod after calming down the crowd of anxious Trolls. He figured that it was best that only he would check up on her, rather than having the entire village go into a panic. The elderly king supposed that it was nothing too serious, since Poppy never does anything halfway.

Peppy came over to her bed and gently shook her. "Poppy? Poppy, wake up."

The pink Troll princess stirred slightly and then slowly opened her eyes drearily at her father. "Dad?" She asked, yawning.

"Time to get up, sweetheart." Peppy said. "It's 9:15."

Poppy's eyes suddenly shot open. "Did you say '9:15'?" She asked.

Her father nodded, showing her the time on his Hug Time bracelet. "I overslept!" Poppy realized and immediately shot out of bed. However, her action suddenly caused her to become light-headed and almost lost her balance.

"Poppy!" Peppy exclaimed, and he quickly grabbed her shoulders to steady his daughter. "Are you alright?" He asked.

"I'm- I'm okay." Poppy assured her father. "Just got up too fast, I guess." She said as she regained her balance and held a hand to the side of her head. Luckily for her, her dad seemed to have bought her little excuse.

"Are you hungry?" Peppy asked her, heading over to the table. "I brought you your favorite. Doughnuts with sprinkles." He pulled out a doughnut box from his hair and placed it on the table.

"Thanks, Dad." Poppy said gratefully. "I'll be out soon. Thanks for checking on me."

"Don't forget that you have a class to attend later this afternoon." Peppy reminded her.

"I know." Poppy said. "Love you, Dad!"

"Love you too, sweetheart." Peppy answered back as he left the pod. Once he had left, Poppy immediately closed the pod door, and then deployed the privacy curtain across the window. She was looking a little frazzled.

She had never overslept before! Yes, she had been noticing that she was getting a little tired more than usual, but this was the first time that something like this happened. It was just not like her!

Poppy looked over at the batch of doughnuts that her father brought her. The look of the appetizing treats with vanilla glaze and rainbow sprinkles, it was starting to make her stomach churn. The last time that she ate doughnuts, it was only a couple of hours later that she was in the bathroom of her pod, hurling both them and her guts into the toilet.

Poppy sighed heavily through her nose and looked away from the doughnuts, her eyes shut tight. She'll probably give them to her friends later as a snack to share instead of throwing them away. If she did throw them away, then that would raise a couple of red flags around the village.

She moved away from the table and quickly headed over to the cooler where there were a couple of containers of strawberries and blueberries inside. The scent of the berries overwhelmed her nose, and she felt her stomach starting to calm down. She grabbed the two containers of berries and washed them both. For some odd reason, berries and fruits and veggies were all she wanted to eat.

After getting herself a small bowl of berries and snacking on them one by one, Poppy let her thoughts take her away. She was really starting to suspect it; the signs were all there, but she needed to know for sure. But that would have to be for later. She needed to get out and do what she needed to do, just so the other Trolls don't worry about her and get into a panicked frenzy. That would only make things way worse.

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

A couple of hours later, Poppy was over at a nice little outdoor café, having finished teaching her class, which had to do with a brief overview of the history of the Trolls until the "Great Escape", as it was called. After that, she was enjoying a nice lunch break with her group of friends. There were a few eyebrows raised at her when she didn't ask for anything sugary and sweet, but instead got a plain but sweet fruit salad and a large glass of orange juice instead.

"Are you okay, Poppy?" DJ Suki asked the pink princess. Her plate mostly had a bunch of vanilla cream puffs, along with a raspberry milkshake.

"You don't want cupcakes?" Biggie added to the question. He had even brought his own homemade banana cupcakes for everyone to share.

Poppy almost froze, but managed to keep a smile on her face, ignoring the slight churning in her stomach at the sight and smell of all of the sweets that were in the outside bistro. "Um, I just, uh, wanted to eat this. Doctor Plum said that eating fruits could help me with all of my headaches and dizziness." She had said, hoping that her friends would buy it.

"So you went to see Doctor Plum?" Satin asked. Her lunch consisted of cherry oatmeal cookies with blue raspberry sprinkles.

"What was it?" Chenille added in. Her sweet tooth of a lunch was blueberry cupcakes with strawberry vanilla frosting.

"Just been having too much sugar recently." Poppy answered her quickly, waving a hand nonchalantly with a smile. "A few more days of staying off the sweets completely, and I'll be back to normal; feeling right as rain."

"Well, that's good." Cooper said. He was eating some of his own cupcakes, which he tried to give to some of them, but they all kindly refused.

"That's a relief." Guy Diamond added with a smile. He was snacking on silver-dollar chocolate chip cookies that had glittery green sprinkles.

"Though that stinks that you can't have anything with sugar." Smidge added. She was having an all-berry chocolate milkshake.

"I'll be fine." Poppy assured them.

"Indeed." Creek said, reaching over to pat Poppy on the shoulder. He was having a strawberry-banana milkshake with oatmeal raisin cookies. He had tried to get a large banana split with lots of ice cream and hot fudge to share with Poppy, and he was surprised when Poppy kindly refused and continued munching away at her fruit salad and taking sips of her orange juice.

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

Finally, after a long and secretly anxious day, Poppy was alone in her pod again. She went into her bathroom and then opened the sink drawer to get out the things she needed. A little plastic cup, the little stick she got from the doctor's office; well, more like she borrowed it without Doctor Plum's knowledge, baking powder from the kitchen, and a little bit of cleaning bleach.

She put a little bit of baking powder in the cup, and then poured a little bit of bleach in it. After the expected fizzling of the two components, she gently stirred it with an old popsicle stick until it was combined. Then, Poppy slowly reached up and pulled out a single strand of her hair. She then let it fall into the solution, and then she stirred it again. Then, she placed the tip of the stick in the solution. After that, she waited, the suspense eating away at her mind.

After a good two minutes, Poppy carefully took the stick out of the cup and then read what it said on the middle part of it. What she saw, it almost made her drop the stick in shock. She suddenly felt like she couldn't breathe, and her legs suddenly felt like melted gelato as she tried to keep herself from falling to the floor. Her hands were slightly twitching, wanting to grab onto something.

Now she really needed to talk to him. Tonight, if it was possible. The sooner, the better. No matter what happened between them, she knew that he needed to know about this. This affects him as much as it affects her. Hopefully, maybe they can work something out together because now, this is a problem that will not go away so easily.

But whatever does happen, she knew that only Branch must know about this. No one else does. Not her friends, not Doctor Plum, not even her father. If anyone ever found out about this, then it will be trouble and chaos for both of them. Most likely for Branch. Who knows what the Trolls might think about him if they ever found out about it? Some of them might even think that he forced himself on her! But he would never do that! He's much too cautious and serious to even think about doing something like that! He may be a grumpy party-pooper, but he's not a monster. He does have some sense of decorum. He just thinks and acts differently. But they don't think the same way that she does when it comes to the lone survivalist.

Poppy couldn't bear the thought. An overwhelming guilt flooded her soul, and she slowly came against the wall and slowly slid down to the floor, her legs finally caving in and she buried her face in her hands. He didn't deserve any more torment. He's been through enough already, even if she doesn't know all the details. The Trolls wouldn't ever think cruelly of her because she was their princess. But the same can't be said for Branch. He was the unhappy, paranoid village grump; and they already think the worst about him. But it was her stupid idea that got them into this mess! She was the one who deserved to be frowned upon. Because of her dumb idea of a prank, she got herself and Branch into a situation that they can't get out of without the risk of discovery.

Well, she'll wait until it gets dark, and everyone in the village will most likely be asleep, and then she'll head over to the bunker. She needs to tell him the truth, and she doesn't care if she has to even break in just to talk to him, and also to get him to stay and listen to her, even if he still doesn't want to face her. He needs to know.

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

Soon, the sky had grown dark, and a full moon was present, along with hundreds of thousands of little glittering stars. Everyone in the village had already retired for the night, and luckily for the princess, for once, there were no late-night parties being held that night. Poppy quietly left her pod, looked around to see if anyone was still out, and then began to head over to Branch's bunker, taking the path along the outskirts to make doubly sure that she wouldn't be seen or heard. Hopefully, he will be there instead of doing some more gathering this late.

Minutes felt like hours as she managed to finally arrive at Branch's bunker. Okay, now she was starting to get nervous. But she can't turn back now. Especially because if she delayed it, then it would eat away at her mind for every hour of the day until the next time that she might see him. If he ran off again and she went after him just to get him to stay in one place for more than five seconds, then that might cause some suspicion. And he knew the forest better than anyone else in the village. He would easily disappear into the thick and dense shrubbery before she could even try to catch up with him. It was best to get this thing over with as soon as possible. Also, they might be able to come with a plan to deal with the situation. Given the hope that Branch doesn't throw her out or ignore her again.

She soon found the so-called welcome mat that said "Go Away" in bold, bright white lettering. Her heart felt like it was practically jumping out of her chest in an anxious but steady rhythm because of how nervous she was. Poppy slowly walked up to the large stone that marked the spot and then knocked on it three times.

"Branch?" She called out. "It's me. We really need to talk."

There was no answer from inside, nor from underneath the mat; although she was kind of expecting that. The last time that he was really avoiding others, she decided to give him a little bit of space before trying to get him to open up about it. But the silence was starting to eat away at Poppy's mind as the seconds ticked by, doing no help to her already frazzled state of mind. She knocked again, this time a little bit louder.

"Branch, look." She said, briefly shutting her eyes in shame. "I know that I'm most likely the last person that you want to see right now. And... I don't blame you." She paused for a few seconds before continuing, hoping that the words would start to sink into his brain.

"That little prank that I pulled on you on Prank Day; I'm so sorry about that." She added, opening her eyes again. "It was really stupid of me, and I put both of us into a situation that we both didn't want to be in. I know that you think that we aren't friends, but to me, you are my friend. I don't want something like this to come between us forever. As much as we could try to avoid moving past it and pretend that nothing happened, we both know that it's something that can't be avoided forever.

"Maybe.... maybe things will never be the same between us again, but I don't want to lose the only friend who.... I feel more like.... myself around. I'll admit it, I really do like being around you. You make me forget for a little while that I'm a princess, and you say things that others are afraid to say to me. I've always.... sort of.... admired that. Maybe that's why I keep coming to you. Yeah, you may be.... rough around the edges.... but I know that despite all of our disagreements about everything, deep down, you do want a friend. At least let me be that friend if you don't want others to get closer."

There was still no answer, and Poppy was starting to feel the heavy guilt swallow her up. "Look, I can just stay out here all night, whether or not you actually can hear me or if you're just ignoring me. But right now, there's something that we really need to talk about. Something really important and pretty much life-changing. Please, Branch. I can't do this without you."

There were a few more seconds of silence. Poppy continued to wait with bated breaths, hoping and praying that he would answer. But the longer she waited, the more she felt her heart beginning to sink down into her stomach like a rock. She was about to turn around and leave; feeling defeated and alone and ready to cry, when she suddenly heard a swift little sliding sound.

The "Go Away" mat had opened up to reveal the entrance underneath it. "Get in here." Branch's voice ran out from inside.

Poppy felt her heart leaping with joy and pure relief. She quickly came over to the open hatch and jumped inside, landing right on the platform, next to the gray Troll himself. She had never felt so happy to see Branch's nonchalant face looking at her.

Earlier, Branch was tempted not to come up and just ignore the princess, hoping that she would eventually leave. But the more that he had listened to her, the more it sounded like she was actually.... sorry. For what had happened between them. Her little monologue actually got him thinking that this was something that they needed to confront. And then there was the last part of it. For a moment, he thought that she sounded.... afraid. For both of them. Like they were in some kind of trouble. Had someone found out the truth about what really happened? He needed to know.

The survivalist Troll reached up with his hair, closed the hatch, and then locked it. "What is it?" He asked, attempting to sound annoyed and tired.

Poppy could easily see that despite him trying to look like he doesn't really care, she could see the worry starting to appear in his eyes. And she knew that he knew it, too. She glanced back up at the hatch, and then back at the gray Troll in front of her.

"You're sure that we won't be heard?" She asked him.

"Hardly anyone else but you would come this far out." Branch answered, crossing his arms. "Or this late in the night."

Poppy bit back a smile from forming on her face. Sometimes, his sarcasm and dry sense of humor can actually be kind of funny. Although not often would she understand it because sarcasm was not very well known or understandable among the other Trolls. But this was not exactly a time to be all smiley and happy. For once, she was here to talk about a very serious matter.

"Can we head down a little further?" She asked, teeth lightly clenched in nervousness. "Just to make me feel a little bit more at ease?"

Now Branch was starting to get both confused and even more fearful. This had better not be another prank; the last one that she tried to pull still haunted him with annoying visions of scalding heat, sweet scents of sweat, and blurry shades of pink. He pulled down on the lever beside him, and the platform began to descend.

On the way down, Poppy was kind of hoping that the elevator would have gone faster, just so that the uneasiness that had been eating away at her mind ever since the sun had set behind the horizon would lessen up. The tense silence between her and Branch was starting to bug her more than about telling him the reason why she came to him so late in the night. She was practically bouncing on the balls of her feet as the elevator continued downward.

When they had at last reached the very bottom level, there was a nervous sweat beginning to form on Poppy's brow and forehead, despite the nice and very relaxing coolness of the underground area. She also felt her body starting to tremble a little bit, but it wasn't because of the difference in temperature. It was because of a steamy and drunken vision that made her insides squirm and tighten, even though she remembered very little about what happened that night. An image of strong, warm arms appeared in her mind, along the aftertaste of mead, blueberries and chocolate dancing across her taste buds. Feeling a red hot blush starting to appear on her face, she quickly bit her tongue to keep her mind from going too far down that dirty train of thought.

Branch stepped off the platform, took about three paces forward, and then turned around to face her. "Okay. No one will hear us from down here." He said, trying to hide a sense of exasperation. "Now what is this about?"

Poppy opened her mouth to speak as she too stepped off the platform, but no words came out. She closed her mouth and looked down at the dirt floor beneath her, slightly shuffling her foot against the other one, slightly crossing her arms behind her back, as if she was a kid that got caught with her hands in the cookie jar. This was actually going to be harder than she had originally thought. She cleared her throat and then tried again to speak.

"Um, how do I start this?" She muttered, removing her hands from behind her back and then started playing around with her fingers nervously. "Lately, for the past couple of weeks, I haven't exactly been feeling.... a hundred percent like myself. I thought it was probably just a cold, or a stomach ache or something like that."

She paused for a second before she continued. "But then, I noticed a lot more weird things happening to me. Like the sight of anything sugary and sweet makes me nauseous, like cupcakes, cookies, and even doughnuts, and all I've been wanting lately are mostly berries and fruits. Recently, when I ate a slice of vanilla cake, a few minutes later, I was puking like crazy! Once, I even made myself some vegetable soup for dinner! I've been getting dizzy at random times, and I've been oversleeping. Like today! I missed the morning song!"

"Well, that explains why that daily Bergen call of yours was somewhat quieter than normal." Branch said snarkily, crossing his arms against his chest.

Poppy narrowed her eyes at him in annoyance, while Branch had the gall to just smirk at her, a smooth dark brow quirked up in amusement at the sight of her scowl. The pink Troll princess just rolled her eyes at him before she continued on with her reason for wanting to speak with him.

"Anyway, as I was saying, all of what's been happening to me got me thinking about something. What if it was really true?" She asked, and then started to rub the back of her head nervously. "I mean, considering what happened between us, it certainly was a possibility. But at the same time, what will happen if it really was true?"

"Poppy!" Branch cut her off before she could continue rambling on about who knows what and getting off topic. "Just get to the point."

Poppy lightly bit her lip in nervousness, before she slowly reached up into her hair and pulled out the little stick from earlier. Then, she shakily handed it to Branch to get a better look at it. His eyes seemed to widen when he recognized what it is and what its purpose is.

"I took a little test, without the doctor's knowledge, to see if they were true. My suspicions about what's wrong with me." She explained as Branch cautiously came closer to her to get a better look at the stick in her hand. "And, as it shows, they are true."

Branch looked over at the middle part of the stick. Usually, that section was meant to be plain, stark white. There were two results that it could give. If it was positive, then the middle part would be all sparkly, as if silvery glitter had been pasted onto it. If it was negative, then it would be all black, like ink had been splattered all over it.

The middle part was all sparkly.

Branch's jaw dropped and looked back up to meet Poppy's nervous eyes. "Are you- are you serious?" He asked her, his eyes widening so big in fear that they looked like they might pop out of their sockets.

Poppy slowly nodded, lightly biting her lip. "I'm pregnant." She said. "And I think you already know by now that you're the father."

A/N: You see what I mean? I only know the basic parts of matters like this. As for the strange test process, I actually had to look up homemade pregnancy tests, and the one I found that I based the method off of was the most accurate one I could find. Don't believe me? Look it up yourselves.

I only have a couple more chapters finished after this, so do not expect consistent and frequent updates after that. I'm still a long way off from finishing. At least I'm sharing this now with you guys anyway.

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

Got to fly! ;)