The Grey trolls continued to search for a place to hide under until the storm passed. It had been at least one to two minutes.

"Good gracious isn't there anywhere around here that can cover us up?! My hair won't make it through this hard rain!" Branch grumbled, his hair umbrella starting to weaken through the pounding of the rain.

Poppy tried her hardest to hold back a giggle at his complaints, but she failed and a tiny one slipped through her lips.

Hearing her, surprisingly through the loud smacking of the rain, Branch turned to look at her with his usual grumpy expression.

"Sorry, it's just that.." She stopped for a second when something caught her eye, "Branch, look!" She pointed

"What now Po-" He turned to his right look at where she was pointing, and saw a small cave near a few trees.

He stared at it for a minute before finally speaking.

"We are not going in there."

"What?! Why not?"

"Do you know what kind of parasites or creepy crawlies could be in there?"

"Oh for the love of Trollstice Branch, it's raining and it's cold and this is what you worry about? Seriously? I don't wanna be out here any longer and I know you don't either! Stop being so paranoid for once! Yeesh!" Poppy protested then made her way to the cave.

"Poppy!" Branch called out to her, taking a few steps foward.

Poppy ignored his call and stepped into the cave, rubbing her arms while shivering and sat down.

"Phew.." She said quietly.

But when she looked up, she noticed Branch was gone.

Her heart began to race intensely. Did he leave her again?

She got up out of her spot, and as much as she didn't want to, she ran out of the cave, but stood in front of it a few inches.

"Branch?! Branch!" 

No response.

She tried three more times but it was no use.

Giving up, she trudged back into the cave slowly and sat down slowly, laying down and hugging her knees to her chest.

She felt warm tears run down her face and mix with the rain droplets coating her, her lip quivering slowly.

She kept trying to tell herself he'd be back, but in the end she would just break down softly and be sure enough she was telling herself lies.

Poppy closed her eyes as tears continued to slowly flow down her soft, grey cheeks, a few whimpers escaping her lips.

Her ear twitched a bit though as she swore she could hear faint footsteps coming closer, but frankly, she didn't bother to open her eyes and see what or who it was.

That was until she heard someone say her name.

"Uhm, Poppy, why are you crying?"

She finally opened her eyes to see who was asking her this.

Branch.

He was staring down at her with a puzzled but also concerned look on his face. He was holding some sticks in his left arm.

He didn't leave after all..?

Poppy just stared at him for a minute or two, blinking a few times.

"Are you gonna.. say something or-"

The male was completely caught of guard when the Princess tackled him onto the ground, squeezing him tightly and burying her face into his soaked chest, not caring if it was wet from the rain.

Branch, completely confused, just stared down at her with widened eyes.

"I.. uh-"

"What the hair is wrong with you? You literally scared me you doofus!" She looked up at him and scolded, but still continued to squeeze him to show affection.

Branch sighed.

"Okay, what are you talking about?" He continued to look down at her.

She took her glance away from him and looked down to the grass.

"I thought you left again..." She mumbled very quietly, but since it was only the two of them, and despite the rain, he heard her.

"What? Poppy why.. I wouldn't just leave you for no reason, who do you think I am? I may be mean sometimes but I have my explanations for it, and I'm not that cruel." He picked her the Princess and held her in his lap and squeezed her back gently, "Besides, my main goal was to come and rescue you and bring you back safely.."

Poppy felt her face heat up and she rest her head on his shoulder, as she was now closer to him.

"Well, you left before.." She mumbled, a bit louder this time.

"I know, and I regret it completely. I was stupid to do something like that. Leaving you behind just because I got all emotional." He sighed, rubbing her back.

Poppy wanted to add something against that, but she decided to push it away and say something else instead.

"So.. where did you go?" She removed her head from his shoulder, looking at him.

"Just to grab some sticks so I can make a fire. I knew that if we came in here it would still be cold, so-"

"Hmmm but I thought you didn't want to come in here?" She folded her arms, tilting her head.

Branch rolled his eyes.

"Okay, okay. I figured you did have a point, so I gave in. And you were right, I do tend to get paranoid sometimes. But it's for a good cause, remember that."

"Mmh. But why couldn't you just tell me you were getting sticks?"

"Well you were already ignoring me so I thought 'what's the point?'"

"Good golly gosh Branch what do you think I am? I would've listened if you said you were going somewhere! I literally thought you were gone!" She pouted, flapping her arms like before.

"Alright alright, I got it. Let me just start this fire before we both freeze to death." Branch rolled his eyes once more and walked over to the sticks.

Poppy huffed and folded her arms again, staying right where she was.

A bit later the fire was started and the rain started to calm down, but still came down with a pounding noise.

The two were sitting in front of it, desperately trying to get its warmth.

There was silence for about fifteen minutes except the sound of rain pouring and the faint sound of fire trickling amongst the wood.

Poppy started to feel awkward and even a bit uneasy by the silence, and she sighed quietly.

"Hey Branch?"

"What?"

She sighed again.

"Thank you.."

"For what?"

Poppy rolled her eyes and turned towards him more.

"Duh, for everything. You came all the way out to Bergen town to rescue me and bring me back, and I feel like all I've been doing was making this a disaster.." She took her glance away from him again and turned to look at the fire.

Suddenly, she felt his warm fingers touch underneath her chin to make her head turn slowly to look at him.

"Hey, look, we both made mistakes, not just you.. but we learned from them on our way arriving back. So don't blame yourself for all of this. Everything is gonna be okay, I promise you that."

She looked into his eyes as his hand slowly touched her cheek and gently caressed it.

By now, their faces were incredibly close.

They both leaned in slowly, their eyes closing in the process, and softly pressed their lips together.

Poppy felt herself wrap her arms around the male's neck, breathing softly in the warm kiss.

Branch proceeded to pull her closer gently while wrapping his arms around her.

Bright colors began to slowly rise onto both of them as they kept themselves focused on their sweet and soft lip lock.

After a minute, Poppy pulled away and noticed the miracle, a small and quiet gasp exiting her lips.

Branch smiled at her seeing her finally retrieve her colors back, before looking at himself and seeing that he's finally retrieved his as well, eyes widening.

"Branch, you got your colors back!" Poppy cupped her cheeks and smiled widely.

"So did you dork." He said, chuckling.

She rolled her eyes playfully and giggled before wrapping her arms around him tightly and pulling him into a hug.

He smiled and gladly hugged back, stroking her hair gently.

"Alright let's not get too ahead of ourselves here. We should really be getting sleep right now." Branch bummed the mood, but still held Poppy close to him.

"Aww already? We just got our colors back! We should celebra-"

"AB-solutely not." He retorted, readying himself to lay down.

"Hmph." Poppy stuck her tongue out at him and scooted close to him, laying down.

He just smiled at her and held her close to his chest and felt her immediately wrap her arms around him, closing his eyes.

•°○♡♡♡♡♡♡○°•

"Ugh.. what..?" Suki rubbed her forehead, slowly opening her eyes.

She didn't recognize where she was at all, but she could hear the pouring of the rain outside, and felt herself slightly moving.

"Guys, w-what.. where is everyone.." She added, asking.

"We're here.. but I think we're in some sort of bag.. we just got taken by a Bergen.." She received an answer which sounded like one of her friends, Smidge.

"Well that explains why it's so dark.. is everyone here and okay?" The bag was dark, indeed, but it had a few dim parts of light that at least let in some so that a few faces could be seen.

"Not everyone is here.. the rest of the trolls are in separate bags since we all couldn't fit in one." Guy Diamond answered her this time.

"Great, just great. What are we going to do? First Poppy was taken now literally the entire village just has to be taken away!" Chenille pouted.

"Speaking of Poppy.. I wonder if they're still in Bergen town or if they're making their way back now.. if they are making it back here, they won't find us here! We'll be gone!" Biggie said.

"Then I guess they'll have to come back to Bergen town to rescue us all over again." Cooper somewhat said in a goofy tone.

"Or us being positive trolls could form an escape plan and find our way out of there?" Satin entered the conversation.

"You kidding? It's Bergen town! We're not gonna be able to get out of there that easy!" Smidge exclaimed.

"Guys, let's just.."

But Suki was interrupted by arguments filling the air for about two to three minutes, when they were abruptly stopped by a violent shake of the bag they were in, causing them all to yell in terror.

"Quiet! We're almost to Bergen town. So start planning out your Wills and Testaments." The bergen guard that was holding them in the bag scolded them all to quiet down, and continued walking to his destination.

Cooper, again being the dumb one, took out a slip of paper and a pen and started writing out his Will and Testaments.

DJ rolled her eyes and sighed and leaned back.

"Hey, wait a minute, where's Creek? And Peppy?" She asked after about a minute of silence. As much she was worried about if King Peppy was alright, she was more concerned about where Creek was. He had just committed murder and thought he would easily get away with such a thing.

"Probably in another bag. I think someone saw Peppy starting to wake up a little later. Luckily he didn't lose too much blood and they were able to bandage him. But Creek? Oooooh when I see his ugly face again I'm gonna ruin him." Smidge growled, cracking her knuckles.

"He had to have been taken along with the others. He might've gotten away with murder but there's no escaping a Bergen." Biggie added, nodding.

DJ sighed again. She had way too much on her mind to even try and attempt to speak, but she did mumble something to herself.

"I hope Poppy and Branch are alright.." She said quietly.

Her friends heard her and they all gave each other worried glances, also wondering and hoping the same thing.

•°○♡♡♡♡♡♡○°•

The next day, the rain had finally stopped, and Branch woke up slowly as he looked down at Poppy, still squeezed against his chest and snoring lightly.

He smiled, and as much as he didn't want to wake her up, she shook her lightly.

"Pops, we gotta get moving." He said in a soft tone.

She moaned tiredly and rubbed her eyes.

"Five more minutessss.." She grumbled.

"Come on Princess get your feet moving." The now Blue troll picked her up and stood her up on her feet, finally starting to see her wake up a bit.

He smiled and took her hand as they both walked out the cave, seeing the sun finally shining again.

They walked for a little bit until Poppy began to recognize her surroundings a bit.

"Hey, look.." She said, pointing to something that looked like a damaged pod.

"Oh come on why do you always have to be the one to point out something fir-" But he stopped when he recognized also what she was pointing at.

"I.. I think we made it!" Poppy exclaimed happily, taking his hand and walking closer as she noticed more pods fallen or destroyed, and a few tree branches were on the ground as well.

"We did, we're finally here, but.. I don't remember the village looking like this before I left.." Branch looked around in confusion.

"What?" Poppy gave him a puzzled look.

Branch felt himself panic a bit but eventually calmed down.

"Okay, I hid everyone in my bunker before I left, so let's go make sure they're still in there."

She nodded in agreement and they both ran and made their way to Branch's bunker.

"What the hair, why is the door halfway open?"

"Maybe they wanted some air? I mean it has been one to two days since they've had to stay in here."

Branch didn't reply and just took her hand and went down the bunker, expecting to see the faces of all the village, but there was no one.

"What?!" Branch exclaimed, looking around. "I swear, I told them to stay in here!"

"Maybe they're hiding somewhere?"

"Really, hiding? This bunker is not that huge. And they wouldn't have just left! Ugh, come on." Branch drew a hand down his face before running back to the lever of the bunker.

Poppy quickly followed him and he pulled them up back to the entrance and they exited out of the bunker looking around again.

"You think they might've went to try and look for us?" Poppy asked.

"I don't know, but if they're not here, then-"

They were both cut off by the sound of large footsteps approaching.

In the distance a Bergen could be seen coming close.

"Are you kidding me? Another one?!" Branch yelled, but he was quickly pulled by Poppy behind a tree to hide behind.

The Bergen had a intercom he was holding in his left hand, and the person talking through it sounded like Chef.

"Make sure ALL of the trolls are taken. There has still been no sign of that Princess or her little friend. I need this Trollstice to be complete." She muttered something after that but it couldn't quite be heard.

"Wait, so they were taken by Bergens?" Branch whispered.

The Bergen replied in the intercom. "Got it." And he started to look around.

"Great, what are we supposed to do now." Branch groaned.

Poppy tapped her chin and tried to think, then thought of an idea.

"Follow me!" She whispered and grabbed his hand and ran from behind the tree.

They ran to where the Bergen was, making sure they were unseen.

"What are you doing?!" He whispered.

Poppy just gave him a smile and ran faster.

After looking thoroughly, the Bergen replied in the intercom, "No trolls here."

Chef growled through the intercom, "If I find out one of you ate them you're in dead meat!"

The Bergen just put up his intercom and huffed.

"Now!" Poppy whispered, jumping into the pocket of the Bergen's coat.

"This. Is. Crazy." Branch peeked his head of the pocket, feeling the Bergen starting to make its way out of troll village.

"Branch?"

He looked at her.

"Hush. We're saving our friends and the village whether you like it or not." She pecked his cheek.

Branch just huffed in response and defeat.

Two journeys in two days. How delightful.

A/N: Y'all I am SO sorry for the long wait. Writers block has been hitting me terribly and I feel awful for keeping y'all waiting, I've gotten so many amazing comments and I just felt so bad :'(