Meanwhile, on the other side of Pop Village, Branch busied himself with his brand new robot assistant, Froggy. The two of them were out on the fields to study any anomalies, as Branch had become quite over-protective about extraterrestrial activities ever since the last time. While that time ended well, next time might not be. Froggy scanned a tree moss as Branch nibbed on a wood bark for science, totally not for fidgeting reasons. The duo now found themselves beyond the Pop Village barriers, this wasn't part of their concern anymore. But for Branch, it really was, now that he was King he needed to protect this kingdom no matter what.

"Attention. End of Pop Village Border." Froggy alerted as he showed the exact same phrase on his large monitor mouth. Branch turned around with a rather disappointed look on his face, "Really? I think we should investigate further into the forest. Who knows what lies beyond the premises of our village."

Froggy stared at him with barely any emotion, since he is a robot, "Vegetation and local wildlife."

"Well, duh." Branch replied, but he wasn't convinced yet. He approached the robot and side-hugged him as he pointed at the glittery constellations up in the sky, "But when we first had extraterrestrial contact... We never predicted it."

"You couldn't predict it then." Froggy broke out of his usual calculative self and roasted Branch for the sake of his sanity, "What makes you so sure you can do it now?"

"Ouch?" Branch was genuinely surprised by Froggy's sly comment, he let out a big sigh, "You're right... Let's head back. Plus you need to recharge."

Froggy secretly cheered on the fact Branch finally allowed them to return. They hike back to the very center of Pop Village, where a troupe of space Gecko's waited for Froggy. The Geckos welcomed the robot back to its charging station and treated him as if he were a car in a car wash. Branch waved him goodbye as he returned to his bunker, only to realize it was awfully quiet over there. No Poppy, no Poppy's friends or sister, no brothers. He looked up to the treetops and saw a crazy amount of lights and chatter coming from Poppy's pod, "Huh?"

He had to come up and investigate, Branch swung himself to the treetops until he eventually landed right on top of the doormat. He cleared his throat, slicking one strand of hair straight, and then finally knocking. The door is opened by itself and a swarm of glitter is shot directly onto Branch's face. He's covered by it.

"SURPRISE!" The family welcomed him with open arms. Poppy gleefully skipped toward her husband and hugged him, she shook the glitter out of him too, "Hi Branchy!"

"Poppy!" Branch laughed awkwardly, now he got a proper look into what was going on, "Hey... Heh... What is going on?"

John Dory grinned mischievously, "Oh you're never gonna guess it..."

"Let me do the talking, John." Primrose cut him off before he said anything stupid, "Branch... There comes a time in one's married life when it becomes essential that the couple live in the same home."

"I'm not following." Branch said obliviously, he knew what she meant but he didn't want to believe it.

"What I'm saying is..." Primrose attempted once again to explain it properly.

Poppy blurted out excited yet intuitively, "I WANT YOU TO MOVE IN WITH ME!"

"That's great!" Branch said with a few seconds of delay, which caused a positive reason from the other family members, "But what about my bunker?"

King Peppy rolled his eyes annoyedly, "Oh boy."

"Branch..." Floyd walked up toward him, with his smart way of words, trying to calm him down, "It's time to let go."

Branch started to lose track of his feelings, "No, but... and Gary..."

"Gary will be fine." Clay put his hand on his young brother's shoulder, "Besides I've always wanted to adopt!"

"REALLY?!" Viva gasped surprisedly, "ME TOO!" 

She squealed in sync with Clay for two seconds before they realized it wasn't the moment. They cleared their throat and apologized, "Sorry."

"I-I don't know..." Branch let go of Poppy's hand and started to rub his hands together in a similar way he did as a child, "I... I'm not sure... What abo-"

"Breath, Branch." Floyd held onto his brother and gave him a well-deserving hug. Next, it was Spruce, then Clay, and then finally JD. Viva and Poppy hugged them as well, with Primrose and Peppy watching from afar with approval. By the time everyone let go of him, Branch took a deep breath and said, "Yeah. I'll be fine."

"Atta boy!" Spruce held onto Branch in a jokingly way, "You know they'll take good care of it!"

Branch confessed with a bit of remorse in his voice, "I hope so."

"It'll be okay sweetie!" Poppy conjoined her hands with his and comforted, "We make a great team. Your perfectionism will do good with my home decor." Poppy referred to her awful taste in home decorations, scattered all over.

Branch gagged over that, "Yeah we need to find a good balance between those."

The couple spoke while everybody else just watched in silence, not wanting to ruin their planning they just continued to eat the food offered on the snack table. Since that's pretty much expected from guests at parties.