Fairytale AU

It's night time and the traveling group had set up camp. The trolls sit on a log by the fire while Flare sits on the log on the opposite to the trolls with Max sitting next to the log. Poppy had his armor off and placed away in his hair. Branch insisted that he will understand what she said earlier if she shows him.

"Would you rather have me wrap it around your head or hold it in place by yourself?", Branch asks.

"Hold it?", Poppy guesses.

"Are you asking or answering me?", Branch asks playfully.

"I guess both.", Poppy replies playful.

They both laugh a little. Branch takes her hair and put a part of it against Poppy's cut. Poppy puts his hand on the hair holding it in place. Poppy didn't understand Branch what exactly Branch is doing. She kept a mystery. Branch looks at Poppy then closes her eyes.

"Gem with magical shine
Revise the time of the clock...", Branch says softly out loud.

As Branch slowly speaks the first poem lines her hair starts slowly glowing and becoming  Royal Sapphire blue. Poppy's cheek feels like it's tingling. He looks at Flare and Flare just smiles at him.

"Save what has been lost
Bring back what once was mine...", Branch finishes.

She opens her eyes and her hair slowly goes back to normal as she removes her hair from Poppy's cheek. Branch pulls out a small mirror from her backpack. Then she holds it in front of Poppy. To the pink troll's shock his cut is completely healed! He touches his cheek. Poppy's shock look made her worry that he will freak out.

"Don't freak out!", Branch says panicked.

Poppy tries his best to not freak out. It is a bit hard to do so since Branch just magically healed his cheek! He tries to calm down and be chill about it cause Branch seems worried about him freaking out.

"I'm not freaking out...", Poppy says trying to sound calm but, still sounds like he is freaking out a little.

Branch decided to not give his reaction too much thought. It's not like he is running away from her. Poppy decides to ask Branch a few things that have floating in his head.

"So Branch Timberlake huh? Why did you want a different name?", Poppy asks curious.

"Well,after my grandpa Rosiepuff died I was sent to the orphanage. I was having a really hard time and was the only grey troll there...I honestly didn't want to replace my family but,at the same time I wanted to be part of a family again. Whenever some trolls wanting to be parents came to meet me they would act different when saw me. They would say one thing to my face then a completely different thing to the caretaker the moment the was closed. I heard every single word they said and it always hurt hearing them plus being bullied did hurt as well ..I would read the old Repuzztroll tale along with other different versions to myself just to get away from everything.
I figured it was better than crying in my room most nights... She did seem lonely and trapped but, her lives seemed better than mine... Then one day I had enough so I ran away into the forest. I found a beat up tower and decided to live a life similar to Repuzztroll. During my early days there in the forest,there were strangers walking through and asked me my name. I was so scared that they would take me back to the orphanage if they knew my name that I told them my name was Repuzztroll...", Branch says honestly and a little sad.

Branch turns her head away from Poppy trying to hide the hurt look on her face. Poppy had listened carefully to every word. Her long story made Poppy want to take away her all the pain. Poppy was upset that the other trolls would do such a thing to Branch. He wanted to make life better for her more than before! He moves a little bit closer and hugs her the best as he can. Branch is so surprised by the sudden action that her eyes move down to Poppy's arms then to up to his head. Her eyes go back to front of face.

"Branch, I had no idea...I'm sorry that you had gone through all that. You deserve to be treated better. ", Poppy says.

Poppy's words make her smile. Branch felt so much better. They break the hug and look into each other's eyes. Both trolls got so lost in the moment they continued their talk.

"Thanks...How long have you been scared about letting people down?", Branch says gentle.

"I guess maybe since I was a teenager...My prince responsibilities had increased so I got to help work on the festivals and parties but,it got so stressful and I made lots of mistakes. I got more stressed when I would hear everyone saying that I probably made 'this year better than before'. Only my mom knew about how scared and worried I was... The events turned out better than I thought they would but,still today get worried about being a let down...", Poppy says honestly.

" Must had been tough.", Branch comments.

"It was...How did your become magical?", Poppy says.

"Well,the Bergen who took my grandpa away found me the next day after I lost my whole family. He had this gem and was trying to test out the magic on me but,he made mistakes and dropped the gem. It fell through the cage and into my hair. The next thing I knew was that all the magic had into my hair. The Bergen tried to keep me and called me his new 'Gem' but,there was fire and I escaped...", Branch says honestly.

Poppy touches Branch's left shoulder trying to make her feel better. They stare into each other's eyes. Then Max sneezes loudly accidentally killing the moment... The two trolls and Flare look at Max. Flare gives him a 'Seriously? Of all moments?' glare. Max does not notice the attention towards him and decides to sleep.  He lowers his head to the ground and shuts his eyes for the night. Branch and Poppy look back each other while Flare watches them.

"Maybe we should sleep...", Branch says.

The group goes to sleep for the rest of the night. When they all woke up Branch cooked them some breakfast then they left their Camp Site. Soon they reach the Pop Kingdom. Branch walks ahead the group into the village square. Her hair drags onto the grass. Few trolls step on her hair! Poppy notices the problem and Branch's dismay. He helps her pick her hair up. Once the two trolls have all the hair picked up Poppy notices a group of little girls braiding each others hair. Poppy knew them from his story time group.

He whistles to them and they look up to see the king and grey troll. He lifts up the black hair and tilts his head downwards towards the hair. The girls gasp in delight. After they braid Branch's hair they put flowers in it. Branch really liked the job the girls. Poppy looks at Branch in awe as she thank the trollings. Flare gives Poppy a look that had 'You like - like her' all over it. Poppy notices it and ignores the look.

Poppy thanks the girls then he takes Branch, Max and Flare to his castle. They go to the castle yard to put Max away. Max missed his stable. As Max gets happily inside his stable Poppy's mother,Peppy, walks outside very happy. Peppy walks to the stables because, she was told Poppy was seen walking there. She hadn't seen her son in a few days and was afraid something happened to her baby. When the former Queen reaches the stables she sees Poppy closing the stable door with a grey girl and yellow glow bug standing next him. Peppy was too focused on her son that she didn't pay any attention to the grey troll with him. Poppy turns around to see his mother and embrace in a hug.

"Poppy! My sweet baby boy,where have you been? I was so worried that something happened to you!", Peppy says worried.

"I'm fine, mom. The usual path I take was blocked so we had to take the long way.", Poppy explains.

Then the mother and son break the hug. At this point she fully take in her son's words. She turns to grey troll. Branch nervously waves and smiles at Peppy. Branch didn't understand why she feels so nervous about meeting Poppy's mother. It's not like she is Poppy's girlfriend...

"Mom,this is Branch Timberlake. Branch,this is my mother. Mom,she is the girl who lives in the tower", Poppy introduces.

" Hi Mrs Kendrick.", Branch greets nervously.

" So your the girl my son talks about most of the time. I heard so much about you. It is so nice to finally meet you.",Peppy says.

Branch, Poppy and Flare spend some time with the former Queen in the castle. Poppy is in his bedroom taking off his armor and changes into clean clothes. Peppy talks to Branch in the dinning room while having a small basic last minute tea party. The former Queen did most of the talking. Soon Poppy joins the women. Then Peppy insisted that Poppy should take Branch on a tour once she heard Poppy say that he wanted to do so.

Love Fest will only start at 10 a.m. so Poppy and Branch have time for a little tour. Poppy is very happy about that. Poppy takes Branch and Flare back to the village. He shows them some of the sights, the library and lastly the market. Branch notices how much Poppy's people love him during the tour. He seemed to be in his element as he interacts with them. This impressed Branch how he managed to be so relax in social situations while she was nervous and uncomfortable. In the market,Poppy notices the ice cream stand. He smiles as an idea hits his head. The king figures that the ice cream will be a nice treat to have right now. Poppy turns his head to Branch.

"What's your favourite ice cream?", Poppy asks.

Branch looks at the near by ice cream stand then back at Poppy. She didn't have ice cream for a long time but she did have a favorite. When she was little girl before her grey days she always loved the taste of the chocolate ice cream the most,especially when nuts were added to it! Branch smiles at Poppy sweetly.

"Chocolate.", Branch answers.

Poppy nods his head and buys them some ice cream. They sit at a near by table. They talk a little forgetting about Love Fest. The two trolls continue to talk after finishing their ice cream until a certain teaspoon troll came running towards Poppy! The troll stops by Poppy's chair and Poppy looks straight at him. He has yellow skin,blue hair, pink nose and blue eyes. He is wearing dark pink shorts with a blue strap.

" There you are! I have been looking for you for 10 minutes.", Smidge says tired from running.

" Hi Smidge. What's with the rush? ", Poppy says.

"Poppy, you have to open and start Love Fest in 15 minutes.", Smidge says.

Poppy's eyes widen. He had forgotten about that!

"Oh Trolly!I completely forgotten about that!," Poppy exclaims.