A boop and kiss led to us

Branch was in the forest near the troll village collecting certain herbs, which had all sorts of uses, when much to his annoyance princess Poppy and her friends the snack pack came into the same clearing as him. The grey troll tried to pretend he hadn’t noticed them arriving, the survivalist made sure to keep his ears still so they didn’t realise that he has heard the snack pack entering the clearing and Branch instead carried on gathering the herbs. Even as he heard them talking about him, the grey troll made sure not to react to this and keep on with his work in the hopes that if he didn’t respond then the snack pack would leave him alone to get on with his work. “Oh it’s Branch.” Smidge said rather redundantly in her deep voice.

“So it is.” Came from the ever annoying Creek.

“I wonder what he is doing?” Poppy asked the others with confusion.

“Branch appears to be picking something.” Biggie pointed out rather obviously in Branch’s opinion.
The grey troll could hear them moving closer to him, realising that the princess and her friends are not going to go away he turned to look over his shoulder at them and then said in a calm, flat voice while he folded his arms. “Yes what is it?”

“What are you gathering?” The princess being the bravest of the group asked the survivalist.

“Lemon petals, Jack roots and blue mushroom.”

The pink troll frowned with confusion as the other troll reeled off what he was gathering without needing to think twice about it. “What is all that for?”

Branch rolled his eyes with aggravation at Poppy, but answered the question from the other troll anyway. “Jack root is good for fever, Lemon petals are good for colds and blue mushrooms make a good nourishing soup, it tastes rather good with rosemary and pit potatoes.”

“Oh…” The princess said to the grey troll.

Not liking the way that Poppy was holding all of the attention of the survivalist Creek sauntered forwards towards him, he raked his grey blue eyes dismissively over Branch before saying to him with a sneer to his voice. “Aren’t you going to scream about Bergens?”

“No, you’re not singing at the top of your lungs why would I?” This answer took the wind right out of the sails of the purple troll, who deflated in such a dramatic way that Branch had to supress a chuckle which wanted to escape him.

“Do you store a lot of healing herbs?” Guy Diamond asked him in genuine interest.

The grey troll happy to have his attention diverted away from the purple troll, gave Guy an unconcerned shrug as he said to the sparkling troll. “Well yes, I like to be prepared for anything which may happen. Now if you all don’t mind I’d like to get done with my gathering so I can get back to my bunker before night fall.”

Hearing this Creek instantly grinned evilly, he could see the perfect opportunity to tease and taunt the other troll as he so often liked to. The spiritual troll knew that he did this so that Branch would appear angry and surly to all of the other trolls around him, which would make sure he remained on his own and therefore there was a possibility for him to make the grey troll his. “Oh don’t tell me, or the Bergens will come out to get you.”

The grey troll rolled his eyes up towards the sky, he could feel his agitation towards the guru rising and Branch shook his head slightly at the other troll. “No, unlike you Creek I have important things I need to get done before I go to bed tonight.”

Creek couldn’t help but feel a surge of victory as Branch finally rose to his bait, and said in a faux hurt tone to the grey troll. “Are you saying that nothing I do is important.”

“I’d have thought that was obviously implied by what I had just said.”

“Aw I don’t know how you can say what I do isn’t important.”

Branch looked at the purple troll out of the corner of his eyes for a moment, then he went back to his work and said to the other troll as he did so. “I think what you do is about as important as you consider the things I do to be, which if I’m any judge of your behaviour around me is not important at all.”

The guru tried to look offended by the words of the grey troll while at the same time he concentrated on goading him further into anger. “But what I do is more important than what you do.”

“Really now?”

“Yes, what I do is so much more important than what you do.”

The survivalist didn’t stop working but said in rather cool tones to the guru. “I’ll have to remember next time you get seriously sick and the healers as me for the herbs to help you, to tell them I don’t have any because what I do isn’t important.”

There was a sudden and complete silence as Branch said this, he picked a couple more of the herbs and some more of the small blue mushrooms, the grey troll popped them into his back pack, which he then shouldered before turning back to the group, to find them all standing there staring at him. Poppy shook herself slightly to remove the shock she was feeling in this moment, the princess then approached the grey troll, she pulled an invitation out of her hair and then held it out to Branch. “Here, this is your invitation to our party.”

The grey troll let out a sigh, he took it from the princess without opening it, Branch then threw it onto the ground before grinding it into the dirt with one foot. “I am not going to one of your death traps.”

Poppy felt horribly hurt as the other troll did this, she stared at the survivalist with a wide open mouthed shock as the grey troll had gone from sensible to paranoid in one quick and easy movement, while Creek said with quiet resignation and a small gloating smile. “And he’s baaaacckkkkk…” Then the purple troll walked right up to Branch and stood in front of him as he said to the other troll. “Look why don’t you just try to chill love it would do you the world of good.”

Branch glared at Creek, as he did this the grey could feel hate welling up inside him towards the other troll and the survivalist fought not to react to violently towards the purple troll. “Firstly I am not your love and second I do not chill.”

Determined to get a reaction of some kind or any kind out of the survivalist Creek continued to try to goad him into some kind of negative reaction to push all the other trolls away from him as Branch so often did. “You never know love chilling could do you the world of good, you should seriously contemplate joining me for one of my mediations they really help clear the mind.”

It was at this point Branch’s expression became increasingly sour as the purple said this to him. “Creek stop calling me love, anyone would think you have a crush on me.” Everything inside the guru froze, the purple troll’s mouth dropped open with shock, he didn’t think that Branch would ever work something like this out so easily and he couldn’t find a thing to say to the other troll but the grey troll didn’t seem to notice and instead the survivalist spoke to him again wrinkling up his nose as he did so. “As for joining you in meditation, I’d much rather be eaten by a Bergen thank you.”

Creek shook his self out of his surprise and tried one last thing in order to try and gain a much more typical negative Branch reaction out of the survivalist. “Aw you don’t mean that love, boop!”

As soon as the purple troll booped the nose of the survivalist every troll in the clearing froze, this was including the guru himself as he realised that this might have just been a step to far in his teasing of the grey troll even for him. Slowly Branch looked at the hand on his nose, to its owner and then back again, his eyes narrowed anger finally broke loose up in the survivalist, quickly the grey troll grabbed the hand of the other troll, he tightened his hold around the spiritual troll’s wrist, pulled the hand away from his nose forcefully and then said to him in a low deadly voice. “I swear that if you ever call me love again or do that to me again I will make you regret it understand?”

The purple troll was terrified of the other troll for the first time in his life, he’d never seen Branch this angry before and he knew that he really had overstepped himself this time. Creek let out a small noise of pain as the survivalist tightened his hold on his wrist again, the spiritual troll was well aware that he was going to have bruises there. Wanting Branch to let go of his wrist Creek gave the other troll a nod of understanding, seeing this the grey troll released his wrist, before Branch then turned away, before he stalked off into the forest. The survivalist left the snack pack standing in the clearing staring after him in shock until he was out of sight, and once he was they instantly all turned to look at Creek. He was cradling his wrist, the purple troll noticed that the rest of the snack pack were looking at him with shock and the guru said to them as innocently as possible. “What is it?”

Poppy shook her head at the purple troll, as much as she liked Creek as a friend there were times when she really did despair of the other troll and his behaviour towards Branch. “Creek even I could see you were goading Branch. I’ve noticed that it’s been getting a lot worse lately, you seem to go out of your way to make him become angry or to get Branch to act out when others are around. I’ve also noticed you have been looking at him a lot too and these are good long looks, so what exactly is going on and don’t even think about telling me nothing is going on.” The guru squirmed under the intense gaze of the princess, he knew that Poppy really wouldn’t believe him if he said nothing was going on with him, but at the same time Creek wasn’t sure if he could really tell the other troll the truth about what had been happening to him lately. “Well Creek?” The pink troll asked her hands going to her hips as she continued to glare at him waiting for the answer to her question from the other troll.

He looked at the rest of the snack pack seeming to sense that the guru didn’t want them here for this, they all quietly slipped away leaving him with the clearly seething Poppy. Once Creek was sure they were alone, he turned his gaze back to clearly angry pink troll, the spiritual troll felt defeat flowing through him as Creek realised that the princess was determined to get an answer out of him and wouldn’t leave him alone until she had the answer to her question. “I love him…” Were the words which came out of Creek in an absolutely tiny voice.

“You love Branch?” Poppy asked in an incredulous tone of voice, needing to make sure that she really had heard what she thought she had from her friend. The guru gave her a single nod in answer to this question, at the sight of his nod the princess’s anger at her friend evaporated, it was replaced by equal parts aggravation and compassion for him instead. “Oh Creek…When did this happen?”

“To be honest I’m not really sure…Every time I’m around Branch I want to touch him, I want to be close to him…As soon as any other troll gets close to Branch I act out, I go out of my way to make him lose his temper or mock him so that the other troll loses their interest in him.” As the purple troll spoke he blushed brighter and brighter, as shame mixed with embracement bubbled up in him.
Because of the aggravation she was feeling due to Creek’s behaviour towards Branch the princess could stop herself she bursts out with an exclamation of. “Creek you are massive idiot! I assume you want to be with Branch and I mean romantically?”

“Yes…” The purple troll whispered.

“Then stop doing what you have been for a start! Apologies to Branch and I don’t mean tomorrow I mean today! Then show Branch you care for him.”

The guru gave Poppy another nod, seeing this the pink troll gave him a nod in return, before she turned and left Creek alone in the clearing in the forest. The guru had to admit that after confessing everything to his friend he now felt well and truly ashamed of his actions towards the survivalist, Creek realised that Poppy was right, he’s been an idiot he needed to apologise to Branch and try to show the other troll that he cared for him. Deciding this was what he needed to do Creek went in the same direction as Branch had gone in only a short while ago and soon enough he found the grey troll. The survivalist was standing by a pool of water throwing stones into it, as Creek got closer to the survivalist he could hear what Branch was saying angrily and quite loudly for him as he threw the stones into the water one by one. “Stupid! Pompous! Idiot! Call me love! UGH! Jerk!”

The eyebrows of the purple troll rose as he watched the grey troll, the guru has no doubt despite his name not being mentioned by the other troll that Branch is talking about him, and he also realises at the same time that this was his way of dealing with his anger over their last encounter. Creek felt terrible, he loved this troll with all of his heart, yet his selfish actions were causing him clear pain and destress, knowing this left the guru wondering what he could even do or say to make up for his actions. Creek felt sure some weak simple apology wasn’t going to be enough, then as he looked at the pebbles by the side of the water Creek had an idea. The purple troll quickly lifted a pebble, then he walked quietly closer to the water before he threw it into the water and yelled. “Selfish!”

The grey troll gave a start of surprise as the other troll shouted this, quickly Branch turned to look at him, his eyes, those teal eyes which the purple troll had fallen in love with so long ago held both surprise and suspicion in them as he looked at him. The guru lifted up some more pebbles, he threw them one by one into the water crying out as each one hit the water. “Hurtful! Envious! Blind! Pompous, stupid spiritual JERK!”

To say that the grey troll was surprised by what the other troll was saying about himself and doing didn’t really cover the overwhelming sense of amazement which was traveling through Branch at this time. Seeing that he now had the other troll’s full attention on him the spiritual troll lifted another two pebbles, he threw one into the water and said softer than before. “Sorry…” Then he threw the second one into the water, as he did so Creek locked eyes with the survivalist and said. “I’m sorry Branch.”

“Why? Why do you hate me so much?” As he asked the question the grey troll was annoyed at himself for the small amount of hurt which he was desperately trying to conceal from Creek that bled into his words.

If the purple troll had felt a little ashamed of his actions towards the other troll before now, then at this moment the guru felt utterly ashamed of himself.  “I don’t hate you Branch…I just…Ugh I don’t even know how to start explaining the way I’ve been behaving towards you…But I am truly sorry for it.” His frustration at not being able to express his feelings for Branch to the other troll was clear in Creek’s voice and in his body language as he addressed the grey troll. Slowly the purple troll walked over to the side of the survivalist, they stood side, by side looking into the water, neither of them said anything for a few moments but eventually the guru addressed the grey troll again. “I shouldn’t have said all those horrible things to you Branch and I shouldn’t have goaded you in way I did today, it was wrong of me and I am sorry for all I’ve said and done.”

Branch didn’t say anything to the guru for the longest them, then very slowly he took hold of the arm of the purple troll which he had held so tightly earlier on, with a gentleness which Creek had never seen from the other troll before now the survivalist lifted his arm and then inspected the wrist closely. The grey troll frowned with concern he could already see that the skin there was starting to bruise from how tightly he had held it earlier and seeing this made Branch feel rather embarrassed about hurting the other troll. “I’m sorry I hurt you.”

“To be honest I deserved it. I know you don’t like your personal space being invaded but I still did it anyway…”

“That still doesn’t excuse the fact I hurt you…I have something on me which will help with the bruising give me a moment to get it.” Branch released the other troll’s arm, he put down his back pack, drew a few different items out of it, the grey troll eventually pulled out a small box he opened this removed several items and then spoke to Creek once more. “Hold out your arm for me.” The purple troll gave him a nod, the guru then held his hurt arm out, he watched as very carefully and gently Branch placed some kind of cream onto the marks and then bound his wrist with bandages, before saying to him. “There we go, that should relive the pain and help it to heal faster.”

“Thank you Branch, I’ll admit before today I never knew you helped the healers, but then I shouldn’t be so surprised you know so much more than most of us do about the wild…I shouldn’t have ever said that your work wasn’t important.” After Creek said this he didn’t comment on the fact that Branch hadn’t let go of his wrist and was still cradling it gently in both of his hands.

Slowly the grey troll met his grey blue gaze, with his own teal blue gaze as this happened Branch felt a surge of happiness and gratefulness towards Creek for admitting that his work was actually important in some way and he said in return to the other troll. “Thank you for the apology and for saying what I do has some value. I’ll also admit that although I don’t understand it your spiritual gifts that they are important in their own way.”

Slowly Creek smiled at the grey troll, who surprised him by smiling slightly back at him, having never seen Branch smile before, it set the gurus heart to thundering in his chest and before he could stop himself the purple troll leant into the other troll and placed his lips to those of the survivalist. Branch gasped with surprise, he froze for a moment, slowly he thawed out of his shock and then tentatively the grey troll started to kiss Creek back. Encouraged by this action on the part of Branch, the spiritual troll ran the fingers of his unhurt hand into the black hair of the survivalist and he deepened the kiss. The grey troll let out a small moan, he blushed slightly as this noise left him but he didn’t break the kiss with Creek, instead Branch wrapped his arms around the other troll and pulled him closer. When they did break this kiss, the two male trolls placed their foreheads together, they both let out a contented sigh and Creek couldn’t help but ask the survivalist. “How long have you been in love with me?”

Branch gulped, fear filled him but at the same time, right now and right here he felt somehow safe enough to be able to tell the guru the truth about his feelings towards him. “Years, many years…And how long have you loved me?”

Creek could tell that as the other troll spoke to him that the grey troll was telling him nothing but the truth and so the guru decided the least he could do was tell him the truth in return. “It was the same for me, I have been in love with you for years, but I could just never find the words to say what I felt for you.” After telling Branch this the purple troll felt as though a weight he hadn’t even known he had been carrying had been lifted from his heart and shoulders. Slowly Creek used the hand he had placed into Branch’s hair to pull the grey trolls head against his shoulder, he held him there as he then said softly to the one he loved. “What a pair of fools we are, to think if only we’d said something to each other sooner…Then we could have been together years before now.”

“To be honest with you I don’t think that we were really ready to say anything to each other before this moment.” Branch told the other troll his voice gentle.

“What are we going to tell the other trolls?” Creek asked him wanting to know how the survivalist wished to handle their relationship when it came to the rest of the tribe.

The grey troll thought about the answer to this question for a few moments before he said to the other troll with a small smile on his face. “We will just tell them all the truth, that a boop and a kiss led to us.”

Creek chuckled when Branch said this and then spoke to the troll he was holding close. “Well it is the truth, but it’s bound to gain us a few smiles.”

Slowly the survivalist pulled back, the spiritual troll reluctantly removed his hand from the hair of the other troll, Creek was surprised when the grey troll placed a soft kiss to his lips, the spiritual troll returned this little peck on the lips from Branch feeling happiness trickling through him as he did this. The purple troll wasn’t the only one feeling joyful at this time the grey troll was also happy, but he was also completely content and then from somewhere deep inside where it had been buried by Branch a spark of mischief ignited for the first time in a very long time. “Let’s go to the troll village and shock them all.”

“Oh?” Creek asked him with interest and intrigue.

The grey troll gave the guru another small smile, he took his arms from around Creek, then took the hand which wasn’t hurt in his and indicated with his head towards troll village. Suddenly the guru’s eyes opened wide as he realised what Branch was up to, he smiled at the other troll and then hand in hand the two male trolls walked back to the troll village. As they walked through the village lots of heads turned in their direction, mouths and eyes opened wide watching them go passed. When Poppy noticed the two of them she caught the eye of the two male trolls and then shot them a wide beaming smiling, she wasn’t surprised when Creek returned her smile with a smaller one of his own, but she was totally shocked when Branch also gave her a smile. The princess watched them walk to Creek’s pod, they went inside the spiritual troll’s tent, as she did so Poppy felt that both of them had at last found peace and love together.