Work Text:
It seemed all the village could talk about was the coronation.
Trolls had been asking her for weeks when it would be announced. Nothing was planned yet, and far from decided behind the scenes, but every pop troll seemed to know it was coming time for Poppy to become queen.
Poppy had just brushed them off, humbly dismissing the idea with a small giggle. An appreciative ‘It’s so nice of you to say that!’ and then subject change. But she knew the day was approaching.
Her dad had floated the idea last month over breakfast, just one of their weekly catch ups after she had moved out of her childhood pod. “What have you been up to this week? How do you feel about being queen? Pass the pancakes, dear.”
She had been ecstatic!
She was going to be queen!
She was going to be queen…
Poppy closed the scrapbook in front of her. The miniature crowd she had been working on got larger the longer she stared. Maybe her journaling had gone a bit too far.
Of course she wanted to be queen! There were still framed scenes on the wall of her childhood pod, sloppily cut felt by her tiny hands, showing her prancing around the tree roots of the still unconstructed new village, decorated with the crown she had seen her dad wear proudly ever since that one day. Once Poppy was old enough to understand what had happened, she jumped at any chance to help out. Being able to give King Peppy, someone who had done so much, a break from the responsibility, filled her heart with joy!
But being in charge of the entire village?
Forever?
She shook her head as she gathered up the last of the craft supplies and ungracefully shoved them back onto the shelf. She would organize them later. Probably. More importantly, this was a time to celebrate, not be worried! And the sooner she got back into doing what she could to support her trolls, the sooner that yucky feeling would vanish. Today was going to be a good day!
Today was… not the best day Poppy ever had.
First, the class she was supposed to be watching for an absent teacher was overscheduled with another, so they couldn’t use the class pod. The spot she had found on one of the branches was quickly crowded with light machines needing to be set up for tonight's party, so Poppy was left with the monumental task of wrangling 12 trollings to yet another area down by the roots.
Once her morning obligations were complete, she quickly got swept into the event organization. One stage assembly later, part of the decorations team realized they had lost some of the supplies by the edge of the forest. Poppy was sent to retrieve them, and after returning to the chime of the mid afternoon hug time, she noticed her wrist was bare. Had she lost her hug time bracelet? She ventured back to the woods, ungracefully dove into a bush chasing after a pink glow (which revealed itself as a firefly, not her bracelet), and after crawling back out, took a moment to sit on the forest floor and give up.
“Poppy, dear, are you alright?”
Startled by the voice, Poppy’s eyes jumped open, and were met with a wall of her own hair.
An impulsive protective shield had formed around her. If her dad was here, he would probably mention how that hadn’t happened since she was a young teen, and trolls only didn’t notice they did that kind of thing when they were stressed. She was a bit glad he wasn’t there to witness this. Would he think she wasn’t capable?
Creek crouched down, carefully brushing his hand through her hair until Poppy retracted it back to her normal upward style.
His concerned smile told her all she needed to know about why he was here. Creek lived a content life, so unless you were at one of his favorite spots or visibly in need of help, it was unlikely to randomly cross paths with the purple troll. He must have noticed Poppy’s back and forths across the village and began to follow her at some point, just to see what the commotion was about.
“Oh, hey, Creek.” She accepted his now outstretched hand and stumbled back onto her feet, the motion carrying her too far and almost into him. He braced against her, their hands wrapped around each other's elbows.
“Dear, are you alright?”
“I…” Poppy sighed as she steadied herself. “I’m alright. I’ve just been kinda busy this morning, a lot of running around, haha…”
Creek nodded solemnly. “I noticed. Do you think a break might be in order?”
“No, no, I’m… I think… I’m just a bit overwhelmed.” She hadn’t meant to get into these worries with Creek, but the thoughts seemed to want to pour out of her. “And if it’s overwhelming today, then I don’t know how I’ll handle it all when I’m queen…”
“Oh, Poppy, you’re handling things just swimmingly today!” Creek grabbed her hands, softly holding her in place. “You just need a breather and a smile, and everything will turn out just fine.”
She wanted to tell him how he was wrong, how for some reason some part inside kept telling her that she couldn’t handle it, but the well of words in her throat had dried up. She took a deep breath and let go of his hands before stretching her arms out, pulling a huge smile onto her face with the motion.
“Yeah, I guess so! Thanks, Creek!”
He smiled as well. “Anytime, dear.”
As late afternoon fell, the search for her hug time bracelet continued in vain. She had covered the perimeter where the supplies had been lost, so either she missed it, or it was resting somewhere else she had visited today.
Poppy looked back at the village. From here, she could see all the trolls going about their lives. They looked so small from the distance. Like they needed so much help.
She turned on her heel and walked deeper into the woods. Some part of her didn’t want to go back just yet. Her bracelet would still be… wherever it was an hour from now. Maybe she really did need a break.
Poppy’s feet marched forward aimlessly, following an unfamiliar trail in any direction away. After she could turn back and no longer see the village, she took a rest, plopping down on a larger rock that sat along the edge of the path.
The forest was nice. While Troll Village was usually bustling with the sounds of chatter or singing, all she could hear was the rustling of wind through the leaves and animals scampering about whatever animal lives they had.
It did not help her worries.
Who knew quiet gave you more space to hear your thoughts? Poppy didn’t. Until now.
How was she going to be a good queen if she was here, panicking, when people needed her help? Would her dad be picking up her slack when she returned? And everyone thought she would be amazing! They were counting on her to do a good job!
Her ruminations were interrupted by another set of footsteps coming down the path, accompanied with the occasional rustling of bushes.
She leaned forward, trying to sneak a peek at who else was out this far. A gray body creeped into her line of sight, stopping every few steps to bend over and retrieve something from the foliage around the path.
Of course it was Branch. It made sense for him to be the only other troll to be out this far. Oh hair, was she at Branch levels of behaving weirdly?
He flinched when he saw her, almost dropping the pile of sticks before clutching them back to his chest.
“Poppy?! What are you doing out here!”
He seemed genuinely startled by her presence, like it was so unusual for the princess to be not even 10 minutes away from her village.
“I’m just relaxing, the forest is nice.” Her attempt at cheery ended more plain than intended, but it got the point across.
“Really? You’re sure you’re not out here to try and pull me into another one of your… ‘happiness schemes’?”
Poppy shook her head, too preoccupied to try and fix his mood. She had even forgotten to make him a card for the party tonight. That didn’t matter as much, she was too tired to host a sad troll today anyway.
Branch stared at her, teasing annoyance turning blank, a sense of confusion displayed on his face from her unusual inaction. “You’re being weird today, but honestly, I don’t care enough to ask. Goodbye, Poppy.”
“Wait, Branch!” She called after him as he tried to walk away. A sudden, crazy thought had struck her. If anyone could ease her worries, oddly, it would be Branch. Someone who never coated their words wouldn’t lie to her about this. If he couldn’t see the bad in her, then that would be that and she could stop thinking about this.
Branch dramatically turned back around, shooting her an exaggerated look that asked ’what do you want now?’
“Do you think I’d be a good queen?”
His eyes narrowed. Branch probably anticipated a request, or her to butt into his private life like was typical. Not this kind of a question.
“What?”
Poppy swallowed. “If I were to become the queen of Pop Village, do you think I’d be good at it?”
Branch rolled his eyes and spat out an odd laugh. “Obviously not. This entire village is a loud, shining, hazard. It's bad enough that King Peppy allows it, but under your rule it will be a hundred times worse, I’m sure. You two try to do everything by yourself and don't listen to people who actually know better, which is how we got here in the first place. So yeah, we’re all gonna be eaten by Bergens and it’ll be your fault. That's not even getting into the lack of safety precautions-”
The tears that had welled in her eyes began to hit the ground. Branch stopped his rant, a grimace beginning to form on his face. The two stayed still, sitting in the awkward sounds of Poppy trying to regain control of her crying.
“Uh… stop doing-.... you don’t have to-.....” After the third attempt at a sentence, Branch returned to the silence.
Poppy sucked in another deep breath to try and regulate her internal rhythm. Some part of her expected Branch to suddenly be nice, to perfectly reassure her of all her worries, but obviously that didn't happen. He had affirmed the worry that had been plaguing her all day. She would be a bad queen.
Something rolled over in her brain. Okay. She would be a bad queen.
Now how could she fix that?
Her tears stopped, head filled with a clarity she had been missing. She could improve. She could ask for help! That was so simple, how on earth could she miss it before?
Poppy stood up with the vigor she was missing, and lunged for a hug at Branch. He stepped back, clutching the wood closer to his chest in the process.
“What- what is happening…?”
“I’m going to prove you wrong!” She declared.
“Uh. Okay?”
“I’m gonna be a better queen than you could ever imagine, so just wait, Branch! Also, thank you for letting me talk!”
Poppy began to run back to the village, knowing what she had to do.
“Wait-” it was Branch who called out to her this time. Poppy turned back, with a questioning look on her face. What did he want now? She had revelations to enact!
“I have no idea what got into you, but…” he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small string of some sort. “I found this earlier. You’d probably care about who it belongs to, or something…”
He passed her the trinket. Poppy rolled the pink flower bracelet over in her hand, face lighting up brighter than before.
“Ohmyhair thats MY hug time bracelet! Thank you so much for finding it, Branch! Now I owe you double thanks!” She gave him a big grin, the most authentic one she had worn all day. She would have attempted another hug, but assumed he would just dodge like the first.
Nevertheless, he spun away from her in a sudden motion. From Poppy’s angle, the sun made his ears almost appear blue.
“…whatever, just go already” he grumbled, words muffled from what she assumed was a hand against his face.
Poppy didn’t have to be told twice. She sprinted back, eyes locked on her target as she swung up the branches and barged into her dads pod.
“Dad! Please help teach me ways I can be better before I become queen!”
He smiled, the proud kind of smile only a dad can give. “My dear, I thought you'd never ask.”