I miss you like a little kid

Take a pic (i love you)

Poppy was a gentle soul.

She loved the wind in her hair, the smell of flowers and the feeling of ocean spray on her face.

Her favourite colour was blue, her favourite fruit was strawberries and she loved singing and dancing and all things girls do.

Poppy was a gentle soul.

She wanted to scream.

She felt trapped sometimes.

A smaller her in an even smaller box. Forced to fit inside otherwise she'll be discarded like everything else.

But when she was in her arms, she felt anything but.

She was safe and she was cared for.

And for the first time she was the one being loved.

Sometimes she wanted to whisk both of them away, somewhere with no stress and burdens and somewhere they could just be happy.

Branch makes her happy in all ways imaginable.

So when John Dory enters the room with a book full of old pictures, she screams.

Branch had never shown her pictures of younger him? Of course, he's never seen her either but-

Poppy would rather not go down that road.

Not when everything was going so well.

She couldn't afford losing Branch.

Not him too.

"Ohmigosh ogmigosh ahjcdhvxhdvychjdwbxhjew LOOK LOOK"

She held up a picture she had grabbed from the far corner, holding it up and cooing when her real boyfriend flushed and hid his face.

John Dory smiled at them, squinting his eyes to look at the photo.

"Ah yes," he murmured, taking the picture and re-adjusting his glasses. "I remember this. He was around two, and Clay was working on his garden."

He smiled then, small and sad and completely his own.

"That didn't stop Floyd from stealing the flowers though.."

JD sighed, giving one last longing look at the photo before handing it back to a slightly concerned Poppy.

"So long ago.." he said, sounding drained.

Branch looked at him. Properly.

John Dory was the oldest, he realised.

He sure was looking it.

Suddenly, Branch saw streaks of gray in his hair, wrinkles that didn't exist a moment ago, lines and the weary tiredness that only came with age.

He swallowed, and looked down.

Poppy squeezed his hand.

She showed him the photo again, an attempt to distract him.

In the photo, Branch was asleep, a stuffed bear in his hands and hair up and puffed, with flowers braided through it.

She cooed at him, and he pushed her.

"Look at this one," John Dory showed her, another photo of little Branch, this time sitting on a bike, smiling at the camera with his two front teeth missing.

She smiled.

"Hey guys!"

"Watcha looking at?"

"Ohmigosh are those THE photos?"