Branch's wretched backstory

The lost photo

Blood and Trigger warning 😰

Branch quickly sat up  as sweat trickled down his forehead. He had ANOTHER nightmare about Trollstice. He ran his fingers through his ebony locks in an attempt to calm himself down. He reached over to turn on his lamp , and much to his disappointment, it WOULDN'T  turn on. He checked to see if it was still plugged in , and it was. He figured that he needed to put in a new light bulb and even when he changed it , it STILL wouldn't work. This could only mean one thing..... He was having a blackout. Branch dug through his messy closet so he could find his flashlight. There had been ANOTHER thunderstorm that was strong enough for him to lose all of the electricity in his home. And he had to feel around for it because he could barely see what he was even doing. 

As he felt around for the flashlight , his hand brushed against a strange object. He picked it up and squinted through the darkness ,  so he could get a better look. It didn't take him long to figure out what it was. With his eyes wide open in shock , the object slipped out of his grasp and it lay on the floor, shattered. Turns out , it was an old picture of Grandma Rosiepuff. Branch was so sure that he lost the picture all those years ago. Tears stung in his eyes as he searched for something to clean up the mess. He desperately tried to blink them away, but the tears flowed like a river. After he broomed away the remains of the picture frame , all that was left was the ACTUAL picture. With a shaky hand , he reached out to pick it up. " Grandma...." he whimpered. More tears came as he clutched the old and frayed photo in his hands. 

He stopped crying  when he heard a strange sound. It kinda sounded like knocking?  Who would come to his bunker in the middle of the night? He knew it couldn't be Poppy because she has a curfew. He placed the photo on his nightstand so he could go see who it was. Since it was still dark , he couldn't really see where he was going and he stepped on a  BIG piece of glass from the picture frame. He sat down on his bed as he tried to pull it out.  He began to curse under his breath when the knocking continued. Turns out , it was Creek the whole time. " I'm coming in whether he likes it or not." He grumbled to himself. Usually there were like a million locks to prevent anyone from coming into his bunker , but he forgot to lock it this time. Creek opened the door and he winced when the cold air nipped at his skin. 

It was really dark in there , but lucky for him , he had a flashlight. The bunker had changed a lot since the last time he came here. When he found Branch's  bedroom , he took a deep breath and opened the door.  Branch yelped when he saw Creek standing in the doorway. Creek shone the flashlight on him and he gasped when he saw the amount of blood on Branch's injured foot. " What happened? " he asked in a quiet voice. " Go away ! " Branch grumbled.  Creek ignored his snarky remark and he quickly looked around for some cobwebs so he take care of the injury. Branch stayed quiet as the purple troll wrapped up his foot with the cobwebs. Branch was still surprised about the WHOLE ordeal . But what surprised him the MOST , was the fact that the person whom he disliked the most was actually taking care of him. How ironic.......

When Creek finished wrapping up his leg, he smiled gently at Branch. The grey troll refused to smile BACK . " How did you hurt yourself?" Creek questioned.    "None of your business!" Branch sneered, " I think the REAL question is ; why are you here?"   Creek frowned at him before responding  ," I was taking a walk in the forest , when I sensed something was wrong , so I decided to come check on you."  Branch stared at the guru troll for a moment , trying to take all of this in. Since when did Creek ACTUALLY care about the only grey troll in the village? " Why were you even in the forest anyway? don't you know that there are tarantapuffs out here? " he shot back. " I was only looking for tea leaves , and besides , I was having trouble getting to sleep." Creek admitted. "  Branch was barely even listening to what Creek even said. His mind was somewhere else. 

" I think you need some help." Creek said wistfully. " Huh?" Branch's ears twitched in his direction. " I mean , I think you need to go see Dr Plum." Creek explained. Branch's lip curled up in disgust. He HATED going to the doctor . She was always telling him that he needed to get a therapist to deal with his negative emotions but he didn't want to hear it. " Why? I don't even like her!" Branch said arguably. Creek was about to respond , but out of the corner of his eye he saw something. He used his flashlight to shine in the direction of the object ," Hey, what is that ?" Creek asked curiously. When Branch realized what he was talking about , he went into panic mode. " N-nothing don't worry about it." He said nervously. He took the picture and hid it behind his back. " Let me see !" Creek tried to grab it away from Branch. " No , just leave me alone! " Branch begged. 

Finally , Creek was able to snatch the picture away from him. And Branch was so close to tears. " Finally! why wouldn't you just let me s-" Creek's eyes widened when he looked at the picture of Branch's deceased grandmother. Grandma  Rosiepuff was a REALLY touchy subject .   Branch looked at the ground as a tear slid down his face and he wiped it away in embarrassment. " Go away...." Branch mumbled. Creek suddenly felt guilty for taking the picture in the first place. Branch felt very uncomfortable under Creek's watchful gaze. When he made eye contact with the guru troll , in his eyes he saw.....pity. " I SAID GO AWAY!!" Branch bellowed. Creek stared at him with his eyes wide open in shock. " All I ever wanted to do was help." Creek glared , " Here , take the stupid picture." He spat. Branch was really grateful when Creek FINALLY left him alone. Part of him wanted Creek to come though. Even though he can be a pain in the butt.

When Branch tried to stand up , he had a terrible limp and he was still in pain. Suddenly, the lights in the bunker flickered until they were on. He  hated the DARK , so he was relieved that his lights were on again. He limped his way over to the bathroom and he took some pills so it could take care of the pain. He drank some water so it could go down easily. Branch took a couple of seconds to stare at his unflattering reflection. His eyes were bloodshot and his hair was a MESS. He was really surprised that Creek didn't tease him about it. He  randomly began to think about the Poppy's birthday party.  He STILL couldn't believe the princess kissed him on the cheek. Branch was actually glad Creek came to see him instead of Poppy herself. That would've been humiliating if she saw him like this!

There was NO way she could fall in love with a loner like him! Could she?

Author's note: I hope I didn't make this TOO sad! 😰😰😰  Anyways I hope you Broppy shippers enjoyed that chapter because I worked really hard on  it! Caio! 😊