I'm sorry! The whole story was practically finished and I haven't updated in a week! It took me forever to think of a halfway decent ending, because if this wasn't the last chapter then fluffy nothings would've gone on endlessly. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the last chapter! Please read and review (constructive criticism is fine, but no flames)! Thanks! :)

The next day around noon, Branch came to visit Poppy at her pod.

At first, he'd wondered (an understatement; maybe panicked was a better word) if this was too forward, just casually coming to her pod like this, no invitation. But the day before . . . he could still feel her resting there in his arms, her soft snores filling the air and pulling him into a relaxed state as well . . . and right there, at the front of his memory, was Poppy looking him in the eyes for any disapproval as she slowly snaked her arms up to his neck and kissed him.

So no, it wasn't forward.

And if she thought it was, then here was an excuse: he needed to check if she'd gotten the sleep she'd needed yesterday. Still, he was confident he wouldn't need the excuse.

But as he approached her pod . . .

He heard crying.

More specifically, he heard Poppy crying.

Branch instantly leaped into her pod. She was in the back, in her bedroom, laying on top of the neat but rumpled covers, curled up and sobbing in front of the open door.

His heart broke to see her like this—and the worst part was, he didn't even know what was she was upset about. He knocked on the door frame. "Poppy, are you okay?"

She looked up at him and started crying harder.

This worried him. Had he done something? He didn't think so, but maybe everything that happened yesterday had been too forward—maybe she'd only just realized it now—

"Br-branch," she cried, curled up again and not looking at him. "C-come over heeeeeeeeere!" Her voice broke into a despaired sob on the last word.

Branch was slightly relieved and ran over, plopping down next to her. "Poppy, what happened?"

Poppy latched onto him as soon as he was there, holding him tighter than he'd known she could, nestling into him like a life preserver. "Braaaaaanch!" she wailed, soaking his vest in tears.

He held her close, too, determined to provide her with as much comfort as he could. "Please, Poppy, tell me why you're so upset."

"Cl-cliff was heeeere!" she bawled into him.

Of course. He should've known. Cliff had certainly said something to hurt her. But the Poppy he knew had thick skin, even if she could be naive at times - what could the jerk possibly have done to make her like this?
"And what did Cliff do?" he asked, trying to be as gentle and nurturing as he could.

"He—he—" She let go of him, pulling out of his grasp, and sat up, tears welling in her eyes. Branch could see her biting her lip to hold them back.

The now-blue Troll gasped at the sight of her, his own eyes misting. She had a nasty, purple-blue bruise on her right shoulder, but that wasn't all. She had a ton of the same horrible bruises on her face, especially her cheeks and jawline. And on her left cheek, amidst her glitter freckles, was a huge gash in her pink skin. The survivalist in front of her knew that would leave a scar. Eyes trailing back to the bruise on her shoulder, he noticed several smaller ones all down her arm.

Looks like Cliff didn't say anything to hurt her.

"Poppy, I am so, so sorry!" he cried, shocked that Cliff would do this. Yes, he might've been a little suppressing and selfish, with some anger issues, but Branch had never imagined that he'd be this violent, especially not to Poppy. "Cliff did this to you? I'll get revenge, Poppy. Just say the word and he's dead. I promise you—"

"No, no," she said. "D-don't do that. Just—" She fell back down into his grasp. "Stay with me."

He smiled gently. "I'm more than happy to." Holding her close, he connected their lips, her petal-soft ones moving gracefully against his—

"OW!" Poppy yelped loudly, pulling her lips away from his. She kept close, in his arms, but stopped kissing him.

"What hurts?" he said immediately. He wouldn't stand for Poppy being hurt.

"I-I'm sorry, it's just . . . my jawline . . . my face . . . I can't really get too passionate right now . . . I'm sorry . . ." Suddenly her eyes welled up with tears and she buried her face in his vest again.

"No, no, Poppy, I understand. You're hurt and who am I to push you? I want to help you, not make it worse." He rubbed her back as she cried. "Hey, do you still have all those healing tonics and creams I gave you before we broke up?"

"Y-yeah, in the kitchen cabinets," she said, her voice muffled.

"You stay here, okay? I'll go get some and help you." He gently pried her off of him and stood up—

She looked up at him with miserable, pleading eyes. "Don't leave."

"I'll be back in a minute, Poppy, I promise," he told her, even though he hated to see her so sad.

"No, no, no!" she said, voice breaking and crumbling into tears. "Carry me," she begged weakly.

"I . . ." But one glance at her miserable eyes and any irritation or protests died. "Alright." His voice was barely a whisper with that one word before he scooped her into his arms bridal-style. She settled against his chest, tears silently streaming out of her closed eyes, as he walked to the kitchen.

Branch was getting the creams out with his hair when he heard someone walk into Poppy's pod. He whirled around, clutching Poppy tighter, in fear it was Cliff—but relaxed when he saw it was her father. Unless you counted yesterday, he hadn't seen the former king in forever.

"Why, hello, Branch!" he said, seeming much too cheerful for someone whose daughter had just been beaten up by her ex-boyfriend. But then, maybe he didn't know. "Poppy's friends said I needed to come check on her. I'm glad you're here. My plan really worked!" He sighed, frowning. "If only I'd thought of it sooner."

"Well, they were right," Branch said solemnly. "You do need to check on her." Peppy came around the counter, and he continued, "Look what Cliff did to her."

He started to set her upright on her feet, but she clung to him. "No!" she whimpered, using every ounce of strength in her bruised arms to hold on to him.

Branch kept her in his arms. "He completely beat her up, King Peppy. Her shoulder is just one big nasty bruise, and she's got a gash in her face—can you tell? Plus she's got bruises all over her face and right arm."

"Oh, Poppy, my princess, I'm so sorry," Peppy said, his face falling. He leaned over his daughter and kissed her forehead, making her flinch. "Cliff did this to you?"

Poppy began to weep again. "He—he came in and—and—and he said he didn't mean any of that stuff and he tried to kiss me, but I pushed him a-away and he—he got mad and s-st-started hitting me, just my face, then a-a-asked me if I wa-was ready to listen to him and tried to take o-off my dress—he's never done that before—and I s-slapped his hand away, so he slapped my shoulder ha-hard, and then the rest of my arm, and-and then sliced my cheek and s-said it w-was a reminder of what happens when I d-don't listen to him!" She broke into tears, and Branch automatically held her tighter.

"No one deserves that," Peppy sympathized, stroking her hair. "Have you told your friends you've broken up with him?"

"Y-yes!"

Branch grabbed the healing creams off the counter with his hair and said, "I was going to use some healing creams on her. Is that all right?"

"Wonderful. Thank you for taking care of her, my boy," Peppy said. "Oh, and by the way, I thought you two should see this picture that Biggie took yesterday." He held out a picture to them.

It was them, Branch realized—him and Poppy. He was leaning against a tree trunk with his eyes closed, face snuggled into Poppy's hair. The queen was resting in his arms, her eyes closed as well, never looking more content.

Branch instantly blushed. "Biggie took this?"

Peppy nodded. "Yep!"

"How long were we asleep?"

"Hours, I assume—you two were out there for hours. Well, I'll leave you to take care of Poppy in peace." He bent down and kissed the queen's forehead again. "Get better soon, my princess," he said, then left the pod.

Branch grabbed the photo with his hair—surely Poppy would want to see it—and walked back to her bedroom as he held her in his arms. He carefully set her down.

Her eyes shot open and she looked up at him pleadingly again. "Branch," she moaned, begging for him to be next to her with a single word.

He shook his head. "Lie on your back, Poppy—I'm going to help you heal."

"But I want—"

"Poppy, please," he said gently. It would be so much easier for the both of them if she'd comply. "Let me help you."

She swallowed hard. "Okay." Her voice was barely a whisper, but she lay down on her back, spreading her arms out so he could help her.

Branch climbed onto the bed and kneeled next to her. He took a salve and gently spread it over the bruises on her face, save for the one with a big cut over it. Poppy closed her eyes under his touch.

When it was done, he pulled away and her eyes opened. "Mm, I forgot how perfect you were," she murmured, her eyes closing again when she saw why he'd pulled back.

Branch smiled and raised an eyebrow. Perfect? He wasn't perfect. He'd also never heard Poppy so willing to admit that he was . . . then again, compared to Cliff . . .

Thinking about the Troll made Branch's brief smile vanish. He started applying a different cream to her bruised arm. When he got to her shoulder, he did as much as he could, but the strap of her dress was in the way of the rest. Working in such silence that he'd checked out, he automatically reached to move it away from her shoulder so he could finish applying the cream.

Her eyes shot open and she shoved his hand away from her shoulder, staring up at him. Her eyes wore betrayal and hurt and then went cold. "I spoke too soon," she said, her tone clipped.

Branch instantly put his hands in the air as though surrendering. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to," he insisted honestly. "I just needed to treat your bruise. Here, you can do it if you want." He pushed the cream toward her, not wanting to touch even her hand if she was uncomfortable with it.

Poppy's eyes studied his face, clearly trying to decide whether he was being sincere—and then her gaze softened. "Thank you . . ." she said, grabbing the cream and applying it to her own shoulder. "I'm just jumpy after the run-in with Cliff earlier. Sorry."

"Don't apologize; you deserve to be jumpy, after what he did to you. I promise I will never, ever do anything like that, Poppy," he said, reaching for her hand—but then he hesitated. Maybe he shouldn't touch her at all yet?

She nodded weakly, glancing at his hand. "Go on."

He gently lifted her hand in his, giving it a soft squeeze. "I'm going to put these back, alright?" He gestured to all the healing supplies from her cabinet.

"Wait! What about my cut?" She lifted her free hand to the wound across her cheek.

Branch glanced at all the creams, salves, and tonics, hesitating. It depended on what she needed. "I think this will work, but it's going to sting. Do you want to do it?"

She gripped his hand harder and shook her head, eyes squeezed shut. "No. You do it, please."

"Okay." He took a small glob of the salve and smeared it over her cut. She winced, pressing her lips together and squeezing his hand even tighter, but didn't protest or stop him.

Branch smeared on more for the rest of the cut, then wiped his hand on a towel from his hair and closed the jar of salve. "I'm done," he told her.

Poppy opened her eyes. "Thank you," she whispered, her hold on his hand slackening a little—but she didn't stop holding it.

He squeezed her hand comfortingly. "I'm going to go put these away now, okay?"

Her pleading eyes lingered on him. "Please don't go."

"Well . . . alright," he agreed. He placed all the healing items on her nightstand and laid next to her. "Oh, did you see the picture Biggie took yesterday? Your dad brought it over," he said, dropping her hand to pull her into him.

She snuggled up against him. "No."

With his other hand, he pulled out the picture and held it up so she could see.

"Awww," she said, however weakly. "That's adorable."

He propped himself up on his elbow and glanced at her, remembering how his initial reaction had been to blush. "I love you, Poppy."

"I love you more."

"No, I—"

"Don't you dare argue," she told him. "I went through Cliff to find you. I love you more."

He watched her for a moment until she seemed satisfied that he wouldn't argue. Then he whispered, "I still love you more."

She started laughing, her voice hoarse from crying but joyful nonetheless. "Whatever you say, Branch. Because Cliff would never argue about this."

Branch set down the picture and lay back against the pillows again, Poppy resting on his chest. With his now-free hand, he stroked her hair gently, running his fingers through her magenta locks. "I'm really, really sorry, Poppy."

"Well . . ." She hesitated, clearly thinking. "You have to look on the bright side. Which is . . . which is that now I'll never break up with you again."

"Me neither. I promise, Poppy."

"I promise, too." Her words were barely a whisper, but they weren't hurt or sad or tear-stained. She just sounded content to be with him.

When her eyes closed and she didn't speak again for another five minutes, Branch thought she might've fallen asleep in his arms again, but then her eyes suddenly popped open, a renewed energy in them despite the bruises and tear stains covering her face. "Oh, hey!" she said zealously, which startled him so badly he jumped.

"Oh my gosh, Poppy," he said, heart racing. "That was extremely uncalled for."

She giggled. "Well, I just remembered! There's a party coming up soon! Like, tomorrow soon. Will you go with me?"

He sighed. "I don't think you're in any shape to be partying right now, Poppy . . ."

"If I'm better?" she quickly added. "C'mon, Branch! Please?" To top it off, she turned her big, sparkly puppy eyes on him.

She knew he couldn't resist that face. "Okay, fine, I'll come with you. You—you'll need some protection after what happened today," he added when he saw her triumphant smirk.

"Thank you," she said, cuddling into him again. She slid a hand up into his hair—"Best boyfriend ever."

Like I said, only a halfway decent ending, but good enough (better than my other ideas, at least). Tell me what you thought of this chapter! :) Thanks for reading!