Chapter Text
That night, Poppy and Branch slept beside the campfire, which Branch managed to somehow keep going the entire time, the newlyweds cozied up together in a makeshift blanket of twigs and leaves. The next morning, they were roused out of sleep by the familiar smells of fresh toast and coffee. And the fact that their makeshift blanket had been replaced by something more comfortable.
They opened their eyes and sat themselves up to find one plate of two pieces of toast and two steaming mugs of coffee sitting on the ground in front of them. Across from them, on the other side of the campfire, which was since put out, John Dory was sat. Glancing between the two of them.
“Morning,” he said with a laugh. “I was wondering when you guys were going to wake up.”
Poppy yawned softly and stretched her arms, Branch doing the same shortly after. “Have you been out here a while?”
“No. For the last few minutes,” John Dory replied before he directed his attention toward Branch. “Never thought I would see you again, Branch.”
“You too, former brother,” an annoyed Branch softly groaned out in response, rolling his eyes. John Dory picked up on the annoyed tone of his youngest brother’s voice.
“And you’re just as angry at me as Spruce and Clay were way back then, aren’t you?” John Dory guessed.
Branch turned away from him, folding his arms. “How’d you know?”
“It’s the tone of your voice, B,” John Dory explained. Branch turned away from him, looking even more annoyed than he had been. “Branch, come on. I picked up on that tone in Spruce and Clay’s voices to know that.”
“…I’m thirsty.” Poppy was quick to change the subject before an argument between her husband and her brother-in-law could start when she turned her attention toward Branch. “Can I steal your coffee?”
He might be an inch smaller than Poppy, but Branch still held his coffee above his head. Right out of his wife’s reach. “You have your own coffee.”
Poppy pouted at her husband, giving him her best puppy dog eyes.
“Poppy, I…”
John glanced between the pair, an amused look present on his face. He laughed. “Just let her have your coffee, Branch.”
Branch opened his mouth to protest, but nothing seemed to come out. When John Dory gestured towards Poppy with his head, he rolled his eyes and turned to Poppy, who’d managed to grab hold of his half drunken coffee before he had a chance to give it to her.
She gave him a kiss. “Thanks, Branch.”
John Dory watched Poppy with amusement as she drank the rest of her husband’s coffee and poured her own coffee into the empty mug. “Got yourself a girlfriend, Bitty B?”
Branch reached a hand out to grab a piece of toast and took a small bite of it. “No. She’s my wife, John. Poppy and I just got married yesterday. Right, Pop??”
Poppy nodded in response before she dipped one of her fingers into Branch’s mug of coffee and popped it in her mouth when she took it out, leading to Branch giving her a ‘we don’t do that with coffee, Poppy. Please don’t tell me I gave you mine just so you could do that’ kind of look before he turned his head again and glanced at Rhonda. He opened his mouth to ask John about her, but Poppy beat him to it.
Her finger hovering above Branch’s coffee again, Poppy was quick to change the subject. “That bus of yours both looked at and licked us before we fell asleep.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. Rhonda has a tendency to do stuff like that when she sees someone new,” John apologized with a soft chuckle. Though it’s kinda sorta hard to tell if it’s because she likes you or if she marks you as prey. Believe me…she did the same thing to me back when I first came across her hiking this trail all those years ago. I’m just lucky she didn’t mark me as prey. Want me to show you inside?”
Branch and Poppy glanced at one another. A silence hit before the two of them nodded before he grabbed a hold of their hands and pulled them inside.
“How long have you been living here on the Neverglade Trail and when did you make the decision?” Poppy asked, her and Branch glancing around Rhonda the moment John Dory came back inside with the mugs and plate that they’d left outside and gently put them in the sink.
He turned on his heel to face them. “Hard to say. I think I’ve forgotten but it was sometime in the last ten-fifteen years.”
“And when exactly did you meet Rhonda?” Branch asked, his attention on her driver’s seat.
“If I recall correctly, I think it was shortly before I decided to permanently live here. She’s kinda sorta like my house,” John responded, glancing out the window. At the clear, mid-morning sky above. A brief pause, then he turned to look at them when he changed the subject. “Are you guys hungry for a mid-morning snack?”
“More toast,” Branch said, glancing over at Poppy who nodded in agreement. “There is something we need to talk to you about after all. It’s about Floyd…”
“So, Floyd’s in trouble? Trapped in a diamond bottle?” John poured himself another mug of coffee before he moved to sit on the couch in between Branch and Poppy, both of whom had a plate of toast each on their laps. Branch had his plain. Poppy on the other hand was, for some reason, spreading chocolate ice cream from a tub that she’d somehow managed to store in her ponytail onto hers. She explained she was in the mood for some when Branch gave her a confused look.
Branch and Poppy nodded, Branch choosing to be the one to speak up first. “Yeah, for the last two months he told us. You already know what needs to be done to get him out, right?”
“Yeah. I do.” John Dory nodded with a smile on his face before he added, “The ‘Perfect Family Harmony’. If we manage to pull it off this time.” He paused briefly and looked down at Rhonda’s floor, very clearly deep in thought. “I hope we manage to hit it this time.”
“So?” Poppy dabbed some of her ice cream around her mouth and in her hair before doing the same thing to Branch. Yet her attention was focused on John Dory. “Are you—?” she started to say. Though she didn’t need to finish herself
A grinning John Dory stood up and went to put everything in the sink again. He spun on his heel to face them. “Yeah, of course I’m in! Why wouldn’t I be? Plus, it’s a good thing you guys came to me first.” He paused. “The only question is how we’re going to manage to convince Spruce and Clay. They’re—”
“Gonna be much harder to?” Branch finished for him. “Poppy and I have kinda already figured that out. Regardless, should we go and find Spruce next or Clay?”
“Does it really matter who we go searching for next?” Poppy responded with a smile, standing up on the couch and starting to bounce on it. Her eyes followed John Dory as he came back over to sit on the couch. “Can I look at pictures of Branch back when he was young?”
“Sure,” John said. “I got a lot.”
“I can tell she’s quite the optimist. You found yourself a good choice for a wife, Branch,” John Dory told him with a silent laugh as they watched Poppy, who was laying face down in the middle of Rhonda’s floor with the pictures he’d given her now all strewn all around her. And then there was the one that was sticking out of the top of her ponytail.
How it ended up in there, Branch had no idea.
Branch quickly moved towards her to remove it. “I think that’s enough, Poppy.”
“But I want to stay right here and look at all these pictures all day,” Poppy said, her voice muffled.
“It’s going to be hard if you’re laying face down on the floor with the pictures all around you.”
“Okay then, maybe I should move to lay on my back now.”
“No,” Branch said, helping her to her feet as John gathered up all the pictures. “We need to hurry up and gather Spruce and Clay before we go back to Mount Rageous to save Floyd and free him from that diamond. Mission first, Poppy, then you can look at the pictures.”
Poppy turned and moved to sit on the blue couch at the back of Rhonda. “Right. Mission first, then pictures.”