Poppy and Branch spend a rainy afternoon together by the fireplace.
Poppy loved listening to the rain. Something about it was soothing and calming, like the sky was washing the earth in its cleansing raindrops.
She was huddled by the fireplace, curled up with a cup of hot chocolate in one hand and a pencil in the other. Branch's face began to take shape on the paper resting on her lap, and she sighed.
“What is it?” Branch asked, holding as still as possible. He was sitting across from her, likewise curled up next to the fireplace with a blanket over his shoulders and a cup of hot cocoa as well in his hand.
“Just… It’s nice, to be here with you,” the pink troll said as she sketched in one of his eyes. “Like we’re in a world of our own. All that noise going on out there and we just get to be.”
“Yeah, it is nice listening to the rain while we’re safe and warm inside.”
Branch smiled and then stiffened as he remembered he was supposed to hold his pose.
“It’s okay, I can draw you smiling,” Poppy said as her hand flew across the paper to make his nose. “Unless you’ll get too tired to smile for very long.”
“You always make me smile, so no.”
His grin got bigger, and Poppy blushed and ducked her head, her hand slipping and making a wrong mark. “Branch,” she chided, but he just chuckled.
“You can erase that, I’ll wait.”
The Pop Queen grabbed her eraser and made quick work of the mark, then went back to sketching him. She often drew him, and he was always patient with her. Because it was a new hobby
that she recently picked up. Soon this drawing would join all the others, another facet of Branch to show the world.
“Well, what do you think?” The Pop Queen asked when she showed it to him. Branch took it from her and carefully examined it.
“It’s great. I don’t know how, but it’s like you capture a piece of my soul every time.”
“Still,” she said as she put her drawing utensils away, “it doesn’t quite compare to the real thing.”
“Oh yeah.” The teal troll set the drawing to the side, then held his arms out to her. “But if you’re hoping for the real thing…”
Poppy cuddled up next to him and sighed. “This is just right.”
Branch brushed her hair back and kissed her cheek. “Just right.”
The rain kept pouring outside and the fire kept crackling. Poppy's eyelids grew heavy, and she smiled and snuggled into Branch's chest. As she listened to his heartbeat and watched the dancing flames, she sighed.
What a wonderful way to spend a lazy afternoon.
