As a young troll you had learned of Hanahaki, the disease that causes you to cough up flowers in the case of one-sided love. There was the option to get these flowers surgically removed at the cost of losing the love felt, however for trolls, this wasn't possible. Trolls just simply weren't medically advanced enough for that type of thing. Not that you would want that anyway. In your mind, there was only two ways to be cured of the disease.
Either the love would be returned, or you'd die. Simple as that.
You never thought you would be in that position until you coughed up one small petal into your hand shortly after meeting Branch. You met him when he came to your home looking for his brother, Clay. You had been so anxious about the Bergens you hadn't thought of love or Hanahaki in years. When Viva decided to leave to go after her sister to save Floyd you had begged to go with. You weren't sure what exactly had come over you. Once you made it to Mount Rageous and rendezvoused with Poppy and Branch you were the one to console him about his brothers while Poppy bonded with her sister. In an active car chase!
Branch was turning grayer as the time went on and they got closer to the kidnappers, so you sat with him.
"We can get them." You had a hand on his back. "I promise." You raised your pinky to him. Branch lifted his eyes to meet you, a desperate look inside them. For trolls, pinky promises were very important. He brought his pinky up and you smiled at him as he locked his with yours.
"Thank you, Y/n. I'm really glad you're here." He had wrapped his arms around you. This was the first time he made your heart race and your face flush.
"A-anything for you, Branch." You stuttered. You smacked yourself mentally for stuttering. Branch had squeezed you a little before letting go and holding your hand with a more determined look in his eyes.
"Let's go get my brothers."
And that you did. Velvet and Veneer were sent to jail while the family cried over their unmoving brother. That was until he woke back up and everything was happy again. You watched from a distance with a few tears falling from your eyes from how happy you were for them.
Branch was hugging Floyd when you had the urge to clear your throat, nothing crazy. Just a small "ahem" to get whatever was blocking your airway. But it turned crazy when a singular small petal fell into your hand.
You stared at the small pink object with wide eyes for what felt like hours. When you regained your senses, you quickly tucked it away in your pocket and looked around to see if anyone noticed. You met eyes with Floyd from over Branch's shoulder, his eyes just as wide as yours, even though he had no idea who you were.
That was the start of a friendship you hadn't ever expected. Over the next couple months, you had grown very close with the brothers and that whole group. Your condition had gotten worse and worse quicker than you expected. Other than Branch, Floyd was your best friend through all of this.
"Y/n.." Floyd started on no special day. You had just finished having a coughing fit over a trash can, the two of you were in your pod in pop village. Wiping a little blood off your lips you turned to him. "I think you need to do something soon; you're not looking to good." He trailed off, he had a hand placed gently on your back.
"Thats not how you talk to someone." You rolled your eyes. "I think I might just be better off dead at this point."
"Don't say that! Thats not even funny!" Floyd urged. "Listen, I've been asking around about Hanahaki, I found someone who's had it before. Maybe he can give you some advice."
"What!? You told others that I have it?!" You whipped your head in his direction. Floyd lifted his hands up and waved them around defensively. "I just asked around about the disease a little. Turns out Clay has had it. Please talk to him. I think he could really help you." His arms fell to his side as he stared at you. Your eyes trailed to the ground as you thought.
"Okay, fine. You can bring him here when you want." You gave up.
"Great! Because I already invited him over and he's on his way now!" Floyd smiled. You only rolled your eyes; he really only meant the best for you.
Later that night Clay had arrived at your home. Lucky for you it was in the middle of a coughing fit, so he got to see just how bad you were.
You had been coughing out full flowers at this point, their petals covered in blood.
"Man, I never got THAT bad." He covered his mouth with one hand while Floyd glared at him from behind you.
"Thanks. Good to know." You spit a few petals into the trash can and went to get a drink of water. "Floyd told me you had this?" You voiced.
"Yeah, for a while too." Clay had sat down on your sofa. He watched you carefully as your hands were shaking holding a cup of water. Floyd sat at the other end while you leaned against a table with the trash can nearby.
"I find that hard to believe." You said after taking a sip of your water. "You kind of seem like a loner kind of guy." He blinked at you.
"Thats rude! A tough guy like me can find love easily, the chicks especially love that I'm a reader." He nodded with a smug look on his face.
"Well, who did you have it for then?" You raised an eyebrow.
Clay looked around suspiciously as if the room was tapped with a recorder while Floyd rolled his eyes. "You can't tell anyone. We're kind of keeping it on the DL right now." He gestured with his hands.
"My mouth is full of flowers half of the time; you have nothing to worry about." You pretended to zip your mouth closed.
"Y/n.." Floyd tried to scold you. He hated when you joked about your situation. You laughed a little which caused you to go into a full coughing fit. You fell to your knees as the two brothers rushed to your side. Clay took the cup of water from your hands and rubbed your back. Which actually soothed the coughing.
"Viva.." Clay started when your coughing died down. "Viva and I have been together for a couple months now." You looked at him from the side of your eyes with blood dripping from your mouth. A smirk formed on your face as you chuckled quietly. You spit the remaining blood out and the two helped you to sit at the couch.
"You're not very good at hiding it." You laughed a little. Floyd also snickered from behind Clay. Clays face only took a second to be taken over by blush and his pupils dilated.
"Is it really that obvious?" He scratched the back of his neck. Both you and Floyd nodded. "Well, at least I'm not as obvious as you. Always gazing lovingly at Branch and blushing when he's within 10 feet of you. And that's a lot of distance for trolls." He teased. You hadn't told him this was because of Branch.
"Since you're so knowledgeable, how did you go about everything with Viva?" You said in a somewhat teasing way.
Clay focused his gaze on the ground. "Well, I made sure we were alone first of all. Big tough responsible guy can't be caught pouring out his feelings, right?" You rolled your eyes. "I made sure to make the scene romantic. I brought her out to a field at night so we could stargaze, and i pretty much started off by asking her if she knew what Hanahaki was."
"She seemed pretty oblivious to everything and what was going on." He chuckled while remembering with blush lightly dusting his cheeks. "But when she understood, she kinda just grabbed my face and kissed me without warning. My chest cleared up immediately." Clay summed it up with a small smile on his face.
"I'm really happy for you guys." You smiled at him genuinely. "But I don't understand how this is going to help me."
"We're trying to tell you that you have to tell him!" Floyd stood up. "Thats the only way!" Clay nodded in agreeance.
"It's not that easy!" You wanted to yell, but you were afraid of another coughing fit erupting.
"But it is!" Clay also stood up. His arms flailing around. "The idea is really scary, trust me. I was terrified. If she didn't love me back, I would die!" He put both hands on your shoulders and shook you a little. "Y/n, you will die. It's now or never."
You looked Clay and Floyd who were staring at you with worried faces, you let your gaze fall to the floor while you thought for a moment. "Okay, yeah. You guys are right. At least if he rejects me i won't have to live with that embarrassment." You joked. They both glared at you.
The next couple of minutes were hectic. You had taken medicine to help you not cough while you talked with Branch. At the same time, the brothers were hyping you up and getting you excited and confident for what might be the happiest or the last night of your life.
After finally leaving, it began to rain. Clay and Floyd decided to stay at your house so they could find out what happened when it was all over and you returned, or didn't.
You ran through the rain to Branch's bunker. Your hair getting messy and your feet getting muddy. Your chest burned from flowers threatening to break out.
Before arriving at his bunker, you let them loose. Thorns clawing at your throat as you choked all the flowers and blood out onto the ground. You used the rainwater on your hands to wipe the blood away and keep going.
Lightheaded and dirty you had finally made it to his bunker. You knocked on the door aggressively.
"What is wrong with you?! Go hom- Y/N?" Branch opened the door angrily. His eyes widened when he realized it was you. He looked tired and a little unwell. You assumed he had just been woken up, his hair was a mess.
"I'm sorry, can i come in please?" You said breathlessly. He nodded without a word and stepped out of the way to let you in.
You stood awkwardly in the entrance to his house; you brought your hands up to your arms to warm up from being out in the rain.
"Shoot, hang on. I can get you a towel." He ran off into the bunker and came back shortly. When he returned, he didn't hand you the towel, but began to dry you off himself.
"I can do that, you know?" You said, your heart pounding with his hands all over you.
"Don't worry about it. What are you doing out here so late anyways?" he finished drying you off and brought you further in the bunker to a dining room.
"I needed to talk to you about something." You started. "And I couldn't wait until tomorrow."
Your eyes flew open as he brought a comb over to where you were sitting. "Can I?"
"U-um. Yeah. Go ahead." Your face was blazing and your heart about to pop out of your chest. He began to run the comb through your hair, getting all the twigs and knots out.
"What did you need to talk about." He said casually as he combed your hair. You found yourself choking on your words. You forgot everything you had planned to say.
Unfortunately for you, words weren't the only thing you were choking on. (PAUSE LMAOOOOO)
You felt flowers rise in your throat as you looked around frantically. "I-" You tried to speak but you couldn't even get a breath out. Blood had begun to run down the sides of your mouth.
"What's going on?!" Branch threw the comb onto the ground and grabbed your face. You held your throat and pointed to his trash can. He ran to bring it to you, just hardly making it in time.
You coughed out all of the tendrils and flowers, you felt like you almost passed out in the process. Branch sat next to you and rubbed your back the same way Clay did. The way that helped you feel better. This caused you to raise an eyebrow.
"You have Hanahaki too?" He said after a couple moments of silence.
You heart dropped. "Too?" He has Hanahaki for someone. He spends a lot of time with Poppy. You felt really stupid now.
"I thought you and Floyd were already together." Branch pondered.
"What? No? What do you mean 'too?'" You tilted your head and furrowed your brows. "You have it for Poppy don't you." He looked at you confused.
"No? You don't have it for Floyd?" He tilted his head at you with a raised brow.
Both of you stared at each other for a moment before realization hit. You stared at each other with wide eyes before you both started laughing. Tears formed at the corner of your eyes due to laughing so hard.
"How long have you had it?" Branch asked after the two of you had stopped laughing.
"Since the night we saved Floyd. Thats why I've been so close to him. He saw me cough up the first petal when you were hugging him." You chuckled.
Branch stared at you with wide eyes. "You're kidding." He said with his mouth agape. "Me too, not until later that night though." He laughed quietly. "I confided to Poppy hoping she could help. I'm surprised she kept the secret."
Both of you grew silent and awkward after that. You weren't sure what to say next.
Branch reached over and tucked a loose strand of hair behind your ear, your eyes flew open as you made eye contact with him. He grabbed your cheek and brought you closer to him. Your heart in your throat instead of flowers as he did so.
He hesitated when he could feel your breath on his lips, he looked at you and took in all of your features to remember this. He took one last glimpse at your lips before closing the distance and kissing you. Something both of you had been waiting for for a long time.
The relief was immediate. Your chest felt light and your throat no longer burned. When he pulled away, he left his forehead on yours. You brought your hand up to cover the one he had on your cheek.
He smiled and looked into your eyes. "I love you." You felt your heart flip. You pulled him into a hug.
"I love you too."
After the rain had stopped. Branch accompanied you to your house where Clay and Floyd were still waiting. When you entered, Floyd was asleep on one end of the couch while Clay was on the other end sitting up with his mouth wide open and snoring. You decided to let them both sleep so you could spend some time with Branch before they would freak out over you.
Branch made coffee as the sun rose and you two enjoyed each other's presence in silence for a while.