Back at the school, Azalea was having the time of her life with her new friends, completely forgetting why she was scared to come here in the first place.

     They played games... they ate snacks... they even learned a new song!

     "On top of spaghetti! All covered with cheese! I lost my poor meatball... when somebody sneezed! It rolled off the table, it rolled on the floor... and then my poor meatball rolled out of the door..."

—————

     Once school was finished for the day, Poppy went with Twig to pick up Azalea, the little four year old running right up to her mother the moment she saw her.

"Mommy!" Azalea shouted joyfully, as she ran to hug her mom, happy to see her after the long day apart, but her smile quickly faded as she looked around in slight confusion. "Where's daddy?"

"Oh..." Poppy said softly with a sigh, her smile fading slightly as she thought about the fight she had with Branch earlier that day. She felt bad for yelling at him like she had... she loved him so much, and she hated fighting with him... but at the same time... she was still angry he had lied to her in the first place... "Daddy... well... daddy's in the dog house, sweetie," she finally explained, lifting Azalea into her arms with Twig.

     "Dog house?" the little girl asked, raising an eyebrow at the words. "Are we getting a dog!?" Azalea shouted joyfully, bouncing up and down slightly in her mother's arms, excited by the thought of having her very own BPF.

Poppy chuckled, loving to see her daughter's cheerful smile. No wonder why Branch always wanted to be around her...

"No sweetie. It's just an expression," she chuckled, giving her daughter a quick kiss on the forehead to calm her down. "Now... what do you say we all go get some ice-cream?"
"Yeah!" Azalea and Twig both yelled out excitedly. "Ice-cweam! Ice-cweam! Ice-cweam!"

     "Ok, than," Poppy laughed. "Let's head to town for a bit, and then we'll go see daddy."

     Poppy turned, beginning to walk towards the ice-cream stand as her two children giggled in her arms, chanting happily. "Ice-cweam! Ice-cweam! Ice-cweam! Ice-cweam!"

—————

     Back at the bunker, Branch sat alone at the dining room table, thinking about the horrible mistakes he had made that day...

     Why hadn't he just trusted that Azalea would be ok? She was a smart child... she knew all about safety protocol. She could take care of herself, right? Then again... she did drive her mother's dun-huggie into the lagoon just this morning...

"Ugh..." Branch groaned, slamming him face down onto the table, feeling bad for what he had done. He had betrayed his family's trust... he had betrayed Poppy...

     Why hadn't he just taken his own advice!? He should have never let his fear control him... but somehow... it always did...

With a sigh, he pushed himself out of his seat, heading sadly towards the elevator. He couldn't just sit around anymore. He needed to take a walk to hopefully clear his head...

—————

     Branch kicked at a little stone that lay on the ground, as he walked slowly through the forest, thinking of ways he could make things better with Poppy. He needed to fix this... he loved her so much... it pained him to see her unhappy. Especially... when she was unhappy because of him...

     "What am I gonna do?" he sighed, sitting down on a rock, as he put his face in his hands to hide his tears that were threatening to pour out at any moment.

     Slowly, horrible thoughts began swirling through the light blue pop troll's head. Thoughts of when he was still grey, isolating himself from the world and everyone in it. He had let fear control him then too... the fear of never being good enough... never being capable of being loved... everyone hated him... and they still do...

     That was his breaking point... tears began to flood out of his eyes as he thought about all the mean things the other trolls had ever said about him. And even worse... the truly awful things he had said to Poppy... the love of his life... he was so mean to her in his bunker days... all because he was too scared... scared to love... scared to be loved... fearing with every thought... every second of the day... that the love of his life... would hate him... he was never good enough for her... she was perfect, and he was just... him...

     His colors began to flicker, not fading completely, but instead changing from his usual light blue coloring to a dull grey and then back again. Almost as if someone was constantly flicking a light switch on his happiness.

     He couldn't live without her... he just couldn't... but if he didn't find a way to fix things... to truly apologize for everything... everything... he had ever done... he would lose her... forever...

     "Ok..." he muttered softly, slowly wiping away his tears, finally gaining back full control of his colors. "I can fix this... I can..."

     He stood, slowly walking back towards the village, ready to do anything... anything... to get the love of his life back. Even... even if she could never truly love him again... even if she broke things off right then and there... he just wanted her to be happy... and that decision... it would be up to her...

     Suddenly, before he even got halfway back to his home, a strange sound began to emerge from the darkness surrounding him.

     Quickly, he turned, looking around for any sign of danger, but saw nothing... just darkness surrounding him in every direction...

     "Hello?" he called out, looking around defensively. "Who's there?"

     There was no answer... no reply... nothing but complete and utter silence...

     "Hmmm..." he muttered softly, looking around one last time, before finally beginning his journey back to the village once more.

     He didn't get far however, before he suddenly heard the sound again...

     Startled by the sudden noise, he jumped, quickly spinning around to see who was behind him, but still... he saw nothing...

—————

     In the bushes, two glowing red eyes stared at Branch without him realizing, the little blue troll looking around frantically for what was stalking him.

     The creature in the bush, licked it's lips, excited for its mid-afternoon snack, and then suddenly pounced, leaping straight towards it's helpless prey.

—————

     Branch was still unaware of the danger, but luckily turned at the last possible second, his eyes widening in horror as he saw the massive Cuddle Pup Mama coming right at him.

     "AHHH!" he screamed out in fear, quickly jumping out of the way, the Cuddle Pup Mama flying right past him, unprepared for the little troll's sudden movement.

     From the ground, Branch watched as the gigantic beast shook off the dirt from it's head, slowly turning around to look back at it's terrified prey in anger.

     "Uhh... umm..." Branch muttered, his voice trembling greatly as he scooted backwards in fear, keeping his eyes locked on the massive predator in front of him.

     The Cuddle Pup Mama growled, inching forwards towards Branch, before it suddenly pounced again, leaping right at it's snack.

     Once again, Branch jumped out of the way, quickly getting up to run for his life.