#because it's the only way to progress and is stoping me from enjoying the process itself

[fly-sky-high-09]

"Getting good at the game and overcoming the difficulty is so rewarding and feels good"

Can't relate

[randomgirlkensy]

Not My Fault

James “Bucky” Barnes x Female! Reader (Sorry!)

Word Count - 2001 (wow)

Prompt - Because of you, I know what love feels like

Warnings - pretty much just cuss words

Hello! Thank you so much for reading! This is my first time ever posting an actually full story on the internet. This is for the 5k writing challenge by @my-emotional-self! Congrats to her! It took me a while to write this (as I took a 3-week break from it). This story was inspired when my mom went to the hospital. She’s fine now! ENJOY!

REPLIES ARE VERY WELCOME! CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM OR NICE ARE PREFERRED!

Beep. Beep. Beep.

You don’t deserve this.

All Bucky can focus on is that machine, Informing him that it’s his fault. 

His fault on why you’re here. 

As the minutes passed, it becomes progressively harder to keep the tears in. His long hair hiding his face from all the eyes that peer in to check on you.

It’s your fault. 

This is the first mission he went on without Steve, and he messed it up royally.

She wouldn't be here.  

Nobody could get him out of the chair next to you, not even Steve. The guilt gets heavier as time ticks on. 

This is my fault. 

My fault. 

My fault. 

Slouch in the hard plastic chair. Memories kept playing in his head, the same moment over and over. The moment when it happened. 

I’m why she's here.

-_-_-_-_-

It should've been a simple undercover mission. In and out. Easy. Then the target, a HYDRA sponsor, a rich CEO Ben Drekins, was tipped off on your presence. He was having a gala at his home the night when it happened. The goal was to attain all his files in his study. Your job was to distract him any way you can so Bucky can get the information. 

In a fancy dress and in unbearable heels, you subtly make your way to the target. Ben Drekins was sitting on a barstool that’s at least half your bank account, drinking too expensive whiskey. Just like Tony, you thought, them and their rich men whiskey. He was too distracted talking to another rich man, with his rich men whiskey mind you, to notice your stride towards him, with a little extra shake in the hips. Even when he was facing out. When you reach them, you took the spot on the sponsor's right and asked the bartender for a margarita, and sat down on a barstool.

Drekins was the one who started the conversation with you, probably because I look like an easy lay. Jokes on him. “Hey gorgeous, why do you look so lonely tonight? You need someone to keep you company.”

Men like him are a huge turn off for you. If Bucky doesn’t get to him first, I’m gonna kill if he keeps this up. “Sure handsome, I will love to have your company. What do you have in mind,” just as you finish, the bartender sets your margarita in front of you. The man he was talking to left by now.

“I have a few ideas in mind,” he smirks. Barf. 

Ok, Buck, the faster you get this done, you can finally get the girl. If I can ask her out. Bucky manages to sneak out the ballroom, which wasn’t that hard in the first place. The mansion is more like an old Victorian manor then most fancy mansions rich people own.

One left turn, then a right, another left, then the third door on the left to Drekins office. It should be easy, Bucky thought.  Just after the right turn, he notices a guard coming towards him. Bucky was quick to turn back that corner, but not quick enough to not be caught. “Hey, you! Get out of here! There’s someone here guys!” Damnit.

“Oh, yea.” Nods.

“Yes, she was gorgeous, not as much as you babe”

“Thank you.” Nods.

“But yes, she was nasty, in a good way of course. You know.”

“Mhm.” Nods.

“She was all kinds of kinky. Full-on BDSM and daddy name calling. Best night of my life, but you must be much better. Right baby?”

“Of course.” Nods

Bleach my eyes and ears. Drekins has been telling you stories about the pass fucks he had, with pictures, you shuddered at that thought. “You’re cold,” he shrugged off his black suit jacket to put around you, but before he could do that, a big man approached us and leans toward the rich man and whispers to him. Drekins face grows tighter, full of tension. “Eli,” fake name,” who are you really?” Oh shit.

“Who are YOU?” Punch. Silence. “I,” kick, “who,” jab, “are,” punch,” YOU!” Kick. Blood starts to gush out of his mouth. Stomach bruised at this point. Bones might be broken. Jaw dislocated.

The darkroom finally lights up when the door gets open, and a HYDRA agent’s head peeks in. “Jerry, the boss thinks a girl with him.”  Bucky’s face paled and his body stiffens up. Y/N.

“I told you, my name is Eli. Always been since birth. I mean I had been called Emily and Emma before.” SLAM! Drekins slams his hands on the metal table. For some reason, he has an interrogation room in his house. Probably for situations like this. “Oh my god, what the hell!”

His glare hardens. You just keep up the stupid act, just like you practice for. Just don’t die Y/N. I can do that. Right? “I seriously doubt that your name is really Eli,” he growls out, clearly pissed off. Hurry up Bucky.

Ok Buck, you just murdered to hydra agents just on the info that they suspect a girl to be on your team. They didn't even describe her before you reacted. God, you’re in love. Bucky rushes through the mansion trying to find the girl that the agent claims to have. Slamming randoms doors open. Almost there. 

“I SAID MY NAME IS ELI YOU SICK FUCK!”

Bucky slows, almost stoping, recognizing that voice. Y/N, he sighs in relief, a little too early.

BAM!

Nevermind. He runs again, towards the screaming, so far nothing deadly. He hopes so at least. 

“WHO. ARE. YOU. WORKING. FOR.”

“I TOLD YOU ALREADY!”

SLAMS! 

Bucky slams the heavy door open, which was stupidly unlocked. Drekins pulls a gun out, pointing it directly at Y/N. Before Bucky could get to him, the man shots. Hitting her straight through. Moments seems to slow down for Bucky. After he knocks the man unconscious, he rushes to his love. He applies pressure to her wound, calling for back up into his earpiece.

5 minutes and 43 seconds.

That’s how long it took for backup to show up. 5 minutes and 43 seconds. Too long. Way too long. He had to be forcibly pulled back from you. They hurried you out. “Bucky.” All he could focus on was the spot you were at. “Bucky.” He curls himself up in the corner, staring at the blood on the metal chair you sat on. “BUCKY!” He wakes up, time moving normally again. He looks up at the voice, noticing his best friend since the 40s, Steve.

“I failed her.” He whispers out, as he looks down again.

Steve crouches down to meet his face. “You didn’t though. She’ll get through this, you know she’s a tough gal.” Bucky smiles a little at that thought.

The beeping grew faster, snapping him out of his thoughts. The beeping can mean only one thing. Y/N. He looks at her. Her breathing seems to be faster than the last time he checked. 

“Y/N? Doll, can you hear me?” A large groan came out of her. “Yes doll, it’s time to wake up.” Her eyes start to open.

Brightness wakes you, and a quiet voice. Another groan comes out. Your eyes slowly meet Bucky’s. You try to talk, only to be stopped a hard plastic tube in your mouth. “Yea, I know. Let me go and get you a doctor.” He stumbles over an extra chair next to the door before leaving. You want to laugh, but that would cause too much pain. It took him about 3 minutes to return back with a doctor like he said he would.

“Just hurry up and get it out,” Bucky told the doctor to do as they enter. The doctor nods and came forward to get it out.

“Hello miss L/N, I’m Dr. Johnson. I need to get this tube out, ok? To make it easier for both of us, you’re going to have to cough while I do this.” You cough, as he starts to pull the tube out. The process was painful, and by the time it was out, you were actually coughing hard and crying a bit. The doctor looks to bucky, “I’m going to go and get her some water,” and with that, he leaves.

Bucky pulls a chair towards the uncomfortable bed. He pats your back, trying to be helpful. Once you caught your breath, he leans back. Then the thought came right back to his head. 

It’s your fault. 

You notice the shift in Bucky’s attitude, not that it was that hard to notice in the first place. Spy or not. He was quite obvious about it. He moves his chair all the way back to the wall, back where it was, and slouch again. He sighs heavily, “Y/N.” It’s your fault.

“Don’t you even dare to think that this is your fault, because it’s not. Not even in the slightest. You got that Bucky?” Voice rasped because of the tude just getting removed.

“But-”

“Don’t ‘but’ me, Barnes, you are not the one at fault. You tried to save me for this.”

“And failed.” He looks up, only to meet a hard cold glare, you will not let him feel guilty because of this. Bucky looks away instantly, not able to keep your eyes. 

“I’m still alive you idiot. I’m going to recover from this. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next week, hell, maybe not even in a month, but I will be better.”

His head falls, full of guilt. It’s still a shock to you to this day that you manage to hear his next sentence, as he said very quietly. “It missed your heart by just an inch. An inch. You could’ve died, and it would’ve been my fault!” You reach your arm out, hand towards him to take. ” As I said before, it is not your fault. Yes, the plan failed.” “Becua-” “Hush!” You snap, done with his angsty bullshit. “It is not your fault! Plans fail all of the time! That part of the job! Plans fail, and people get hurt.” He opens his mouth to protest, but you cut him off before he could say anything. “And none of that is your fault you ding dong! I love you for christ's sake! Why would I even think about blaming you for this!” That catches his attention, he raises his head to look at you. He hesitates a little before saying anything. “You… Love me?” She loves me?

You blush, rethinking your words. I do love you, you idiot. “Yes, why wouldn’t I. You are thoughtful, thinking about everyone. Even when you feel terrible, Like when I woke up, you still cared for me, even when you feel guilty. You always looked out for me. You make me coffee when I’m worn out from training with Natasha. You make me dinner, even if it’s roman noodles because you’re a shit cook, after a stressful day. You’re always there when I need to talk things out. You’re right next to me during movie night, letting me cuddle you once I fall asleep. You’re always there, and because of you, I know what love feels like, and I never regretted a day since when I meet you.”

Throughout your speech, tears come back to Bucky’s eyes. Never had he thought someone would say that to him, especially after HYDRA, no matter how much he hoped for. But here you are, pouring your heart out to him, he doesn’t know how to react. He grabs your open hand, leans forward to kiss you. Warm lips meet yours, and your eyes flutter shut. His lips are kind of chapped, I going to need to get him some nice chapstick once I leave here if we continue to do this.

 He pulls away, cheeks flushed like yours. He rests his head on yours, full of love. “I love you, too.” 

Maybe, just maybe, it’s not my fault after all.

LIKE IT? REPLY AND LIKE! I really hope you enjoy this!

[pathwayfp2020]

Magazine Evaluation

Overview

Over the past several weeks, creating a magazine has been a particularly challenging task, not knowing what theme to pick or where I’d find the things needed for building out my content given our current restrictions. I think my biggest challenge was organizing my work and learning to use InDesign. How often have I scratched my head wishing I could seek advice at the whim of raising my hand. YouTube is great and all but nothing beats the in personal one on one interaction with teachers. None the less I completed my project and happy to present:

Foto Magazine's - The Deja Vu Issue, a Contemporary-Fine Art magazine aimed at women aged 25 -40 in the industry. The ethos behind my magazine issue is repetition and recollection. It’s all about seeing things again in a different light, from a new pair of lenses, creating a Deja vu effect.

Having been stuck on the theme for days I struggled with tying the content into the theme. I didn’t know where I’d get my content from either. Obviously, I needed to make it but I need models, clothes, things I didn’t have. Would using stock images be ok? Am I allowed to use other people's work and make it my own? Not knowing what direction to go in I looked at my past work to see how I could reuse things in a new way and in that moment, I was hit with Déjà vu the eerie impression of familiarity, a moment where I felt I had been in that moment before, a mysterious phenomenon that we all have experienced… and that was that, on that -Déjà vu it was.

Once I had settled on the theme everything just came together and fell into place. My plan was to salvage past pieces and create new ones bringing them together in a magazine-like manner. I aimed for about 20-30 pages and was pleasantly surprised I'd managed to get a whopping 50-page magazine by the end.

The process

I used some old variations of my work that my assessors would have been familiar with to invoke that “wait a minute, I’ve seen this before – I think…” reaction. I also had loads of variations from the designs I had made for the tasks set out for this project and decided to use those in various places throughout. Essentially you see the same elements being placed throughout in different ways, some being videos, other still shots, patterns or some form of replication - where there is one you are bound to find another version somewhere buried throughout. Additionally, to add to the theme, I preyed on the emotions of my magazine’s intended audience (women aged 25 - 40) by taking them back to their childhood for some good old déjà vu with a Barbie and Friends fashion show.

This was by far my favourite part of this project and the most tedious. A lot of sleepless nights and tears went into the making. I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting my childhood and stirring nostalgia something I hope to stir in my readers especially through the fashion story where old meets new in every way. We had been tasked with creating 1) a mini shoot, 2) a selfie shoot that told a story. My intention behind the Barbie Fashion show was to combine both into one to create a miniature, selfie, photoshoot that told a story around fashion and styling. I didn’t initially intend for it to be a comic strip but in the end, it all came together quite nicely.

The initial storyline was Barbie is at home getting ready to meet Elsa at a Fashion Show where they have a good time. As things progressed I beefed up the script and it evolved into a really funny story, one that I was able to then link back into the theme as well as the cover of the magazine in a really creative way as my cover story.

Lessons Learned

 I was very pleased with the overall outcome; however, it was a very tedious task that came with a lot of great lessons learned. The biggest one being: Never take your installation down immediately after because when you think you’re done, I promise you are not. There will always be something that needs to be reshot or something new you want to try. When I got to editing my photos the next day I started noticing little things that were off balance or had new ideas of things I wanted to do. At this point, I hadn't considered speech bubbles but the more I looked at the storyboard the more I found myself acting out the scenes in my head as to what was being said and decided it had to be a comic strip for my art magazine. Because my original storyline was so basic initially I hadn't considered using multiple outfits/models so I had glued my model to the box and ended up with only shots of her in that one pose and one outfit for the entire fashion show. The story needed more so I decided to extend the fashion show with other models wearing different styles. This proved challenging because I only had three barbies, 1 dark Vader and a teenage doll, and very limited clothes on hand so I got creative and made it work. I managed to make 6 characters and 4 different styles/outfits. Now this is where I wish I had left the is installation because it would have been so much easier to just go back and take a few more shots but given the tight deadline and fear of not being able to recreate, I decided to improvise as best I could, and attempted to crop the other models in. It was no easy task and photoshop is a b*tch but I persevered and I'm proud of the final results.

I also learned the pains of repairing links in InDesign and the value of keeping all my files/worked organized in one place. Before this, my design skills were as good as Canva gets so naturally I gravitated to that for my initial designs. However, when moving my stuff over to InDesign - something I had zero experience with - it was a challenge, to say the least. I quickly discovered... that Indesign was a beast that was going to take some time to tame but was very impressed with its capabilities so was determined to get my project published there. After many youtube videos, 48 hours of no sleep, a week of recreating resizing, rethinking of my original layout, and relinking files I kept moving around (that one took me a while to figure out) I came to know the basics of InDesign quite well and wish I had just started there originally to save so much time in the end. The lesson here is nothing grows in the comfort zone. Don’t be afraid to step outside and try new things.

 Record-keeping was also another valuable lesson. You see the way my life is set up right now there is very little structure - between the kids and my work schedule and everything else I do school when and where I can. This will often mean starting and stoping things and having to revisit them when I can so I don’t get the privilege of sitting down and knocking out a tod do list uninterrupted. As a result, I’d find I’d create but would have the opportunity to reflect immediately after but later that night in the shower I may find my self reflecting then and jot a few notes in my phone, or if I'm cooking or cleaning I’ll grab the nearest pen and paper and write down whatever comes to me at the time. This resulted in lots of bits and pieces of paper and notes all over the place. So when it came to putting them all n Tumblr I spent a significant amount of time trying to recall where I put my notes or whether I even made a note or did I just think about it and not get to jot it down. NOTE TO SELF - we not doing that anymore. Some type of streamlined note-taking process needs to happen cause this was hella frustrating and I can't work like this for the FMP.  

Lastly, I can’t stress this to myself enough but keeping it simple is key. Far too often I waste a lot of time experimenting with a lot of different ideas that I eventually do not use. When working with deadlines I don’t have the luxury to do this so I need to work better at managing my time and setting limits/boundaries for myself.

[ask-broppy-lovechild-blog]

True Colors

Inspired by: @ask-artsy-oncie, @tisbubb, and @dawnbuneary (Love your content guys) 

I didn’t call it “True Colors” because of the song, but because imma try to focus on making it about not hiding your real personality. The first three chapters are mainly fluff, but the next ones will actually get a story going. 

P.S This first chapter was made at 4 AM where I am. So sorry for the bad grammar, but it gets better for the next two. I…I wont promise but understand that this is my first Broppy Fanfic. So it might not be as good as others you’ve read. Anyways, enjoy!

“20 years ago, Trolls and Bergens didn’t live together in peace and harmony. The Bergens believed that if they ate a Troll, it’ll give them true happiness like the Trolls had. They had a holiday named Trollstice, where they’d eat a Troll once a year for happiness. However, on a very special Trollstice, King Peppy helped the Trolls escape. On that very day, Prince Gristle was told he’d never be happy, and that the only way he ever will now is to eat a troll.”

“Due to this massacre, they banished a Bergen that was known as Chef. They didn’t really know her real name, but knew she was a Chef. So Chef it was. 20 years after, Princess Poppy, the daughter of King Peppy, decided that it would be a good idea to throw the biggest, the loudest, the craziest party ever for this anniversary. Then, a grumpy and cold-hearted(at the time) Troll named Branch warned the princess of her deeds. Saying that the party was only gonna endanger them and reveal their hiding spot to the Bergens.”

“Sadly, nobody believed him. It was like the boy who cried wolf, instead of a boy warning the people of a wolf coming, and protecting sheep. And then later, after all his lying, when it became true and nobody came to help cause they thought he was lying this time; it was a troll who cried Bergen, and protected the trolls, doing the princess job for her. But because of so many of his false alarms, they didn’t listen to his warning and Princess Poppy threw the party anyway.”

“When announcing why they’re here today, the party was crashed by an evil Bergen, taking some of the Princess friends, and her crush…..at the time” she said, taking a deep breath and then continuing. She had to add “at the time”. Her pause confused some of the kids.

“She saw the damage the Bergen had done, and then wished she never threw the party anyway. She vowed to go after her friends, it was ‘No Troll Left Behind’…..right? But her father believed she couldn’t do it by herself. But she got an idea, ‘maybe if I ask Branch to come, since he’s probably the smartest troll in the village, and he accepts, it’ll be easier to find them!’”

“She ran in down to his highly- camouflaged(?), highly-Fortified(?), safety-proof(?), survival bunker. And she knocked on his door, screaming his name until he answered from his door mat that labeled, 'Go Away!’. She tells him that they’ve been attacked and that she needed his help. After a bit, he shows her his bunker, and then she got another idea. 'If he declines my offer, while I’m gone, the trolls can hide in here instead of relocating’. She smirked and waited for his response”

“But he wasn’t straightforward much, but hinted that he didn’t want to help in the rescue mission. She left his bunker, and then told the Trolls to hide in the bunker. She left on her adventure, meeting many predators until Branch decided he wanted to come and he saved her from spiders(?) who had her captive”

“If there was one thing he didn’t like, was her singing 24/7. He told her the plan and they met up with this cloud-man-dude who was later called, Cloud Guy. He messed with Branch for a bit before he got mad and chased him into the right tunnel. The Bergens were miserable, and they went to find their friend. They watched the princess’s crush get eaten, or so they thought he did” she’d glare a bit at the book when she’d say “the princess’s crush”.

“They found out that the Bergen holding them captive had a crush on King Gristle, the Bergen was named Bridget. They made a deal that if she helped them get a friend of theirs back, they’d make her go on a date with the king. As all went well, the date went smoothly. Later that day, trying to look for their friend, they found their cage and the pet alligator-thing chased after them. Only to later find out that they weren’t in there.”

“Princess Poppy and her friends got captured by Chef, and thrown into their prison. After having hope that they can never find the Trolls, they find out that Troll they used to call a friend, sold them out. All the Trolls were found an put into a pot, loosing all hope and turned grey. But when there was no hope, the grumpy Troll; Branch, stood his ground and sang a lovely song, serenading the princess in the process and restoring the colors of all the hopeless trolls.” She smiled at that part, it was her favorite part out of the whole book about little event with Poppy and Branch having their duet.

“Bridget helped all the Trolls escape, giving a sad goodbye to the princess. But then she realized during their escape that she ruined her life to save the Trolls, and now it was time to give back. They had their little party in the castle, and the Bergens found out that true happiness isn’t something that you put inside of you, cause it’s already there. And then the Trolls and Bergens lived in harmony, as Princess Poppy became Queen Poppy. And Branch became her new boyfriend, with the title Prince Branch, until they get married..” She blushed at the line, but wasn’t noticed yet, her pink skin hiding it.

“And get the title King Branch. The End.” She said as she closed her huge scrapbook. The trollings smiled and clapped at the story, then a trolling raised their hand.

“Is it just me, or did the history book get much longer?” He asked the pink Queen.

She giggles, “YYYup! As time goes on, history continues. And we did make a lot more progress, so it would get longer!”

The yellow female troll raised a hand, “Who was the princess’s Crush’s name? And what happened to them?”

She mentally groans in annoyance from the mention of him, “His name was Creek. And he was banished, and is now an Outlaw.” She answered strictly, meaning that she was serious.

“Why did you have a crush on an outlaw?” One of the trollings asked.

“Back then I did.” She said, getting a bit frustrated with the questions about Creek.

“When you and Prince Branch have a Trolling, can I troll-sit them?” They asked, the queen blushed fiercely at the mention of her and Branch having kids.

She didn’t know how to answer the question, “I-I guess, s-sure” she replied.

“Well, that was reading time. I’ll be back later, you have free-time” She said as she stood up and left the classroom.

She climbs around in the Troll tree, which once was dead and plain, is now alive with vibrant colors. They are still in the process of moving, pods slowly start opening again and the trolls have a home to live. Instead of having a fancy pod like her and her father had cause they were royalty, she decided to live with Branch in his new bunker that was just under the tree roots.

She goes into a pod, and then a troll confronted her. This Troll was one of the best party-throwers in all of the tree. She trusted them, but they also had this suspicion to them, as Branch says. They didn’t really seem so happy to see her, not as happy as she was to see them anyway.

“Hey, Milktoast!” She said, looking for something to give to the trollings in the class, wanting to have more books for her to read to the trollings.

“You missed a meeting with King Gristle.” She mentioned, and Poppy looked like she was gonna panic.

“O-OH! I COMPLETELY FORGOT–” She screamed, but was cut off.

“And you forgot to meet up with the Snack Pack to discuss important matters about what’s happening outside these walls.” She said again, looking a bit more aggressive.

“I-I’m Sorry! I–” She said, before getting cut off again. She looked like she was gonna have a heart attack.

���You can’t be so forgetful! The story was so long, it’s almost time for the Trollings to go home! Not to mention the fact that the moving speed is taking forever, and you should be doing something about it to speed it up!” She said, taking a breath from yelling. Poppy shouldn’t be so forgetful of these things.

“I-I….” Poppy had no words, she looked like she lost all her motivation.

“You have stacks of paper on you desk, I recommend that you start working–” Milktoast was gonna say, but Branch walked in on all the fuss and ruckus.

“ENOUGH!” He said, looking serious. He wasn’t happy about the fact that she’s pressuring Poppy to do her work.

He goes to his Queen, and hugs her reassuringly and protectively. She sighed and rested her head on his chest, her hand placement on his shoulders. He had his hands on her waist.

“Leave her alone. She’s just now becoming queen, you wouldn’t understand cause you’re just a librarian who throws parties. Don’t ever pressure her like that again.” He said, he hated it when someone pressured Poppy, or brought out her insecurities.

He picks up Poppy in his chubby arms. She wraps her arms around his neck, his hands are holding her up from her bottom region. He leads her down from the library to the bunker. After locking it tightly and good, he walked over to their couch and sat her down. He may be a bit chubby, but boy was he strong for a Troll.

He made her sit on his lap, her back pressing against his warm chest and stomach. He gives her some shoulder massages, just to calm her. She ran a hand through her hair.

“Branch. I shouldn’t be sitting here! I should be getting things done!” She said, becoming panicky again.

“Poppy, relax. You’ve done a lot today. Just a 5 minute break?” He begged her, stoping and rested his chin on her shoulder to look at her face.

“Branch….” she said, it was very hard for her to say no to Branch.

“For me?” He added, putting his hands around her waist for comfort and balance.

“Fine…..” she said and sighed, “But only five minutes.”.

She easily relaxed in his grasp. The bunker wasn’t so dark and gloomy anymore, it was now filled with vibrant colors, and it made Branch feel better. He nuzzled into her neck, and every time he’d give gentle kisses to her neck, she’d giggle. She’s very ticklish, but she remembered something.

“Are we ever gonna have…..a trolling to call our own?” She blushed as she asked the question, and looked at him.

He returns the blush, giving it a dark purple, almost a dark blue blush. He has his colors back now, and became more warmer and open to poppy.

“Maybe once you get into the grove of things. Not sure if you can handle a trolling and your Queen duties at once.” He mentioned, and it made sense to her that, having one right now would just add up on her stress.

“Good point. I just wanted to say that.” She said with a smile and relaxed. She loved it when her and Branch could have sometime a lone. When they are together, they felt safe. When apart, they felt Venerable and helpless.

She turns around and nuzzles his nose with a warm smile. He holds her a bit closer, and he kisses her cheek, and she giggles. She legit almost fell asleep when she laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. She was so comfortable and secure, it didn’t even take a minute before she felt drowsy.

“I have to go before I fall asleep” she joked and she sat up and stretched.

“Okay, love. Stay safe.” He said she kisses her, she kisses back with a smile and stands. If it just lasted a bit longer…….but duty calls……right? It that how you use that……catchphrase? Or whatever it’s called.

She leaves in a rush as Branch sighed and cleans up before she gets back.

Later that day, it was 12 AM. She was at her desk, signing and filling out paperwork. She had bags under her eyes, and was extremely tired. She only has gotten through one stack, and has 2 more to do. She could faint or pass out at this point, and she started to slow down.

Branch saw his super tired queen. He didn’t like it when Poppy pushed her limits. He walks over to her quietly, not wanting to startle her. He slowly and gently placed his huge hands into her tiny shoulders.

“It’s time to sleep, Poppy” He said, and used his chubby thumbs to stroke her shoulders.

“I…….need to…….finish” she said in a tired voice and yawned.

“This isn’t healthy. You’re going to bed, wether you like it or not” He said conceded and picked her up.

She couldn’t fight back, way too tired as her eyelids are half-closed. He held her in a bridal style and brought her to bed. He laid her on their new soft bed, and he laid next to her, moving her crown onto the nightstand. He wraps their fluffy blanket over them and held her close again.

She made small cute noises of relaxation, which made him smile. He nuzzled into her, cuddling close to her as she snuggles into him. He kisses her cheek and nose, earning a giggle. He gave a quick sniff of her scent, just to not forget how she smelt like. It was a mixture of lavender and candy like.

She was so close to him, it was like they merged together, a blob of pink and blue. The two fell asleep peacefully, no interruptions whatsoever. Just a calm night, the two lovers laid together. Branch had a dream that he proposed, and became King Branch instead of Prince Branch. And Poppy had the exact same dream.

Chapter. 1