Chapter Text
Poppy dusted off her hands and leaned over the small iron cauldron once more. She sprinkled in some more of the pink himalayan salt, a pinch of powdered cinnamon and, obviously, the rose petals. She also grabbed the flat grater and shredded a bit of fresh licorice root, just for good measure.
She took the cauldron in both of her hands and gave it a little shake, in a clockwise motion. She set it down on the table and lighted up a match using the pink candle that was standing nearby.
She whispered the well memorized incantation and dropped the match into the cauldron. There was a little spark that immediately turned into tall tongues of fire that started hissing and biting the air.
A moment later, she could hear a crack of a thunder outside and soon enough, first droplets of rain were beating onto her window harshly.
The witch smiled to herself. She was convinced the spell worked perfectly.
Pleased with herself, Poppy watched for a minute as the fire slowly died down, snuffed out the candles and went to take a shower. Now it was time for some relaxation.
***
Poppy was halfway through braiding her hair for the night, the wind was gusting shrilly outside the window, the storm had really kicked up in earnest. She was a little worried that such a downpour might have flooded most of the roads in the city but for that very moment, there was nothing she could do about it.
She finished with the left side of her hair and was about to start on the right one, when the doorbell rang out.
Poppy frowned and stood up from her dressing table. She run down the stairs in the accompany of more ringing and a hustle of knocks on the door.
She wrapped her night robe tighter around herself, preparing to be hit with the icy cold air as she opened the door.
But what she saw made her eyes widen comedically.
Standing on her porch, completely drenched from the rain, stood a man with a deep scowl on his face.
“Uh, good evening?” She supplied after almost ten seconds of relative silence, when the two of them just sized each other with their eyes.
“Not so good. Listen,” the man tried wiping the water from his face, but to no avail, and turned sideways, gesturing at her driveway. “My car just broke down. I don’t know what happened, It won’t move and I can’t fix it with the rain pouring down like it wants me drowned.” He turned to face her again. He had to squint his eyes, because the rainwater was literally dripping down from his eyelashes. “So I can’t really do much here. Can you help me out?”
“Oh. I mean, I don’t know much about cars…”
“I mean, can I get inside? Please?” He shifted his weight from one leg to another, clearly getting impatient.
“Oh. Oh, yeah! Yeah, come on in.” Poppy gasped, stunned with herself that she didn’t think of it herself. I mean, it was pretty hard to focus on your thoughts when you had a very distracting sight right before your eyes. She finally stepped aside and held the door for him.
“Thanks.” The stranger said, as he stepped inside.
She grimaced slightly, noticing how much dirt and water he had brought with himself on her floor.
“No problem.” She murmured, closing the door behind him.
They stood there awkwardly, in the hall, him dripping wet, her slightly annoyed but also feeling guilty. The storm was her fault after all.
“So…”
“My name’s Branch. I really hate to cause you too much trouble, but I’m starting to get really cold so…” He trailed off.
“Of course! Sure. Oh, my name’s Poppy. Nice to meet you, uh, amidst the unfortunate circumstances… You don’t happen to have any spare clothes now, do you?” She asked with a shy, but a hopeful smile.
“Nope.” He said then pursed his lips, staring at her pointedly.
“Okay.” She nodded to herself, quickly figuring out what to do next. “Okay. I’ve got it. There’s a guest bathroom here on the first floor, you can go… Uh, get yourself sorted out there. I’ll find you something dry to wear.” She turned and speed up towards the stairs. She then paused and turned to him again. “You can leave your clothes there, I was about to do the laundry anyway, I’ll just toss them altogether later.”
“Sure.” Branch just gave her a simple answer with a sharp nod and wandered off to the bathroom.
Poppy sighed heavily as she began climbing up the stairs, skipping two at a time. It’s gonna be one of a kind type of night, that’s for sure.
***
She had dig trough her entire wardrobe, her spare wardrobe and looked inside of all the nooks and crannies where she stored clothes, and the fit that she managed to put together for a man Branch’s size was… Interesting! To say the least.
It was made out of one of her favorite night shirts (well, it wasn’t technically a night shirt, she just sometimes wore it to bed, because it was comfy) with a washed off spidermen logo in the front and also beige harem pants that Creek must’ve left behind sometime ago and forgot about. What’s mattered was that they fit, she shouldn’t dwell on that.
She did not have any spare boxers or anything of the sorts to lend him… And she rather not think of it as well!
Poppy neared at the bathroom door with neatly folded clothes in her hands and knocked tentatively.
“Um, I brought you some clothes. I hope they’ll fit you.”
The door opened and suddenly she was hit by a heat wave. The steam in the tiny room had fogged up all the mirrors and, oh.
She quickly faced away, extending her arms with the change of clothes.
“Thanks again.” She felt his warm from the shower fingers graze her wrists as he took the clothes from her.
All she could muster up at that moment was a nod and she stormed off to the kitchen, vaguely registering the sound of the door closing behind her.
Poppy brought up her hands to her cheeks and was horrified by how warm they felt. Well, this was not good. It was wrong. She shouldn’t. She needed a distraction.
For the next five or so minutes, she busied herself with making her and her guest some tea. She briefly considered making hot cocoa, but eventually decided against it.
Branch somehow found his way to the kitchen, now fully dressed, apart from his bare feet. He was curiously (or cautiously?) glancing around, peeking behind coroners, until he finally settled behind the counter, on the opposite side from where she was standing.
“I’ve made you some tea.” She set down the steaming mug and nudged it in his direction. “You want sugar with it? Milk?”
“No, it’s okay. Thanks. I mean it.” Branch took a sip of the tea and leaned over the counter with his forearms.
They stayed silent for a moment, listening to the rain pouring heavily outside.
“Okay. Listen, Poppy. I really don’t want to impose you for too long, damn, I would’ve hated myself if I were in your shoes. But there’s really nowhere I can go at…” Branch glanced at the microwave clock, “half past midnight. Not in this rain at least. So, I gotta ask. Can I stay the night? I know we don’t know each other but…”
“Of course you can stay, I thought it was granted.” Poppy interrupted him.
Branch’s eyebrows raised as he stared at her with disbelief. “Really? That’s very nice of you.”
“I’m a very nice person.” She smiled into her cup of tea, and definitely not guilt driven, she added in her thoughts.
Branch offered a weak smile back. “Right. Okay. I’ll get onto fixing whatever is wrong with my car bright and early, I promise. As soon as I get it moving, I’ll be out of your hair.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Branch yawned and nodded. For some reason, it made Poppy smile again.
“I’ll get you set up in the guest room.” She said, putting her almost empty mug aside.
“You have a guest room too? I honestly thought I’ll be dozing off on the couch tonight or something.” He said and followed her into to the hall.
Poppy chuckled. “No. This house is quite huge, I’ve got lots of spare rooms here.” She said as they entered another small hallway and she pushed open the first door on the left. “Here you have it.” She now turned to face him, a serious look on her face. “Now, if you even try robbing me or murdering me in the middle of the night, I’ll let you know, mister, It’ll be the last thing you try in your life.”
Branch’s eyes widened and he raised his hands in surrender.
“I promise I won’t try anything.”
Poppy narrowed her eyes at him for a second, then her face broke into a grin. “Great. Now, goodnight.”
She patted him on the shoulder and quickly went up the stairs. Once in her room, she quickly pulled out of her drawer a black tourmaline and placed it on her nightstand for protection. Just in case.