What am I supposed to do here?!

by Sharkie136984

Summary:

Crystal John Dory Au

 

Someone from John's time as a bounty hunter arrives in pop village and flips Johns life upside-down.

 

His brothers are not happy about it.

 

I can't do summaries, please just read it u can leave if u dont like

Notes:

HIIIIII

 

I know that some of u are waiting for me to update my cookie run kingdom fic, and im getting to it!

I started college yesterday!!!!!

So I dont know how often updates will be but i do want to finish this soooooooo

Chapter 1: Neumero DOUX

It had been a few weeks since they’d managed to save John from both his own death and the pop obsessed Rageon twins Velvet and Veneer and life was finally starting to look up.

 

John’s hair seemed to be permanently bleached white at the roots and his hands and feet seemed to be permanently drained of all colour. Not that John minded too much, but his little brothers seemed to hate it. Or thats what John thought based off of the looks their faces pulled when they thought he wasn’t looking. The only thing that the oldest member of BroZone had a problem with was the random dizzy spells he’d get.

 

Walking through troll village? BAM, now he’s got to sit down while his younger brothers pretend not to hate him for ruining the moment. Brushing his hair? BAM, now he’s got to sit down because his body has decided to revolt. Cooking breakfast? Nope, he can’t see shit because his vision went black and he’s feeling lightheaded. Talking to his brother?Nah that's unimportant, he’s on the floor and doesn’t remember how he got there while his babies stare down at him with worry and concern.

 

Well, he also hates the fact that his little brother wouldn’t leave him alone for more than ten minutes, atleast one of them is with him at all times of the day. The only moments of privacy are in the bathroom and sleeping. That last ones a rarity, both in being left alone to sleep because What if you die in your sleep JD? And being able to sleep.

 

At the moment John was waiting with Branch for Poppy to arrive. The oldest brother was leaning against a flower stem while his youngest fretted over him because John yawned one too many times in the fifteen minutes it took to walk to the village centre from the bunker. 

 

“Bitty I’m fine! I really do appreciate the concern, but I’m the oldest I should be the one fretting over you.” 

 

“You look like you’ve been to hell and back.” Branch stated bluntly.

 

John barked out a laugh,”Wow baby bro, thanks for the vote of confidence. But I’m fine, I just didn’t sleep all that well last night is all.” Which in John Dory terms means that he didnt sleep at all last night because he was too busy feeling the excruciating feeling of phantom pain of having the literal life sucked out of him and trying not to scream so as to not wake his brothers up. Because he was the oldest and it was his job to worry over his little brothers and bear the burden of his own pain alone.

 

Branch stared at him like he knew that his older brother way lying, which to be fair his little brother had a sixth sense and probably did know that John was lying to his face. The youngest member of BroZone sighed reluctantly, “If you say so JD, but you’re resting in the bunker for the rest of the day after this!” 

 

John smiled tiredly, “Of course baby bro, whatever you want.” He relented as he ruffled his little brother's hair, laughing softly as his baby squawked indignantly.

 

John spotted Poppy bouncing her way back over to the brothers with a group of trolls trailing behind her as Branch fixed his hair with a huff. “Hey Poppyseed!” John called to get her attention.

The pink troll grinned excitedly, “HIIIIIII!” The queen of Pop greeted happily, “how are you feeling? I know that these past few weeks have been really hard for you and I really hope that you’re doing better! Do you want to meet my friends?!” John chuckled at his brothers girlfriend's enthusiastic personality. Over the past few weeks he’d come to love the pink troll as a little sister. “I’m fine Popstar, just a little tired. And yes I would love to meet your friends sweetheart.” The survivalist grinned, his use of affectionate nicknames didn’t go unnoticed by his little brother. Who couldn’t help but smile slightly, happy that his oldest brother was accepting and even loving towards his girlfriend (Not in a weird way). Poppy squealed happily, “Okay so-” 

 

Before Poppy could begin to speak faster than light travelled she was cut of by a fond chuckle from Branch, “Poppifer? Maybe speak at a speed that John will actually be able to keep up with?” The gray-blue troll suggested softly.

 

“Sorry,” The pink troll apologised sheepishly.

 

John shifted his weight so that he was no longer leaning against the flower stem, “It’s fine Poppyseed! My brains just a little slow at the moment.”

While the three pop trolls interacted, the troll leaders spoke quietly amongst themselves, “Now I know tha’ Queen Poppy said tha’ he’d been thru’ somethin but honestly?” Delta glanced at the pop troll with white roots and an exhausted and scarred face, “He looks like he’s been thru’ hell an’ back!” 

 

Barb nodded, “Yeah, those scars look gnarly, I wanna know what happened to his arms, cause there is no way he was born like that.” Trollex and Trollzart nodded, the King of the classical trolls tutted sympathetically as his eyes raked over the scars covering more or less every inch of the pop trolls exposed skin, “It is quite heartbreaking to see the physical embodiment of a trolls hardships.” The King and Queen of Funk voiced their own agreements, “All we can do is offer our own condolences and support, the poor dear isn’t entitled to tell us what he’s been through over the years.” Essence spoke. Both her and her husband were in agreement about the troll probably having some form of mental scars too, that if given the opportunity would help the pop troll.

 

That and they both found the troll to be quite handsome.

“Alright!” Poppy announced, “John Dory I would like to introduce you to Queen Barb of the Rock trolls!” Barb grinned sharply, “‘Sup?” John grinned back, smile just as dangerous, “Nothin’ much, I like the mohawk, it suits you.” “Thanks man.” Poppy appeared next to Trollex, “This is King Trollex of the Techno trolls!” The Techno troll smiled and waved at the other troll, John hummed, “Pretty sure that I’ve been to one or two of your raves your majesty.” 

 

“This is King Trollzart of the classical trolls, they live in the sky!” The pink troll gushed, John blinked, “What?” Trollzart chuckled, “It is quite beautiful, you must visit at some point!” The king's wings fluttered happily, “I will once my little brothers let me out of their sight for once.” John joked making the trolls around him chuckle while Branch rolled his eyes.

 

“This is Mayor Delta Dawn of the country trolls! They don’t really do royalty.” John bowed his head in respect, he didn’t really know how he was supposed to greet the mayor, “Ma’am.” Delta smirked and rolled her eyes, “And these are Coopers parents! King Quincy and Queen Essence of the Funk trolls and their other son Prince Darnell.” Branch finished for his girlfriend.

 

John blinked, “The fluffy pink troll who hangs in the bunker sometimes?” Branch nodded with a smile on his face, glad that his eldest brother remembered his adoptive brother. John stepped forward with a smile on his face, “It’s nice to finally meet the parents of my other baby brother! I’m John Dory, the oldest.” He introduced himself. The Funk royals smiled kindly at him, “And it’s lovely to meet another member of our baby’s family here in Pop village.” Queen Essence spoke smoothly.

 

Branch turned away from his conversation with Darnell to face his girlfriend, “So what exactly are we doing today?” He asked, trying to get everyone back on track. Poppy snapped her fingers together, “Right! We were going to give them a tour of Pop village before the meeting!” John smiled, “Well? What are we waiting for then? Let’s go!” The other trolls voiced their agreements.

 

“Where to first Popstar?”

The Queen of Pop first took the other other leaders around the gardens and around to the pods, Branch would occasionally chime in to answer questions or explain something.

 

“We live in pods instead of houses because they are easier to rebuild and replace in case of damage or removal, which due to us living in the troll tree twenty years ago are extremely necessary qualities.” The younger survivalist explained, “Did the pods get broken a lot or something?” Trollex asked curiously. “Not really, it was more due to the bergens snatching whole pods off of the tree during trollstice when there were reports of some families getting too big for the bergens' comfort.” John shrugged.

 

“Sweetheart, you and the other trolls keep mentioning this ‘trollstice’ event, but no one has explained to us what ‘trollstice’ is. Could one of you explain it to us please?” Essence asked.

 

The other troll leaders watched as the three Pop trolls seemed to have a silent conversation with each other. 

 

Barb scoffed, “Oh please! It’s not like they ate you guys for sport or anything, it can't be that bad!”

 

The three Pop trolls just stared at the others with nervous smiles on their faces.

 

“No.” Barb deadpanned.

 

John and Poppy looked at them with a ‘what can you do’ (   :|    )  expression.

“No.” Barb repeated, “There is no fucking way.”

 

John huffed, “Eh, believe what you want kiddo.” 

 

And the other trolls just stared at them in abject horror.

 

“Don’t worry about it though!” Poppy jumped in, “It’s fine! We managed to convince the bergens to stop eating trolls! And they only did it because they thought that it was the only way that they could ever be happy! But it’s fine now, because they stopped and they don’t do it anymore, me and Branch are best friends with the King and Queen of the Bergens!” Poppy paused to take a breath as Branch placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile.

 

“If you have any questions, which I’m sure you do. Me and Poppy can answer them after the meeting.” Branch spoke confidently, John smiled he was proud of how far his baby brother had come. 

 

John yawned as the group began to move again, he was pretty sure that they were heading towards the market now.

 

“You okay JD?” Branch asked making John jump, “Muses Bitty, warn a guy before you appear out of nowhere!” He huffed, “But yeah I’m fine, just tired. Why aren’t you upfront with Poppy?” Branch glared at the ground and mumbled, “I just wanted to check on you.” John's face broke out into a large grin, “Aaaaw Bitty! I knew you cared about your old man!” He cooed at his baby brother, laughing at the annoyed face that Branch pulled. “Nevermind!” The younger huffed and strode back to the front of the group.

 

John sighed and repressed a wince as another sharp pain stabbed his left hand and travelled up his arm. His left hadn’t really worked all that well since he blew himself up that one time. (Well, he didn’t blow himself up, just stopped some other troll from doing it) The oldest BroZone member massaged his hand in an attempt to alleviate some of the pain. Not seeing the aquatic troll staring at him worriedly.

 

John was snapped out of his daze by Poppy screaming happily and Branch groaning. “Whats happening?” John asked as Poppy sped off leaving the brothers alone with the troll leaders. 

 

Branch was about to explain when Poppy returned with another troll in tow. John laughed internally, honestly Poppy was an absolute riot, if a little trigger happy.

 

“JD! I want you to meet another friend of mine!”

 

The teal troll finally focussed on the troll that his little sister in all but blood dragged over and froze.

Chapter 2: NUMERO DEUX

Notes:

HEY GUYA

Thank yiou for all of the lovely commenst and support.

sorry for the horrible spelling I'm tired and i was supposed to be in bed ages ago

The two trolls stared at each other for a moment, momentarily frozen in astonishment.

“Hickory.” John spoke stiffly.

 

“John.” Hickory returned awkwardly, looking the other troll up and down with barley concealed worry and guilt.

“You two know eachother?!” Branch asked incredulously.

 

John huffed, “Yeah you could say that Bitty.” The older brother shrugged, turning back to the yodeling troll, “Where’s yer’ brother? You two are usually attached at the hip.” John ignored Branches snort from behind him that he tried to cover up with a cough. Something about Johns question made the bounty hunter flinch, “He’s ah… He’s not here right now.” Hickory mumbled, refusing to meet the pop trolls eyes. The leader of BroZone rolled his eyes and scoffed, “That’s a first.”

 

John sighed and turned around, “Anyway, I’m tired so I’m gonna head back to the bunker-” Branch perked up at the mention of finally getting his older brother to rest, “Yes! Let’s go!” The younger troll grabbed the olders’ hand and began to drag him away from the extremely confused group of trolls. 

 

Something seemed to click into place within Hickory’s head causing the country-yodel troll’s head to snap up as the brothers moved further and further away.

 

Poppy sighed, but had a soft smile on her face, “Branch will meet us at the meeting hall after he’s dropped his brother off with Floyd.” She informed the surrounding trolls, “But for now, I’ll show you guys the rest of Pop village!” The Queen cheered, brightening the mood of the others around her and leading them away from their spot on the left hand side of the market.

On the other side of Pop village, the two brothers arrived inside of Branches bunker just as John’s body seemed to give up on supporting him, making him flop onto one of Branches soft moss sofas.

 

Floyd chuckled from where he was leaning against the entryway between the living room and the kitchen, having gotten the full view of seeing his older brother flop onto the sofa. Much like his namesake when out of water.

 

“What’s up with him?”

 

Branch shrugged, “Poppy brought Hickory over and him and John seemed to know each other and I don't think that they have a very good history together.” Floyd nodded as he sipped his coffee. “I’m gonna go ‘cause I’ve still got that meeting with Poppy and the troll leaders to get to.”

Floys smiled at his younger brother, “You go do that Branch, I’ll keep an eye on JD. Make sure he doesn’t run off and get himself into another life threatening situation.” He joked.

 

Branch leaned over and whispered something to Floyd, “Could you ask him about Hickory please? The way John talked to him… I really don’t think they left each other on good terms and I want to know if that stupid cowboy has hurt my dad or not.” Floyd nodded serenely, “Will do little brother!”

 

Branch sighed, “If I find out that that cowboy did something to my older brother I’ll make hell look like the perfect paradise compared to what I’ll do to him.” He spat venomously. Floyd chuckled and pet Branches head, “We all will, Clay and Bruce should be arriving some time shortly after you get back from your meeting.” The mention of his other brothers returning had Branch perking up happily.

 

Not long after that Branch left as he couldn’t really leave the other troll royalty waiting, no matter how much he wanted to stay behind and make sure that John was okay.

Floyd muffled a laugh with his hand as he looked back over at John Dory, who was lying face down on the sofa, with one leg up the back of the sofa, the other in the same position but bent slightly and it didn't disappear behind the sofa with a pillow pressed to his face like he was trying to suffocate himself.

 

“You okay there JD?” The pink haired troll spoke in that amused tone that made you just happier in general. The older troll groaned into the pillow he’d pressed his face into in an effort to just disappear into the incredibly soft sofa. The oldest BroZone member turned his head just enough to answer his younger brother, he was working on being more emotionally open with his brothers after they had fought last week because John had been trying to convince his brothers that he was fine, and deflecting whenever one of his babies pointed out that he was obviously not fine as he had literally just woken up after fainting from another dizzy spell. 

 

“No, Not really Flo.”

 

“Oh?” The younger troll prompted as he sat down on the sofa on his older brother's right, “What’s wrong JD? Does it have anything to do with you coming back to the bunker earlier than you said you would?” Now, despite his perfectly innocent tone, accentuated by the most innocent and caring head tilt he could muster in order to lure his brother into a false sense of security, Floyd was all over the place internally. He wanted to know the who, what, where, when of who and how his brother was hurt. Because it was obvious that sometroll had hurt his brother he just didn’t know who yet. 

 

And the law be damned if Floyd wasn’t going to find out who hurt John. Whether his dad told him or not.

 

John sighed and pushed himself into a sitting position before beginning to pick at the glove on his hand. “I’ll tell you a little bit of the story, ‘cause Bitty will no doubt want to hear the full story later and Bruce and Clay will probably be back by then and wondering what happened to which Bitty will give his own version of the events and I’m going to get yelled at by Clay for being rude to another troll and-”

 

“John.” Floyd cut off his brothers rambling, not that his older brother was wrong. Clay would jump to conclusions and start a fight without giving John Dory a chance to defend and explain himself. John blinked at him before apologising, “Right, sorry, anyway…” The oldest member of BroZone paused.

 

“Right so, this is like- this is like the watered down version of events, and I’m not naming no troll got it?” Floyd nodded, intrigued by the story that John was about to tell. Sure it was the watered down version, but he’d get all of the information later when John explained it all in more depth later to the rest of their brothers.

 

“Alright, so about seven years ago now, I met a troll.” John began with a soft smile creeping across his face, “And this troll would get himself into some trouble with some of the locals, which he would do a lot I found out when we ran into each other again and again in the future.” Floyd smiled softly as John spoke, using his hands to narrate his story and add emphasis at certain points throughout. Although he did notice that his brother's left hand, the one with the glove on that he never took off, was shaking and would twitch occasionally as John moved it. “-And me being the amazing troll I stepped in to help him out. The troll was thankful and asked if I had anywhere to stay that night. Which I did because I had Rondha, so he offered to cook us dinner instead as a thank you. Which I accepted, because why not?” The younger troll nodded as he took another sip of his coffee, nothing seemed to be wrong with this story so far, but he couldn’t shake that gnawing feeling in his gut. “I met his older brother that night and we ate, nothing happened,” John sighed wistfully.

 

“We kept running into each other after that on some of the odd jobs we did in and around the area we were in at that time.” John continued after a pause, a look of contempt and regret gracing his already exhausted face, making Floyd clutch his coffee mug in anticipation of the bad news that he was no doubt to be smacked in the face with. “One day,” John cleared his throat, “One day, I ran into the two of them again and they asked for my help with a job they were in the middle of but were having some trouble with on their own.” John laughed, but something about the way he laughed made Floyd's heart ache, “And I said yes, because we’d helped each other out on jobs before and nothing bad happened. There was nothing wrong with it!”

 

John swallowed the limp that had formed in his throat and shoved his shaking hands into his lap, “I won’t go into detail about what happened, I’ll do that later.” The older troll spoke with a finality that was impossible to ignore. “There was an explosion and I ended up buried beneath the rubble. And when I woke up the first time, I could hear the two of them talking.” The hurt in Johns voice was almost palpable, “The trolls brother was telling him to just leave me in the rubble, that I’d find my own way out of it eventually.” John suppressed a sob, “Hick obviously listened to his older brother because the next time I woke up I was still buried beneath the rubble and I had to dig my own way out of that stupid building!” The oldest snarled.

 

It took all of Floyd's self control to not break his little brother's coffee mug. Instead, he set it down gently on the coffee table and strode over to where his brother was sat with his knees pulled up underneath his chin and was sobbing quietly, “Oh John…” Floyd sighed, he knew that words weren’t what his older brother needed right now, so instead he sat down next to his brother and wrapped him in a safe and comforting hug.

 

The two of them sat like that for a few minutes until John began to speak again, “When I woke up for the third time-” He hiccupped, “I woke up in a new camp.” He stated, as Floyd ‘hmmm’ed curiously, “This new troll had found me half dead in the rubble of that stupid building, bandaged me up, even gave me the jacket I’m wearing right now!” Floys blinked in surprise, “They did?” He asked, the younger troll felt his older brother relax and grow more confident in his speech as he spoke about this new troll. “Yep! He fed me, cleaned me, bandaged me, kept me safe while I healed, gained Rohnda’s favour- you know how important her approval is to me!” Floyd nodded, Rhonda was basically John’s daughter. “And he hasn’t left me to die at any point over the past seven years! I haven’t seen him in a few months because he left for a job and doesn’t exactly know where I am right now. But since Hickory’s here he can’t be too far! When he gets here I’ll have to introduce him to you guys, OH you’ll love him Floyd!”

 

Floyd chuckled at his older brother's sudden enthusiasm, “I’m sure I will JD, why don’t you rest until everyone gets back? ‘Cause if that was the short version, the long version is going to absolutely drain you.” The younger joked.

 

John paused his happy pacing with a yawn, “Yeah, you’re probably right. See you in  few Flo Flo!” 

 

And with that John Dory promptly passed out in the exact same spot he flopped onto the sofa in earlier.

 

Floyd laughed and draped a blanket over his older brother before giving him a little kiss on his forehead like he used to do for Floyd when he was younger.

 

When he found out who hurt his brother, Floyd’s fury would make a volcano look like the perfect spot for a nice swim on a hot summers day.

Notes:

ILL FILL THIS IN TMR

 

HOPE U ALL ENJOYED

Chapter 3: CHAP 3 : STORY TIME

Summary:

I haven't read this over so there wil prolly be some mistakes.

 

HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY AND SORYY FOR NOT POSTING FOR LIKE A WEEK

A few hours later all of the brothers were gathered around Branch's living room.

 

Clay was sat on the sofa reading his sad book club book, Bruce was in the kitchen with Floyd, both brothers were making coffee as neither could function properly without it and Branch was sat on the floor beside JD who was still out like a light and was snoring softly.

 

Bruce walked out of the kitchen with his own cup of coffee in hand, a confused and concerned expression on his face, “So is anyone going to tell me what’s going on? Because Branch has that demonic look on his face that Floyd used to get whenever someone made Clay cry.” The purple haired troll asked. He was concerned, Bruce knew that whatever was going on, John was somehow involved and he wasn’t the cause of the problem. “Yeah and Floyd keeps glancing over at John Dory worriedly whenever he thinks we’re not looking.” The third oldest brother pointed out without looking up from his book.

 

The youngest brother sighed, “A troll I know also knows John and they didn’t speak to each other all that nicely and I don’t know why.” Floyd decided to speak up before any of his brothers tried to pin the blame on John before they even knew the whole story. “Actually John has given me the watered down version of the story earlier.” Clay blinked in bewilderment, “Really?” He asked in disbelief. John Dory had never been all that could at expressing his feelings growing up. The younger troll nodded, “Yeah, he said that he would give us the full version once we were all together, and I advised him to get some rest because,” Floyd paused for a moment, unsure of whether he should be sharing this information but ultimately decided to continue on anyway, “Because John was quite literally sobbing by the time he finished his story. And that was the watered down version that he refused to name a single troll in.” Bruce, Clay and Branch stared at Floyd as if he had just spoken a different language.

 

“He was?” Clay asked quietly.

 

Clay had only seen John cry a grand total of four times growing up. Once when their parents were snatched by a bergen, when Branches egg hatched, that one time they all got into a really bad argument that ended with John having a black eye because Spruce had punched him and the time after he had literally just died. So this was serious.

 

“He also told me about a troll who saved him from dying.” Floyd smiled smugly as he recalled how happy his da-brother. Brother had seemed while talking about this troll. (Not dad, definitely not his dad) “He sounded so happy when he was talking about them, they even managed to gain Rhonda’s approval. And you know how important her approval is to John.” Bruce nodded with all of the seriousness in the world, “Yeah, Rhonda is basically John’s daughter.” Floyd nodded, “Now I don’t want to jump to conclusions… But I’m pretty sure that this troll is John’s partner.”

 

Branch scoffed, “They better not hurt him.” If they did there would be hell to pay.

“Don’t worry Bitty, he hasn’t”

 

The four brothers jumped and whipped around to face their eldest brother who was stretching while yawning. “I’ve known the guy for seven years, and he’s had plenty of time to hurt me, and plenty of opportunities to do so. But he hasn’t and he has no idea how grateful I am for that.” John yawned.

 

Bruce smirked, “John Dory…” He started mischievously, “Has the John Dory finally gotten himself a partner?” He sang, grinning viciously as John's face darkened a few shades. “No way!” Clay cackled. John took a deep breath as he stood up and made his way over to the kitchen, “Maybe I have, maybe I haven’t” Bruce laughed and clapped John on the shoulder as he passed, “You’ll have to bring him over for dinner sometime Johnny!” The older troll chuckled, “I was gonna introduce you all to him at some point anyway.” He shrugged.

 

Clay laughed from his spot on the sofa, “Good! I wanna meet the poor sod!”

 

Floyd smiled, “I think it’s sweet that JD has finally found himself a partner.” John laughed, “It’s not like I don’t know what I’m doing! This may only be my second relationship but damn it’s been going well so far!” The oldest spoke proudly. “Who was your first partner?” Branch asked.

 

John sighed, “That has something to do with the explanation you want, so let me make myself something to drink and I’ll get right into it yeah?” He spoke tiredly. His brothers all voiced their agreements and moved to get themselves comfortable in the living room and let John go about making his drink. Branch saw the way his dads hands shook as he prepared his drink.

 

“Floyd!” Branch whisper-shouted, “What happened in the story John Dory told you?” Floyd sighed, “John was close with whoever this ‘Hickory’ guy is, I think they might’ve been in a relationship or something. And something happened on a job they were doing together with Hickory’s brother and Hickory and his brother just left John to die in the rubble.”

 

“What the fuck?!” Clay snapped, “I need to know everything you know Floyd, now.” Bruce nodded, already planning Hickory’s and his brother's demise in his head.

 

“And you will.” John spoke as he sat down on the sofa with a sigh of relief.

 

After a few moments of silence JD spoke, “So what do you guys wanna know?” Branch spoke up before any of his brothers could get a word in edgewise, “How do you know Hickory?”

 

The ex-leader of Brozone pursed his lips together, “Okay theres a few things you all need to know before I tell you guys this story, and I promise if you guys hate me after that I won’t blame you and you all have the right to kick me out after I explain to you guys yeah?” His little brothers blinked at him, confused by what he had just said, so John continued. “Okay first, I was/am a bounty hunter and Hickory is too.” John wasn’t looking at any of his brothers as he explained.

 

“I met Hickory in a bar in the Lonesome flatts…”

It was a cool evening in the Lonesome flats, John had sat himself down at the end of a bar and was happily sipping his glass of tequila before he turned in for the night. He’d parked Rhonda a little ways from the village as not to alarm anytroll who came across her and he’d already cashed in his bounty so all he needed to do now was clean and bandage the cut on his forehead that he’d covered with his signature goggles to prevent any of the more curious and outspoken locals from asking questions.

 

The oldest brother of five hadn’t been paying very much attention to the happenings of the bar, it was one of the more quiet ones that the Lonesome flats had to offer. So imagine his surprise when a glass went flying past his head and smashing into the wall behind him.

 

John’s head whipped around as he zeroed in on the direction the glass had come from to see an angry four-legged troll with orange skin and wild yellow hair standing over and yelling at a (admittedly quite handsome) pale-green skinned troll with lovely auburn hair that was sweat to one side of his face that had a faint hint of stubble covering it, and he was dressed in what could only be described as ‘cowboy attire’

 

John Dory sighed, he’d already had enough of this asshole's voice for one night.

 

The teal troll strode over to where the asshat was making the scene and tapped them on the shoulder.

 

“WHAT?!” The asshole slurred in his face, making the grey-teal troll sigh, “Will you just leave the poor guy alone? What he did he do to you anyway, beside exist that is.” The asshole scoffed while John stood there with his arms crossed waiting for an answer. The asshole snarled at him, “All you two-legged trolls are the same! I bet your both in on this to try an d monopolise on us poor hard working trolls and take all of us hardworking country troll out–!”

 

John had had enough of the asshats speech and punched him in the face, sending him crashing to the ground, the asshole groaned and tried to pull himself up, but someone had passed John a broken table leg and without thinking he smacked the guy with it. Knocking him out cold.

 

“I still don’t know who gave me that table leg.”

 

John let out a breath as he tried to get his breathing back under control, “Sorry about that folks!” He apologised to the other trolls at the bar. “You okay man?” He asked the troll who had been getting hate crimed earlier. The troll blinked as they snapped back into reality, “Yeah..yeah, I’m fine thanks.” The two trolls smiled at each other for a moment before John spoke again, “No problem, the bastard threw a glass in my direction and it almost hit me earlier.” The grey-teal troll shrugged and then turned to the bartender, “You want me to get rid of him on my way out?” The bartender nodded and John huffed as he somehow managed to haul the four-legged troll onto his shoulder.

 

A few minutes later the two trolls strode out of the bar in search of somewhere to dump the bastard before they went their separate ways. Or well thats what John thought was going to happen until Hickory offered to let John stay at his and his brothers campsite for the night. “Theres always pleny’ o’room for one more.” The pale-green troll had shrugged. John sighed and smiled fondly, “I would but Rhonda, my armadillo bus, would get worried if I’m away for too long.”

 

The dejected look on Hickory’s face was rough to make John fold, “I can probably stay for dinner though?” He offered weakly, soaking in the hopeful expression that took over Hickory’s face faster than a flash of lightning.

 

“I met his brother Dickory that night too, a real prickly troll he was back then.” John chuckled as Branch rolled his eyes, “He still is, I’ve met him. I’m not a fan.” John looked at him wide-eyed, “I keep forgetting that you’ve met them. You’ll have to tell me how later Bitty.”

 

“Anyway, where were we?”

 

John kept running into the two brothers over the course of the next few months, on jobs, after jobs and sometimes whenever he was just passing through an area, and obviously they’d all help each other when they did run into the others.

 

“Now that I think about it, it’s kinda creepy how often we ran into each other.” John thought.

“Yeah you don’t think?” Clay sassed, yelping when Floyd punched him once JD had turned away.

 

Over the course of those few months John Dory had come to realise that those casual feelings of affection he had felt upon first meeting Hickory, were in fact, not just casual feelings of affection, they were anything but casual affection and would spontaneously combust and consume the teal-grey troll whenever the pale-green troll was in his immediate vicinity. Rhonda also seemed to like the taller troll and his brother too, letting them stay inside whenever John asked.

 

It had only been about two weeks since the pop troll had last seen the dynamic duo, so when he found out that the two of them were after the same troll he was, the grey-teal troll was more than happy to collaborate with them again. He figured that it would go the same as it had all the other time the three of them teamed up. They’d team up, form a plan. Execute the plan, catch whatever or whoever it was they were after this time, give them to whoever placed the bounty, cash it in, split the cash evenly, have dinner together and go their separate ways until they all inevitably ran into each other again. Rinse and repeat.

 

So imagine his surprise when he woke up trapped beneath a pile of rubble, unable to breathe properly, bleeding, in unimaginable amounts of pain and unable to feel his left arm. John had tried calling out  to see if Hickory and Dickory were okay, but his voice wasn’t working properly because of all the dust and smoke he was inhaling.

 

His hearing on the other hand? Besides the ringing, worked perfectly fine.

 

“I can’t just leave ‘im!” John heard Hickory shout desperately at someone, presumably Dickory. Dickory scoffed, “Oh mein gott, he really does have you wrapped around his finger doesn’t he?” There was a pause, “Leave him Hickory, we can always find you a new pop troll boy toy if you want one that badly.” The older yodel troll mocked, John heard Hickory sigh heavily. “Okay…” He whispered dejectedly. The grey-teal troll gasped, his heart feeling like someone had just shoved his machete into it.

 

‘No…” He thought as tears streamed down his face, colours dimming and becoming much more greyer than they had been before, “Why?” He rasped before he passed out. His last thought being, ‘I loved you, why?’ before he welcomed the cold embrace of darkness.

“I AM GOING TO KILL THAT COWBOY!” Clay roared as he stood up. Bruce joined him, “Count me the fuck in.”

 

Floyd was crying just as much as John was, and Branch was sat quietly by his dads feet.

 

The oldest laughed wetly, “Please don’t guys..” Despite the raging guilt and sadness clashing into each other inside him, John smiled happily, it made his heart all warm and gooey to see that his little brothers, his babies still cared about him enough to be angry and Hickory and Dickory on his behalf despite how bad of a brother he had been to them growing up.

 

Branch stood up wordlessly, effortlessly grabbing the attention of all of his older brothers, “You okay Bitty B?” John asked, Branch tilted his head with an unreadable expression on his face.

 

“You do know that it’s not your fault right?”

 

John swallowed thickly, “W-what?” he stammered.

 

“Hickory deciding to listen to Dickory and leaving you to die.” Branch clarified, “It’s not your fault dad.”

 

John blinked as tears welled up in his eyes.

 

Apparently he’d taken too long to answer because when he zoned back into the real world, Bruce, Clay and Branch had all joined in on the hug that Floyd had been providing the entire time. “What Hickory did is in no way, shape or form your fault da-John.” Bruce spoke with an undeniable finality that couldn’t be argued with or against. “Ueah! That asshole doesn’t know what he’s missing out on!” Clay spoke as he pulled away from the hug, “Yeah you might not’ve been the best brother growing up,” That made John flinch, “But at least you tried, you made sure that we were happy, healthy, safe and well cared for.” John felt Floyd nod from where he was with his face pressed into John’s neck, “And you are definitely no ones boy toy!”

 

Branch sat up, “Yeah, I’m gonna kill Dickory for calling you that.”

 

John sighed, “Again, please do not kill my ex-situationship or his brother please.”

 

His brothers blinked at him, “And why the hell not?!” Floyd protested, “Yeah! Why not?! They left you to die John, get perspective!” Clay shouted exasperatedly. John gave them all the patented ‘Dad look’ that made them all shut their mouths immediately.

 

“I won’t let you kill them because you would go to jail for murder, no matter what the cause or reason for said murder would be, it is still murder.” John held up a hand to silence his babies protests, “HOWEVER, as I am a petty troll at heart, and you all seem eager to cause some chaos, you may make their time in pop village as difficult as you want without directly causing any physical harm to either of them. Okay?” All four of his little brothers nodded, obviously a little disappointed that they couldn’t just kill the two yodel trolls and be done with it, but also quite happy that their dad is letting them exact some revenge on his behalf.

 

John sighed, they all reminded him of Grandma whenever John or security told her about a handsy or violent troll after a concert. 

 

That troll would disappear before the next sun rose.

Notes:

John: *trying to remove a threat in the form of a drunk racist troll*

Random troll: *gives him a broken table leg that they just have on them*

Seven years later

John: Wait a minute

Notes:

Tell me what u think!

 

John:*Is exhausted*

Branch:*Just wants to get his brother home*

Poppy: JD!!!! You HAVE to meet my friends!!!!

John:*Shrugs* Yeah sure? What could go wrong?

 

*Sometime later*

 

Mysterytroll: 'Ello

 

John: I spoke too soon