This is my own odd little AU version of Cinderella mixed with trolls, be warned my fairy tales tend to be just a little different so watch out for plot twists. Warnings of angst, fluff, romance and possibly some darkness. I have dyslexia so please be nice about the spelling and grammar I work really hard on my stories.

Choosing to be Cinderella.

Chapter one:

When King Peppy announced to all of the trolls of the troll tree that it was time for his daughter princess Poppy to have her choosing ball, the whole troll tree felt that it was nothing more than a formality, as they were all sure that their princess would chose Creek at the ball. The choosing ball was the traditional ball at which the heir to the throne chose their King and husband or Queen and wife from all those trolls attending it. Since the young princess had shown a keen interest in Creek for many years, all of the other trolls were sure that it would be the purple troll that she would chose to be her husband and King at the ball. Despite this there was still great excitement in the troll tree, as royal balls were few and far between which meant that whenever one was held all of the trolls looked forward to attending it…Well nearly all of the trolls looked forward to such events, there was however one troll who tended not to enjoy parties of any kind, this was Branch the only grey troll.

Unusually though even Branch found himself contemplating going to the choosing ball, he was only tempted to go because it was a masquerade which would give him some anonymity and the music for the night would be mostly slow and formal, this suited his temperament a lot better than the usual fast paced music which was always played at the other parties the trolls held. There was one other reason that Branch wanted to go to this ball, this reason was so he could be close to Poppy and show her that he had romantic feelings her for just for this one night without her ever having to know it was him. The grey troll looked away from the invitation he received inviting him to the ball, then down at his body before he let out a deep sigh. As much as Branch wanted to attend the choosing ball there was the problem of his unusual colouring, it unfortunately made him rather easy to spot and since the grey troll wished for anonymity for the night being grey represented a significant difficulty for him.

As Branch sat there looking at his grey skin an idea came to him, quickly the grey troll put the invitation down on the table he had been sitting at, Branch then stood up, he hastily went over to his book case, once there Branch carefully eased an old book out from the shelf. The grey troll brought the book across the room, he placed it tenderly on his table and then gently opened the old book. "Well grandma looks like you are going to play my fairy godmother from the grave. Which I guess makes me Cinderella…Oh well I suppose it could be worse and at least I am not at all likely to be sort out after the ball by princess Poppy."

The grey troll carefully looked through the book until he came to the page he had been looking for, it was a potion which would allow him to regain his true colours for a period of four hours. Branch quickly worked out that this would mean he could arrive when the ball started but would have to leave around midnight which was both the time of the unmasking and the time when Poppy would choose her husband and King. As far as Branch was concerned not being present when both of these events took place suited his desires for the night of the ball perfectly. The grey troll was glad to see that all of the items which he would require to make this potion where fairly easy to find simply by foraging for them in the forest. It was times like this that Branch was extremely glad he knew the forest and all of its plants as well as he did.

Just once Branch promised himself, just this once he would attend a party, he would dance, maybe even with the princess and he would enjoy himself as much as he could, but the grey troll would not sing he was determined that would never occur. To Branch singing just like his colours and his happiness were lost to the pain he had suffered after losing his beloved grandma to the Bergans. As far as the grey troll was concerned these three things would all most likely remain lost for the rest of his life and that was something Branch had come to accept a long time ago. The grey troll was glad that the ball was to be held in a months' time, as this would give him all the time he would need to get everything he needed ready for the night of the choosing ball.

Over the next few days the grey troll did all of his normal daily tasks, but he also went out into the forest to gather all the things he would need in order to make the potion to change his colours. When at last Branch had all of the items gathered, and prepared exactly the way the instructions told him to. The grey troll then made sure to brew the potion carefully, cautiously Branch followed the book's instructions in order to make sure that there would be no unexpected side effects from taking it. Brewing the potion took the grey troll several hours but once the potion was ready Branch made sure to wrap the potions glass bottle it in soft protective fabric, before the grey troll then store the potion away in a part of his bunker where it wouldn't be found easily by any other troll other than himself. Branch did this because he wanted to make sure that this special potion was kept safe from any mishaps until the night of the choosing ball.

After he had made sure that the potion was secure in his bunker, Branch had decided that he couldn't really go to the ball in the clothes he wore everyday as not only would it make it to obvious who he was but as this was also a formal royal occasion and therefore the grey troll felt that for this event the clothes he wore for the night should reflect the importance of the choosing ball. Branch had tried to avoid going to the troll tree to purchase fabric by seeing if he had anything in his bunker he could use to make new clothes but the grey troll had quickly realised that the only fabrics he had in his bunker were really only for making work clothes. So, it was that Branch found himself doing something he did rarely the grey troll had gone to the troll tree and to the shops there. The grey troll quickly made his way to the fabric shop and after browsing the shop for a while Branch had eventually found the ideal fabrics from which to make his clothes for the ball. The grey troll took the bolts of fabric to the till, were he purchased the amount of dark blue and white material he would need for his project as well as the threads he would need.

When Branch had arrived home at his bunker from the shops the grey troll had carefully put the fabrics to one side, before going into another part of his bunker to look through his clothing patterns, eventually Branch found the patterns he would need to make the clothes he wanted to make for the ball. Once Branch had settled on the patterns he was going to use the grey troll had then gotten out his sewing machine, scissors and sewing kit and set them up so he could get strait to work. As Branch worked, he hummed a tune to himself, this was the as close as Branch would ever allow himself to come to singing. In his mind though the grey troll could hear himself and his grandma singing this song together just as they had done when she had still been alive, the song Branch was humming had always been one of her favourites and he missed hearing his grandma singing it.

After a few days of work Branch had to admit that his clothes for the choosing ball were coming together well, the grey troll was very proud and pleased with his work. The clothes he was making were nothing like the clothes he usually wore which Branch hoped would make it much easier to hide who he was for the night. The grey troll had already made his mask, when Branch had it on the mask would cover the top half of his face completely save his eyes, ears and hair. This mask was made of the same deep blue fabrics as his clothes so that it would go well with his clothes, this half face mask was a simple confection without any gaudy decoration as he didn't want to draw to much attention to himself. Branch had also made the mask so that it didn't need anything at the sides to tie it round his face, instead the grey troll had made a simple temporary adhesive which would hold it onto his face for the night of the ball.

Once he had finished making his clothes and mask Branch tried them on together for the first time and then looked at himself in the mirror. The grey troll was surprised to see how much of a difference formal clothing made to the way he looked, it seemed to him that unwittingly he had somehow chosen patterns which had made clothing that emphasised his figure in ways that clothing had never had before now. For a few moments Branch thought that maybe he had over done it by making these clothes, but the more the grey troll looked at himself the more that Branch realised that dressed like this none of the other trolls were going to realise that he was the one that the clothing was hiding. The grey troll could almost imagine exactly what he would look like dressed like this and with his colours returned to him and Branch found himself smiling slightly at this thought. "I think if you were here grandma that you would approve…" Not wanting to damage the clothing he had made the grey troll quickly changed back out of it and carefully stored it all away with the potion.

After doing of this Branch had spent the rest of the month practicing his dancing, he had decided to do this because it had been years since he had done any kind of dancing and the grey troll didn't want to make a fool of himself out on the dancefloor if he was asked to dance at the ball. As he practiced his dancing Branch was surprised and pleased to discover that despite the years which had passed he still remembered how to waltz. The grey troll found that he was actually more concerned that he would find the faster dances difficult, as he always found it hard to dance to the faster paced music because of his grey condition. The only thing that Branch could think to do was that if faster music was played was to not to dance to it or maybe even find something to eat at that time and avoid the dancefloor all together.