(Hi, everyone! This is my first "Lorax" fic. I noticed that there are very few Oncie/Lorax ship fics, so here's an attempt to change that! :) Please read and review, and let me know if I should continue this. Thank you in advance!)
Once upon a time lived the Once-ler, in a land full of Truffula trees
Sadly for everyone around, he didn't know how to do right with these
He built an empire of money, and he filled his heart up with greed
Because he decided that these trees were less important than his Thneed
You see, the Thneed was his invention, and of it everyone sang praise
And so came an end to the caring Once-ler and all his carefree days
Everything became about biggering, while his conscience got small
And surely there came women who wanted to take it all
They wanted his fortune and oh, yes, that much was crystal clear
But they also wanted the one thing that he still was holding near
You see, now that the Once-ler was rich, women offered their hearts
But the Lorax did as well and genuinely, and that's where our story starts...
It was an frigid and stormy day in Thneedville-yes, the Once-ler himself had recently named the forest and the adjacent town after his precious invention, and no one minded at all. Rain struck the desecrated ground, mixed with the schlop in the river, and added coldness to the forest animals' already-long list of ailments.
The Once-ler himself didn't mind the rain much. It usually provided him with a sense of peace and coziness as he holed up in his office, making phone calls and filling out paperwork and barking demands at his workers when they came to see him. Sometimes on days like those, he would remember his younger self under the covers in his childhood bedroom, sipping chamomile tea and knitting the day away. The rain made him miss that, but it also brought a piece of that back to him, so he couldn't complain.
On that particular stormy day, however, the Once-ler was for once not thinking about work or Thneeds or the past. There was something else on his mind-or someone, more accurately. A woman, a beautiful woman with the purest blonde hair (it almost looked like white gold) and a body that made the Once-ler flustered every time he looked at it. She wanted him. Like so many other women, she wanted him, but the difference this time was that he wanted her back.
Or at least he convinced himself that he did. His uncle helped him with that. A recent conversation between them went like this:
"So, Oncie, seems like you've been running around with a lot of fine young ladies lately," his uncle commented with a proud grin.
The Once-ler offered a weak, uncertain smile in return. Despite all his bravado since becoming an overnight success, the Once-ler couldn't help but sometimes act insecure around the members of his family. "Yeah, I guess so. But in case you haven't noticed, I'm a lit-tle too busy to be thinking about women right now...?
"What? Too busy to think about women? There's no such thing as that kind of busyness, Oncie!" his uncle insisted. "You may be a self-made millionaire, but you can't be a self-made man until you get yourself a woman!"
The discussion went on in this direction until the Once-ler found himself once again brainwashed by his family, this time his uncle. By the end of the conversation, he was entirely convinced that he wouldn't be a true man until he had his first experience with a woman.
So the blonde I was telling you about earlier? Her name was Christine. The Once-ler hand-picked her to be his first, for no other reason than she was the prettiest girl he had ever seen, and that reason was quite enough for him.
You see, the Once-ler-despite his naivety and weak will-was intelligent. He saw through people, even when he didn't want to. For example, he knew that his family didn't really care about him; he knew they only pretended to love him now due to his money and influence. He ignored this, pushed it down into his subconscious, but he still knew.
When it came to women, he was just as perceptive. He knew he would never get to know any of the girls who came flocking to his door, and he knew they didn't want to truly get to know him either. So beauty was the sole criterion he used for selecting his virginity thief.
The night of that stormy day came around, and the Once-ler welcomed Christine into his cottage. He had asked his family to clear out for the night, which they gladly did-each and every one of them thought it was well about time their Oncie stopped embarrassing them with his innocence.
However, as Christine settled in-selecting a pinot noir wine from the Once-ler's now extensive wine collection (though he wasn't legally old enough to drink himself)-the Once-ler heard a loud knock on the door. He supposed it might have been the wind, but he excused himself to make sure, and what did he see when he opened the door?
The one and only sight that could potentially ruin his night of planned passion:
The Lorax.
