I blame this one on TheSassyLorax and Widdlez over on Tumblr for having so much Normaler art in one place to look at. This takes place during the years that Once-ler's Thneeds were super popular, that he was at the top of his game in selling them. This IS officially part of my headcanon series of fics but all you really need to know, I think, is that Once-ler and Norma are married.
...:::TL:::...
As she had since Once-ler had first started needing to talk to the press for one reason or another, Norma was right in the first row, centre stage. It was a trick she'd come up with to help her husband get through the more difficult ones, the ones where all he wanted to do was run away and hide from the reporters. It worked on two levels: for stage fright it gave Once-ler a friendly, supportive face to look at.
For the conferences where the majority of the press passes had been scooped up by the Greenpeace-types that only attacked him (verbally, security would never let anyone get that close) it gave him a very good reason to stay – if he left most of the venue security would go with him, leaving her in the hands of the reporters. He'd never let that happen so he always stayed.
Even if the reporters only thought the two of them were friends. Close friends, good friends, but friends all the same. It had been an idea of Once-ler's mother. For marketing, she'd explained, that more people would buy Thneeds if they thought her son was a bachelor available to be plucked up off the market. Norma had hated the idea and let everyone know it quite vocally. Once-ler had seemed doubtful as well but had agreed to give it a try. For the most part it seemed to work, teenage girls the world over were buying Thneeds as if their lives depended upon having more than everyone else.
Norma still didn't like it, though. She wanted to be able to kiss her husband in public. She could keep herself happy, though, with silent shows of support for him. She caught him looking at her and could see that he was starting to get overwhelmed by the questions the reporters were throwing at him from all sides, never ceasing. She pulled a marshmallow out of her purse from a small baggie she kept in it and ran her tongue over the top of it, tasting the sugary sweetness that was constantly clinging to her husband's lips.
She could see him watching her, a small playful glare on his face because now he wanted marshmallows but didn't have any with him on stage – his mother had confiscated them all. Norma just smiled playfully back at him, taking a tiny little nibble out of the top edge of the fluffy confection. She wasn't as huge a fan of the sweets as Once-ler was but she enjoyed having one every so often. Slowly she nibbled her way through the marshmallow, all the time aware of Once-ler watching her jealously. She just smiled sweetly up at him and licked her fingers. Another small glare was sent her way when she turned the simple act of making her fingers not sticky into an erotic tease.
A small laugh escaped her when Once-ler blushed and looked away from her, stepping closer to the podium he was standing behind.
With a content smile on her face – she'd achieved her goal of getting Once-ler calmed down – and looked at the people in the crowd. Most of the people around her were reporters, but there were a fair few ordinary people as well, just there to see The Once-ler, richest man in the world, voted sexiest man alive in Teen Beat's yearly list of sexy men. A few men were there, watching with awe and wonder at how they might become successful, but it was mostly females. Females of all ages, little girls, teenagers, young adults and women old enough to be Once-ler's mother, all of them undressing him with their eyes.
Usually Norma didn't mind. Her husband was a public figure and married or not, people were going to want to be with him sexually. She was confident that he'd never cheat on her, he loved her as much as she loved him.
But that morning she'd read a magazine article about other public figures – both men and women – who would be a good match for Once-ler. It was a common topic, but this article had gone one step further and talked about the sex positions that the writer would like to see the pairings in. It had gotten to Norma and made her wish all the more that people knew that Once-ler wasn't single, wasn't on the market to be swept away. But so long as his mother was in his life, Once-ler would never agree to revealing his married status.
A plan started forming in Norma's mind. A plan she loved the thought of. A diabolical plan. She started moving through the crowd, knowing that Once-ler would notice immediately and also knowing there was nothing he was able to do about it. He'd think she needed to go to the bathroom, it had happened before.
But the bathroom isn't where she was headed. She stepped backstage, pulling her pass out from her pocket, and made her way to the stage. She didn't stop at the edge of the curtains beside Chet, though, she kept on going before her courage ran out on her. Norma walked straight up to her husband.
He turned to look at her, his green-gloved hand covering the microphone. "What are you doing, what's wrong?" he immediately asked, worry obvious in his voice but a smile forced onto his face.
"Nothing." Norma smiled, sugary sweet.
Then she grabbed his jacket and pulled him down so she could reach his lips and kiss him. For a moment the people watching disappeared, the flash of the cameras went away, Chet laughing, cheering his support while his and Once-ler's mother yelled at them to stop ruining everything from where the two stood hidden behind curtains on the side of the stage, all were non-existent.
Norma deepened the kiss and Once-ler reciprocated. The moment ended, though, because suddenly Once-ler remembered where he was and what he had been doing so pulled away. Or tried, because his wife had an iron grip on his jacket's lapels and had no intentions of letting go until she was ready. She pecked one last chaste kiss onto his cheek before letting him stand back up, lipstick smeared over his mouth. Norma pressed herself into his side, a victorious smile on her face when he wrapped an arm around her shoulders to hold her close without even thinking about it.
"Uh..." Once-ler coughed, trying his best – and failing – to wipe away the red smears onto his jacket sleeve. "I'd uhm ... like everyone to meet my wife, Norma?" he laughed nervously while hundreds of questions were shouted from all directions, none of them to do with what the press conference had originally been called about.
(A month later Norma will give her mother-in-law a huge 'I told you so!' when it's revealed that sales have gone up with the revelation that the owner and CEO of Thneed industries is a family man.)