One of the aspects of the 2012 adaptation of "The Lorax" which I most admire is the Once-ler's bond with the little Bar-ba-loot, Pipsqueak. Not that it was heavily explored, to be sure, but it leaves no doubt of its presence and is an especially endearing subtle detail to the storyline – it admittedly reminds me of an inter-species relationship of which I am part.
Anyway, somehow the idea of their bond causing a rift between Pipsqueak and his father developed in my mind, and became so coherent that I felt the need to assemble it in written form, thereby resulting in this fanfic. For clarification I've made note of a couple of things I'll explain at the end.
Copyrights are those of Dr. Seuss, Universal, and Illumination Entertainment.
There was no denying, the animals inhabiting the lush Truffula forest were enamoured with the Once-ler. Right from the start, when he first walked among them, they'd been drawn to him inexplicably. And with the help of those sweet fluffy things he always had in large supply, the guy was literally an animal magnet. There was no reason for any of them to dislike him, was there?
Well one did, actually. One of them quite frankly resented the wiry human's presence. Not because of his having chopped down a tree the very day he arrived here; he'd promised their guardian, the Lorax that he wasn't going to take that approach to making – whatever he said that thing was – ever again. No, that wasn't it. And not because he had such fine, exotic treats to lavish the animals with seemingly endlessly – what Bar-ba-loot ever worried about their weight anyway? So that wasn't it either. No, the issue this Bar-ba-loot had with the man was strictly on a personal scale, the result of a slight the Once-ler had no idea he'd even committed.
Why on earth was his little cub so obsessed with this strange creature? Everyone enjoyed those sweet things he didn't care to remember the name of, he enjoyed them himself, if he could admit it. Even the Lorax liked them. But that did not compel the other animals to crawl up the guy's legs, or snuggle up with him, or try to sneak away with him whenever he went off to that human settlement he always claimed he needed to go to with that whatever-it-was. At least, not to the extent young Pipsqueak did. And heaven forbid he ever actually managed to tag along with the man all the way out there; he'd given his parents, not to mention the Lorax and the rest of the forest, enough of a fright that night when they'd tried to set the Once-ler adrift in the river.
There you go. No one else tried to pull a stunt like that! What had the cub been thinking? He and his mate had confronted him about it later that night, when the ensuing fiasco had been brought to a thankfully satisfactory close, but all they'd gotten out of him on the matter was a dreamy-eyed look and a sheepishly said, "I just thought he might get lonesome. He and his sweet white things."* As if that was any excuse for a young one endangering themselves like that.
It didn't stop there, though. Seriously, the cub did everything he could to be near the human. Following him wherever he went, as long as he was in the forest, mimicking his actions, demanding his attention if he seemed lost in his thoughts or something. All things a cub should do with their father, right? Not what they're supposed to do with a stranger with strange habits who's suddenly waltzed into the picture! To top it all off, the Once-ler quite obviously appreciated Pipsqueak's attention! Picking him up and cuddling with him, letting him help him when preparing those flat, stacked-up things he made a lot of the time, clowning around with him on that musical box-thing with the strings and the stick on top. He did that sort of stuff with others as well, but always there was one particular cub hanging around. Always, there was a poignant gleam of affection in their eyes, shared only between each other. It was not just the father Bar-ba-loot's imagination.
In a way, he couldn't blame the Once-ler, however. Call it a father's vanity, but Pipsqueak was the sweetest, most adorable baby animal in the whole forest. It was the man's self-centred disregard of protocol. You simply do not take a child's affection away from their parents. It's just not done. And yet there he was doing just that, all smiles, and goo-goo eyes, and those cursed white fluffy treats. It was just disgusting!
His mate tried to tell him time and time again that he was overreacting. The Once-ler most certainly showered all of the babies with affection, and played with all of them, not just with Pipsqueak. Their cub most certainly still looked up to and loved his own father. There was nothing to worry about. He wanted to believe her words as strongly as she did, to be sure. If it was just a simple matter of friendship, he'd have no trouble with the Once-ler at all. The problem with that was, regarding the relationship between the human and the cub as a harmless friendship was all too clearly just wishful thinking. He was not ashamed to admit that he'd even gone so far as to enlist Pipsqueak's best friend, Lou, to "sort of" observe the way the two behaved around each other, when he was not there to do it himself, and although the chubby Bar-ba-loot didn't really grasp the significance of the problem, what he diligently reported back did not appease the older Bar-ba-loot one bit.
His worst fears were actually confirmed just earlier today, when the lean man had returned after yet another attempt to do whatever he wanted to do with that object had not worked out. From what he had picked up, the man's attempts to interest the others like him in this object resulted in their putting a lot of food to waste by pelting him with it, along with a few other undesirable manners of treatment. Perhaps it was a bit shameful, but he just couldn't feel as sorry for him as the other animals did. The idea of smashing food all over someone when it should be eaten instead did not appeal to him, of course, but he couldn't pity him more personally when the first to come a-comforting was always a particularly cute little cub with a white patch on his chest...
Well, today it so happened, the fellow tried to lighten the mood by taking that music device of his and singing for the animals. Gritting his teeth, the father would admit it was a pleasing sound. Not quite as good as it had been before, but apparently someone launched an attack on the device as well, and he'd had to put it back together again. Some scars had to remain, of course.
As usual, to his irritation, there was his son, perched on one of the fellow's thighs and bobbing his head along with the melody he was currently playing with that device, which was leaning against his other leg. His mate took his paw in hers and smiled reassuringly at him, but it couldn't ease the jealous turmoil in his mind. Then, to make it worse, it happened.
Standing and waddling up onto the man's stomach, Pipsqueak wrapped his tiny paws as best as he could about the neck of device, poking his head around to look expectantly up at the Once-ler, and asking, "May I try, Papa?"
Papa? PAPA? Since WHEN? Even Pipsqueak's mother was shocked by this, and let go of her mate's paw, both of hers raised to her hanging jaw. The Lorax, nearby, noticed what was going on, and muttered something about how this would not go down well, but of course the Once-ler had not a clue what the cub just called him, did he? The Lorax had had to explain to the animals early on, that the lack of response anyone got out of the Once-ler when they tried to make conversation was because humans had a pitiful inability to understand the speak of any creature that wasn't human.
Well, this Bar-ba-loot was not about to let a dumb, peculiar, linguistically handicapped being steal his parental title from him! Before his mate could stop him, he was storming right over to his rival, teeth bared and growling in an impressively intimidating way for a creature his size.
/
The Once-ler was rightfully caught off guard by the aggression this adult Bar-ba-loot was displaying before him out of the blue. If his memory served him correctly, this looked to be the same one who pounced on him viciously that day when he first "moved in". What was the deal with this guy?*
Judging by his lack of change in behaviour at the offer, the Once-ler had to guess it wasn't marshmallows he was after. Unable to come up with anything else, he rose cautiously to his feet, eyes trained on his adversary, and instinctively holding his guitar up in front of him. Realizing seconds later that he really didn't want the instrument to suffer yet another beating just to defend him, he had only just enough time to lean it against the outer wall of his tent and take off running before the angry animal could catch him.
Little Pipsqueak was left sitting on the ground beside the guitar, staring in wide-eyed bewilderment at the sight of his father chasing the Once-ler around the skinny trunk of a Truffula tree. It was just a slip of the tongue! He'd surprised himself when he said it! But why was his father blaming the Once-ler?
Now the human was trying to hide himself by pasting against the trunk of a nearby tree, the angry father still focused on chasing him around the first one. He was slim enough he could almost pull it off, but it still didn't take his would-be attacker long to comprehend the change in circumstance, and in no time the rival was cornered once more.
"All right, all right, break it up!" The Lorax finally decided to intervene. Barring the Bar-ba-loot off from the Once-ler, he said, "Leave the Beanpole alone. He meant no harm by it."
"Wait, what?" Said Beanpole lowered his arms from their previously huddled position, simultaneously lowering the leg he had crooked up in front of the other. Having no reason to suspect "he" did not refer to him in this case, he wondered what they thought he'd done wrong this time? And since when did Moustache start defending him?
Neither the forest creature nor the guardian were paying any attention to the human's question. Pipsqueak's father seemed to growl something in bitter resignation, before shooting the man a death glare (adding to his confusion), and stomping off, collecting his perpetually saucer-eyed son, who seemed to look back at the Once-ler apologetically, and rejoining his mate before clearing the scene.
"Ummm... okay, mind if I ask what on earth just happened?" The Once-ler turned to the Lorax.
"Nah, it's nothing, Beanpole," the forest guardian shrugged casually. "Just a – a Bar-ba-loot thing." He then walked off, signalling the other animals to go on their way and leaving the Once-ler to wonder inconclusively about the unanticipated events of the last few minutes.
/
"I'm a bad father, aren't I?" Pipsqueak's father asked, staring out into the night. Pipsqueak was, quite predictably, crashing in the Once-ler's tent with most of the other animals and the Lorax. His mother and father were about the only creatures still outside.
"Of course not, dear," she soothed, patting her mate's paw. "You're a wonderful father, and Pipsqueak loves you just as much as ever."
"No, no he doesn't," the male tensed. "It's all about that man now. He never wants to do anything with anyone else! Not even his own... family!" he snapped, trying to incorporate his mate into the issue so it seemed less about himself.
"Didn't you ever become fixated on a new friend when you were a cub?" the female smiled.
"I never called any of them 'Papa', if that's what you're getting at!" The title combined with that memory still left a bitter taste on his tongue.
His mate fell silent. In all truth, she had nothing to say on that. What explanation could she offer when Pipsqueak himself hadn't been able to name the reason why he addressed the Once-ler as his Papa?
"And I never told my father I wished they were in his place," the male muttered darkly.
The mother looked consolingly at her mate. Things had quickly escalated when he'd taken their son to task on the matter; father demanding a reason of son, son struggling unsuccessfully to handle the job of pinpointing his own motives while also tiptoeing his way through it. It ended in Pipsqueak being accused of actually wanting the Once-ler as his father instead (as weird as that would be), and Pipsqueak, now frightened and emotionally hurt by his actual father's loss of temper, tearfully replying, "Well... maybe – maybe I do! At least he's not mean like you are!" He had then scampered away, back to the human's abode, his stunned parents not having the heart to pursue him.
After a few moments of quiet, Pipsqueak's mother observed the grey clouds rolling in above, and suggested they head inside. Her mate scoffed. It wasn't as if the animals really needed to seek shelter with the Once-ler; they'd always gotten by before his arrival just fine. Granted, it was far more comfortable in his home – drat those humans for really knowing how to build a nest – but the father Bar-ba-loot had made up his mind. He wouldn't deny his precious mate and son that comfort if they wanted it, even knowing whose proximity it meant they were in, but he himself would have to be dragged by every other inhabitant of the forest before he'd set paw in that tent again.
His mate thought his behaviour immature, deep down, but she understood that he may need time alone, and so, with a final note about the possibility of changing his mind, she quietly snuck her way inside.
Pipsqueak's father remained where he was until the first few drops began to spit around him. Grumbling, he got up and set off, deciding on a tree in which to seek coverage. Thoughts of his argument with Pipsqueak plagued him long after finally settling down, however, and while his jealousy and resentment for the Once-ler had not diminished, he could only hope that his irrational reaction had not completely vanquished the bond between himself and his son.
AN: The dialogue of the Bar-ba-loots is simply supposed to be their language read as English, to show that these sections of the story are focusing on their perspectives. Also, in my headcanon the Bar-ba-loot who lunges at the Once-ler before the animals are inadvertently introduced to marshmallows is Pipsqueak's father, because he strikes me as looking similar to one of the ones to whom the Lorax asks if Pipsqueak can swim, in the river scene.