Damn you, Purple Mouse. Damn youuuuuu! I have enough ideas for my headcanon floating around, waiting to be written. I don't need more to come in, butting in line. *shakefist* That said, I rather enjoyed thinking these up. This is related to my other Lorax fics. Reading those are pretty necessary to having a complete understanding of what's going on in this one. And needless to say these are dedicated to Purple Mouse for dropping the idea off on my doorstep.
One.
Once-ler looked at Norma with a scowl. Didn't she understand that he wanted to be left alone? How could she not see that?
"Please, just look at it? For me?" Norma slipped down to sit behind him on his chair, curling her arms around his stomach and leaning her cheek gently against his back. "I promise you that you'll like it. You'll love it. Even more than you did Thneeds."
Well that got Once-ler's interest piqued a little. The reminder of his failure – to his family, to the forest, to the people that worked in his factory, to the Lorax – depressed him further. But what could he love even more than Thneeds? Besides Norma, that is.
He reached over and pulled the oddly-shaped gift closer to him, looking over his shoulder at his wife with a suspicious eye. She just smiled innocently back, waved a hand for him to continue, and cuddled closer into him.
A layer of green paper came off first, revealing a second layer of pink. He didn't say anything, just gave Norma another suspicious look, this time peppered liberally with amused disbelief at how bad she was at matching colours. She just gave him a teasing glare, swatting his shoulder gently.
Slowly Once-ler pulled the pink paper off, revealing a jar filled with what looked like ... but it couldn't be, could it? It was impossible!
Wide-eyed, Once-ler twisted so he could look Norma directly in the eye. "You- these are ..." He couldn't believe his eyes. He was dreaming, surely. He'd fallen asleep at his desk again.
But then Norma nodded, kissing him chastely on the lips. "I realized that I'd never be able to get through your mother and aunt to stop you cutting them all down – though I'd hoped you would notice on your own before it was too late. So I planned ahead, just in case." She shrugged, as if giving him a way to bring the animals back was no big deal, nothing special or important. "There's more, turn the jar around."
More? What else could there be? He did as he was told and slowly turned the jar until a plastic stick revealed itself.
"What is it?" Once-ler asked, innocent confusion written clearly over his face. Norma laughed and explained the significance that two small lines were going to have on their lives.
Once-ler promptly passed out when Norma managed to get him to realize that no, she wasn't kidding and yes, he was in fact going to be a father.
...:::TL:::... The end. I have ideas as to a few events that would've happened later but I've quite literally got too many ideas floating around in my head to go full-out on this one. Maybe later I'll continue it, who knows.