Oncie woke up and found that he was trapped underneath an arm.
Going to bed the night before had been a bit, well more than bit, awkward, at least from Oncie's point of view. His bed was rather small, and he offered to sleep somewhere else, but the Once-ler graciously reminded him how nice it felt to be close to each other.
The other him didn't seem to have any modesty either, he stripped down to a white undershirt and his boxers in the middle of the room while Oncie shuffled away to the bathroom to change into his pajamas.
They climbed into bed together, and Oncie slid as far to the left as possible without falling off the bed. The Once-ler curled up on his side facing the opposite direction.
They had obviously moved around during the night though, because now Oncie could feel the Once-ler's breath on the back of his neck, and he was being held like a stuffed animal. Oncie wasn't sure what the proper etiquette was in this situation.
He decided his best option was to gently lift the other man's arm off of him and scoot out of bed as quietly as possible. Even if the Once-ler was kind of a jerk, it was rude to wake someone up for no reason.
Oncie stretched his arms above his head as he peered into his kitchen cabinet, he could make pancakes again, but he wasn't sure the ridicule from the Once-ler would be worth it. He ended up just reaching out for a bag of marshmallows. He hadn't seen any of the forest animals lately, maybe he should visit them today.
The Once-ler was groaning on the other side of the house, and shoving his face into his pillow. It was way too early to be awake. Today was going to be a big day, though. Today was going to be the start of Oncie's empire.
Well, his and Oncies' empire.
The Once-ler climbed out of bed and stumbled into the kitchen to find Oncie still in his childish pajamas being disgustingly unhealthy. "For breakfast, really?" Oncie looked up from his bag of marshmallows, startled. He wasn't used to having other people being in his home like this.
"I didn't want to make pancakes again."
"Don't you have any bacon or something?"
"I'd have to go buy some."
"That's unfortunate." The Once-ler opened up the fridge and took out the carton of eggs. Sunny-side-up would have to do for now.
The Once-ler's plan for the day was to begin to gain Oncie's trust. The guy was friendly and outgoing so it realistically wouldn't take very long. He just needed to make himself relatable. "So what are we gonna do today?" He asked, genuinely curious.
"Well I'm going to visit some of the animals," Oncie said, "they're cool."
The Once-ler scrunched up his nose, "you want visit wild animals?"
"They're good company!" Oncie protested. He headed back towards his closet, as much as he'd like to stay in his pajamas all day he felt the need to be at least semi-productive. Plus the Once-ler was bound to need to be entertained all day. This would be so much easier if they could leave each others' sides.
Oncie got dressed quickly and wrapped his Thneed around his neck, the Once-ler was scraping his egg out of the pan and onto his plate. His hair was still sleep mused, and he looked like he was lost in thought, he hadn't noticed that Oncie had come back.
Oncie wanted to smack himself in the face for thinking that it was kind of cute. In a nonconventional kind of way, of course. He didn't think of himself as cute, but the other Once-ler seemed to be able to pull it off-
Nope. He needed to stop.
Oncie watched the Once-ler pour a ridiculous amount of salt onto his egg. "We can go out to the store later."
The Once-ler looked up, "as long as I get to push the cart."
Oncie rolled his eyes. "I figured I might bring my guitar into town."
"Taking my advice!" The Once-ler grinned, "just make sure your lyrics are family friendly."
"I'm going to be singing about thneeds!"
"Thneeds are very multi-purpose."
"You're a creep," Oncie pulled a face.
"It was a valid point!" The last of the Once-ler's breakfast disappeared into his mouth and he dropped his plate into the sink. "Be right back."
Oncie exhaled loudly, the Lorax better be working on getting rid of this other him soon. Before someone he knew noticed that there were two of him, like his mother or Norma.
Oncie picked up his guitar and slung it around his shoulder, hopefully he could collect a big enough crowd in town to sell at least one Thneed, it could start a chain reaction.
The Once-ler returned, dressed back up in his suit. The suit made him look much larger than he did without. That was probably the point, Oncie realized.
The Once-ler put his sunglasses on and whipped open the front door, "I can already tell that today is going to be fantastic!"
"What makes you say that?" Oncie wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer.
"You're gonna sell so many Thneeds! And I'm gonna be right there beside you!"
"Or in the general vicinity."
"Plus we're going shopping together! That's so couple-y!" The Once-ler slid over so that his shoulder bumped into Oncie's.
Oncie slunk away from him, "can you cut that out? It's weird."
"I'm not even allowed to flirt with you?"
"I can't tell if you're being serious or not," they were headed towards a part of the forest that a lot of the animals tended to hang around. Oncie had brought along a bag of marshmallows for them, hopefully they weren't disturbed by the presence of the Once-ler.
"I'm being as serious as you want me to be," the Once-ler reached over and took a marshmallow out of the bag Oncie was holding.
Oncie decided not to respond to that comment. They were entering the clearing where the animals could be found hanging around. Oncie grinned broadly as soon as he saw one of the Bar-ba-loots, he reached into his bag of marshmallows and tossed one lightly towards the little creature, it caught it in it's mouth with little effort.
The Once-ler was standing back, watching the exchange curiously. Oncie had kneeled down and was patting the little bear on the head. So far Oncie hadn't been attacked by the bear, which was probably a good sign, but the Once-ler didn't feel an urge to get any closer.
Oncie glanced over his shoulder, "come over here," he waved his hand and the Once-ler took a few steps forwards. He wasn't afraid of the animal, he just didn't see the appeal of being anywhere near it.
Oncie placed a marshmallow in the Once-ler's hand, and he considered eating it himself before holding it down towards the Bar-ba-loot. The animal took it gratefully, not seeming to care where it was getting food from as long as it tasted good.
Oncie stood up, "I don't know where the rest of the animals are, so I guess we can go to town now."
"Thank god, I was beginning to think I would be bored to death."
Oncie didn't bother replying. They headed to town in a comfortable silence, the Once-ler's mind reeling with ideas about selling Thneeds the whole way.
Oncie sat down in the middle of downtown Sneedville on a concrete bench and propped his guitar up on his knee. There were plenty of people around that would notice him if he started playing some kind of music. He tugged on the Thneed around his neck to make sure it was as obviously there as possible.
The Once-ler watched with a smirk on his face, "You're gonna do great."
Oncie's face flushed, "it's kind of intimidating with you watching me like this."
"Well I can't go very far," the Once-ler shrugged. "Plus I'm your biggest fan!"
"You'll attract attention."
"That's what you want!"
"Okay, just, sit over there," Oncie exhaled loudly.
The Once-ler followed Oncie's orders and sat down about 20 yards away from Oncie, on a part of the long cement bench that was underneath the shade of a large tree. He knew he was about to be sitting there for quite a while.
An hour later Oncie dropped his guitar so that it hung loosely around his neck, picked up his Thneed, and motioned for the Once-ler to come towards him. No one had even given the Thneed a second glance the whole time he had been singing his heart out about it. How did people ever sell anything?
The Once-ler strode over, stretching his arms above his head. "That bench gets really uncomfortable after a while."
Oncie could care less about the bench, "why doesn't anyone want a Thneed," he complained, "literally no one is interested."
The Once-ler shrugged, "they must all have bad taste. It's a genius invention." He was scooting closer to Oncie again.
"You're the only one who thinks it's genius," Oncie pointed out, "that doesn't help anything."
The Once-let bumped his shoulder into Oncie's, "you can't give up, you're gonna make it big really soon I just know it."
"Sure doesn't seem like it."
"I believe in you."
Oncie found himself leaning into the Once-lers touch against his own will. It was just reassuring to hear someone say that they thought he going to make it, even his own family didn't say things like that to him. "Why don't we go get ice cream, I saw a place on the way here," the Once-ler suggested.
"Yeah that sounds good," Oncie admitted.
The Once-ler grinned, this was too easy, Oncie was so upset about not selling any Thneeds that he was practically putty in his hands.
Speaking of hands, Oncie's was brushing up against his in a way that was irresistible. The Once-ler tried his best to be subtle while he laced his fingers through Oncie's. Oncie went stiff at the gesture, he looked over at the Once-ler quickly with wide eyes. The Once-let just smiled, Oncie was so fun to play with.
By some miracle, they made it to the ice cream shop with their hands still intertwined. The Once-ler took off his sunglasses as soon as he stepped into the building, Oncie let go of his hand.
A few minutes later, Oncie was licking frantically at his waffle cone as ice cream threatened to drip all over his hands. Thankfully he had been smart enough to take off the Thneed and put it on the small table between them so it didn't get stained. The Once-ler had his cone in much better control, and was about to ask Oncie if he wanted him to go get more napkins when a young couple came up to their table.
"You were singing outside a while ago weren't you?" The girl asked.
Oncie pulled back from his cone in surprise. "Yeah that was me!"
"I'd like to purchase one of your- um-"
"Thneeds," Oncie supplied, he was beaming.
"Yes! I was going to while you were outside but my boyfriend insisted we go check out a sale first." She glared upwards toward the man standing behind her. The man had been watching the Once-ler the whole time.
"Oh that's totally fine!" The Once-ler reached over and took the ice cream cone out of Oncie's hand, it was dripping much worse than before.
"It's only $3.98," Oncie grinned, unfazed by the fact that his ice cream was suddenly gone. The lady was digging into her purse.
The man picked the Thneed up from off the table, "It's certainly pink," he commented.
The Once-ler, who was working on saving Oncie's ice cream (with his tongue), decided that he didn't like this man very much, but he wasn't going to rain on Oncie's parade, this was his first customer.
The girl handed Oncie her money, and the whole ordeal was over just as quickly as it had begun. Oncie was still smiling from ear to ear as he reached out to take his ice cream back, apparently unfazed that the Once-ler had been licking at it for the past few minutes.
"I told you you would be successful soon enough."
"Well it was only one customer," Oncie shrugged.
"More than you had yesterday," The Once-ler pointed out.
"True."
The Once-ler's plan was right on track, and damn did it feel good.