Hey guys, I just want to take a moment and thank you from the bottom of my heart for continuing to read this! It means so much, and even more when you tell me what you think about it. It keeps me going. :) And now I present to you... Chapter 13!

Music: "Campfire" from the Tangled soundtrack for when they're in the Truffula Valley.

Chapter Thirteen

A Visit to Truffula Valley

You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.

You're on your own, and you know what you know.

And you are the guy who'll decide where to go.

-Dr. Seuss

"I still can't believe I left you like that." Hannah sat down across from Cindy, a mug of coffee clutched in both hands. "I'm such a terrible roommate."

Cindy shrugged. "You were having fun. I didn't know what I was doing."

The last thing Cindy really remembered was people insisting she have more punch. It made her feel confident and cocky, then things became fuzzy. Apparently Hannah had found her crashed on the couch the next morning. Images of Once-ler, as if in a dream, had been drifting in and out of her thoughts all morning. She had the vague sense that he had shown up at some point. She hoped he hadn't. There was no telling what she could have said or done.

Hannah was still looking aggravated. "Next time I'll keep a closer watch out."

Cindy groaned, pressing the ice pack closer to her head. She didn't know if there ever would be a next time, despite Hannah's promise. If she was going to feel this wretched in the morning….

"I'm just never doing this on a week night," Cindy teased weakly. "I'd never be able to go to class."

"Yeah, it probably wouldn't be good if you showed up to class hung over." Hannah stood, and opened the fridge. "You want anything? Tea? Warm milk?"

Cindy shook her head. She was still feeling a little sick.

"Maybe a nice hot shower will help you feel better," Hannah suggested.

It sounded nice. Maybe it would dampen the headache. And wake her up. She had been horrified to wake up at nearly noon. She only did that when she was sick. It was time to get started in her day.

When she got out of the shower, she felt refreshed. But there were voices in the living room. Thinking they were friends of Hannah's she tried to sneak into their room.

"Hey Cindy! You have a visitor!" Hannah's voice was laced with excitement.

Cindy internally groaned, and, hoping she didn't look too awful, stepped into the room.

Once-ler stood awkwardly in the doorway, and when he saw her, half of his mouth quirked up in a hesitant smile.

Cindy self consciously ran a hand through her damp hair. "Oh! Uh… Hey."

Hannah's eyes were shinning. "Cindy, you didn't tell me you were friends with The Once-ler!"

Cindy shrugged. Hannah gave her a look that said she would have to do more explaining later, then turned to Once-ler and grinned her widest. "Well, nice meeting you again. I'll leave you to Cindy." She waggled her eyes at Cindy as she passed, and Cindy felt heat rise to her cheeks. She stepped farther into the room.

There was an awkward silence. "You're looking better than you did last night," Once-ler said with an awkward chuckle.

It took Cindy a moment to realize what he was saying. Then she gasped. It hadn't been a dream. "Oh…. Oh gosh." Her eyes widened in mortification, and she resisted the urge to hide her entire face behind her hands. "What… what happened exactly?" Did she even want to know?

Once-ler shrugged. "I found you wasted on the streets and helped you back here. I came back to check on you." He smiled. It warmed her insides, and she realized just how much she'd missed him.

There was a brief silence, then she spoke. "Listen, Once-ler… About… Well, about last time we met…"

Once-ler was already shaking his head, hands outstretched to stop her speaking. "No, no, no. It was me. I was being… Well, I was being a jerk. I should have tried to compromise with you a little better."

He took a step closer to her, rubbing one arm awkwardly.

"Besides…. We had agreed that business wouldn't get in the way of our friendship. Right?"

Cindy couldn't help grinning at him. "Right. Here." She walked to the couch, and sat down, patting the seat next to her. "Let's sit."

Once-ler sat down next to her, and his whole form curved forward as if he were wearing something heavy on his shoulders. He stole a few glances at her. "So… Am I forgiven?"

Cindy laughed. "Of course you're forgiven! And I'm sorry too. Do you forgive me?"

Once-ler grinned, and ruffled her hair, which only flopped around in a damp mess. "Nothing to forgive, Miss Who. I'm actually surprised Mustache never came to murder me in my sleep."

"Oh." Cindy pushed her bangs away from her face. "I didn't… exactly… Well, I never told him."

Once-ler's eyebrows went up. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah." She sighed. "I haven't actually been up there for a while."

"Why not?" She wondered if that was concern she heard in his voice.

She shrugged. "Just… haven't been feeling up to it I guess."

"Hmm." Once-ler pressed his lips together for a moment, staring at the wall in front of him. Then he turned to her. "Well, maybe we should both go see him together. We can discuss some business there. And you don't have to be the messenger. I'll tell him about the zoo myself."

So he still wanted to build the stupid zoo. "He'll try to stop you, talk you out of it," Cindy reminded him.

"I know." Once-ler stood. "And you'll probably be on his side. But this gives me a chance to explain myself to the both of you. And who knows? Maybe we can figure something out."

The Lorax had looked like he'd seen his worst nightmare when they found him. His eyes widened, and he looked back and forth from her to Once-ler in something like defeat. Then he turned to her.

"You're… so now you're….?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Lorax, what are you saying? Once-ler wants to talk. To the both of us."

The Lorax's eyes flickered back to Once-ler, and they narrowed in suspicion. "And what do you got to say to me, Beanpole?"

With an awkward chuckle, Once-ler bent down to one knee so he was level with the Lorax, even though the orange fuzz ball was standing on a boulder, chest puffed out. "Look, Moustache… I know we haven't really been getting along lately…"

The Lorax huffed. "That's an understatement."

"…But I wanted to talk to you and Cindy about my motives here." He cleared his throat. "Now, I really don't want to hurt anybody…"

"You sure about that?" the Lorax interrupted.

"Lorax…" Cindy groaned. "Will you just listen to him? We're all going to try and compromise here. See eye to eye."

The Lorax scowled at her a moment, then said, "Where ya been Cindy? We haven't seen you in nearly three weeks. Don't tell me you've teamed up with this green monster over here."

"Hey, I've been friends with a green monster before," Cindy shot back. She felt Once-ler's eyes dart to her in surprise. "And I've learned that they seem to be the most misunderstood."

The Lorax gave a humorless laugh. "Well isn't that just sweet?"

"I'm being serious here." Cindy stared hard at him. "If you want this resolved, then we're all going to have to sit down and talk."

The Lorax studied her a moment, then sighed and turned to Once-ler. "Alright then. I'm all ears."

"Actually, you look more all fuzz to me, but we can pretend." Once-ler poked the Lorax in the belly, and the Lorax in turn jumped back from him with a huff.

"Just get on with it," he growled.

"He's like an angry tom cat," Once-ler chuckled, tilting his head back to look at Cindy. She shook her head at him, and his smile diminished a little. He cleared his throat, and stood. "Okay. Well. Mr. Lorax…. I'm planning on building a zoo."

"A…. zoo?" The Lorax spluttered.

"Now hear me out," Once-ler put his palms up, warding off the impending argument. "I realize that I've been rather…. inconsiderate while expanding my business."

The Lorax snorted, but was able to hold back any comments.

"So I've been talking to POBLO-"

"Protection of Biological Life Organization," Cindy interrupted.

"Yeah. That. And, well, they suggested that if I was going to continue hacking away like I've been, then I should preserve the wildlife."

"By locking them up in a zoo?" The Lorax's mustache bristled like an overused toothbrush.

"That's where we reach a disagreement," Cindy sighed.

"But hold on there, I'm not finished." He ran a hand up his forearm, as if trying to pull up invisible gloves that weren't there. "This new home for all the animals will be as good- if not better- as the one they're living in now. I will personally see to it. They will have all the food they could ever want, have vets take care of them when they get sick, space to run around in…."

"That doesn't cover up the fact that they're still in bondage," the Lorax broke in.

"Trust me, to them it won't matter. They'll be living the life." He raised his right hand and placed his left on his chest. "I promise."

The Lorax looked Once-ler up and down, face softening into one traced with pain. "Yeah. But you've made a promise to us before."

"Okay, so I screwed up on that one. And now I'm trying to fix it."

Pipsqueak had appeared, and was shyly inching towards Once-ler, who now bent to pick him up. He ruffled the fur on top of his head.

"These guys will be perfectly safe and looked after. It's the perfect solution to make us all happy."

Watching him make his promises and cuddle with the Barbaloot made Cindy want to believe him. She wanted to badly. She could feel her unease at the idea start to morph into acceptance that maybe this was the best course of action. She looked to the Lorax.

He was frowning. Then he turned to Cindy. "Do you agree with this?"

Cindy opened her mouth to answer, then realized that she honestly didn't know. She shrugged. "I wasn't comfortable with it either. But… The animals would be happy… Right?"

She clamped her mouth shut when she saw the intense sorrow in the Lorax's eyes. "That's not the point," he sighed. He set a hand against the pale trunk of a Truffula tree. "What about the trees?"

"There'll be plenty in the zoo," Once-ler offered. "They'll be fine."

The Lorax was shaking his head now. "You don't understand." He turned to Cindy. "And I thought you did, but maybe I was wrong. Humans are so narrow minded. They can never look ahead to the future. Always have to live in the moment."

Cindy bit her lip, and turned to Once-ler. "I think… Wouldn't it be better if you had a reservation instead of a zoo?"

Once-ler made a face. "But people don't pay to go to reservations."

Cindy considered Once-ler a moment, a frown slowly growing on her face. "So… This isn't just about preserving the environment. It's about making even more money. Isn't it?"

Once-ler sighed in frustration. "Cindy… I am a businessman."

Something twisted inside of her. They had finally been getting somewhere, and then this… She looked to the Lorax. He shook his head at her, and lowered his eyes to the ground.

Cindy felt lost. Torn. She looked up at the sky, which was partially hidden by the silky tops of Truffula trees. A Swomee Swan looked down at her from its nest.

"Cindy?" She nearly jumped when Once-ler gently set a hand on her shoulder. "You understand my point of view, don't you?"

"I just…. No. I thought I did, but… No. Do you understand ours?"

Something flickered in Once-ler's eyes- she couldn't tell if it was anger or doubt. "Explain it to me again. I'll open my mind to new ideas."

Cindy sucked in a breath. "Well. It's great that you want to try and preserve everything through a zoo, but… What about all this?" She gestured to the trees and nature moving about them. "This place? These very trees? They'll be gone if you keep chopping everything down. And it doesn't matter how much wildlife you preserve, cause this'll still be gone."

Once-ler was looking around himself, pressing his lips together and narrowing his eyes as if trying to see what she was seeing.

She sighed. "I just don't see why you can't just replant the trees after chopping them down. You're an inventor. Invent a machine that'll chop down the trees, then plant seeds behind them. Something like that. Not only will that keep the environment alive and thriving, but you'll have even more trees to make your thneeds with in the future. Do you see what I'm saying?"

Once-ler was nodding. "Yeah, yeah I know what you're saying. And I've thought about that before. But I just figured that since there are still so many trees everywhere that I don't really have to worry about it for the time being."

"Well you have to worry about it. And worry about it now. There are less trees around than you think."

Once-ler frowned at her, but didn't say anything, which was uncharacteristic of him. Then Cindy realized what she had to do.

"Look. Remember that date we went on? And we had that picnic? I wanted to show you something. I think I should show it to you now."

Together, they trekked their way up the hill. They hardly said anything to each other, which made Cindy feel a little uncomfortable. What was going through Once-ler's mind right now?

Just before they crested, she looked back at him. "You ready?"

He nodded, and they reached the crest of the hill.

The desolation stretching in front of them brought back the moment she had dedicated herself to helping the Lorax months ago. She felt hollow when she realized how far she'd come- and it wasn't very far at all. She glanced over at Once-ler.

He was gazing out at the dead land. His jaw was clenched. Then he faced her, and his eyebrows went up. "Yeah?"

He had just shattered whatever hope was rising inside of her. "Isn't it awful?" she whispered.

"An awful beauty, I'd say." He cringed, as if just realizing what he'd said. "I mean… This is a sign of industry, of monumental progress. Thanks to my choppers, which I invented, by the way, I can cut down more trees than ever. It's something I'm rather proud of, even if you don't see the beauty of it. Sure, it's not the prettiest aesthetically speaking, like something you'd draw, but when you realize what it means…" He grinned at her. "It's wonderful."

She stared at him, feeling her eyebrows pull together in confusion. "But… it doesn't just mean progress and success and money. It means… it's…. can't you see that destruction? Don't you realize that if things continue in this way, it'll look like this everywhere?"

Once-ler shrugged. "It won't. Not for a really long time. Cindy, I've been chopping trees down for four years. And look-" he gestured behind them, where life was still flourishing. "There's still plenty of trees to go around."

She didn't understand. They had finally started getting along again after two weeks of not speaking to each other. They had both been willing to listen to the other and be open to other options. And still things were turning into an awful argument.

His face was pleasant, like he hadn't just torn down all hope of getting along normally like friends would. He didn't seem to realize that when their views were so different, it was nearly impossible to get along for very long. He didn't look nearly as upset as she was feeling right now.

"Why wouldn't you answer my calls?" she blurted out. She wasn't sure what prompted it. She just suddenly had to know.

He looked taken aback, and that look of assurance and confidence dimmed a little. She began to realize that it was all a show- everything he did was to put on a show. To look good. To become successful and loved and bring home a hefty profit.

She was now nearly scowling at him. Anger and frustration were whirling inside of her, about to explode.

He seemed to realize this, and he frowned as well. "You never called, Cindy. Not once."

"Yeah, I did. Several times. And was told you didn't want to see me. I realize that we were in a fight, but telling your mom to tell me you don't want to talk? It's pretty childish."

He looked confused and hurt all at once, but in another moment it was gone. Now he was upset. "Remind me again who's the beloved one in this city? No one else seems to have a problem with me but you. And Moustache, but he doesn't count."

"Maybe because we both know the truth about you- that you're selfish, and greedy, and hide behind your mom and-"

"That's enough!" Once-ler suddenly seemed twice as tall as he straightened up and glared down at her. "Look, I've tried to cooperate, to compromise with you. But somehow you always put up a fight. Why can't you just be happy with what I'm doing for the city like everyone else?"

He spun on his heel and began to march back down the hill again.

Had she really just called him selfish? And childish? Guilt squeezed at her chest and in her throat. "Wait, Once-ler…." He stopped and turned, folding his arms.

She felt weak and powerless. She really had no business arguing with the most powerful man in the city. And she didn't want to either.

She took a few steps forward. "I'm sorry. I am so sorry. I didn't mean what I just said. I just…" she shook her head and forced a smile. "Two different relationships, remember? I'm done with the business one. Can we move on to being friends again?"

Once-ler stared at her for a moment. "I don't know if…"

"Please." She wasn't about to lose him for another two weeks. Or longer. "Please, I'm sorry. I really am. I just… blew my top and it was wrong and unprofessional. Please. Forgive me."

She felt like a child. She was actually begging for forgiveness. And the sad thing was that they had just forgiven each other only an hour earlier. How could she let it crumble so fast?

After what seemed like an eternity, he acted. He ran back up the hill, and nearly bowled her over. His arms were encircled around her and he was holding her tightly against him. "You were being mean," he said under his breath.

She returned the hug, holding him tightly. "I know. It won't happen again."

Once-ler pulled away from her, and grinned. "This business session is over. Let's go be friends."