What the Fudge Bodyguard (Once-ler x Reader){Haylo}

Once-ler!xShort!Tempermental!Reader! Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Slow, quiet, lonely, sad. That's what all those years were. They were filled with physical and mental pain, most of with was from his loss of his dear, sweet (Y/NN). She had been the syrup to his pancake, the marsh to his mallow, the truffula to his tree. She was his life and more. His home was where she was, now he was lost. She was his sunflower in summer, his rain on a dry day. The thought of her used to give him the feeling similar to taking a nice, long drink of icy kool-aid after working hard on a hot day. Happiness. Bliss. Relief. She sent chills down his spine and terrified him down to his core, but that didn't matter so much. Without her around, he spent his nights with cold feet, fearful thoughts, and teary eyes. His dreams were filled with nothing but the sight of her pained expression when she had run away from him. His thneeds were like a nasty reminder of how much he missed her, Once remembered how her hair was as soft as the tufts he used to make them, and it was twice as shiny. The pictures on his walls, the ones she had drawn of the both of them, served as a little piece of her, one that was cold and lifeless. One that didn't respond to him when he spoke to them. His tophat sat on a dusty table in the corner; he remembered how (Name) would tease him and steal it to wear for herself, it was too big and fell over her eyes, but it still looked great on her. His old shoes lay on the floor; Once remembered how (Name) would hold them up to her head and pretend they were bunny ears. One of his old coats, which was missing a tail, hung on a rack not far away. The thought of how it had lost the tail amused him, but saddened him all the same. A stuffed head of a rabied dog, the one she killed to protect him, sat mounted above his mantle. It was something he would always cherish. He stared at the wall, at a few deep scratch marks, where (Y/NN) had hit hard with her nails. He remembered how angry she had been that day, because of how much she disliked his family. Her favourite stuffed toy, an old black wolf with green eyes and stripes, was sitting in a chair opposite of him.

He went through the same things day in and day out, every week of every month of every year. Until one long, dark day, he heard the ringing of his doorbell an saw a child standing outside on the ground, looking up at him. He said his name was Ted, and that he wished to hear about the trees and what had happened to them. And so he began at the beginning, starting before he met (Name), before he ever found the trees. And so on he explained for hours that night about his mistake and how it had happened.

"But won't she come back? If we give trees for her to breathe?"

"Maybe, and someday the animals and the Lorax will come back, too. But.... 'Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."