It's Not All Bad [ONECEST}

~Chapter Three~

Once-ler groaned as he slowly sat up and rubbed the back of his head that had banged against the railing when he fell.
"Good luck, Beanpole," Lorax said as he slowly faded away and Once-ler whimpered as he slowly pushed himself to his feet, holding onto the railing for support to keep himself from falling again.
"What the hell is going on down there?" a loud voice boomed and Once-ler quickly grabbed Pipsqueak and began running downstairs towards the first floor. He slid into the supply closet once he reached it and slammed the door shut. He was going to be in a world of trouble if Greed found him out of his room and down on the first floor. Though they lived there alone - cleaners only coming over twice every month - Greed was still paranoid about people finding out about Once-ler.
Once-ler turned the light on and began his search for thread for his sewing kit. He put Pipsqueak down on the floor so that he could search the higher shelves without accidentally dropping him. With a small 'Ha!' he grabbed a spool of thread from the top shelf and shoved it into his pants pocket before opening the door and walking out, Pipsqueak following close behind.
"Well well well, look who finally came out," Greed said as Once-ler ran into his chest. The young man's blue eyes widened in fear as he slowly began to back up. Images of what had happened earlier flooded back into his mind and he yelped as he was pushed back into the wall, hitting his head for the second time that evening. He let out a small scream when Greed's fist was pounded hard into the middle of his stomach, making him double over in pain. A few tears made their way down his cheeks as he fell to the floor with his chest heaving.
"Pipsqueak, go," he heaved out as he looked over at the small Barboloot. Pipsqueak looked back and forth from Greed-ler to Once-ler before running towards the green clad man and biting him hard on his leg.
"Ack! What the fuck are you doing, you dumb animal!?" Greed shouted and Once-ler hauled himself to his feet and grabbed Pipsqueak before beginning to run upstairs, not stopping and not looking back.

...x...x...x...

"We made it! Ha ha!" Once-ler exclaimed as he fell back into his room throwing his fists into the air in victory. He grabbed his vest off of the end of his bed and sat down with it in his lap and began sewing the buttons back onto it.
After eventually sewing them back on - pricking his fingers so many times that he had lost count - he put his vest on top of his dresser before pulling one of the drawers out and grabbing a pair of pajamas. He quickly slipped into them and crawled into bed, making sure that Pipsqueak was in his own bed inside of the closet before turning off his bedside lamp and closing his eyes, slowly falling asleep.
During the night, he woke up to the sound of his door slowly creaking open and looked over to see someone sneaking into his bedroom. With a scream of terror, he fell off of the side of his bed and fell to the floor, hitting his head a third time.
"Ow," he groaned as he slowly sat up and rubbed the back of his head, only to hit it against his wall again when he saw Greed grinning at him from his bed, his sharp teeth practically shining in the moonlight.
"Hello again, Oncie~" he purred and Once-ler pressed himself back against the wall, making himself as far away from Greed as he could be at the moment.
"Oh don't be like that, Oncie. I'm just here to cuddle," Greed said with a small pout as his green eyes locked with the blue eyes of the trembling boy in front of him.
"W-Well h-have you ever heard o-of a thing called knocking?" Once-ler stuttered, slowly beginning to calm down. No matter how much this man scared him, he was still deeply in love with him and knew that he could change him if he tried. Despite a beating every once in a while, Greed was very loving towards him, only becoming stern when Once-ler would try to sneak outside without his knowing.
Greed opened his arms and Once-ler got to his feet and hesitantly crawled back into bed, only slightly flinching when Greed wrapped his arms around him and pulled him back down under the covers.
"Did I hurt you?" he asked and Once-ler nodded his head, wrapping his arms around his stomach. Greed kissed Once-ler's forehead and softly put a hand on the smaller boy's stomach, clearly sorry for what he had done.
That night, Once-ler actually enjoyed himself as they did that, being quiet as possible so that they didn't wake Pipsqueak who would've probably bit Greed again.