A/N: This is a little different than what I usually write, but this idea's been in the works for a while, and I'm finally bringing it out.

:D

~OS

Summary: Brett and Chett are identical twins. They say twins run in famililes. What if The Once-ler had a twin too? The girl his mother always wanted? And what happened to her?

It was a warm spring day. The air was humid, but not too soggy. And in a small town near the edge of the land, two babies were born.

Well, I'm sure a million babies were born on that day, but these two are the focus of this story.

It all started in Elbereth Hospital, where a man with black hair and light blue eyes and two fair-haired identical boys waited anxiously for some good news.

Eventually, they got some. They learned that their wife and mother (respectively) was fine, and that their new baby brother or sister was safe also. So the two boys were sent home to stay with their aunt and uncle.

The baby was brought out, swaddled in a soft blue blanket, and placed in his father's arms.

His beautiful blue eyes stared right at his father's, his tiny mop of black hair sitting atop his head. The man held the baby closer, but gently.

The nurse came out again. The man, too absorbed in his new son, was oblivious to her presence until she gave a little cough. He looked up. She was holding another bundle, wrapped in a pink blanket this time. At first the man looked confused, and then an understanding expression dawned on his face.

"Twins?" He spoke for the first time in hours.

The nurse merely nodded, and he was left with two bundles, identical in every way but for the blanket they had around them.

He gazed fondly at them as they dozed off, tired after their entry into the world.

They were perfect.

The twins were placed in the hospital for a few hours while the mans completed the necessary birth certificates. He and his wife had decided long before that if they ever had a girl, her name would be Cleo. So there was one down. The man liked the sound of rhyming names. His first two boys were named Brett and Chet. So what rhymed with Cleo?

He ran through the list of possibilities before narrowing it down to two: Leo, and Theo.

Leo sounded too close to Cleo. So Theo it was.

He started writing out the forms.

I would like to state here that this man is very absent-minded, and easily distracted. So it isn't a wonder that he started thinking about groceries in the middle of signing. He was also a doctor. Most doctors' handwriting are extremely messy. Keep this in mind.

Cleo was the lucky one. Her birth certificate was flawless. Poor Theo got the brunt end of it.

While writing out his birth certificate, Theo Nathaniel was supposed to be on the paper. Now, the "Theo" part of it was written so that the "o" appeared disconnected from the rest of the word.

Like this:

The o

As for "Nathaniel", the "N" was as far as the man got. Then he started thinking about celery.

You know how when you don't want to forget something, you write it down?

Well that's exactly what happened.

The word celery was written onto little Theo's birth certificate. But the messy handwriting came into play again. The word celery was written so that the "y" was not able to be seen. Furthermore, the "e" was written so badly that the end of the "e" looked like a dash. In the end, the certificate looked like this:

The o n ce-ler

Now, I'm going to ask you a question, and I want you to answer it honestly.

When you look at the writing above, do you really see "Theo n celery"?

Because I sure don't.

So let's not blame the doctors for thinking his name was The Once-ler and finalizing it.

And let's not blame the government for making that the official name that would be registered in every school he would go to.

And finally, let's not blame his dad. Because that kind of thing could happen to anyone. It just so worked out to happen to him.