diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index a9f8c495f..e04164ae5 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -21,7 +21,6 @@ rust-version = "1.67"
 
 [dependencies]
 jobserver = { version = "0.1.30", default-features = false, optional = true }
-once_cell = { version = "1.19", optional = true }
 
 [target.'cfg(unix)'.dependencies]
 # Don't turn on the feature "std" for this, see https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/issues/4866
@@ -29,7 +28,7 @@ once_cell = { version = "1.19", optional = true }
 libc = { version = "0.2.62", default-features = false, optional = true }
 
 [features]
-parallel = ["dep:libc", "dep:jobserver", "dep:once_cell"]
+parallel = ["dep:libc", "dep:jobserver"]
 # This is a placeholder feature for people who incorrectly used `cc` with `features = ["jobserver"]`
 # so that they aren't broken. This has never enabled `parallel`, so we won't do that.
 jobserver = []
diff --git a/src/lib.rs b/src/lib.rs
index 05d6f6932..ca28d3f7c 100644
--- a/src/lib.rs
+++ b/src/lib.rs
@@ -1502,7 +1502,7 @@ impl Build {
         }
 
         // Limit our parallelism globally with a jobserver.
-        let tokens = parallel::job_token::ActiveJobTokenServer::new();
+        let mut tokens = parallel::job_token::ActiveJobTokenServer::new();
 
         // When compiling objects in parallel we do a few dirty tricks to speed
         // things up:
diff --git a/src/parallel/job_token.rs b/src/parallel/job_token.rs
index da1ab737a..2640cea6c 100644
--- a/src/parallel/job_token.rs
+++ b/src/parallel/job_token.rs
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ use std::marker::PhantomData;
 
 use crate::Error;
 
-use once_cell::sync::OnceCell;
+use super::once_lock::OnceLock;
 
 pub(crate) struct JobToken(PhantomData<()>);
 
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ impl JobTokenServer {
     ///    compilation.
     fn new() -> &'static Self {
         // TODO: Replace with a OnceLock once MSRV is 1.70
-        static JOBSERVER: OnceCell<JobTokenServer> = OnceCell::new();
+        static JOBSERVER: OnceLock<JobTokenServer> = OnceLock::new();
 
         JOBSERVER.get_or_init(|| {
             unsafe { inherited_jobserver::JobServer::from_env() }
@@ -62,8 +62,8 @@ impl ActiveJobTokenServer {
         }
     }
 
-    pub(crate) async fn acquire(&self) -> Result<JobToken, Error> {
-        match &self {
+    pub(crate) async fn acquire(&mut self) -> Result<JobToken, Error> {
+        match self {
             Self::Inherited(jobserver) => jobserver.acquire().await,
             Self::InProcess(jobserver) => Ok(jobserver.acquire().await),
         }
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ impl ActiveJobTokenServer {
 }
 
 mod inherited_jobserver {
-    use super::{JobToken, OnceCell};
+    use super::JobToken;
 
     use crate::{parallel::async_executor::YieldOnce, Error, ErrorKind};
 
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ mod inherited_jobserver {
         pub(super) fn enter_active(&self) -> ActiveJobServer<'_> {
             ActiveJobServer {
                 jobserver: self,
-                helper_thread: OnceCell::new(),
+                helper_thread: None,
             }
         }
     }
@@ -163,11 +163,11 @@ mod inherited_jobserver {
 
     pub(crate) struct ActiveJobServer<'a> {
         jobserver: &'a JobServer,
-        helper_thread: OnceCell<HelperThread>,
+        helper_thread: Option<HelperThread>,
     }
 
     impl<'a> ActiveJobServer<'a> {
-        pub(super) async fn acquire(&self) -> Result<JobToken, Error> {
+        pub(super) async fn acquire(&mut self) -> Result<JobToken, Error> {
             let mut has_requested_token = false;
 
             loop {
@@ -184,9 +184,12 @@ mod inherited_jobserver {
                     Ok(None) => YieldOnce::default().await,
                     Err(err) if err.kind() == io::ErrorKind::Unsupported => {
                         // Fallback to creating a help thread with blocking acquire
-                        let helper_thread = self
-                            .helper_thread
-                            .get_or_try_init(|| HelperThread::new(self.jobserver))?;
+                        let helper_thread = if let Some(thread) = self.helper_thread.as_ref() {
+                            thread
+                        } else {
+                            self.helper_thread
+                                .insert(HelperThread::new(self.jobserver)?)
+                        };
 
                         match helper_thread.rx.try_recv() {
                             Ok(res) => {
diff --git a/src/parallel/mod.rs b/src/parallel/mod.rs
index 019eae102..70a56e74d 100644
--- a/src/parallel/mod.rs
+++ b/src/parallel/mod.rs
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 pub(crate) mod async_executor;
 pub(crate) mod job_token;
+pub(crate) mod once_lock;
 pub(crate) mod stderr;
diff --git a/src/parallel/once_lock.rs b/src/parallel/once_lock.rs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c48dbb72e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/parallel/once_lock.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+use std::{
+    cell::UnsafeCell,
+    marker::PhantomData,
+    mem::MaybeUninit,
+    panic::{RefUnwindSafe, UnwindSafe},
+    sync::Once,
+};
+
+pub(crate) struct OnceLock<T> {
+    once: Once,
+    value: UnsafeCell<MaybeUninit<T>>,
+    _marker: PhantomData<T>,
+}
+
+impl<T> OnceLock<T> {
+    pub(crate) const fn new() -> Self {
+        Self {
+            once: Once::new(),
+            value: UnsafeCell::new(MaybeUninit::uninit()),
+            _marker: PhantomData,
+        }
+    }
+
+    pub(crate) fn get_or_init(&self, f: impl FnOnce() -> T) -> &T {
+        self.once.call_once(|| {
+            unsafe { &mut *self.value.get() }.write(f());
+        });
+        unsafe { (&*self.value.get()).assume_init_ref() }
+    }
+}
+
+unsafe impl<T: Sync + Send> Sync for OnceLock<T> {}
+unsafe impl<T: Send> Send for OnceLock<T> {}
+
+impl<T: RefUnwindSafe + UnwindSafe> RefUnwindSafe for OnceLock<T> {}
+impl<T: UnwindSafe> UnwindSafe for OnceLock<T> {}
+
+impl<T> Drop for OnceLock<T> {
+    #[inline]
+    fn drop(&mut self) {
+        if self.once.is_completed() {
+            // SAFETY: The cell is initialized and being dropped, so it can't
+            // be accessed again.
+            unsafe { self.value.get_mut().assume_init_drop() };
+        }
+    }
+}