Don't own anything except original characters. All material (c) to respective owners. I write these for fun and make no profit. They're just random plot bunnies that live within my strange mind
Chapter 9: What's the Worst That Could Happen
I walk out surprised to see a limo waiting at the curb and watch the door open. Lowering my head inside I see Willy sitting there much to my astonishment and see him extend a purple gloved finger indicating to get into the vehicle. Looking once over my shoulder seeing no sign of my former meeting with Lena Prodnose I sigh climbing into the car and ignore the steady hum of the vehicle moving off to go back to the factory.
Riding in silence would have been favorable but instead I found him reading over my careful notes and delicately moving the security DVD's about the file before putting them into the DVD player beside him. He ignored my looks of disinterest and shifted through the security video to where Lena had tried to show her treachery and to a few other areas during the events periodically placed there. He showed the visible signs of stalking and her lack of self-indulgence when she tried a few times to corner him. She knew what she was doing much to my annoyance; I found the idea that Willy had so easily kept her from tackling him to a bed interesting. He had admitted if she wasn't an enemy she would have been appealing so in his current state of mind why he didn't use her was beyond me. He was going down a self-destructive path anyway and it wouldn't surprise me if she didn't turn that around into some sort of charges of crime against him.
At least he had the sense to avoid that scenario. This is when I found myself impatient with his methodically needling my pride and realized it upset me more than I cared to admit. It was here when he switched to the video of his encounter with Zowie that I watched seeing he in fact did trip the idiot to avoid being pummeled in the face and saw the moron break his nose on the wall.
"I didn't hit Zowie." He said at the conclusion of his declaration of evidence to his innocence. "I know when to not aggravate a situation into something far worse. I didn't need Lena turning her advances into something criminal." I wondered if he read my mind, sometimes Willy Wonka got inside my head and that in fact freaked me out.
"So I'm finished. Send my things by post to my apartment and let me go home." I dismissed the tone of his voice; I knew there was more than just picking me up from Lena's clutches. "Let your factory friends be your conscience. I don't wish to have a membership in Jiminy Cricket's club." He laughed at my reference despite knowing how serious I was.
I really didn't want to be in this mixed up world of his anymore. I had seen Willy fall apart enough and didn't wish to witness his finale. I cleared up the majority of his mess it was up to him to keep it that way.
Willy Wonka's POV
He had thought of their past together, the way they had been so comfortable with each other and how she had brought back his urge to create again. So things weren't the same and he was a darker version of himself. He was what he loathed and became a menace to everything he loved and cherished. He needed her back to find a way to undo that damage but couldn't keep her by force which meant he would have to do something drastic and unexpected.
He wasn't sure if the idea would work, he didn't even think he had a heart anymore but he did know her being around helped things seem better. He could pretend a lot of things; he could even pretend to be the person he used to be. He knew it was cruel but he didn't feel another choice was optional.
Original POV
"Arctura stay at the factory," I look up at his tone seeing a light in his eyes that for once disturbs me, a glimmer that I know is wrong but somehow I don't feel frightened by it.
"No." I see him lean forward watching him remove those gloves that had been a barrier since I remembered except on occasions when he felt safe.
"Please stay at the factory with us," He reaches out and catches my hand which is something that scares me and intrigues me. "Stay there with me, keep me in line and," I look up seeing his eyes refuse to meet mine instead they're focused elsewhere in his other hand.
"And play your conscience? No, no, no and…um…no!" I sigh shaking my head so tired of the games Willy Wonka could accomplish. "Did I say no enough times yet?"
He looks up that imp like look there making me feel strangely nervous and curious. "Not yet," he giggles that eerie way I have come to know as the changed him, I still have yet to get used to it. "Stay with me and be my fiancé." He finishes before sliding a small gold band on my ring finger with a small diamond shaped like a star opposed to a heart.
A reminder of the void room coming to mind when I saw the shape and remembered the distance he had jumped to get away. He wasn't running this time and I found myself totally floored eyeing the diamond and then looking up into those violet eyes so serious it made me think this was some irrational trick of my mind.
This was a twisted sort of engagement and not what I ever had in mind. Looking up at him for the longest time I tried to see into those eyes but all I could see was the man I had been seeing since he fell apart. I didn't even think he noticed I cared enough for him to even love him. The idea he would just drop this question like a literal bomb not only took me by surprise but had me wondering what the hell was really going on.
"Is this some trick?" I whisper hoping he didn't hear me still confused by this odd man that seemed to twist my world a hundred ways.
Willy Wonka's POV
"No, I asked you. No tricks, strings or hidden agenda." "Can I love her or am I truly broken?" He kept those doubts from playing in his mind, he knew every girl out there looked for his livelihood but she had been there before that.
Hope was a thing he had long ago shoved aside, he still was that kid bullied and pretty girls, real girls didn't see him. He didn't expect her to be any different despite being a friend, but it was better to have a real friend in your life instead of a fake. She wouldn't turn his secrets over to the others and this time she wouldn't leave because he was making it permanent for her to stay with him. Fiancé's and wives never left their husband behind, that's what he thought and what he hoped would happen in this case.
Original POV
"Are you going to say 'no' again?" He asked watching her carefully debate over the ring on her finger trying to decide if this was a trick of her mind or real.
"I don't know." I said in answer truly perplexed on how this whole whirlwind of a day had gone horribly out of control.
"Usually the girl says yes." Willy smiled seeing that his unusual idea had made things a bit more interesting than he thought; he didn't know what to think over her lack of reaction. "Or so I've been told when I questioned the Oompa Loompas." I realize he left out the Bucket's clearly he wasn't entirely sure this was a good idea either.
"Why me Willy, I thought you just wanted a real friend and my help?"
"I did, I got both and want you to stay…you always told me back when I was a little less interesting that friends were the best ones to love." He didn't quote her exactly knowing full well that he was endangering what little bond they still had, he had really gone off to somewhere where consciences didn't seem relevant.
"If I give you any answer to the opposite of no I make Lena and Astra both come looking for me with sharp objects." I smile though it still doesn't feel quite right.
"I think you left out Lyrical Slugworth." I make a face at his laughter before once again looking down. "Does that mean you'll stay?"
"It means I'll stay and a yes. But I'm still working at the bar downtown because I like my boss and enjoy the frustration of taking out issues on idiotic drunks." His smile fades at my simplest of requests but he doesn't seem prone to argue and nods. "At least until he decides being engaged to you is hazardous to the bar." I see a twinkle that makes me wonder if being engaged to him will ever be a problem at the bar.
"It may make his bar very popular." Willy remarked tapping the glass which made the vehicle do an abrupt change in direction. "Home Tucker." I give him a look indicating the deception of Tucker being the driver wasn't at all adorable. "It would either be Tucker, Morris or Delphine."
"Tucker's the only one you allow to drive out of the three." I return mockingly seeing him lean back his smug smile broadening. "You are so conceited it's exasperating."
If I had known his ploy back then I don't think I would have cared so much because oddly things had a strange way of mixing up and coming together in a sort of calm jumble.
I spent the first two weeks in the factory like nothing was different watching Oompa Loompas returning my office to its former glory. They had posters hung back in place; my knickknacks and books put on the once barren shelves and even an old snapshot of when I had teasingly douse Willy and myself in powder sugar forgetting to turn off the fans in the back at the store on Cherry Street. If began to feel strangely like I had never left despite knowing better.
Everything was a chaotic disorganized whirlwind since he had proposed to me. The Bucket's hadn't been let in on it due to the illusion we were growing close again, the only one that had noticed so far seemed to be Charlie and he hadn't shared it feeling it was Willy's good news to share.
