After a good bit of discussion at the Bucket family table, they had unanimously decided that a good conversation with Alyssa would give her a good bit of sense, something both she and Willy had appeared to be lacking for her entire stay. So, when Alyssa arrive in a lemondrop-yellow sundress, the Buckets were al prepared, stationed strategically around the kitchen to appear as if nothing were happening besides a quaint family dinner which she had happened to be invited to.

"Where's Willy?" she asked curiously as Charlie escorted her through the door – a rather silly-looking sight, seeing as he had offered her his arm, despite the fact that she was a good bit taller than him.

"Oh, still busy with work, I'll bet," Charlie beamed, and then added coyly, "It's very nice of you to worry about him."

Alyssa went a bit pink in the cheeks, but said nothing to even show that she'd heard the statement at all. Charlie pulled out a chair for her at the table and sat down next to her, sharing a furtive wink with Grandpa Joe who turned around momentarily from peeling potatoes at the other end of the kitchen. Alyssa caught a glimpse of the gesture, but before she had the opportunity to ask what on earth warranted a wink, Charlie came out with what might as well have been a very blunt and heavy object.

"You and Mr. Wonka are in love." He stated knowingly, causing Alyssa's eyes to go wide, and her jaw to open and close a few times in a manner akin to that of a fish.

"In love, Charlie?" she said in a sad attempt at a scoff, finally managing after a few seconds to respond to the shock of being cornered. "That's ridiculous, Charlie. Love complicates things terribly."

"So you don't love him?" Charlie asked, raising his eyebrow in a rather endearing gesture, and again came the expression that made him very much want to place Alyssa in a goldfish bowl.

"Oh, Charlie," Alyssa said, not even noticing a rustle and a brief glimpse of purple fabric in the window. "I –"

"You love him and he loves you," Charlie said resolutely, not leaving any room for negotiation or argument. "You two are the ones making things complicated."

Alyssa paused for a moment and sighed, shaking her head. "You're right, Charlie," she said, sounding oddly defeated – she thought perhaps it would be much more simple than this, much less emotionally consuming. "I love him," she said cautiously, letting the words slip carefully from her lips, then saying again with only slightly more conviction, "I love Willy." She paused, now to think. What could she possibly say to justify what she was doing now that she'd admitted to the one thing whose falsehood was the cornerstone of everything that she and Willy had agreed upon thus far. "I love him so much that I refuse to say a word," she said, now sounding nearly as resolute as Charlie had been in calling the state of things to her attention. "It would tear down all of this. I love him the way he is – no cares, no regrets, no distractions. I won't ruin him, Charlie – Mrs. Bucket?" she said, her explanation interrupted by a hand on her shoulder. The older woman merely smiled down at her.

"Your heart will tell you everything," Mrs. Bucket said warmly. Alyssa attempted to force a smile, but it failed to arrive on her face completely.

"It hasn't had a whole lot to say lately," she said quietly. "But maybe eventually," she said, straightening her skirt as she stood up, dabbing slightly at her eyes with the back of her hand, "it will be silly enough to speak up."

With a short, shuddering breath, she muttered an excuse and walked out the door of the Bucket home. Charlie looked questioningly up at all of his family members, quite puzzled as to what had just happened. He didn't understand this explanation of love, it was far too complicated.

"Adults do very silly things, Charlie," Grandpa Joe explained, "But they're adults for a reason. They need to work things through, else it'll all get screwy."

Charlie nodded, pretending that he understood, but really, he thought that things had already gotten screwy.

Much later that night, Willy sat at the side of his bed, still clad in his hat and violet overcoat. He'd been out and about the factory around suppertime, intending to run his idea…his and Alyssa's idea for their newest invention. He'd made his way to the Bucket family lodgings when he realized the Buckets already had a visitor. He lingered outside, not making his presence known, though silence became incredibly difficult to maintain when they began saying some very peculiar things. Before he knew it, he found himself turning on the heel of his impeccably polished shoe and back to his own persona lodgings.

Complicated, he mused, far too complicated.

Alyssa, in his mind, was horribly misguided as to what love was, and as such, hadn't possessed the slightest clue what she was saying when she'd said that she –

Not that it matter in the slightest, Willy convinced himself. He'd brought her here to inspire him, because he knew his work was always the best when he was inspired, and that was absolutely the end of it.

But why, a voice in his head continued to nag him, did she inspire him quite so much, if not because he…

He absolutely could not handle this. These sorts of things had no place in his world, and so, he gave his tousled mane a good shake, then stood up, heading to the Inventing Room, the one place that never failed to make sense.

Willy was soothed, just listening to the rhythmic click-clack of his shoes against the floor as he made his way down the back-way to the inventing room. Normally, the Wonkatania would have been his venue of choice, but the walk in this instance was far more refreshing. He opened the door and walked through to the desk where he kept his plans and projects, only to find a figure clad in a yellow sundress standing in the spot where he usually mulled over his work. Alone.

"What are you doing here?" he asked in a short, sharp tone that made Alyssa jump slightly as she turned around. She flushed slightly, and Willy wasn't at all surprised – he was a bit relieved that she was appropriately ashamed for the things she'd said earlier.

"I couldn't sleep," she said, sounding uncharacteristically timid as she was suddenly incredibly enthralled by her shoes. "So I decided to get a bit of work done." She looked up and attempted to smile at Willy, the way they often smiled at each other as they discussed their work, only to find that this time, the smile was not mirrored in his face.

"Oh, I see," he said with a stiff nod. "I thought I'd do the same, but I supposed it's a bit silly for two people to try to do the same thing at once at a very small desk." He raised his eyebrows in acknowledgement, then turned on his heel away from a very bewildered Alyssa.

Willy was very sure that indeed, she was a confused sort of woman. And indeed, he became quite sure that he had loved her, and she did not at all feel the same way, or else she would not have been able to hide it so deliberately. Love, in the mind of Willy Wonka (for he had thought about it far more over the course of his lifetime that he had let on) was simple and did not consist of lying or selfishness. He failed to realize in that moment Alyssa was not being selfish at all, and indeed was not the only one lying. In any case, Willy had said himself that he believed very strongly in symmetry, so therefore there was only one solution to thisapparent lack of reciprocity.

He'd simply stop loving her altogether.

Simple.

A/N -

Sorry for the delay! College is a source of major stress at the moment, so I haven't had a great deal of time to update the story. I hope you excuse me for making this one so short, it's moving things along for the next chapter, which I'm currently working on. It will hopefully be done tomorrow, or over the weekend!

I hope you don't hate me for giving Willy and Alyssa the runaround.

Cheers!