Easter morning saw Veronica waking a little later than usual. Her pillow was hopelessly stained from eyeliner and mascara, as she had cried herself to sleep. She saw this and shook her head. And then she saw it, glinting in the morning sunlight on her pillow beside her. A small, foil wrapped chocolate egg.

"I haven't gotten a visit from the Easter Bunny since my mother died…" She said. Her heart gave a leap. The egg was wrapped in a flamboyant purple with a large golden W on it. He had been here. She unwrapped the egg. There, imprinted on the wrapper:

Be at the factory, ASAP.

-WW

Veronica jumped out of bed. She was already later than usual! She scrambled towards the door… and slipped, falling face first onto the floor. Another purple, foil-wrapped egg rolled by. She snatched it up and sat up, unwrapping this one too.

P.S. Wear something nice.

-WW

Something nice? She trotted to her closet and wrenched open the doors. And then she screamed.

A five foot tall chocolate rabbit stood in the center of her closet, wrapped in purple foil and adorned with a large silver W pin. Was she supposed to unwrap this too? She couldn't very well eat it now… She could almost hear Wonka giggling at the thought. Wait a minute…

She COULD hear Wonka giggling…

Veronica shrieked and leapt back from her closet, clutching at her chest as Wonka popped up from behind the rabbit, idiot grin plastered across his face.

"Didja like it?" He asked, clambering out of her closet, cane tapping on the wood floor.

"It was a surprise, for sure…" Veronica wheezed, collapsing back on the corner of her bed.

"The best kind of prize is a surprise!" Wonka beamed. Veronica couldn't help grinning as well.

"I was afraid… I thought I'd be spending the holiday alone." Veronica said quietly, looking at her feet.

"Looks like it." Wonka said, pointing with his cane at the stained pillow. "Well, come on, hurry up, we have—"

"Work to do?" Veronica asked. She was beginning to see signs of predictability in this previously unpredictable man.

"No, silly! It's Easter! We have a party to get to!" Wonka grinned brightly. So much for predictability…

And with that, he seized Veronica by the wrist and pulled her off the bed. A half hour later, they were walking down the street, like some fine gentleman and his lady in the old days, Veronica thought. Wonka was wearing his usual dress, noticeably lacking his heavy outdoor coat and layers of scarves, not to mention the garishly huge sunglasses. Veronica was clad in a knee length lavender skirt and a cream colored, sleeveless top. The weather was still chill, so she carried a cream colored sweater with her as well. About halfway back to the factory, after again apparently reading Veronica's mind, Wonka offered her his arm. She took it, and in doing so could almost imagine them strolling into Victorian Britain. Neither of the pair noticed the thin man, lurking in the shadows. This apparition grinned broadly and disappeared.

Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka, the amazing Chocolatier...

"Look who I brought to the party? Isn't it great? Everyone's back together again, like a great big, happy f-family!" Wonka beamed around at everyone. The Oompa Loompas, the Buckets, Veronica and Wonka had all assembled in paradise, the biggest room in the factory. Veronica noticed that the river looked a little low on chocolate, but other than that, this room had not suffered the gutting that most other rooms would have on a holiday like Easter. How easy it would be for her just to smuggle out a little marshmallow flower… NO. She wouldn't do that. Not when Wonka had been so gracious as to bring her back for a party. She couldn't just stab him in the back.

"So… Everyone enjoy yourselves!" Wonka grinned, apparently at a loss for anything else to say or do. It was clear that he had never thrown or, most likely, attended a real party in his lifetime. Veronica patted him on the shoulder and smiled, walking away with Charlie and his parents.

"So… How are we going to…"

"Help Mr. Wonka?" Charlie finished.

"Precisely. I have a feeling he's been planning this for awhile but…"

"But he's been so busy with everything else, he hasn't put much thought or research into what he's doing here?"

"Thank you Charlie. It's abundantly clear that we're thinking on the same wavelength." Veronica smiled. Charlie looked a little sheepish.

"Well," Began Mrs. Bucket, "I suppose we could look to the Oompa Loompas for some form of entertainment… although their songs tend to be a little…"

"Macabre." Charlie said with an air of finality.

"And where does an eleven year old learn words like 'macabre'?" Veronica asked. "Besides, that might be a little better suited for Halloween."

"Why don't you talk to him, Veronica?" Mr. Bucket suggested. "Maybe he'll let slip what he was planning."

"But…" Veronica began. She had no idea what to say to him at a time like this… And what could she possibly say to get him to reveal his holiday surprise without hurting his feelings in the process?

"You'll be fine, Miss Veronica." Charlie grinned. Veronica sometimes got the impression that Wonka had been teaching his young protégé how to read her mind as well. She sighed and left the huddle.

"Willy?" She came back to where Wonka was standing, still watching to see that his guests were indeed enjoying themselves. Of course, most of the Oompa Loompas had dispersed, going back to their own business, and the Buckets were still gathered over by the corner of their house, being snowed on by the perpetual powdered sugar snowfall and grinning innocently.

"Having fun? Isn't it neat?" Wonka smiled.

"Ummm… to what are you referring?" Veronica asked cautiously.

"The party silly!" Wonka said, cocking his head and looking at her somewhat sideways, like a bizarre purple bird.

"Uhh… yes. The party's wonderful. Tell me, what did you have planned for today?"

"I dunno. I was kinda hoping you could tell me." Wonka whispered, for the first time casting a bit of an uneasy look at the Buckets. They were now about ankle deep in powdered sugar and it was piling up on their heads. They still hadn't moved.

"Me?" Veronica asked.

"Well, yeah. You've actually had a party before, right? Please tell me you've had a party before…"

"Yes, fortunately for you, I have had a party before. Just not an Easter party. Usually, I spend Easter alone… I used to visit my grandparents, we'd bring dinner. When I was really young, maybe we'd have an Easter egg hunt?" Veronica said quietly.

"Easter egg hunt?" Wonka asked. "Yeah…"

"Willy, that would involve someone hiding eggs. Have you even got any?"

"Of course I do. I'll be back shortly."

And true to his word, Wonka was indeed back shortly. Within about five minutes he had wandered away from Veronica, left paradise, and then came back, looking extremely pleased with himself.

"Ok. You can go find 'em now." Wonka said, without any other sort of explanation. The Buckets looked a little confused. The Oompa Loompas were no longer even listening, for they had all gone back to their usual activities.

"Easter eggs." Veronica chuckled, attempting to explain. She cleared her throat uneasily then leaned closer to Wonka and whispered into his ear.

"It took you five minutes?"

"Of course it did. It was easy hiding them. The hard part'll be finding them." He grinned, tapped her on the nose with the tip of one purple gloved finger, and walked away.

"You may search the entire factory. Whoever finds the most… Well, I guess they'll have a lot of chocolate eggs!" Wonka smiled, shooing the Buckets and Veronica away.

As it turned out, it was extremely difficult to find the little chocolate eggs dispersed throughout the factory. Wonka was following Veronica on her search, egging her on, (Sorry about the bad pun!) and giggling whenever she would look in a wrong spot. An hour passed and Veronica had found but five of the little chocolate eggs. She wondered how many Wonka had hidden, and how well the Buckets were faring.

It was now long past lunchtime and Veronica was getting tired of searching in vain. She and Wonka had split her cache of eggs for lunch… there were only eight, but they were delicious nonetheless, and then continued the search. Every time Veronica would get to the verge of giving up, Wonka would find some way to convince her to continue. Finally, she sensed a change in the chocolatier. She was very much exhausted of her fruitless search, but Wonka seemed to be about to explode for glee. He was tapping his cane absentmindedly on the floor and kept whistling odd tunes, unable to contain himself any longer. Finally, Veronica looked up. The door she was standing in front of bore a large label:

"Chocolate Egg Room"

It couldn't be. It was too good to be true, right? That he would hide chocolate eggs in their own room? It was against Veronica's better judgment to open that door. She was just bound to get a nasty surprise on the other side… But with a sigh, she opened it anyway. Wonka looked like he could die of anticipation as the door swung open and…

Veronica was instantaneously buried in an avalanche of little chocolate eggs. Unfortunately, so was Wonka, so he couldn't even fish her out when they stopped tumbling out of the room. Veronica wondered where he had gotten off to, she could barely see, being at the bottom of a mountain of chocolate eggs. And then she felt him move. He was apparently attempting to find the floor with his cane. And he was literally right on top of her.

"Willy!" She hissed. The movement didn't cease. "Willy, stop that, or you're going to poke my eye out!" The jabbing of the cane ceased, traded for a more delicate prodding. They both eventually heard it strike floor.

"Ok, that's lovely, you found the floor, now get off me!" Veronica said, blindly shoving at him. He deftly grabbed her hand as it swam through the chocolate eggs, just inches from his face.

"You win!" He said cheerfully. "But there's one little eensy unforeseen problem."

"What. What problem?" Veronica hissed.

"I can't move."

"What do you mean you can't move? You found which way is down, now just--" She shifted her weight, trying to push against the layer of eggs beneath them, but they just shifted with her. He was right. They were stuck.

"This is lovely, Willy. Just peachy. You realize we're stuck here until someone else finds us, right? And then there's no guarantee they'll figure out we're stuck in here. Not to mention that we're bound to run out of oxygen shortly…"

Wonka giggled.

"And what, pray tell, is so boundlessly hilarious that you find it necessary to be laughing at a time like this?" Veronica growled.

"I dunno." Wonka said cheerfully into the darkness. He was still holding her hand, which was still only inches away from his face. It occurred to her that he saw a lot better in darkness than she did. They were separated by a layer of eggs, for the most part, but his right shoulder was definitely pressed right against her collarbone, and his elbow was sort of jabbing her in the stomach. There was a long, uncomfortable silence.

"Well, this is fun!" Wonka finally said. He seemed to have figured out some sort of swimming technique for clearing away the eggs from his face, making it easier to breathe. She felt him shift, just centimeters above her, and then…

The whole pile of eggs shifted uncomfortably. Most of the eggs separating the two of them rolled away, and Veronica was left with a very sheepish looking Wonka staring her in the face and lying directly on top of her.

"And just when we thought things couldn't get any more uncomfortable…" Veronica sighed.

"Actually, you're much more comfortable than a bunch of little chocolate eggs." Wonka said sensibly. If Veronica could have slapped him, she would have. But she couldn't move that quickly. Her arm was still stuck straight up, caught in the chocolate. Slowly and carefully she pulled it down, only to find she had nowhere to put it, Wonka's shoulder would have been in the way. So she put it around his neck instead. She felt the blood rush to his cheeks, the heat radiating from his face. He was blushing?

"I… wouldn't move around much more, or things are bound to get much more uncomfortable…" Wonka whispered. It was Veronica's turn to flush a deep shade of red. This was followed by another long, uncomfortable silence, aside from the gentle rustling of the foil wrapped eggs. The two had now been staring each other in the face for over five minutes. Veronica couldn't help wondering which one was going to suffocate first? Probably her, from his added weight pressing on her chest. A thought rose into the forefront of her mind, if she was going to suffocate and die… But she couldn't do that. It would scare him to death.

Wonka was staring into Veronica's storm grey eyes. They were very dark right now, but what would he expect, being buried under a good three feet of chocolate eggs? Her breathing was getting a little shallow, she was worried, that much was certain. He could feel her chest rise and fall in tandem with his own. She had been right. This was getting quite awkward. He wished she would say something. And then it struck him. Maybe she was right, and they would run out of oxygen. If she suffocated, that would be terrible. Not at all what he had planned for Easter. The little cartoonish image of him sweeping her off her feet with a kiss came back, for the first time since the Valentine's Day fiasco. That was preposterous, he thought. He could hardly sweep her off her feet, she wasn't on her feet to begin with. But that didn't change the fact that they had but one little purple-foil wrapped egg jammed between their lips. And one between their foreheads, but that was just insanity. If he tried to kiss her forehead, all the eggs would shift again, and who knows where they'd end up? He shifted, just slightly, trying to knock the egg out from between their faces. It rolled off the side of Veronica's cheek, and he suppressed a giggle.

"Better?" He asked. It was definitely easier to breathe without a candy persistently trying to convince you to eat it… Especially when it was still wrapped. Veronica sighed and tried to nod, but the eggs around them shifted menacingly. She was very conscious that it was getting quite warm in their little chocolate tomb. She hoped they would get out soon. Wonka was shifting, tilting his head from side to side carefully, a little uncomfortably. What was he doing? Trying to make a little more airspace? Veronica's eyes had adjusted to the darkness. She saw the chocolate around her shift slightly and realized that he had found some way to slip his arms over her shoulders. When had that happened? They had previously been pinned to his sides. She realized what he was up to. Oh no… he wasn't going to get there first, not again. She raised her head, just a little, and brushed her lips against his. It wasn't quite a kiss, but she had won, nonetheless. Wonka looked stunned.

"I win." Veronica whispered gleefully. Wonka smiled, that rare, flattering smile. His eyes were almost black in the darkness. He had started to shake slightly, or was that her? She couldn't tell. He tried his hardest to give her a little squeeze, and kissed her in return. She was definitely shaking now. She managed to finally pull her other arm around his neck and squeezed back. He gave a little snort and kissed her a little more hungrily this time. After all those years of loving nothing but chocolate, Veronica thought briefly. And suddenly, the chocolate eggs began to shift again. And then next thing she knew, the pair was squinting in the bright factory light, Wonka still on top of Veronica, with chocolate eggs all around them, still partially in a kiss, Veronica biting Wonka's bottom lip, too stunned to move, as the Buckets and at least twelve Oompa Loompas stood, frozen, staring back.

"Happy Easter everyone?" Wonka finally managed to whimper.