A.N. Sorry for the dreadfully short chapter 25. I realized I had a bit of catching up to do, between what I was writing and what I was posting. Fortunately, a long boring day at work surrounded by chocolate and bottles of merlot gave me a bit of a jump start. (Gotta love retail!) So a big thank you to Joe's Produce for giving me eight hours of work to think about the direction of this monster, and an even bigger thank you to everyone who has read and/or reviewed WWMHI. You continue to be the inspiration and the method to my madness!

She spent the day bent over a double boiler, learning how to properly melt chocolate, and bring other candies up to the proper temperature. She couldn't count how many times she looked up from a batch of seized chocolate to have Wonka shaking his head at her. By the end of the day, she had only produced a usable melted chocolate twice. Wonka sighed, pulling a roll of parchment out of the pocket of his frock coat and letting it unfurl to the floor. It rolled out to a length of about thirty feet before stopping. Wonka casually made his way through the list until he came to "cocoa beans" and began furiously scratching out figures and recalculating sums, counting on his fingers and at one point producing an abacus from who but he knew where. Veronica watched all this incredulously, and when he finally tossed the abacus over his shoulder, rolled the parchment and pocketed it, and tossed aside an enormous peacock-feather quill pen, he smiled a bit forcedly at her.

"We'll just have to downsize the Oompa Loompas' Christmas bonuses this year, that's all."

Veronica sighed.

"You know I'm hopeless, right? My mother tried to teach me how to make everything from Jello to macaroons to macaroni and cheese. I can't cook anything. Apparently I'm not fit to be a chocolatier-ess either…"

Wonka giggled.

"What?"

"Chocolatier-ess?"

"Hey… I thought of that first!" She said, jokingly.

"Tomorrow you'll be better. No one can be horrible forever!" Wonka said brightly.

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

"You just don't have a knack for this, do you?" Wonka was staring at yet another batch of horrifically mutilated chocolate. Veronica sat down on the floor, shaking her head. "Well… there go the Oompa Loompas' pension plans…"

"Shut up, Willy." She moaned. "It's been a month, and I still haven't gotten past that!" She gestured carelessly at the bowl of sludge on the counter above her.

"Well, maybe I can fix it…" Wonka hovered over the bowl for a few seconds, prodding at what used to be chocolate and adding drops of this or that. "There, see!" He pulled Veronica back to her feet moments later. "If I'da known it was that easy to fix, we wouldn't have had to cut back on the Oompa Loompas' secret Santa fund…"

"How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Just 'Poof!' fix everything?"

"I dunno… But you have to try something! Can't just let it sit there."

Veronica sighed. She looked at Wonka for a moment. He was staring down at what was now melted milk-chocolate perfection, just taking in the accomplishment. All this time she had been here and he hadn't said a thing about Easter, in fact, Veronica still was under the secret impression that to him, Easter had not even happened. Sure, the drama of her month of imprisonment may have driven the thought from his mind, but he did go through all the trouble of coming to visit, and even risking everything and saving her. Now she had endured a month of struggling to make one good batch of chocolate, with little more than overly cheerful words of encouragement and false, toothy grins that, half the time, scared the living daylights out of her. It was time to do something. Anything. She leaned her head on his shoulder and entwined her hand in his. He froze.

What on earth was this? He thought that they had both gotten this nonsense out of their systems at Easter. Unfortunately, the longer she stood there, pressing against him, the less it felt like nonsense. Gradually, he relaxed. Veronica grinned and tried to snuggle in a little closer. Truthfully, he had no idea what to do. He shot a furtive glance down at her. She tilted her head back, just a little, and blew in his ear. He shivered.

"Umm… What are you doing?" He looked away, a little pointedly.

"Trying to get you to step off that big chocolate pedestal you're on and join the human race." Veronica straightened back up, but didn't relinquish his hand. He decided she could keep it.

"You're no good at making chocolate, I'm no good at… being with people." He said, trying his hardest to be indifferent.

"All you need is a little practice. No one can be horrible forever!" She said quietly. "I think we should take a little break from this lesson. It'll do you as much good as it'll do me." And she led him from the room.

"Your room or mine?"

"…Excuse me?"

"You heard me. Besides, I'd rather like to remain undisturbed. You give your lessons without interruption, I want the freedom to do the same."

"So… this is an exchange of information. Nothing more?"

"You might say that…"

"Veronica?"

"In a manner of speaking…"

"Veronica!" He pulled back just slightly.

"What?" She turned back to him, latched her arm firmly with his own, and marched on.

"I don't want to…" he mumbled at length.

"Well, I didn't want to learn the secrets of candymaking, either."

"No, you wanted to 'learn the secrets of candymaking,' whatever that meant." Wonka said, rolling his eyes.

"Precisely. Here we are!" She had chosen Wonka's room, as it was much more dimly lit than her own. The moody purple walls and generally dark interior was precisely what she wanted. She pulled him inside and, after a little struggle in which Wonka refused to let go of the door frame, she managed to seat him on the corner of his bed. She noticed that the bed had gotten much bigger since she was last here, now fitting its elaborate four-poster frame. The carved W's at on the head and footboards wavered in the dim light.

"The other one was really uncomfortable." Wonka said quietly, scanning her thoughts. "Funny, the more I slept in here, the more I realized that that old bed was less comfortable than the floor of the fudge room!" He giggled mirthlessly, in a last ditch attempt to get Veronica to forget whatever it was she was going to do to him. He could tell it hadn't worked almost before he attempted it.

"How to get along with members of the opposite sex; lesson one. I'm your teacher, Miss Lightfoot…" Veronica purred, pulling off her own set of purple gloves from their candymaking escapades earlier. Wonka nervously adjusted his hat and sat, straight as a board on the edge of the bed, hands folded neatly in his lap, eyes carefully following Veronica.

"Is it too late to give you an excuse as to why I can't do this?" Wonka asked.

"Far, far too late." Veronica whispered.

"I was afraid of that…"

She seated herself on the edge of the bed, beside Wonka. She moved about as close to him as he would allow, and then just stopped, staring at him.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"There's a pretty girl sitting next to you and you like her, and you're pretty sure she likes you too. What do you do?"

"Well, first off, I don't know if I like you very much right now!" Wonka hissed, trying not to look at her.

"Don't talk. What do you do?"

There was a long silence. Wonka didn't move a muscle and, as a result, neither did Veronica. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she seized his arm and guided it around her waist.

"Not too high, not too low, or you're liable to get a slap in the face." She grinned. "Got it?"

Wonka looked back at her, horrified.

"Don't worry, I'll be lenient the first few times." Her grin turned devilish. "Now I move. It's a dance." She leaned against him and lay her head on his shoulder again. He was so tense that this was quite uncomfortable, but she forgave him that for once. "Now it's your turn." She subtly indicated her free right hand. He took it, after a beat, looking extremely nervous. In return she lay her left hand on his right thigh, just above his knee. He jumped and just about hit the ceiling.

"Enough already?" Veronica asked, teasingly.

"Just about." Wonka panted, now standing across the room from her. "Besides, we're wasting time, we have chocolate to make!"

"Cheater." Veronica muttered under her breath, but she followed him obediently out of the room.