Disclaimer: Despite my numerous break-in attempts on the Burton compound, Willy Wonka still remains out of my reach and therefore isn't mine.
AN: There's nothing like having chocolate to help you write a story about a chocolatier. Seriously, people should try it. Also, no, the Oompa Loompa is not interested in Astra in that way: he's merely thinking that it's cute that Willy's got a grown woman in the factory and is thinking of how romantic it would be if the two got together. Anyway, here's the next chapter!
Chapter 8: Candy is Dandy, but Love is Hard:
Sitting in the pink hard candy boat, Willy tried not to shift around uncomfortably in his seat next to Astra. Throughout his entire life, Willy Wonka had never been comfortable with people. The idea of anyone wanting to shake his hand or even come near him made him shiver, but there were an exceptional few that he allowed to invade his "personal space" and not have apoplexy afterwards. Those few included his dear friend Robert and his charming daughter, Astra, which would explain why he was currently holding her hand as the boat slowly moved through the chocolate river.
The reason Willy was uncomfortable around people in general was because of the way he had been treated as a child. With a head covered in braces and headgear, he had been the center of most jokes from fifth through ninth grade. After that, he had run off to see the world and to avoid people with their rude stares. Then, as he grew older, Willy realized that, for some reason or another, people wanted to get a closer look at him whenever they saw his purple eyes gazing at them with a blank, dreamy gaze. You'd think that people had never seen purple eyes before!
However, he was especially uncomfortable around the female half of the population, particularly those between the ages eighteen and fifty. Willy Wonka had never had much luck conversing with young or adult women. When he was going through his teen years, Willy had never managed to gather the courage to ask girls out to the movies, or even to walk them home. Well, actually, he'd managed to ask to escort a girl home once, and she had laughed in his face. It had been incredibly hurtful, and so he had vowed to avoid girls until he felt ready to face them…whenever that would be.
However, after he had become a successful candy maker and chocolatier, women had taken a sudden interest in him. Every time he had gone out, they were constantly winking at him, throwing him odd smiles, or trying to touch his hand. A few bold ones would bat their eyelashes or try and whisper things into his ear, which just annoyed him to no end. Some of them wore too much makeup on their faces, and others smelled like they had bathed themselves in their perfume. Willy's very sensitive nose and taste buds were what made him such a fantastic chocolatier, so he was a firm believer that perfume was one of many things that should be used in extreme moderation.
'But Astra sure smells good.'
The unconscious thought made Willy nearly choke on his tongue, which he quickly tucked between his right cheek and teeth. He shouldn't be thinking such things, especially not about the young woman sitting next to him in the boat! Though she sure smelled nice…the sugar in the air mixed with a light floral scent that she must have sprayed on before coming to the factory. The combination of flowers and chocolate was intense, and Willy felt slightly dizzy from the delicious scent of it.
"Mr. Wonka, are you alright?" Astra's voice brought his drifting mind back.
He forced himself to smile and remain calm. "Fine!" he chirped, sitting up in his seat. "Just fine! And please call me Willy. Oh, look, there's the tunnel! Hold on!"
Before she could answer, the boat took a tremendous dive downwards.
Astra uttered a loud cry of surprise as the air flew past them, the sound of the Oompa Loompa drums beating a fast rhythm in her mind as they rowed. Still frightened by the rushing of the boat, Astra reached out and grabbed the nearest thing she could find.
Willy Wonka's left hand and arm.
Willy tried desperately to breathe as Astra latched onto him, her hands wrapping around his hand and arm as her face buried itself in his shoulder. He got a tingling sensation in his left side, and his stomach started to tap-dance around his heart, which was beating madly. He didn't really understand what it was he was feeling, so he passed it off as his reaction to the exciting boat ride, as well as the smell of chocolate in the air from the river.
Still, having Astra hold onto him was pretty nice…
'Oh, dear,' he thought, trying to push away any ideas of Astra out of his mind. 'I cannot think about her that way! It's not right!' He looked over at her, her face still semi-hidden by the folds of his crimson coat. 'But she looks so sweet and charming, hiding her face in my shoulder…'
Unable to stop himself, Willy smiled at the small picture the two of them must make: Willy holding his cane with one hand as the other clutched Astra's, her other hand clutching his arm as if her life depended on it and her face snuggled in his shoulder. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see several of the Oompa Loompas snickering at the two taller folk as they rowed.
Willy pushed all of that out of his mind in order to focus on what he had offered to do: show Astra around the factory. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he looked up and spotted the Inventing Room towards their right side.
"Stop the boat," he called, gesturing to the room with his cane.
The boat slowed to a stop, the drum beats fading as the pink seahorse drew up to the large door with the words "Inventing Room" glowing in white light. Willy looked down at the young woman who still had her face buried in his shoulder, her hands still holding onto him. Now he could feel her warm breath on his skin through his coat, and very much saddened at having to break away from her touch so soon. Still, they didn't have much time before her father woke from his nap and came looking for her, so he might as well get this party started…though he'd much rather have Astra hold onto him like this for a while longer…
"Come on, Starshine," he whispered, his free hand reaching up to untangle her from his side.
Astra pulled her head up to look around and blushed, quickly releasing him from her death-grip. "Sorry," she said, reaching up and adjusting her wind-tossed brown hair. "It's just that the drop took me by surprise, that's all."
As she talked, Astra pulled a small red elastic band from her pocket and drew her hair back into a ponytail. Willy tried not to pout; he liked seeing her with her hair down. It made him want to brush and fiddle with it until his fingers cramped up. Holding back a sigh, he merely smiled and stood up, offering her a hand out of the boat, which she accepted with a smile that made his heart flip. However, instead of letting go once they were on dry land, Willy simply tucked her hand in the crook of his arm as he guided her towards the immense metal door in front of them.
"This is the most important room in the entire factory," he said, smiling once he caught the excited look on Astra's face.
"Is this where you got all of your ideas for candy?" Astra blurted out, her eyes full of questions. "Like the Chocolate Birds, or the Peppermint Puffs you gave me for my birthday?"
"Well, yes." Willy was surprised that she remembered the candies he had made for her and her brother. It had been so long ago and she had been so young that he half expected her memories of them to have faded to nothing by now. "You still remember those?"
She nodded. "I had lots of fun showing off the Puffs to my friends at school," Astra said, a dreamy smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "They knew that my dad worked at the factory, so they thought it was neat that I got new candies before they did." Suddenly, she giggled. "They never knew that the greatest candy maker in the world was a close friend of the family."
Willy smiled at her as he led her inside, the sounds of machinery and bubbling formulas surrounding them as they entered the room.
Astra looked around the Inventing Room in awe. There were machines everywhere, all of them making noises of various kinds. A few whistled, some squeaked, and the rest either bubbled, churned, thumped, or (oddly enough) made soothing water noises. It was the most colorful and active room that she had ever seen in her entire life.
"Wow," she whispered, her eyes darting around to catch everything that was going on.
"Do you like it?" Willy asked, his violet eyes begging her to say 'yes.'
"It's wonderful," Astra replied, watching as one machine let out a huge cloud of purple steam. "What does that machine do?" She pointed at the one spewing the steam.
"Oh!" he said, dragging her towards it. "This is the machine that makes Fizzy Lifting Drinks!"
"Fizzy Lifting Drinks?" she repeated, looking at the steam coming out.
"Yup! Unfortunately, though, I haven't gotten the formula quite right, because it should be bubbles and not steam coming out of it," Willy said, a slight frown on his face. "I'll get it eventually, though."
"Well, what's the drink supposed to do?" Astra couldn't help but be curious about a thing that had the words 'fizzy' and 'lifting' in its title.
"It's supposed to help you float after you drink it," the chocolatier replied, giggling with a large grin on his face. "I'm especially looking forward to testing this one myself."
Astra blinked at him in surprise. "If it helps you float, how do you get down?"
"You burp, of course!" he said, as though it should have been obvious.
She couldn't help but laugh at the image of hundreds of thousands of children floating around, burping and giggling as they floated around and fell to earth. It was a funny image, and Astra rather enjoyed it. As she recovered and tried to stop her giggles, she noticed that Willy was watching her with an equally amused smile on his face. When he noticed that he had her attention once more and that her fit of laughter was over, he placed a gloved hand on the middle of her back and guided her further into the Inventing Room.
For Willy, the two hours allowed to them by Robert passed far too quickly. Astra was full of questions, and the chocolatier was all too eager to answer them. Normally he would have had a heart attack answering such questions, but since it was Astra asking them, he didn't mind. He showed her the Square Candies That Look Round, and the Hot Ice Cream for Cold Days. As he led her around the Inventing Room, he kept a firm grip on her hand or waist to keep her from venturing too close to the machines and getting hurt. The Oompa Loompas knew how to handle themselves in dangerous situations, but Willy would rather be eaten by a snozzwanger than let something happen to his Astra!
'Wait, my Astra?' he thought as he led her back to the boat. 'Since when did she become my Astra?'
Deciding to let the thought pass, Willy focused on keeping Astra calm during their boat ride back up to the Chocolate Room. As the boat moved forwards, he kept her right hand in a tight grip within his gloved left hand, telling himself it was to make sure she didn't fall out of the boat during the exciting ride. Of course, that was just a silly thought, since neither he nor any of his rowers had ever fallen out of the boat in the past. Still, it gave him a sort of peace of mind, and it appeared to make Astra calmer, too, so it was a good thing all around.
The ride was fairly uneventful. As they moved, Willy pointed out rooms, such as the Jelly Bean Room, the Whipped Cream Room, the Marshmallow Pillows Room, and the Powdered Sugar and Coconut Snow Room. However, Astra seemed to take particular interest in the Mint Forest Room.
"Mint Forest Room?" she asked, turning to look him in the eye. "What's that room like?"
"It's an entire forest made out of mint flavored sugar," Willy replied, giggling. "All of the plants and things are made up of the different kinds of mint flavors: spearmint, peppermint, wintergreen, etc."
Astra's eyes glazed over as she imagined such a room. "I want to see that room first when I come back," she said, her voice turning dreamy and wistful.
Willy smiled and squeezed her hand. "Then I promise that I'll take you straight there when your whole family comes to see my factory, Starshine," he whispered into her ear.
He noticed that she shivered and blushed at the sound of his voice, and he grinned. There were so many gosh-darn reasons for him to be happy today! Astra had come back into his life, and even though she was grown up, she was a lovely grown up who apparently still loved candy as much as when she had been small. Seeing her eyes suddenly turn dreamy at the thought of one of his candy rooms made him want to jump up and dance around his boat. Never in his life had Willy Wonka wanted to make a grown up woman happy with his work, and yet here he was, eager to do anything to make Astra smile or have her look excited about something he had invented.
As Astra and her father walked out of the back of the factory, Willy felt unusually eager for the rest of the family to come to visit. It would be a few days, but that would only give him time to make his entire factory presentable to his guests…and to tidy up the Mint Forest Room to be the greenest and tastiest it could be.
Whistling, Willy headed off to the interior of his factory, eager to get started on his work.
AN: Aw, he likes her! Isn't that cute? Please review and let me know what you think! Thanks!