Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

After Charlie was to inherit Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, Charlie was taken under Willy Wonka’s wing to learn all the secrets of the Chocolatier. They shared ideas and methods on how to make candy better enjoyed by children all over the world. They invented new machinery and improved the factory. And they had fun all the while doing it.

Though it wasn’t never off Charlie’s mind of what he was missing.

Friends.

Through all his years, Charlie’s family was too poor to have him attend school. Charlie was instead homeschooled by his mother. Even with all the children in the town, he instead decided to stay and help his family. He couldn’t help but feel lonely, though his family always found a way to lift up his spirits.

Charlie thought back to last month, when he had been one out of five golden ticket winners.  When he arrived at the gates with his Grandfather Joe, there were four other children with their parents. If he called recall correctly, the children’s names were: Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Violet Beauregarde, and Mike Teavee. Although they had all been sent home, half of them with some sort of deformity, as a result of their rotten attitudes, Charlie couldn’t help think about the possibility of befriending them.

So he went to write letters to each person.

Dear [Insert Name Here],

Hello, it’s Charlie Bucket. I don’t know if you recall, but I was one of the golden ticket winners and I couldn’t help but wonder. I wanted to see how are your lives after the event? I couldn’t but help feeling a bit lonely. Perhaps we could befriend each other, get to know one another.

I’d love to hear soon, Charlie Bucket.

Charlie scrunched his nose and crumpled up the paper. He felt like he sounded a bit desperate. So he started over.

Dear [Insert Name Here],

Hello, it’s Charlie Bucket. I don’t know if you remember me, but I was one of the golden ticket winners. I wanted to follow up with you, as I know some of you left with some abnormalities. Are things going well? I sure hope it did. I can’t imagine my own life changing for the worse.

I hope you write back, for I’d love to hear from you soon.

Charlie Bucket.

It wasn’t much, but he hoped he didn’t make a bad impression. In fact, he was nervous to even send the letters. His hands were shaking furiously as he folded the letters and put them in envelopes. Finally he put the addresses into each envelope and asked one of the Oopma-Loompas to send them.

Now to wait.

Chapter Text

“Mike! There’s a envelope for you!”

Mike put down his book and got up from his bed, groaning as he went downstairs to receive his mail.

Life after the visit to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory changed. For one, he had been stretched like 8 feet tall or something by a taffy puller. How was that even possible? Willy Wonka, as much as he hated that man, wasn’t the worst. The chocolatier sent his parents a bottle of candy, which would help him return to normal size and shape. Even with the kind gesture, he still didn’t trust the candy after what happened with that blueberry girl. As a result, he refused to pop it into his mouth.

Secondly, he was a genius, he was homeschooled and he was able to play video games in the living room all day. That was before coming home paper thin and 8ft tall at least. His parents had punished him for the first time in his life, tremendously cutting down the amount of hours he could play, forcing him to eat meals at the table, and even start reading. Ugh.

Everything in his life was going downhill if he was being honest. He was even doomed to wearing the same clothes over and over. Until he could get back the size and shape he was before, which was going to take a few more months.

“Here Mike, it seems to be a letter from Charlie Bucket. Wasn’t he one of the golden ticker winners with you?” Mrs. Teavee asked.

Mike scoffed. “Yea, he was.” He said as he rolled his eyes. He then snatched the envelope from his mother’s hand and looked down at his name and Charlie Bucket’s name written on the front.

Mrs. Teavee put a hand on her hip and pointed a finger at her 12-year-old. “Now I don’t like how you’re acting young man! I demand you go to your room and open that letter. You better read it and reply!”

Mike groaned and turned around, going upstairs, back into his bedroom. He tossed the envelope onto his desk, jumped onto his bed, and went back to reading his damned book. Or at least he tried to. His eyes kept going back to that envelope on his desk.

Finally he couldn’t take it anymore. He scoffed and went to his desk and started opening the envelope. He folded the letter and read:

Dear Mike Teavee,

Hello, it’s Charlie Bucket. I don’t know if you remember me, but I was one of the golden ticket winners. I wanted to follow up with you, as I know some of you left with some abnormalities. Are things going well? I sure hope it did. I can’t imagine my own life changing for the worse.

I hope you write back, for I’d love to hear from you soon.

Charlie Bucket.

Mike thought about the time he first saw Charlie Bucket. When he arrived with his grandfather with a bright smile on his face and a sparkle in his eyes. His cute button nose and small ears were tinged with pink from the cold. He had to admit, Charlie seemed like an interesting kid, a bit on the shyer side though. 

How odd.

Mike wondered why the boy would send a letter. He was a nice kid, but he didn’t think Charlie would ever reach out. He assumed he wasn’t the only one though, as the letter wasn’t directed specifically towards him. But why did he feel this flutter in his heart while he had read it? Mike decided to write a reply after all. Like it was because he didn’t have anything else to do right?

Dear Charlie Bucket,

Hey. Of course I remember you. You were the only one to stay unharmed or whatever. Plus you were on the news for inheriting that idiot’s factory. Funny you even thought of us. About that “abnormality,” Wonka dude sent some candy a month or two after. It’s supposed fix me back to normal, but I don’t trust it. Remember that blueberry girl? My life is pointless right now. I can’t even play my video games as much as I could before. Now it’s all in moderation. My parents are making me eat at the table and making me do something “extracurricular” now. It’s so dumb. Without the games it’s been a bit more lonely. I guess that’s why I’m writing to you now.

How bout you? What’s life like for you? What’s it like working with that oddball? I know I could never, especially people like him. I hate people. They’re so incompetent.

Mike Teavee.

Mike sighed and went folded his letter. He went to his dad’s office to acquire an envelope to put the letter in. He then wrote the send and return addresses on. He ran downstairs to give to his mom to send at the post office.

Chapter Text

After her visit to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, she felt like a changed person. Well sorta. The obvious was that she turned blueberry blue. That whole experience was traumatic. She had decided to eat even more healthy after that ‘cause gaining weight was gonna be a no no. Of course she couldn’t leave her beloved gum. Besides that, she gotten more flexible. Well even more besides that, she felt like her whole view of life changed. Why was she ever trying to be the best of the best? Her competitiveness made her turn from just enjoying the journey. She flipped and did cartwheels to her hearts content and twisted in ways she could not before, and mother despised how she lost her competitive spirit.

Just then, Violet heard the mailbox close. She thanked the mailman and she went to retrieve the envelopes. She looked through to look at the receivers. Of course they were all for her mother. Wait. There was an envelope address to her, Violet Beauregarde. Seemed like it was from that loser of a kid. Charlie Bucket. Well, she had called him a loser but he ended up winning probably the best prize in the world. Guessed she got what she deserved. It’s not like she loved chocolate anyways. Gum was more her thing.

Anyways, she took the mail in, leaving all the envelopes except for the one addressed to her on the dinner table for her mother to look through when she came back from work this evening. Then she went to her room to open the envelope.

She lay on her bed, unfolded the letter, and read aloud:

Dear Violet Beauregarde,

Hello, it’s Charlie Bucket. I don’t know if you remember me, but I was one of the golden ticket winners. I wanted to follow up with you, as I know some of you left with some abnormalities. Are things going well? I sure hope it did. I can’t imagine my own life changing for the worse.

I hope you write back, for I’d love to hear from you soon.

Charlie Bucket.

Huh. Sure the two weren’t well acquainted but Charlie seemed nice enough. A bit weak in her opinion. He seemed like easy prey for bullies or something. Eh, it couldn’t hurt to write back.

Dear Charlie Bucket,

Hi! I remember you, you won the Chocolate Factory or something right? Congratulations. Maybe it was for the better that I turned into a blueberry and it makes me cringe at the thought. Plus, I don’t know what I’d do with all the chocolate, it’s not my thing. I’m all about gum.

Life has been better. It’s like my eyes were opened. Being competitive was something but I realized I wasn’t enjoying the moment. I was too focused on winning. Not to mention, I realized I didn’t really have any friends because of my sportsmanship, or lack of it.

How is it with you? You got a whole chocolate factory. It must be great working in there.

Violet B.

“Eh.” Violet shrugged. She could’ve done better but it was whatever. It did the job. She wondered what the boy was doing now, though she was sure he was probably enjoying his life at the chocolate factory.