This is something sweet and cute. For all you ArnoldxHelga fans!
"Stupid Dad!" A young blonde shouted in the rain. Thunder roared above her head, but she hardly noticed it through her rampaging. She kicked a pebble with her soaked tennis shoes into the street in frustration, never seeing it nearly take out a stone statue outside a store! She growled at a passing dog, making it yelp out in fear and run away whining.
In her frustration, the girl left her home in her usual pink dress with her hair tied back into two pigtails and a big bow on the back of her head. She seemed too blinded by fury to care whether she was wet, freezing, and probably close to catching a cold.
"Go and get me the files from my work Olga!" The girl mimicked cruelly under her breathe. "I need you to get it for me since my car got towed the other day!"
She stopped from her furious stomps by a lamp post. "For the love of God, my name's HELGA!!" she screamed into the air, thunder blasting off in the background!
"Helga?" said a soft voice from above her head.
The girl froze, whipping her head to a high window on an old red bricked building. "What are you doing?" a boy asked from the window. He had wild corn flower yellow hair that could be described a football shape with a small blue hat in the middle of his head.
The flustered girl quickly regained her posture, adjusting the folders in her arms.
"I-It's has nothing to do with you football-head, but if you must know, I'm getting my "beloved" father his files for his meeting tomorrow." Helga scoffed. A strong gust of wind blew past her sending her pigtails to block her vision for a moment. It was then she realized how cold she was.
She shivered slightly, and had to stifle a sneeze. The caring boy above noticed this and quickly grew concerned. "In this weather? Helga, the weather man said there's going to be a storm tonight! You can get sick and-"
"Like I care what happens." Helga spat out cutting him off. "Anyway, I'm late for dinner as it is, and frankly, I'm starving and you're keeping me here!" With that she turned on her heel and walked down the street. "Don't hold me up ever again Football-Head!" Helga called back while marching down the street.
From his window, Arnold sighed and closed it. "Whatever you say Helga."
As he closed his window, Arnold never saw the girl look over her shoulder and let out a large happy sigh. The rest of the way, she tried to seem angry still, but couldn't help but add a slight skip to her walk.
No sooner than Helga said goodbye (or what she calls it a goodbye), the winds picked up and the rain fell harsher than ever.
The water level began to grow rapidly and splashed everything in sight away. Up almost to her shins in water, Helga trudged the streets, now looking like river streams.
"Stupid water…Stupid rain…stupid-Ah!" a large wave came and knocked her into the water. Luckily she swam back easily to the top. All those long hours Coach Wittenberg made them do swimming during summer finally paid off.
"I'll thank the old man if I get out of this." She said standing up to the waist high waters. She stopped. "If?" she looked around her. The girl had to admit, the streets were getting flooded pretty quickly. And by this rate, she won't reach home in time.
A loud car alarm went off in front of her, and she whipped around to see a car being washed away in a 10 foot wave, coming right at her! Not an eye or eyebrow rose; she only stared and said-
"Perfect." She mumbled.
The wave impacted her hard, sending her spinning back under the wet surface. While underwater, she screamed at the top of her lungs, only to get a mouthful of water.
Kicking her legs as hard as she could, she reached the surface and gasped for air before another wave dragged her down. She could hear the thunder roaring above her, sending more chills down her spine; shaking her insides to the very core.
Moments past by, making it seem like an eternity since Helga breathed air. She continued to kick as much as she could, but even with all her efforts she hadn't been able to go above the water for long as she dragged back down again. Her mind reeled at the possibilities of this continuing. She could only hold her breathe or swim for so long!
Through her struggles, her hand suddenly struck something hard, sending searing pain all through her arm! She would have screamed, but all she got was another mouthful of water. She knew there was no chance of surviving this one…
Then a light bulb snapped to life in her head. The last contact she had with humankind was with Arnold himself. Death was frightening, but she found herself smiling.
'Well, at least I got to see him one last time.' She thought sadly. Blackness started to cloud her mind and she felt herself sinking deeper into the waters.
'This is it.' She thought as she felt lightheaded.
The last thing she knew before completely blacking out was a hand suddenly grabbing her by the collar.
A soft hand was on her forehead.
Someone was talking to her, but she couldn't put the voice right.
"Helga?" said a kind gentle voice, stroking her wet bangs out of her face.
Slowly, her eyes fluttered open to someone leaning over her. Dark clouds met her gaze, but also a bright light that momentarily blinded her. In front of the light was someone, leaning over her. Her first thought was the person was angel.
"Thank goodness you're awake!" the angel said.
Helga squinted her eyes in the bright light behind the angel before the last moments came back to her. "Oh no…I'm dead." She groaned. "Just perfect." She grumbled.
"What?" the angel said confused. Before she knew it, the "angel' started laughing. "Helga! You're not dead! You're in my room!" He laughed, his blue eyes sparkling with humor.
Her eyes shot open when memory kicked her into gear.
'I know that voice!' she thought horrified.
She bolted upright almost hitting the stranger as he was still leaning over her. She froze to see the very same football headed boy sitting there on his bed.
It took a second to make both realize just how close they were. Arnold flinched away with his hands up in defense like she was about to hit him. "I'm sorry!" he squeaked out, his arms up in a "X" position to protect himself.
Helga was still too shocked to move. Lost and drowsy, she looked around to see she was indeed in the boy of her dreams' room. The one she'd sometimes by "accident" come by and fall into.
She suddenly felt a draft on her right shoulder.
Slowly looking down at herself, she nearly screamed! She was wearing Arnold's plaid red shirt he always wore to school (in fact everywhere!)! Her long blond hair had long fallen out of her usual famous pig-tailed fashion and flown down her back in wavy patterns.
Putting two and tow together, she whipped her had around the room.
The same red couch sat in one corner of the room with a desk and computer next to it. On the chair were her wet and torn clothes sitting on it.
'He took care of me…' she thought greatly surprised.
Reality hit her like a ton of bricks right about…
'Arnold saved me…' she thought like it was alien enough to think Arnold right in front of her. 'ARNOLD saved ME!' she thought again in disbelief.
She inwardly squealed in happiness that her knight in shining armor had once again saved her from peril.
"Um, Helga?" Arnold said breaking her thoughts. "Are you ok?" he asked, his voice full of the oh-so familiar concern she had dreamed he'd use on her.
Helga blushed and turned away with a nod. "Yeah, I'm fine! For once though," she added with a smirk, "It's thanks TO you instead NO thanks to you."
Arnold laughed at this and scratched the back of his head with a chuckle. "Yeah. I guess this is a nice change for once huh?" he said.
"Yeah." She said losing herself for a minute. "It is."
Arnold looked over to her, catching her staring. She quickly turned away shyly with a scowl and decided to look at the room. "N-Nice place you have here." She said.
Arnold nodded and relaxed into the pillows while looking up at the window above him. Helga relaxed as well, bringing the shirt closer to her body for warmth.
"I'm glad I saved you." He said out of the blue. Helga whipped at him surprised. "If I wasn't out that window at that exact moment, I would never have seen you." he said.
The familiar dreamy look glazed over his eyes as he stared out into the dark clouds. Lighting still flashed through like furious white dragons and rain pounded on the glass like a thousand hands knocking at once. "Like…" he paused, as if uncertain.
"Like what Arnold?" Helga pushed curiously.
"Like…well, when you left, I was just sitting here doing nothing. But the rain got stronger and…I immediately thought of you for some reason." He said.
Helga blushed to this.
"I guess when you left, I got worried. But I thought you were already at home so I didn't think about it. But…" he stopped his gaze at the clouds and sat up with his legs crossed in front of him, deep in thought like he was solving a puzzle. "But…I don't know. Like something told me to just check outside, just in case. But I remember seeing NO one out in the streets beside you, and I was out there just staring at the buildings for a while."
Helga rolled her eyes at this. 'Leave it to Football head to space out like that.'
"So, when I did, I heard a loud bang on the fire escape and I saw something pink underwater." He turned to Helga and smiled. "I guess it was fate that I came at that exact moment."
"Fate huh?" she said turning away again and tapping her chin in thought. "Yeah, I guess." She said with a shrug. Some water drips fell from her hair and trickled down her neck, making her shiver.
"Oh! You're still wet!" Arnold exclaimed, standing up and running to his closet. He grabbed a large blue towel and handed it to her. "Here. This will dry you off." He said.
Helga gratefully took it. "AH!" she screamed dropping the towel and cradling her left hand.
"Helga!" Arnold exclaimed, at her side immediately. "What happened?!"
"Argh! I-It's nothing Football head!" she said through gritted teeth. She hissed lowly and looked at her hand. Dried blood covered her palm, as well as a large forming bruise on her wrist.
"Criminy." She cursed. She slowly let her hand drop on her lap with a frustrated sigh. "Perfect. Just perfect." she mumbled. "Looks like 'Old Betsy' is out of commission for a while."
'Darn it. And I wanted to sock Sid next week for that bow comment he gave me too!'
"Let me see." Arnold said taking her hand. She swiped it back with another hiss.
"That hurts you moron!" she growled like a lioness.
Arnold quickly grew annoyed. "Well don't move and it won't hurt!" he shot back, reaching for her hand again.
"Well, don't touch it and it will be just fine!"
"It won't be fine unless you treat it soon!"
"It doesn't need to be treated Hair-boy!"
"Yes it does! Look at it!"
"No it doesn't!"
"Helga! It needs to be treated!"
"What YOU need," Helga spat out, holding up her wounded hand into a fist "is a good-AH!" she screeched, holding her hand again. This time, Arnold seized it in her moment of weakness. She didn't resist as his hand held it closely and inspected it.
"Hmm…it looks bad." He said after a minute. He brought his other hand over the bruise, making the girl flinched. "Sorry." He apologized taking away his hand.
After a pause, the blond boy brought his hand back to hers, more gently this time. Time itself seemed to freeze all around them as his fingers lightly felt her wound. She barely felt it, like a beautiful butterfly was on it and danced all over her fingers. But she did, and it sent her head swooning at the mere thought of it.
"Your hand is really soft." Arnold said absently.
Helga froze. "R-Really?" she asked surprised.
The boy blinked, as though he just realized what he said and blushed profoundly. "Well, er, yeah. I thought they were strong, I mean, they are, but I um…" He stuttered out like a fool.
She smiled for minute and turned away. "Well, yeah. I go into a lot of fights, so I have to take care of my hands if they are going into battle." She said. "I also punch a bean bag in my room everyday to keep my strength up." She said thrusting her good fist in the air.
Arnold almost laughed out loud at this. 'Leave it to Helga to care bout her fists than her looks.' He thought. 'But I guess that's just what makes her special.' He tried to imagine Helga actually caring how she looked, in fancy dresses, make-up done, and almost fell over laughing.
"What's so funny?" Helga asked angered.
Arnold tried to stop his relentless giggles as the image of Helga in a fancy pink dress and smiling innocently entered his mind. The image gave him the impression that she would actually look...cute. 'Helga? THE PS 118 girl of destruction, cute?' He tried to stop the laughter bubbling inside of him, but to no avail. He laughed like a hyena being tickled by a feather.
"Hair-boy, what in the Criminy is so dang funny?!" Helga yelled.
"N-Nothing!" he gasped out through chuckles.
Just before Helga could retort, overhead a loud clash of lighting roared above them, shaking the entire room with its awesome power!
Immediately, Helga sprang forward into Arnold in fear. Now, Helga G. Pataki wasn't one to be afraid of storms. Heavens no. If anything, she would laugh at them and stand out in one with a metal rode on her head just to show her courage against them. But throughout her life, she went through some traumatic experiences of water's faults and dangers.
Like the time she was trapped in her school during a flash flood and fell out of the window trying to save Mr. Simmons. Or the time she nearly drowned in Arnolds Greenhouse during their Ant project. And of course, what she just went through not too long ago; that alone just confirmed her fears for water alone.
But like the time she fell, drowned and just died now, Arnold was there to save her.
And at the very moment, he was holding her protectively. He hadn't even pushed her away or froze in shock. He just placed a hand on her head as her body shook with every flash of lighting and pound of thunder. She was thinking of pushing him away with a snide comment like always, but when he spoke up, she stopped her actions.
"It's ok Helga." Arnold said in a soothing voice. "I'm here."
That alone made Helga forget all about the storm, her attitude, the world even, and relax into his chest.
'DEFFINITLY cherishing the moment!' she thought with a loud squeal in her head, taking in the scent of him. She could care less what the morning will bring, but she was just glad that she had a moment of peace with her beloved.
"ACHOO!" she sneezed.
"Bless you." he chuckled seeing her sniff and rub her nose on her arm. He thought she actually looked...cute. He held on tighter to her and brought a warm blanket over them, covering them both. She sighed and snuggled into him, feeling totally at bliss.
Neither knew how long they stayed that way, but the next thing either knew, Helga had fallen asleep in Arnolds caring arms right then and there; worn out from the storm.
He soon realized her soft breathing and smiled at her innocence; cherishing Helga G. Pataki's rare cute state. Taking a glance around, he blushed brightly and quickly gave her a peck on her cheek. He almost let out a giggle as Helga's lips curled upward and mewed out in happiness in her sleep. He soon fell asleep with his cheek on the golden crown of her hair.
Later that night, Grandpa and Grandma climbed the stairs and checked on Arnold. They already heard that Arnold saved a girl from the flood, and already called her worried parents (who were both screaming and shouting for explanations and questions) that Helga was fine and safe and will return home once the waters subdue. But both knew that it would be a few days before that happens.
Opening the door with as much care as possible, Grandpa checked to see Arnold and Helga curled up on the blankets and pillows.
He smiled and hugged his beloved wife to him.
"Remember the time I saved you from that hurricane?" he whispered.
Granma nodded and snuggled into his chest with a sigh. "We had our first kiss." She said dreamily.
Granpa smiled and closed the door. The two children slept together with the clouds finally breaking apart above them and letting the stars shine down on them in remorse; almost celebrating for the new found happy "couple".