Hi guys! So, welcome to my Helga/Gerald fan-fiction! Yes, I'm mixing it up a bit. Besides Helga and Arnold, Helga and Gerald were my second favorite ship in the series. Feel free to call me crazy...I am (/ o_o)/ But I just find the couple intriguing. I'm sorry, fair warning, Arnold WILL come off a bit jerky in this series. This is, in fact, post jungle movie so this is if the jungle movie doesn't happen. Anyways, I hope you enjoy. Feedback makes my heart blush! Happy reading!
"I do."
"Then by the power vested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may now kiss the bride."
Claps and loud encouraging cheers bounced off the walls in the church as two people sealed their destiny with a ceremonial kiss. They ran passed the guests, hand in hand, and out the doors as everyone stood, throwing rice and blowing bubbles at them. Everyone cheered and wished them luck, crying and laughing and singing in celebration of a joyous occasion. Everyone, that is, except one; a shadow who sat in the back. The noises around her had hollowed in her ears and all she could do was play with the ribbon on her wrist. No one would suspect her to be sad; all of their backs turned to her and could very easily mistake the tears running down her face as sobs of joy. Yes, no one would realize unless they knew. If they didn't really know her, there's no way they would think twice of it. So, it would be easy to say, if someone truly knew her, they would know that those tears were more then they led on on the surface.
…...
"Look who decided to come out from under her bridge?" Pulling up a stool, Gerald sat down next to the girl holding her head in her hands and her eyes focusing hard on a jar of peanuts, probably pondering a bit too deeply on who might have put their greasy hands in that jar.
"Har har." She took a shot of the drink in front of her then resumed looking down. "You come to poke fun or are you gonna buy me a drink?"
"Why not both?" He teased, poking her face. She looked up at him more where he could slightly see her red stained eyes and the growing warmth of her cheeks; presumably caused by the alcohol in her system.
"You wanna start a bar fight?" Helga smiled small.
"At a wedding?" Gerald tisked. "Don't you have any class Pataki?"
"I have white gloves on and a dress that actually goes past my knees. How much classier can a bar fight get?"
Gerald laughed at her response and, snapping his fingers twice, earned the attention from the bar tender.
"Hey can I get a Pink Panther and a Between the Sheets?"
"No problem!" The man smiled charmingly at the both of them.
"I don't think he's your type, Gernaldo."
"Funny." He said bitterly.
"How did you know I like Pink Panthers?"
"It's pink." He shrugged. "So you must like it."
"I really wish I could argue with that..." She shook her head.
"Your obsession with pink is almost scary. it's also a bit intimidating."
"You never see a punch coming from a girl in pink." She sat up more in her chair, one elbow still on the bar and her cheek in one hand.
"Clever."
She tisked, her eyes cast to the surface of the bar.
"Why are you over here, Gernaldo? Shouldn't you be dancing to the Cupid Shuffle right about now?"
"Weddings ain't really my thing." He pondered for a second. "But in all honesty, if it was playing, the spotlight would be on me on that dance floor."
Helga, not being able to help it, let a small smile creep to her lips."Shouldn't they be if you're the best man? By the way, you had a nice speech."
"Was that sarcasm?"
"I'm not always sarcastic."
Gerald raised an eyebrow at her.
"No really, it was a pretty bad ass speech."
"You're scary when you're drunk. I don't think I've ever heard you compliment me...or really anyone for that matter."
"Then you should consider it a genuine compliment. Unlike Mr goody two shoes of yours, I don't just throw them around whenever deemed, or in his case not deemed, possible. I swear he gives me a headache sometimes." She massaged her fingers to her temples.
"Arnold?"
"No doi, Sherlock."
"Theeerrees the sarcasm."
"So...did you mean all of that?"
"All of what?"
"All that crap you said up there; how well they are together and how he's never been happier with…" Her throat started to feel like it was shrinking. "Ah, never mind. I'm too drunk to run my mouth. I don't exactly have a filter right now." She laid her forehead on the bar, the coolness feeling wonderful on her flushed skin.
"You have a filter?"
"...shut up." Helga punched Gerald's shoulder half jokingly but with enough force for him to regret his words.
"You are such a pain, Pataki." He rubbed his shoulder
"Better pain than numbness, am I right?" She raised her empty glass.
Gerald went a bit silent at that, taking her more seriously then she intended.
"Here's your drinks." The bartender came back, sliding their drinks on the counter towards them. Gerald grabbed them easily, nodding at the man.
"You know...I don't even really know." Gerald slid her drink towards her more.
"Hmm?" She sat up, grabbing her drink.
"If they're happy together and stuff. I mean...ok, truth? Before a month ago, when Arnold asked me to be his best man, I haven't even seen the dude in almost half a year. He's only known the girl for, what? Four months? I swear, most of what I wrote, I was like really trying to pay attention to them this whole time." Helga's eyes slightly widened.
"And? What do you think of Holly?" The name of Arnolds new wife felt bitter on her tongue.
"...I don't know, she 'aight." Helga snickered, making Gerald smile. "She's nice and pretty but so was every other girl Arnold has met. Most of the time, I didn't even see them together. They were both planning the wedding and from one place to the next. I mean, I think she's a good person. You've been around them more than me, what do you think?"
"...Well, obviously, she's perfect." She smiled uncomfortably. "I mean, I've only ever seen her in a frilly girly dress, no tattoo's whatsoever, she has a freakin' british accent and even look at the way she dances! It's almost creepy just how refined she is. I literally saw her hug a tree once, I'm not even kidding!" Gerald's smile became lopsided. "I mean...besides a handful of people...you know a chunk of my past. You know what Arnold is...was to me."
"...yeah."
"But...that's not even the point! It's...it's the fact he's chasing the same damn frilly dress wearing, annoying overbearing accent speaking damsel in distress since he was nine! Most of them are actually shallow a-and ugly on the inside. And now, with this girl-!"
Gerald looked at her, at every expression she made, ready to hear what else she had to say. Helga took a sip of her drink, breathing calmly in through her nose. "She's beautiful everywhere. She's actually the perfect one for him. No doubt. Pataki approved. So there's no merit in my complaining" She shook her head, smiling despite her brows being scrunched together. "So...I'm happy for him. It still hurts, but I'm so overwhelmingly happy for him." She started to tear up, digging her palm in her eyes, trying to delay them from falling.
"Helga…"
"These are tears of happiness. I swear." She sobbed, trying to hide her face behind her wrists.
"...It's me, Helga. Come on." Gerald, a bit awkwardly, patted her shoulder until, less awkwardly, it turned into a soothing comforting caress. "Hey, Pataki. Don't be like this."
Her shoulders, a moment ago shaking, visibly relaxed as she took in a sharp breath through her teeth."Why did I come? I knew this was going to happen but I came anyways. It's like I look for actual situations like this so I can feel miserable. I purposefully do this to myself and I have no idea why."
Gerald continued to sooth her. He never knew Helga would pour her heart out to him like this. He momentarily felt a pang of guilt as if he was in violation of her privacy. She was partially drunk after all. "...Even being up there…" He started hesitantly. "Next to both of them up there, I couldn't even concentrate on them. I kept thinking about this rotten milk I poured into my cereal this morning." Helga slightly smiled at that. "I don't know, I can't stand weddings. It's basically just a way to flip the middle finger at everyone who isn't the bride and groom."
"That is so accurate." Helga laughed.
Gerald slid his arm away from her, leaving her back lingering with the feeling. "Right? You know, everyone see's me as this player or something. I'm the guy that breaks hearts and leaves girls crying. I'm not though. Or...I wasn't. I wanted, at one point, to get married and have kids and, you know, meet that one person that would change my life. When Phoebe left...that was really hard." He scratched his cheek. "Five years later, I still feel like I'm trying to get over it. Sorry to get all self loathing but we're twenty seven years old and it's not like we can get any younger. I just can't imagine myself beginning again like that. I started to get used to the whole no strings attached thing for awhile. It made it easier to just love 'em and leave 'em."
"Does that actually work?" Helga asked curiously as she swirled her drink in her hand, her voice more clear than before.
"What?"
"Hitting it and quitting it." Gerald rolled his eyes at her statement, opening his mouth to say something before she put her hand up to him to stop it. "One night stands and uncommitted relationships. Did that help you get over Pheebs?"
"Honestly? At first...no… I was still miserable! After a while though, it just... numbs." Gerald took a drink of his alcohol. "So, after awhile, I guess it kind of makes me feel...unfeeling. You said earlier, it's better to feel pain than feel numb...well, I don't agree. Numbness...feels a lot better than misery. I used to be more resenting and got drunk way too much." Helga held her drink up to him, taking another sip of it. "For awhile I could only picture her face when I was in bed with some-"
"Ah! Ztt! No details!" Helga quickly put her hands to her ears.
"Right...you know what I mean." He grabbed one of her wrists and brought it away from her ears. "Man, it's weird I'm telling you all of this." He rubbed his neck.
"At least we can blame it on the drink."
Blame it on the drink...Gerald stood up, holding a hand out to Helga. "Come on."
"What?"
"Let's go dance."
"What? No way." She laughed mockingly at him. He felt a pang of hurt but quickly remembered that this was Helga G Pataki and he shouldn't take anything from her seriously. He grabbed her hand, forcibly yet gently.
"I'll drag you out there."
"You're being serious right now? What? Do you want to prove something to everyone out there? I don't dance and I haven't finished my drink." She turned away from him, barely attempting to pull her hand away from his.
"Yeah, I think we should prove something to all of them." He squeezed her hand tighter.
"...and what exactly are we trying to prove?"
"Hmm." He looked up in thought and a bit of a pout to his lips. Helga's heart fluttered briefly, finding that, strangely, the action to be quite... cute...for Geralds standards anyways.
Wow, she thought. I must really be drunk.
"We're trying to prove...That we don't need to prove anything to anyone."
"...Thats stupid. You just contradicted what you just said."
"You gotta be all technical about everything." Gerald whined childishly, pulling her off her stool, her being a little lighter than he thought. In fact, now that he was noticing, she did seem to lose a lot of weight from the last time he'd seen her. She was never big or anything, in fact he could have sworn she was more muscular and fit not too long ago. For a brief second, he felt really concerned. He might have pulled her too hard because she ended up falling right into his chest and, from another person's perspective, it looked like they were embracing. Time froze briefly and the moment Helga heard the sound of a heart beating in her ear, she pulled away.
"J-jeez, Geraldo! Watch how hard you pull! I ain't a piece of meat!" Helga whipped her hand away from his and stepped back a little. She then started to walk past him, grabbing his upper sleeve and pulling him with her. "This isn't some romantic comedy, you idiot. Criminy!"
He smirked at her clumsy comeback. She was pretty cute when she was nervous.
Now that they were on the dance floor, they both kind of realized that they didn't know what to do when getting this far. The beginning of a slow song started to play and Gerald hesitantly grabbed Helga's hand, moving it to his shoulder then proceeded to slowly wrap his hand around her waist but tried to do it as platonically as possible...which was kind of hard.
"You...comfortable?" Gerald asked.
"I've had a lot to drink so...no, nevermind, not really." She moved her hand away from his shoulder. Gerald felt a bit disappointed if he was being honest but, before he could ponder on the thought, Helga wrapped both arms around his neck. She was taller than most girls but Gerald still had her beat by about half a foot. she was wearing heels, though, so her shining crystal blue eyes dug right into his soul. She was so intimidating! "But I have a habit of never being able to step out of my comfort zone. How is this?"
"F...fine." He trembled slightly before he moved his hands farther behind her back, pulling her in a little closer. "Is this ok?" She thought about it for a minute before she closed her eyes and leaned her head on his shoulder. He tried his best to swallow the lump in his throat. Why the hell did they leave the bar? Was this still Helga Pataki? She smelled kind of nice for a drunk girl, he noted subconsciously to himself. Like...vanilla.
"You'll have to excuse me Gerald. It's been awhile since I've drank. I'm pretty worn out." Ah...she's just tired. Wait, woah! She just said my name?!
"That's fine...just relax." Even though he said that, it was hard for him to not be so stiff. After another song or two, it seemed to get easier as they let the music carry them farther into the night. It was the first time in years that they felt a bit of comfort from another person.
…...
"What's wrong, Arnold? You got your head in the clouds again?" Holly caressed Arnold's head, snuggling into his neck.
"Huh? Oh...I was just..." She followed his eyes to where Gerald and Helga were dancing at.
"Oh, wow. Look at them together! They seem to be comfortable with each other."
"Huh?" Arnold laughed, a bit bitterly. "What makes you think that?"
"Well just look at them! Quite honestly, they seem to be a pretty good match for each other, don't you think?"
"Gerald and Helga? They couldn't be more opposite of each other."
"Well...you know what they say. Opposites attract."
Arnold didn't respond, only continuing to look at them more intensely. Their bodies swayed together in a harmonious way. He noticed as Gerald whispered something in Helga's ear, making her laugh in a way he was only nostalgically familiar with. He didn't feel...good. It felt wrong. Really wrong.
"You know, looking at them together now, by what you've told me it kind of makes sense if they have something between them."
Arnold felt like rolling his eyes, but didn't. Instead, smiling at genuinely as he could.
"No, that's impossible. Helga wouldn't...she isn't like that."
"Hmm...I have to disagree with you Arnold. They seem quite lovely together. I guess I secretly hope they get together." She smiled warmly up at Arnold, crossing her fingers in a giddy manner. "I mean, what could be better than your two closest friends ending up together? It's quite sweet if you ask me."
"...Yeah."
If you want more, please review. Since you're probably already done you may be upset to know that I most likely wont be able to continue until at least after dec 6th, because of finals at college. BUT YOU'RE PROBABLY INVESTED NOW SO WHAT YA GONNA DO ABOUT IT!...please dont leave...REVIEW!
P.S. yes, I know I have terrible grammar. tata!