„Arnold, about what happened earlier..." Helga Pataki took a deep breath. „You know, on that rooftop."

„I thought this thing never happened?" Arnold gave her a half-smile.

„Heh... Well, you see..." She took a deep breath and plowed on: „It did, and I do love you."

„Oh." Arnold looked on pensively, but then smiled. „I was hoping you'd say that, because I lo-"

„Hey, Pataki!"

Turning around, Helga was all but frozen by the sight of Nick Vermicelli pointing a gun at her.

„No!" She felt a shove and tumbled to the side...

BANG!

Helga watched in utter horror as Arnold flinched and collapsed when he took the bullet so obviously bearing her name.

„No! Arnold!" She all but flew to his side and cradled him in her lap. „You stupid man! Why did you have to do this!?"

„Sorry, Helga." Coughing, Arnold opened his eyes, a deep exhaustion showing in them. 'Please, no. Anybody, please...'

Arnold coughed again. „I really am sorry that... that I... I c-" Suddenly, Helga's terror deepened at the fire in his eyes snuffing out.

'No.'

„No."

„ARNOOOOOLD!"

„Arnold!?"

Arnold Philip Shortman turned around from feeding the pigeons only to see Helga Pataki standing there on the roof of the Sunset Arms, in her pajamas and with her hair open. „Helga? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you rest considering the past two days? And why are you in yo-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence as she had unexpectedly lunged forward and gripped him in a bear-crushing hug.

„Helga, wh-" Arnold stopped cold when he felt warm dampness soak into his shirt. And was she... shaking?

Unsure what to do, the little boy continued to hold the girl in his arms, rubbing her back a little. And it seemed to work, because the quiet sobbing soon subsided, even though the tears were still flowing.

A little while later, he almost panicked when she suddenly went limp in his arms. „What-?"

„Oh, Arnold..." Helga cooed, her eyes closed.

The addressee raised an eyebrow, his panic forgotten. Then he sighed, a smile tugging at his mouth as he cradled her up in his arms. „You're quite a handful, Helga G. Pataki."

„Heh, well..." Helga mumbled, then snored a little, „You knew that before you married me."

It was all Arnold could do not to drop her when she said that. 'She dreams about us... a-about us b-be-being married?' His smile returned a little, only a lot shyer. „Come on, let's get you to bed."

The blonde giggled, a sound Arnold had never heard her make before. „Alright, love."

Stumbling a little at those last words of the sleeping girl in his arms, Arnold walked over to the roof access, careful not to make any more sudden movements.

Author's Notes:

„I'M ALIIIIVE!" *bumps head on chandelier*

Yeah, so this one's a compromise I agreed on with myself so I don't rip another OTP apart in the most gruesome way and still get to kill one of them. The idea behind it is simply that when I see someone's soulmate killed or some such on TV (as I did on Desperate Housewives last week), I suddenly get the urge to kill a soulmate from one of the series I like. (Hey, in my defense: I killed Akane twice and it didn't affect me as much as this one did!) I'm just glad BSG doesn't have this effect on me, or there'd be corpes left and right. ^^°

Aaanyway... There are some more scenes for this story already finished, but I had the glorious idea of writing part of them in MS Word (dang PCs on the job) and it ruined the formatting in a way OpenOffice can't repair, so I have to retype all the new ones. Additionally I still need to figure out which episodes I consider to have happened after The Movie, so I'm gonna be a little while (no, not the four years and counting as with Insanity's End, but sometimes there's a thing called writer's block that you can do absolutely nothing about - ask LordArchive!). I'd like to thank Azure129 for Perfect Ten, because it really showed me that April Fool's can have happened after The Movie; I still need an explanation for my story, though...

Ja mata,
らん