Disclaimer: Not mine.
Author's Note: It's just a fluff one shot I thought of while eating ice cream at 3am. Don't judge. Uh, I guess that's it. Rating for mild language 'cause Helga's not a kid and she has a potty mouth when she's in a mood. I guess this is to make up for the lack of Helga and Arnold in La Vie En Rose. Enjoy!
"I couldn't resist."
It was a habit she picked up during the summer before high school. Growing up with Big Bob and Miriam the Smoothie Queen allowed Helga to keep a sense of discipline regarding the number of vices she kept in her life. And while she allowed herself a few sips of Curly's mystery blue punch during the parties he started to throw toward the end of their junior year, Helga preferred to stay away from the inhibition-lowering liquid.
I don't need anymore outside influences to complicate my life. She thought to herself bitterly. No, the people in it were doing that perfectly fine on their own.
Frowning at her current train of thought, she shoved her hands further into her deep magenta down jacket. Olga, for her own faults, had sent her the jacket a few months ago and Helga had fallen in love with the jacket almost instantly. True, Hillwood's winters were not as severe as the cold of Alaska but it suited her just fine. It was as if her older sister knew Helga preferred to spend as many hours away from the Pataki household as possible. The jacket allowed Helga maximum warmth as she zigged zagged throughout the city on its various trains and buses until she finally landed at the one place that allowed her the one vice she was determined to keep in her life.
Slaussen's.
Quickly covering the three blocks from the L train stop to the little neighborhood ice cream shop, Helga stepped inside the colorful and painfully bright restaurant and settled into her favorite booth. Within minutes, a heaping bowl of chocolate ice cream with chocolate sauce and bananas was placed in front of her. She offered a small smile to her server.
"Thanks Val."
"Sure thing honey," The older woman paused for a bit. "I'm clocking out early tonight. Lee's got a touch of the flu. Just take your bill to the cashier. He's new so be easy on him, okay?"
"I will."
Val frowned at the quick concession. "I mean it kid, you scared the last one away."
"Oh, come on! He couldn't subtract 4.30 from 10 bucks!" Helga took a heaping spoonful of ice cream and raised a not-so-crafted eyebrow. "I did you a favor."
Val smiled. "Whatever kid. Just be easy on this one, okay?"
"Can he add and subtract?"
"Hasn't messed up an order all day."
"Then you have my word."
Val placed the bill on the table top. "He better be here tomorrow."
"Hope your kid gets better."
As Val walked away, Helga returned to her dessert and as she chewed thoughtfully on a random piece of a banana, she felt the phone in her pocket vibrate.
"Aren't you going to get that?"
She would know that voice if she was in a deep coma. She would know that voice if she smacked her head against the concrete and lost all of her memories but god help her 'cause she certainly did not want to hear that voice here in her private sanctuary.
Her world away from him if you will…
"When I count to three, you better leave."
Arnold laughed from his position behind her. Helga felt the butterflies go crazy inside her stomach. Cool it girl. "…work here." He was saying when she regained what remained of her composure.
"Are you stalking me football head?"
More laughter and the butterflies inside her went wild. His presence was suffocating her. She had to swallow a heap of ice cream to shock her brain into not retreating into one of her Arnold-induced hazes.
"That looks like quite a bit of ice cream you have there."
"Is it your job to notice shit like that?"
Unfazed as usual, she heard a swish of water before his answer. "No. Just wiping the tables and I couldn't help but…"
Helga cut him off. "I like ice cream, okay?"
"Cool." She heard the rag drop rather loudly in the bucket. "See ya around, Helga."
Three pep talks later, Helga was calm and down to the final scoop of her ice cream when Arnold calmly sat in front of her.
The blonde girl scowled. "I know this is not part of the job description."
"I'm on a break."
"Most people go smoke cigarettes." She muttered despite the feeling his presence was doing to her heart.
"You know I don't smoke."
She finally looked up at him and wished she didn't. Those green eyes were piercing through her soul. She wanted nothing more than to toss that stupid cap off his head just so she could run her hands through the endless waves of his hay colored hair. Helga mentally cursed her poetic side as she spoke. "Keeping your body pure and all that good shit, right?"
He graced her with a smile. "Something like that."
Not for the first time, she wondered why he put up with her.
"Val tells me I should take care of you. You're her special customer. Three years is a long time." He said referring to her weekly habit of coming in for ice cream 40 minutes before closing.
"Yeah, well…" She took another bite and finished off the last banana in the bowl. "What's it to you?"
He shrugged. "Thought it was interesting. I also think its interesting you're such a tough girl who is in love with the color pink."
His admission stunned her into silence as she tried to fake disinterest by continuing to polish off the bowl of ice cream. He notices me.
"Mind if I have some?" And before she could answer, he swiped a spoon from the table booth behind him and waved it in her face. She shrugged. Words were failing her at this point anyway. He grinned and took a spoonful.
"Thanks!" Sighing, he stood up and rubbed at the stubble that was beginning to show on his face. "Well, I better go. I'll ring you up when you're done. Later Helga."
It took all of her self control not watch him leave. She managed not to watch him at the cash register and struggled not to use the spoon he left in the bowl to finish her ice cream just so she could taste him and roll the flavor that she was sure was so uniquely Arnold on her tongue.
She sighed into the bowl once she was done and stared at the spoons. With one swift motion, she pocketed the one he used and headed toward the register.
"Thanks for the ice cream." He said sheepishly as she handed him a rumpled five.
She took the coins and tossed them into the tip jar. "No skin off my back."
He shrugged. "I guess not but it's my fav so I couldn't resist." He turned his attention to the next customer. "See ya around, Helga."
She tightened the jacket around herself and wrapped her right hand around the spoon. His words played around in her head. I couldn't resist. She chuckled as she stepped outside.
Helga had been telling herself that for years.
Author's Note: Wow, I made a silly, silly mistake that I'm glad someone caught for me. So thank you Houkanno Yuuhou for correcting me and further instilling the fact that I need a beta reader. And pooh on ff for not letting me use quotation marks in my title.