"The Pink Ribbon that He Untied"

a Hey Arnold fanfic by Pyrex Shards

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Oh how he hated it when he had to confront her. Those hurtful, emotion filled faces that she'd make in his direction as she used her arms to full effect. Those long slender arms, succinct in their movements, punctuating every word of every sentence that she said to him. Scorn dripped from her mouth as her brow furrowed into such a fury that those deep blue eyes of hers couldn't seem to sing to him past the fire in the angry blonde's voice.

Funny, Arnold thought as crossed his arms at Helga, how she denies it all when we're alone. That denial, a reaction to the topic of Helga's preoccupation with him. Of course Arnold knew the reason. How could he forget the rooftop of FTi. A heat of the moment, reasoned away quickly, but never forgotten. Who could forget the floodgate that let loose behind those deep blue eyes, watering with something deep and passionate; a poets swimming pool. Who could forget that warm sour-apple kiss, with salted lips and the lingering sensation of a cinnamon tongue brushing lovingly against his.

Tonight was the time to broach the subject, as the two of them stood there, two wallflowers clad in their informal best, in the school hallway during their ninth grade dance. The heavy but muted dance music invaded the empty hallway where they stood and echoed through it. But whereas two wallflowers might meet each other in that same hallway, and discover their true love for each other; these two wallflowers were different. One loved the other, and the other new of this love. Circumstances with the one wallflower who held that love prevented the other from bringing it up, by being a bully and antagonist. But maybe, just maybe, the straight arrow was starting to harbor feelings for the bully.

"Why are you even bringing this up Football Head!?" Helga's voice boomed out of those same salted lips as she turned to lean back against the wall with her arms folded, glaring at Arnold. "I told you then the same thing I'm going to tell you now, so listen good. FTi did not happen! Got it bucko? Or do I have to repeat myself for the thousandth time?"

"Yes I got it... And no, I'm not going to stop until you tell me why we can't talk about this alone with no one else around." Helga let out an exasperated breath and slapped her arms down against her legs and stomach. Her pure blonde pigtails whipped round on her head as she turned away from him. Arnold pressed on. "I want to know Helga. Why did we agree that whatever happened on that roof was a bad dream?"

The girl offered him no response. He watched Helga's shoulders as they rose and fell in rhythm with her irritated breathing. He stood his ground and didn't approach. Their places on the pecking order were clear. Helga was the bully, unapproachable but impossible to avoid. Her reputation only compounded itself with each passing school year. Arnold was the target whom which the bully focused her talents, to make his life a hell as she towered over him, offering him no pause for relief.

Helga turned around and invaded his space with just a few steps, she put her arms out, bracketing him as she slouched slightly to come nose to nose, forcing his attention to her. "Why do you even care?" Helga hissed. "That was years ago, dork." The warm air from her voice invaded his nostrils with each syllable she uttered into his face.

But Arnold held fast, letting his eyes linger on hers. Somehow, their presence seemed calming, as if they were telling him he was safe, much to his confusion. But he thanked them all the same. He let his eyes close for a second before opening them and trying to focus on the shadow she cast over him. He would not be intimidated. "It haunts me," he said as he let out the breath he was holding in.

"It haunts you?" Helga laughed.

"What's so funny about that?" Arnold growled back at Helga's as she continued laughing.

"You're denser than the cement foundation of this building." Helga's voice hit a feminine-high pitch as she stepped one footfall away from him. "I think the only thing keeping you up is all that helium in your cranium, cause there's not much else!"

"I'm not so dense." Arnold fought back. "There was something behind that kiss!"

"Listen pal! Helga Pataki answers to no one but herself. And I especially don't have to answer to football headed nimrods who don't mind their own business! Ya got that football head!" A few stray drops of spit hit Arnold on his forehead, he flinched. "If you don't shut up right now I'll show you how easy it is to deflate your head." Helga closed 'Ol Betsy into a fist and pounded her into the Five Avengers with a meaty slap.

No doubt about it. Dealing with Helga G. Pataki was like playing with an inferno. Arnold was game. He crossed his arms and grinned, shaking his head. "Never once have you ever hit me Helga. I don't think you're going to start now."

Never before in the history of knowing Helga could anyone say they had ever seen the bully so enraged that she was visibly trembling. Before Arnold could idly note that realization as curious, Helga had grabbed him by the shirt, balling it into her fists. She let out an almost primal growling sound. He could hear and feel stitches in his collar snapping as Helga lifted him up and turned to her left, forcing him up against the dingy wall of the school entryway and painfully pinning him there with her body. He stared at his tormentor in shock as he fought to control his breathing.

Gone were those strangely hypnotic blue eyes, they were muted against the hot red of Helga's face. Her scowl seemed dangerous. He could feel the trembling bones in her ribcage and abdomen as she held him there, eye level. Her nose pressed into his.

"I am not beneath making you a permanent fixture of this wall. I said shut up about FTi. We will continue to pretend that nothing happened. We will go our separate ways, and you will stay as far out of my way as possible. Got that."

"No" He muttered. Though he was in shock, he found the courage to hold steadfast. He would defeat this bully Helga. He felt he was safe to do so. If Helga really cared for him, she wouldn't hurt him.

He was safe... He was safe... He was safe... Then Helga narrowed her eyes at him and pulled him away from the wall, only to push him back against it. His upper back and head hit the wall first. Fast enough to knock him into daze that rang through his ears. He fell to his knees and let out an agonizing breath as he clutched at the back of his head with his hands. The pain throbbed through his skull. Through his tunneled vision he could see Helga with her back turned to him, mere steps away.

As she took those first few steps down the hallway, Arnold's heart became muted against the nervous rage that welled up in his muscles from the pain in his skull. This pain, finally allowed to manifest itself in real physical pain, was so familiar. He was tired of Helga. He was tired of all the confusion that she forced him to deal with ever since preschool. He was tired of the sarcastic comments. But mostly, he was tired of the cruel pranks and insults, at the constant mental torture that Helga subjected him to on a daily basis, draining his tolerance to the point that the only way he could act at that moment, while his head still throbbed, was to spring forward from his knees and capture Helga's lower legs with his arms.

Helga yelped in surprise as she fell forward and the palms of her hands met the floor. For a moment they simply sat like that, then Helga looked back at him, rage in her face. Arnold simply returned her glare with equal intensity. He meant business and he would not let Helga leave without a fight. He'd had it with Helga, and it was time to settle things.

Helga was tough, she was a survivor, Arnold knew this, but this didn't allow him to predict her movements. Helga angled her body forcefully like a fish, kicking her legs from Arnold's grasp and kicking him in the head at the same time, right on the forehead. The blue hat he had worn since forever, flew off of his head and into the wall behind him before settling on the floor.

He palmed himself up off the floor and then flew backwards as Helga plowed into him with a punch to his chin. The punch sent pain traveling up his skull as his head continued to swim from the earlier blow. Helga had the upper hand, and she also hovered above him, her face red with anger. Arnold reacted quickly, clawing for something to grab on to, he found her upper arms and in one fluid motion to his right, pushed Helga off of him and into the wall.

He then resumed laying on his back, breathing in deeply, his hands in his hair against the dull pain in his head and chin. Out of the corner of his vision he saw Helga with her hands behind her neck and curled up. She groaned, undoubtedly she had hit the wall, Arnold got a feeling of revenge out of that. Perhaps they were even. He stood up and looked down at Helga as she slowly sat upright and shook her head a few times to try and shake the pain in her head.

Arnold reached down with his right hand. Helga looked up at him, but then looked at his legs. Before Arnold could jump away, it was Helga's turn to spring for Arnold's lower legs, bringing him butt first onto the ground. New kinds of pain traveled up Arnold's spine, but Helga didn't grant him any temporary recovery. She let go of his legs and lurched forward, grabbing onto Arnold's shoulder's and forcing him up against the opposite wall.

She stood on her knees, then punched Arnold in the stomach, once with Betsy, then again, with the Avengers, then another with Betsy, and again the Avengers. She alternated again and again. Striking at Arnold's abdomen with her face contorted into pure rage as Arnold could feel each punch set fire to his muscles and caused his intestines to wretch.

Then as Helga continued her assault, Arnold watched tears form in her eyes amid the weakening grunts that she breathed through her lips with every blow. He saw with clarity the downward curve of her lips into a shaking frown, and her face contort in agony.

Then after the last, weak, pitiful blow, she let out a whimper and then fell back. Arnold watched painfully and took deep but ragged breaths as Helga pushed herself away from him with her feet and sat against the opposite wall. She brought her hands up to her face and covered her mouth and nose, her blue and teary eyes staring wide at Arnold. Her arms trembled and her hands shook and he could hear each breath she took through her fingers as she mumbled something, Arnold couldn't comprehend what she was saying. He could do nothing but simply stare at her with no expression as his physical pain continued to dull into aches, save for the painful bruise forming on his chin.

No hall monitors roamed the halls of the school, at least this section, because Arnold and Helga were not supposed to be there that night. It was all part of Arnold's big plan to finally corner Helga alone, this time outside of prying eyes at the school dance, and get her to confess to what had been bugging him ever since Sheck had almost leveled the neighborhood. Did Helga G. Pataki truly love him?

But now that answer took a back seat to the confusion running through his head as he watched Helga visibly shaking and staring at him. At one point she was on the verge of a T.K.O. Now she simply sat against a wall, looking at her victim as if she were a frightened little turtle, ready to duck her head under her shirt at the slightest movement from Arnold. He sat still while Helga's shaking subsided and her breathing stabilized, and while his pain faded and the bruises formed on his chin and his abdomen.

He ventured a simple question. "Are you okay?"

"No." She removed her hands from her face. She could only whisper. "You?"

Arnold shook his head in response and then stopped abruptly as each shake had brought fourth a new surge of pain around his head. He steadied his breathing and closed his eyes in an effort to will away the sensation.

Silence reigned for a few more moments before Helga, still looking at Arnold, asked "What have I done?"

"Helga?"

She shook her head and looked away, breaking eye contact with Arnold. "I always swore to you that I would never hurt you."

Arnold blinked in real surprise. Did Helga just admit that she never wanted to hurt him? If so then why the hell did she just introduce his guts to her fists. And when did she ever swear that to him? He laughed in spite of the pain it would cause, and shook his head. "Well, you have a piss poor track record. Ow"

Helga didn't say anything. She simply stood up in spite of her own pain, swimming around the back of her skull, and her wrists after their impact with the floor, and turned to stumble away.

"Helga stop!"

She did as commanded, but didn't turn around.

"Why would you rather, beat me up instead of tell me what happened back then."

Helga shook her head. She still stood with her back to Arnold, favoring her wrists. "I'm that bully the school kids warned you about, Arnoldo. Nothing more. I really am an ugly monster. You're the one I'm going to hurt until that point where you're glad you never have to see me again after you graduate. I guess you could say I enjoy hurting you sometimes."

"What about, what about all those other times when you don't enjoy it? Like tonight. Did you just enjoy pummeling me or, is there something else going on?"

At that, Helga quickly turned to look down at Arnold. She noticed a darkened tint on his chin and died a little inside at the sight of her beloved in pain, and felt hatred for herself again, for she was the one who had caused his pain. Arnold looked at her with a blank but stern expression, and said. "Sit down and let's figure ourselves out."

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Author's Notes:

This is part one of a two part story. Part two will be posted soon. I'm almost finished with part two but I ran out of time and I don't want to rush it. I wanted to get this first part out there to see how everyone likes it since this is a unique fanfic in certain ways.

Please read and review. Give me your honest opinions. I can take it!