"It's funny", he admitted, a and as much as Helga loved the sound of his voice waking up in the morning, heck it was like honey to her ears, she had to let out a little sigh of disappointment. They were intertwined, close as one, or, at least that was what Helga was seemingly trying to do, She embraced him, his whole chest and the nape of his neck against her as she did her very best to hug him. To try to get as close as was humanly possible within the limits of decency. After all, she was nothing if not human, how could she resist the temptation that was Arnold?

She couldn't, that was the answer. And, seeing as she couldn't obviously things had to come to a point, to and end. Years of relentless bullying, that were justified in her head (even if she had her doubts), and that had become so routine he had come to expect it, and just treating it as part of his day, much like most anything in the world, had stopped with one stunned outburst. Helga had had outbursts before, but nothing quite as vocal as that one.

In her mind, she had had her fantasies on how the whole confession thing would go, some more realistic than others, she wouldn't easily find a dragon, a spike and flames in Hillwood, well, she could pay a guy 20 bucks to dress up as a dragon, but Arnold wasn't stupid, he'd see right through it, and even if they fake tied her, it'd still be a risk she was not willing to take. So, though she had nineteen dollars and ninety seven cents, the whole dragon plan was scrapped.

She had also imagined she would be taken somewhere quiet and, alone, they would confess their feelings for one another, her eyes would glow under the stars, or, if during the day, the sun, as she'd look up at his face, and say…

She would say stuff, sappy stuff, Helga's mind hadn't quite made that leap yet, and it turns out it hadn't had an opportunity to do so. Every dam bursts, and her dam dam was bigger than Houston, so it had come out, in public, in front of everyone.

It had felt embarrassing, it had felt like she had her heart at her hands and was throwing it out there, almost like the very essence of her being was concentrated in that heart. Like that game, what was it called? Didn't matter, she felt like that, and her heart was definitively blue.

Though the fantasies varied they all shared one element in common - the presence of Arnold, or her, admitting their feelings for one had blinked, once, twice, then Gerald had uttered a "Are you kidding me?", and that seemed to take everyone out of a daze. Yet she was still Helga Pataki, she had done her job well, none dared laugh. There were whispers in the hallways the following days, but nothing more.

Not that she cared about what any of them thought at the time, she had done what Phoebe referred to as as "Cleansing", she had, just like Phoebe and her little little heart and mind, bless her, had suggested, she had "Let Go". Well, Phoebe was the specialist when it came to this feeling stuff, and she had suggested it was better than to keep them bottled up, so…

If this didn't work out, Phoebe was so going to apologise with her, yet, as in the present she was cuddled as tight as a rattlesnake on prey, pressing herself against Arnold, Arnold whose body felt warm, Arnold whose small breath tickled the side of her ear, Arnold, who had just spoken to her, after waking up in that dazzling Summer morning, that had obviously the first time in a while she had thanked Phoebe, this was what all her heart desired.

"What's funny, Arnold?", she whispered into his chest, lowering his head to his pecs, feeling completely comfortable with the embrace they were seemed to give Arnold something to think seeing as he felt her poking around at the top of his pajamas, and the fabric pressed against his body.

"I was thinking that when I was a kid, on hot Summer days like this ones I usually slept bare chested", though what he didn't tell her was that those days were few and far in between, after all the town of Hillwood had plenty of muddy, snowy, rainy days, and those days where the weather was nice, and you could play outside, didn't come too often. But Arnold had a point to make, and he was trying to compliment Helga,on something.

"And you make them even hotter, literally", he smiled, in that Arnold way of his, and Helga felt her heart swell, that was…-ok, probably not the sweetest thing he had ever said to her, as he did his best to try and surprise her with a new compliment every day, and some were just hard to top of - but probably top tier, probably top five easy. She purred into his chest, digging the soft skin of the tip of her fingers into him, and pushing her nose up to his.

"Feel free to not wear a shirt then, my dear", the words still felt kind of foreign to her, and it didn't sound like her at all, when had she ever used my dear prior to getting with him? Then again she had been in chase of her diamond all this time, and after digging through so much dirt that she could have built a castle out of it, and encountering some thorns and pebbles along the way, she had finally found had always known it was there, it was just getting to him that had had been hard.

She just had had to have one of the biggest emotional outbursts ever registered to achieve it, and he had known all along.

Because of course he knew, Arnold was so smart...and kind...and, and…

Giving the very tip of his nose, she couldn't help but have that dumb grin on her face.

"I love you, Arnold", she said, a statement of fact, not up for debate.

And in that sunny morning, the sun peaking through the light shades, they both smiled.