A/N: This one is kind of short, but in the next one, I will introduce a situation that will complicate things a bit, what do I have in store? Keep reading to find out! And REVIEW! It encourages me!

On another note: I am in search of some cover art! So, if you are an artist, or if someone you know is, then let me know if your willing to draw something for me! If not, and you can find an image of Arnold and Helga that would depict this story appropriately, then let me know!

Waking up to a tickling feeling on his chest, he groaned and opened his eyes, to find himself lying on his back, with his gorgeous girlfriend looking down at him, propped up on her elbow with a warm smile and faraway look in her eyes, as she ran her fingers through the short hairs on his chest. He hummed as he recalled their late night and stretched out his strained muscles. As he relaxed back against the bed, he gazed up at her, noticing the unmistakable glow that she was emitting.

Last night was, in a word… unbelievable. It wasn't the slam each other against the wall, tear your clothes off, then fall down in a tangle mess of sweaty limbs as it was the previous two times. Instead, it was slow, it was loving, it was passionate, it wasn't rushed. They took their time, knowing full well they had all in the world, slowly peeling layers of clothing off each other, mapping her body with his lips, cataloging every sound she made in certain places, every movement she made, how every inch of her felt against him, committing every detail to memory.

While they did spend a good amount of time together in pure euphoria, reveling in the sensation of making love to each other, they did float back down to earth eventually, and cradled one another in a close embrace as they drifted off to sleep, hoping that this dream didn't end with sleep.

Helga continued to run her fingers through his chest hair as he gazed up at her, the bright blue morning sky slightly silhouetting her figure. "Morning," He mumbled.

She replied by leaning down and kissing his parted lips. She released him and spoke against his lips. "Morning."

Eventually, they got up. Arnold managed to find a pair of sweatpants to throw on as he made his way to the bathroom. The bathroom was a little dirty, but usable. He grabbed a hand towel off the rack and wiped down a few surfaces, and removing a few spider webs, just in case it freaked out Helga. He made his way back up to his room, and found her, just walking towards the door, legs bare, wearing his t-shirt from last night, letting it hang low so it covered her panties. As she drifted past him and padded her way down the steps, ghosting her fingertips past his shoulder, he was still amazed how easily she could captivate him, no matter what she was wearing, whether it be his clothes or hers.

He made his way downstairs while she was in the bathroom, and stopped at the bottom of the stairs. On a Saturday morning, growing up, this place was abuzz with life. Boarders conversing, and arguing, Mr. Potts yelling at Mr. Kokoshka for something, and Mr. Kokoshka innocently denying it, and Grandpa yelling at everyone to pipe down because Grandma was still sleeping, Arnold felt a heavy stab of grief when he noticed how quiet it is now.

He padded his way into the empty kitchen, and pictured his grandma at the stove, wearing cowboy boots and a cowboy hat, making flapjacks, and his grandpa sitting down at the table reading his morning paper. And the longer he stood there, the fiercer the tears stung at the back of his eyes. He tried to force himself to will away the tears, but he just couldn't do it.

I'm a veteran! I'm supposed to be stronger than this. I've had three years to cope with this, and here I am, about to cry like a little boy! I'm not supposed to be this weak! As he was scolding himself, standing motionless in the middle of the kitchen, he didn't hear Helga quietly approach him and make her way around him.

"Anything to eat around here?" She asked in typical Helga fashion. He felt himself suck in a quivering breath as he felt a pair of tears leak out as he continued to scan the bare, lifeless kitchen, now a dark, empty shell of what it was growing up. He heard Helga open up the fridge, "Nothing," then make her way to the cupboard to the right of the fridge, and open it, "Well, there's dry spaghetti." She said. He heard her reach for the box and pull it out. "Care for some Italian?" She said jokingly as she turned to face him.

As he kept his blurry stare down at his grandpa's unoccupied chair, sitting pushed into the table, he heard Helga drop the box of three year old noodles onto the floor, and rush over to him. She stopped in front of him, and lovingly caressed his cheek, but he refused to meet her concerned eyes. "Arnold, what's wrong?"

He sucked in another shuttering breath as he felt another tear leak out onto his cheek. "It's quiet." He stressed out with a voice thick with emotion. He felt her thumb brush across his cheek bone and wipe a tear away. He sniffled and continued. "Last time they were in here, Grandma was making pancakes." He looked over to the stove. "And she was making them too big." He felt himself laugh at the memory. "Her and Grandpa were in an argument over the perfect size for a pancake, and while they were arguing, Mr. Kokoshka was sneaking them off the plate, and Grandpa yelled at him, and he dropped them on the floor." He let out a watery chuckle as he sniffled again. "But Mr. Kokoshka just said 'But Grandpa, I'm hungry'… and Grandpa just yelled 'Stop calling me Grandpa!'." He felt the sting behind his eyes as more tears forced their way out. Helga quickly wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down into her shoulder, knowing that the dam had just broken.

Arnold clung to her quickly, squeezing her into him, as she rubbed a soothing hand up and down his bare back and shushed him. "I'm here." She assured him as he felt himself let out a silent sob into the crock of her neck.

"I miss them so much." He mumbled as he realized he didn't have the strength to make the pent up emotion stop.

"I know you do, Arnold. I know you do." She whispered into his ear. With a few more soothing words, and a little time, he finally calmed down, and let her go, keeping his eyes closed, feeling a little more than very embarrassed.

"I'm sorry I got so emotional. It's just I came down here and realized that I would never wake up to the sound of a chaotic boarding house again. It was just too quiet."

"Hey," She said firmly, "if there's one person in this world allowed to get a little emotional, it's you." He didn't say another word, just pulled her back into him, and buried his nose in her hair. By the time Arnold was willing to let her go, they had both lost track of how long they had been standing there. Helga pressed her lips against his bare shoulder and leaned back, meeting his gaze, silently asking if he was alright, and he responded with a warm smile and a sharp nod. "So, you want to finish cleaning up today? I don't think there's much left to do."

He nodded as he walked over and picked up the box of noodles she had dropped in her haste to calm him down. "Yeah, Rhonda will probably be glad to hear that it's ready."

"Speaking of her highness, she wanted me to come by her place today."

"She did? What for?"

"Oh, she wanted to get started on the outfit she wanted to make me."

"You're actually agreeing to that?"

"Yeah, what the hell? I mean, how bad can it be? Plus, if I get a new outfit out of it, then it might actually be worth it." She said as she hopped up onto the counter.

"True. I just don't know if she's one of those designers whose clothes look like a bad modern art sculpture."

"Well, if I show up at the party looking like a Picasso, then you can give me permission to kill Rhonda."

He chuckled as he came up to her and trapped her on the counter. "Why do you need my permission? If you want to kill Rhonda, that's your prerogative." She giggled as she leaned forward and gave him a chaste kiss. "I'll even be your character witness."

"Who says I'll get caught?" She said deviously. He beamed at her confidence and kissed her again. After a while, they got dressed into their clothes from the previous day, however Helga was reluctant to give him his shirt back, and Arnold was just as reluctant to take it back. But he insisted that she take one of his when they got back to campus.

Deciding to finish up cleaning before Helga went over to Rhonda's, they walked over to a nearby general store and bought a few cleaning supplies and went back to the boarding house. As Arnold made himself busy, pulling out the vacuum from the hall closet, Helga made her way upstairs to dust. An hour and a half later, the boarding house looked a whole lot better than it did a week ago, with all the light bulbs replaced, the dark grey coating that covered the surfaces now gone, the house looked like it was supposed to.

"We didn't do half bad." Helga said as she threw a dirty paper towel in the trash.

"Well, having to pass barracks inspection kind of helps. They'd yell at us if they saw one speck of dust." He recalled, shoving the vacuum back into the closet. "Ready to head out?"

She nodded and they headed out, catching a cab back to campus, deciding to part ways once they arrived, after getting a phone call from Rhonda while they were commuting. They stepped out of the cab and Helga wrapped her arms around him in a hug, and he returned it without hesitation. She leaned back and kissed him softly, pulling him in by a gentle hand on the outline of his jaw. They parted and Helga looked into his eyes with a sort of reassurance, silently letting him know that she was there, and that she cared for him very deeply.

He was hoping to put his emotional outburst behind him, but having her silently reassure him that she was there, and that she understood, meant a lot to him. She stepped back with a warm smile and a nod and started walking down the street towards Rhonda's.

He made his way back to his dorm and finished up a paper that was due in his writing class. It was around two o'clock in the afternoon, when his cell phone began to vibrate against his leg, and he was too caught up in the current book he was reading that he didn't look at the caller ID, and answered the phone. "Hello?"

"What's up, Bro?" Came a deep voice from the other line.

Arnold bolted upright in his bed in surprise. "Gerald? What's up?!"

"Nothing much, my man, just calling to let you know me and Pheebs are gonna be in town next weekend for some party Rhonda is throwing."

"Yeah, she told me about it last week. She invited everybody from back in the day."

"Yeah, that's what she told Phoebe on the phone."

"She owes me for having to give the entire boarding house a once over, though."

"It's at the boarding house?" Gerald asked, slightly surprised.

"Yeah, why, is that a problem?"

There was a pause on the other end of the line, before Gerald decided to speak. "No, it's just… I know you had some trouble going back there…before."

While it was true, that he did have a substantial amount of trouble going back after he was released from rehab, even asking Gerald to go back for him and pick up his clothes and a few other things for him, having Helga by his side did help. "Yeah, I did. But Helga helped me through it. I mean, if anyone knows about losing their family, it's her."

"How is Pataki nowadays? She still hanging around that one guy?"

"No, she broke up with him." He said, deciding to leave out the part of him sending his fist to his knee cap… for now.

"Well, that's good. I know you were worried about her with that guy."

"Yeah, well I took care of it."

Gerald chuckled at the other end of the line. "I don't want to know man. But anyway, Pheebs and I are going to be in town Friday afternoon, and we were wondering if you wanted to meet us somewhere, grab a bite to eat."

"Sure, we can meet at the Old Smoke, just off campus."

"Sounds cool, just text me the address and I'll let you know when we're close."

"Cool, my girlfriend and I will meet you there." He said, ready to bid his friend goodbye until Gerald was stopping him.

"Wait, wait, wait, hold up… girlfriend? Who's that?" Gerald asked, his voice squeaking a little.

"Helga…" Arnold replied, thinking Gerald already knew which obviously he hadn't.

"Helga G. Pataki is your girlfriend?!"

"Didn't I just say that?"

"Dude, when did this happen?"

"About two weeks ago, we've been getting along great."

Gerald seemed at a loss for words, starting a sentence, only to stutter, getting caught on words. "I'm sorry, Arnold, but I'll have to see it to believe it."

"Alright, just meet us at the Old Smoke and you will."

"Alright, I'll see you later, Bro."

"Later, Gerald." He shut his phone and tossed it back on the bed. He couldn't really blame him, sometimes, he could hardly believe he was dating Helga either. Arnold went back to his book, leaned back against the wall again and started to reading.

It was another two hours before Helga called him, telling him that she was done at Rhonda's, and that she was under strict orders to keep her outfit a secret from him until its debut at the party. But, after asking her back to his dorm, she declined, saying that dealing with Rhonda for four hours wore her out and that she was going back to her dorm to sleep for a bit. Arnold agreed, however disappointed. "Oh, Helga, Gerald called and he said that he and Phoebe are going to be in town Friday afternoon and that they wanted to meet us at the Old Smoke, Friday night, is that alright with you?"

"Uh… y-yeah, sounds good to me."

"Great, so is there anything you wanted to do tomorrow? Maybe go out and see a movie? Walk around the mall for a while?"

"Actually… there's something I need to do tomorrow, kind of overdue."

"Oh… Alright. Mind if I ask what that is?"

"I need to go visit Mariam."