A/N: Next chapter, here it is! Please keep the reviews coming, they have been getting a little thin lately :(

"That's fifty Chinese lanterns, and fifty candles, coming to... seventy three twenty two." The cashier said, ringing him up.

Arnold sighed a sigh of defeat at the cost, and pulled out his wallet, and swiped his card. "Thank you," He said with a feigned smile as he picked up the box the cashier had put his purchase in.

It was the day before Valentines day, and as the week wore on, he couldn't get the lantern idea out of his head. So he decided to head to Party City just outside of town and pick up what he needed. It was just after five when Arnold got back into his car after stuffing the box into his trunk so Helga wouldn't see it. She was still adamant that she was not going to celebrate Valentines day, even threatening to lock herself in her room until he gave up, but, at this point, he just wanted to do it to get to her.

This afternoon when she was in her tutoring session with Ian, he had opened her locker and taped a rose to the inside of the door, which he was sure he would get smacked for, considering he was the only other one that knew her locker combination. He laughed to himself as he shoved his key into the ignition, and started the car. He started the thirty minute drive back home, listening to slow, calming rhythms of third wave ska, thinking what her face would look like when she would climb up on the roof.

After getting stuck in a traffic jam for twenty minutes, he parked next to the boarding house, and climbed out of his car. He still had no idea what he was going to make her for dinner, or how he was going to get a table up onto his roof, but he would figure that out tonight. He put his key in the knob of the front door, twisted it and unlocked the door, pushing it open in the process.

The boarding house was oddly quiet as he hung up his coat on one of the empty hooks on the wall. "Hello?" He cut through the silence.

"Arnold, come in here, son." His father's stern voice came from the living room. He sounded very serious, which was odd. He quickly made his way into the living room and stopped in the entry way, where he saw Helga sitting on the couch, her hands in her lap, her neck craned downward, his mother in the chair adjacent, with his father standing opposite with his arms crossed.

"What is it?" He asked nervously, taking a few cautious steps into the space. He looked between the people in the room, first to Helga, who was sitting perfectly still on the couch, looking a bit ashamed, then to his mother, who had her legs crossed, then to his father, whose serious expression was etched in stone.

"Sit down, Arnold." He commanded in a low tone. His nerves shot a dose of nervousness through his system at his father's tone as he took a step to his right and sat down next to his girlfriend, who still hadn't taken her eyes off her hands.

"What's this about?" He asked, looking between his parents.

His father let out a heavy sigh, and reached into his pocket. "Your mother went into your room to gather your laundry, and found this." He pulled out a small piece of dark foil and tossed it down in front of them on the coffee table. Arnold's eyes widened at the realization of what he was called in here for, why Helga was looking so ashamed of herself, and why his father looked so serious. "Now, who wants to go first?"

Arnold looked from the empty condom wrapper on the coffee table to his father, not hearing Helga move beside him. "Dad... Helga and I, we're in love." He stated, looking his father dead in the eye. He looked over to Helga, and saw her looking at him with a sad expression. He reached over and grabbed her hand, running his thumb across her knuckles.

"We told you what would happen if you did this, Arnold."

A surge of anger shot through his system in that instant, as he glared back up to his father. He pushed himself up to his feet and met his father's eyes. "We're both adults, Dad. And it's not like we came home drunk one day and decided that a roll in the sheets would be fun. We made a conscious, responsible decision to be together, and the fact that you found condom wrapper in my room should say to you that we were actually thinking when we made that decision."

"Arnold, you're too young." His father argued.

"Too young?! Dad, Helga and I are both eighteen, would you rather have us be like those other teenagers you hear so much about on the news?" He paused as he get his father's tense stare, not backing down. "Helga and I have sex." He put bluntly as his father uncrossed his arms. "And I'm not afraid to say to you that we have more than once, because we are in love. So if your going to kick Helga out for something that we both did, then you're going to have to kick me out too, either that or I'll leave with her."

"Honey... we're not kicking anyone out." His mother began in a soft voice.

He looked over to his mother, who had a sad smiled playing on her lips, as he heard his father let out another long sigh. "But there are rules, son."

"Oh, you and your rules..." An annoyed voice shot out from the entryway. All eyes whipped around to see Gertie waltz it with a small smile on her face with her vision narrowed over to her son. "These two people here are young, and in love, and that's what young and in love people do, isn't it? Or need I remind you of the time I walked in on you and..."

"Mother!" Miles hissed, a scared furrow appearing on his face.

"What?!" Arnold asked, turning around to look at his grandma in surprise.

"You two were younger than they are back then, and saying it was the seventies is still no excuse. Your father and I let it slide because you gave us the same exact speech Arnold just gave you. There's absolutely nothing wrong with these two doing horizontal mambo, and they did use protection, which is more than I can say about you two."

"Mother..." Miles warned in a low tone.

"Miles, honey..." Arnold's father snapped over to his wife, who had a soft smile playing at her lips. "She's right."

"You can't be..."

"Yes... I am" She stopped him in a soft, but stern voice. Stella stood up from her chair and took a few slow steps toward him. "Come on, Miles, you remember how it was back then, when you're young, and you're completely in love. These two obviously did a lot more thinking than we did back then." Stella took a few more steps to whisper in her husbands ear. "And you and I both know that they're going to do it anyway, whether we allow them to or not." She stepped back and gave him a wry expression.

He let out a sharp sigh, knowing she was right. Arnold always stuck by what he believed in, and he believed in Helga, and if he said that he would leave with her, then he would, and he didn't doubt that for a second. "Son," He called over. Arnold looked at him with an expectant brow, and he waved him over. He stopped in from of him and his father put both his hands on his shoulders. "Just... make sure we don't know about it, okay?"

Arnold paused for a long moment, his eyes wide. Did I really just get permission to have sex with my girlfriend from my own parents? "Um... okay." His father patted his son's shoulder and stepped around him and out of the room, with Gertie following him. He looked over to Helga, who was looking back up at him with a soft, but nervous smile, then over to his mother, who gave him a small nod sideways, then a glance down at Helga. Reading his mother's motions, he stepped out of the room.

Helga, having just gone through one of the most embarrassing moments in her life, not having said a word, stood up to follow her lover out of the room. "Helga," Stella's soft voice beckoned. "I'd like to ask you something... a little personal."

"Sure," She said very hesitantly.

Stella stepped forward and put a soft hand on the young woman's shoulder. "Do you need to talk to anybody? Because I don't know if your parents ever... sat down with you or anything. A-and I know how scary your first time can be. I-if this is your... first time."

"It is, it was." Helga whispered.

She nodded slowly and averted her eyes down to the floor. "He didn't... pressure you into anything, did he?"

"No, he didn't. He was really sweet and caring, he was probably more scared than I was." Stella's smile brightened a bit. "I uh... do appreciate you asking though. And no, my parents never bothered to talk to me. I kind of had to... figure it out on my own."

"Well, I hope you know that you are always welcome to come and talk to me about anything, sweetie."

Helga simply smiled as Stella stepped around her. She let out a silent breath she had been holding ever since Miles had asked her to wait in the living room for Arnold to come back, knowing what it was about. She started out of the room to go upstairs, making herself scarce from the conversation that was going on between the family in the kitchen.

Getting up to the attic, she opened the door to find Arnold sitting on his bed, his head in his hands. She walked over and fell down next to him, slouching forward, mirroring his position. "It has nothing to do with you, but I don't think we can sleep together for a while."

Helga chuckled dryly, "Yeah, me neither."

"It just feels like they're watching me." Arnold visibly shivered next to her. She kept her eyes on him for a moment, her mind replaying the first moments of his return, were he declared to his parents that he was in love with her.

"Arnold," She called softly just before he looked over to her with a solemn look. "Back there, when we were talking to your parents, you said you were in love with me."

"Yeah..."

"It's just... you said it with such conviction. Like you..." She tried to put her thoughts into words, but she just couldn't find her voice.

"Actually meant it?" He continued for her. She looked over with a sad smile and nodded. "That's because I did mean it, Helga." He leaned over and pressed his lips to hers sweetly.

He leaned back, and smiled. "Well, I'm going back downstairs, I have some homework to do for tomorrow." Helga stood up and started out of his room.

"Hey," he said softly. She turned around with a raised questioning brow, "Are we okay?"

He could tell right away that her smile was feigned, "Yeah, we're good. I'll see you at dinner, okay?"

Deciding not to push her, and to give her space to work out whatever it is that she's going through, he simply smiled back and nodded, watching her open the door and step down the stairs.

It was Friday afternoon, and Helga was still being very distant, but he was still giving her space, coming to the conclusion that yesterday's incident had just given her a bit of a shake. The closest thing he got to a good morning kiss was the small smile she gave him when she opened her locker the first time in the morning to find the rose he had taped on the inside of her door.

Even during lunch, she was quiet.

Her classes had changed around for the second semester, and she now had lunch with him, Ian and Kelly. Kelly had tried to get through to her, but Helga just shook her head when asked, and said that nothing was wrong. Ian gave him a silent questioning brow, but Arnold simply give him a small shrug in response. As they made their way out of the lunch room, he looked back when he found that she was not by his side, and saw that Kelly had stopped her, and had a look of concern etched on her face. Kelly glanced over Helga's shoulder and met his eyes, but only for a split second before she looked back to Helga and nodded.

Arnold's fear had now surfaced, knowing something was wrong, but not knowing what it was about, or what to do about it.

Since it was Valentines day, the school was decorated with hearts, everybody was either making fun of the holiday, or immersed in it, with girls walking around with roses that other students had bought and sent to them. And he didn't have the frame of mind to think about the fifty Chinese lanterns sitting in his trunk for his romantic roof top dinner he was planning for her. Now, he just wanted to make sure she was alright, or that they were alright. As he was let out of his last class for the day, he walked down the quickly thinning hallways and stopped in front of her locker to wait for her.

Still not spotting her, he saw Ian and Kelly sauntering down the hall, laughing and smiling like they always were. Since Helga was still no where in sight, he decided to finally get involved. "Hey Kelly?"

She looked up to him, "What's up, Arnold?"

He shoved off Helga's locker, and took a step forward. "Do you have any idea what's going on with Helga? I'm getting kind of worried."

Kelly's eyes filled with concern, and then quickly flicked up to Ian. "I'll meet you by the car in a few minutes, okay?" Ian nodded and leaned down to kiss her. Once he was out of ear shot, Kelly continued. "I swore I wouldn't say anything, but maybe you can talk some sense into her."

"What's going on?"

She let out a small sigh, "She wants to move out."

"She what?" Arnold's almost couldn't believe what he had heard. "Why?"

"I'm not entirely sure, but I'm guessing that you're parents caught onto you two sleeping together?"

Arnold let out a shaky sigh and ran a hand through his hair, "Y-yeah, they did."

Kelly looked over to her side, and Arnold followed her eye line until he saw Helga walking down the adjacent hallway, looking down at the ground, her hands on the straps of her backpack. "Why don't you let me talk to her, I think I have a feeling as to what's bothering her."

He felt his heart sink a bit, but nodded. Why Helga didn't feel comfortable coming to him about any of this gave him a hopeless, empty feeling. Helga came to a stop in front of them, met his eyes with a soft smile, and stepped around them to get to her locker. He stepped forward and leaned back against the locker next to hers and waited. After a minute or two, she shut her locker. "Hey Hell cat, why don't we go get some coffee, my treat."

"Oh, um, thanks Kel, but I just-"

"Come on, I need to talk to you about something Ian said anyway."

Helga stuttered for a moment before she looked over to Arnold again, "Do you mind?"

He smiled warmly, "Not at all, I'll just meet you back at the boarding house when you're done?"

She nodded and he pushed off the lockers and walked out of the door, determined not to look back, afraid his heart would break from the look in her eyes.

He shoved his hands in his pockets, and hung his head low as he walked over to his car. "Hey, dude, where's Kelly?"

Arnold looked up to find Ian leaning against his truck, "She said she was taking Helga to the cafe to talk about something." Ian looked over his shoulder to find Kelly and Helga walking down the other side of the parking lot.

"Everything okay?"

He sighed heavily again, hoping to breath out the tenseness in his shoulders, and leaned back against Ian's truck. "I hope so."

Ian was silent for a moment, and Arnold couldn't silence the small voice in his head telling him to just give up. "One of the last conversation I had with my dad happened during a rough patch Kelly and I were having. I was in the living room, and he was sitting in his recliner, and he could always tell when something was wrong with us. He asked me a really strange question. He asked me 'would you die for her?' I said absolutely, without any hesitation. He just laughed and shook his head, took another swig of beer, and said something I'll never forget. He said 'dying is easy, son. Hell, even killing for somebody ain't that hard. But living for somebody? That's a hell of a lot harder than anything, don't you think?'"

Arnold couldn't help but crack a smile and Ian's wisdom. "Is there a point to all this?"

"All I'm saying is that no matter what happens with you two, if you love each other enough, then it will all work out."

"You really are a hopeless romantic, aren't you?"

Ian laughed brightly, "It's more of a curse than anything."

"I just hope you're right." He muttered to himself as he shoved off Ian's truck and stepped over to his car, which was parked next to Ian's, and fell into the driver seat.