Helga peeled her eyes open, which felt very heavy from the pull of sleep, still trying to sweep her back under. She moaned and burrowed deeper into the covers, tightening the grip she had on the pillow being hugged against her chest and fell back asleep.

The next time she felt her eyes open, the room was much lighter than it was, compared to the thick darkness that was covering over everything in the room that took her a long moment to recognize. Usually, reality was quick to set back in when she woke up, but this morning was unlike any other. She still had the same pale blue pillow hugged against her chest, which with another breath inward to yawn, smelled wonderfully familiar. She felt very relaxed this morning. A calm content happiness tickling her system, an almost giddiness that she felt bubbling inside her, and it wasn't until she stretched her legs out to flex her sleep strained muscles that the evening before came flooding back in a heavy wave of memories when she felt her bare skin slid against the covers.

Her heart started thumping wildly at memories of the complete sensory overload that she felt. The sight of his smooth skin covering his muscles as they flexed underneath her wandering fingers, the musky and thick stench lingering in the air, the taste of his breath mixed with hers as they shared kiss after kiss with more and more passion seeped into each one, the sound of the noises of ecstasy that was made by both of them, along with the sound of 'I love you' tumbling from their lips repeatedly through the minutes of their dance.

There was a saying that always stuck with her that she was told on the last day of school by her English teacher, one of her favorites that she can remember from her grade school days. 'If you find anything better than sex… let me know.' It was meant to be a saying to diminish the appeal of drugs and the like, but as far as last night goes, if that's what he was talking about, there probably wasn't much of anything that was better.

She never knew such feelings and emotions ever existed. She couldn't seem to contain herself, didn't seem to be able to get her entire body to stop moving and mewling against his. It was painful at first, that's what she was told, but he was patient. It went by too quickly for either of their liking, but it still lasted a lot longer than what she was told the first time was like. She let out a heavy breath and relaxed, looking out through the skylight above the bed up at the dark blue sky. The sun was probably just below the horizon, and was just about to come up.

She looked over to the clock that was sitting on a shelf in the wall and saw that it was just before six in the morning. She must have been really tired if she just slept for what was close to fourteen hours. But where was the man she fell asleep with? She briefly remembers waking up sometime in the middle of the night, but didn't feel anyone next to her in bed.

She let out another breath and flung the covers off herself, a rush of cold air hitting her naked body. After some effort, she slipped on the shirt that she found lying on the floor in the middle of the room where she had tossed it the night before and slipped it on before pressing it to her face and inhaling deeply.

She also found a pair of grey sweatpants sitting on the couch, folded up neatly. She wondered briefly if he left these out for her to wear so she didn't have to wear her clothes from the day before. And she never did bother to go get her backpack that she packed back at school. She pulled the sweatpants on and tied the string around her waist since they were a bit loose on her and padded her way down the steps to find the bathroom.

After poking her head into every room until she found the bathroom, she relieved herself and then started down the steps to try and find someone, whether it be Stella or Arnold depended on who she found first. Eventually, she was walking down the hall toward what looked like the kitchen, but stopped when she heard a pair of voices.

"I don't know, I'll probably work on getting the boarding house back up and running, and start renting out the rooms again, but it will take some work." She heard Arnold say.

"Why did you tell me that you had scholarships?" She heard Stella ask him, a pleading tone laced into her voice.

"I didn't want you to feel guilty, Mom." Helga felt her heart warm at the sound of his calling Stella Mom. "And what I'm I going to do with a college degree anyway? I can walk into any shop in the city and get a job as a welder without any trouble."

"You know how to weld?" Stella asked him, sounding surprised.

"I made a friend whenever Mr. Potts took me on, and he taught me how to cut and weld."

"But what about your girlfriend?" She felt her breath hitch slightly at the sound of her entering their conversation.

Arnold sighed deeply, sounding frustrated, and heard the distinct sound of the wood of a chair creak. "I don't want to lose her, but I don't want to be so selfish as to ask her to stay either. I may not belong in college, but she does. She can actually do something with a degree. But I know that if I tell her to go, then she'll drop everything and stay."

Helga felt her heart start to crack at the thought of them being apart when their relationship had just blossomed, but stayed as silent as she could, eavesdropping intently on their conversation. "Arnold, you don't have to stay here and watch over me. I'll be fine."

"Mom, I…" She could hear Arnold sigh again and his chair creak from his moving around before he continued after choking on his words, "Just understand that I need to do this and leave it at that, okay?" She heard his chair being pushed out from the sound of the wooden legs scraping against the floor, and then soft sound of footsteps going across the kitchen floor, getting louder the closer they got to where she was standing just outside the doorway.

"Arnold," Stella said suddenly, making his soft footsteps halt, "what I told you about your dad, it was true. I know you don't believe me, but… it is true."

She heard Arnold sigh again before his footsteps continued, much closer than they were before. Panic suddenly flooding her, and not wanting to be caught eavesdropping, she took a large step, practically jumping away from the door to make it seem like she was just walking down the hall. She let out a breath to try and relax herself and started taking small steps forward until her lover from the previous night stepped around the corner with his head hung low in front of him.

He had on one of his pitch black t-shirts, and a pair of black flannel sweatpants, with his feet bare. He took one more step forward until he lifted his head up and met her eyes and stopped. "Helga," He said, sounding pleasantly surprised.

She felt a smile burst onto her face while she took one more step toward him, only about a foot separating them at this point. "Hi." She said with a slightly cheeky, yet nervous tone. She wanted to reach out to him and casually throw her arms around his neck and kiss him good morning, but she simply waited to see what he would do.

She saw his demeanor soften, a smirk teasing the corners of his lips. "When did you get up?"

"Oh, uh… just a few minutes ago." He relied only with a nod and averted his eyes down to the floor. He seems just as nervous as she does. She sighed silently to herself and just decided to plunge through it and let him know that last night was no mistake. She took the last step that separated them and ran her hands from the center of his chest over his shoulders until they were around him fully, earning herself a surprised look from his bright green eyes. "Guess what." She said teasingly.

"That you look more appealing than you ever have before when you wear my clothes?" He said while he ran his warm hands over her sides and pressed her into him.

She chuckled lightly and glanced down at his lips, "Close, but no. I was going to say that I love you. You know, with clothes on this time."

"What stopped you?" He asked her with a quick shake of his head.

"Huh?"

"You said you were going to. What is it that stopped you?"

She chuckled again and pressed her lips to his in a chaste kiss. "I love you."

"So… you don't… regret anything?" He asked, sounding blatantly scared of her answer.

"Of course not, Arnold." She said, putting as much reassurance behind it as she could while she ran her hand over his hair on the back of his head, petting it. "We love each other, we did it safely. And I wouldn't have wanted my first time to be with anyone else other than you, Arnold."

He smiled a sad smile and pulled her forward to hold her. She could tell that he was asking for comfort and assurance, but was too proud to ask for it out right. Knowing this, she tightened her arms around him and hugged him for a minute, enjoying the feeling of his cool breath go down her, or rather his shirt. "Helga," He coaxed her forward, and she leaned back to look into his eyes with a smile. "We have to talk about something." He told her seriously, but softly.

"Okay." She replied, not removing her arms from around his shoulders.

He flashed her another soft smile and ran his hand up and down her back before stepping around her and pulled her with him into the living room, leading her over to a green couch and sitting down, pulling her down with him and leaned forward with their knees touching. "My mother and I have been talking." He said, keeping his hands tied in with hers between them, looking down at them. "I think we came to an understanding that she stays here with me and works with me to get the boarding house back on its feet. In the meantime, I'll start looking around at the fabrication shops and try to get in as a welder."

"You know how to weld?" She asked, already knowing the answer, but asking him anyway.

He laughed under his breath and met her eyes for a split second, "Yeah, I learned on the job when I was working demo. It's mostly artistry, but I'll sink to industrial if I have to." He let out another heavy breath, the light undertone that was adopted vanishing. "Helga, I don't want to be apart from you, but my place is here."

She looked down to their joined hands sadly and nodded, "I know."

"But, it's not because my mother needs me. I could sign my bank account over to her and she'd be fine living here on her own while I take out student loans and keep going to school. That's not why I belong here though."

After he didn't continue, she lowered her head to try and meet his eyes, "Then why do you?"

"When I woke up this morning, it was still pretty early. So I went downstairs to see what needed to be done, and found her sitting at the kitchen table reading an old book she said she found in the bedroom she slept in, and we just… sat and talked, for hours. I told her everything I went through, and she told me everything she went through. We just put it all out there, and it just seemed to sort itself out. She told me about my dad, and what he was like. And I told her about you, and what you were like. She even said herself that she saw something in you whenever she would go into that soup kitchen you volunteer at."

The more he kept talking, the more she felt that she couldn't just leave him and go to school while he stayed here.

"What I'm saying is that I'm not staying for her. I'm staying for me. I want to get to know her. I've dreamt my entire life of what it would be like to have actual parents. And last night, when we were talking, I just got this feeling of… I don't know how to explain it. I just felt… at home. I can never tell you how much I love you, Helga. But if I left her now, I don't think I'll be the same when I go back."

She smiled heavily, feeling sadness seep into her heart. "I understand, Arnold."

"Hey," He called her softly. She looked up and met his eyes to see him smiling softly over to her, his loving gaze on her. She felt herself smile despite the situations they were facing, and felt herself react to him pulling her onto his lap, sitting on his legs with his arms around her waist, while her arm draped itself over his shoulders, her eyes still looking into his loving green eyes. "I need you to know something."

"What's that?" She asked softly, her other arm moving to go around his shoulders.

"I never entertained the idea of having children until I saw you with that little girl, Mary."

She felt the breath being quickly drawn from her at the thought of it being her that changed his mind of wanting to being a child into this world. "Really?"

"Yes," He said with his soft smile still in place. "I don't know what it was, but something just hit me when I saw you lift that little girl up in your arms."

"I didn't know I had such an effect on you." She half lied.

"You have such a profound effect on me, it's scary to think about all at once."

"Oh, come on, you couldn't have changed that much since we've been together."

"Are you willing to bet on that?" He challenged her, but didn't give her time to retort. "Helga, everyone else in the world I've come across were quick to fade in my mind, even before they actually left. I never felt as if someone was reaching to pull me back up, even if they actually were until you came along. You just seemed to drift into my life so effortlessly, and even after you breezed away, you were still there. And now, I'm beginning to see you in everything. You're starting to consume my entire being, and what gets me is that you're doing it without even batting an eye. You're not even trying. You're just here. For as long as I can remember, it's been just me. I never had to think about anybody else because there was no one else. But now, every thought I seem to have, somehow, one way or another, leads back to you."

A whirlwind of heavy emotions were starting to slap her as tears pooled in her eyes, with her breath light and having to compete with her slamming heartbeat. Her hand reached over and cupped his cheek, and she knew that he deserved something, words, actions, but she couldn't seem to manage anything else.

"In other words, that was my long winded way of saying that I love you and that I think I always will."

She let out the last of her shallow breath past the lump in her throat and leaned down into him, pressing her lips to his deeply, unable to keep herself apart from him any longer. She wanted to tell him everything he had just told her, but didn't want to stop kissing him in order to do so. She just pulled him against her with her arms tightly coiled around his neck. It was a little awkward with her sitting in his lap, having to twist to meet him, but she couldn't care less.

Even though everything was changing for them, she felt like they were falling for each other harder than they ever were before, and were past the point of a redemption from their feelings, that neither of them would take of offered.

With another long, passionate motion of their lips, they separated but kept their heads pressed together. "I don't want you to leave me, Helga." He said, reaching up to run his fingers over her ear and cup her jaw.

"I don't want to leave either. I want to be here, with you." She said, pulling back a bit to look into his eyes, but reaching up and placing her hand atop his to keep it there.

"I'll make a deal with you. Next weekend, I'll come back up there, and we'll spend the weekend together. Then, the weekend after that, I'll come pick you up and we can spend the weekend down here. We trade off."

"But I want to see you every day. Like I do now."

"Go get your phone." He said with a soft smile.

"Wha…"

"Just go get your phone." He said with a soft chuckle laced into his voice.

Not knowing what he was up to, but very anxious to see what it was, she darted upstairs and dug in the pocket of her jeans lying on the floor at the foot of his bed and darted back downstairs just in time to see him push himself off the couch. She came to a sudden stop in front of him and handed him her phone, and he took it with the same soft smile.

His arm then went around her back and he pulled her into his side while he fiddled with her phone with a soft smirk. Her eyes reluctantly went from his beautiful soft smirk effortlessly gracing his lips and went down to her phone to see him pulling up the camera feature. "Here." He said and lifted his arm up and pulled her tighter into his side.

Quickly getting what he was up to, she snaked her arms around him, draping them over his shoulders and laid her head against his, looking into the tiny lens of the camera on her phone and let a lips soften into the natural smile that she couldn't get rid of. The animated sound of the camera taking the picture sounded from the phone after a moment of him holding it up in front of them, and he turned her phone around and she kept her head sitting against his as she looked at the picture they took together.

At the sight of his soft and loving smile, the light shining in both their eyes, she's never seen a more beautiful picture in her life. "We look pretty good together." He said.

She lifted her head off his and looked over to him, her arms still around him. "You want to know why that's my new favorite picture of us?"

"Why?" He asked in a low voice, turning in her arms to face her and loop both his arms around her back.

"Because now I have proof that you do in fact smile."