Responses to reviews:
Kryten: Lol. Yeah, I think I over did it a bit with the fourth wall breakdown.
Veganmama: Really? I thought that by breaking down the fourth wall and having Rodrigo do this big speech about how 'Hey Arnold' would have reinvigorated the passions and reasons why so many of us have not forgotten about the TV series. I was actually paying homage to the entier show! Plus, I also wanted to also pay a little homage to the minor character of the series, mainly Nadine, Peapod Kid, Lorenzo, Park and others. They don't usually get the spotlight that some of them deserve, so I wanted to recognize them. I knew having the fourth wall broken down for so long may have taken the fantasy away for some reader, but I thought that by having Rodrigo recognize everyone and the inspiration they instilled in the series would have compensated that. Drag! lol.
Plus, I also wanted to give this strong indication, and feedback about what people would think about having a Latino supporting character into the series, should we ever get a seaon 6. Craig Bartlett mentioned in an interview back in October 2020 that should he ever do a season 6, he will have Latinos on the show. He didn't mention about placing a Latino as a supporting character, or Lorenzo, that's why I wrote this chapter and this entire series. Well, later on that was the reason. Rodrigo initially was supposed to only be this supporting character that was supposed to help guide Helga during her sad state. None of this was really part of the plan. Rodrigo just took a life of his own.
Despite going back with Arnold, Helga really does genuinely like 'like' Rodrigo. And like other emotions, it's not something you can just click 'off'. Even though she still loved Arnold, her affections for the Latino Kid did not yet die off. It will take some time before she is able to see him as a friend again. Heck, she never got over Arnold, so it should not be a surprise that she hold some sort of deep affections for Rodrigo.
Yes, I am still somewhat playing with the notion that Helga loves but also hates Arnold. Only this time though, she does have good reasons as to why there is this tug and pull scenerio with her, as you will find out in this chapter, and also in my other story, 'A New Life'.
Guest: Gracias por tu comento! Mis cuentos fueron escrito precismente para amor y odior. La historia verdadera no tiene esos 'perfecto' personajes. Caracters como Helga, Gerald, Rhonda, Rodrigo y especialmente Arnold tienen sus fuerzas y debilidades y queria ensenarlos. Y tambien, todos sufrimos en este mundo y Arnold no era un excepion. No te olvides que el tambien sufrio de su propio decisiones. El se dio cuenta que cometio un gran error en dejar Helga y le dolio cuando se dio cuenta que Helga, no solamente tenia el capaz de andar con su vida, pero se enamoro con alguien! El dolor y envidad que el sintio era una de las razones que inicio esta guerra civil entre sus propios amigos!
Lo siento que tu ultima relacion no logro bien. Te entiendo por que estas en conflicto. Pero. no te preocupes porque este capitulo y mi siguiente cuento, 'A New Life', ojala explicara todo :)
Estoy muy orgulloso que encantas mis cuentos.
Sobra la relacion con Rodrigo y Rhonda, pues, tenemos que ver que pasara. Pero de todas formas, en my opinion, es precisamente por que yo pienso que Rodrigo y Rhonda harian una buen pareja. Similar como Helga y Arnold, ellos tienen opuestos personalidades. Rhonda es totalmente egoista, Rodrigo no es o pues, no tanto como ella. Rhonda es bien rico, Rodrigo, aunque no es pobre, ni tampoco es rico. Rhonda es una creida; Rodrigo no le gusta estar en el centro de attencion. Rodrigo se viste simple, Rhonda le encanta comprar los mas caros marcas. Rhonda sabe tejer y combinar diferente colores and materias, Rodrigo no sabe micho como tejer o combinar colores como ella, etc.
Helga calmly waited on her seat while she slurped on a Slaucen's triple fudge chocolate shake that she got for free from the owner, a courtesy for her role in saving the neighbourhood and thereby, a good portion of his customers. Helga, never wanting to turn down free food, took full advantage of it and ordered such a shake.
She arrived at their rendezvous a bit early, and so just patiently waited for the person who called the meeting to arrive. As she waited, she played around with her phone, looking at the many photos that she took over the years; some random, some intentional, some with Phoebe. Inevitably, she came across photos of Rodrigo.
Stopping instantly, she took her time by scanning through each photo of him or of them together. As she continued to slurp on her shake, Helga let out a small smile when she came across either a funny photo or just simply a photo of him, smiling right back at her, each time cherishing the memories. She even let out a small chuckle when she came across a photo of Rodrigo doing something silly. She found it annoying when she took it, but now, it finally seemed to dawn on her that his silly faces and post were indeed a bit funny. Then, after scanning through some of them, she stopped, as if she was hesitating, as a thought then occurred to her. After some thinking and some more hesitation, she began to slowly delete them. Some she kept, finding them too cherished to be deleted yet. But for others, she continued, with ever growing sadness, to press on the 'delete' button, prompting that smile to completely disappear from her face.
Helga just sadly sighed as she continued on with her task, deleting photo after photo of him, or of them. It wasn't an easy thing to do. With every photo gone felt like a piece of her had just been ripped from her body.
*Entrance door bell ringing*
The entrance door bell then suddenly rang; prompting her to stop what she was doing and look up. The person whom she was supposed to be meeting with had finally arrived, prompting her to once again smile a bit as he made his way towards her.
"Hi Helga." The person said as he sat down in front of her.
"Hey football head." She said back as she put her phone away, then without hesitation leaned forward to kiss him on his lips, and then reached for his hand and held it.
"I hope you weren't waiting too long." He said to her, knowing how she always hated on having to wait for people, even him.
"Not at all." She said to him. "I came early, so I was enjoying this triple fudge chocolate shake." She said as she then pushed the shake in front of him.
"The owner gave me this for free as a 'thank you' for keeping his business alive." She explained. "It's a lot for me, so help yourself."
"Thanks." He said as he took the straw and began to suck on it. "Hm, good." He said with a smile as Helga said nothing and just smiled back at him even more and continued to hold on to his hand ever so tightly and tenderly.
After their time at the club that was orchestrated by the Latino kid, Arnold had asked Helga if they can meet up the day after. Not only because he was leaving to head back to San Lorenzo tomorrow and he wanted to spend as much time as possible with her, but also because there were some 'unfinished' business that they needed to talk about. Helga knew what that was and so agreed to meet up on that day at Slaucen's Ice Cream Parlor. It was an inevitable conversation.
At first, the couple said nothing and just enjoyed their shake, attempting to enjoy and savour every minute of every second together to make up for the three long year absence and for another year long absence. Helga was especially enjoying the occasion, smiling at her beloved throughout while he just silently finished off the shake as she continued to hold and caress his hand, which he reciprocated.
Arnold attempted to procrastinate by slowly eating the shake, not wanting to ruin this blissful and wonderful moment that he was fully enjoying with Helga. He cannot count the hours, days, weeks, months and years of how long he waited to feel her hands again, her lips, her body. Heck even her body odour he so sourly missed, everything! However, once Arnold was finished, they knew now that it was time to get down to business and talk about the reason why they met up.
"I guess talking about this was inevitable, huh?" Helga was the first to talk.
"Yeah." Arnold agreed. "It's a lot to cover and I don't know where to start."
"Well, say what first comes to mind." She suggested.
"Okay." He said as he then prepared himself, trying to find the right words before he spoke.
Helga just patiently waited for him to start, making no attempt to rush him as she fully well knew this was an already delicate subject.
"Here it goes." Arnold then began. "I love you, Helga." He said, prompting Helga to tense up and allow her heart to skip a beat, but she remained calm. "Even after I broke up with you, I never stopped loving you. I never stopped thinking about you. I thought I was over you, but I was only kidding myself. I never was. And...I don't want to be over you. I always wanted us to get back together."
No words could describe the incredible feeling that Helga was feeling at the moment when she heard him say that and she was finding it hard to become overly emotional. After everything she had gone through, after all the pain, the despair and depression, it was as if it was all finally coming back full circle; back to him. But, she knew he wasn't done talking and so remained quiet and calm.
"I made a horrible mistake by breaking up with you." He continued. "And I'm very thankful for getting a second chance with you."
"But," Arnold then said, prompting Helga to raise an eyebrow, "This isn't how I wanted us to get back together."
"You mean not at Rodrigo's expense?" She asked, to which Arnold nodded with a guilty look.
"I have to confess Helga," He then continued to talk, "I feel really bad for him. I wanted us to get back together, but not at anyone's expense, especially his. After everything he went through this summer, he didn't deserve this."
"So, are you saying that you are regretting kissing me at the FTI balcony and on getting back together with me?" She asked him with a suspicious look.
"No, not at all." Arnold quickly said as he shook his head. "I'm just saying that I feel bad for him. And for you."
"Me?" She asked him.
"I'm leaving for San Lorenzo tomorrow." Arnold began to explain. "I know that me leaving is already going to be hard for you. It'll be hard for me too. But now, you also have to deal on trying to salvage your friendship with Rodrigo. I not only won't be here to help you with that, but I also won't be here to deal with it."
"Exactly." She said to him with an annoyed look. "You're going back without having to deal with any of this. So, why are you moping around about it?"
Bfore Arnold could answer, Helga continued to talk.
"Let me ask you this Arnold," she said to him, "and it's a simple question. Do you want to be with me? Yes or no?"
Arnold looked at her for a few seconds before he answered her.
"Helga, you know that I want to be with you." He answered her.
"There you go. It's a done deal." She said as she leaned back against her cushion seat.
"But, what about Rodrigo?" He asked him.
"What about him?" She rhetorically asked. "He's not your problem and he's definitely not my problem anymore."
"How can you say that?" Arnold said with a surprised, if not bothersome look on his face. "He's your friend."
"He was my friend." Helga clarified. "He ceased to be my friend when we started dating and now I don't know what we are, but right now we're not friends. That much I know."
Arnold was about to talk again, but Helga quickly continued.
"Look, I have everything I've always wanted right here." She said to him as she rubbed his hand. "This is all I really need. Nothing else. Well, also Phoebe, but that's it. Nothing else matters to me. Nothing else has ever mattered to me, except us, except you."
"Rodrigo knew that and that's why he broke up with me." She continued. "He knew where my heart truly lied. Yes, I could have maybe moved on with him, but who knows now. It's up in the air and that's no longer relevant."
Not liking where Helga was taking this, Arnold was about to protest, but Helga continued to talk again.
"Even my friendship with him is up in the air." She continued. "I don't know if he will be able to be friends with me, let alone if he even wants to."
"But Helga, you can't just give up on your friendship without at least trying to salvage it!" Arnold then quickly said as he held her hand tight. "You guys have been through too much for you or him to just let it all go. And despite what you just said, I know you still care about him. I know he means a lot to you, which is why you have to try and help him. He needs you. After what he did for you, you should at least try."
"Arnold..." She said with a bit of a stutter and emotion, as she falling to the whims of his usual optimism and soft, convincing tone. "I-I'll admit it; I still care about him, a lot. And yes, I really don't want to cast him out of my life."
That admission made Arnold smiled just a bit, thinking that perhaps he was getting through to her. But that was only short-lived.
"But perhaps it's best if I just cut my losses and end all things with him right here and now." She declared.
"Why though?" He asked.
"It's just easier that way." She sadly explained. "For the both of us. I know that he, despite only liking 'liking' me, is heartbroken. I don't need to tell you what that feels like, Arnold."
Arnold said nothing and just nodded in agreement.
"So, there is this big chance that he might not even be able to patch things up with me, no matter how hard I try." She continued to explain her reasons. "I know this because that's how I feel about you. Perhaps there could have been a chance for us to be friends if I had continued being with Rodrigo, but not now. There was no way I was ever able to be friends with you now."
"That and it's not just me that needs to try." She continued. "He needs to also pull his weight and contribute. He also needs to try. If he doesn't, then there is nothing that I can do or say that will make him. And besides, these attempts can maybe end up hurting him more, or even me."
"You?" Arnold curiously asked her.
"Yes, Arnoldo." She retorted. "I don't want to get my hopes up on something that may not happen. And I don't want to make things worse for him."
Arnold said nothing and just let out a sigh as he then rubbed the back of his head.
"I see your point." He admitted. "It's a very hard position to be in. I'm sorry you're going to be doing this alone."
"Thank you." She said, relieved that she finally go through to him. But, that was also short-lived.
"Look, I'm not going to try and push you to do things that you don't want to do." He cautiously continued. "If you want end things with him, well, I can't stop you. I just think you'll end up regretting it if you don't at least try to mend things with him. It'll be one of those 'what ifs' moments, you know? And, I don't want you to lose a good friend just because of me."
Despite giving her a choice, Helga was not at all pleased that he was trying to guilt trip her like that, even if he did have a good point. Getting annoyed and upset, she began to scowl at him.
"You're the one to talk!" She began to yell at him. "It's so easy for you to say these things. You don't have to deal with this mess; I do!"
"Helga-" Arnold tried to calm her down, but she continued to chastise him.
"And it's not like you ever accepted my relationship with him!" She continued. "Aren't you being slightly hypocritical by trying to push me to be friends with someone who is no position to be friends with me?"
Arnold fell silent and thought about that last thing she said to him, realizing that she was right about that, but Helga wasn't done talking.
"And unlike you who's always been that annoyingly optimistic, if not daydreaming person, I'm trying to be reasonable about this and face the reality of it!" She continued. "Crimeny football head, this isn't something that's easy for me to do! If I need to spell it out for you; it hurts! This would have been easier to do more than seven years ago; when I didn't have much in the way of a 'conscious'. I wouldn't have cared as much."
"You make it sound like that's a bad thing." Arnold said.
"Right now it is!" She exclaimed to him. "Thanks to you and the Doc, this is hard for me! And it's even more confusing now since I even don't know what sort of feelings I have for the guy!" She continued to frustratingly exclaim. "All I know is that I still care for him and it's hurting me on having to push him away, especially at a time like this."
Helga finally stopped talking in order to catch her breath, feeling slightly bit better, but only slightly, that she managed to get that off of her chest while she frowned at Arnold.
Arnold meanwhile was at a loss of words on what else to really say. Helga made several good points that he found hard to counter. All he could do was look at her with sympathetic eyes. Yet to his surprise, Helga still wasn't done talking.
"I should have just said 'yes' to you back in March Break." She sadly lamented.
"What?" He asked.
"Back in March Break," she said again, "when you out of the blue, just asked me to get back together with you; I should have just said 'yes' so we wouldn't be in this position."
"Helga, you can't blame yourself for how things turned out-" Arnold began to say.
"Ya, I know." She cut him off. "I just feel bad about it."
"Well, why didn't you?" Arnold asked her. "Said 'yes' to me back in March Break, I mean."
Helga just sighed and leaned back on her seat again as she crossed her arms.
"There were a lot of reasons." She began. "You already know them, except one." As she looked away, staring out the window.
Arnold said nothing and patiently, albeit with some strong eagerness, waited for her to tell him what that exception was.
"The main reason," She calmly continued as she looked back to face him, "was because I was still angry with you!" She then angrily yelled at him, almost startling Arnold.
"I was completely stunned when you, out of nowhere and at the worst time, after almost three years of being apart, just asked me to get back together with you!" She continued to explain with a highly resentful, if not also angry tone.
"You broke up with me, making it very clear that you and I were officially done." She continued to angrily say to him, "There was no going back. And yet, I spent more than two years desperately hoping—yes, I was being optimistic! – almost fanatically, that there was some small chance we can be together again. Yet not once in your letters did you ever tell me or gave me any indication that you regretted your decision and wanted to try again. Not once!"
"Then when you came to visit us, you had the nerve, the NERVE, to come to me and ask me to try again, after I told you that I had confessed my feelings to Rodrigo." She continued to berate him. "Even if stupid Latino boy gave you the green light, you knew I was about to start something with him. But that didn't stop you from, very selfishly I might add, trying to stick your hand in the cookie jar."
Arnold remained silent and just looked at Helga with an astonished, if not with an almost mortified look.
"What do I look like to you?" She rhetorically asked him. "Am I just some coat or play thing that you can simply put on or off whenever you want to?!"
"No, of course not, Helga." Arnold firmly answered her. "You are never like that to me."
"But that's how you made me feel when you just suddenly asked me to get back together with you on March Break." She said to him. "So I said 'no' to you to spite you and tell you that we were officially done!" Helga angrily and also very emotionally continued to yell at him. "I wanted to get back at you for breaking my heart, for leaving me alone and having to crawl out of this miserable, depressing hole that you put me in! I wanted to give you the finger by showing you that I am indeed capable of moving on, without you!"
Arnold said nothing and just looked at her with a seriously hurtful and guilty look. He never thought him asking her on March Break would have hurt her this much and caused this much resentment. Had he known, he would have kept his mouth shut.
"But I guess none of that matters now." She frustratingly retorted as she lifted her arms up in the air, referring to them. "So I guess it begs the question; what was the point? What was the point of us breaking up, of me crying for months on end, of being depressed, of you being upset, of us not being able to move on, only for you to waltz back in March and just ask me to get back together with me, out of the blue?! And for me to say 'no' to you, date Rodrigo, then break up with him and wind up back to you anyways."
"What a sweet ride this has been." She sarcastically remarked as she rubbed her eyes.
Arnold remained silent throughout, fully understanding Helga's anger and frustration. He knew that he also bore a good chunk of the blame for all of this. What was making him really uneasy was just how much of that blame he should fully accept. Only he knew and was now getting increasingly nervous if he should tell Helga. He began to fidget with his hands and looked around as she continued to ponder about it. He wanted to defend himself by telling her that asking her to be together again back in March Break was not a random or sudden choice on his part. This was something he had long thought about. But he knew that if he told her this, it would cause her to be more upset with him.
While Arnold remained quiet, Helga soon noticed his sudden uneasiness and wondered why he looked increasingly nervous, as if he was hiding something. She remained quiet herself and just glanced at him with a studious and suspicious look. After a little while of utter silence, then, like a ton of bricks, it finally hit her.
"It wasn't out of the blue, wasn't it?" She suddenly said to him with a stunned look and wide eyes, prompting Arnold to look up again and face her. "You were thinking about getting back together for a long time, weren't you?"
Arnold said nothing and with a very nervous and guilty look, just nodded. Helga just continued to silently look at him with an almost mortified look at this revelation. The news was so shocking that it rendered her numb. However just as quickly, she snapped out of it and with a furious scowl on her face, she instantly got up, grabbed Arnold by his shirt and pulled him closer to her.
"This whole time I thought your outing was something random. Now you mean to tell me that you had wanted to get back together from way back and you didn't say anything?!" She angrily yelled at him.
"Helga-!" Arnold exclaimed as he attempted to free himself from her, but Helga cut him off.
"When did you start having these thoughts?!" She demanded of him.
"A-A-Almost a year." Arnold nervously answered her, much to Helga's fury.
"A year?!" She yelled at him a she pulled him closer to her.
"Helga, it wasn't something that I just thought of in one day." Arnold stuttered as he desperately attempted to explain himself. "It was a slow process. My feelings for you didn't just suddenly come back. I-I-I needed to make sure that this was something real and not just a fluke."
"So when did you finally 'realize' that you wanted to get back together with me?" She asked him while still holding onto him.
Arnold took a nervous gulp before he gave her his answer. "About more than a month before I came to visit in March."
"WHAT?!" She yelled at him.
"Helga, I knows it looks really bad," Arnold attempted to nervously explain, "but you need to understand that-"
"No, what you need to understand football head," She then suddenly interjected, "is that throughout this whole summer I have been blaming myself for putting us into this mess. Because I was too angry and proud to say 'yes' to you, I ended up making it worse for everyone when I could have just avoided all of this. For months I felt it was all MY fault. But now I hear that YOU also could have done something months prior to March?! For Pete's sake Arnold, all it took from you was one stupid letter, or even a phone call to tell me that you were at least regretting in breaking up with me. Had I known you were at least thinking about getting back together I never would have said anything to Rodrigo about my feelings for him! Why did you wait until March to tell me anything?!"
"Because I thought this was something that we needed to talk about in person, rather than through letters." He almost bluntly answered him. "So I kept it a secret until March. I didn't know you were developing feelings for him. No one told me. I thought that one month wasn't really going to make a difference, so I didn't feel I had anything to worry about."
"WELL, IT DID MAKE A DIFFERENCE!" Helga angrily yelled at the top of her lungs.
Helga then just looked at Arnold with a snarling and glaring look on her face. She couldn't believe the series of bad communication and bad luck that led to where they are now. But just then, someone approached them.
"Uh, excuse me?" A male waiter who looked like the same waiter who served them back in the fourth grade during April Fools nine years ago, asked them with a more masculine, but still squeaky voice. "Is everything okay?"
"No, everything is NOT OKAY!" Helga roared at the waiter. "I'm trying to have a private conversation with my boyfriend here and it involves years long unresolved issues. Do you mind?!"
The male waiter, intimidated by Helga's aggression, just shook his head and nervously back trapped while holding his hands up before then leaving them alone.
The waiter's departure didn't make Helga feel any better, not by a long shot. Feeling utterly infuriated by what she was just told, and unable to really know who to blame this all on, she let out a growl and after finally letting Arnold go, just pulled her hair. She pulled it so hard that she ended up yanking some of it out. Not wanting to be near Arnold at the moment she quickly got up and walked out in order to get some air.
Arnold said nothing and just watched Helga quickly get up and storm out of the ice cream parlour. Once she left, Arnold let out a sigh, but made no attempt to get up and run after her. He figured she needed some time to cool down. Despite her seemingly putting the blame on him for everything that had happened, Arnold knew that Helga had every right to feel anger and frustrated. He too couldn't believe that something so simple turned out to be so complicated and messy. After waiting for a few minutes, he then finally got up and calmly walked out of the store.
Arnold didn't really have to go anywhere, for as soon as he walked out, he saw Helga standing right in front of the door entrance but looking out in the opposite direction.
"Helga?" He gently addressed her.
Helga however, made no effort to respond to him, or even to look at him and just continued to look out on the street.
Realizing that she was still mad, Arnold just rubbed the back of his head.
"I'm sorry Helga for not telling you sooner." He then began to speak. "I know it was a bad decision on my part. But you need to understand that at first, I wasn't really sure what I was feeling. It took me a while to realize that I truly missed you and that I regretted ever letting you go. But I didn't say anything to you at first because I didn't want to get your hopes up. I needed to be sure. Plus, I didn't know if I should even try to ask you to get back together. It had been more than two years and I didn't know if you moved on or not. From my end, I was taking a risk."
Helga still remained where she was and didn't say anything at first, allowing an eerie silence to surround them. Arnold sadly slumped down, thinking that Helga was putting all the blame on him.
"I didn't move on." She then said to him. "I never did." She then turned around to face him, revealing a rather sad and disheartened face.
"Why is this so hard?" She sadly asked. "All I ever wanted is to be with you, that's it. I've asked for nothing else. Why does this have to be so complicated?"
Arnold said nothing and merely went over to her and hugged her in order to comfort her. Helga reciprocated and wrapped her own arms around his waist while leaning her head on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry for grabbing and taking it out on you like that." She said to him. "It's not your fault."
"It's okay, Helga." He assured her. "You were just angry and I get it. You have every right to feel frustrated about all of this. I only wish I could do more or at least be here to help you."
"You already have." She said as she continued to hold him ever so tightly.
For a while, the couple continued to hug each other on the street, with none making any effort to let go. No one wanted to.
"It's going to be okay, Helga." He then said to her as he placed a kiss on her forehead. "We're together again. I'm here now and this time, I'm not leaving you."
"But what about Rodrigo?" She softly asked him.
Arnold then moved away a bit to look directly in her eyes, but didn't let go of her.
"Helga, you need to do what's best for you." He said to her. "My opinion is that you should try to mend things with him. But, if you feel that's not the best decision for you, then don't."
When Helga said nothing, he continued.
"Rodrigo is strong person." He said, trying to reassure of her. "He will bounce back from this. Of that, I'm sure. And he also has our friends to help him out."
"I guess." She softly admitted.
"Remember that Rhonda promised to look out for him." He continued.
"Rhonda?" She then scoffed. "Please. Do you really think Princess will go out of her way to help him? She'll be too preoccupied with her new status as Hillwood's new heroine to give him any minute of the day." As she annoyingly rolled her eyes.
"Come on Helga, give her a break." Arnold countered. "She's changed a lot since we were kids."
"She didn't change." Helga countered back. "Nobody really changes. On the surface maybe, but not deep down." As she then pointed to each other. "I'll admit, I was surprised with the way she handled herself at the FTI building, and she may have developed some brain cells, but deep down, Rhondaloid is still the same snobby, narcissistic, shallow person she always was. I really don't know what Rodrigo sees in her and what allows them to be friends."
"Well, regardless," Arnold said, wanting to get back on topic. "I'm just saying that Rodrigo will not be alone in this. He'll have others to help him out during this time. So, do what you feel you need to do. I just hope that whatever you decide, you will not regret it."
"That's the problem." She said with a disconcerning sigh. "I don't know which path is the right one. I don't know if I should try to be friends with him now, later or never."
"Well, you don't need to worry about that now." He said, thinking that perhaps they talked enough about this and they should now just focus on each other. "At least not today."
There wasn't much else to say. Arnold had said what he needed to say. Now, it was up to Helga and Rodrigo to take it from there.
He then moved closer to hug her, to which Helga happily hugged him back, tightly wrapping her arms around her beloved. Despite the immense anger and frustration of it all, along with the unanswerable question, 'what was it all for?', that has been plaguing Helga's mind, she was nevertheless eternally grateful that Arnold was back in her life. Yes, she can at least say that. From that end, there was no regret.
"Want to go to Tina Park?" He suggested.
"Yeah." She happily replied. "It'll be nice and quiet there."
"Let's go." He said with a smile as he then grabbed onto Helga's hand and the two began to head over to the park.
"Oh wait, I almost forgot." Arnold then suddenly said as he pulled out a bottle from his backpack that had some sort of note inside it with a corkscrew to seal it.
"What is that?" Helga asked.
"A little thank you note for his majesty, the Sewer King." Arnold said with a chuckle.
Helga said nothing and just rolled her eyes.
Arnold looked around until he finally saw a sewage drain hole on the side of the paved sidewalk. He bent down and shoved the bottled inside it.
"There, done." He said. "Now we can go."
Grabbing his hand once again, Helga quickly gave Arnold a kiss on his lips before then heading off to the park to enjoy their last day together before Arnold headed back to San Lorenzo.
Somewhere in the sewers...
"There, there my pretties. Don't fret." The Sewer King said as he petted his alligators while sitting on his throne "You will feast soon."
Just then, a group of black rats appeared out from a small sewage pipe, along with a bottle that contained something. They rolled it all the way to the Sewer King.
"What's this?" His majesty said when he noticed his rodent servants approach him with something.
"A bottle?" He asked himself with some curiosity. "Ooohhh, and it's contains a note or some sort."
Now catching his interest, he leaned down to grab the bottle, took out the corkscrew and after some struggle, finally managed to get the note, unfolded it and began to read it.
Your most serene majesty,
Thank you for your help and contribution in saving our homes and our lives. The residents from 33rd and 39th Street will never forget his majesty's heroic intervention. Your stand for justice against evil will reverberate through the ages.
Your vassal,
Arnold Shortman
"Well, how thoughtful!" A grateful Sewer King said as he smiled. "Finally those above groundeners acknowledge their true foundation; that what really supports them is not up there, but down below!" He exclaimed as he swung around, pointing at every direction.
"Thank you, most esteemed vassal." He said, almost tearfully, with a smile as he looked up through a little hole that allowed some light to shine through.
