Author's Note: This is sort of a fun chapter to write, because it gives me plenty of oppurtunities to expand Arnold and Helga's relationship. Nothing sappy though, just straight out, clean, laid-back fun because I want it to parallel to the Hey Arnold canon - something that I'm targeting ever since the first chapter was uploaded. I'm planning to finish up this story as soon as possible, so I can do other fics which are currently in development. Well, enough of my rants. Here it is.

Legal junk: I don't own Hey Arnold, but Nickelodeon does and Mr. Craig Bartlett created it. But this fic belongs to me. Clear? Good.

Chapter 16: Intimate

Dear Esteemed Visitor,

Welcome to San Lorenzo. Thank you for choosing our country as your destination for complete and total relaxation and leisure. We assure you that you will have a splendid time vacationing in our beloved country. Our hospitality will surely attract you to the many of the colorful destination scattered in country and will make you crave for more. We have a variety of fun, fulfilling adventures just waiting for you. Visit our white, warm sandy beaches and indulge yourself at one of our most prominent natural hot springs to unwind, relax and to forget all of your problems. Let the warmth of the tropical sun or the bubbly hot spring melt away your worries and concern. If you are one of the more adventurous types, San Lorenzo offers a plethora of activities for you to enjoy. From whitewater rafting to rock climbing, it's all here in San Lorenzo.

-- San Lorenzo's tourist brochure (Introduction – Page 2).

---

The village headman was kind enough to let Helga sleep in his house for the night, and allowed her to sleep in his daughter's old room. Morning came, and Helga slowly opened her eyes after hearing the chirping of tropical birds outside of the house. She had a good sleep last night. She yawned a bit and walked up to the window and opened it to let the light and the wind breeze in. To her surprise, she saw a key-like amulet hanging on the shutter, the kind that Arnold and his parents had wearing around their necks. She picked it up and examined it. She rubbed it to get a feel of the newly acquired item and turned it around many times. It was made of wood, carved in very excellent detail and the color green was dotted in the middle. She then looked outside to see if there was any footsteps left the person who hung it on the shutter. No clues whatsoever.

She shrugged it off and walked out of her room as she put it in her pocket. The village headman and his wife were at the dining room, eating breakfast together with Arnold. Marcelo had yet to wake up. All of them smiled at Helga. When Arnold meant it, he really meant it. He was very punctual and delivered his promise of picking her up early in the morning. The wife then said something Arnold, and he said to Helga, "She said she'd be very happy if you'd join us for breakfast."

Helga gave them a smile, which the lady replied with a contented beam. She offered a seat next to Arnold and without hesitation she quickly walked to her seat. After making herself comfortable, she brought her head near to Arnold and whispered to him, "Man, you're early. What up?"

"Nothing… I just don't want to break my promise. I did promise you I'll pick you up early today, didn't I?"

"Pfft." Helga scoffed back, "Dude, if you hate your mom's cooking just say it man." And they both laughed softly. The old married couple was curious of what were they talking about as they looked at them with a soft smile. They kind of reminded them of the days back when they were youths.

"So, what did you do yesterday?" Arnold asked.

"I cheered Marcelo up, and helped him pack for his trip to the US tomorrow."

Arnold frowned, as he looked back at Helga with his eyes furrowing.

"He said he's looking forward to it." she replied back to ease his worrisome.

He then shook his head in disbelief, "I don't want to talk about it. It's too early in the morning. C'mon, let's just eat our breakfast so we can go out and have some fun."

"Ooh. Intriguing." Helga replied with a smile, "And where that might be, Sir Football Head?"

"Remember the day when I promised you that I'll bring you to that waterfall before you go back home?"

Helga widened her eyes in surprise. Perhaps that would be a nice place for her to confess, given the romantic atmosphere emitting from that area.

"I brought my camera." He showed it to her. It was an excellent and impressive camera that was ideal for any aspiring photojournalist such as Arnold.

"You got my approval, Arnold." She said back, nearly laughing at his giddiness and enthusiasm. "But first you need to drive me home first. I need to change and take a shower."

"Ah, that would explain the foul smell that I thought was coming from a carc—"

Slightly offended, but amused at his idiotic humor, Helga gave him a not-so-gentle nudge on the shoulder and said "Moron." But despite of the gentleness, he fell from his seat from the nudge given by her. He was such a wimp, Helga thought to herself as she pointed and laughed at him. Arnold could only stare at her in embarrassing defeat as he tried to combat his urge to shove her back.

---

Arnold's House…

As Helga was about to take off her pants, she felt something inside of her pocket. She stopped changing and reached for that something inside. It was the amulet that she found at the window back at the headman's house. She slapped her forehead in disbelief. How could she forget such thing? In her mind, she imagined that she might've offended the Green-Eyed people for taking something not belonging to her and thusly triggering a conflict between her and the villagers. And by now she imagined, the villagers were already armed to the teeth with pitchforks and shotguns and were on the march to Arnold's house, seeking for her. She then snapped herself out from the outrageous imagination by shaking her head. She walked out from her room to seek clarification from Arnold's family, since they knew almost everything about the Green-Eyed People.

She saw them at the kitchen table, talking amongst themselves, mostly about Marcelo's fate. It seemed that Arnold was still stubborn about his opinion, though the discussion was not as vehement as two days ago. It was more like a casual talk that a family usually had. "Um…" she interrupted, "I'm sorry to interrupt." The three of them turned to Helga.

"Yes Helga?" Miles asked.

"I found this," she showed them the amulet, "at a window when I was back at the Green-Eyes' village. I'm freaking out here. Did I just do something wrong that might offend them?" she asked worriedly.

Arnold, Stella and Miles looked at each other in a expressionless look, but then, the three of them smiled broadly at her and Miles said, "Congratulations Helga."

Helga raised her eyebrow in confusion, "For what?"

"You obtained the key to their trust and friendship. The amulet symbolizes that you are now a part of the community. A member of their people." Miles said proudly. "Be proud of it Helga. They usually don't trust outsiders."

"What did you do to get that?" Stella asked curiously.

She laughed disbelievingly, "I don't know," she said back as she stroked her hair, "Probably it was because I… took care of Marcelo yesterday."

"Maybe that's it." Arnold said to his parents. "That's so awesome Helga. Now the only thing you have to do now is get tarred and feathered and walk on a stretch of hot coal to make it official."

"No they don't have a ritual like that, you silly." Stella scolded him as she smacked his shoulder softly.

"Perhaps they should, and Arnold should be honored by being the first person to do it." Miles said snidely to tease his son.

"You know what? I think I'm gonna have to agree with you sir." Helga nodded approvingly. "He was humiliated in bunny pajamas before, and seeing him getting tarred and feathered would be greatest thing ever done."

"Oh yeah, the bunny pajamas incident." Miles said cheerily. "His grandpa made hundreds of copies of that picture."

"Ooh, I love that picture!" Stella exclaimed, "He's so cute and cuddly in that bunny pajamas!"

At this point, Arnold felt he had hit the lowest of low. His parents and his friend were making fun of him without showing any mercy or pity at all. He just sat uncomfortably on his chair in silence as his face flushed in red due to the extreme embarrassment of listening to all of the stories being told by them. A gun would be a welcoming sight by now… so he could shoot himself.

So after Helga did what she had to do, Arnold then brought her to the magnificent waterfall that he told to her earlier. It was the waterfall that nearly claimed the lives of his parents. Much had changed at that place since his parents nearly fell to their doom. Vantage points were paved, guardrails were installed and coin operated binoculars were scattered in many places surrounding waterfall. A newly opened local souvenir slash gift shop and café was opened for visitors just two days ago. Tourists from all over the world came here to view the beautiful work of nature, taking pictures and buy a lot of useless junk that was made in China. Arnold and Helga went into their tourist mode and asked for some random person to take their picture. At the last minute before the random person took a snap, Helga suddenly pushed Arnold away from her, making the picture looked comical and funny. Arnold's expression on his face looked like someone who just got shoved a pointy object up his—

Moving on, as they walked on the esplanade, Arnold continued to take snaps of the many human activities, such as a local who was selling novelty wooden trinkets in the middle of the pathway, a person who was walking around selling colorful hats and Helga eating a chocolate bar vigorously, even more so than Chocolate Boy. Helga quickly grabbed him by his shirt collar and threatened him that she will personally threw him into the raging waterfall if he wouldn't delete the picture. Arnold quickly complied with her threat and deleted the picture. They then looked at each other.

Arnold had a nervous gaze while Helga had an angry scowl. "Man, you should've seen the looks on your face Arnold." The expression on them both cancelled each other's look and they began to laugh softly as they turned away, slightly embarrassed. They then continued their snapping spree, asking strangers to take their pictures in various pose, from the overdone 'Titanic pose' to the unintentional 'Helga scowling at Arnold for accidentally misplacing his hand pose', though she liked it.

After taking enough pictures, they decided to quench their thirst at the newly opened souvenir slash gift shop and café. They took a seat outdoors overlooking the raging waterfall as the soft breeze cool them down on this otherwise warm day. The atmosphere was nice enough to warrant tender moments between them both. They sat facing each other as they waited the waiter to arrive. This was a very, very awkward moment for them both. Ugh, they both felt like they were grade school kids again. The awkward silence was interrupted when the waiter came to them, bringing the menu.

"Mango juice." Arnold said to the waiter, and he nodded as he jotted the order down.

"Your ice-cream special of the day." Helga said. After he wrote the order down and saying thanks to them, he took the menu away and brought the order to the kitchen. Again, there was an awkward silence between them. Helga was looking at the scenery while Arnold had his head placed on his hand with the elbow on the table while the other hand was on the table drumming the fingers. This had gone far enough, and Arnold decided to have a small talk with her. Helga on the other hand was very reluctant to confess to Arnold, even though the atmosphere was ripe for it.

"You… like ice-cream a lot, don't you?" Arnold asked.

What kind of a stupid question is that, Helga screamed in her mind. "Yeah, I like ice-cream. I can't resist it." she answered somewhat politely without any scowling.

"Me too." Arnold replied back, nodding. "Resisting it is kind of hopeless, considering the savory of the taste."

"Yeah…" Helga nodded slowly, "I think my existence will be meaningless without ice-cream." This somehow reminded her of the dumb ice-cream analogy she used when she wanted to talk about Arnold with Phoebe many years ago. Somehow, the conversation was eerie similar with what she had in mind if Arnold wasn't around with her. Her life would be meaningless if Arnold wasn't around.

"So uh…" Helga said, "Are we going anywhere else after this?"

Arnold suddenly had this novel idea, "To the top." He pointed to the top of the waterfall in the distance. "Ever tried bungee jumping Helga?" he said with a wicked grin.

---

"Are you sure this is safe, Arnold?" Helga asked nervously as someone strapped some safety equipment and the bungee cord onto her.

"Don't worry about it." he said assuredly. "I've been on this thing many times. It's 100 percent safe. If you don't believe me, just ask my pal Jose over here." He pointed to a skinny, average height guy next to him with his thumb. He was the supervisor for the jump. "Isn't it right, man?"

"Sí, sí." He nodded in agreement, "You no need to worry, señorita. All equipments are always checked twice before we allow the person to jump."

"See?" Arnold said, smiling at her.

"I swear Arnold, if I'm dead, I'm going to haunt you and throttle you in your sleep." She pointed at him threateningly. After saying thanks to the person who fastened the safety equipment on her, Helga turned around and looked down below - some 300 feet from the platform she was standing on. Somehow all the courage she had was missing in a blink of an eye. She was too scared to take a dive.

"Did you tell her that two people were killed when jumping off from this place?"

"Nope." Arnold said with a devilish smile. "This is for all the stuff that you did to me when we were kids, Helga. Ah, revenge is soooo sweet…"

"Oh well…" Jose shrugged, took his hat off and placed it on his heart. "It's been nice knowing you, señorita." He then pulled a lever and the platform that Helga stood on suddenly collapsed, plunging her into the waterfall chasm below.

"OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHH MMMMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY GGGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDDDDD!"

Helga survived fortunately, and the first thing she did after she was freed of her safety harness was running towards Arnold and tried to kick him on the shin. Arnold managed to dart away from the attack unfortunately, and ran away cackling as Helga continued to chase him around. Jose just looked at them while chuckling at their outrageous antics. Arnold eventually got tired and Helga quickly made her move by pinning him down to the ground with a move she had learned from watching pay-per-view wrestling she used to watch when she was a kid. After the dust settled, the both of them laughed and they dusted each other off. All those monkeying around made them hungry.

The both of them then walked up to a food stall that sells local cuisine. Arnold recommended her a food that was totally foreign to her while trying very hard to conceal a malicious smirk by rubbing his nose. His revenge was not over yet. After paying the hawker, they then took a seat under a parasol that was readily available for the customers. Arnold waited for Helga to take the first bite. He bit his lower lip as he greatly anticipating for her to take the bite. Just before she sank her teeth in to the food, Helga looked at him, and saw the silly giddiness that Arnold was displaying. She brought the food away from her and asked, "What's with the stupid grin?"

"Nothing…" he replied back, barely hiding his excitement. Helga just shook her head in disbelief at the idiot in front of her and took her first bite. Immediately Helga began to cough and hack, and her eyes were all watery. Both her tongue and the innards of her mouth were burning. The burning tasted like a combination of chili pepper, Tabasco and wasabi.

"Water… I need water…" she said desperately as she tried to cough out the food she was eating. Arnold, being a gentleman he was, gave her a bottle of drinking water. She drank it all up empty as Arnold watched while laughing joyfully. Helga then gave him a snide smile and suddenly she gave him a punch on the face.

---

"Sorry Arnold…" Helga said apologetically as she tried to apply first-aid on Arnold's nose. "I didn't mean to punch you that hard…"

"Gently… gently! Ow, ow…" he then rubbed his nose to have a feel for the bandage that Helga just applied on him while she put the first-aid kit back inside of the trunk. Thankfully she had learned the first-aid basics when she worked with Stella. Helga went back to the driver's seat and looked at him with pity. "Now I know how Eugene feels like…" Arnold said as he looked at his image on the side-mirror.

"I'm really sorry Arnold." Helga said again regretfully. "I was really angry when you pulled that prank on me that I lost control…"

"Nah," he held up his palm, "It's okay. I guessed I went overboard on that one. I feel… I kinda deserved this." He pointed to his nose. The both of them laughed weakly. Suddenly there was flapping sound coming from above them and a parrot flew out from the tree and headed towards the setting sun. The both of them smiled at the marvel and majestic view that was being unfold in front of them. "I think we should go back home."

"I agree." Helga nodded. She then went around the car and sat next to Arnold as he started the engine. They realized that they were actually spending the whole day trying to kill each other off. A day had passed without Helga confessing to Arnold, even though she had uncountable opportunity to say it to him. She then let a depressed sigh as she looked at the moving scenery outside of the window.

---

After nearly half an hour of driving, they eventually arrived at Arnold's house and saw a smaller jeep parked next to his father's vehicle. "Father Campbell is visiting." Arnold said to Helga. Arnold opened the front door and saw his parents and Father Campbell at the living room having a friendly conversation as they sipped a cup of coffee.

"Where have you two been?" Stella asked them suspiciously.

"Uh, just hanging around at the waterfall." Arnold explained to them. "Father, what are you doing here?"

"Akh, just 'ere to say goodbye to ya mum before she leaves for Geneva tomorrow." He explained to them, "I heard the lass is coming with her too?"

"Yes Father." Helga nodded. "But I'm not going all the way to Geneva, though." She laughed weakly.

"Aye, aye." He nodded, "Ya kinda disappointed, are ye?" he laughed.

Helga smiled back dryly, "Yeah…"

"Well, sorry to interrupt you two. Go about yer business." Arnold and Helga then nodded and said thanks to the jolly old man. They then proceeded to go to Helga's temporary room and closed the door. Father Campbell raised an eyebrow.

"The both of ya just let them go inside together?" he asked Miles and Stella.

"Relax Father." Miles said, "They're not going to do anything. You're here."

"Tired?" Arnold said as he took a seat on the computer chair.

"Well, duh." Helga replied back, smiling. "I think I need have a rest and pack my clothes after that."

"Yeah. You're leaving tomorrow, right?"

Upon hearing that, Helga was disappointed of herself. Probably she'll never have the courage to confess her love to Arnold. She hated herself because of that. "Yeah…" she said weakly, nodding.

Arnold nodded weakly. "Okay then. Call me if you ever need me." He then turned around and walked out. Helga let a sigh of disappointment. But Arnold suddenly stopped at his tracks, and turned around again facing Helga. "Helga… I… actually has this to say to you… you know, before you leave."

Helga raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"You've done remarkable things these past few days, and frankly, I am impressed of what you've done to the people all around you. You… you really made a difference in their lives, Helga."

Helga was astounded at the compliment, "Thank you." She replied modestly.

"I don't know how to put a better word into this, but you really have won my heart." He then slapped his forehead in disbelief, "look at me, I sound like a fool. I know it's kinda quick, but I really, really like you Helga. Heck, would go as far as to say that I… I… love you."

The confession struck Helga as if lightning struck her million times over. She was taken aback, flabbergasted and shocked. Arnold understood the perplexed gaze that she gave to him and said to her, "Look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't say that. I was, crazy… I wasn't thinking straight." He replied nervously, trying to cover it all up.

Helga got up from her seat and walked up to him. It made Arnold all jittery.

"Please Helga… I-I… oh boy. Please don't hurt me…"

But it wasn't a punch that Helga gave to him, but rather, a tender, affectionate kiss. Arnold was totally shocked with his eyes widened, but soon he accepted it and went along. They released their kiss and Helga immediately gave him a tight hug. "Oh Arnold… you have no idea how happy you made me…" she said with a happy smile, with a tear rolling down from her eye. Arnold could only smiled back, laughing softly in joy.

:) Too early? Too quick to confess? Lousy dialouge from Arnold to Helga? (Coming from a guy who watches Gilmore Girls) I'm having doubts myself. I just thought it'd be better if Arnold confesses instead of Helga. The day Helga confesses to Arnold is the day hair starts to grow out from our ears. It's that long. And I hate waiting. Well, I greatly anticipating for your feedback and stay tune for more in the future. Thanks all.