Disclaimer: I do not own Hey Arnold!

The Day You Will

By Moonlight

Am I Dreaming?

The walk to the boarding house was a calm one. The streets were fairly empty for it being 12:30 in the afternoon. One would think that lunch rush would be happening at a time like this. One would typically see lines of people pouring out of the mom-and-pop restaurants and a steady flow of cars racing down the roads to return to work. But it was rather quiet. Quiet, save for the distant sounds of laughter seeping through the walls of the small tavern down the road.

Helga's knuckles turned white as she gripped the suitcase harder and harder. Her chest felt as if a balloon were inflating within it; threatening to burst at any moment. Her sneakers made tiny splashes in the puddles from the earlier rain. The muddy water stained her socks, but she paid no mind, as her thoughts were on the earlier discussion she had with her teacher.

"Are you sure you're alright with this?" Leonel's voice echoed through the empty classroom.

Having been called to report here, after her encounter with Olga, felt like too much for one day. Her head felt like it was spinning in a mixture of emotions, of which she had no idea how to deal with.

Helga folded her arms across her chest and leaned against a desk behind her, "Of COURSE I'm okay with being away from them! Have you been LISTENING to my complaints about my family?! I'm relieved. ECSTATIC, even! I don't have to deal with THEM ruining my LIFE anymore!" she stopped to breathe deeply and reposition herself to sit on the desk, facing her teacher.

Leonel nodded and placed a slender finger on his chin as he thought.

Her legs restless, she began kicking the chair in front of her as she awaited a response.

BANG.

"I understand how you feel about them-" he started, and Helga rolled her eyes.

BANG.

"REALLY, I do." The man wandered around his desk in order to stand closer to the girl. "My question to you is this," he cleared his throat and straightened his tie before continuing.

BANG.

"I know the Shortmans are happy to have you, as they have given their approval of this. However, are you going to be comfortable there?"

BANG.

A strand of her hair free'd itself and fell over he face, rebelliously. She shifted uncomfortably on the desk. The heels of her hands, pressing against the glazed wooden desktop, ached quite a bit as she leaned back on them. She had been too hung up on the idea that her parents were out of the picture, however, she hadn't given much thought to living with Arnold… In the same room… She had just spent the night there, but it was different. Her mind had been too focused on the matters of her family, that she didn't think much of having been in there with him. That is, until the idea of staying there longer had come into play. Somehow her thoughts brought her back to Stella's words from that morning. There were no other rooms available. She would, for sure, have to share the room with him again.

A part of her felt like it snapped at the thought of living alongside him. It was like a wish come true for her. But it was also a curse. She felt as if the whole thing was wrong. As if she were being accused of fulfilling her own selfish desires and walking over everyone else to do so. Of course, no one was. However, the idea of having thrown away her previous life and, by some miracle, ending up with the one person on this earth who she would much rather be sharing her time with, somehow made her feel… guilty? Shaking her head furiously, Helga jumped off of the desk and moved to point a firm finger at her teacher, who only backed up against his desk, in response.

"Look. NOT having my low-life parents around is only going to do GOOD for me. And being there with-... at the boarding house…-will be MUCH better than the life I was living before." she watched as Leonel's gaze softened, "So of COURSE I'm going to be COMFORTABLE there. Pretty much ANYTHING is better than were I was! GOT IT?!" She backed off and turned to grab her coat off of the floor.

The man nodded understandingly and gave her a knowing smile. "I'm glad you'll be doing much better, then." He sighed, "Well, the Shortmans asked if you wanted to go there now? They seemed concerned about you."

"Now?" she asked, confused.

"Yes. They wanted to give you some time to settle in, and requested I send you home."

Home? The idea of calling the boarding house 'home' was a very strange, and oddly appealing concept.

"Can they even request that?" she asked inquisitively, "I mean… they're not my parents."

Leonel chuckled at her question and held up a note with a signature that she recognized to be that of her father's. "It's a temporary permission from your parents, saying that you are to be sent home to the Shortman's after school until further notice."

"My DAD?" this was all too weird for her.

"Yes. I thought your sister already mentioned this?"

Helga shook her head, trying to make sense of it all, "She told me to stay there, but she said Bob wanted me to go with them."

He nodded, "While you were going about your day, we had a talk with your parents and discussed this matter. It's true, he didn't want you to stay, but your sister made a great argument, and he eventually decided to give the Shortman's temporary guardianship."

"Guardianship?"

"It means that-"

"I KNOW what it MEANS. But WHY would he do that?"

"If they're going to be gone for too long, this note will not hold up. The school cannot take responsibility if something happens to you. So, he's giving the Shortman's temporary legal guardianship."

"Oh…"

Helga took a deep breath as she approached her destination. The red brick of the boarding house was blinding as she raised her head to aid her in walking up the steps to the door. An overwhelming feeling of nervousness crawled up her spine, and she shook it off as quickly as it came. She looked around, hesitantly, before knocking. A few seconds passed by with no answer, and Helga raised her hand to knock once again.

"Oh! Hello." Miles' smiling face greeted her as she stepped into the building. He was taller than Helga had remembered him being. Taller than Bob, even. And yet, there was this softness about him that felt inviting and calming. His face, perfectly chiseled, looked as if it belonged to a model. She blushed slightly as she avoided his eyes.

Miles took her suitcase and closed the door behind her, "Let me help you." he said, before leading her into the living room and motioning for her to sit. She did so, before glancing awkwardly around the room, as if she hadn't seen it before. Her hands trembled slightly in her lap. Her once composed and self-protective demeanor melting at the mere presence of the man she'd, only recently, come to know as Arnold's father. Sticking her hands in her pockets, she leaned back into the couch and stared at her knees. Avoiding Miles' curious stare.

He cleared his throat. "Helga… right? I know we don't know each other very well," he started, "but given the current circumstances, I thought we could talk a bit about ourselves." His smile appeared as if it were meant to light up the whole room.

Helga shifted in her seat as she responded, "Yeah? Well, there's not much to know about me."

Slightly taken aback, Miles gave her a raised eyebrow.

"I'm nothing special." she said flatly.

Miles shook his head, "Now, I know that's not true."

"You don't even know me."

"I know enough about you to say that you are a very interesting person, Helga." he crossed his arms over his chest and smiled again.

A bit aggravated, Helga's defenses began to build up again. "Well, what DO you know about me?" There was no reason for her to get hostile with the man, and she knew it, but she hated talking about herself. Especially after basically having spilled a lot of, what she deemed, unnecessary information to Phoebe and her teacher. Arnold even caught some of it! No. She didn't want to talk about it again.

He opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by a small voice in the next room.

"Is she here?" Stella emerged from the kitchen with a tray of teacups. Her small hands barely holding up the tray, as it threatened to tilt forward and spill the contents it carried. "You're back!" she said excitedly as she saw Helga, who jumped up to help her steady the tray.

Stella set it down carefully with Helga's help, and proceeded to pour tea in each cup before handing them out to Helga and her husband.

"So, Helga," she said, trying to start conversation, "How are you feeling?"

Helga rolled her eyes, "Just fine…I guess." she said sourly.

Stella took a seat next to the girl and gazed at her worriedly, "You don't look fine, dear."

She huffed in response.

Miles took a sip from his tea before adding, "We didn't ask you to come in order to make you uncomfortable, Helga. So I apologize if that's how you feel. However," he set his cup on the small table in between them, "We are concerned about your situation. We know very little about your family, savefrom what your sister, Olga, had mentioned to us. And since we'll be taking you in for a while, it would be beneficial to know your side of things."

Helga scoffed, "And what did she tell you?"

He inhaled deeply. "A lot of things, actually."

She raised a brow at him. Urging him to continue.

"That your family lost their business and had to move to Oregon. Your sister said she didn't want to pull you away from your friends, and specifically requested that we take you in until they were stable again." he said, before sipping more of his tea. "I don't know much, but I found it a little odd that she would be so trusting of someone she barely knows."

Olga… Helga thought for a second that maybe she had been too hard on her sister. Knowing the efforts she had been putting in for Helga to be comfortable, was a bit overwhelming.

The small voice from beside her spoke, "It was odd. And yet, I wondered if it was because you're such good friends with our Arnold." Stella smiled warmly, causing Helga to blush and turn away.

"Can you tell us a bit about your family?" Miles pressed on. Still curious about everything that was happening.

"My family is-" Helga started, but couldn't keep going. She had talked too much about her overbearing family recently, that a part of her just didn't have the strength to ramble again. She took a deep breath.

Stella set a gentle hand on Helga's shoulder, "I know this must be a bit much for you to take in."

Helga said nothing and just stared at her hands, sitting idly in her lap.

"Why don't you head on upstairs and unpack your things. Make yourself at home. We don't have to talk about this until your ready." Stella said softly.

Stopping Stella before she got up, Helga pressed again, "Are you sure there are no other rooms available? I'll do some work around here as payment."

Stella shook her head and smiled, "None have opened up since you asked this morning, Helga. And like I said before, I'm sure Arnold won't mind having you there."

Defeated, Helga picked up her suitcase and followed as Stella led her to Arnold's room. The woman let Helga in and asked if she needed anything else, before smiling and heading back down to the main floor, leaving Helga alone with her suitcase and her thoughts.

Sinking to her knees, Helga proceeded to unlatch the suitcase. A part of her was afraid of what she would find inside it. They were her belongings, Olga had said. However, she was scared that she would find something had gone missing...or scared of what Olga had found of hers that could potentially ruin her.

She stopped her rambling thoughts mid-way and held the suitcase shut. What was she THINKING? "Olga already knows about that. She even said she READ my JOURNAL…" Realizing she was saying that aloud, Helga turned to look at the closed door, hoping no one had heard her.

Sighing, she finally allowed herself to open the the suitcase, only to be greeted by her clothing and backpack. "This is it, huh?" She began pulling out each article of clothing to fold them, setting them on the floor, off to the side of her. Reaching for the last pink dress, Helga spotted a familiar book spine poking out from underneath. "Oh…" she breathed to herself, finding her journals at the base of the suitcase. They were oddly organized in chronological order, as Helga had dated each one on the bottom left corner. Skimming through one of them, she felt a feeling of overwhelming heat simmering in her chest.

SLAM.

The suitcase closed and Helga made sure to latch it back up again, before setting it on the couch which she decided would be her bed again.

Olga had sure gone through the trouble of stirring up emotions she didn't have the energy to be feeling at the moment. Feelings that she still needed to wait out. Feelings she wanted reciprocated, but not when she was going through a major life overhaul. Not like this.

Her eyes slowly looked up to the small opening in the skylight, and she decided to head up for some air. She glanced around the rooftop of the boarding house, making sure she wasn't disturbing anyone else who had somehow decided to go up there.

She was alone.

It felt oddly calming. The wind blew softly through her hair as she approached the edge of the building. She looked out across the skyline, admiring the sight of Hillwood, and quietly thanking Olga for giving her the chance to stay. She loved this city. Her whole life revolved around this city. Granted, she'd never really spent much time outside of it. The only times she could think of were during those unbearable family road trips to aunt Mel's place, and that disaster of a mother-daughter bonding experience. She frowned at the thought of it.

It all felt surreal. Everything that was happening. It was like a dream. A big part of her wondered if she would soon wake up in that closet in the emporium, and everything would just go back to normal. Back to another miserable day in the life of Helga G. Pataki.

She looked out in the direction of the beeped emporium, only to see the giant sign with Big Bob's rediculous looking picture on it… was gone. It really was gone, just like Phoebe said.

Letting herself lean against the wall, she sighed heavily.

Footsteps approached her softly, but she chalked it up to be one of the boarders coming up for a smoke, and drowned them out with the sounds of her rambling thoughts.

"Are you alright?"

Helga continued to focus on the skyline, as she began to mumble to herself about how she was going to survive under the same roof at her football-headed crush.

When she didn't respond, a pair of warm arms encircled her shoulders, surprising her into gasping and nearly punching the culprit in the face.

They ducked quickly, but kept their arms around her, "It's me! It's okay." Arnold said softly, trying to calm her down.

"Don't CREEP UP on me like that, FOOTBALL HEAD!" she yelled, but Arnold could see she was clearly flustered and confused. "What are you DOING here?!" she asked, seemingly forgetful of the fact that this was his home. "L-leave me alone! Can't you see I'm THINKING here?!" Trying to pull away from him, Helga did her best to avoid his gaze. Instead, she turned her head towards the freeway overpass that loomed behind the boardinghouse.

"Don't go." he said simply, and tightened his gentle grip on her.

She finally looked up at him and willed herself to relax. Feeling this, Arnold released her enough to where he only held her hands. "What do you want…?" she asked softly.

He did his best to meet her eyes, "I'm sorry…"

Even more confused, her anger slowly bubbled inside her, "You're... 'SORRY'…? What?"

He squeezed her hands gently, "About your family. About everything. I-"

"Wait. WAIT." Helga shook her head and straightened up.

Arnold stopped and stared at her, surprised.

"No. You're NOT sorry. You don't HAVE to be sorry, FOOTBALL HEAD! What happened with… THEM had nothing to do with YOU. Okay?!" she huffed and glared intently at him. "So don't you DARE go trying to MAKE it about you!"

"...I know, but-"

"BUT WHAT?!" she was about ready to free herself and push passed him. Helga had gone up there to try and forget what was happening, but NO. Arnold had to come and rub it ALL back in again...with his kindness.

He took a deep breath, "I just want you to know that… I'm here for you. You don't have to go through this all alone. I don't want you to."

Surprised, Helga's expression softened for a moment as she took in his words.

"If you need anything, I'm here, Helga. I don't mean just because we're sharing the same roof. Helga, I actually-"

She couldn't take it. His kindness felt like knives cutting through her. She didn't want him to fall into her misery. She needed to push him away. Fast. "YEAH?! And what can YOU DO?!"

He felt her pull hard, but he only locked her in with his gaze, "Helga, stop trying to run away from me."

"I'm NOT RUNNING." she yelled, trying hard to hide the redness that had crept up to her face from the look he just gave her. He had this power over her that she couldn't help but fall into.

"You're trying to." Arnold said softly, doing his best to try and deescalate her anger.

"SO?!"

He narrowed his eyes and re-tightened his grip on her hands, determined to make her understand him. "I KNOW what you're doing isn't want you really want to do."

She scoffed and tried to pull away again, "You don't even KNOW what I want!"

"I do know. You told me so, yourself... a long time ago. I don't know why you pushed me away before, Helga, but I'm not going to stand by and wait anymore."

Before she could free herself from him and run back into the room, she felt him pull hard on her wrists. "Arno-?!" was the last thing she could manage to say before his lips covered hers.

She felt unable to move, as she melted into his touch.

He was right. This is what she wanted.

Moonlight: I had more, but this was a good stopping point for now~! I apologize for taking so long to update. Been sick with the flu, on top of everything else. Please let me know your thoughts!