Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters mentioned in this story.

They all belong to their rightful owner: Craig Bartlett.

Title: "Blackmail toy"

In the last chapter of "Blackmail toy": Arnold's greatest fear at this point was to hurt Helga, which unfortunately was inevitable. Despite the pain she without a doubt felt, he managed to calm her down and soon they found a rhythm in their first lovemaking.

To Helga's frustration though, Arnold stopped them in the middle of it. She was touched to tears though, when he gave her the proper love declaration he had promised her, and they cried together out of sheer happiness, before they feel in love in each other's arms.

Arnold did collect enough courage to whisper to the sleeping Helga, that if there ever was something he'd want to change about her in the future… it'd be her surname.

Author's 1st note: … It's called an intense education. That's my excuse for this to take so bloody long.

Chapter 43: "Because I love you…. remember?"

It was quite an unusual feeling. A really unique sensation to wake up next to the person you loved. The person you had loved through your whole life even. It couldn't really be described; especially not on this particular morning when it wasn't only waking up next to the person you were planning to spend the rest of your life with. It was even the morning after having made love for the first time.

Arnold's eyelids fluttered open slowly. His body felt somehow light and yet… there was a heavy feeling keeping him down to the ground. With a small yawn, he then opened his eyes completely. In front of him, half blocking his vision of the wall in front of him, where some blonde curls. With a smile, he remembered everything so perfectly clearly and he started to nuzzle his nose in the gold hair.

Arnold earned a small whimper in return and the hair beneath his chin moved a bit. It tickled, it really did, but he didn't feel like laughing at all. Smiling, oh, yes, smiling like a fool perhaps, but not laugh. He was so happy that he wasn't capable of laughing really. All he could do was just sigh with a goofy smile.

Helga yawned loudly all of a sudden. Her eyes, which were laid against Arnold's neck, started to flutter open and tickle him in the process. He pulled away gently to look at into those beautiful, azure eyes of hers. "Good morning…" he whispered as he waited for the girl in front of him to wake up. She stirred a little bit as her eyes opened slowly. It seemed like it took her a couple of seconds before she fully understood who was in front of her, and then she just smiled broadly. "Good morning."

"Did you sleep well?" Arnold asked and started to caress the back of Helga's head a bit. She smiled at him. "Like a baby in love." She answered and snuggled closer to him with some quick movements, causing him to laugh at the somewhat childish action. He just pulled her up on his body though, making her lie on his naked form. None of them really seemed shy at this point. It felt so right to just float on their own cloud 9 right now.

Helga intertwined her fingers, laid her hands on Arnold's chest and put her chin on them. They just kept gazing at each other like that. "I still can't believe it…" Arnold declared as his arms also rested against her lower back. "What?" she asked with a small sigh, knowing exactly what he was talking about. He moved one of his hands to caress her cheek a bit, still feeling rather dazed after having just woke up. "This… You. Us. Everything."

"You're a man of few words, Arnold." Helga said teasingly, put her hands on the mattress and slid herself across Arnold's body to kiss his lips. A morning kiss… They both thought with an inaudible sigh and just kept kissing like that for a few seconds, just enjoying this total bliss of silence and worship.

"Helga…" Arnold inquired as they slowly broke apart. "Yes…" she answered before she started to kiss him again. She kept on kissing him, not giving him a chance to speak, so he had to grab her shoulders and pull her away a little bit. "Can I… ask you something?" he asked gently, causing her to blink a little in surprise. "Man, way to ruin the mood, football head." She answered with a sigh, but then smiled at him. "Ok. Shoot."

"Besides with the parrot… when have you been in my room?" Arnold asked curiously. He had never ever experienced thinking that someone was in his room with him, unless they had been invited of course. He was just curious to where Helga had been hiding and why. Her eyes went a little wide at the question, but then she sighed again.

Helga gave a pensive face. "Let me see… The first time I was in your room was in fourth grade, when you got ahold of one of my pink books. I… was hiding in your closet all that time and didn't get out until next morning when you had left." She answered. Arnold's eyebrow quirked. "So… you saw me and Gerald trying to figure out who it was who was writing me poetry?"

"Yup. Speaking of which; thanks for laughing when you came across my name on that stupid list of yours." Helga said with a slight scowl. Arnold gulped instantly, suddenly remembering that very hysteric laughter he and Gerald had been in at the time. "S-Sorry…" he said nervously, but she just shrugged. "Don't sweat it. It was kinda the reaction I wanted people to have, if they ever thought I'd write poetry."

"Well, not anymore. I wanna read what you write from now on." Arnold said resolutely. "What? But…" Helga said in surprise, but then closed her mouth. She bit at her lower lip as he kept looking at her, hoping for her to give in. In the end, she gave another sigh and nodded with a small smile. "All right, all right, you'll get your weekly ego boost."

"Weekly?" Arnold repeated in surprise. "I'm not giving you a poem every day, bucko!" Helga said mockingly, which just made his eyes pop open. "Every day? You write enough to actually do that?" he asked in incredulity. She felt a little shy about having to admit this to him, but forced herself to do it nevertheless. "Well… I don't write every day, but I write enough of them to cover every day."

"Whoa… I'll… I'll look forward to read them." Arnold said with a loving smile, which Helga just rolled her eyes at. "You wanna know when else I've been in your room?" she asked, actually finding that topic rather funny at this point. The parrot incident was after all the most embarrassing one.

"Yes, ma'am!" Arnold answered with a big smile. Helga just shook her head in amusement, and then thought about it for a second. "Well, let's see… There was… Oh, right! I, ugh… Don't laugh, ok?" she begged, knowing he wouldn't be able to keep his promise. "Sure." He said with a smile, also knowing he might not be able to keep that promise, though he wanted to.

"I… Once I went to the dentist and he gave me some laughing gas. Du-During the time I was drugged, even after the procedure, I went to the phone in the lobby and called you, telling you… well, that I loved you… I broke into your house and had to get rid of that stupid message!" Helga answered with a slight frown.

Arnold seemed just pensive though. "Did I… Did I see you?" he asked, which just caused her to frown in confusion. "Uh… Oh, yeah, you had the boys over and you all saw me… Why didn't you react to that anyway?" she asked with a cocked eyebrow. "I think we were in so much shock that we just chose to ignore it or something?" he suggested with a chuckle.

"Boys." Helga declared as she rolled her eyes. "Hey! You're the one who broke into my house just to get rid of that message!" Arnold scolded teasingly. "What did you expect me to do? Just leave it at that and hope to get hit by a truck before you could find me and tell me how crazy I was?" she suggested with furrowed eyebrows. "Maybe I would've realized I was in love with you too." He answered stubbornly, though he could easily imagine fainting rather than that. At least at that age.

"Yeah, right! Sure, Arnold, that's sweet, but we both know that wouldn't have happened… Now, wanna hear about the last time I was at your house?" Helga asked, which Arnold of course nodded at in response. "Ok… this one's a little… Uh… M-Maybe I should just show you." she decided and grabbed one of the covers to wrap herself in it.

As Helga stood up, Arnold covered himself up a little bit too. He couldn't help but notice how elegant she looked, just wrapped in a cover like that. It almost looked like a toga or something. She went to her bag and pulled out a golden chain with a heart-shaped locket attached to it. He looked curiously at it, while she sat down next to him.

"I don't know if you ever noticed me wearing this?" Helga asked and held it in front of Arnold's face. He lifted his hand and grabbed it gently to look at it. He tried to remember her wearing something this feminine, but no, he couldn't remember seeing this whatsoever. However… there was something oddly familiar about it.

"No. Have you been hiding it or something?" Arnold asked gently. Helga nodded. "Yeah, I bought this one when I hit puberty. The old one was way too big to hide when I started to grow." She answered, causing him to look at her chest for a second, but only for a second, since the locket really did have most of his attention. "Your old one? You mean, you've had a bigger version of this golden, heart-shaped locket at some point?"

"Yeah… through most of my childhood actually. That one back then wasn't solid gold, so it got rusty from time to time, so I had to change it, of course, but this one is the same one I bought when I was 13 years old." Helga answered and couldn't help but gaze a little at the image in front of her; Arnold, holding her locket. She wondered how he would react to this part of her confession spree, though she was pretty sure he'd react pretty calmly about it. This part was obviously less intimidating than the 'breaking-and-entering' part.

"Can I… open it?" Arnold asked as he kept studying the locket. Where have I seen this before? A bigger version… golden, heart-shaped locket… A serious bell is ringing, but it's like something's missing… He kept thinking until he heard Helga give him permission to open it. He gently took ahold of it and attempted to open it.

Helga watched him in amusement, as Arnold struggled to open the locket. "Criminy! You couldn't figure out how to open it back then either." She declared with a laugh and grabbed the locket from his hand. She opened it easily and gazed at it a little. "Must be a boy thing." She decided and then showed him the picture inside of it.

Arnold's eyes went wide when he saw himself smiling back at him in the small picture in Helga's locket, but mostly his cheeks just went red. "I remember now… th-the locket my grandpa had… That was yours?" he asked, without looking away from the locket for even a second. "Yeah… I dropped it, your pig stole it and then your grandma gave it to Phil. It was a nightmare to get it back. Worst part was that I had it engraved that very same day with my name on it and everything, so if you had gotten it open, you would've figured out everything."

"Whoa… you really need to be more careful." Arnold observed and started to chuckle. "Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Helga asked with a red tint on her cheeks and closed the locket in her hand. "Come on!" he exclaimed and started to stretch his fingers, one after the other. "You lose your poetry book, leave me a love confession on my phone, let a parrot hear one of your poems about me, carry around a locket with my picture in it signed by yourself and you let my cousin of all people find out about your feelings for me. Either you're really unlucky or it's karma."

Helga pouted a little as Arnold listed all those incidents aloud, but mostly she could definitely appreciate the comedy in it. "Don't forget telling Lila about my feelings for you, just so I could play Juliet back in fourth grade." She added with a smile, which made him gulp in surprise. "What? So… Wait a second… Was it because of you all four girls didn't wanna play Juliet?"

Helga started whistling innocently, which just made Arnold scowl at her teasingly. "Helga…" he chastised with a big smile. "What? Rhonda didn't wanna play Juliet because of the costume, Sheena didn't wanna because of all the violence, Phoebe got a case of stage fright and Lila… well, Lila's a sucker." She answered. "Helga!" he chastised again. "All right, all right, I kinda like her… now." She corrected with a smile, but she knew that wasn't what he meant. "And I might have intentionally been blowing a little to the girls' fears."

Arnold just shook his head in amusement and started to chuckle. "You really are amazing, you know." He observed, grabbed her hand and made her open it, so he could observe the locket. Then he let his eyebrow quirk and looked at her curiously. "Tell me… where do you get pictures of me anyway?"

Helga looked a little surprised at the question, but then just narrowed her eyes mischievously and leaned a little closer to Arnold. "That's my little secret." She answered with a gleeful smirk. "That's not fair!" he announced with a disbelieving grin. "When have I ever played fair?!" she asked in incredulity and grabbed his wrists. With one swift movement, she went to straddle him and thereby uncovered most of her body.

Arnold felt his heart bang against his ribcage, when he noticed certain marks on Helga's upper body. She cocked her head to the side curiously. "What's wrong?" she asked, but then noticed in which direction he was staring. She frowned a little; he had already seen everything, so why would he get shy at this point?

Helga looked down her body and then her eyes popped open. Almost all over her body, were tiny, red marks. Hickeys?! She thought in disbelief and looked at Arnold. "Arnold!" she scolded playfully, but his face just went scarlet red as he kept staring at her. "I'm sorry! I-I didn't even realize that I - - "

Helga's lips covering his own interrupted Arnold. He gasped in her mouth, but knew that he wouldn't get away with something like that so easily. If he knew her correctly… she'd have revenge. One way or another.

Helga removed her lips from Arnold with a small, sensual smack and then let her mouth to his collarbone immediately. She started sucking near it and used her teeth to pull the flesh. He gasped at the intense feeling, which was painful and yet pleasurable. "H-Helga!" he begged, but didn't truly want her to stop.

Arnold wriggled his wrists a little bit, but Helga's grip around them just tightened, and he gave up on his mission to escape. Rather than that, he could feel his body start to react at her advances towards him, and she was way too close to his crotch not to notice. She even seemed like she was about to comment it… until a noise interrupted them.

"You think they're up yet?" a female voice asked with a slight giggle. Arnold and Helga stopped to stare at each other. "Naw, they're probably sleeping peacefully together like at the hospital." A male voice answered just before the door opened. "Mom! Dad!" Arnold scolded and instantly grabbed ahold of the covers to cover Helga up, who was just staring at his parents over her shoulder.

"Oh, we're sorry! We were so sure th-that - - "

"Get out!" Arnold pleaded, his cheeks reddening even more at the second. "Yes! Of course!" Stella answered with a robotic sound in her voice and turned around in the doorframe. "C-Come down when you want to have breakfast." Miles said quickly before he closed the door behind him and joined his wife in walking down the stairs, both of them having similar blushing faces.

Rather than feeling embarrassed, Helga just started laughing, which made Arnold frown a little bit. "You sure love seeing me get embarrassed, huh?" he wondered aloud with a slight pout. "You only just realized?" she asked before she swung her leg away from his waist and stepped out of the bed. He just sighed a little happily, since he was actually just happy to see that she was that comfortable around his parents.

"But," Helga said as she grabbed her panties from the floor and started to pull them on. "all things considered I do feel a little bad for you, so I'll of course come down with you to help you." she finished with a smile over her shoulder. Arnold cocked his head to the side. "Sure, now you plan helping me." He observed with a smirk, which just earned him a pair of thrown boxers to his face from her. "How rude!" she scolded mockingly and giggled.

As Arnold pulled on his boxers, Helga went towards her small bag to retrieve a bra she had brought along. She figured she wouldn't want to wear the nightgown again the morning after, so she had planned a little ahead. When her bra was on, she dared to turn her head around a bit and look at Arnold. He was standing near the bed and had just pulled his jeans on.

"Stop!" Helga begged and put her hands up for effect. Arnold stopped moving as he let the shirt in his hand hang closely to the floor. "What's wrong?" he asked curiously, as he noticed the slightly girlish grin on her face. "I have another girlish fantasy, Arnold." She said while she strode towards him. He arched his back a little, as he looked at her in wonder. "Another? Well, all right then; what is it?"

Helga started biting at her lower lip as a huge grin was still formed on her face. She grabbed the collar of Arnold's shirt and snuck it out of his hand. With his eyebrows furrowed, he watched her as she swung it behind her back. His eyes popped open, when he realized that she was going to wear his shirt. When she had finished putting it on – leaving a few of the top buttons open so reveal a little cleavage – she turned around to look at herself in the mirror. She couldn't help but giggle a lot inwardly, and a little on the outside as well.

"Man, this shirt is way bigger than I had expected. You have a bigger torso than I first thought, Arnoldo." Helga observed teasingly and shook her upper body a little for effect. When she turned to look at him, she noticed an intense blush on his cheeks. "Arnold?" she asked a little worriedly, but that just made him blush all the more. "What's wrong, football head?"

Arnold didn't answer, but just simply sat down on the bed behind him with a gulp. "I think that… without me knowing… that might have been a fantasy of mine too." He explained as he couldn't remove his gaze from Helga. She blushed at his comment, but mostly just felt really light-headed inside. He started chuckling a bit, finally getting used to the weird happiness that come from her wearing his shirt. "I'm gonna think of you every time I put it on now."

Helga giggled again, took a couple of steps towards her boyfriend and leaned forward with her hands intertwined behind her back. "I guess I'll just have to wear every single one of your shirts then." She said teasingly, gave him a gently peck on the tip of his nose and grabbed his hands. "Well, come on! Let's eat; I'm starving."

"I still need to get dressed, Helga." Arnold said as she pulled him up. "Oh, no, you don't. You're in your own home, Arnold, don't tell me they've never seen you with your shirt off?" she asked with an eyebrow quirked. "Well, s-sure, but… n-not while I had my girlfriend over and with her wearing my shirt!" he answered while she pulled him towards his door.

"It'll be fine! If anything, the boarders will be proud of ya." Helga said, hoping that Arnold would continue to forget about the small hickey she had placed near his collarbone. "Their teasing will never end!" he answered though, stopping her from walking any further before she reached the door. She gave a small sigh, pulled on her best pout and puppy eyes and turned around. He almost felt all air go out of him as she looked at him with such begging eyes.

Arnold then groaned deeply before he smiled at Helga. "You're gonna be the death of me, you know…" he observed, but couldn't help but chuckle at how happy he had obviously just made her. "Naw, they just have to get used to it, right?" she asked with a big smile as she opened the door. He sighed happily at that and then wrapped his arms around her waist, giving her a sideways hug. "Yeah…" he answered happily before he placed his warm lips on her moist ones and gave her a loving kiss.

"You're not getting out of this." Helga announced mockingly, as she felt Arnold's hand go towards her chest. "Oh, man!" he said in mock annoyance while she started to pull him with her down the stairs. As the two teens walked towards the dining room, they could hear the other boarders talking. "You think they'll ever come down?" Ernie asked with a chuckle. "Fine with me; that means more food for me!" Oskar answered, earning a smack on the back of his head from Susie. "Ow! I mean for all of us."

"Too bad, Oskar, but we're already here." Arnold announced, only feeling slightly embarrassed, as he appeared together with Helga, holding her hand. It made him relax to know that she was there with him, at least feeling a little embarrassed too. No way was she 100 % comfortable with this; that was hard to imagine.

And indeed; Helga did feel slightly nervous. This was the first time the boarders would ever see her quite like this, and she wasn't just thinking about being Arnold's girlfriend. They had never seen her barelegged; Aaron, Stella, Miles, Phil and Gertie being the exceptions from last night, but as she grabbed the hem of Arnold's shirt, she felt more relaxed.

"Good morning, you two." Susie greeted politely and couldn't help but admire the sudden, obvious beauty in Helga. She knew she had become quite pretty through the years, but seeing her with such a happy smile and her hair let down, curled and a little disheveled; she was a natural beauty. "Yeah, good morning! Now, we can eat!" Oskar chimed in, earning disbelieving shakes of the head from some people in the room.

Without further ado, Arnold simply pulled at Helga's hand to make her join him at the table. For a second, he felt like pulling the chair out of her, but figured that might have made her more embarrassed than anything else at the moment, all things considered. The two teens sat down next to each other, letting their hands stay intertwined on the table, almost in a demonstrative way.

"Did you two have fun last night, Kimba?" Gertie asked rather innocently, though they all knew that she was thinking the same thing as them. Both Arnold and Helga stopped breathing at that second; both wondering what would be the best way to answer such a question. "Pookie, leave the poor kids alone!" Phil said, coming to their rescue. Oh, thank God. Both teens thought gratefully and smiled a little at each other.

"They had a lot of fun according to Arnold's chest." Aaron couldn't help but add though. Arnold frowned in confusion at him, which caused Helga to look away from him and at Aaron. She just gave him a mockingly scolding look, but had a hard time not laughing doing so. "He doesn't know, does he?" Aaron asked in a whisper. She shook her head. "Doesn't have a clue." She answered and snickered with him.

Arnold just cocked his head to the side as the whole table seemed to be snickering about something, which he couldn't figure out what was. "Could someone enlighten me about what the heck you're laughing about?" he asked, though he had a feeling he wouldn't get an answer, as they all just kept snickering.

Helga started to feel a little bad for Arnold though, and decided to join him in the embarrassment. It was the least she could do after all these years of having humiliated him in countless ways. "Arnold, remember what you found on my neck this morning?" she asked him innocently, though she could feel her heart start a small marathon in her chest.

Arnold furrowed his eyebrows slightly, trying to remember what Helga was referring too. Then, as if struck by lightning, his whole face went as red as blood and his hand automatically went straight to where she had kissed him earlier. "Helga!" he scolded embarrassed, but that just made everyone in the room laugh aloud.

Even though Helga felt embarrassed within an inch of her life, she knew that this was probably one of the happiest moments of her life. She was comfortable around everyone around her, she had just made love with Arnold and she could've sworn he had asked her to marry him in her dream last night. Life couldn't be better.

"Well, Helga, would you like to join us today?" Stella asked with a smile while she and the rest pf the people around the table were collecting the plates. Helga looked at her curiously. "Joining you? Sorry, I'm not following." She admitted as she went towards the kitchen with her, knowing that the two cousins were right behind her. "We're going to drive Aaron to the train station. I was wondering if you'd like to come with and say goodbye?" Stella explained, putting her plate next to the sink.

Helga turned her head around to look at the boys behind her. They both smiled at her, encouraging her to come along with them. "Well, sure." She answered then with a smile, which she noticed the boys smiled broadly at. I swear, I'm surrounded… She thought a little happily, realizing she was slightly sad at seeing Aaron go, even after all the things that had happened.

"Then you and Arnold go up and get changed, ok? We'll leave in a couple of minutes. Aaron, you have packed, right?" Stella asked. "Of course. My luggage is in the hallway already." Aaron answered as he pointed towards the hallway with his thumb. "Come on, Helga." Arnold requested with a smile and grabbed her hand as soon as she had put the plate down. She stumbled a bit as she was pulled along with him in his eagerness, but she giggled happily nevertheless.

"Remember, Arnold, only a couple of minutes!" Phil reminded him, causing both of the blonde teens to smile a little shyly at each other. "Yeah, yeah!" they answered in unison as they ran up the stairs, not really caring how obvious the teasing had become. "Aw, they don't even care anymore!" Phil announced unhappily, which just made the couple laugh even louder.

"I really do love your family, you know." Helga stated as she and Arnold walked into his room. He couldn't help but smile broadly at that. "Yeah?" he asked which she nodded at. She noticed how his smile just got brighter and brighter at the second, and she cocked her head a little to the side in wonder. "Why does that make you this happy?" she asked while she grabbed a pair of black jeans in her bag.

"Huh? Oh, uh…" Arnold lifted his hand to scratch his neck shyly. "N-No reason." He answered, though Helga obviously didn't buy it. "Oh, all right. You're just randomly getting really happy just because I love your family and you get all shy when I question you about it. No apparent reason for that." she announced mockingly, but a look from him made her smile again. "Oh, ok, ok. I guess you can have one little secret."

"It's not a secret… It's a… surprise for later." Arnold corrected while he grabbed a white shirt from inside his closet. Helga stopped moving when her jeans had reached her waist and she looked curiously at him. "A surprise for… later? How much later?" she asked. He started to pull on his shirt as he looked slightly pensive, but then just smiled at her. "We're talking years, I think." He answered.

"You think?!" Helga repeated with a laugh. "Well, all right. As long as it's not some big secret." She declared and grabbed a belt from her bag. Arnold watched her curiously, as she rather than putting the belt around her jeans – where they belonged – she wrapped it beneath her chest, causing the shirt to tug in at that area.

"You're… You're wearing that outside?" Arnold asked shyly, though he really didn't want Helga to change. She looked amazing in something like that. It was almost like a combination of her usual style mixed with… well, in a way his style. She turned to look at him and then at herself in the mirror. "Does it look weird?" she wondered aloud, but he just shook his head violently. "No! That's not why. I just… I guess I still feel a little shy about you wearing my shirt."

Helga smiled at that and blushed a bit. "I feel shy too, but it's just been a fantasy of mine for so long, so… I hope you can cope with it a little longer." She answered as she went towards the door. Trust me; coping isn't the problem here… Arnold answered inside his head and went to join her downstairs.

"Goodbye, Aaron. Say hello to my brother from me." Miles said with a big smile as he hugged Aaron at the platform. "Yes, I will. Thank you for letting me stay." Aaron answered while he went to hug Stella as well. "You're welcome, honey, we hope you enjoyed staying here." She said as she hugged him. "Oh, I did." He answered with a slight wink in Helga's direction. She rolled her eyes dramatically and smiled at Arnold, who smiled back.

"Have a safe trip home, Aaron!" Phil said a little loudly, giving Aaron a loud smack on his back, causing the teen to stumble forward a little. "Yeah, thanks, grandpa. Take good care of grandma, would you?" he requested with a smile, hoping for the pain in his back to subside quickly. "Ha! She can take care of herself! If anything, she'll be the one to take care of me." Phil answered, gave a wink in Arnold and Helga's direction and laughed.

While Arnold blushed, Helga looked at him curiously. "What was that about?" she asked in a whisper. "I, uh… I'll tell you that story later." He answered, letting her notice how big his smile suddenly got. She shrugged and decided to let it go for now, but they sure did have a lot of stories to tell each other. She still hadn't mentioned Cecile yet either.

"Well, goodbye now, Simba! I hope you'll have a safe trip back to Africa!" Gertie announced happily, causing Helga to start snickering. "Simba?" she repeated with a smile. "I'm Kimba, so I guess that makes Aaron Simba?" Arnold suggested and gave a shrug to Aaron, who just shook his head in amusement. "But that doesn't make any…" she started, but then just waved her hand dismissively. "Never mind."

"Well! We'll leave you kids to say goodbye. We'll be waiting for you two to come back, Arnold." Miles said and laid his arm over Stella's shoulders. Arnold nodded in agreement and watched as his parents and grandparents went through the platform. "You're lucky to be living with them, Arnold." Aaron said with a smile and went a little closer to his cousin. Arnold nodded. "Yeah, I know."

Helga couldn't help but smile at the two smiling boys next to her. All things considered, she was happy that this whole blackmail thing hadn't made their relationship sour. Not even she had a grudge against Aaron anymore. Now that she thought about it… if he hadn't been there, she couldn't help but wonder if she and Arnold would even be together now.

"What are you smiling about?" Arnold asked curiously, causing Helga to shake her head to get out of her thoughts. "Oh! I was just… You know, it's really ironic… when Aaron first found out about my feelings for you, to me, it was probably the worst thing that could ever have happened… Now, it's almost as if that's what brought us together in the first place." She answered with a tense smile, noticing how insane that sounded.

"You sure made it hard for me to get you two together, that's for sure." Aaron answered as he crossed his arms. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm really difficult, I…" Helga answered, but then stopped talking altogether. She blinked a couple of times, before she frowned in confusion and lifted her head to look at Aaron, who just smiled nonchalantly at her. She didn't say anything, but just kept staring at him as if that would make him explain what he had just said. N-No way… There's no way that all this time, all he was trying to do was…

"Well, it's been fun being here, you guys. I think my train will be here in five minutes or something, so maybe we should say our goodbyes now?" Aaron suggested and grabbed Arnold's shoulder, who – just like Helga – was looking a little pensively at him. "Uh, yeah." He answered and decided to leave this odd confession in the back of his mind for the next minutes. He lifted his arms and went to hug his cousin. "I hope I'll see you soon."

"Yeah, me too. Hillwood is a lot more fun than I had imagined. Then again, that might be thanks to Helga." Aaron answered with a chuckle and let go of Arnold, who couldn't do anything else than nod in agreement. Yeah, Hillwood was definitely more fun with Helga around. Helga herself, was still trying to wrap her mind around what Aaron had just said and barely noticed when a pair of arms were spread in front of her. "Earth to Helga!"

Helga then shook her head when she heard her name being said. She opened her eyes and noticed a pair of mulatto colored arms in front of her, Aaron being the owner of them. For a second, she was confused, since she was still trying to figure out what he had meant by his statement earlier, but then just rolled her eyes in relinquishment and went inside his arms.

Helga was completely enveloped in Aaron's arm as she felt him rock her gently from side to side. I really do consider him an older brother… Sorry, Aaron, but I do. She thought with a slight smile and wrapped her arms around his waist. She opened her eyes to smile at Arnold, who smiled back. She could see in his eyes that he was only a little envious of the gentle gesture between them, but not enough to even feel the least bit angry.

"Ok, enough mushiness!" Helga declared, when she noticed that Arnold may have started to think that this hug was taking a little too long after all. She thought it was adorable; him, even considering that she'd might have eyes for anyone else but him, but she figured she wouldn't try her luck with making him jealous, as amusing as the idea was.

Helga pushed herself away from Aaron with a big smile, noticing that he was smiling back at her the same way she was smiling at him. "Speaking of mushiness, I wonder if you two will ever not be mushy?" Aaron asked as he let go of her. "Huh?" Arnold muttered in slight bewilderment as he went to stand next to them.

"Yeah… I mean, with just the way you two are looking at each other, it could give anyone cavities!" Aaron explained teasingly, causing the two blondes to blush a little. "See! Blushing at our age. You guys are still gonna be like that when you're 30 years old and married, I'll bet. It almost makes me regret helping you two to get together."

"M-Ma…" Arnold stuttered with big eyes, his blush only getting deeper at that. "Wait a second!" Helga interrupted with a slight frown and pointed accusingly at Aaron. "So you were helping us get together?" she asked, still haven't forgotten about his small confession from before. Rather than answering her, Aaron just took a step closer to her. "By the way, Helga, if you for some crazy reason suddenly decide that Arnold's not good enough for you…" he said as he pushed his hand into his pocket.

"You're totally avoiding my question!" Helga said with slight anger in her voice, before Aaron pulled out a small, white card from his pocket. "Call me." He said, opened her hand and placed the card in it. She eyed it curiously. The black ink on it told her Aaron's full name and his number. "See you." he said teasingly, turned around, grabbed his luggage and then started walking away from them.

Arnold and Helga just stood there, completely dumbfounded. "He did that just to annoy me!" Arnold announced in infuriation. Helga thought subconsciously that he was probably right, but she didn't have it in her to think of anything else than one thing at that moment. "He did all that to help me."

"Huh?" Arnold muttered and turned his head to look at Helga, who kept staring into the thin air. "He blackmailed me… to get me to confess to you. All those things he made me do! Wearing a skirt, he knew I liked, forcing me to join you guys at the party, making me think I was under the influence of aphrodisiac, making me give you a poem… It was all just to make us get together!" she announced in pure disbelief and then just started laughing. It was all so messed up all of a sudden. She had joked with Aaron about it even, and then it turned out to be the truth!

Arnold couldn't help but frown a little at Helga's sudden happiness over something Aaron had done, and he definitely couldn't forget the fact that she now had his number. "Well… what are you gonna do with that?" he asked as he pointed towards the card. "Huh?" she muttered and looked at it. "Oh. Well, I don't have much use for it. I mean, if I ever wanted to contact him, I could just ask you."

"Then get rid of it." Arnold ordered with slight irritation in his voice. Helga's head whipped up, looking at him in incredulity. "What?! Now, Arnold, that's pretty mean, coming from you and everything." She observed as a small smile started to tuck at the corner of her mouth. "I don't care! Throw it out! Give it to me! Burn it!" he ordered and went to grab the card, but she was faster than him and just held it far away from him, while she let her palm hold him back at his chest. "Why? You aren't jealous, are you?"

"Damn right, I'm jealous!" Arnold admitted without a second thought, causing Helga to smile broadly. Even if it hadn't been her intention, she still took a little pleasure in knowing that he loved her so much, to the extent of him getting jealous of his own cousin. "I'm not gonna risk losing you to the guy who helped me get you!" he added.

"That's not gonna happen!" Helga answered with a laugh. She couldn't help it; the thought itself was ridiculous. "How do you know?" Arnold asked, with something akin to a childish and worried pout. She didn't answer, but simply grabbed the back of his head and smashed her lips against his. He gasped inside her mouth as she devoured him completely. Despite him having felt a little angry a second ago, rather than making any protests or complaints about what she was doing, he just melted into the kiss. He enjoyed that warm spark she always made appear in the pit of heart, and he was sure that if he wasn't already, he'd eventually get addicted to that feeling.

Helga could feel Arnold wobble a little in her grasp. She could even feel his knees shake a little at that intense kiss, and she had to hold him up a bit when she finally let go of him. "Because I love you… remember?" she asked him with a slightly edgy pant to her voice, her eyes half-lidded like his. He didn't answer right away, but simply breathed slowly to regain oxygen.

Arnold did his best to try to muster the strength to give Helga a proper reply to her somewhat rhetorical question. It was obvious she expected an answer from him though, so he did his best to figure out what to say. "Uh…" he said, almost inaudibly, but when he looked into her eyes, the sight of her looking at him with a mix of her usual scowl and yet a loving smile and a slight blush on her cheeks, he just started to grin goofily. He then said the only thing his brain could come up with in his lovesick and dazed state, something he knew he'd continue to say through the years. "Yes, ma'am!"

The end

Author's 2nd note: And that's the end, folks! Yeah, most of you have probably already realized that Aaron was trying to help Helga through this, but I think a few may be a little surprised, at least according to some of the reviews :P

Anyways! This has been the best first experience in writing Hey Arnold! Fanfiction ever! :D I never ever imagined it becoming so popular, and it almost makes me feel a little shy OwO So, I'm also a little nervous about starting my next fanfiction, since now I kinda have something to live up to xD But, hey! You guys voted for the next plotline, so I guess I've taken the first and most important step :P Not sure when I'll be able to upload the first chapter of "Primal urges and hidden desires" but I'll try to do it as soon as possible, since the people who voted seemed pretty gung-ho at me beginning that story already! xD

Anyways! I'm also planning an epilogue for this, so either "Primal urges and hidden desires" will be started first or I'll write the epilogue first, I'm not really sure! It depends on what I feel most inspired to do, I guess xD

Anyways! This has been a hard, but really fun journey! I hope you guys enjoyed my first fanficiton, and will be here to read the many more there's to come! :D