A lump lodged in his throat as Helga failed to stifle her sniffling breath, clearly crying above him.

Of course, came the dull, sullen drop of hope as he pressed his forehead to hers.

How could he think she'd stay just for him?

And, as much as the longing in him swelled like a demanding miasma of need that pleaded and choked him up, he knew he couldn't pressure her to change her mind. But, Christ, he…

Arnold gathered up her hand and brought it to his heart.

"I just…" he began, but couldn't summon the words through the despairing wrench in his chest, and the guilt of not leaping to the optimistic prospect of long distance.

In that moment, it didn't matter if they were both willing; he couldn't stomach the thought. Maybe if they'd already been dating for a while it'd be different, but he felt that they'd been too far apart, and for too long, already.

And, God, he'd… starved to be with her, so much. Physically, yes, but even just to be in her company

And then shame ate even more of him up, for just how pathetic and shallow that sounded…

Forcing the words out, he knew, once again, that the outcome would hurt either way.

"If you can't stay, I…"

Fuck. He pressed her hand more firmly to his heart, and sighed.

"I can't leave my grandparents…" he ground out instead, a truth that bound his words more than any. "Helga, I'm sorry—I want this, so much," he squeezed her hand, his own trembling. "But I just… can't."

He bit his lip.

"But, you…"

Fuck.

Fuck.

"If you've already made plans, you should still… go," he swallowed around the pain that swelled in his throat. "Don't let me… stop you from—"

The air of a half-laugh gusted across his face as she shivered in the shadow above him, cutting him off.

"Arnold," her voice broke, and when he braved a look, he caught the emotion churning across her features, face streaming wet.

His eyes widened.

"You… had better f-fucking meant what you said. Because if you just take off running after t-this, I swear, I'm—mm!"

His lips pressed to hers urgently, and never let her finish.

They gripped onto each other in a time-slowing spell before they finally broke for air.

"Not a chance," he panted.

Helga buried her face into his neck. To hide, he intuited, and felt the way her fingers curled around his shoulders, for reassurance… and when she shook against him, it was as if she were small…

"You—r-really mean it? Even after all this...?"

Just when he couldn't believe that she'd still have any doubt that he was on board, Arnold lingered his gaze on the shrine that she'd actually made to him. And thought, with a pang, of just how lowly and unworthy he'd felt of any acceptance or love from her, after what he'd done, and how crushing that had been…

Then wondered how much that feeling would stick, if he had felt like that for years.

Let alone, just how… daunting it must be, to change your life path for someone when you've been living like that...

No wonder she doubted me every step of the way…

Arnold kissed a long sigh into her hair.

Oh, Helga…

"You know, for so long, I thought that…" he scoffed lightly, "that I was the reason why we couldn't work out? As much as I wanted us to. And, this closet…"

He gave her a small squeeze when she tensed, running his hand down her arm in reassurance.

"This closet was one of the scariest places I could think of, and it was because of me, because of what I'd done."

He paused, thankful she couldn't see his face as she kept hers buried in his shoulder. Helga had revealed so much, yet he still felt the need to hide the finer, damning details of his loss of control, his obsession.

Arnold was well aware of the irony, but couldn't shake that there was something oddly more… wholesome about her shrine, this display of profound affection on the walls surrounding them, than his own… perverted transgressions…

"You're not the only one who's kept a secret here, or done things that… you never thought you could be forgiven for…"

She stayed quiet and still. And held herself like that in his embrace, to the point where he felt an anxious churn in his stomach… until finally, she just—breathed. Breathed and melted against him in a way that felt so boneless he might as well have carried all her weight; and he didn't mind.

Kissing her hair as he rubbed circles in her back, he far from minded.

Helga Pataki, who so readily threw out her thorns, who for so long just 'couldn't be nice,' and even before icing him out had always hidden her true feelings behind a façade, was actually relaxing in his arms, and Arnold's heart thumped from the immeasurable honor in that.

And be that as it may, he couldn't shove away the creeping guilt he felt, or the way it propped up his own guard.

"...Are you sure you want to stay for college?" he ventured quietly, like he couldn't push more volume out his throat. "I know you also wanted to get away from your family, and… if you were already set up to go somewhere else, then…"

Helga knocked a grunt from his chest as she pulled back and pushed him into the wall. He looked up at her, breath stolen at the shift in her mood as she answered him with a cocky smirk.

"I could go anywhere, Football Head. You think they wouldn't take me in Hillwood?"

Arnold blinked.

"Well, of course not—I mean, of course they would. I just, you…"

He paused at the way her eyes went bright and warm.

"Did…" he began, tone soft with hopeful disbelief, "did you apply here, too…?"

She averted her gaze as a smile that was real and nearly shy spread across her face, making his pulse flutter.

"Well… I might've slipped in a local application or two. Y'know," she shrugged, "by mistake."

A grin broke across his face so hard his cheeks hurt.

Arnold's eyes sparkled back at hers as she blushed, seemingly despite herself. She smacked his chest to get him to stop, but he couldn't help it, nor the joy pumping his heart and spreading its warmth all the way through him.

"...And," she heaved a sigh, "I've gotten enough scholarships at this point to comp room and board if I wanted. I'll still have a few loans," she eyerolled, "but I won't have Bob dictating where to go, or what my major can't be…"

She heaved another sigh… a regrouping one, and he watched as a steady determination drew back her shoulders.

"...Because he's not giving me a red cent. I'm gonna pay my way," she proclaimed. "And frankly my love, I don't have to ditch the whole city just to get the fuck outta here."

My love, came the surreal echo in his mind that sent giddy shivers through him, but even that elation took a back seat.

Arnold stared in awe as a wave of utter pride swelled in his chest.

"...Wow," he gushed under his breath, shaking his head as he admired her with complete sincerity. "You're amazing, Helga…"

Man, if he thought he made her blush before… It returned and doubled with a force, sending some interesting twitches across her face as she averted her gaze.

"Yeah, well," she grumbled, flustering with a pleasure she still couldn't quite accept, "don't need you to tell me that, Hairboy."

Arnold took one of her hands in his as he chose not to push, to let her become more comfortable receiving compliments from him on her own time. And realized, rubbing his thumb over hers as he looked down, that he'd never noticed just how much larger his hands were than hers…

He knew Helga didn't need protecting, but something about that size difference made him feel a surge of it, anyway.

He looked up, and the portrait bust of him, and all the other telltale signs of inspired adoration around them drew his focus for a moment. Another thought arose from his quiet observation, leaving him feeling nearly lost.

"You know, if anything, I guess I'm…" his brow furrowed, trying to find the words, "...kinda worried, that like—that since you've had your heart set on me for so long, that…"

His gaze dropped back to their hands, when all the signs of that devotion bore a weight on him that he didn't quite know how to carry, upon registering it.

"...That I'll disappoint you? I mean, all of this is, I," he swallowed, "I'm…"

Arnold sighed.

However he thought she'd possibly react, he certainly wasn't counting on the amused snort of disbelief she gave.

"Criminy!" Helga drawled, like he was absurd. "You think after everything we've already been through that I'd expect you to be perfect?"

He looked up at her and just stared, wide-eyed.

"...Christ, Arnold," her tone softened as she squeezed his hand, something coming over her face like a sad wince. "I don't need that..."

Arnold stared a moment longer.

Then blinked, and blinked again. And felt his face morph into an expression he couldn't even define, but registered the quivering tug of a smile he couldn't help as his heart poured out, squeezing her hands back in earnest.

"I don't need you to be perfect, either..."

For a while they did nothing more than share a long, tender look that neither could seem to break.

Knowing, despite how much he hurt her, how much they'd hurt each other, that no more apologies were needed. Or promises made, that they would do better than the worst they'd ever delivered.

It was a quiet understanding that Arnold felt deep inside. And knew, without question or need for reassurance, that she felt just the same.

And when he appreciated just how far back he knew she could relate to him, his eyes softened further. On this girl, who he'd always shared some kind of understanding with, despite everything. Who connected with him in ways he didn't just didn't with everyone else. That loneliness and disillusionment of what their families weren't.

The dull ache of something just missing that they never got to know, and the holes that left inside.

At least, when it came to that, he didn't feel alone with her.

And this time, he wasn't confused, or in denial, or angry or even in conflict about any of his feelings for her.

Not anymore.

"So what if you have a closet shrine?" he said with a shrug, his tone husky and warm. "Sure," he added with a smile, "maybe it's a little freaky. But, honestly…"

Her breath rose in a gasp as his hands felt up her thighs and squeezed around her waist with intent, feeling himself stir as she ground back in his lap.

"So am I."

Silhouetted with a halo of pink-purple hues from the surrounding lights, he watched as her eyes fluttered shut, heaving as she pressed her hands to his chest. And felt the earnest beat of his heart under her palm as she breathed his name in a dreamy rush.

Arnold ran his hands up from her waist to cup her cheeks and pulled her down in a kiss.

She ran her hands into his hair, tilting his chin back to kiss him even harder. They shared a sigh, melting against each other as she rolled her hips in his lap, and he felt the air between them change in the brief moments they'd reposition, altering the way their mouths met; heating up.

He dropped a kiss down her throat, and another, before burying his face in her shoulder to pant after a particularly delicious grind. Loved feeling the movement of her as his hands roved Helga's sides, embracing her warm and close as he ground back.

How could he feel so impassioned, and yet at peace?

He'd never felt like this before, with anyone else…

"Tell me about it… fuck," came her breathy command, "give me details."

"What?" he asked, fogging up.

"About the last time you were here… how much of a freak you are."

The jolt of her words knocked the back of his head against the wall, but did nothing to deter Helga as she bit his lip in a hot exhale and sucked it.

"You said jerking off in my closet was just the half of it," came her heated murmur. "So what's the other half, bucko?"

Arnold stalled, his brain like two lines of a zipper being pulled in opposing directions. His voice was hardly more than a gasp as he caught his breath.

"I—" he started, brows furrowing. His eyes shut, trying to think.

No.

Not this.

"I don't—I don't want to put you out, or upset you. Honestly, Helga—"

He didn't even realize until halfway through the motions that when he shook his head it was like he was pleading.

"The other stuff is just… so much worse than what I shared earlier," he swallowed around the lump in his throat. "Even your shrine feels so much more, innocent, than all—"

"Please. You know I'm hardly innocent," she scoffed.

Then cut off his unformed retort with another kiss, hungry and teasing as she rubbed her heat against his bulge. Fuck.

"You still think all the freaky shit you did would bother me?"

He opened his mouth to protest, but caught his breath at the way she kneaded her breasts through her tee and moved over his cock. And at the dirty, wanton smolder in her heavy-lidded stare as she clearly waited to be enlightened.

Arnold gulped, panting while his own hips rolled with hers as she straddled him at a crossroads.

The pressure despite his misgivings and her reassurance made something shift inside of him; just a bit.

Just enough where the words he felt he maybe could say were brimming over on their own accord.

"The last time I was here, I… I was trying so hard to not jerk off when I heard you..."

His eyes shut, feeling her writhing weight over his lap as sweat beaded his forehead.

His voice lowered to a gravely husk.

"I started losing it when I could hear the, wet…"

Arnold licked his lips, his next words building deep in his chest along with something else he couldn't define, before he rumbled them out.

"...Sounds of you fucking yourself…"

Helga made a needy whine. He felt her shift, lean back in his lap…

And then he could hear it, those wet noises of hers; his eyes leapt open to watch her fingers move under her panties.

Fuck…

"And," his throat went tight, "the things you said to yourself when you did, just… I couldn't take it…"

"What'd I say?" she huffed, the sounds she made slick and loud in his ears.

Arnold's eyes lifted to hers, darkening back.

With the room her lean-back granted he pushed his boxers down and put a hand on himself. The pieces of that old, taunting mystery locked into place, of who she was thinking of all along while he overheard her… and stroked.

"You didn't say my name then, but… It was that you… needed me," he said heavily, through his teeth, "so fucking bad…"

Christ.

The way she bit her lip as her brow pinched, that weakness of want cresting across her face as she shuddered.

The way her breath heaved her chest, like a rising heat flaring all the way through her; fanning his own…

He sought her on instinct. Obeyed the impulse when she gasped and gripped her hips to pivot their position. Lowered her back across the area rug, his shadow cast around her as he hovered between her legs, hoisted her pelvis to his, and thrust.

She cried out as they shared a full body shiver from it. Anticipation ran through him in tremors despite the hungry power she gave him, despite the fact that they hadn't crossed that line yet, hadn't even discussed it—

"That you needed me…"

He pressed himself harder against her, into the floor, with no barrier besides some morals, nearly lost to a haze, and her pitifully soaked panties to prevent him sinking himself deep inside her.

"To fuck you…"

"Arnold…!"

There was no civility in the way she dragged him down or in the way he kissed her back. None whatsoever when she drove him to rock their hips together as she wrapped her legs around him and scratched lines from his scalp to his shoulder blades.

Between the wet smack of every fevered kiss her hands roved, touching more of him. In such senseless hunger he nipped the tips of any fingers that strayed near his lips when she cradled the burning skin of his cheeks.

Helga returned the gesture, giving a wet bite to his ear that sprung gooseflesh.

"And then you came in my closet, I know," she huffed, her voice demanding and rough. "More."

Arnold found himself in a grimace, that anxious cry of good sense in him heeding his hesitance… Yet its call grew weaker between the eager grip of her wrapped legs around him, and each hot, needy press of her soaked panties against his throbbing cock.

He groaned from the pleasure and from the defeat of giving in.

"It… was the biggest orgasm I'd ever fucking had. And I just—lost control," he mustered.

The rough tone in her reply morphed to a feminine growl that left him panting as she clawed him again.

"I know. More."

Fuck, fuck.

Despite himself, thrust by thrust, her unceasing command and the driving friction of their rhythm eroded the grip on his misgivings.

Her embrace like a safety net on the edge of a cliff that could just disappear if he took the risk, Arnold hid his face in her shoulder as his voice went quiet and strained, and held on.

"I lost control, and…came…all…"

He took a swift breath, his words racing along with his heart.

"All, a-all over your closet floor, the wall—"

Helga gave a sharp gasp and went still.

Arnold curled with dread.

I knew it, I knew it—

Fuck!

His apology came out in a bleak rush as he pulled away, "I'm sorry—"

A storm of a kiss snapped his words shut; hands tearing fierce in his hair and lips bitten and bruising

"Arnold, that is—so…!"

Her eyes were absolutely aflame when she tugged his head back and watched him shudder in the shocked wake of her obvious passion. In that moment Arnold could do no more than stare, and she took him down like a deer in headlights.

He found himself knocked to the rug in a daze as their positions reversed.

Helga cast a vision in purple-pinks and golds as she pushed him down and ground herself over his cock, spell-binding him in breathless palpitations as she tossed her hair back and lost herself.

"My love casting his seed all over the fertile grounds of my unwitting heart…!"

She poured out her words as if they came from a world that only spoke to her, and bit her lip in a whine with a particularly delicious grind.

"Criminy…!"

Arnold panted, speechless.

Suspended, in just…utterly awed…

Mesmerizing overwhelm.

And despite how much Helga's raw, authentic display moved him to the point where time seemed to slow, beneath all that, he knew, without question, that she hopelessly wanted more.

And that was a truth that still seized resistance in him, despite everything.

Arnold still couldn't believe, or fully accept, that he should be rewarded for all the transgressions he committed that he knew were wrong.

But…

…Watching her grind herself on him with such relish at his confession, to be so zealous and transported by his deeds…

The dawning prospect that his most shameful moments, that he'd tortured himself over, could, in turn, be so rewarding for her… threatened to flip a switch in him; one he didn't know he could.

No matter how twisted, or 'wrong' he could argue her approval of them was…

…How could he reject all those obsessive, unhinged things about himself without hurting her? When it turned out, in that regard…that they were actually so much alike…?

And with that question that arose as he watched her, he intuited another.

Should she torture herself for liking his confessions? Or over her shrine? Should she feel ashamed, and trapped like he did…?

Arnold felt an outraged, protective anger swell in his chest at the thought.

He'd never want that for her.

Gazing up in devotion as that feeling built, his hands swept across her straddling thighs, dipped under her tee to roved over her hips, and squeezed that little waist of hers that he loved as she undulated and moaned.

And kept going.

"...I snuck out after you left," he said, unevenly. "And, on the bed, you left…"

Arnold bit his lip, throwing his head back with an abandon that left him blooming hot, wracking shivers all through him. He released the rest with an unburdening groan as he met her thrusts.

"...Such a hot fucking mess!"

He panted as the wake of that confession roasted him up, then rolled his chin forward, to sear her with a flushed, piercing look that did nothing to hide all the suffering hunger he'd felt.

Her mouth fell open with her gasp, eyes locked on his with an excited shock that stirred him with feelings of power as their tempo built.

Let's see how she likes this, he thought, as his ears burned from the rough want in his next words—that he never thought he'd say.

"Do you have any idea how tempted I was to lick your toy clean…?"

Her eyes rolled back as she collapsed.

She fell forward pitifully, her cries high and desperate, arms trembling as her hands braced hard on his chest. Arnold choked on a throaty groan as she spasmed and twitched and slid over his cock, and fuck!

If he hadn't already come like three times that day he would've again, would've come with her as she completely lost it.

But even then, he stole deep, shuddering breaths where he could to keep it together, because he wanted to witness it instead. Wanted to watch, as he flared with a rush of power over her he never thought he'd have.

With a surge of movement Arnold dragged her gasping against him, lurching forward. He braced an arm behind him and breathed the same hot air as her, mouthing a wet path to the shell of her ear as she clung on and shivered like a helpless mess.

He whispered another confession between his teeth.

"Or how much I wish I did...?"

Their next kiss was wild.

It was sloppy, biting more than kissing despite the way she practically oozed in his embrace, melting her hands all over him in loving reverence.

Helga's face was a gorgeous, hot-flushed mess when she broke away, leaning back to tear off her shirt. Her hair static and mused as she tore off her bra unceremoniously and flung it somewhere.

Gulping as his cock twitched, Arnold felt himself go weak at how achingly soft her breasts looked. How the alluring, buoyant swell of them bounced with her movements as she wrenched off his jeans. His eyes on them in a dreamy haze as she pulled down his boxers next, lifting his hips half-mindedly as she undressed him.

But his gaze tore away from them at last when she stood, breath catching as the drenched fabric of her panties peeled down her thighs before falling to the floor, leaving her as bare as the fateful day he saw her accidentally in the hallway.

And of course the sight left his cock aching and dripping, but what had his hand inching toward his heart was the emotion choking thick in his throat and stinging his eyes.

She stole the air to speak before he could, and the adoration she projected on him was so quiet and heartfelt it rendered him stunned.

"I swear, you're so goddamn beautiful…"

His brow furrowed, jaw dropping in overwhelm, and he could do nothing more than pant and stare at her, even as she kneeled back down to the floor and straddled his thighs again. This girl who'd bullied him as children and driven him mad and back, and how much he loved her.

Helga braced on her hands with a smoldering determination as she drew forward, and Arnold's head threw back with a cry as his cock pulsed pitifully.

She didn't grind on him this time so much as she slid, her weight bearing down as his cock slipped between her soaking lips in the most cruelly delicious tease he'd ever felt in his life.

His breath went ragged, heart bludgeoning against his ribcage from its pounding force.

He'd never been so close to being inside a girl…!

And in that electrifying anticipation, that excitement that practically left him haggard with want, flagged a shout of anxious warning from the back of his mind that demanded his attention.

What about protection?! You're dripping everywhere!

Isn't precum enough to make her pregnant?!

Even without sex?!

A swoop of sobering alarm made him shake all over as she kept up those incredible and dangerous movements of hers.

"Helga!" he burst out, panting, "This feels—God, you're so…!"

His head threw back again. The words struggled to form through the haze of his arousal, but he had to.

"Fuck! I want you so bad, but—don't you think we should—"

"I'm on the pill."

Arnold jolted, jaw slacking as he stared up at her.

He only dimly made out Helga muttering, to add, 'I mean, it's just 'cuz I got a real killer shark week, but—' yet couldn't quite retain it.

Not when the loss of his virginity was just virtually declared imminent with her offering that information, and the enormity of that moment eclipsed his ability to properly think.

But through his haze he absolutely caught the way she swallowed and averted her gaze, eyes going wide as he heard her say, ''Cuz, y'know. It's… not like I've, ever…'

Heart in his throat at how moved he was at that confirmation, that they'd really be sharing their first time together, Arnold leaned up, eyes softening. He reached out to cup her cheek, pressing his forehead to hers.

"Neither have I..."

Those baby blues of hers widened again, and this time they were just so, open, and, hopeful but disbelieving, and—

Arnold pushed himself up even further and hugged her. Let himself melt in that delicious warmth as their bare chests pressed together; sighing at the way he felt her melting back…

"Cripes, I mean…" she muttered over his shoulder, "not like I'm a prude or anything, obviously, but, uh. Today's the first time that anyone's even… uh…"

Arnold reeled as the implication hit.

...Whoa.

So, all the stuff that they'd done earlier… when he propositioned her in the classroom, when she accepted…

There was no way at the time that he thought she could be giving him all these firsts. The thought that she had was just unthinkable—but, now…

…It made so much sense.

Man…

He held her even tighter. And, though he could spot signs of her inexperience in hindsight, dimly questioned how she was so good despite it...

Then, as a vision of her using her toy came to mind, he wondered if that meant she'd practiced in any other ways…

Fuck that's hot, he thought, before shaking it away.

That's not what really mattered.

"That's okay, Helga…" he murmured reassuringly, instead, because either way…

That's a lot…

And Helga, instead of dismissing his comfort like she could have… leaned in, pressing him back down to the floor. He held her as he descended slowly, her head tucked under his chin as she clung to his chest.

Felt, as he rubbed her back and caressed her hair, the vulnerability she always tried to hide. That sweetness in her that sank its hooks in him whenever he witnessed it.

It spurred so much tenderness in him that he could happily let her lay on him like that all evening, and just hold her, if that's what she needed.

He licked his lips, and spoke softly in her ear.

"Helga, I… I wish I had known how you felt. I don't regret how things are now, but I could've just asked you out, I could've done this properly."

He paused, giving her a squeeze.

"I… I've never gone this fast with a girl… ever. I know I don't seem like it after today, but… I'm the type who takes things slow. You're the only girl I've ever…God."

Arnold shook his head with a chuckle, and kissed her hair and let her just breathe on him.

"—Lost my goddamn mind over. I've been going so fucking crazy over you, I would've let you use me just for scraps…"

He let out a big sigh as he looked up at the ceiling, and felt her fill up the space it left.

"We've both been hiding how we truly felt for so long. Hell, I've had feelings for you for way longer than I'd even realized. But…that doesn't mean that we haven't been going fast, so… please—"

He gave her another squeeze; a firmer one, pressing his cheek to her crown.

"—Don't think that just because we've covered all this ground, that it means we need to go all the way, if you're not ready, okay? We can slow down, if you need more time."

He shook his head, and placed another kiss in her hair.

"God knows how long you waited for me…" he added, wistfully. "I can wait for you…"

A long pause followed as he gazed up at the lights, until she let out such a big sigh that it heaved both their chests.

With a sniff, she pushed herself up to sit in his lap, and said nothing for a spell. The lights of the shrine caught her damp eyes as she shook her head at the ceiling.

"You are…" her voice wavered with emotion, "such an adorable, sweet-hearted fucking gentleman… And if it isn't obvious why I've been so goddamn in love with you since we were kids? Then there's just no helping you, 'cuz there's no cure for stupid."

Helga looked back down at him with a shrug of watery disbelief, before leaning forward to cradle his face. As the curtain of her hair fell around him with that soft fragrance of hers, she kissed his forehead with such a slow, deliberate tenderness that his eyes fluttered shut in a swoon.

And just… oozed, with his own love for her, with how thankful he was—that they'd worked through so much…

The heady knowledge that she actually loved him back…

"Now… that said…" she trailed off with intent.

His breath hitched as she began moving again, slowly, thighs clenching around his hips as she curled her hand around the nape of his neck and slanted her lips over his.

And made him acutely aware of that slick heat of hers again as she resumed sliding herself up and down his length, leaving him steaming and lightheaded as blood rushed to fill his cock.

Arnold swore, huffing her name against her mouth.

He gripped a handful of her hip as she writhed and brought her with him as he lifted his back off the floor, bracing his other hand behind him.

Pressed his flushed face to the dreamy softness of her breasts with a throaty groan, full and warm against his cheeks. Heard her hiss when he sucked a path across the swell of one to suck the soft puff of a nipple to a stiff peak. Felt the way she tightened over him when he circled his tongue around it, breathing hard.

Moved to the other breast, breaking out in a sweat as she slid her clit over his whole length with a shaken moan.

"...I've wanted you to jump my goddamn bones for years, so… trust me," she panted, voice lowering. "I am done fucking waiting."

Arnold couldn't help his moan when she pushed him back on the floor. Panting fast as she straddled his hips, his eyes widened, salivating at how slicked she was. How it glistened in the light and clung in explicit strands between her thighs, how more dangled and dripped from her lips. He nearly burst when he saw—felt—her wetness dripping onto his dick…

Oh God, if we don't do it now I'm gonna fucking die—

Helga leaned forward, breath fanning his face as she tenderly touched his cheek, slid her fingers into his hair… then tore a gasp from him as she fisted his cowlicks. Made him look at her in her powerful eyes, forehead to forehead.

"Arnold…" she gushed his name with such shaken emotion, it made his heart sputter, "I need you…"

He trembled, then gasped as she sucked a bite from his swollen lip, and when she looked him in the eyes again her expression was dark and molten.

"...I need you to fuck me."

His eyes burned.

If there was a way for blood to boil in his veins, it did now.

His whole body ignited so damn hot it fired electric tingles all over his skin, leaving him shivering hard enough to nearly clatter his teeth. Arnold's fingers itched as they seized the flesh of her hip, her asscheek, holding her in place as he clenched his weeping, reddened cock with a shaken fist and pressed the head of it to her clit, her lips

She jolted and gasped in his hold and fuck, this was harder than it looked, he could hardly think past the pounding in his ears and he wanted her fucking so bad he wasn't even nervous, but he couldn't breathe enough and he couldn't think either. Why wasn't it going in, how was he supposed to—?

"Oh," came her breathy complaint, "for crying out…!"

Helga smacked his hand away without patience. He hissed as her fingers gripped around him instead, twitching as she guided him back. Then his breath caught with anticipation, from the pressure of that wet warmth

And watched, jaw dropping with a raw moan as she slowly engulfed his cock.

"God, Helga… Fuck!"

She moaned back, pitch deepening to a grunt as she took him to the hilt. Helga braced a hand on her belly as her head fell forward and just sat there, panting with low, rapturous gasps.

All they did was just stay like that for a bit and God, that was okay, honestly, because it was already so so hot and clenching wet and tight all around him—utterly, completely encased in the most perfect fucking hole he could be, inside of her.

Finally inside of her…!

When Helga finally did move she did so experimentally, still clutching her stomach and twitching her hips as she crawled up his torso, gingerly, until she finally sagged against his chest and panted.

Arnold trembled with restraint, to not involuntarily buck his hips at every new, sensitized shift inside of her while she adjusted. Restless passion raced through him as he gripped her back, her arms, her shoulders. Pressed fevered kisses at her temple, her cheek, wherever his lips could reach as her muscles fluttered around him, her whimpering high and tight in his ear.

"Are you okay, baby?" he huffed, worried.

Her reply came from the top of her throat, breathy and dreamily distant, as if to herself.

"Entwined at last… my beloved…"

"Yeah," he rasped back, a smile in his voice as he chuckled. "God," he kissed her cheek, panting. "Love you."

Helga lifted up from his shoulder and pressed their mouths together, tongue sliding across his as they kissed messily, with meaning and hardly enough breath. She cradled his jaw as she sucked his lip and writhed, making them gasp and whimper at that first back-and-forth movement between them…

But, fuck, when she went slower but lengthened the range of her thrusts…!

Being deep inside her was heaven enough, but when she slid nearly all the way up to his tip, the open air cooled his slicked cock before being swallowed up again by her molten heat, making him shudder all over.

And, when she tilted her jaw to kiss him harder, she came up on an angle that grounded the most sensitive part of him, the underside of his head and—fuck!

Helga muffled the pitiful whimpers he couldn't help as she kissed him back.

"How am I?" she panted between kisses. "Is it good?"

"Yes!" he gasped, trying not to come so soon. "God!"

"Fuck," she grunted sorely, pushing herself up to sit impaled in his lap, straightening her back as her face flushed.

Arnold sighed with relief, thankful the new position relieved him of that agonized pleasure so he could last longer.

"You're thicker than my toys..." she groaned.

Arnold bit his lip.

"...Is that okay?"

His mouth fell open when her hips started to roll, taking him with her.

Shit…

"Oh, yeah," she nodded, eyes rolling back as she grinded around him and rubbed her clit. "God, your cock feels so fucking good..."

Arnold's head fell back, breathing ragged from her words, from the way she moved! Fuck!

He groaned, trying his best to let her set the pace, to not accidentally hurt her, but Christ, feeling her moving while moving inside of her was just…! He couldn't help the sporadic twitch of his hips, the times he ground back harder than she did.

As much as he wanted to last, it took so much to not just… grab her, and—

She broke his thoughts with a high, urgent gasp. "Oh God do that again!"

He blinked. "Do…?"

A pleasured, frustrated rictus went across her face as Helga churned herself over his length, and whether she was either trying to find the right movement or the words, he—

"...Thrust?!" she threw out, their mouths both falling open as she bounced on his pelvis. "Fuck me!"

He puffed, teeth showing as his eyes darkened on her.

Arnold grabbed her, grip digging into her hips to force them still and just—

"Arrgh, fuck!" she cried, her whole body jolting with each thrust as he kept her in place, pistoning his cock in and out of her as he fucked her. "Yes!"

He kept the pace, gritting in a pleasured sneer. The look of helpless ecstasy on her face, her throaty groans and high, pitiful whimpers drove a fury in him as his hips pumped.

Disheveled and sweating like a furnace blasting his face, Arnold watched Helga with a ravenous awe. At the incredible, chaotic look of her getting fucked, so much more real and raw than any fantasy he could have ever had. A gorgeous utter mess in his hard gripthat jerked and shook from each impact, so overwhelmed she could hardly work her own hands as she uselessly clutched at whatever she could.

Clinging to one of his wrists like an anchor, she sought her clit again, calling his name a desperate, swooning cry that soared over the slapping sound of their bodies meeting, and

"God, Helga!"

Before he knew it he wasn't holding her hips in place to take his slamming cock but for dear life, locking up and spiraling to the point of no return. He wanted her to come first but fuckfuckFUCK

"I'm sorry! I can't—" Arnold's head threw back with an urgent gasp as he lost control. "I'm gonna come!"

Helga hissed back a fervent curse of approval, discarding his guilt with a stream of eager encouragement.

"God yes come for me my love, come for me, Arnold!"

Plunging as deep as he could, her hips trembled in the clench of his shaking grip. His mouth fell open, eyes clenching shut…

And erupted, his shouting cries tearing out his throat as he came.

Arnold's hips pumped, and pumped…

Then collapsed, dimly registering her startled gasp as he dropped them both to the floor in a panting mess.

Holy…

FUCK…

"God…God!" came her breathy moans; the fast, slick sounds of her fingers on her sex reaching his ears as she babbled to herself. "My love fucking came inside me…!"

He shuddered from the incredible, sheer reality of that before sagging completely, sweaty and boneless, into the plush of her shrine's area rug.

…God. The tiny electric shocks twitching through him, the heart pounding elation of what they'd just done left him spinning in the buzz of that swirling, adrenalized afterglow, and it was just…

Wow.

Arnold felt like he came so goddamn hard he'd fucked his brains out, too konked out to do more than rest his hand on her thigh with spent encouragement as she got herself off.

He finally began his slow come-down to Earth with a wince, biting through the sting of overstimulation as she came with him still inside her… But he didn't care. She was just, so…

Even with his limited capacity, she was everything right now.

He could scarcely feel the pressure of her walls with him softening back, but she was just so warm inside, and the last thing he wanted was to leave. Despite the brief moments of pain when she shifted around him, he felt, dizzyingly, like he belonged there.

Arnold smoothed his hands around her hips, squeezing them, murmuring adoration and praise as she wobbled from her orgasm. Caught her arms as she nearly toppled over and eased her down to lay on top of him. Ran his hands all over her back as they just breathed, chest to chest.

He held her close, cooing comforts into her ear as she buried her face in his shoulder and cried.

"S-sorry," she sniffed, shuddering. "Don't worry, I'm okay, it's just—"

"I know," he kissed her hair, again and again as she hiccuped. "I know, it's okay..."

Arnold rocked her gently, breathing that he loved her, over and over, as he let Helga weep against him as long as she needed.

As enormous as this was for him, it had to be absolutely insane for her…

When her shudders subsided Helga pushed herself up enough to wipe the wet stream of tears off her flushed face, and pressed her mouth to his.

His hands roved over her tenderly as she repeated his name in delirious ardor between the wet smack of each long, aching kiss.

With all the minute shifts of their passionate affection his breath picked up, feeling himself harden again. And, when he bent up a knee and adjusted, she gasped, feeling it too.

"Y—you're still in me?" she stared down at where they joined with bewilderment. "I couldn't even feel you!"

He scoffed, grinning at the pleasured spasm that shot across her face as he jerked up in a teasing thrust. She definitely could now.

"Wanna go again?"

She boggled at him; not with displeasure, but still.

"But, didn't you just—?"

"Oh," he smirked, glimmering his eyes at her. "I'm not done."

"But, I heard… don't guys need—isn't it painful?"

Arnold went quiet for a moment before giving a dry laugh.

"Hah. Painful."

Then leaned up, kissed her, and rolled her under him.

He flopped her back onto one of the scattered throw pillows, ignoring her startled gasp when he dragged her hips to his and pushed her legs up. Then paused, jerking his slicked cock as he stared at that deliciously messy fucking pussy of hers with a steamy huff. Fuck.

Helga, lip-bitten and wide-eyed with a kind of wary excitement when his darkened gaze lifted back to hers, nodded her eagerness.

And, slipping the head of his cock down from her clit to those creamy folds, felt the opening where that wet warmth of hers yielded, and she took him in with a pleasured grunt as he pushed himself back inside.

Bracing his weight on one hand as his shadow fell over her, a cry leapt from her throat when he grabbed her hip and yanked her back to the base of his cock.

Arnold's voice went husky and low as he thrusted another, longer cry out of her.

"Let me tell you about painful."

… … …

Author's Note: I know I know, I said last time that this would be the last chapter... sorry I lied! The word count was gonna push 11-12K-ish at this rate and I just can't dump a chap that large lol. The "climax" of the fic is a big one (no pun intended) I'm working on it and excited to get it out soon!

And as always, LOVE knowing what you guys think, your feedback seriously gives me the fuel I need to keep on going!