Adult-FanFiction.org : Cartoons

Dependents	By : DancingBear Category: +G through L > Hey, Arnold! Views: 6520 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Hey Arnold, nor any of the characters. I do not, and will not make any money from this story. (Original creator: Craig Bartlett)

Chapter List
- 1-Dependents
- 2-Lean
- 3-Steep
- 4-Long
- 5-Hold
- 6-Slouch
- 7-Arch
- 8-Turn
- 9-Fall
- 10-Drop
- 11-Gift
- 12-Balk
- 13-Spill
- 14-Pay
- 15-Scrap
- 16-Warm
- 17-Sink
- 18-Stoke
- 10
- 11
- 12
"MERRY CHRISTMAS!" Harold burped from where he lay spread-eagled on the floor, the top button of his pants undone, his hand around a beer bottle.
Helga nudged him with her toe as she stepped over him. "Keep it classy, Pink-Boy." She laughed, crossing the room to crawl up onto the bed between Arnold and Rhonda.
"What a day." She sighed, sleepily settling down onto the bed. It was late. After a long day of presents and junk food and attention, it had taken forever for Nina to settle down. They had gone to Miriam's for lunch, where Olga and her mother had showered Nina with candy and attention… only to come home and have her daughter stuffed with more candy and attention by her childhood friends.
She couldn't help but smile as she looked around the room. Not many people had turned up, preferring to spend Christmas with their families… but Phoebe, Gerald, Harold and Rhonda had all arrived earlier in the evening, bearing gifts and food and booze. So now they were all full, tired, drunk.
They were sprawled out in Arnold's old attic room. His books were still on the shelves, pictures on the wall. Helga had cracked the wardrobe door open earlier and wasn't surprised to see clothes still on the hangers. Wonder why he doesn't sleep up here anymore…Snow settled softly on the glass ceiling, the muted light was making them all sleepy…
"Nina asleep?" Arnold asked, leaning heavily into her arm.
"Like a log. She loves her inside tent." Helga grinned. Arnold had bought Nina a deep purple mosquito net for one of her Christmas presents, and Nina was ecstatically happy that she got to sleep in a tent every night. It was very sweet.
"I still can't believe you have a kid, Helga." Rhonda swooned backwards onto the bed, the drink in her hand sloshing dangerously close to the rim of her glass. A massive drunken smile spread across her face.
"Neither can I, some days." Helga grinned back, twisting to face her old classmate.
"Who would'a thunk it," Gerald crowed from where he was sprawled on Arnold's sofa, "that Helga G. Pataki would be the first of us to spawn." He took a gulp of his beer, sinking further into the sofa, pressing his thigh harder up against Phoebe's.
Helga smothered a smirk. Gerald hadn't wasted a single opportunity to flirt with Phoebe… too much more of his obvious attentions and Helga thought her friend might burst into flame, she was blushing so hard.
"To be honest, Helga, I always thought you were gay." Rhonda stated casually. Helga baulked, almost choking on her beer. She cringed when Arnold chuckled softly behind her. She tensed when he leaned forward and rested his chin on her shoulder, his cheek brushing her ear.
"Uh…" Helga stammered, taken aback. "Why?"
They all laughed. Helga tensed her thighs, trying to stem the fizzle of annoyance that instantly bristled through her. So I'm some kind of joke, awesome.
"C'mon Helga, you were always so… Get outta my way, coming through here. Move it or lose it, bucko… Move it, Football Head!"
"Hey!" Arnold laughed.
"Hey, that was really good, Rhonda!" Harold called from the floor, struggling up onto one elbow. "I didn't know you did such good impressions."
"I'll do you later." Rhonda grinned, before turning back to Helga, too drunk to notice her own innuendo. "And you never had a boyfriend or anything… I mean, no judgement, I just always thought you were in the closet."
"I had boyfriends in High school." Helga frowned, still prickling from feeling like she was the butt of a joke. "I just didn't feel the need to parade them around." The words were still coming out of her mouth when she started to regret them. She didn't want to tell them about Brainy, or Wolfgang, or Torvald…
Arnold chuckled again, she could feel it, a gentle rumbling where his throat pressed against her shoulder, where his chest was leaning against her back. For a micro-second, she was distracted from being embarrassed. He had been so cuddly today. She figured it was just the Christmas thing… but she couldn't deny she liked it, probably too much.
"Yeah? Anyone we know?" Rhonda – still a gossip - was obviously intrigued.
Helga stared for a second. She really didn't want to tell them about the guys she had dated, and, as stuffed and tipsy as she was, she didn't think to lie. Her eyes cast around the room, everyone was looking at her. Phoebe grimaced. Good old Phoebe… Phebes, of course, knew everything about her teenaged love life.
She swallowed, she could feel her cheeks growing pink. She wished she didn't feel so dumb and slow and drunk…
"Oh!" Phoebe exclaimed from across the room, drawing everyone's eyes from Helga's flushed cheeks. "I bumped into Lorenzo last week!"
There was a blip of silence, before Rhonda slurred "Lorenzo, the rich kid?"
Helga sagged with relief at the short attention span of the others. They gossiped about an old classmate, and she relaxed into Arnold. His face brushed her neck, her cheek… when he spoke she could feel his breath on her skin. He shifted to lean his cheek against her shoulder, and when she turned, she could smell his hair.
She leaned a little heavier into him, his arm slid forward a little more, pressing the width of his chest against the span of her back. She could have melted. He never got this close when they were alone… she knew it didn't mean anything… but it still started the blood thumping through her veins.
She tried to control her breathing, slowly inhaling and exhaling through her nose. Calm down, Pataki… She cast her eyes around the room, attempted to listen in on the conversation again.
Rhonda and Harold were making googly eyes at each other, Rhonda's dainty little toes reaching off the bed to rest on top of Harold's great square feet. Gerald and Phoebe were getting closer and closer to each other every time Helga glanced over, his arm was round her shoulders, her calf hooked around his.
She bit her lip. Phoebe looked ecstatic… lucky moo. She sighed, just before she caught Gerald smirking at her. She just stared as Gerald leaned over to whisper something in Phoebe's ear. They both looked over at where Arnold was curled around Helga, and laughed.
Helga bristled. She hated being laughed at… for that kind of thing. She knew she was being a big hypocrite and all of that – she laughed at people all the time – but she didn't care. She felt her shoulder's stiffen.
"I'm gonna go get a drink, anyone want anything?" She was reasonably pleased with how light her voice sounded.
"Beer!" "Wine!" "Water." "Food?" Requests flooded in. She stood, her shoulder feeling suddenly… naked… as Arnold lifted his head from her.
"OK." She said simply before treading out of the room and down the stairs. She had no idea how she would carry that much stuff back up to the room, but she'd sort something out…
She was leaning against the counter, sipping absent-mindedly at a beer while staring at the wall. "So… who were these mysterious high school boyfriends?" Helga jumped at Arnold's sudden, laughing voice.
"None of your business." She snapped. She was tired, and her head hurt…
Arnold frowned. "Hey, you OK?" He stepped forward into the room and leaned against the counter next to her.
No. No I'm not OK, Arnold. I'm lonely, and tired. I don't like being the butt of other people's jokes and I'm sick of feeling like some sort of charity case or strange social anomaly. I'm sick of your touchy-feely shit. Do you have any idea the kind of toll it takes on me? Having to carefully gauge everything I say to you? I always have to make sure not to get to close, not to let you know… and then you just decide you want to… cuddle me? It just gets too much sometimes. I love you Arnold…. It's pathetic, I know, but it's true. I love you and it makes me hate myself.
"Yeah, fine… just been a long day." She sighed. "Sorry for snapping."
He shook his head. "No… I'm sorry for prying." He sighed in reply. "I am curious…" he raised an eyebrow, "but I'm sorry for teasing."
She just shrugged. Too fuzzy headed to deal with sincere little chats.
He shifted, silent for a second, before mumbling. "I have something for you…"
Huh. "Yeah?" She turned to face him a little.
"Yeah." His face had turned pink. "It's… it's nothing much, but, uh…" He smiled a shy, crooked smile, his eyes meeting her gaze. Her stomach flipped. "I just don't want you to think I'm being inappropriate or anything…"
"Uh-huh…" Helga didn't know what to say. What the hell was going on? She just gawked as Arnold fished around in his pocket to pull out a little velvet bag.
"It's not, uh, wrapped or anything, sorry." He stammered as he pressed the bag into her hand.
She blinked at it. It was a jewellery bag. What on earth was going on? With thick fingers, she picked clumsily at the loose knot, before teasing the bag open and tipping it up.
A sliver of gold snaked into her waiting palm, landing with a soft clink.
"Oh… Arnold…" She breathed, her eyes darting to meet his before falling back to the delicate chain and pendant that lay pooled in her hand. "I… I can't take this. It's too much…"
He smiled, shifted closer. His hand came up and he touched his fingertips gently to hers. "It was Grandma's…" his voice was soft, "but it wasn't an heirloom or anything…"
Helga shook her head. "I can't…" her throat was stuck. Tears threatened to redden her eyes. She just stared.
"If you really don't want it, then that's OK… I won't be offended…" He smiled again, reached down to pick the chain up with his thumb and forefinger, let it dangle as he lifted it from her palm. "But all her stuff is just sitting there doing nothing… and I remembered how you had that heart locket when you were a kid… I just thought you might like it."
He held it up further, letting the light glint from the tiny heart-shaped charm that swung at the bottom of the chain. It was beautiful. She swallowed, completely unsure of what to do. It was a gift, she should just graciously accept it… except that giving someone a heart-shaped necklace meant something…
Did he not realise that?
He held it up to look at it, took the heart between his fingers and turned it over. He glanced up at her. "Do you like it?" She nodded. What else could she do? "Turn around?"
She couldn't quite tell if it was a statement or a question… but she did it. There was a little pause as he fumbled with the clasp, then his hands came down over her head, the chain suspended between them. "Lift your hair up." His voice was so soft, so close… she just obeyed, mindlessly, lost in the heady moment.
Her knuckles brushed his arms as she pulled her hair up from her neck. His fingers brushed her neck as he trailed the chain around her and clipped the clasp closed. He let the chain drop, smoothed it down against her skin, his touch made her shiver, sent tiny electric ripples across her.
His hands gently grasped her shoulders and turned her back around. His fingers stretched out to touch the pendent, but stopped just short, his face soft, but nervous. "It looks…" his eyes searched her face, his cheeks had flushed with colour, "it suits you…" he finished finally.
She reached up, touched where the unfamiliar weight bumped lightly, just below the hollow of her throat. "Thank you…" she breathed eventually, conscious he was waiting for some sort of reaction. "I… it's beautiful… I…." she smiled, shrugged. "I don't deserve this."
He just smiled… and before Helga knew what had happened, he had leaned forward to press a gentle kiss against her cheek. "Merry Christmas."
- 10
- 11
- 12
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Dependents