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": The big day had come; Arnold and Helga were getting married. The ceremony had been beautiful, bringing Helga to tears when Arnold read a poem to her, causing her to not even get to tell him her own vows. To no one's surprise, Arnold's family made sure to give a speech and properly mention as many embarrassing moments as they possibly could in the process. Even Bob, Miriam and Olga had done the same thing to Helga. As the toast neared its end, Aaron made everyone realize that they had forgotten one very special moment; The proposal.
Author's 1st note: I am SO sorry that this took so long! 'Let me be your hero' had my full attention, and that one's getting somewhat close to a finish as well, and so I actually forgot about this. How horrible am I?! Thank redhairdream for reviewing yesterday and making me finish writing this. Thank you!
Epilogue – Part 2: "A secret of the sky"
At the mentioning of the proposal, Arnold's heart almost stopped beating. Out of all of the embarrassing moments mentioned this night… out of all the humiliating, awkward, wanting-to-crawl-into-a-hole memories… this one was without a doubt the absolute worst. "No." he said very sternly, causing everyone's happy faces to disappear instantly. Only Helga kept smiling, being the rebel that she was. "Oh, get over it, football head!" she declared and nudged her elbow at his upper arm. "So it didn't go as planned. Big deal."
Arnold turned to give her a dark glare. "It was a disaster." He reminded her. She opened her mouth to speak against him, but she couldn't argue against that. "Well… sure, it could have gone better, but…" she said, doing her best to think of a way to get Arnold to lighten up a bit about this subject, but she hadn't manage to do so before. This time though, she had a secret weapon. She turned her eyes, making sure that the rest of her body stayed still, to look at Aaron. They got eye contact and within few seconds, Aaron nodded in understanding.
"Actually, I've never heard the story." Aaron lied in a clear, loud voice to make sure that everyone in the room would hear him. "What?!" they all exclaimed in absolute shock, as if it was the same as saying you had never seen 'Titanic', and in a way, to everyone knowing Arnold and Helga, it was like saying you had never seen that movie. "How can you not know the story about Arnold proposing to Helga?" Harold asked in something akin to horror.
As everyone kept reacting the same way, Aaron gave Helga a secret wink, which she smiled at. "Well! If Aaron doesn't know the story, then I guess we'll have to - - " she said proudly, sure that she was getting it her way as usual, until Arnold interfered. "Oh, no, I know what you two just did there; I've know you for years. I'm not falling for your tricks anymore! There's no way, not in a million years, I'm telling the story about the most horrible proposal in world history."
"It was not horrible." Helga argued with a small smile. "It was a disaster." Arnold insisted again as he turned to look at her. "It was not a disaster." She maintained and turned a little around in her chair to face him more. "Everything went wrong!" he claimed stubbornly. "Not everything." She answered with a small frown. "Oh, yeah? Prove it to me, Helga." He challenged. "Tell me what wasn't horrible about that night. Tell me which part was not a disaster. And please do tell me what did not go wrong!"
Helga then, very subtly but also without a doubt, moved closer to Arnold and flashed him her left hand, wiggling her ring finger. "I said yes… didn't I?" she questioned him and gave him one of her seductive smiles, knowing full well that he could not argue against that; especially not since her saying yes was kinda the purpose of proposing to begin with.
Indeed, Arnold simply blushed a little as he stared at the ring on Helga's finger, which today had replaced her engagement ring. He then turned his face away with a pout. After a few seconds, he snorted disapprovingly like a child having been denied his favorite treat. Helga gasped in mock surprise at his childishness and then slapped his shoulder playfully. "Arnold!" she scolded playfully, causing the boy to roll his eyes. "All right! All right!" he said in relinquishment. "So… perhaps the ending of that night wasn't horrible, a disaster and didn't go wrong… but you cannot say that you enjoyed every last bit of that night because then you're a liar."
Helga wished she could speak against Arnold, mostly because she was stubborn as well, but as the memories of that night went through her mind, she found it impossible to do so. "Well…" she muttered, hoping for someone to either cut in or at least give her a hint. Everyone knew the story; they had all been there, Aaron being the exception since he lived in New York. "See?" Arnold asked proudly. Helga sighed in relinquishment and nodded. "Fine. So, it was only the grand finale that was perfect, but come on… You have to admit that night's pretty memorable."
"Yeah, but not for good reasons." Arnold muttered with a frown. "Huh, really? I can' think of it without chuckling." Sid declared, chuckling. Everyone else laughed as well, which Arnold just huffed at. "Oh, come on, you big sap. So it wasn't the perfect proposal you were hoping for… but to me, even with all the bad memories" Helga made air quotes. "then with that perfect ending… I loved every single second of it."
Arnold looked a little surprised at Helga. Noticing how sincere her eyes were, and knowing her for so many years, he had learned to easily recognize her honest and fake-honest gaze, he couldn't help but smile. So the proposal had been less than perfect… less than good… all right, less than mediocre, but Helga was right; she had said yes and… now that he thought about it, it was kinda a funny memory by now.
About a year ago, Arnold Phillip Shortman was probably having the worst jitters he had ever had. He couldn't count how many times he had been about to call Helga and simply cancel everything; because if he had one fear worse than anything else, it would that her answer would be no. He was currently bouncing a little on his feet, as he looked himself over in the mirror again. He was wearing a red shirt beneath a dark blue, cowboy jacket. He had put on a pair of matching cowboy pants, but most importantly, the pockets in it were big enough to hide a certain box in it.
"I just can't stand still!" Arnold declared and began to bounce again. It's going to be all right. Why would Helga say no? We've been together for this long! Why would she say no? He asked himself with a smile, but then his face clouded over. Because my luck with girls have been the absolute worst and even with Helga, our dates haven't always been perfect. She says she doesn't care about perfect, but if there's one date I want to be perfect, it's this one! Oh, I have a bad feeling that everything that can go wrong will go - -
As if Arnold had already written his death sentence, a sudden bolt of lightning could be heard outside, causing the already jumpy boy to jump a few feet into the air and land on his butt on the bed. With a look of disbelief, he looked through the skylight and saw huge drops of water dropping onto the glass of his skylight. "No!" he exclaimed and stood up from the bed. "We're supposed to be at the cheese festival! That's outside! The weather report said nothing about rain! Hire some weather forecasters who knows what they're talking about!"
What do I do now? Arnold thought pensively and was about to pace from one side of the room to the other until he came up with a solution, when his phone rang and pulled him out of his train of thoughts. As he pulled it out from his other pocket, he managed to think the words 'it's probably Helga', before he did indeed see Helga's name on the display. Please don't cancel. He begged desperately and then answered.
"Hi, football head, did you hear that lightning?!" Helga asked in a somewhat excited voice. Arnold was a tad surprised at that, but decided to play along. "Yeah, how could I not?" he asked as he looked up through his skylight. "It's time like these where I'm nervous about standing beneath glass…"
"Oh, it'll be fine. I was just calling to make sure that we're still going out tonight, right?" Helga asked. "Of course! A little bit of rain has never stopped the two of us, right?" Arnold asked as a wave of nostalgia went through him. Both from back in preschool, fourth grade and a couple of times during high school and college even. "Exactly. I just wanted to make sure you wouldn't chicken out. I'll meet you at the festival, ok? Bye!" Helga answered and before he could say anything back, she hung up.
With a sigh, Arnold smiled at his phone before shoving it into his pocket again. At least Helga's still up for tonight… I probably should get going though, if I want to be on time. He thought as he walked out of his room and descended the stairs. "Whoa! What's the hurry, Shortman?" Phil asked, as he had to step back from Arnold running past him. "Tonight's the night, grandpa!" he replied with a big smile before grabbing a dark red scarf, Helga had managed to make for him during one of their anniversaries.
Arnold had been worried about Helga around that time really, since her hands were obviously getting worse and worse a day. She had admitted she had cut herself a few times and scratched herself on the knitting needle and snapped on in frustration at some point, only resulting in it going straight into the palm of her hand as she did so. He had made her promise never to sew or knit anything ever again, but had also worn the scarf ever since. She knew why he didn't want her to make things like that anymore and she had accepted it easily, since she had already promised herself never to do anything to ruin her hands again like that. She had made him blush, when she teased him about one of the reasons he might didn't want her to ruin her hands, was probably because he didn't want to feel a pair of rough hands on him when she touched him at night. Even at their age, this girl could make his heart pound like when he was just a boy.
"You're going to propose tonight?" Phil asked with a big smile and called for Gertie to join them in the hallway. "Yes. I just hope the rain won't ruin the mood." Arnold answered as he snuck the scarf around his neck, making one of its ends hang lazily in front of the right part of his chest. "Oh, I don't know, Shortman, the rain is going to be really heavy and you two are going to the cheese festival, am I right?" he asked. "Uh… y-yeah, but…" Arnold muttered, but then arched his back and spoke with resolution. "A bit of rain has never stopped us."
Gertie and Phil turned to smile at each other. "Good luck railing in that goddess of yours, Kimba!" Gertie said as she gestured with her hands as if she was seriously railing someone in. "Thanks, Bwana. I will see you later." Arnold answered with a big smile as he opened the door, letting the animals run inside to hide from the rain and then walked outside himself. A huge gush of wind almost slapped his face as he stepped outside, but he fought against it and made it to the Packard.
Arnold gasped as he shook his head and tried to get some of the rain out of it. Oh, never mind, Helga loves my hair when it's down like this anyway. He reminded himself as he noticed how his tuffs of hair were now hanging lazily to the middle part of his neck. With that in mind, he started the car, looked before he drove out and then was on his way. "Ok, this is a fine start. There's not a lot of traffic and Helga is waiting for me at the festival." He said enthusiastically. "Nothing can go wrong now!"
"I just had to say that sentence out loud, didn't I?" Arnold asked himself as he nodded mockingly. He was currently sitting in his seat, looking through the heavy drops of rain continuously hitting his windshield, and seeing a whole horde of cars in front of him. There had been an accident and now he, and the rest of the car drivers, were stuck in the road. This can't be happening… He thought before he banged his head onto the steering wheel, causing it to give a loud honk of the horn. He instantly pulled away and looked apologetically at the people looking questioningly at him. This can't be happening!
Once the commotion was finally over, Arnold was already an hour late. Helga had texted him a couple of times to ask where he was and he had told her about the situation. She told him she would wait for him, but once he got out of the Packard and looked at the spot where they would usually meet for the cheese festival, she wasn't there. "Oh, God. Where did she run off to?" he wondered as he looked up into the sky. It was still raining heavily so he figured that Helga would have found some shelter somewhere.
Arnold took his phone out of his pocket and was about to text Helga when a message popped up from her: I'm in Mighty Pete. It said as if she had read his mind. He sighed in relief, shoved his phone down his pocket and then ran in the direction of that old treehouse that had somehow managed to still be intact after all these years. Then again, the new generation of children were taking good care of it too and all the teenagers appreciated that. They didn't hang out in Mighty Pete as often as before, but the days they had spent there were precious memories to them all.
Arnold finally stopped when he reached the tree. He was unsure of whether just to call her or climb up there. Oh, well, it's been a long time since I've been up there. He thought with a grin and climbed up the ladder. When he popped his head up in the open hole in the floor of the treehouse, he saw that some new furniture had been placed or rather; the old ones had been replaced with new ones. "Huh. It looks brand new." He thought aloud. "Yeah, it's even better than the old one, right?" a female voice asked and Arnold noticed Helga sitting with her legs crisscrossed on the new sofa. He smiled as he hopped onto the floor and crawled over to her. "I am so sorry."
"You'd better!" Helga answered mockingly before pulling Arnold up on the couch next to her. "Criminy, you're wet." She observed before starting to brush the raindrops off his jacket. He couldn't help but smile in content as the thought that Helga would make a good wife crossed his mind. He tried to shake the thought off before he would pop the question of the blue. "Come on, let's go to the cheese festival." He said to get his mind off the thought of Helga's hand on him. "You wanna go back out there?!" she asked in incredulity. He looked at her in surprise. "Well… a little rain has never - - "
"A little, no, but, Arnold, this is a freaking storm by now. Did you notice who were at the festival? Let me tell you: no one." Helga told Arnold and his face fell. Damn. "Is there really no one out there?" he asked. "Not when I was there." She answered. "And, uh, how long ago is that?" he asked hopefully. She frowned at his stubbornness. "Uh, when you first texted me about the traffic accident." She answered and his face lid up. "That's a long time ago!" he declared and she rolled her eyes. "Come on, Helga, let's at least go and see if there's some people - - "
Before Arnold could jump off the couch, Helga grabbed ahold of his shoulder and pushed him back on the backrest. "Helga?" he asked in slight confusion before she straddled him, a position he usually would be very fond of. "There's no one down there, Arnold." Helga insisted as she caressed his nose with her own. "So how about we just stay up here?" she suggested and gave him that gaze that always made him shiver. He chuckled a little nervously before connecting his mouth to hers.
Helga whimpered in a delicious way when Arnold put his hand into her loose hair. He loved the sounds she made, but when she would practically mewl like that, usually all logic would be thrown out the window. He pulled her close by his arm on her lower back and she was quick to wrap her arms around his neck. As their tongues touched each other, she started to buck gently against him, something she had made a habit of ever since they started dating.
Arnold gasped into Helga's mouth before he started to plant kisses on her jaw. He traveled down her throat, made sure to suck a little on the spot in-between her collarbones, since he knew she loved that spot so much, and then kissed her just above the valley of her breasts. She was wearing a horizontally cut pink sweater, which was folded once just above her chest, leaving her shoulders bare except for the straps from her bra and he suddenly noticed that she was wearing a pair of brown shorts leaving only her stockings to cover her legs.
"You must have been freezing out there." Arnold observed with his mouth tickling her chest. Helga moaned in delight before busking a little roughly against him once. "That's your fault, you know…" She answered before he kissed her mouth again. She gave him a short, but heated kiss back and finished it with licking his lower lip. "So warm me up." She whispered seductively and somehow those words snapped Arnold out of it. Before she could attack his neck, he grabbed ahold of her shoulders and pushed her firmly back.
Helga blinked in shock. Arnold never resisted her when she came onto him and she felt so hurt that it was shown on her face. "I-I'm sorry, Helga, don't misunderstand. It's not that I don't want you…" He said before kissing her nose, the safest place for him to kiss right then. "I do. Trust me." He finished and leaned back again. "You've got a funny way of showing it, Shortman." She observed, but the hurt from her face was gone and was replaced by slight anger and mostly confusion. "What's holding you up?"
"The… The cheese festival."
"The what?"
"The cheese festival. Th-That's only once a year, right?"
"Well, yeah - - "
"So we should go there while it's still going, right?"
"… You'd honestly rather walk around at a cheese festival while the rain is pouring than have sex with me?" Helga asked with an eyebrow quirked. I know that I sound insane. Arnold thought with an inward sigh. "It's not like that, but… you really want to do that here? Look at the roof." He said and pointed upwards. She did as told and noticed how it seemed that the tree got moldy from the rain. She frowned and jumped off Arnold's lap. "You got a point, Football Head. Let's get outta of here." She said before crawling over to the ladder.
A second after Arnold had sighed in relief, he gasped in shock when Helga jumped out of the treehouse. "Helga!" he bellowed and crawled over to the hole to look down only to see her grinning up at him. "Why must you always do that whenever a ladder is nearby?" he asked. "Come on. Try it!" she challenged, but he frowned as he looked at the unsteady ladder beneath him. When he looked at her though, she was biting her lower lip and shaking her shoulders teasingly. "I'll catch ya if you fall."
Arnold sighed in surrender and smiled as he stuck his feet out of the whole. "Aren't our roles reversed?" he wondered aloud before grabbing the ladder. "Aren't they always?" Helga retorted and chuckled. Arnold rolled his eyes before taking a deep breath and then letting go of the ladder with his feet, making his hands travel down the sides of the ladder. When he hit the ground, he was sure that he would fall and make his outfit all muddy, but then he felt a pair of arms around his waist. He turned his head only to see Helga standing right behind him and holding him tightly. "Told ya I'd get ya."
Arnold snickered and turned around in Helga's arms. "Yes, you did." He said as if he was complimenting a cat for doing what it was told to for once. She snorted at his remark, grabbed his hand and then went towards the cheese festival. "Huh. Seems like people have shown up by now." She observed. "See?" he said proudly and pulled her towards the first of the stands. "Let's go have fun!"
"We're not having fun." Helga declared as her shoulders shook from the bitter cold and the obviously never-ending rain. Arnold had no choice but to nod in agreement, as they continued to walk through the festival. The last couple of hours had been filled with more or less horrible memories. Arnold had attempted to shove as much fun in as little time as possible to make the mood better, but all attempts had failed miserable.
At first, Arnold had tried to win Helga some prizes at the stands and not only didn't he win once, at the last one the ball flew right back and hit Helga on her forehead. He had almost beaned her once again in their lives, but it had only turned out to be a small headache. At that point, Helga had been ready to go home, but Arnold had insisted they'd at least go and eat first. He hoped the mood would go better by then and it did for a moment until they both started to throw up. Apparently that smelly French cheese had been smelly because it had molded and not just because it was French. By then, Helga's mood had been so down in the dumps that when they bumped into Phoebe and Gerald, she had hissed at them.
"Arnold… I'm tired, my head hurts, my stomach feels like it's in an outbreak and I feel like vomiting all the time. I'm begging you, let's just go to the boarding house, take a shower and go to bed and watch movies or something." Helga suggested as she stopped walking. Arnold ran a hand through his hair and as the raindrops feel from the tuffs, he felt his hope go down with them. "Yeah…" he started and sighed heavily in disappointment of never getting to propose to her this night. "Maybe you're right. Maybe we should just - - "
Then Arnold noticed a big woodened floor next to them where a bunch of people were clumsily dancing to some music. "Wait!" he said since Helga had already started to go back. "Let's at least dance first, ok? That's something new." He insisted excitedly. She looked at the dance floor with disgust. "Look at them, Arnold, they can barely keep on their feet!" she growled. "But dancing has always been fun for us. Come on, let's… at least end this festival on a somewhat happy note." He insisted hopefully. She scowled at him, but his begging eyes made her go and take his hand. "If I fall and break my leg you're carrying me home!"
Arnold nodded eagerly and started to pull Helga towards the dance floor. This is perfect. Helga and I always dance whenever we get the chance. This will definitely lift her spirits and then I can propose! He thought happily and then stopped on the floor, only to start gliding a little since it was so slippery. Helga quickly caught ahold of him and then scowled warningly when he turned to look at her. "You sure you wanna do this?" she asked with a tone indicating that she really hoped he would say no. "Yeah, of course! We'll just… slow dance." He told her before taking her hand in his. She sighed a little before she put her free hand on his shoulder and moved as carefully as possible to the slow beat.
After about a minute, Helga finally smiled again. "Ok, Football Head, gotta give it to you… Maybe dancing at least once before we go home wasn't such a bad idea." She admitted and Arnold smiled in relief. "Actually, Helga… there is one more thing I'd like to ask you before we go home." He said and she rolled her eyes. "God, what now? You're not gonna attempt at winning me something again, are you?" she asked and he snickered. "Not in this life. No… No, I…" he started and then started to take his hand towards his pocket. "I want to ask you - - "
At that moment, a dancing couple was gliding towards Arnold and Helga and bumped right into them. They both shrieked in shock as Arnold fall on top of Helga, scraping his knee when he did so. "Oh, Helga, Arnold, we're so sorry!" Phoebe exclaimed when she saw who it was she and Gerald had bumped into. "We couldn't stand still because the floor is wet and - - " she continued, but Helga didn't care for their excuses. "Arnold, are you ok?" she asked as they sat up. "I-I think - - ow!" he exclaimed when he felt a stinging pain in his knee. Helga leaned to the side to look at his knee and her eyes widened. "You're bleeding!"
"Oh, man, Arnold, are you ok?" Gerald asked, but Arnold felt horrible and not because of the knee. "That's it. We're going home. Gerald, help me get him standing up." Helga said and snuck her arm around Arnold's back and took ahold of his hand so she could place his arm over her shoulders. "Got it." Gerald said and did the same thing. "Please, guys, I-I'm fine." Arnold insisted, but as they hoisted him up, his face cringed in pain. "The hell you are!" Helga bellowed in frustration as she and Gerald started to walk towards the small step down to the ground.
"No!" Arnold exclaimed when his patience finally snapped. Before they could take him down the step, Arnold snuck out of their hold and took Helga's shoulders in his hands. "I'm sorry!" he started and she just gawked at him in surprise, just like everyone else around them were. "I'm sorry that I ruined this evening." He continued. "Arnold, you didn't ruin anything. The rain did. Come on, let's just - - " Helga said and was about to take his hand again, but then he continued talking. "I hate the rain! I've always loved it, but now I hate it for ruining this for us!"
"Arnold, you're taking this a little too seriously." Helga said, but Arnold just shook his head violently before he looked down on the floor. "This should be taken seriously! I wanted this night to be perfect! Our dates always go wrong one way or another, but this one really takes the cake and this is the one I wanted to be perfect the most! I've been trying to find the perfect moment all night to propose to you, but everything just went wrong!" he yelled loudly, but didn't even notice his own words.
Helga's face fell slack with shock. "You…" she started in such a low voice that she couldn't even hear it herself nor did Arnold. "I really am a jinx. Everything I attempt goes wrong and I ended up leaving you out in the rain, giving you a concussion and now we're both all muddy and my knee hurts like hell, but it hurts more to know that I've ruined your night again." he said before he sniffed and removed his hands from her shoulders. "I'm sorry… Can we go home and just… forget about all this?"
Helga continued to gawk at Arnold as his words kept repeating themselves in her head. "The hell we can…" She muttered and he looked at her in shock. Something in her eyes made him scared. She couldn't possible… This couldn't be the end, right? This couldn't be the end of their relationship, could it? She was looking at him as if she had just realized something, as if she had just realized that their relationship indeed had been so rocky ever since the beginning.
"Helga, I - - "
"What did you just say?"
"Huh?"
"… What have you been trying to do all night?" Helga asked without her slanted expression changing. At first, Arnold didn't know what she was talking about. Then he realized what he must have said earlier and his hands went to his mouth. "N-Nothing!" he insisted. No! This is not how I intended to propose! What a horrible moment to do it! He thought in panic. "You did! You told me that all night you had been trying to - - " she started, but then he just shook his head again. "Forget I said anything! Forget this whole night!" he begged and turned around to run away in horror. Before he could, he felt Helga grab his hand and swing him around, much too elegantly for what should have been humanly possible with this wet floor beneath them. She then grabbed his neck and pulled him into such a deep kiss that it almost put their FTI kiss to shame.
People around them were just ogling them in shock. Some of them knew Arnold and Helga, while others were just curious to how this supposed proposal would turn out. The whole gang was actually there and Phoebe and Gerald were the closest ones to them even though they had stepped back from them once Helga had started kissing Arnold. Phoebe was grinning widely, knowing full well what Helga's answer would be and Gerald was smiling proudly, knowing full well that Arnold probably wouldn't have had the guts to propose if he hadn't been pushing him for months.
When Helga finally let go of Arnold's mouth, he was looking like a boy that had just gotten his first kiss. His eyes were half-lidded as he gazed at the girl before him. "Yes." She said firmly without smiling. It took him a couple of seconds before he realized what she was talking about. "Yes?" he questioned with big eyes. "Doi! You thought I'd say no to marry you?" she asked in disbelief. "But…" he started in hopelessness. "But this night - - "
"Turned out to be perfect because you proposed! Arnold, you proposed to me!" Helga exclaimed and finally started to smile broadly. He gave an unsure smile. "You really want to marry me?" he asked and she sighed happily at his words. "Yes. Yes! A thousand times yes!" she screamed before wrapping her arms around his neck and making him fall onto the floor. He could feel the slight sting of his knee run up his leg, but Helga's mouth on his made the pain so dull that he barely noticed.
Somewhere in the dining hall, Aaron's laugh could be heard echoing. Arnold was blushing at his cousin's loud laughter, but Helga's hand nuzzling his hair soothed him quite a bit. "Oh, man, what a story! I'm glad I didn't make Helga tell me before the wedding!" he said as he wiped a tear away from his eye. Arnold rolled his eyes in embarrassment, but Helga kissed his temple to make him feel better. "Hey, can we sneak outside on the balcony for a moment?" she whispered with a naughty smile. He cocked an eyebrow at her. "Now?"
"No!" Helga answered with a giggle and poked Arnold mockingly on his chest. "But I like the way you've started to think, Football Head. No, I just want to tell you something while we're alone." She explained and stood up from her chair. Arnold looked around at his guests, but they all seemed to be engaged in their own conversations and so he and Helga snuck off without any problems. Once they were outside, Arnold couldn't help but gaze lovingly at Helga as she leaned against the white marble railing with the dark blue sky behind her. "God, you're beautiful." He uttered without a second thought and she smiled girlishly. "And you're so handsome." She said as she reached out for him. He took her hands in his before he kissed her softly on those pink lips of hers.
"What did you want to tell me?" Arnold asked curiously. Helga smiled a little nervously. "My wedding vows…" she answered and he looked a little surprised. "Since I didn't really get to tell you mine at the actual ceremony." She explained and shrugged casually, but he could see how nervous she was. He put his hand on her cheek and caressed it lovingly. "Am I going to cry like you did?" he asked. "How do I know?" she asked casually, but it was obvious that she was hoping for him to cry just like the sadist she was. "Ok, bring it on." He said and took a deep breath. She took a deep breath as well and turned to gaze at the sky rather than him.
"The night is black and yet it is blue
At the gate of yearning, dreams are dancing on their toes
The hope and the dream are always playing tag
In the endless starry night
The moon turns red long before the dawn
In the glow, my thoughts are given shape
The hope and the dream are always playing tag
In the endless starry night
You are the sun of the spring when it snows
You are the star in my eyes and on the sky
The world lies open
Everything is made for you and me
My love for you is a secret of the sky
Because you are all I can see in the starry night."
When Helga was finished, she took a deep breath before she turned to look at Arnold. She had to hold in a loud chuckle when she saw the tears prickling his eyes. "Need a tissue?" she asked, but he just put his palms against his eyes to rub the tears away before they could fall. "You're mean…" he muttered. "You only just found out?" she asked sarcastically and hopped onto the railing. He sniffed once before he smiled at her. "Was this your way of telling me that Paris isn't enough for our honeymoon?"
"Yep, I want to see every part of the world… with you." Helga answered and put her hands on Arnold's neck. He smiled goofily at her. "Because the world lies open?" he asked and snuck his arms around her waist. "So join me in a world where your gaze, my love and our dreams goes on and on." She answered before placing her lips against his in a loving that kiss that truly felt like it would go on and on in world where their love was a secret of the sky.
The end
Author's 2nd note: And that finally concludes, ends and finishes 'Blackmail toy'! It's been a long journey, and even longer since it took me so long to finish the second part of the epilogue, but it is officially finished. Let the tears begin! Naw, just kidding, but it does kinda feel like I'm saying goodbye and sending my baby off into the world on its own xD
If you want to see Helga's wedding gown or even her engagement ring, then please do go to my deviantArt profile and ask for the pictures. Speaking of pictures… if someone would please, please, PLEASE draw Helga and Arnold in their wedding outfits while they are out on the balcony – preferably during the kiss with Helga up on the railing – then I'd love you forever! :D