Arnold Shortman x Orphan! reader (Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie)

Friendship/Feelings

(Y/n)'s p.o.v

Arnold stepped out of my reach as he looks back at Eduardo "with you to protect us, we can keep going" my eyes widen at this. I could feel my eyes getting glossy at this "Arnold... you promised, and you never break a promise." Eduardo waves me off as he looks at Arnold and holds one of his hands in-between both of his. "Now, don't tell the others what we spoke about, I don't want to worry anyone" Eduardo says calmly. Then he looks up at me "you won't tell anyone either, right??" I look at him, then I look back at Arnold.

The look in both of their eyes.... I just can't go against Arnold, but I know I can't be with him on this one either "do what you want, Arnold. I know how much you want to see your parents, but I didn't think you'd go this low to find them." I start walking out to go and think about this, but I went back up to the lookout to clear my head. "(Y/n)! Wait!!" Arnold yells out, probably trying to look for me, but didn't think to look up here. I sigh as I just put my head in my hands, not wanting to face him as I think on the actions he's doing.

-time skip to when it starts to get dark-

"Anything wrong, Arnold?" Gerald asks out, I wipe away my tears and look back at Arnold and Gerald, they're at the front of the boat. I was looking back at the back to see how far Arnold was gonna take this broken promise. Yet now I'm eavesdropping since there's nothing left in my head to distract myself so I won't. "Oh-uh.. nothing!" Arnold stuttered out as he continued to look down at the water "everything's fine." 'He's sad because he knows he's breaking his promise just to find his own parents' I think to myself.

Turning away I still hear Gerald trying to talk to Arnold "come on, man! There's no secrets with us, right? And now you've got a secret with a guy you just met?" He asks Arnold. 'Yeah, it's stupid' I think to myself as more tears fall down from my eyes "fine" Gerald says annoyed. I blink and look over my shoulder, Arnold reached his hand out for a second, but he stopped and looks up. My eyes widen as I just turn my back again, hoping he doesn't know it's me, but after a second I hear someone climbing up. A low sigh left from my mouth as Arnold sits down next to me "(Y/n)-" "don't try to explain yourself."

I stand up to leave, but he grabs my shoulder "(Y/n), you know how important this is to me-" "and you also know how important our safety is. Yet you're out here, risking our entire class for this one adventure, and your own friendships too. Especially Gerald's... and ours" I interrupt him and look back down "I always thought nothing would get me mad at you. Which is why I tell you everything... but this one lie is making me regret telling you my thoughts back on the plane." Arnold flinched at that as I sigh again and feel the tears going down my face, but there was one last thing I wanted to say.

"Everything you do... every single little detail I know about you, made me love you more, and not as a friend.. I really do love you. Yet you're doing this just for something about your parents" I say and finally start climbing down. Helga is walking-... stomping her way to over here, so I look down as I try to walk past her. Yet she pushed me aside, and I fell down, but I just keep my head down, it didn't sound like Helga was moving. I look up to see her looking at me shocked "geez, what's got you bawling??" Helga finally asks, getting back to herself.

Instead of telling the truth I just say "i-it's nothing..." Helga sits down next to me saying "yeah right, the last time you cried was when I told ya off. Ya know, when we stopped being friends" I blink a few times and look at her, she's looking to the side. "Wait, how'd you know I was crying?? You stomped away before-" "I looked back, about to apologize. But that's when I seen Arnold and Gerald get to you before I could, and... I just got more mad." I sigh and laugh a little saying "dang, it's crazy how we drifted apart over a crush!" Helga nods.

"I know right!!.... I... m-..m-..m-..miss!.. you" Helga eventually got out, so I look at her shocked, she's not looking me in the eyes. She's not even looking at me, so I say "you also seem like you got something else on your mind." "I don't know what you're talking about" Helga says quickly and crossed her arms, so I remember what she was doing. Looking back up I see Arnold up there, I sigh and say "go to him" she looks at me shocked with a blush. "(Y-Y/n) I-" "it's fine, he probably likes you more than me, despite our friendship that grew for years."

Helga smiles softly and starts climbing up the ladder, then I just sigh and stand up, going to the front of the boat right now. After a few minutes of silence I couldn't cry anymore, but I heard Helga screaming in anger. I turn around and go to where I hear loud stomping, she's glaring at the picture she has of Arnold. She heard me coming as her eyes get glossy and she stomps my way and shoves the locket against my chest. That knocked a bit of wind out of me, but I look at her as she stomps away and see Brainy right here too.

I look at him confused, but I hand him the locket and he just runs off 'whaaaaat?-' Abner even watches as Arnold runs past us too. Abner looked like he was talking about something, but I look down at him, he furrows his eyebrows in determination. Before I could ask him what's wrong he jumped off the boat, my eyes widen as I look over the edge. "Abner!" I yell out and continue to search for him, but he's still swimming away from us. Instead of jumping in after him I go to tell Arnold the news... that his own pig decided to go overboard.

Tbc

Okay that's it my wonderful foodies~ Now I hope I can serve you another chapter again soon!

~ILoveFood