The next morning rolled around without too much incident, the sun leering through the blinds she had left open last night, bouncing off of his dredlocks, difusing on her face with a shimmering gold gleam. Trent was back in his crib so they could finally get some sleep; hours spent just holding him in his arms as the wasted time faded away, and Scout was still sound asleep, peaceful as she dreamt. Smiling at the woman in his arms, he wished that he could spend every day waking up in this same way - content and without the lingering demons that chased him.

And what was stopping him? While she could never stop being Ofdensen's daughter - as if that stopped him - she was an adult now, so why fear being discovered together? They were consenting adults, and he genuinely did love her... Kissing her temple as he pulled her closer into his arms, Pickles came to a conclusion. A conclusion he hoped she would agree to...

Maybe it was the kiss or maybe she was just waking up on her own, but whatever the cause, Scout opened her eyes, blinking at first to make sure that it wasn't all just some fantastic dream, "Morning."

She grinned at him, and he was brought back to the first time he had ever seen her smile at him, "Scout, I was thinkin'..." He trailed off for a moment, grabbing her waist and forcing her body so that she was lying on top of him, as opposed to by his side, "About us."

Her heart sank for a moment, dropping slower than a valuable necklace deliberately dropped into the ocean by a dying woman, "...Oh?"

Moving his arms up her back, the drummer drew spirals up and down the bare skin, "I want ya back. I want ta help ya raise Trent. I want ta wake up in tha mornin', knowin' that you'll be there. I want ta hold ya after we make love. I want ta fall asleep and wake up ta your face. I want ya ta be mine."

"You didn't have to scare me half to death to tell me that," She beamed in relief, kissing his face, ignoring the whiskers that poked her, a marginal part of herself missing them, "and I think you already know what my answer to all that is."

Enjoying the way she was working her tongue and attacking him, not regretting for an instant the decision to put her on top, he still had something important to tell her before giving in to one of her morning quickies, "Scout, I'm tryin' ta ask ya something important here..." He grabbed her by the wrists, slowing her down just a little, because it was impossible to stop a hurricane, "I need ta know that we're back together."

Confused, she looked at him sideways, "What are you talking about? I never left you, and I thought that last night..." Her face fell, "Was I wrong?"

No, she was right for thinking that they were back together, he just didn't want her to get the wrong idea about this, "I want ya ta to come with me to that dildo award that Ofdensen's making us do."

"But I was going to be there anyways... Pickles, what are you trying to say to me?" Despite the sleep that she did get last night and that morning, she was running on months of fumes and an hour of liquid crack, so her mind wasn't as sharp as it normally would have been.

He wondered if she just wasn't trying to be difficult and make him pay in subtle ways, "I want ya there with me," He tried to stress the importance of the word once more, "As my date."

As his date...? But that would mean that...

Jumping, she wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed so tight he was seeing little stars in his green eyes, framing her lovely face, "You want to tell them about us? My father, and Nathan, and Toki, and..." Her stomach did a flip and promptly dropped, "Skwisgaar!"

He didn't like it, but that was the response he had more or less expected from her, "Any chance we could jus' tell 'em all at the same time?"

"I owe him better than that." She said that, but she was afraid of what he might do when she told him that she was back with Pickles - he wasn't going to be very happy about it, that much was for sure... But if he did care about her at all, then shouldn't he at least pretend to be a little happy? That was asking for way too much.

- Metalocalypse -

Standing outside of the lead guitarist's room Pickles and Scout found it rather difficult to keep themselves from touching the other one; not only were they living on Cloud Nine with an extended visa, but they - especially the young lady - were very nervous about they were about to do. Skwisgaar had been so good to her, and he was a lot like a brother or something (but not an actual brother, like that dickhead Seth) to him, so it wasn't easy to have to face him with the news. But on the bright side, once this was out of the way, they would be in the clear to tell the rest of the world... Great... If it was this hard to tell one guy, how fucking hard was it going to be to tell the rest of Dethklok, and even worse, their families? Ofdensen might actually have him killed... Was it too late to change his mind about this entire thing?

So five seconds from bailing on this whole thing - what did he even need to be there for anyways?! - Scout looked over at the drummer and smiled at him, taking his hand for reassurance. She was just as as frightened, if not more so, but just looking into her eyes, he felt stronger suddenly, and even though she could see the fear shining in his eyes, she felt strength pouring from him the instant she grabbed for his hand. Maybe it was a harsh way to start this out, but they couldn't do this without the other, so it couldn't be helped...

Reaching out to knock on the Swede's door, it fell open before contact could be made, but it was not by magic that this was possible - opening the door at that very same moment was a gaggle of whores, ranging from age and weight. Were it not for the man at her side, Scout might have felt a little hurt at the discovery, as if she had so much room for indignation. Pickles didn't even really need to try that hard to keep his eyes off of the fleeing harlots.

"Um, is now a bad time?" Scout said more to be polite than to reschedule this, because this needed to end now, so that her future could begin, "I..." She looked at Pickles, "We really need to talk-"

"Nej, jag pratar, du lyssnar. Jag vet att ni två är tillsammans igen. Jag hörde dig i natt (No. I talk, you listen. I know that you two are back together. I heard you last night,)," He cut her off, taking both of his visitors by surprise. Well, maybe not as much as the furry speedo discarded amongst the leftover clothes, but still, it was enough to make her mouth fall, "Jag följde dig tillbaka till ditt rum i går kväll, men du var redan med Pickles. Att döma av den hand som håller, skulle jag säga att ni två är tillsammans igen, ja (I followed you back to your room last night, but you were already with Pickles. Judging from the hand holding, I would say that you two are back together, yes?)?"

Scout, the only one between the two of them that could carry on a conversation in Swedish, answered, looking down at her hand, still tight in her lover's, "Ja. Det är vad jag ville säga er, att vi fick ihop igår kväll. Jag hade ett tal framställd i mitt huvud (Yes. That's what I wanted to tell you, that we got back together last night. I had a speech prepared in my head) -"

He shook his head, holding up a hand to silence her wasted gesture, "Jag behöver inte höra det. Vi visste att gå in att detta aldrig kommer att gå någonstans, så försök inte. Du har din själsfrände, och jag har min armé av älskare. Det gör ont att aldrig veta vad du kunde ha erbjudit, men jag tvivlar på att du inte skulle vilja dela med dig. Pickles vill inte dela med dig, och jag klandrar honom inte (I don't need to hear it. We knew going in that this was never going to go anywhere, so don't bother. You have your soul mate, and I have my army of lovers. It hurts to never know what you could have offered, but I doubt that you wouldn't want to share yourself. Pickles would not want to share you, and I don't blame him. )."

He wasn't wrong about that, but she still felt terrible, "Du får det att låta så enkelt. Är du säker på att det är inte något jag kunde göra för dig (You make it sound so easy. Are you sure there isn't anything I could do for you?) ?"

He shook his golden head, because there was nothing she was willing to give him that he wanted, "Bara glömma mig, och vara nöjd med din själsfrände (Just forget me, and be happy with your soul mate.)."

Scout figured as much, but she still had to try. Smiling sadly at her friend, she turned back to look at Pickles, "Let's go. Trent's probably awake by now..."

Pickles looked at her in confusion, because he had already woken up and was working his way through his fourth diaper that morning. But, he said nothing and followed her out of the door, confused by more than just the foreign exchange...

Skwisgaar watched them go, and he looked at the glow radiating from Scout just because she had Pickles back in her life, like one of his mother's potted flowers coming to life after watering it for the first time in a week or two, "Om jag bara kunde hitta något liknande vad ni båda har... (If only I could find something like what the both of you have...)".

Disclaimers:

I do not own Metalocalypse.

I do own Scout, her mother Ravenia, and her son, Trent.

I do not condone the actions that may or may not take place throughout the course of this story, including but not limited to language, sexual content, drug use, and any illegal activities involving minors.

Swedish provided by Google Translate.

REVIEWS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME!

Author's Note: Originally I wanted to start this chapter with Skwisgaar, but obviously that did not happen. But what did happen is me warning the three people reading this that the end is looming close... Maybe it was too easy for them to end it that way, but like I said, the end is close at hand...