Some will die in hot pursuit
In fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain

-Pepper, by the Butthole Surfers

CHAPTER 2: KILLING TIME

The school was a big place, one that reminded Pickles of a prison. Then again, as he stepped into the building for the first time, he was quite sure that anywhere his parents could have sent him would be like a prison. Since his family hadn't flown to Norway with him, he was left to wander the halls aimlessly, searching for any kind of help. All around him there were signs in Norwegian, ones that hurt his brain to even look at. Finally he made it to the main office and got some help. The rules were simple, much like those of any other school.

No fighting, no cursing, no talking back to teachers, no bullying other kids, no sex, no kissing, no hugging, no touching. Three days out of the month there were times when family members or friends that weren't enrolled in the school could come down and visit for a few hours out of the day. There were a whole list of other, more specific rules that Pickles was provided with, but he didn't read them. He assumed naturally that he couldn't beat the shit out of anyone—though he would if he had to—and that he couldn't streak naked thru the campus; basic stuff that any kid his age should know. Other than that, he really didn't see any reason to pay attention to the rules. After that he was handed a schedule and told his room number. He was also told that he'd have a roommate, a boy who was, like himself, a troublemaker. Pickles just rolled his eyes at this, picked up his few bags, and let himself out of the office.

He walked all the way up flights and flights of stairs, got lost in the seemingly endless labyrinth of halls, and finally came to his room. He didn't even bother to knock before barging in, throwing his stuff down on the nearest bed, and going over to the window, where a half empty bottle of water was open. He drank from it then sat down, observing the room with something of disgust on his face. "Stupid, crappy-"

"Unnskyld meg?"

"Huh?" he glanced around the room and was surprised to see a kid staring at him with wide, pale blue eyes.

"Du sette din ting på min seng."

Pickles arched a brow and shrugged cluelessly. "Dunno what you mean, so either talk English or don't talk at all."

"Your stuff," the boy said, swallowing nervously. "it ams on my bed—my side of the room." he distractedly began playing with some of his long, caramel-colored hair. To the redhead he looked like Gunther, a total fag, and he didn't restrain himself from telling the kid this.

"Hey, listen, I'm sure 'dat you gat used to livin' up here by yourself, but I don't give a shit." he drank some more water and then tossed the empty bottle aside. The other teenager frowned.

"That was my water."

"Yeah, and you know what?" Pickles stood up, pushed the other boy back against the wall, and declared, "This is my room now, so if you don't like it, you can go sleep outside in all that damn snow!"
"I...I..." he seemed at a loss for words as Pickles backed away and went to lay down on the bed he'd claimed. "I'm ssorry, I didn't mean-"

"Shut up."

"O-Okays." he glanced around the room awkwardly before moving to the other bed, the one that Pickles had chosen to leave vacant. With little hesitation he moved all of his belongings from the redhead's side of the room over to the other side. Once that was done he sat down on the floor and cleared his throat. "I'm-"

"Gonna shut up." Pickles completed for him. "You're gonna shut up and let me go to sleep, or I'll kick your ass."

"But I-"

"I don't care, now leave me the fuck alone!" and he threw the covers on top of himself, switched off the lamp, and rolled over to face the wall. The other kid just sat across the room looking dreadfully confused.

"I was tryings to do work before you came in." he said. When Pickles ignored him, he got up and went to turn the lamp back on. The redhead's eyes snapped open and he punched the other boy hard in the stomach. To his surprise the kid wasn't as flimsy as he looked; beneath his too-big sweatshirt he actually seemed to have a fair bit of hard muscle. Pickles almost hurt his hand punching him, which only served to make him even angrier. Will a growl of rage he got out of bed, ripped the lamp off of the nightstand, and went over to the window. He glared at the other teenager.

" 'Dis your lamp?"

He nodded. "Ja, my mom sent it for-"

"Good." he threw it out the open window and listened to it crash onto the concrete below. Once that was done he hauled himself back to bed, kicked off his socks and shoes, and tried to go to sleep. The other boy wouldn't let him do so, though.

"That was my lamp. My mombought it and-"

"So what? Have her go buy you another one." he paused and grinned to himself before adding slyly, "Maybe next time you'll leave the damn light aff while I'm trying to sleep."

"Buts I-"

"Shut up!"

"Sorry." his pale eyes flickered down to the floor and he sighed. "Why ams you here, anyways? My dads sent me here 'cause-"

"Dude, look," Pickles turned and gave him a deadly look. "I just had a really long flight and now 'dat I'm stuck in this shithole I'd like to sleep, so if you don't shut your mouth I'll throw you outta that window. Gat it?"

"Ja," he responded dryly. "gots it."

"Good." he covered his face with the sheets and closed his eyes.

There was a long moment of silence before the other kid dared to whisper, "It ams nice to meet you, by the way. I'm Toki."

"Hmm." was the redhead's response. Another long period of time elapsed before he said angrily, "I'm Pickles."

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Later that day Pickles was reading over the schedule that he'd been given with a look of utter confusion on his face. He looked up at Toki, who was quietly reading some book called, The Cather in the Rye. "Hey, fuckface, what does 'dis paper mean?"

"Hmm?" he looked up, put some of his hair behind his ears, and frowned. "Whats?"

"This-" he waved the paper in the air. "-what does it mean?"

"Lets me see, please." Toki got up, put his book down, and gently took the schedule from the other teenager. As he was reading it over, Pickles couldn't help but to get a closer look at him. Toki was a nice looking kid, had probably had many girlfriends. His complexion was fair, almost too much so, but it just came short of sickly, deathly pale. His hair, on the other hand, was just the right shade of the lightest, caramel-colored brown. His eyes shined as he read over the words, and they glowed with a kind of childish tolerance that Pickles hadn't seen in his own eyes since he himself was very, very young. The redhead was aware that this tolerance and curiosity about the world had been taken away from him at an early age by his brother's lies and his parent's harsh punishments. "I ams your schedule." he said obviously, handing the paper back to Pickles. The redhead was angered by this simple response, but also taken aback by just how young the other boy sounded. He couldn't have been older than sixteen at least. How stupid were these people to let him room with a sixteen-year-old kid when he himself was nineteen?

He snatched it back and spat, "You fuckin' idiot, I know 'dat it's a schedule, I just don't know where to..." he searched for the right words and came up with, "Y'know, get started. When do I gotta go to these damn classes anyway?"

"You ams new here, so probably tomorrow. They'll lets you slide for the rest of the day." Toki responded, making his way back over to his bed. He laid down quietly and waited for another question to answer.

"Oh." Pickles' face contorted in thought as he put the schedule on his night stand. "Well why ain't you in class, then? Isn't that where everyone else is?"

"They kicks me out today." he explained, picking up his copy of The Cather in the Rye. Next to him he had an open notebook and a pen. After another moment of reading he picked up the pen and scribbled something down in the notebook. Pickles noticed this, but didn't care much. He still had questions that needed answering.

"Why'd they kick you out?"

Toki gave a shrug to this and mumbled almost shyly, "I don'ts know, they just don't like me over here—the teachers and stuff."

"Why nat?"

" 'Cause they just don'ts."

"Huh." he sat up in his bed and crossed his legs. After a moment of thought he asked his next question. "D'ya think that the teachers will like me?"

The boy smiled and didn't hesitate to shake his head. "No, I don'ts."

Pickles seemed almost invigorated by this thought. So, this place wouldn't be that much different from his home? He could handle that. He could—he gave out a gasp as he remembered the promise that he'd made to Gunther to call him. "Hey, you gat a cell phone?" he inquired, slipping out of bed. Toki shook his head.

"Nopes, sorry."

"Then where can I make a call?"

"There ams public phones downstairs. It only costs-"

"I ain't gat no money, dumbass!" Pickles interrupted. "I need to borrow a phone now. D'ya know if anyone would let me borrow theirs?"

Toki shook his head and continued reading. "Nope."

"Fuck!" he hurried out of the room and began opening up the doors of the other rooms and raiding them. In the third one he finally managed to get his hands on a cracked, old cell phone. He figured that it would have to do, and quickly he ran back to his room and shut the door. "Don't tell nobody about 'dat, or I'll kill you."

But the other boy wasn't listening. He was deep into his book. This angered Pickles, so he went over to where the notebook and pen lay, snatched them both up, and flung them out the window. Toki sighed and tried not to act too annoyed as he got up and put on his boots. "Thanks, nows I haves to go gets that."

Pickles turned to him, cracking his knuckles. "What, you think you can be a smartass now? I swear to Gad, I'll fuckin' kick you ass..."

"I'm sure you wills." he retorted, going out of the room and slamming the door behind him. The redhead had half a mind to follow him and beat him up a little, but he decided that it could wait.

Now he just went over to a corner and dialed in Gunther's number. It was a long-distance call, but he didn't care. It was someone else's phone, after all. In the time span of about five minutes he was talking and joking with Gunther again, and for a moment everything felt like it used to be. That was until Toki came sulking back into the room, kicked off his boots, and began reading again. In an obvious attempt to distract the Norwegian, Pickles began talking even louder.

"Who just came in?" Bekker asked enthusiastically.

He rolled his eyes and responded with an annoyed, "Just my stupid fuckin' roommate. He's a queer, I swear to Gad..."

"Queer? Is he cute?"

Pickles sneered in disgust at this question and yelled into the phone, "You Gad damn fag, don't ever ask me nothin' like that again or I'll rip your fuckin' throat out!"

"Whatever." Sorry.

There was a moment of silence before Pickles continued. "They told me today 'dat a few times a month other people could come down to the school and hang out for a few hours. You should come."

Gunther laughed madly. "Dude, we're talkin' about Norway, here! It isn't like you're down the street any more."

"What about that kid you're goin' out with, how's 'dat been goin'?"

"Good, I guess. If you really wanna know, last night we-"

"It's Duncan, right?" Pickles inquired. "Duncan parents-are-filthy-fuckin'-rich-Hansen? Get him to pay for a couple of plane tickets and just-"

"I can't ask him to do that! I swear, sometimes it's like you're an idiot." Bekker let out an almost sad sigh before saying, "Besides, we'd only be able to be down there for a few hours, then we'd have to fly back here—it'd never work."

"But I'm goin' insane here!" the redhead exclaimed, making Toki jump and look his way. He sensed the other boy's pale gaze on him, but didn't care. He said into the phone, "Everything's in a different language, the girls are all ugly—" this was just an assumption considering the fact that he'd never actually gotten around to meeting a girl there yet, "-I don't know anyone here, I'm the only one with red hair—" this was true, actually, "-and nobody here has any weed or beer or anything. Gunter, man, I'm dying out here." he didn't say 'please' or anything, because that was too pathetic even for him. He never begged for anything, never.

However what he had said was enough to get Bekker to hesitantly mutter, "Dude, I'm really sorry, but-"

"I hope you choke on Duncan Hansen's cock!" Pickles spat hatefully.

"Okay, alright, I'll try to talk him into it, but-"

"You'd better."

"But I don't know why the fuck I'd wanna fly all the way to Norway just to put up with your bullshit."

There was a long moment of silence before Pickles said, "Yeah, right. Bye." and he hung up, still shocked with Bekker's words. Bullshit? Fuck that, he thought as he threw the phone onto his nightstand and shook his head. "Fuck Beck, fuck him. I don't give him no bullshit, I'm-"

"Who ams Duncan Hansen?" Toki asked from over on his bed. The look that Pickles gave him was enough to make him turn his full attention back to his book and shut his mouth.

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The rest of the day dragged by very slowly. Since Pickles wasn't that familiar with the campus yet all he could do was sit in the small dorm and sleep. Though sleep was good as the day grew shorter he needed something else to occupy his time with. After stretching and waking up from what had to have been his twentieth nap that day, he turned his attention to Toki and said offhandedly, "Y'know, I think 'dat I'm just about ready to kick your ass."

Toki said nothing. He'd been reading in darkness all day, and now he was taking a rare break and trying to listen to some music. When the other boy spoke to him, he took out his earphones and arched a brow. "Huh?"

"I said that I'm gonna kick your a-" his attention was distracted as his stomach let out a loud, unyielding growl. Pickles frowned with the sudden realization that he was starving. "Go get me some food, prick." and he laid back down on his bed and yawned.

Toki sat up and shook his head. "Nos, no way. I'm not going down to the dining hall for you." and he lowered his head and mumbled more to himself than anyone else, "I hates even going there when I'm hungry."

"Well I don't give a shit what you do and don't like doin'!" Pickles howled, throwing one of his pillows over at the Norwegian. It hit him square in the head. Toki simply pushed the pillow away, got up, and put on his boots.

He made his way out the door mumbling to himself, "Pokker rasshøl..."

About half an hour later he entered the room holding a paper bag. Angrily he threw it over to Pickles and spat, "Her er din mat."

"Thanks, fucker." Pickles said with false gratitude. "What took you so damn long?" When the boy didn't answer, only sulked back over to his side of the room, the redhead let out an angry growl. "Hey, motherfucker, you'd better-"

"Please?" Toki cried, his face red as he picked up his book and tried to resume reading. Pickles grinned at this sudden break in the other boy's coolness.

"Will I please what?"

"Just...please." he squeaked timidly, "Please leaves me alone?"

He snorted at this and peered into the bag of food. What he saw made him gag. "What the fuck is this shit? Is this what you idiots call food?" he threw the bag over to Toki and demanded, "Where's the stupid hot dogs or burgers or-"

"They didn't haves any!" he exclaimed breathlessly. "This ams not America, stupids! They have what they have and so I waited in line for fifteen minutes and gots you food! What else do you wants now?"

Pickles said thru gritted teeth, "Don't you dare yell at me, you prick. I'll fuckin' kill you."

Toki's face reddened even more. He tried to return his attention to his book, but before he could the other teenager had snatched it from his hands and was ripping out handfuls of pages. To Pickles' surprise Toki didn't rebel against this; he sat there on his bed, his innocent eyes gleaming in the dim light of the room, observing what was happening to his book with curiosity. This only made Pickles angrier. He threw The Catcher in the Rye aside and looked around for anything else that he could take his anger out on. Finding nothing, he decided that the best way to finally assert his power was to just go ahead and beat the shit out of Toki.

"Look," he said, his hands balling into fists. "I just came in today; I'm fuckin' tired, I hate it here, and all I want is a little bit of food. What did you get me? A bagful of shit."

Toki obviously sensed the danger, but he didn't care. He just shrugged and said simply, "I woulds have eaten it." Pickles finally let out his anger and punched the other boy hard in the face. Toki sat there on his bed, his lip split and bleeding, his eyes tearing up, but with a look of almost inhuman calmness on his face. He let the blood trickle down his chin and onto his bedsheets. Unable to restrain himself, he said what he'd wanted to say since he'd met the redhead. "Why do you talks so funny, with that stupid accent? Where ams you from, anyway?"

"I'll kill you," Pickles hissed murderously. "I'll-"

"Gos ahead." Toki challenged. When the other boy's anger gave way to slight confusion, he said more clearly with a small, almost playful smile on his face, "Kills me. I wouldn't mind."

"Fine," Pickles said. "I will."

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**A/N**

Yep, it's finally summer vacation. Yay! It should also be noted that pretty much one year ago—if memory serves correctly—I saw my first full episode of Metalocalypse and published my first Pickles/Toki slash. Happy times. ^_^ Please review. I'd appreciate it. Also, thanks for reading. Much more to come.

PEACE & LOVE