Skarlet's POV:

Skarlet was fiddling around the lock of the chest for several minutes now. "Gosh damnit, why does it have to be locked this tight?"

The busty Octoling furiously worked at the lock with a small knife and a few wires in a desperate attempt to get it open without breaking it. Her breast bounced around each time she rearranged the wires as her body was bend over towards the chest as they were hanging free, while her butt stuck out in the air.

"Grrrrrr, I swear if it weren't for not letting Mikel find out, I would rip this stupid box apart!" Skarlet slowly lost her patience the more she tried to open the old lock. When she shook the chest before all she could hear was something rumbling around, as there seemed to be only two solid objects inside it. But as they didn't sound like glass, or anything that breaks easily, Skarlet could easily start to open the chest without any fear of breaking something.

After she was now fiddling around the chest for what felt like an hour, Skarlet's patience finally snapped.

"You stupid chest! Why won't you get open?", finally Skarlet snapped and kicked the chest with one of her boots. In her rage she didn't watch out and directly hit the wires sticking out, which then penetrated through the leather and stung into her foot.

"OUCH! Oh freaking squit!", she was jumping on one leg and quickly slipped out of her boot to avoid further pain. "I swear I will smash this stupid----" Her voice silenced as she was looking towards the chest that she had just kicked.

It was open.

"Heck yeah! Don't you dare to mess with me! *smack*", Skarlet cheered as she slapped her butt. Then she carefully approached the box and opened the lid.

Inside was.....

Grizzlo's POV:

"Griz, where do I put these boxes?", Mikel asked Grizzlo while carrying a staple of wooden crates around that was even taller than himself.

"EY, watch the merchandise! Put those down near the backside of the cargo hold.", Grizzlo was shaking his head as Mikel just had rushed in and started working like his life would depend on it. "If he breaks any of those crates I swear his life is gonna depend on his paycut! But seriously what's wrong with him tonight? Could it be.......?"

"Hey Mikel!", Grizzlo called out for the tall Inkling.

"Yo Grizzlo?", Mikel yelled back while running around.

"What's up with you today? Have you gotten a little closer to your mad Octoling?"

Luckily Mikel wasn't holding anything, as he tripped over and flipped onto his back. "WHA---UFF! Nonononono n..n....n.n.nothing happened!", he quickly jumped up as if nothing happened and furiously went back to loading the crates into the ship, literally running away from further questions.

"Ha got him!", Grizzlo had a broad smile on his meaty face, which is extremely rare for the greedy businessman. While crossing his arms Grizzlo shouted towards his worker in a half serious tone: "I swear if she's affecting your performance in any bad way, you're going to be in a lot of trouble!"

"Won't happen! I'm just hurrying up since I promised her a movie night. *HUGE Sweatdrop*", he quickly replied as he was already done loading over half of the shipment.

"Damn if he's this fast I can even charge my client fpr some extra cash due to the fast shipment.........Hm movie night huh?", Grizzlo's face darkened a bit "You always wanted to do this with Lena back then.......Geez."

Grizzlo went down towards the harbor, where Mikel was quickly loading the cargo inside the ship and stood right in front of the entrance, blocking Mikel's path.

"What is it now Griz'?", Mikel seemed to get annoyed by his sudden appearance. "You said we only need to load everything into the ship............... or is there something else?"

"Jup there is.........." "I swear you're going to work your ass off, for what I'm about to do now!"

"Oh great, what now? Repairing some broken stuff? Cleaning the decks?"

"Don't try my patience boy......" Grizzlo took a deep breath: "I need you to get me a full shipment of Golden-Eggs on each day during the whole next week."

"WTF?! Did you get hit by a Scrapper or what? I swear---"

Mikel's outburst was interrupted by Grizzlo moving right in front of him and looked up directly in his eyes. "In exchange you can go home after you're done loading in the last few boxes."

A few seconds passed with Mikel standing still as a statue, until he suddenly jumped up, screaming: "Alright Grizzlo! Deal!" and rushed past Grizzlo with a so many boxes, that he nearly hit the ceiling of the ship's entrance.

"Pah, he's so easy to read. Well I can make some nice profit from it."

-small timeskip with a chibi Mikel running around, transporting huge staples of boxes with lightning speed-

Mikel's POV:

Mikel just stored away the last pile of boxes inside the ship and hurried himself towards the exit. "If I'm fast Skarlet might still be awake.", he thought with a smile. "I wanted to do this for so long, I hope she's not being too perverted....... I wonder which movie I should pick."

As Mikel was daydreaming, he didn't notice that Grizzlo moved behind him, until he got sent flying with a kick trough the backdoor. "WHAAAAAA UFF!"

When he landed outside in the alley, Mikel quickly turned around, only to spot his boss Mr. Grizz standing at the entrance. "Stop dreaming around and get out of my business! You've hearts flying all over your head."

"I'm not-------"

"Get a move, your girlfriend is waiting for you!", then Grizzlo shut the door with a loud *wumms*.

"She's not my................girlfriend?", Mikel's voice quiet down. "My..........girl........friend?"

He quickly shook his head: "Get yourself together Mikel! Skarlet's probably waiting at home, or who knows what she's scheming right now."

Thus Mikel sprinted at full speed through the dark city of Inkopolis, heading home towards the crazy Octoling that would probably be waiting with another advance towards him.

Skarlet's POV:

At first glance Skarlet was clearly disappointed with what she found inside. "Hey, what's this I thought he would at least have something fancy inside there!"

The two items were only a picture frame and a small box. "For all the trouble I went through, the only things that he locked away was this garbage? Couldn't he at least put in one of my used panties, or my bra? Or anything a normal guy would put in there?"

While thinking about the things Skarlet would've expected to find: "Well at least I found something.", she took out the picture frame: "Let's see what we got he.............re." Her eyes widened as she turned around the picture.

On it was a younger version of Mikel happily hugging an inkling girl with a somewhat bored expression. Somehow the whole scenery as well as the girl seemed so familiar to Skarlet. "Wait, isn't that the place where we had our first date at the Octo-canyon? And the girl ............. Wasn't this the flat bitch that insulted Isa at our shopping trip?"

Skarlet was surprised to see Mikel hanging around with that, while not telling her about it. "Didn't he want me to know about her, so he could have his fun? Nah that wouldn't fit with how reserved he is.......", then as she put the pieces together, Skarlet clapped her hands: "Wait I got it! She must be his girlfriend and he didn't want me to know about her."

A mischievous smile appeared on her face: "Oooooh, I'm sooooo gonna make him obey.........", but at the same time as she thought about how to use this to her advantage, the empty feeling inside her heard intensified the same way as it did when she had those nightmares she wasn't able to remember. "Ugh not now. Well at least now I know why nothing is working against this guy."

"But why did he kiss me, when he's together with her? Does that Hotstuff still has a fetish for busty girls like me?" Skarlet shook her head and grinded her fists on her temples: "Argh c'mon don't get distracted, who knows when he comes back!"

Then Skarlet picked up the second item. It was a small and very light casket. "Hmmmmm I wonder what's inside there?", she flicked the lid open and her breath stopped when she saw what was inside it.

Right there in front of her was the most beautiful ring she had ever seen. It was completely white with a large sparkling ruby attached onto it. "Wooooooooooooow~", she whispered as her eyes couldn't turn away from this wonderful piece of jewelery. "It's so beautiful. He's just the kind of guy who would go all out for a proposal." Then those hollow, empty feelings came back again, tightening her heart together. "Why can't I just get a proposal with something this lovely? What have I done wrong? Why am I not able to remember?"

While Skarlet was captivated by the ring and still gazing off while having her own thoughts, she didn't hear the door closing until a pair of footsteps stopped at the entrance of the room and a familiar voice shouted with an unbelieving tone: "What by the Salmons are you doing here?"

Skarlet quickly looked towards the door and standing there was Mikel, completely covered in sweat and with a stern look on his face. "Oh squit!"

Narrator's POV:

Mikel, who was standing there in the door had been stunned from what was happening in front of his eyes. Not only had Skarlet sniffed around in places, she had absolutely nothing to do with. She also opened the chest in which Mikel locked away the picture he loved so much before and that damned ring he prepared for that awful day back then.

The sight of the picture of him and Lena called back all the suppressed memories he had locked away for so long. The pain, the sadness, the feeling of betrayal, it all came back in a matter of seconds.

And seeing Skarlet holding the ring in her hands, as if it was hers, nearly made him loose the rest of self-restraint that he had left.

But Skarlet, being still bewildered from Mikel's kiss before, interpreted his reaction in a completely different way. She though she had finally found out why Mikel had kept Lena hidden from her. Probably so that she won't get jealous.

Thus Skarlet let slip one single line due to her unawareness of Mikel's mental state: "Hey, Hotstuff! Why did you never tell me that this was your girlfriend? No wonder my breasts let you cold, if you like those flat ones. *smirk*"

Then she noticed that Mikel started shaking even more with his fangs clenched. "Uh..............Mikel?", the Octoling asked with a worried expression.

Mikel's POV:

"She's just like the rest of them! I should've never trusted her! She just betrayed me like this fake bitch of Lena!", Mikel's thoughts went wild inside his head and Skarlet's final statement made him let loose all his build up feelings.

Without any control Mikel grabbed Skarlet at her shoulders and started shouting at her: "WHAT BY THE FREAKING SALMON ARE YOU SAYING, YOU BACKSTABBING BITCH?", he started shaking her as he went on.

"THIS PIECE OF SALMONSHIT MY GIRLFRIEND? PAH SHE RUINED MY LIFE AND BURNED OUT WITH A TURF WAR PRO AFTER SHE KICKED ME DOWN IN FRONT OF EVERYONE FOR MAKING A PROPOSAL TO HER!", he didn't realized that the word *Turf-war-pro* caused an immense headache to Skarlet and kept yelling about how Lena betrayed him.

"-----AND DON'T YOU DARE PLAYING INNOCENT. I HEARD YOU SLEEPTALKING ABOUT SOME LEON GUY! YOU'RE THE NEXT ONE THAT'S GOING TO RIP ME APART!"

Skarlet's POV:

Skarlet was in constant pain from Mikel's forceful shaking and her head felt like it was on fire. Then when she heard him say the name *Leon*, the pain in her head became so intense that tears started to appear in her eyes.

"Stop it, please just stop it! It hurts so much........", that was all she wanted to say, but she wasn't able to bring up the strength to spell a single word.

Mikel's POV:

But that wasn't enough. No, Mikel wasn't even finished with that Octoling that betrayed him: "YOU OCTARIANS ARE ALL THE SAME! YOU ARE JUST LIKE THAT BASTARD VULKAN THAT KILLED MY LITTLE BROTHER! ALL OF YOU RUINED MY WHOLE LIFE!"

As Mikel started yelling about how Basti died and how he had to suffer for such a long time, his shaking eased a little, due to him remembering even more painful memories.

Thus a very weak voice came from Skarlet which he didn't even recognize at first: "Mikel......stop it......... stop..........stop.", and just before he realized who was telling him to stop, Skarlet reared up and screamed with tears in her eyes: " Mikel STOOOOOOOP!"

Then the Octoling collapsed in his arms, from exhaustion and the constant pain.

The next few moments were completely silent. Only the ring which fell down onto the floor and was rolling towards the chest could be heard.

With his senses regained from the scream, Mikel looked at the passed out Octoling in his arms: "What have I done?", he was asking himself, as he couldn't control his emotions.

He needed a few moments to realize how horrible he had been towards Skarlet in the last few moments.

With tears in his eyes he brought Skarlet towards the bed and gently laid her on top of it. Then he covered her in a warm blanked in hope that she would wake up soon and sat on a chair next to the bed.

All while scolding himself for his emotional outburst, Mikel was going to watch over the poor Octoling, while he silently cried the whole time.