AN: So, here's that Light Jak fic I've been yapping about. I like Light, really I do. Just needed a chance to prove it. This happens after both Perfect Dark and Perfectly Normal.
Characters: Belong to Naughty Dog, Inc.
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Daxter was getting used to the desert. He was getting used to sand in his teeth and everything he ate. He was getting used to covering every bare patch of skin or suffering the sunburned consequences. He was getting used to blistering days and near-freezing nights. One of those nights was what he wanted to avoid just then.
“Damn it, Jak, would it kill ya to hurry up?”
The sun was quickly sinking over the sand, the heat of the day already giving way to the chill of evening. Daxter stood on a flat rock, face to the dying rays and gun at the ready as he guarded the borrowed buggy and supplies that had been parked secretively in the lee of a large rock formation. And Jak?
Jak was out joyriding. Or joy-flying, rather. The redhead grumbled, glancing up into the cloudless, orange desert sky.
The past few weeks had been a tumult of chaos and terror. At least, they had in Daxter’s opinion. Exile to Spargus. Arena fights. Precursor Monks. Oh, look, sparkly light eco powers! Back to Haven City, back to Spargus, back to Precursor temples. An undead Erol and countless metal heads and, oh yeah, if that wasn’t enough, Dark Makers on top of it all. And through all of that, Jak had never had the time to really test his newfound wings.
Wings. Where was Jak? The light would be gone soon, and they had been in the process of finding shelter for the night when Jak had unexpectedly begged a quick sunset flight. Just because he could. Because they had saved the day again like good heroes did and everything was once again back to normal, if only for a little while, and he could afford a tiny scrap of play. Daxter didn’t have it in him to tell his friend to wait until tomorrow.
Dax anxiously scanned the darkening horizon for approaching marauders, metal heads, anything that could pose a threat. Caught in the desert at night with nothing over your head but stars was a bad place to be. He was so intent on his watch that he failed to notice the telltale signs of someone sneaking up behind him until it was too late.
Screaming was pure reflex, and an unlucky cactus several strides away would have taken the brunt of a panicked gun blast had Daxter not almost immediately realized who had grabbed him and lifted him off his feet. The soft, pale blue glow radiating from the grabber’s arms was kind of a giveaway.
“Y’know, Jak, when you said we should get out ‘away from it all’ fer a few days, I really thought there was gonna be some relaxing goin’ on in there somewhere. So far there has been no relaxing!”
Jak laughed quietly and set Daxter back on his feet. His strange, luminescent wings flipped in a very unconcerned way as he smiled at his friend.
The redhead turned to glare at him sourly. “Yeah, yeah, channeling light eco puts ya in a good mood. Well, I’ll be in a good mood too when we find someplace to camp! Someplace with no chance of wakin’ up in something’s stomach would be great.”
Jak nodded, pointing upward.
“Huh? Up where?” Daxter craned his neck back to look up the sheer face of the rock cliffs they had parked by. Far over their heads was a deep, black hole. “A cave. You found it while ya were flyin’ around, I guess?”
Jak nodded again, smiling. He was obviously proud of himself. There was no way anything could reach that little hole without flying to it or having a head high as a building.
Daxter considered the brief possibility that he could climb to it somehow, then sighed. No way. There was nothing to climb but smooth rock. “That’s all well an’ good, pal, but I think you’re forgetting that only one of us has wing—what’s with that look? Jak?” He took an alarmed step back as Jak grinned and put an arm around his waist. “Jak, no, it won’t work! I’m too heavy! Jak!”
The glowing hero blatantly ignored him. Easily pulling Daxter to him, he crouched and then shot upward with one hard flap of his wings.
Dax yelped as Jak’s arms closed tightly around him and they left the ground. He held on for dear life, arms around his friend’s neck, watching the sand below them drop away with alarming speed. His gun swung behind him, still firmly attached to the strap around his chest and over one shoulder.
Jak hovered for a moment when they came level with the hole in the cliff, looking out at the setting sun. His arms were snug around Daxter’s waist, keeping him close and secure.
How is he even doing this? the redhead thought, looking queasily down past his futilely scrambling feet. The wings Jak sprouted when Light looked delicate enough to shatter—thin, almost transparent membrane between long, flowing tendrils of tissue. In theory they shouldn’t even be able to support his own weight, let alone Daxter with him. Dax was small-framed and light, but not that light!
Very carefully and gently Jak plucked him loose to set him on the small ledge outside the cave. Daxter watched as Jak folded his wings and floated earthward, presumably to retrieve their supplies. The packs were none too light, either.
“Gotta be the eco,” Dax grumbled to himself as he straightened his goggles and pulled the gun strap off his shoulder. If the power of flight was actually coming from the light eco inside him, then it wouldn’t matter how much stress was placed on the muscles and tendons of Jak’s new wings. Heck, he might have been able to pick up the dune buggy, for all Dax knew.
Daxter stepped back to give Jak landing room as he surged into view again, their packs in hand. “Nice goin’, there. But next time, give a guy a little warning before ya lift off with me?”
Jak simply smiled and sauntered into the small cave like they had been invited. Daxter followed somewhat more carefully. There might be birds or weird flying critters or who knew what living in there. What he didn’t expect to see, though, was a heavy cloth hanging across the entrance a few paces into the cave. Jak pushed it aside with ease, letting in the fading sunlight.
“Holy wow! Jak, you hit the jackpot!”
That the little cave had been occupied at some point was clear. Clay pots and jars lined one wall. Stacks of what looked like folded blankets were piled in one corner. There was even a small stash of firewood and dried brush, enough for a frugal cooking fire.
“But how did whoever even get up here?” Daxter wondered out loud, dropping his gun carefully on top of their packs. “Somehow I get the feelin’ there isn’t an elevator in this joint. It doesn’t make any—”
Then, he saw it. Precursor script, carved into the soft rock of the walls. Jak was casually trailing his finger along the flowing indents, doodling along without a care.
“Hey. Y’know what, Jak? I bet…” The redhead went back to the narrow ledge outside the hole and looked up. There, sure enough, a length of thin, strong rope swung against the rock in the cool breeze, extending down from the top of the cliffs. “Ha, I knew it!”
Jak appeared at his back, glancing up quizzically.
“The Precursor Monks, big guy. I’d bet anything this is one’a their hideouts. Their gliders could get to the top of the rocks, no problem. Then they just climb down the rope, draw that curtain so nobody down below can see their fire—pretty sweet little setup.”
“Mm-hmm.”
With Jak’s chest pressed against his back, Daxter felt the response as much as he heard it, vibrating through them. Every hair on his body did its best to salute as he felt warm breath on his ear and suddenly realized just how close Jak was. Against his better judgment, he decided not to move.
They stood for long moments as the vast desert horizon glowed molten gold, then faded to dark orange and finally crimson. Jak’s chin found its way to Daxter’s shoulder and rested gently there.
The redhead swallowed tightly. “Been a long time since I just stopped and watched a sunset. You too, huh?”
Jak nodded and sighed contentedly.
“It is pretty nice, I guess. Reminds me of how we used ta play on the beach ‘til the sun went down…” When Jak’s arms went around his middle in an affectionate hug of understanding and agreement, Daxter closed his eyes.
What with all the craziness going on lately, it had been weeks since the last time they had fooled around. Even if the hero didn’t realize it in the middle of his light eco high, even if he was only trying to be friendly, his embrace was making Daxter’s treacherous brain think less-than-innocent thoughts.
“We… we should get inside. It’s gettin’ cold.”
Jak pulled back as though he agreed. The redhead sighed quietly at the loss of contact. Maybe he could causally propose a little fun later that night. And not sound desperate and pathetic while he did it. Carefully sidestepping along the ledge, he followed Jak inside the cave and pulled the curtain on the darkening outside world.
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“I will say, Jak. You sure know how ta pick campsites.”
Jak, opposite Daxter on the other side of the small fire they had made, smiled and flipped his wings.
With all their rations being wasteland-compatible jerky and other such dry, easily portable staples, they had nothing to cook, but the fire did help heat the cave nicely. Once the drop cloth was in place over the entrance warm air quickly filled the room, while what little smoke there was became caught up in drafts near the ceiling and escaped through gaps at the top of the curtain. Now, rather than curled up like a wonton in an inadequate bedroll shivering all night, Dax could sleep in relative comfort. It was not an unwelcome surprise.
The redhead stood and stretched. He paced to one wall, then back across to the other wall. Around the fire, to the entrance, and back. It was a nice, comfortable space, and they could both stand up without clonking their heads on the ceiling, but it was not overly roomy. And there wasn’t a lot to do, especially with Jak still silent and glowing.
“Uh, hey, Jak? You can let up on the eco now, y’know.”
Jak tilted his head quizzically, gazing at Daxter with big, luminous eyes. Unlike the inky black depths that his dark eco trips produced, the glowing pools of his eyes under light eco influence seemed much more open. They gave off a cool light of their own, rather than sucking all light into oblivion. They were also wonderfully easy to look into, not at all harsh like sunlight, and Daxter found himself staring.
“I mean, uh, yer done with the wings fer now, right? We’re pretty well tucked in fer the night and you don’t wanna waste all yer eco reserves before morning. I will personally punch you in the head if ya get us stuck up here with no way down.”
Quiet laughter met the halfhearted threat. Jak was less than frightened, and apparently content, for whatever reason, to hold his eco form. He must not have been concerned about using the power up.
“Yeah, yeah,” Daxter griped. “Go ahead, then. Just sit there like an overgrown nightlight. It’s not like you never gave me the silent treatment before.”
Obviously amused, Jak grabbed a thin stick from the little pile of fire fodder. As Daxter watched he began to trace a grid in the sand and dust on the floor of the cave.
“Hey, tic-tac-toe! I take it all back, Jak. You are not, in fact, a nightlight.”
They played enough games that Daxter lost track of how long they had been at it. One would win, then the other. They broke even again and again and smoothed the sand out to start all over. The fire died to embers and still they played, their game illuminated by Jak’s almost ethereal glow.
“Hey, hey, check this out.” Snickering under his breath, Dax used his stick to trace a drawing in the sand. “Guess who this is.”
The stick figure was obviously Torn, standing on a large target with an anvil hung precariously over his head. Jak leaned in to add his two cents, and in a moment a small stick Ashelin in a cape was flying to the rescue.
“Yer not supposed ta save him, jeez!” Daxter laughed, punching his friend playfully in the arm. “You never let me have any fun, Jak.”
The hero stuck out his tongue and began to doodle a larger scene. Dax watched with interest as a city of some sort emerged in the sand, complete with leaper lizards, vehicles, and more stick figures.
“It’s Spargus! Not bad, big guy. Lemme see… this one’s Sig, and this one’s Kliever—eww, I’m just gonna erase that one. And here’s Damas. Nice!”
Jak’s perpetual smile faltered as the looked at the last figure. It didn’t take a genius to figure out why, when the real Damas was still a long way from full recovery. Sustaining near-fatal battle wounds tended to do that to people. Luckily Jak and Daxter had been able to get the man back to Spargus in time to save his life. Which was a darn good thing, considering what they now knew about him and Jak.
“That guy is gonna freak when we tell him yer his kid, pal.” Dax grinned, picking up Jak’s discarded stick. “In a good way, of course. The guy could have worse long-lost sons showin’ up on his doorstep by pure coincidence. Plus, he already likes ya. That’s a bonus!” He put the finishing touches on the picture. “There, that’s better.”
Jak bent closer over the workspace. He lifted his wings higher, and in the brighter glow looked at what the redhead had drawn.
A little stick-Jak stood next to stick-Damas. Stick-Keira held stick-Jak’s hand. And on his shoulder sat a tiny stick-ottsel. Everyone was smiling. Jak stared hard at the picture, motionless at Daxter’s side.
“See? One big happy family.”
The hug surprised him. Jak reached out with one arm and pulled the redhead firmly to his side as his wings flipped around and over their heads. While the thick tendrils of the wings glowed, the thin membrane between them shimmered and reflected that light. Daxter sat still, pressed against Jak and wondering what he was up to as they were enveloped in a bell of pale blue luminescence.
“Wow. That’s… that’s pretty cool, Jak.”
Daxter was reminded of the jellyfish they used to see when they sat on the end of the Fisherman’s pier back in Sandover. When the tide came in, so did the delicate jellies, floating peacefully in the surf on calm nights. The boys would watch them from the dock, fascinated. The redhead had always wondered what it would be like to see them from underwater; maybe like being surrounded by a forest of glowing bellflowers. But, as the Fisherman said, anything that glows probably stings, and the lightning bolt bugs in the coastal meadows at twilight proved that well enough. So they had left the jellies alone.
Jak, however, glowed very nicely. And he did not sting.
A bit hesitantly Dax reached up. He had never actually had a chance to touch Jak’s wings before. Would they feel rubbery or slick? Being literally surrounded by them did nothing to help his curiosity. He needed to touch.
Jak jumped when the redhead’s fingers trailed down a section of the clear filler membrane. The wing supports twitched, and the hero shrugged his shoulders as if his skin was crawling.
“Did that tickle?” Daxter asked incredulously. He placed his hand back where it had started, very carefully, and pressed lightly. It felt like elastic—slightly stretchy. His fingers cooled immediately with the revitalizing tingle of light eco. Not unpleasant at all.
He was reaching out to pet again when Jak’s hand touched his arm.
“Oh, uh, he-heh. Sorry.” Dax pulled his own hand back sheepishly.
So unlike Jak’s dark eco form, his light eco form seemed almost serene. For the first time since the Rift Rider spit them out in Haven City, Jak was calm, relaxed. That didn’t mean he couldn’t still get annoyed, though. It was better that Daxter not push his luck, especially if he was going to try for a little playtime between them that night. That is, pending Jak ever un-lighted.
Dax sighed, a little moody, and slouched against the bright form next to him. Who was he kidding? There was no reason for Jak to want to fool around with him anymore, really. When there was no stress, there was no need for stress relief, and staying sane with the physical distraction the other provided had been a cornerstone of their relationship between the sheets.
They had been settled in Spargus for over a week. Their enemies were beaten. All threats had been destroyed. They were welcome back in Haven, if they chose to return. And Jak’s newfound light eco powers seemed to be precisely what he needed to tip his internal scale back into balance. He certainly wouldn’t need a noisy little redhead for that anymore.
Strangely, Daxter didn’t want to play much anymore, anyway. Even the magic of their little glowing bubble was wearing off. “You ready ta sleep yet, Jak? It’s getting’ cold in here and I’m…” He wasn’t tired. He wasn’t really bored. But he didn’t know what else to do. “So, ya up fer lights out?”
Jak looked at him quizzically, head cocked to the side. Dax looked back at him sidelong, into those big, glowing, white eyes. They weren’t so bright that he couldn’t still do that, at least.
“What?”
Slowly the hero let his wings fall from above them. They floated back into place like a feather on a calm day and stayed, swaying lightly, behind his back. He stood up, and all the light and warmth in the cave followed him as he walked away from Daxter and toward their packs.
“Who gets the spot in the draft? Never mind, I already call not it.” Daxter stood up and stretched hard, trying not to feel hurt. Jak never just walked away when he thought something might be bothering the redhead. Dax looked back over his shoulder in time to see his friend shake out a blanket from the stack they had found inside the cave. “Jak?”
Jak continued with his self-appointed chore, a twitch of the ear the only sign he was even listening. Methodically he shook out and laid down five of the blankets they were borrowing against the backmost wall. Then he untied his own bed roll and draped it over those. He was moving on to add Daxter’s blankets to the forming pallet when the redhead began to sense something awry.
“Uh, pal? What’re you doin’?”
As if it explained everything, Jak smiled and patted the layers of blankets. Then he was back to unfolding and draping. There had even been a large fur pelt of some kind stashed away in a corner, and now Jak didn’t hesitate to pilfer that, as well. It went on top, and he moved on to rolling up the remaining blankets into what looked suspiciously like pillows.
“Sweet Precursors, what is with yer eco highs and nest buildin’?!” Daxter groaned and smacked a palm to his own forehead. “What, we’re not safe enough up here? Or are ya just cold? ‘Cause that I can understand, I guess—”
He didn’t realize what Jak was up to until it was too late. With no preamble Jak stood up, walked over, and leaned in for a kiss.
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To be continued
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(2
nd)AN: Light Jak would look fantastic clinging to the top of a really big coniferous tree in the wintertime. Just sayin’.
Outtakes!
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Light Jak: //Gee, what a beautiful sunset!// (hovers to watch it)
Dax: (clings to Jak) Jak, be careful, we’re really high up! Pay attention! Hey!
Light Jak: //What glorious colors!//
Dax: Dear God, there’s a cactus down there!
Light Jak: //I feel so at peace…//
*slip*
Dax: Aaauuuugh!!
*crash*
Light Jak: //…oops.//
Dax: (from the cactus patch) I’mna kill you.
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Dax: Wow! What a great little cave, Jak. Good job!
Light Jak: *preens*
Dax: We’ll be really safe up here. Cozy, too.
Light Jak: //Yeah, I know. I’m totally bringing Keira up here later for a romantic evening. Chicks dig secluded hideaways, right?// *whistles innocently*
Dax: You asshole. Asshole!
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Dax: I guess the Precursor Monks use this place, huh?
Jak: //Looks like it.//
Dax: I wonder what that writing on the wall says. It’s too dark to read.
Light Jak: //According to my glow, it’s the beginning of a trashy romance novel.//
Dax: … suddenly I am very, very nervous about what those weirdoes used this place FOR.
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Light Jak: //Look, I drew our city! Isn’t it cute?//
Dax: Not bad, Jakkie-boy. Let me draw something.
Light Jak: //Okay.//
Dax: *scribbles* Alright, check this out! I made yer drawing better.
Light Jak: (looks) //Is that an orgy you drew in the middle of Spargus?//
Dax: Ain’t it great?
Light Jak: //OH MY GOD, is that Sig humping my DAD?!//
Dax: Hey, old dudes need action, too.
Light Jak: … (heavy mental trauma)
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