After Friendship

I’m so sorry to keep you waiting for this, I blame school! So now that we know who the bad guy is *glares at school* lets get on with the story. This chapter gave me such a hard time, I had to re-write some stuff and I’m still not entirely pleased with it but it feels better now at least. I hope you will not hate it too much. *goes and hide in a corner*

Before we begin I would also like to thank everyone who took the time to leave a review on the first chapter. It’s what writers live on and you don’t want to see me starved, eh? So please keep on reviewing! :)

wanderingaddict: I’m glad you’re enjoying it so far!

Robin: Tough Jak is the best! XD

Anon: It took awhile but I finally did.

Sej: Thank you! I’m glad you did decide to read it. :) I agree, naked Daxter is definitely the best kind of Daxter, lol. There will be lots of more of that in this chapter, I hope you’ll be pleased. ;)

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Daxter struggled up into a sitting position but still felt strangely light-headed and swayed slightly in his position. He blinked dazedly a couple of times and for the first time since he ended up in his miserable position got a chance to look around him. Not that it was much to see, it was still a damp boring cave in his opinion. The only thing that caught his attention was the strange light ahead of him that broke the compact darkness and offered a pale sickly illumination.

“Daxter?” The voice was followed by the thump of Jak’s boots hitting the cave floor.

The red-head quickly turned his attention towards the sound.

“I’m right here, buddy.”

He squinted in the dim light and managed to make out a dark form coming towards him. Daxter never thought the sight of his big buddy could make him feel so relieved. He knew Jak was ok since he already heard him but it was a different thing to actually see it. He quickly positioned himself in a cross-legged position which was a pathetic attempt at covering his…ehm…private parts. Of course he had wanted to become human and yes he was excited to show off his new perfect body to the world but definitely not to this degree! Besides, he didn’t think he would be able strut his stuff very gracefully at the moment. He could hardly stand much less doing anything else. Right now he just wanted to get out of this creepy place.

“Jak.” It came out as a pathetic whisper and he felt his throat constrict when he finally could make out the sight of the hero’s face. ‘I’m such a big wuss,’ he thought irritably and tried to swallow the lump that was forming.

But he couldn’t help but smile when he got a better look at Jak’s expression. In any other situation he probably would have burst out laughing. A gaping fish described it pretty well. He had stopped dead in his track and was opening and closing his mouth in a rather comical way. Like he wanted to speak but couldn’t find the words. Daxter could sympathize with him; for a change he felt strangely out of words too.

“Dax,” Jak finally managed to croak out. “You’re human.”

“Yeah, baby!” Dax said with a huge grin “I kind of already noticed that little fact.” He fully enjoyed the amazed face of Jak.

If there was someone he wanted to share his first moments as a human with, it was Jak. Although the picture he had in mind had looked a lot different. Definitely him in a less naked state and with a nicer backdrop. But this moment was too good to pass up: he could forget about being cold, and hurting for awhile. Heck, he could even forget being naked.

Jak surprised him by dropping to his knees and abruptly gathering him in a crushing hug. He squeaked in surprise when he fell forward into the firm chest. After the initial shock at suddenly being pulled against Jak’s larger frame, he snaked his arms around the hero’s neck and hugged him back tightly. The body heat that was radiating from Jak went straight into his skin and comfortably warmed his frozen body. Out of habit he deeply inhaled the sent that was so special for Jak. He could still feel it even if it was a lot duller compared to what his ottsel nose usually would pick up.

A calloused hand found its way into his hair and softly stroked through his long red and golden tresses. “I thought I lost you,” Jak murmured and the warm breath in his ear made Daxter’s insides tingle.

“Hey, you know it takes a lot more than that to get rid of me. Don’t go soft on me, big guy,” he said and playfully tugged at one of Jak’s locks of hair.

He was carefully pushed back by the shoulders and Jak looked searching at him. “What happened, are you hurt?”

“I don’t know…” he started uncertainly.

It was kind of strange, really; logically he should have some broken bones or at least some enormous bruises after that fall. He knew he had hit a stone shelf on the way down. He felt awful but he couldn’t feel any serious injuries. He just ached and he felt entirely drained of energy.

“I feel like shit but I don’t think I’m injured. And how this transforming thing happened, I have no idea.”

Jak looked sceptical.

“Are you sure you’re ok? It was a long fall.”

“Yeah, I know it’s strange. I can’t explain it but I just feel drained.”

“Ok, well you don’t look injured at least. Let’s get out of here, and we can discuss this later.”

‘So being turned back into a human can be described as “this”!’ Daxter thought in a huff. Though, Jak did have a point. He was cold, and if they didn’t get out of there soon he was pretty sure he would end up falling asleep on the cave floor. His eyelids felt like they had small weights attached to them already. He forced his eyes open and found that Jak was starring at him intensely with a strange expression on his face.

Wha—” he started to say.

He winced when the blond suddenly shot forward and grabbed his arm, in a firm but gentle grip.

“What the?!” he squeaked. “Scare me to death will you!”

Jak just ignored him and with a frown held out Daxter pale arm into the light.

“Dax, your arm. Look at it.”

The red-head looked down and his eyes widened slightly at the sight of small droplets of glowing light eco that still lingered on his forearm.

“Is that…?”
“Light eco.” Jak confirmed. He carefully touched it with his index finger and it dissolved into the darkness.

“Wow,” Daxter breathed out.

“A reversal to the dark eco you fell in. It would make sense.” Jak said thoughtfully. “That explains why you’re human again.”

“I don’t care about the equation, but I’m definitely digging the result!” Daxter grinned, and then frowned thoughtfully. So that’s why it burned. Now when he thought about it, it had felt just the same when he fell into the dark eco. He should have made that connection earlier.

“So where is this light eco?” Daxter wondered with a frown. But just as he said it he remembered the light he had spotted just before Jak found him. He looked over his shoulder and Jak followed his gaze to the pool of light that was situated not very far from them but which they both had been too preoccupied to truly notice before. Their eyes met in understanding.

“Well, I’ll be damned. Torn will love you for this Jak. Only for about a day or two of course, but still.”

Jak on the other hand didn’t seem too excited.

“Right, we did what we came for, we’re out of here,” he said grimly while placing his backpack on the ground.

“Well, don’t piss your pants Jak. You know, you could at least try to be a bit more excited.”

Jak looked up surprised then a small smile spread across his face. He returned to his task at removing his armour and placing it in the backpack.

“I’m excited Dax,” he said softly. “But not because we found some light eco for Torn. I don’t give a shit about that.” He steadily met Daxter gaze before he continued. “All I care about is that you’re back to normal and now I want to get you home safely, that’s all that matter.”

“Get us home safely Jak, don’t forget that.” That damn tough guy never thought about himself, he was lucky Daxter was there to do it for him.

“Right, us then,” Jak agreed.

“Ok, so…ehm, how do we do this?” Daxter embarrassedly gestured at his nakedness and hoped that the dim light wasn’t enough to reveal his blush.

So the fact of being naked in front of his friend maybe wasn’t news since technically he had been naked the whole time as an ottsel. But still, at least he had fur then! It’s amazing what difference a little fur could make. He shivered in the cold wind, it was also amazing what a little fur could do to preserve the body heat. He wrapped his arms around himself and watched Jak placing the last bit of armour in the backpack. He started to pull off his tunic.

“What are you doing?” he asked slightly alarmed.

“You can’t go around naked so I guess we just have to share the clothes we have,” Jak answered calmly.

‘Eh, come again?’

When the tunic went over Jak’s head it offered Daxter a perfect view of his chest and in the red-heads opinion very nicely sculpted muscles. They were clearly visible but without being too bulky.

‘Why I’m staring at my best friend’s naked chest and WHY on earth I’m thinking of its structure?!’ He thought horrified and quickly averted his gaze to the ground with blushing cheeks.

“Daxter?”

“Yeah,” he squeaked and saw that Jak was holding out the tunic for him. “Oh, thanks,” he mumbled and grabbed the piece of clothes with fumbling hands. That’s when he noticed that Jak’s right arm was wrapped up in his red scarf.

“What happened to your arm?”

“What?” He looked confused for a moment before looking down at his arm. “Oh that, one of the metal heads got a hit. It’s fine now.”

“You’re sure?” His voice was slightly muffled by the tunic he was trying to pull over his head. “Where’s the hole in this damn thing,” he muttered.

“You’re totally hopeless Dax,” Jak chuckled. “I guess it’s been awhile since you wore any clothes.”

His hands were swatted away and a sharp tug made his head finally pop out from the mass of uncooperative cloth.

“Thanks,” he said with a slightly embarrassed smile.

The tunic looked huge on him but he couldn’t complain. It warmed him immediately and the best part was that it reached down to his thighs so it covered him fairly well. He picked thoughtfully at some stains on the dark-blue fabric that looked suspiciously like blood-spatter, he looked questionably at Jak.

“It’s not mine,” Jak reassured him. “We’ve lingered here long enough, come on.”

Jak got to his feet and heaved Daxter up in a standing position in the process. The sudden change of position made his head swim and he stumbled forward into Jak.

Once again Daxter found himself staring at his best friend’s bare chest. Not just staring actually, practically pressed against it too.

‘Eeek!’

He grabbed hold of Jak’s shoulders to steady himself and he felt two big hands, which could almost encircle his waist, being placed on his hips. Daxter breathed out a shaky breath; this was just too much close contact for one day. He awkwardly glanced up at Jak who was looking at him with an odd expression. Both seemed to be frozen in place for a way too long and awkward moment in Daxter’s opinion.

He cleared his throat. “Heh…oops.”

That seemed to break the spell and Jak’s slightly wide-eyed stare disappeared immediately and he was quickly pushed back on to his feet again.

“Yeah right, let’s go.” Jak grunted out and heaved the pack up on his back.

Daxter nodded silently.

The stonewall that stretched high above them was not a very encouraging site Daxter concluded. He followed it to the top with a growing frown; he didn’t like the look of it one bit. He glanced questioningly at Jak.

“So how exactly do we get up?”

“We climb.” Jak tugged experimentally at a thick rope Daxter now saw was hanging down from the top. He didn’t feel more optimistic by that answer. Jak must have seen his slightly disbelieving face. “Or rather I climb, then I can pull you up.” He started to tie a loop with the end of the rope.

“I guess these things were a bit easier when I was an ottsel, huh?” He glanced at Jak and then absentmindedly pulled at the way too short tunic. He jumped slightly when a warm hand landed on his neck.

He looked up and saw Jak smiling one of his rare smiles.

“Don’t worry, it’s well worth the trouble.”

He swatted the heavy hand away with a grin. “If you say so buddy, but don’t come complaining to me when you miss Orange Lightning.”

Jak quickly climbed the rope with little effort, even though Daxter heard him groan a couple of times and he wondered how “fine” his arm really was. His own journey to the top wasn’t exactly what he would call comfortable. The rope fitted securely under his armpits but it chafed uncomfortably. He felt like an old rag doll dangling helplessly from the rope that could in a second be dropped and he would fall right back down to the ground. But at least the only one he truly trusted was holding the other end of the rope and that calmed him some. He dared a glance down to the ground below him, which he quickly discovered to be a bad idea. The thought of falling down a second time made his heartbeat raise a notch and he clutched the rope in his hands even tighter. ‘Please don’t let me die before I get a chance to enjoy my new body,’ he prayed silently.

Luckily he didn’t die and got to the top safely. He fumbled for something to hold onto, desperate to get some solid ground under his feet. He got hold of a protruding rock in the ground but he felt his strength failing him and would probably had fallen right back down without the helping hands of Jak. With a heavy grunt he ungracefully crawled over the edge. He panted slightly when he was helped to his feet.

“Well, hasn’t this mission just been tons of fun?” he said with a weak smile. Jak just snorted in reply.

He looked around him but blinked confused a couple of times when his eyes refused to focus. His surroundings started to become blurry and he fumbled for something to hold onto. He found a broad shoulder.

“Daxter?” he heard Jak ask worriedly but it sounded strangely far away.

He squinted and tried to focus on the face of his friend but instead it just got blurrier. His legs suddenly went weak beneath him. He felt himself falling, but before he could crash to the ground gentle hands caught him. He felt oddly warm and secure for a moment before everything went dark.

TBC

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Muhahaha, evil cliffhanger! Sorry, I will try to hurry up with chapter three. Please review!