Balance Beam

Title: Balance Beam
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Daxter gets changed back into a human, only something is not quite right…
Content notes: Sex of the het and slash variety, hinted at femmeslash (sort of?), hints of ottselsmut (Are we really surprised to find that from me, though?), some moments of really terrible prose, and finally gender bending and Jak's poor perverted little mind.
Author's Notes: Blame Robin. This is all her fault. I'm not sure how, but it totally is. Also, This is is only partly written. I tried to have it finished before National Novel Writing Month (all of November) started, but it wasn't meant to be. However, this will not stop me from posting what I do have completed over the course of the month for your enjoyment, and will hopefully get it completely finished before the New Year. Also to be noted, this fic is not part of the Human Nature series.
Disclaimer: The Jak and Daxter series and all its characters don't belong to me and I make no profit off of this story, I just like to borrow them and return them rumpled and stained.

–

Chapter 1: Girl Trouble

“Remind me again why we’re here, Jak? Because I seem to recall saying something about a relaxing vacation and a relaxing vacation means no missions.”

Jak grinned at his companion. “What, you don’t find this relaxing?”

“WE ARE SUSPENDED HUNDREDS OF FEET ABOVE THE FLOOR BY A TEENY LITTLE ROPE, JAK! RELAXED AND I AREN’T EVEN ON SPEAKING TERMS BY THIS POINT!” Daxter screeched and Jak winced, rubbing at his ear. “JAK! Don’t let go of the rope!”

“Then don’t scream in my ear! Jeez, Dax, have a little faith in me will you?”

“I have plenty of faith in you, just not in this rope, Jak! It’s breaking!” Daxter pointed up to where the rope was starting to snap.

Jak loosened his grip on the rope and slid down it faster, “Hang on Dax!”

“JAK!”

There was a flare of ice blue as Jak’s wings unfurled and caught the air, letting them glide down safely as the rest of the rope fell into a heap on the ground, the frayed remains dangling from the hole in the ceiling they entered from. Jak landed gingerly and dropped his light form, rubbing his temples. “That was fun.”

“You have sick ideas about fun, Jak,” Daxter grumbled, clinging tightly to Jak’s shoulder guard. “Let’s not do that again.”

“I agree with you on that much, Dax. But check this place out…” Jak looked around, picking up the blue eco sticks they had dropped to see how far down the floor was. The blue light they emitted revealed lines of consoles with dark screens and a strange pattern on the floor.

“I wonder what all these consoles are for. And what’s with the floor, I’ve never seen anything like that before.” Daxter hopped down off Jak’s shoulder to peer at the pattern as Jak wandered over to the consoles. The pattern seemed to lead somewhere and Daxter followed it.

Jak stroked a hand along a dusty console, jumping slightly when it flared to life. “Whoa!” Daxter let out a startled noise and Jak whirled around to find Daxter standing in the middle of a glowing circle. “Dax, you okay?”

“It’s not letting me move!” Daxter was struggling, but he couldn’t seem to move his feet. “What the hell did you-GAH!” Daxter let out a sharp cry as the circle grew brighter and a beam of light shot down from the ceiling completely obscuring Daxter from view. “JAK, DO SOMETHING!!”

Jak whirled back around and started pressing buttons on the console, his breath catching in his throat as Daxter started to scream. “Stupid fucking machine; let him go!” Jak drew his fist back and punched the console, leaving a huge, violently sparking dent in the metal and a crack in one of the screens. Daxter screamed louder for a moment before the light completely vanished and there was a thud, a thud that was far too loud to be the noise of one little ottsel falling to the ground. Jak turned and blinked at the redhead who was sprawled on the floor. “…Dax?”

“Oh man….that was painful.” The redhead whimpered, sitting up and revealing that the redhead was, in fact, a topless woman.

Oh God.

Jak flushed bright red. “….Daxter?”

“What the hell was that, anyway?” The redhead blinked, reaching a hand out to Jak. “Jak? What’s- Holy yakow, I’m human!” Daxter stared at his hands, holding them up in front of his face.

“D-Dax…” Jak dragged his eyes away from her chest. “You, uh, might want to cover up.”

“Cover up?” Daxter looked down and let out a strangled noise. “I’m a woman! Damn it, Jak, what the hell did you do to me, you jerk?!”

“Wait, how is this my fault?!” Jak turned to glare at Daxter, but he caught sight of her breasts again and flushed redder than a stoplight and turned away again. “WILL YOU COVER UP?!”

“With WHAT, smart guy?! Huh? And it’s your fault because you’re the one touching things that you shouldn’t have! You know Precursor stuff reacts to you weirdly!” Daxter crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at Jak.

“That doesn’t mean it’s my fault you’re a chick!” Jak scowled at her. You know, Daxter’s kind of cute like this, he thought in the back of his mind before he shook himself and growled, fingers going up to his eco ring to remove the straps.

“What the hell are you doing?!”

“I'm giving you my shirt.” Eco ring, holster and jet board set gently on the ground, Jak peeled out of his shirt and held it out to Daxter. “Here.”

Daxter stared at it, then back up at Jak, arms still crossed over her chest. “...But what about you? You hate going shirtless.” The scars from Jak's time as the Baron's experiment were prominent on his body, though some of the worst ones were covered by other scars gotten fighting metal heads and death bots.

Jak shook his shirt, still not looking at Daxter. “I can handle it. Just take it and put it on, will you?! It's hard to have a conversation with you topless!”

Jak's shirt was snatched from his hand, and when he turned to look he blushed even redder as Daxter ran her hands over her breasts, now covered by Jak's shirt. He wasn't sure that it was much of an improvement if Daxter kept touching herself like that. “You know Jak, you really can't help yourself, can you?”

“I'm sorry?” Jak jerked his eyes up to Daxter's face, fully prepared to see one pissed off former ottsel glaring at him, but instead was met with a patiently fond look, if not a slightly aggravated one.

“You can't help yourself. You have to help people. You just literally gave the shirt off your back to help me.”

Jak's ears slatted back. Oh great, now he was even more embarrassed than before! “I couldn't let you walk around shirtless, Dax. First of all, you'd get into trouble the minute we entered Spargus, second of all it's really distracting!”

“Oh yeah? Who's more likely to cause zoomer crashes walking around shirtless, Jak, me or you? I'll give you a hint, it ain't me.”

Jak rolled his eyes and picked up is eco ring and holster to put it back on. “Yeah, okay, whatever Dax. I get it, I scare people.”

Daxter slapped her forehead. “Jak, do you pay any attention at all? Kras Racing Monthly has you listed as the sexiest man in racing! You beat out Razer for the position!”

“Whatever, Dax. Come on, let's get out of here.”

“....You're seriously going to walk around wearing that without a shirt?”

Jak sighed and held his hand out to Daxter. “I need to carry you out of here, it doesn't make sense for me to carry it and you when I could just wear it out.”

“...whatever.” Daxter walked over to Jak and let him scoop her up into his arms. “But you owe me, pal. You owe me big.”

“What?”

“This is still your fault!”

“How is this my fault?!”

“Because it certainly ain't mine!”

Jak grumbled and hit the light eco, wings unfurling once more before powerful flaps got them into the air and toward the hole in the ceiling.

–

“-And you can pay for a full body massage along with my stay at that five star hotel in Kras City,” Daxter said, glaring sidelong at Jak as he packed the car in Spargus' garage. “And the masseuse better be a hot chick, Jak, I'm not kidding!”

Jak rolled his eyes. “Is that all, Dax?” Most of it actually wouldn't hurt their bank account too much. With all the credits he made doing odd jobs for Torn and Ashelin, plus the stuff he got from the monks for his Precursor artifacts and Daxter's part of the earnings from the Naughty Ottsel, Daxter's requests weren't all that unreasonable. Well, alright, the gold plated hot tub filled with chocolate (slightly minty) and hot babes was a little unreasonable, but Jak wasn't too surprised by the request. Though what Daxter thought she'd do with hot babes while in the body of a woman Jak didn't want to think about. Not while he was driving, anyway.

“I'll let you know when I think of something else!” Daxter climbed out of the buggy with a huff though she pulled up short with a choked noise at the low whistle from Kleiver reached her ears.

“Well well well. Looks like the ankle biter traded his annoying rat for a cute redhead. Nice upgrade.”
Kleiver gave Daxter an approving once over, and Daxter wrinkled her nose in disgust.

“Ew, much?”

Jak stepped in between the two. “Kleiver, back off.“

“Not too keen on sharing, eh? Don't blame you, nipper. Feel like racing for her?”

“Oh hell no! Jak, don't you even think about it!” Daxter snapped at Jak, bristling.

Jak snorted. “Not happening, Kleiver. Not only would you lose, again, but you don't have anything that's even worth half as much as she is, much less anything I want.”

“Whatever. She's probably more trouble than she's worth, though I've got some spare rope if you need it.”

Daxter let out a strange, strangled squawking noise. “WHAT?!”

Jak could feel his face heating up and prayed that Kleiver took it as from being out in the sun. “I've got it covered, Kleiver. We have to go see Sig, so, uh, yeah. Later.” Jak grabbed Daxter's arm and dragged her away while she sputtered angrily and Kleiver laughed.

“That tubby bastard! Let me go, Jak, I'll kill him!”

“Take it easy Dax, let's just go talk to Sig so he can get the monks out there, and maybe they can figure out a way to change you back.”

“Back into what, an ottsel or a dude?!” Daxter growled at him.

Jak's ears pinned back. “A guy, Dax. Back into a guy!”

Daxter huffed again. “The sand is hurting my feet, Jak.”

“What do you want me to do about it?” Daxter gave him a level look, and Jak blinked at her. “...What?”

She hopped onto his back, arms going around his shoulders as she wrapped her legs around his waist. “You owe me.”

Jak grunted, thrown off balance before he caught himself and reached down to grip her thighs. “Seriously, Dax?”

“You. Owe. Me. Big.”

Jak shook his head and started toward the palace again, ignoring the looks they were getting. They must have looked pretty strange: Jak shirtless in his eco ring and shoulder guard, with a strange girl wearing his shirt on his back. Especially if they just heard his conversation with Kleiver. He couldn't believe he let Kleiver believe that Daxter was some kind of property. “Dax....about what happened with Kleiver-”

“At least you didn't bet me on a race with that bastard again.” Jak could see Daxter's glare out of the corner of his eye. “I would've kicked your ass if you had, Jak!”

“I was gonna say sorry for making you sound like you were my property.” Jak said dryly. “I know you got pissed when people called you my pet, I figured making it sound like you were my property wasn't going to fly either.”

“Yeah, well, Kleiver's a douche.” Daxter looked at Jak, “And I know you don't think of anyone in those terms. Hell, you even get pissed off when people talk about lurkers like that, Jak.”

Jak snorted. It was true, he had no love for the idea of slavery, or the idea of someone owning another person (or lurker), but Dax was making it sound like he was on some righteous path to free everyone from bondage. And he wasn't going to phrase it that way to her either, because there was no way in hell she'd let a golden opportunity like that slip by uncommented on. “Still.”

“I accept your meager apology for treating me like a piece of ass, Jak.” Daxter said dryly next to his ear, and Jak rolled his eyes, setting her down on the elevator leading up to the throne room in the palace.

“How magnanimous of you Dax,” he muttered as the elevator started up. “I am humbled before your gracious forgiveness.”

“Damn right you are.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “You still owe me, by the way.”

“I'm not likely to forget, Dax.” Jak looked around the throne room before making his way over to the dais. It always made him flinch, coming in here. He probably never would get over the shock of not seeing Damas on the throne. “Hey Sig.”

“Hey chili pepper, who's this? And why is she wearing your shirt?”

“Because Dax wasn't wearing one when s-he got turned into a human.”

Sig eyed the redhead with a confused look. “I thought Daxter was a guy?”

“I am a guy!” Daxter snapped. “Jak here did something!”

“This isn't my fault!”

“Shut up, both of you!” Sig snapped, and Jak and Daxter both folded their arms with a huff. “Now, someone tell me what happened, without blaming anyone.”

“You know that hole in the wastelands the monks found? The one you sent us to check out?” Jak uncrossed his arms. “Well, there's a Precursor chamber through it. When Dax and I started looking around, the machines in there activated-”

“Because Jak was touching things he wasn't supposed to,” Daxter interjected, and Jak shot her a sharp look.

“-and surrounded Daxter in this weird light. When I managed to get the machined turned off-”

“By punching it.”

Jak glared at her again. “-Daxter was a human woman.”

“And it's Jak's fault.”

Jak turned to her with a frustrated noise. “You were screaming! What was I supposed to do, let it kill you?!”

“It wasn't killing me!” Daxter jabbed her finger at Jak's chest.

Jak grabbed her hand, and in the back of his mind Jak wondered if Daxter's hand had always been so small and fragile in his own, or if this was a side effect of Daxter's newfound womanly body. “Well I didn't know that did I?!”

“If you two don't knock it off right now, I'm gonna tie you to a stake and leave you out in the desert!” Sig snarled at them, slamming his fist down on the arm of the throne and causing Daxter to squeak and dive behind Jak for protection. “Right then, other than Daxter's little mishap, was the place dangerous?”

“No. No metal heads were there.” Jak said as Daxter peeked out from behind him.

“Right. I'll tell Seem she can send a team out to investigate. Maybe they can figure out what happened to Daxter. In the meantime, Jak, you got and get Daxter some new clothes and a weapon. You've got a week to train up before I toss your scrawny ass in the arena, Cherry.”

Daxter's ears drooped as she stared at Sig. “What? But we did the arena challenge already!”

“No, Jak did the arena challenge.”

“But we're a team! Jak and Daxter! We do everything together!”

“Sig, you can't make Daxter fight in the arena alone,” Jak crossed his arms over his chest. “He's earned his battle amulet a thousand times over by now!”

“And if I let some strange chick just waltz into Spargus without testing her, I'll have a damn revolt on my hands, you know that! I'm sorry, Cherry, but you gotta face the arena challenge and earn your own battle amulet.”

Daxter stepped out from behind Jak, her hands spread beseechingly. “But Sig-!”

Sig arched an eyebrow down at her. “Are you telling me you can't do it?”

Daxter scowled at him. “No, I'm saying I shouldn't have to!”

“Well, you have to. Now go get outfitted with some serious equipment and get training, because this ain't up for discussion anymore. Am I understood?”

Jak was bristling, and he could feel the tension radiating off of Daxter. “...Yeah. We get it.”

“Good. Now get out of here. Oh and Jak? Put a shirt on before you do anything else, you look like an idiot.”

Jak sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. This was turning out to be a fantastic day.