Chapter 1

Daxter: I always use ta take Jak's smile fer granted. I used to think that it was just him and that he would always smile. Boy, was I wrong!

Jak was always there. Always. When my parents died, he held my hand during their funeral. He let me cry and scream and beat at him when I didn't know who to blame. He was there when I used to have nightmares. He would always shake me awake and pull me into bed with him. When I fell out of a tree in the jungle, he was the one that carried me all the way back to the village so Ol' Greeny could heal me.

Heh, I could keep going, but I won't. It makes me sound weak… Okay, so what use am I? All I do is sit on his shoulder and scream in his ears. I wasn't brave. Believe it or not but… all those stories I tell at the bar… yeah, those aren't true. Well, some of them are! But not all… Hard to believe, right?

Yeah, I'm not the most selfless or brave ottsel you've ever met, contrary to popular belief. I am a coward, through and through. Precursors, I hope nobody reads this.

Jak was always there, and I always needed him. When I got turned from tall, strong and handsome to short, orange, and fuzzy, he did everything in his physical power (which is quite a bit) to get me back to normal. He was even kind enough to not make jabs at my non-pantsed predicament. I appreciate that more than I let on.

Honestly, I never even dreamed of the day when Jak would need me. Looking back at my stupidity, I'm so glad I hadn't. Those would have been the worst nightmares of all. The scariest, thinking that my Jak would be powerless.

Ha! What a load of crap! The day he needed me… When he fell to the ground, dazed blue eyes staring pleadingly after me… All I did was run. I ran until I couldn't anymore, then I found the energy to run some more. And while I was doing all that running Jak was sitting in the dark loneliness, probably scared out of his mind, preying to every god that I would keep my hastily spat out promise.

Then I was so caught up in my own misery and whatever liquor I could get my paws on, I completely forgot about him. Sometimes, I remembered having horrible dreams of Jak. At first he was still my Jak, still smiling at me. But over time, my mental image of him started to grey and one night he was a corpse. He stared up me with glassy eyes and his lips were pulled into a bloody smile. He always looked unnatural, he looked dead.

But then I saw him! Oh, that was both the best and the worst moment of my life. There was my Jak, alive! But he was also in a cage, ragged looking and hurt. I almost hadn't recognized him.

I worked fast after that. I was determined not to let this chance slip away. I was not going to forget again. I was so happy to see him at first. It didn't matter that he stank of blood and eco or that he looked ready to die. He was Jak and he was still alive.

But I soon discovered that my little happy spree was short lived. We hadn't even gotten two feet from the prison when we get ambushed. I understood inside the prison, that snapping a few limbs to prevent anymore attacks. I understood that.

But that thing that he turned in to. It… it wasn't right. Wasn't natural how easily those onyx black claws tore through the blood red armor… The way the dark thing smile with utter glee as those men screamed in agony and fell to the dust, dead. I thought I was going to be sick. I didn't sleep for two days after. I didn't help that Jak was constantly on high alert.

That's another thing that's different. Jak doesn't trust anyone. The first night of our reunion, it took me twenty minutes to convince him that our dinner was not doused in whatever narcotic they were feeding him in that prison. And that the food was not going to bite back.

Unfortunately, the food was too lavish for him and he threw it back up not ten minutes later. He looked so sad, I was afraid he was going to start crying. I was also afraid that he was going to try eating his own vomit. He was eyeing it strangely.

I told him not to and he helped me clean it up. I felt so bad, but could tell he felt worse. I was so angry. I didn't think I had ever been that angry in my life. I wasn't angry at him. I couldn't think of a good reason to be. I was angry at the Baron. It was like he kidnapped my Jak, threw him to the floor until he shattered then put him back together with pieces in the wrong place and pieces that weren't even supposed to exist. I was also angry at myself. I had left him to rot in those two years. I let him be killed. If I had only moved faster, been braver, anything, maybe my Jak would still be alive.

When I had realized that nasty little fact, I set to do what I could for Jak. He scared me, but I wouldn't leave him. I was going to stick to him like glue. I would follow him through the toughest missions, screaming in his ears just like the old days.

And I promised myself, and silently I promised Jak, that I would make him smile. Not that little smirk he wears when he gets to blow something up, not that little ghost of an upturn on his lips when I say something funny or stupid, I mean a real smile. That big grin he always had when we were kids. That silent smile that spoke volumes.

XXX

A/N: Daxter centric. No lovy duvy, just friendship. I've wanted to do Angst!Daxter for a long time. Tell me how I did!

Broken Wolf/D.R.M.

1,053 words
4,268 characters
72 lines
2 pages
21 paragraphs