Jak and Daxter (c) Naughty Dog.

JKA: Hey everyone! :D Long time, no see, huh? It feels good to be back on here. :) But you probably don't care about me being all sentimental, so I'll talk about the story. Just a little nothing Daxter/Tess oneshot, because seriously, that couple is waaaay too ignored on here. It's probably the second-shortest story I've ever written, which kind of irks me, but that's irrelevant. Takes place pretty much right after Jak X. Read, review, and enjoy! ^_^

Of Starlight and Revelations

"You mean you really did all that by yourself?"

"Yup! Ol' Mizo was nothing but a fireball thanks to yours truly! And after I emerged heroically from the smoldering wreckage with not a single scratch on me, I snatched up the antidotes, sped back to where everyone was waiting for me on the brink of death, and saved us all in the nick of time! Jak actually felt left out, poor sap, so I let him keep the championship trophy. After all, his insane driving could never compare to my level of racing prowess, so it's only fair that he get a piece of the action, too."

"You're so amazing, Daxter," Tess giggled, snuggling more securely against her boyfriend's side and gazing up at him with adoring eyes.

"I know," Daxter boasted, puffing out his chest with pride. "That's because nobody messes with Orange Lightning!"

The two chatting rodents were perched on the edge of the Naughty Ottsel's rooftop, their feet dangling lazily over the side. The neon glow of the colossal bar sign illuminated their small forms, in stark contrast with the pearly rays cast by the full moon overhead. Stars danced across an ebony sky, their light for once unobscured by a persistent cloud of smog.

Daxter and the rest of the gang had returned from Kras City less than twenty-four hours previously, and since arriving back home, they'd spent their time doing nothing but celebrating simply being alive. Torn and Ashelin, having had enough of partying after Jak's championship victory, had retired to the presently-inactive Freedom League headquarters to "discuss official government business", as they put it. The Grand Champion himself was currently inside the building his best friend was seated atop, catching up on years of wasted moments with a certain blue-haired mechanic. As for Daxter, the pants-wearing Precursor had spent every second possible upon entering Haven engaged in his favorite pastime — namely visiting his girlfriend and bragging of the many spectacular adventures he'd had while away.

"I wish I could have gone with you," Tess sighed despondently, a frown darkening her normally cheerful features. "It was so boring around here with everyone gone. And I missed my little hero while he was off blowing up schizophrenic crime bosses."

"N'aww, I missed you, too, angel cheeks," Daxter replied in a soppy tone that would have made Jak gag had he been in the vicinity. "I dedicated my big race to you, ya know."

"You did?" Tess blinked at him in surprise, the bubbly smile that always made Daxter's heart race — not that he would ever admit it — appearing again.

"Sure did," the slightly taller of the two confirmed, ready to launch straight into another dramatic tale. "Right before I got behind the wheel of my custom-made ottsel-shaped speeder, mister big shot G.T. Blitz — the guy who was really Mizo and whose ass I kicked later, remember? — saunters up to me and says, 'So, Dax the Max, all of your adoring fans out there are betting big money on you today. Anyone you wanna give a shout-out to before you leave the rest of the competitors in the dust?' And I turned to him, looked straight at those stupid floating cameras that were always followin' him, and said, 'Well, tin-grin, I'm gonna win this for my girl Tess back home.'"

Tess laughed delightedly and planted a kiss on Daxter's cheek, her azure irises glittering with happiness. "You didn't have to do that for me, Daxxie."

"Oh, I know," Daxter shrugged, winding one skinny arm around Tess' shoulders nonchalantly. "I wanted to. I just thought the whole world deserved to know what a good thing I got goin' on here."

"See, that's why I love you," Tess murmured, resting her blonde head on his chest and letting her eyelids fall shut contently. "You're too sweet to me."

Unbeknownst to the she-elf-turned-ottsel, Daxter's entire body froze upon hearing that dreaded three-word phrase fall from Tess' lips. His eyes widened until they nearly consumed his entire face, the breath whooshing out of his lungs as if he'd gotten the wind knocked out of him.

Did I really just hear that? he wondered, a sudden onslaught of anxiety making his stomach churn. No, it can't have been what it sounded like. My mind must be playing tricks on me. Some straggling side-effect of the poison or something. She didn't just tell me what I think she told me… did she?

His thoughts chased themselves around in circles, making his head spin as though he were still clinging to Jak's rear fender for all he was worth while the dark warrior screeched through hairpin turns at breakneck speeds. Even though Daxter was notorious for his Casanova ways, — which, quite frankly, he delighted in far more than he should — he'd never had a woman tell him she loved him before.

To the boisterous rodent, hearing that sentence come from Tess — the only female, elf or otherwise, who'd ever actually reciprocated his affections — was at once exhilarating and utterly terrifying; to say he had no idea how to react would be the understatement of the century.

No, Orange Lightning was a player. Being in a serious relationship would go against every moral code he'd ever lived by. He simply couldn't fall in love.

…can I?

A fleeting look down at Tess tossed any argument he may have had against the concept out the window and directly into the jaws of a Metal Head. This girl was different. She understood him, and he understood her. He could tell her anything, and she'd listen, even if it was so far beyond the truth that a toddler could have seen right through him. He was happy when he was around her, and not just because she had a nice wrack, either.

That was the part he didn't understand, though, this strange feeling he experienced whenever he was with her. It was as if someone had ignited a fire in his heart, and rather than burn him to a crisp, it spread throughout his body, bathing him in warmth unlike any other. No one else had ever made him feel this way, and as much as it frustrated him, he could never quite put a name to the unfamiliar emotion.

That is, until Tess found the words for him.

"I love you, too," he whispered, so quietly that he could hardly understand himself. The phrase was foreign on his tongue, far more weighted than those contained in his typical sarcastic brand of conversation. But as much as he hated talking about serious things, this was one subject he decided he could live with — as long as it related to Tess.

"Really?" his girlfriend questioned in astonishment, having not expected his response. She lifted her gaze to meet his, her eyebrows raised in blatant shock.

"Yeah," Daxter nodded a bit sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand in embarrassment. He silently marveled at his own epiphany, his mind still reeling as it struggled to catch up with what he'd just discovered.

Touched beyond the point of speech, Tess merely beamed at him, wrapping her arms around his middle and shifting impossibly closer to him.

A hush fell over the couple, for how long, neither of them knew nor cared. They were satisfied to just enjoy one another's company, each lost in their own reveries as they scanned the tranquil night sky above them.

Quite suddenly, a shooting star darted across the inky expanse, a blazing trail of silver tracing a thin arc in its wake. Within the length of a heartbeat, it had vanished over the edge of the city's outer wall, already a distant memory. Its tail chased after it, whisking behind the oppressive structure as though laughing at the Haveners bound within their day-to-day routines by such barricades.

"What did you wish for, Daxxie?" Tess inquired curiously, watching the place where the comet had disappeared through half-closed eyes.

"What'd I wish for?" Daxter echoed in confusion, his brow furrowing and casting his light blue irises into shadow.

"Whenever you see a falling star, you're supposed to make a wish on it," Tess explained, as if it were the most straightforward notion in the world. "Ergo, what did you wish for?"

"Hmm… I wished for another pair of pants," Daxter decided after a brief pause, his expression smoothing out and a crooked smile playing at one corner of his lips. "I'm gettin' tired of wearing the same one every day. Kinda hard to keep 'em lookin' sharp if they're permanently attached to my body."

Tess allowed herself a short giggle, and then she quieted, a contemplative look flitting over her furry features. "Hey… Daxter?"

"Yeah?" her named boyfriend responded, pulling back from her a few inches in order to study her face.

"Do you ever regret it?"

The blunt query caught him off-guard, and he blinked stupidly at her for a moment, trying to piece together what she was asking. He wasn't quite sure what she'd meant by that, but he had a vague idea where her train of thought was leading.

"Regret what?" he pressed, tilting his head to one side inquisitively and fixing her with a probing, sky-hued stare.

"Regret becoming, y'know… you," Tess elaborated, gesturing somewhat uncertainly to the length of Daxter's orange body. "I mean, do you ever wish that you hadn't been turned into an ottsel?"

Wow, I was right about something for once, Daxter mused to himself, biting his tongue to suppress a triumphant chuckle at the thought. I guess I know Tess better than I'd realized.

"Sometimes, I guess I do," he pondered aloud, answering the blonde rodent's question. "But whenever I'm feeling down about it, I remember all the things that wouldn't have happened if Jak and I had never gone to Misty Island, and I'd never fallen into that pool of Dark Eco."

His eyes took on a distant glaze as memories flickered behind them, like the rhythmic dance of the embers of a campfire. "For one thing, there would have been no reason to go try and find the Dark Sages, because we wouldn't have needed them to change me back into an elf. And then Jakky-boy and I would have never saved the world, which means we'd never have found the Rift Ring either. Then without the Ring, we'd still be in the past, and would've never come to Haven and destroyed the Metal Head leader. And Jak wouldn't have been banished, or met his father, or kicked Erol's ass for the second time, and we'd never have met the real Precursors."

Softness washed over Daxter's features like the gentle lapping of an ocean wave, the expression looking rather odd in the place of his characteristic grin. "And, most importantly, if I'd never been turned into a two-foot-tall fuzzy rat, then I never would've met you."

"Huh, you're right," Tess agreed in a slightly dazed tone, clearly having just grasped that fact herself. She buried her face in the side of Daxter's neck; he could feel her smiling against his fur. "Well, in that case, I'm glad things ended up the way they did."

"You and me both, sweetheart," Daxter muttered, tightening his grip on her, wondering — not for the first time — how he could have gotten so lucky.

A sudden idea occurred to him, and his euphoric mood faltered a bit, tainted by a cloud of doubt.

"Do you regret being changed into someone, er… like me?" he questioned hesitantly, words failing the loudmouth Precursor for once. His muscles stiffened unconsciously as soon as the sentence was out, a small part of him dreading her reply.

"Not really, no," Tess answered after some consideration, noting an immediate relaxation in her boyfriend's tense posture. She lifted her head again, her sapphire orbs contemplative. "I mean, sure it's different, and it took a while to get used to being so short and covered in unwanted body hair. But if I was still an elf, then we would have never worked out. After all, you can only defy the laws of nature in so many ways before it becomes just plain wrong."

Daxter let loose a bark of laughter, ruffling Tess' blonde hair affectionately. "Yeah, no kidding. Although I gotta admit, I kinda miss the completely weirded-out looks Jak used to throw at us. There isn't much that can get to him like that used to."

"That reminds me, we've still got to get that little pink house out in the country," Tess giggled, the sound escalating into a roar of hilarity as Daxter's eyes widened with pure horror. He recovered almost instantly, a casual smirk masking the fear he'd just exposed.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I think I've been livin' in the big smoke for too long to move out to the country," he scoffed, a teasing gleam in his bright blue gaze. "And besides, then I'd have to hand over my bar to some stranger — or worse, to Jakky-boy." He pretended to shudder at the concept. "Who knows what kind of disaster he'd unleash if he was left in charge of this place."

Daxter patted the roof beneath him fondly, earning himself an amused snort from Tess.

"I guess we can stick around here for a while, then," Tess surrendered jokingly, flicking her boyfriend playfully on the nose. "Besides, does it really matter where we live? To me, anywhere's home as long as you're there."

For once in his life, Daxter didn't feel compelled to answer her verbally. Instead, he reached up with one hand and twined his fingers in her hair, pulling her closer. Her cool breath billowed around him as the gap between them diminished, their lips less than an inch apart —

"Hey!"

A frustrated growl rumbled in Daxter's throat as the moment shattered like glass hitting the floor, his ears flattening against his skull in aggravation. He separated from Tess and peered over the side of the roof, instantly spotting two familiar figures standing in the halo of light cast on the street below by the Naughty Ottsel's massive sign.

"What do you want, Jak?" Daxter huffed impatiently, folding his arms across his chest and scowling down at his best friend.

"Oh, nothing," Jak shrugged innocently, a broad grin stretched across his rugged features. Keira was leaning against his side, her hand interlaced with his, wearing an expression identical to Jak's own. "I just couldn't pass up a golden opportunity when I saw one."

"Ha, ha, very funny," Daxter grumbled, while Tess simply watched the exchange in silence, her azure irises glittering with mirth.

"Come on, Dax, you have to admit you had that coming," Keira teased, snickering to herself as the ottsel's face became more and more disgruntled by the second.

"Alright, I get it!" the self-proclaimed Orange Lightning snapped, his irritation propelling him to his feet. "No more interrupting you two when you have one of your 'moments'. Now if you don't mind, we were kind of in the middle of something up here!"

Jak and Keira both broke into a chorus of laughter, the different pitches mingling together in perfect harmony.

"Fine, we'll just leave you to it, then," Keira retorted mockingly, towing a still-chuckling Jak along as they ducked back inside the lively pub, the door sliding shut behind them.

Heaving an exasperated sigh, Daxter returned his attention to Tess, his anger melting within a heartbeat and warmth filling him in its place.

"Where were we?" he questioned rhetorically, beaming from ear-to-ear as he offered a hand to Tess, helping her up so that she was standing beside him. He took a step forward, intent on bringing her nearer and picking up where they'd left off, but apparently Daxter just wasn't meant to get his way that night.

An ear-splitting yelp of fright burst from the orange rodent's throat as his paw slipped over the rim of the rooftop, sending him plummeting to the road below.

By the time he'd managed to peel his face off of the unforgiving concrete, only two things had registered in his mind. One was the fact that karma seemed to genuinely hate him.

The other was the echo of Tess' voice as she howled with laughter from somewhere high above him.

JKA: Had to end it on a comedic bit, because really, it's Daxter. It's almost defying the laws of nature for that rat to be serious for any length of time. XD

H'anyway, hope you all enjoyed that as much as I enjoyed writing it, and feedback would be much appreciated! Thanks!