Comfort

The first thing Daxter knew, he was flying through the air, rudely interrupted from his dream of nuzzling into Tess' cleavage, and slamming down on the hard wood floor. He groaned, tried to stand, failed, flopped back down in a bony heap. His head was spinning so much he could barely see as he tried to get his bearings and figure out what the hell had just happened.

"Sorry, Dax..." Jak's rumbling voice met him as big warm hands plucked him from the ground. Oh, this was better. He focused on Jak and slowly his vision unblurred.

He blinked up at his friend's face as it slowly came into focus, the guilty expression and sweat beading on his forehead sparking a memory in Daxter's brain. "'Nother nightmare, buddy?"

Jak nodded slowly, setting Daxter gently back onto the bed and sitting down beside him.  He released an explosive sigh, head lowered and hands clasped tightly behind his neck. Daxter knew that look all too well and laid a furry hand on his friend's shoulder.

"Hey, hey...don't sweat it too much, babe. Look, see? No broken bones. I ain't bleedin' from any important orifices. I'm as healthy as a yakow." Jak's expression didn't waver. Forwning, the little ottsel wormed his way past Jak's arm and onto his lap. "Now why don't ya tell Daxxie about this big, bad nightmare?" He sat down on his friend's knee, as if expecting a bedtime story, and waited patiently.

Jak's next sigh was shaky. Daxter counted the seconds that went by. He got to ninety-three before Jak finally spoke up:

"I don't really...think it was a dream."

Another long pause. Daxter could be patient when he wanted to, but this was pushing it. Still, best not to force Jak to do anything; he talked in his own time.

"Dark was talking to me," Jak finally said. "Whispering. Telling me to kill y..." The older boy's mouth snapped shut, but Daxter had already heard the "you" he was forming. He pretended not to notice. "He kept saying how easy it would be, just...just give in to him, stop fighting him.

"I almost did it." Had Daxter not been sitting as close as he was, he never would have heard the whispered confession. He waited for Jak to continue, but it seemed like the older boy had said everything he was going to say. Now it was Daxter's turn to talk.

"So what, ya think that makes ya a bad person?" Jak said nothing, but he knew his friend well enough by now to know what his silences meant. "Ah, come on, buddy, if ya were a bad person, I wouldn't be here right now. Ya fought him. Ya won. Ain't that proof enough?"

"But it could happen again!" Jak snapped, finally looking at Daxter from under his shield of hair. "What if next time I don't fight him, and something bad happens?"

Now that Jak was facing him, he could see the hysteria in his friend's expression. As far as he was concerned, Jak would never let Dark take control. He had more discipline than that, more power. He might not think he was strong enough to fight against his darker side, but Daxter knew he was. After all, he'd had plenty of opportunity to do horrible things, and so far he'd resisted them all.

Of course, he knew Jak would never listen to him.

Daxter stood, bracing himself on Jak's knees, ignoring his friend's startled expression, and rapped his furry knuckles on the blonde head. "Hey! You in there! Darkie! I'm tryin' ta get my beauty sleep and you do not want me to come in there after ya if I don't!"

Jak let out a bark of laughter at his friend's serious expression. "You...what the heck are you doing, Dax?"

"That dark side a' yours needs a good talkin' to. And who else better than Orange Lightning to whip him into shape? Ya gotta learn to scold your dark side every now and then, babe, or he's just gonna walk all over ya." Daxter jumped off his friend's lap and onto the bed, stretching his small arms toward the ceiling and letting loose a giant yawn. He saw his friend trying to stifle laughter out of the corner of his eye.

"Now...I was havin' a real good dream involving a certain bartender, and I'm real eager to get back to that. So." Daxter jumped on his friend's chest as he laid down and curled up. "Night, Jakkie."

"Night. And...Dax?"

"Yeah, bud?"

"Thanks.