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Room and Board	By : sillyneko345 Category: +G through L > Jak & Daxter Views: 25355 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 7
Disclaimer: I do not own the game this story is based on (Jak & Daxter) nor do I make any money from writing it.

Chapter List
- 1-Ch. 1
- 2-Ch. 2
- 3-Ch. 3
- 4-Ch. 4
- 5-Ch. 5
- 6-Ch. 6
- 7-Ch. 7
- 8-Ch. 8
- 9-Ch. 9
- 10-Ch. 10
- 11-Ch. 11
- 12-Ch. 12
- 13-Ch. 13
- 14-Ch. 14
- 15-Ch. 15
- 16-Ch. 16
- 17-Ch. 17
- 18-Ch. 18
- 19-Ch. 19
- 20-Ch. 20
- 21-Ch. 21
- 22-Ch. 22
- 23-Ch. 23
- 24-Ch. 24
- 25-Ch. 25
- 26-Ch. 26
- 27-Ch. 27
- 28-Ch. 28
- 29-Ch. 29
- 30-Ch. 30
- 31-Ch. 31
- 32-Ch. 32
- 33-Ch. 33
- 34-Ch. 34
- 35-Ch. 35
- 36-ch. 36
- 37-ch. 37
- 31
- 32
- 33
AN: Once again I must apologize for the unnecessarily long wait. Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story for so long!
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Tainted_Emerald: Thank you so much for saying such a kind thing! I totally understand; life has a habit of being very complicated at times. I hope you’re doing well now, whatever you may be up to.
Kuromei: Pecker had to show up eventually, and he had to try for a piece of that lovely quarterback. Perhaps this chapter will reveal more of what’s happening in the Phoenix/Razer-verse.
Dexi the Ottsel: Here is moooooore! Hop you enjoy :)
DC: Daxter in orange booty shorts is a very nice thought. One that may just have to happen at some point.
Kitten: Daxter is indeed a dork. He’s everybody’s favorite dork!
Justin: Thanks for reading, Justin! (Multiple times, even.) Hope you enjoy the new chapter!
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Characters: Belong to Naughty Dog, Inc.
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“Notice how when Jak wears the hat, he looks like he ought’a be cuddling baby sheep or somethin’. When you wear it, you look like you ought’a be wrestling man-eating crocodiles and makin’ necklaces out’a their teeth.”
“I’ll have you know I make a damned fine Crocodile Dundee, thank you.” Phoenix grinned at Daxter in the mirror as he tipped the cowboy hat on his head to a jaunty angle. “Nice hat, Jak-o. What made you bring it to campus?”
Trying and failing to suppress a flush, the quarterback grabbed his headgear back. “I’d rather not talk about it. Ever.”
From his bunk, Razer huffed an amused snort. “Tell me, did you impossible oafs do anything over the break besides have slightly disturbing sex?”
“Did you do anything over break besides get run over by a goddamn car?” Daxter shot back, jamming a smiley faced pizza sticker just a bit too hard onto the wrist brace draped across his lap.
Hissing in annoyance and discomfort, Razer promptly flipped him the bird with his unoccupied hand. “I did not ‘get run over,’ miscreant. Rabbits ‘get run over.’ I was struck by a vehicle and rolled up the hood.”
“And you’re damn lucky you did, or you really would have been run over.” Phoenix frowned, ears lying back.
“But I did not.” Razer waved him off in the shushing manner of one who had been over the same topic several times already. “I am fine. Everything is fine.”
Jak smiled at their exchange. It was pretty obvious that something had changed between them in the week they’d all been apart. He didn’t want to pry, but until Phoenix told him otherwise, he was just going to assume that his teammate had finally tackled Razer firmly into the boyfriend zone.
He dropped his hat on Phoenix’s desk, fluttering a stack of papers. “You’ve got a lot of homework for the first day back.”
Phoenix groaned in the most put-upon of ways. “Lord, don’t remind me. My dietetics prof is already breathing down our necks about the term project.” Seeming to be at peace once more with his roommate’s state of wellbeing, he considered the stickers now adorning Razer’s wrist. “Daxter, would you be able to get me some of those? I’m making a poster board to go with my presentation about good nutrition at the campus preschool next month.”
“Yeah, sure. Taryn buys ‘em in bulk for the kids’ meals, so there’s a ton of ‘em floating around the storage room.” The redhead eased Razer’s arm away and rose from the edge of the bunk. “Speakin’ of, I better get movin’.”
Jak chuckled as Daxter shrugged into his coat. “Have fun. I know you will.”
“Work for the greater good,” Razer bade smoothly. “Make a difference. Seize the day.”
Daxter pointedly flipped them off and left.
“Will you quit picking on Daxter, you impossible arse?” Phoenix huffed fondly, giving Razer a gentle cuff on the shoulder.
“No, I will not. There’s a quota that needs met before the end of the semester and I’m a week behind.”
- / - / - / - / -
When Jak left his friends’ room, he dropped his hat off in his own and went in search of Torn.
When the RA was finally found, it was in the 3W study lounge, his eyes fixed on his laptop screen as if it held the secrets of the universe. Jinx flanked him on one side, Ashelin on the other, both playing on their phones and exuding a general air of spring break jetlag.
“Hey, Jakkie-boy,” Jinx greeted cheerfully as the other blonde walked in. “How was your trip down south? You an’ Red party hard?”
“Something like that.” Jak smiled and nodded at Torn, who hadn’t so much as blinked. “Is he okay?”
“Eh, he’s fine. Fine for a guy who defends his thesis in three weeks.”
“Sometimes he forgets to do the trivial things, like drink and eat. We come over to remind him.” Ashelin pulled a chip from the bag next to her and wedged it in the corner of Torn’s mouth.
He sucked it in with an annoyed crunch. “Yes, it’s like neither one of them have anything important that they need to be doing, and yet, I have this distinct feeling that isn’t the case. Jinx, you’re doing your own defense next month, right? Nothing to add? Nothing to check? No asses to kiss or cocks to suck?”
“You wound me, pal.” The chemist placed a hand over his heart with an injured pout as Ashelin snorted with amusement. “I happen to be totally prepared for this. Besides: que sera, sera.”
Ashelin held up two fingers passively. “Two classes, six credit hours, and a research paper between me and my Bachelors degree. They’re both insanely jealous.”
Jak was abruptly glad he was still a freshman. “Sounds intense.”
“You have no idea.” Torn finally turned his head to look at the quarterback, neck popping audibly. “Did you need something?”
“I just had a question about—”
“I’m aware that the printer in the lab is out of paper, and yes, more has been ordered.”
“It’s actually about roommate requests for next fall. Can you make sure Dax and I room together again?”
“Well, that’s easy, at least. You can go online to fill out a request form.” Pulling an index card out of a pile at his elbow, he began to scribble directions. “They assign rooms during the summer. I’ll be long gone by then, but it’ll be taken care of.”
Jak accepted the card gratefully. “Thanks.” It was sobering, though, what he’d just heard. “It’s going to be really weird next fall without you here.”
“It is almost a full changing of the guard,” Ashelin mused, taking another chip for herself. “A lot of the RAs are graduating out. I’m sure it’ll be a little strange for a while.”
“What are your plans after graduation?” Jak carefully pocketed the card.
She tipped her chair back contemplatively, fiery dreads roping down the backrest. “I’m taking the summer off. Next fall I’ll be back to start on my Masters, but I won’t be an RA again. Unlike our favorite failure to launch, here.”
Torn didn’t dignify the jab with a response. “I’m applying for full time teaching positions. Maybe at Haven, maybe somewhere else. Depends on how the cards fall.”
“And I’m teaching intro chem lecture classes online this summer, hopin’ for a contract faculty position next year.” Jinx gave his favorite student a wink. “Don’t worry about it too much, Blondie. Things have a way of workin’ out.”
For once, Jak found himself hoping that Jinx was right about something.
- / - / - / - / -
As undeniably awesome as spring break had been, Daxter had to admit that he had missed Pizza Haven. Or, more accurately, that he had missed Taryn and Ximon, so much so that he didn’t even mind (much) when he got saddled with them on the closing shift his first day back.
“So, tell me all about it.” Taryn flipped the CLOSED sign behind the last customers of the evening. It was the first chance they’d had all day to exchange words that weren’t shouts of orders and table numbers. “How was the beach? Nice sunburn, by the way.”
Daxter swiped a stack of plates and breadstick baskets off a table jauntily. “Oh, you know. It was a private bungalow with its own private beach, tiki bar, and hot tub. Pretty much the best thing ever. No big deal. Except it totally was.” He conveniently left out the part about the fantastic sex. Didn’t want to rub it in too much.
“God, you’re such a traitor.”
“Hey, I was thinking about you while I was there! We had seafood pizza the day before we flew back. The squid rings looked like onions.”
Taryn crinkled her nose as she grabbed the broom. “Yay for regional delicacies, I guess.”
“Did I mention we also had all you can eat crab legs?”
She swung the broom at him as he darted away, laughing, the dishes precariously balanced. “Get out. Bring crab or don’t come back.”
The redhead wrangled the dishes into the washer only a little smugly. “You know you miss me when I’m gone.”
“And I can’t imagine why.”
“So cold, boss. So cold.” He feigned hurt, flashing her his best puppy eyes as he passed back into the dining room to wipe down the tables.
To his infinite surprise, Taryn met the look with exasperated fondness; the same look she occasionally graced Ximon with when she couldn’t seem to help herself. “Okay, drama queen. If you want to take home a pizza you better go throw it in, or turn off the oven.”
“Actually, I think I’m good tonight.” Slightly thrown off by the sudden affection, Daxter took rag to tabletop with quick, if zoned out, efficiency. “Hey, can I have some more of those kids’ meal stickers, though? One of our friends needs ‘em.”
Taryn swapped broom for mop, following behind him as he hit the last of the tables. “Sure, you can have a few more sheets, if you grab a new bottle of canola while you’re in there.”
“No prob. Where are they?”
“First shelf on the left, second down.”
Seized with a sudden twerpish impulse, he skipped into the storage room. If the boss was in such a good mood, it would be a travesty to waste it. It only took a few moments of rustling in the dry goods before he found what he was after.
“I can’t find the oil.”
“What do you mean, you can’t find it? There are at least twelve bottles in there.”
“Sorry. Can’t see it.”
“How can you not see it?” Taryn demanded. The mop handle clacked sharply against the countertop as she marched over. “They’re right there—”
Daxter turned dramatically to face her in the stark light of the small room, round pizza stickers fitted perfectly over his eyelids.
She let out a sputtered shriek of laughter. “Oh my god, that’s like a nightmare!”
“My world has narrowed to pizza. All I can see is pizza. Pizza has consumed the entire scope of my conscious brain.” Arms outstretched, he staggered out of the store room and toward the general direction of her voice. “Pizza zombieeee, slave to the demon cruuuust~”
“I will hit you with this mop!”
He laughed evilly in the self-imposed darkness, fully expecting the wet embrace of soggy mop strings. What he absolutely did not expect was warm, soft hands cupping his face and firmly squishing his cheeks, lips smooshing out ridiculously. “Hmmwhaa?!”
“Have I told you lately how boring it is around here when you’re gone, you idiot?” Taryn laughed.
Daxter stood frozen, heart skipping a beat, as she let go of his face and hugged him instead, arms wrapping snuggly around his waist.
Okay. Wow. This was happening. Someone who was definitely not Jak. Hugging him. Someone who was definitely his usually ass-kickin’ boss. Um. Wow.
“I know I should probably say this more often, but. Thank you for all your help. And for lightening things up around here. I do appreciate it, really.”
Slightly terrified, he scrambled to peel the stickers off his eyes. “Who are you and what did you do with my boss?!”
With a snort of amusement she let go, stepping back to retrieve her mop and give him his space. “What, is it that out of the blue for me to express affection? I promise it was just a hug, not a clever ploy to shank you in the back.”
“Nah, no… it’s just… for a second there I was really scared we were caught in some kind’a Twilight Zone workplace drama and you were about to kiss me, or somethin’.”
“Oh lord. That really would be the Twilight Zone.” The mop bucket squeaked across the tiles as she rung out the head. “Next time I promise not to alarm you by attacking while you’re blind. Even if you did purposefully make yourself vulnerable.”
“Aww, so you’re sayin’ you wouldn’t kiss me?” he joked shakily, halfway afraid of the answer.
“Well, it’s not strictly that I would never kiss you. You’re fairly adorable when you’re not being a little wiseass. It just wouldn’t be right for an employer to have that kind of relationship with an employee. Also, you’re at least six years younger than me and that kind of makes me feel like a creep.”
Okay. That made sense. Those were perfectly good reasons. Still… shouldn’t he feel a little more offended that a hot woman wasn’t actually putting the moves on him, and a little less relieved?
Daxter edged back into the store room, mightily conflicted. How was it even possible to feel like you had almost cheated on someone you weren’t even in a relationship with?
“And, of course,” Taryn went on obliviously as she mopped at a sauce stain by the register, “I have no desire to get dumpster dunked by your football boyfriend.”
He almost dropped a bottle of canola. “What?!”
She shot a wry look over her shoulder. “Thanks for sounding so surprised that I don’t want to be a home wrecker.”
“No! I mean, Jak’s totally not my boyfriend! We are not dating. Not at all.”
“No?” Taryn looked truly surprised. “I thought for sure you two—” The bells over the door clattered as Ximon stepped in with a rush of cold night air. “Ximon, didn’t you think Daxter and Jak were dating? He says they’re not together.”
The delivery dude’s ears drooped sadly under the baseball cap that had once again replaced his beanie with the slow but steady retreat of the winter snow. “Dude, what happened? Did you break up?”
“No we didn’t break up, we were never together!” Daxter scrambled, slowly realizing that it might be too late to even run damage control. Dear god, did everyone they knew think that he and Jak were a couple? Were they really that bad at hiding the extra layer to their friendship, and they didn’t even realize it?
“Huh. Well, you do you, dude.” Ximon stacked his empty pizza carriers away on the back counter. “If you ever change your mind, we could always help you ask him out with pizza. Y’know, put a smooth note in the box. I’ve delivered three ‘wanna date?’ pizzas this month!”
Taryn snorted. “That might actually work. With as much as I’ve seen him eat, that’s probably exactly the way to his heart.”
Daxter laughed weakly as he turned back to closing up, desperately trying to play it cool. “Thanks, guys. I’ll… I’ll keep that in mind.”
However much he might wish he could actually call himself Jak’s boyfriend without a “fake” tag in front of it, it was just not going to happen. Ever. For a multitude of reasons. Funny how life kept rubbing his nose in that fact.
Later that night, cleaning done and store locked up, he took the long route home. The cold spring wind did nothing to clear his jumbled mind, or his weirdly aching heart.
- // - // - // - // -
After putting in the roommate request, Jak let Killer out for his evening run and tried to dig into his homework. No matter how hard he tried to concentrate, though, neither his head nor his heart was in it.
Daxter’s arrival back to their room was a welcome distraction.
“Hey. How was work?”
The redhead seemed to decompress, shoulders sagging as he stepped over the ferret, kicked off his shoes, and shrugged out of his coat. “Oh, y’know. It was goin’ back to the daily merry-go-round of customer service after a week in paradise.”
Something in his tone caught Jak’s attention, an unusual heaviness. It was probably nothing, though; residual doldrums of coming back to campus. “That great?”
“Bistro of broken dreams. The usual.” Collapsing at his desk, Daxter laid his cheek on the cool wood. The crooked brim of his Pizza Haven cap obscured most of his face. “Also, Taryn told me she appreciates me and missed me while I was gone.”
Jak chuckled, marking the chapter before closing his textbook. “And then she tried to sweet talk you into cleaning the bathrooms?”
“She hugged me and said she’d kiss me if she wasn’t my boss.”
The quarterback froze, ears lancing backward in shock. The complete lack of humor, or any obvious emotion, in Daxter’s voice drove home the seriousness of the situation. “… yeah?”
“Yep.”
“That’s… wow. I wouldn’t have expected that from her.”
Jak should have expected it, though. He had known all along in an abstract kind of way that Daxter’s humor, his quirky charm, his heartfelt grin—his wonderful Daxter-ness—was going to be noticed by others. Eventually, someone was bound to be drawn to him with more than platonic intentions. It had only been a matter of time. It was surprising that it hadn’t happened sooner.
Jak just wasn’t ready for the reality check it presented.
“It was kind of like an out of body experience.” The hat fell off Daxter’s head as he shifted, falling to the floor. Killer scurried over to inspect it with a chitter of interest that went largely ignored. “Also, she an’ Ximon were apparently under the impression that me an’ you are a couple. That makes them, the assholes next door, an’ yer entire family. We probably ought’a quit pallin’ around so much in public.”
“Dax, but—you really think so?” The green-blonde’s ears wilted without his permission, dread settling into the pit of his stomach. Oh, god. Not this. Maybe he should have expected this, too, but it all seemed so… sudden. “That’s what you want?”
If it really was, he would respect that. But holy hell, would it hurt.
“I want… No. That’s not what I want. Fuck, Jak.” Elbows propped on the desk, Daxter dropped his face into his hands. “I wanted ta not have this conversation, ever, but ya know what? I’m just gonna say this. Spit it out so I can get over it, move on, an’ try ta finish this semester without havin’ a mental breakdown.”
Jak wanted to get up. Hug his distressed friend. Hold him. But common sense kept him firmly in his own chair, letting Dax say what he needed to say. As much as he was afraid to hear it.
“… I’m not even sorry Taryn wouldn’t have dated me. How weird is that? I was actually relieved that a hot babe had reasons fer not goin’ out with me, because even if she did want ta go out with me… I would’a turned her down, because she’s not the one I want. Maybe last fall she would’a been, but… right now it’s somebody else.”
Jak’s breath caught in his throat. A wild hope leapt up, unbidden.
Daxter’s hands left his face, sliding up to twine nervous fingers in wild bangs. Suspicious moisture glinted in his suddenly visible eyes. “God, I’m such a failure. I can’t even fall fer somebody I’d actually have a chance with.”
“You are not,” Jak corrected instantly. “Don’t say that.”
Dax was out on a limb and swaying. Jak could go through with this, too. Even if he was wrong, and Dax wasn’t saying what he thought he was saying at all.
“You can’t help who you fall for. It doesn’t work that way.” He swallowed hard and forced himself to meet his friend’s eye. “Believe me, I know.”
The silence stretched for one, two, three beats, Daxter cocking an ear as he tried, despite his apparent misery, to grasp what Jak was getting at.
It was obvious the moment he figured it out.
Comprehension dawned on the redhead like the stadium floodlights coming up. His eyes widened, mouth falling open in a silent ‘oh’ of surprise and alarm. Seeming unable to find words, he finally just pointed at Jak, and then slowly pointed back to himself, the unspoken question hanging in the air between them.
Jak rubbed sheepishly at his upper arm. “Yeah. Pretty much. For a while, now.” He offered his roommate an unsteady smile. “Just taking a guess, but. It’s me, right? The one you really want.”
Daxter didn’t so much reply as he began to hyperventilate. “I can’t believe this. Fuck, this can’t be happening!” It was not, as such, a happy exclamation.
Slightly hurt and a lot confused, Jak tried to understand. “Dax, what’s wrong? I get it. I like you, too. That’s good, isn’t it?”
“We screwed up, Jak,” he moaned, crossing his arms on the desk and burying his face in them. “We screwed up so bad. It was just supposed ta be foolin’ around! We were just supposed ta be friends tryin’ stuff out—we weren’t supposed ta get attached like this!”
“We didn’t screw up. We did everything exactly right.” Unable to restrain himself any more, the quarterback surged up. “Yeah, we fooled around. We experimented. And look at the results.” He took Daxter by the shoulders and pulled his chair back from the desk, spinning the redhead to face him. “We’re great together. We just established there’s more to this than sex and the bro code. Why not make it official?”
“Because you can’t want me! That’s crazy. If you do that everybody’s gonna think yer gay, and you can’t be gay; you’re the quarterback fer one’a the best schools in the region! Yer whole future career—”
“Does not hinge on who I sleep with,” Jak deadpanned, giving the boney shoulder blades under his hands a grounding squeeze. “Dax. It’s okay. It’s going to be fine. We don’t even have to tell anyone we’re together. Everyone who doesn’t already know us well can keep thinking we’re just really good friends.”
Daxter fell silent, gnawing his lip, obviously conflicted. He wiggled and sank down in the chair, trying to squirm out and break eye contact. “Yer just sayin’ it’s mutual because you feel sorry fer me. That’s it, right?”
“Uh, no. Not even close.” Jak shifted, hands firmly grasping the arms of the chair, leaving the redhead no room to slink out of this impromptu tsunami of feels. “I almost told you last week.” One more than one occasion, in fact. It had felt so good to think of Dax as his boyfriend, even if they were only pretending.
“Then why didn’t ya?”
“Lots of reasons. But mostly because you were so damn excited to try sex, and new things, and I figured the logical next step was probably finding a girl to hook up with.” He flushed, ducking his head. “And… Because I’m the king of the fake jocks, and I was afraid to admit that I romantically like someone for the first time in my life, just to hear you say sorry, I’m just your best friend.”
Daxter’s face was equally red. “Well. You are my best friend. But not just my best friend.” He finally glanced up and side-eyed the quarterback, still wary. “S-so. Yer really serious about this?”
Jak put on his best serious face. “Like ‘I’ve only been to this lecture three times all semester and finals are tomorrow,’ serious.”
That earned an unsteady smile. “Like you’d know what that feels like.” He sat up a little straighter, though his ears stayed at half mast. “What do we do about summer?”
“We call each other all the time and send stupid selfies on a daily basis. And when August comes I’ll carry you around like a ferret on my shoulders and not let you down at all during move in week.”
The smile grew, even if Daxter still wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Psssh. You’ll have so much fun wranglin’ ostriches and blowin’ things up with Keira on the farm, you won’t even remember you’ve got a—whoa!” The redhead let out a squeak of surprise as Jak hauled him out of the chair and into his arms.
“Hey. I know you’re used to people dumping you off and leaving you alone. But I don’t want you to be alone, ever. I will absolutely not forget you this summer.”
“Goddamn, are you askin’ me out or is this a marriage proposal?” Daxter laughed shakily and freed an arm to rub at his eyes. Then he was suddenly moving up on tiptoe, arms falling around Jak’s neck and face burying in his shoulder. “Okay, fake jock. If you seriously wanna date me, and you think we can pull it off, let’s do it.”
Jak hugged him hard, the redhead’s feet actually leaving the rug with a little squawk of indignance. “You know the best part about all this? You’ve been wearing one of my letter jackets since Christmas and nobody’s even realized. Claim: already established.”
Daxter groaned, laughed, and pulled him in for a kiss.
- // - // - // - // -
To be continued… (still not quite done yet!)
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Outtakes!
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Razer: So did you incompetent fools do anything over the vacation besides screw?
Dax: Sure we did! We did a ton of things. I even added a whole new page to my “Running from the Cops” scrapbook. Wanna see?
Phoenix: I’m morbidly curious, but at the same time…
Jak: There was a flirty waiter and a citrus fruit involved. Let’s leave it at that.
Dax: (pouts) You ruin all my good stories.
- - - - -
Jak: So, what are your plans after you graduate?
Torn: First and foremost, my plan is to find a solid start to my teaching career. Once I do that, I can look for more permanent housing that isn’t overrun with freshman assholes. Then I can set up a Roth IRA and begin the slow slog toward tenure and, eventually, retirement.
Jak: Wow, you’re so mature. I’m really impressed. How about you guys?
Ashelin: … rope Torn into a threesome.
Jinx: Exactly what she said. Emphasis on the rope.
Torn: *head desk* I hate my life.
- - - - -
Dax: I have to say something. I can’t keep it inside anymore. The person I really love is—
Jak: Yeah? Yeah?!
Dax: —Razer. I just can’t help it! The accent, the attitude, the hair! But I know it’ll never work. He and Phoenix are so beautiful together. So I’m just going to keep quiet. Thanks for being here for me in my misery, Jak, best pal o’ mine.
Jak: …
*two minutes later*
Torn: Okay, I’ll bite. Why are you camped out facedown on the lounge sofa?
Jak: (muffled sobbing)
Torn: Um. Sure. Have a good night, then. Don’t forget to clean up your snot. Other people sit there too.
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