A/N: Third Chapter! Enjoy! :D
It was a long night that night. Sig and Jak took us out in the middle of the desert. Yeah, that's pretty normal for Wastelanding training, but they left us there! By ourselves! All I had was my ratty old gun and Dark Eco powers, and there were thousands of Metal Heads. It wasn't until well after the literal middle of the night that Teko and I managed to get into a cave and settle down for the night.
"I'll take first watch, buddy. Get some sleep and I'll wake you up." I said.
She nodded and lay down. A few minutes later I heard her snoring quietly.
I rested my hands on my gun and sat in the mouth of the cave, constantly alert. I considered waking Teko up to take watch, but instead I sat up all night and just let her sleep. She needed it more than I did. And I'm not just being stupid, I literally need a lot less sleep than most people, since the Dark Eco in my system keeps me awake. I can go about a week without sleep before I get to the point of exhaustion.
At sunrise, none of the nearby Metal Heads had come to investigate us, but a few had sent us wary glances. It was either because they knew I could kill them or my Dark Eco deterred them, of course, but it set me at ease knowing they wouldn't bother us too much. I woke Teko up and she gave me a lecture on staying up all night. I only rolled my eyes and put my hand over her mouth.
"Quiet. The Metal Heads haven't bothered us yet, but if you don't shut up I can't guarantee they won't eat us."
She snapped her mouth shut and looked over my shoulder at the approaching hoards. "Me and my big mouth..." She muttered before jumping onto my shoulder.
My gun still in hand I burst through the ranks of Metal Heads, making my way to the rendezvous that Jak and Sig had designated for them to come pick us up. It was a few hours later that they came to get us, and I had already felled hundreds of Metal Heads. I was out of ammo when they got there and was very impatient to get back into Haven. I leveled my most threatening glare at Jak when he asked if we'd had a nice time.
"I'm gonna take that as a 'no'." He said, still grinning.
"Ya think?" I snapped, my voice a lot scratchier than it should've been. "Do you have any idea how many times I've had to save Teko's ass in the past few hours?"
She flinched, "Hey, I'm small and furry! Can you blame me for not wanting to be on your shoulder when those things pounce on you?"
Jak smirked. "Oh, then you're gonna have fun being a Wastelander, Teko. 'Cause I intend to get you into shape too."
She paled considerably. "Does this include guns? Because I can't fire a gun anymore. Too many accidents in the Citadel..."
He raised an eyebrow at me.
"She sucks at aiming." I said, jumping into the back of the rover.
Teko clambered up after me. "Hey, I can't help it!"
"Then I'll have Daxter teach you some basic Ottsel attacks. He's gotten pretty good at taking out Metal Heads in that form." Jak amended, shrugging.
"I can handle that." Teko said, nodding.
"Thought you couldn't talk." Sig said to me slyly.
"We're pulling a prank on everybody. They still think I can't, since they've only ever heard me say two sentences while I was in shock." I replied, finally relaxing a bit. "And it's so much easier to let Jak and Teko do the talking. I just stand there and look intimidating."
He smiled. "You're one tough cherry, Izaya. Already pulling pranks in Haven."
I chuckled. "I'm a born prankster. Man, Keira would always get so irritated at me..."
Teko laughed as we approached the wall outside Haven. "Yeah, I remember that one time..."
And we spent the rest of the journey to the Naughty Ottsel recounting to Sig and Jak all of the pranks we'd ever pulled on Keira, leaving us all in stitches. Sig had to stop twice because he was laughing so hard.
"You cherries are hilarious!" Sig laughed as we pulled up.
I grinned. "Thanks. We try."
And then we walked in and I fell silent. Teko continued to tell them of the pranks, even as we approached the bar and Keira gave us a knowing look when Teko mentioned a wrench.
"You're telling them about the pranks you pulled on me, aren't you?" She asked sourly.
Teko grinned, "Pranks? What pranks?"
"Brat." Keira said, turning away.
Teko stuck her tongue out at her and blew a raspberry. I spotted a glass of water on one of the tables, completely abandoned by whoever had been drinking it. I shushed everyone else, including Daxter, and picked it up. I walked up behind Keira and dumped it on her head, ice cubes and all, except for one that I held onto.
"IZAYA!" She yelled.
I laughed and bent over as she tried to shake it all off. She turned around again, and that ice cube I had kept was promptly stuck in her bra. She jumped with a squeal.
"Oh my gods, Izaya! You are so EVIL!" She said, jumping about and trying to get the ice cube out.
I just about keeled over laughing at her. Torn and Ashelin looked mildly amused, while Daxter and Teko were on the floor laughing. Jak was in the same position I was, and Sig was leaned back in a chair laughing even louder than the rest of us. Samos walked into the room and raised his eyebrows.
"And what is going on in here?" He asked.
Keira, who had finally managed to get rid of the ice cube, looked him in the eye. "Izaya happened." She motioned to her drenched form.
The ice cube was tossed at me before she stalked away to find something to dry off with. It just made me laugh harder.
"Man, that was funny!" Teko said. "I don't know why, but it was! Probably because Izaya's usually a sourpuss up in the Citadel, all work and nothing else..."
"All work and no play makes Izaya a dull Sage." Daxter said absently, fixing Jak a drink in the process.
"Now that's talent." Teko said. "That's the fastest I've ever seen someone make a Jaeger Bomb."
I grunted in agreement, nodding. Daxter grinned at me. "Want one?" He asked.
I shrug-nodded. He fixed me one as well and handed it to me.
"How old are you, anyway?' He asked.
"19." Teko said for me.
He clicked his tongue. "Well, then I can't say anything. You're still too young to drink, but Jak and I were 17 and 16, respectively."
I shook my head at him, making the 'shame' hand movements a few times (1). He stuck his tongue out at me.
"Hey, Jak was missing and I didn't have anything else to do for the better part of two years. Can you blame me for turning into an alchoholic for a little while?" He asked, "I was crushed."
I rolled my eyes.
"That's no excuse." Teko said, shaking her head in disapproval.
"I agree." Jak said, "I thought you said you were looking for me for those two years."
"I had no idea where they took you and got discouraged after the first eight months. Took up bar-hopping in hopes of getting a tip, but never got anywhere with that either, so I just started drinking. Wasn't until Osmo found me that I managed to get an idea of how to find you. And the rest, well, you know that part." Daxter said, shrugging.
I raised an eyebrow and shook my head with a chuckle. Teko gave me a calculating look for a moment, chewing on the inside of her cheek. "Did that mean, 'I need to hear that full story sometime.'?" She asked unsurely.
I raised my hand parallel to the ground and tipped it side to side a couple times, telling her 'more or less'. She seemed extremely proud of herself, if the look on her face was anything to go by. I smiled slightly before turning to Daxter. He was watching us with interest, lots of interest.
I raised my eyebrow.
"You two are just really interesting to watch. Jak and I can't get anywhere near that level of communication. I can hardly tell the difference between 'be quiet' and 'speak up' with him."
I smiled.
"That's 'cause we've always had to communicate like this. You two are guys, so you have different ways to communicate. But me and Izaya have to make hand signals...or give each other looks, such as the one she's giving me right now." Teko said.
I had blanked my face, shaking my head, the basic message being, 'You don't know what you're talking about.'
"No, no I don't, actually."
Daxter shook his head. "Seriously, if I could talk with Jak like that when he was a mute, life would've been so much easier."
I raised an eyebrow at Jak. I knew he was a man of few words—swear words not included—, but him being a mute like I was at one point was a little weird. He just chuckled.
"Dark Eco seems to have a relaxant effect on the vocal chords, at least to those of us who put up the effort to say more than a word at a time in dangerous situations." He said.
I rolled my eyes at him. I say more than that, especially around you! I wanted to snap. But I didn't. Teko just laughed.
"I'm not even going to translate that." She said, by way of cover-up. "She just called him some very nasty things…"
Even Keira seemed mildly amused by us, now that she wasn't frozen or soaked anymore. "You two are such goofballs."
