Home in my arms
Chapter 6
By shadows/of/flame

Ashelin paced around the room, muttering angrily under her breath.
"How could they? They know they won't be able to return to Haven City in their current state."

Damas glared at the red head distastefully.
"They are not in a "state" - they were born how they are, and if Haven City folk have a problem with that, Haven will have to learn to deal with it..."

She rounded on the older man, glaring at him.
"My father killed ALL homosexuals in the city as soon as they were discovered. If we had known about these two, they would be long since dead, like everyone wishes! Only the pure are allowed in Haven, and you know that."

"How can you be so selfish? Praxis has poisoned all your minds; there is no escape for you is there? No escape from what he has poisoned your mind with, even though hes been dead for 3 years?" Damas hissed.

The two glared at each other, and Damas folded his arms tightly across his chest, wondering what she was going to say next.

"We will have to talk to the two of them, but no one, and I mean NO ONE else is allowed to know about this, understood?"

The red head nodded slowly, and walked slowly out of the throne room, not even looking back once at the warrior king.

Damas couldn't believe how selfish Ashelin was - she was willing to ban her own friends from Haven City just because of a law Praxis enforced aeons ago?

"A lot of things have happened since I was Baron..." Damas sighed, dipping his now bare feet into the river that Jak and Torn had been rendevouzing at the previous night.

Damas ran his hands through his dreadlocks, and rubbed his arms to rid his muscles of the tension.

What had happened to peoples sanity?
What had happened to the times when everyone was accpeted for who they were?

Damas knew those days would never return...

All because of Baron Praxis.

0o0o0

Ashelin rolled her eyes as she made her way to Torns room, dreading even knocking on the door.
She assumed they would be all over each other as she opened the door, but to her surprise the two men were in seperate beds, sleeping peacefully.

"Oh get up already!" she exclaimed, jolting the two men from a peaceful sleep.

"Whats the big idea?" Torn groaned, groggily rubbing sleep from his eyes and glaring at her.

"Damas and I want to have a little chat with you. Now. Its important."
She had said all she needed to, and left the room quickly.

Torn opened his eyes, and rolled out of his bed, groaning.
Jak sleepily opened an eye lazily, and smirked at Torn.

"What did Miss Voluptuous want this time?" he murmured, also getting out of bed.

Torn rolled his eyes as he changed, pulling his t-shirt over his head, and making sure he had his knife.

"She wants us to go and see Damas. Something needs discussing between us four."
Jak paused mid-change, and looked at Torn.

"What do you think we need to talk about?" Jak asked, holding his lovers hand and squeezing gently.

"... Do you think they know... about us?" the tattooed wonder asked, cocking his head slightly to the left.

Jak tried not to laugh.
"... what?" Torn asked.

Jak smirked, and mimicked Torns previous movement.

Torn just rolled his eyes, and claimed the young blonds lips in a quick kiss before setting off out the door to the throne room.

Damas was sitting on his throne, face grim as the two men entered, Ashelin standing more to the left with a smile plastered haphazardly on her usually grim features.

"Whats the situation?" Jak asked Damas as the two stood before him, crossing his fingers behind his back.

"We have found that two homosexuals are currently residing in Spargus," Ashelin butted in, not even letting the Sand King get a word in edge-wise.

"And you two are the prime suspects."

Torn closed his eyes, wondering how she had found out.

"How would you know?" Jak exclaimed, stepping forward.

She smiled.
"You and Torn never were too secretive about your hiding place; the palace throne room is the ideal place for a late night rendevouz, don't you think?"

Torn glared at her, wondering why she was exposing them to the Sand King.

"I ca... I came here, because I knew I was a homosexual."

Damas, Jak and Ashelin turned their gaze to the ex-KG commander, and he continued.

"I didn't want anyone to get hurt - I was sick of everyone getting hurt on my behalf, so I left to prevent this from even happening."

Jak was surprised - Torn never showed this much emotion, not even to him, and it seemed his pale, blue eyed lover had finally had the walls of his shell eroded.

"W... what?" Ashelin gaped.

Torn looked her in the eyes, then Damas, but avoided Jaks gaze.

"I'm sorry."

The two words that Jak never thought he would hear from Torn echoed in the air, long after he had run from the room.

Jak decided to leave him alone for a few minutes, and rounded on Ashelin.

"What the fucking hell do you think you're doing?" he exclaimed, moving towards her angrily.

"So what if Torn and I love each other! Is it a crime to love someone these days?"

Ashelin had not expected this sort of backlash, and stood there shaking as Jak yelled at her, lashing out in his fury.

Eventually, Damas had had enough, and seperated the two of them with his staff.

"Thats enough!" he yelled, fraying the last of Jaks nerves.

"Stop it stop it STOP IT!" Jak screamed, tears blinding his vision.

A crackle of dark eco, a splitting headache, a staff, and a rock...

A sick crack echoed through the room, and all Jak could see was darkness.