This is a fic that's been kicking around my head more or less since I finished the game and I was finally persuaded to post it. It's a slight AU with the following changes, no J/A and secondly, Damas is still alive and kicking. Because of this, he never revealed his past to Jak and thus the two of them are so far unaware of their relationship. It's primarily going to be a J/K romance so I hope you all enjoy it. It's the first fic I've posted in ages so please tell me what you think of it.

A Desert Prince

He was Jak Marr, Hero of Earth, resplendent in victory wearing the armor of his ancestor, the ancient plates fitting over his muscular frame as though made for him as he held his rifle easily in his hands. He was a man who wielded power untold, who with a single blow could wipe out dozens, who with a thought could become an angel that glided among the clouds. Most would have envied him his victory and his power, and yet it seemed that to him they were not a cause for celebration for he was a man thoughtful of his lot in life. In front of him hundreds of figures had gathered in spontaneous celebration of his victory, a round of free drinks at the Tavern setting off a chain reaction that now saw every Wastelander in the city toasting him as the sounds of celebration rose into the night sky. Drink flowing freely as the smell of roasting meat and fish rose from a dozen fires dotted around the courtyard.

Jak watched it with a small smile on his face as he leaned against the rough, white-washed wall of one of the buildings surrounding the square, Daxter and Tess long since retiring into privacy to leave him alone in his musings. Despite the smile he seemed oddly pensive as a band struck up, ­­­­­­the rolling, high tempo music intermingling with the sounds of the celebration below, the fire-light dancing in his eyes as they narrowed. He kept his thoughts to himself however, refusing to share his mind with even the milky-green light of the Moon. But one person had seen him waiting in the shadows, refusing to partake of the celebration he had caused. She watched the play of his emotions as they crossed his features, remembering how adept she had become at reading his expressions when they had been their sole means of communication, it seemed like a life-time ago.

Above the celebration the sounds were muted by the night, his elven ears twitching for a moment as he picked her footsteps out of the background noise with practiced ease. He turned, sliding the rifle he'd held in his hands back into it's sheath as he took her in. Old feelings, feelings that had never truly disappeared stirred in him as he watched her, the moonlight giving her an ethereal beauty, aquamarine in her hair and eyes as her skin glowed a porcelain white, her soft features and figure given muted, delicate shadows by the light. He felt and suppressed the familiar pang of longing.

'Keira? Why aren't you down at the party?'

She gave him a small smile as she joined him on the ledge, a thin, cream jacket wrapped around her shoulders to keep off the chill of night. 'You weren't there.' She answered simply, her smile widening a little as he returned it.

He turned back to the scene below but let his gaze drift past them to the black expanse of ocean, the moon forming a glittering path across it. 'I… I was just thinking I guess.'

She smiled again, 'Me too…' A silence settled over them as it so often had in Sandover but this one was not filled with the warm haze of companionship, Keira glancing at the few inches between them as though they were a yawning chasm. Three years ago the gap wouldn't have existed and they would have sat here in silence the whole night just content with sharing each other's company. Now something was different... there was no sharing, only a sense of toleration, as though this were something strange that would soon be gone and return things to normal.

She took a deep breath and his eyes rose back to her, watching as she steadied her nerves before she spoke, 'What happened to us Jak?' That one question encompassed everything uncertain in their lives, there was just too much that they had let pass them by, too many things that had been left unsaid too long and had all banded together to form one insurmountable knot.

He spoke quietly, his eyes reflecting the firelight from below, 'I don't know… the baron I guess. Then all of this.' He gestured in the air and encompassed the entire war with that vague movement.

'It's over now though…' She spoke slowly, 'So can't we get it back?' There was hope in her voice, as though she wished that now that once again he stood triumphant over adversity he would come back to her as he always had and take her in his arms and show her that he was safe with his embrace.

Again Jak found himself unable to meet her eyes, 'I don't know.' His words sounded hollow, even to his own ears. 'Things have changed… we're not the same people we were in Sandover. When I'm fighting it's easy enough, there's an enemy, bang, there's not an enemy and I can get on with it… But it's all I've known really… it's been my life for… for over three years.' He spoke the words softly, as though the enormity of that time was just beginning to sink in. 'Now there's peace… and I don't know who I am in peace… I know I'm not who I used to be. I've got nothing left to tell me who I am now and I….' He sounded bewildered, lost, so much of his confidence gone now that he was divested of the storm of combat.

'Jak…' She reached out slowly, fingers brushing across his hardened bicep but he turned away from her touch, his back to her as he bowed his head.

'I… I'm sorry Keira… I want to… but I… I don't know what to do… I don't know if this is right.'

She laid a hand on his arm, letting her grip firm beyond a touch as she felt the stirrings of consternation in her. He wasn't trying to run away, he couldn't be. 'What do you mean? How could it not be?' Her tone had a little of the determination she had been taught in it, perhaps even a little anger that he seemed to be spurning her offer to rekindle what had been lost.

He glanced at her, 'I don't know… that's not what I meant. Right now I'm… I'm lost, I've got no idea what to do …'

'Are you saying we're over?' A tide of suspended grief teetered on the brink with those words as she stared at him, disbelief that he could shatter her heart the only thing that held it back.

'No!' His words were just urgent enough to keep her at his side and stop her from storming off. 'I… I just… I don't know what to do, what to say. Ashelin and Torn want me back in Haven, Samos wants me anywhere he can poke at the eco in me and I don't know what Damus wants, I'm meeting him later...' He trailed off lamely, but turned away from her, his face set in grim repose.

Three years ago perhaps she would have not argued with him on the point, let everything go unsaid as she accepted what fate laid at her feet. But she had said it. They'd both changed, he was no longer simply a capable teenager, he was a man, a hardened warrior who while in battle was invincible. She was a woman who for two years had forced her way through a cruel and harsh city and come out on top. Three years had taught him insurmountable strength, they had taught her unending determination.

'Who cares.' She whispered fiercely.

He glanced up at her and saw the frown on her face, 'What?'

'Who gives a hell what they want! You've saved the world Jak, what the hell have you got to worry about? Are you telling me that the hero of Gaia is so used to taking orders he can't decide something like this on his own? You're just using them as... as some sort of stupid excuse.' The words were an accusation and Jak flinched from them. 'As an excuse so you don't have to deal with something you're not used to, with this... with me.' She paused and gathered herself for a moment, fire in her eyes.

'But you're not going to just trail off and let this lie. We've been letting this lie for a year now and there's finally no baron, no aliens and no metalheads to interrupt so we are not going to let it lie now.' Her hand closed over the edge of his breastplate, the hidden muscles that let her wield her tools with such proficiency evident as she pulled him back to face her, anger glittering in her eyes. He blinked in surprise as she jammed a finger into his chest above his breastplate. 'We were lovers back in Sandover you remember that? I loved you! I wanted to marry you! That's not changed. Fighting may have been all you've known for three years but does that mean that you're not allowed to know anything else?'

Her words rushed out, half fuelled by anger as she stared up at him, 'Or are you frightened of it? Is that it? Do you just want to keep fighting forever and forget about everything that you don't know? For Marr's sake Jak, you've never been scared of a thing in your life, why the hell are you starting now? Why now, right when I don't need it from you? This is supposed to be the part where we live happily ever after remember?' Her voice was edged with something like desperation, a half sob in the final words as she thought of the unfairness of being denied the hope that had bouyed her for three years.

His mouth opened with a reply but he seemed robbed of speech as he stared down at her, 'Um…'

She seemed to drain as he failed to reply, deflating a little as her anger left her, the fists that had gripped his breastplate loosening to let her right hand rise to cup his weathered cheek. Her eyes rose and her features were gentle, Jak losing himself in them for a moment. 'You still love me don't you?' She spoke quietly, the night suddenly seeming still around them.

'I...' He began to speak, hesitating as he searched the night sky above for inspiration but she shook her head before he could continue, laying a finger on his lips.

'Don't speak.' She stared at him for a moment, tilting her head and gazing at him as though he were one of her inventions gone awry. 'I don't think you should talk to me about this... You got your voice from rage... You've only ever used it to fight.' She smiled slowly, softly as she spoke, feeling the idea as it took form. 'I think you do know what you want to do. You've always known what you want to do. I think you don't know how to say it…'

She licked her lips slowly, thinking for a moment, 'When we were kids you couldn't talk at all but that never stopped us from talking, so just… just don't speak. Just go on instinct, just do what you would have done when we were young, back when you first told me you wanted us to be together. Tell me what you want now the same way you did then because I can't figure out what your words are telling me and I need to know... Do you still love me?' She stopped and watched him then, an odd look in her eyes that was half encouragement and half something else, perhaps hope.

His face was blank for a moment as though he were trying to think of what to say to her and it seemed as though he would not take her words to heart as he took a breath to begin speaking. But before he formed the first word he stopped himself and she smiled as she saw the shift in his demeanor, his face softening as his eyes took on that singular depth of expression that she had grown to love in her childhood.

He smiled and she saw the understanding in his face, the relief that she had given him a way to tell her. He reached out a hand and she did not resist as he cupped her face, the rough pad of his thumb brushing over her skin as he watched her. He stepped forward and she gave herself to the warmth of his chest, letting his arms surround her as she rested her head in the crook of his neck, one of his hands in her hair as his cheek lay against her forehead.

'So we're still together?' She asked against his chest, feeling him nod in reply as his breath warmed her elven ear. 'And you still love me?' another nod, his arms tightening around her for a moment before he let her go, one arm remaining around her shoulders as the other pointed up to the palace and then out to the desert, the look of pain that entered his eyes making it clear now what he meant as he curled his free hand into a fist.

'But the war made you forget.' Tears were shining in her eyes as she stared up at him, seeing the smile on his face as she understood his every unspoken word. 'And all of this was tying you up so you couldn't think.' He took her into his embrace once more and nodded as he held her, both of them nearly giddy with the joy of such an instinctive bond and that even after all this time it was as strong as ever. They paused for a long moment before she asked her next question. 'So what are you going to do now?' She felt one of his hands tilt her chin up and she met his eyes as his other hand rose to run his fingers through her hair. She smiled, he reciprocated and she let her eyes drift shut as finally he leaned down and began to kiss her.

It was slow and sweet, just as it had been in Sandover, his lips soft and chaste on hers as his arms held her gently, the muscles in them a warm layer of soft steel around her. She burrowed into them, letting herself revel in his kiss, his scent, his presence and the simple knowledge that his heart was hers again. When they finally stopped she smiled impishly, letting her gaze drop coyly as she licked her lips slowly. 'Good answer.'

A.N. Well, there you have it, the first chapter of my latest piece. Please tell me what you think and wether or not I should continue posting it. Be warned however, the story as it sits in my head is so sugary you will get a toothache so bear that in mind ). Anyway, all actual reviews appreciated, spammers will be hunted down by ninja pandas. See you on the flip side.

The Visionary