9: Expectations:

Ever since he was born, Daxter's expectations were set low. He had no family, he wasn't particularly handsome, he wasn't as confident as he tried to appear, and he would never amount to anything more than the village trouble-maker… and he was fine with that.

He had no family, and therefore never tried to find one-but then he found Jak, and he had a family of sorts whether he wanted it or not.

He wasn't handsome or cute or anything of the sort, but Jak sure made him feel like he was most days.

He wasn't confident. At least, not until Jak and the circumstances caused by knowing him had given him things to be confident about, things to be confident in-his fighting abilities, his bar.

He would never amount to anything… Which was true enough, until the Dark Eco incident.

His expectations had always been set low so he wouldn't ever disappoint himself, and now he was amazed beyond belief at what one friend had brought into his life.

~`.`~`.`~`.`~

10: Try: (AU)

Daxter glared at the teacher as he tugged his jacket back on, mentally cursing him as he prepared himself to go back to his foster family's house. "Now, Daxter. It isn't my fault you failed this test-it's your own. Try harder next time, will you? Maybe you'll break twenty percent."

The man's laugh followed him out of the room, and Daxter tried not to let it hurt his feelings too badly-Tess's parents were going to be puh-hissed! Oh well. He swung open his locker to put his books away, and there was a folded piece of paper on top of all of his books.

Curiosity got the best of him, and he shoved his books in after grabbing the square of paper. When he'd unfolded it, he was amazed:

'wZC,

WLM'G TREV FK. hSZWLDH RH QFHG ZM ZHHSLOV-r'OO VEVM SVOK BLF HGFWB ULI LFI MVCG GVHG, QFHG HL BLF XZM KRHH SRN LUU. wLM'G HGLK GIBRMT, GSLFTS-GSY nRWWOVGLMH IZRHYW BLF YVGGVI GSZM GSZG.

-qZP'

He smiled softly and folded the paper back up-it had been years since he and Jak had used that code, so he'd have to make a key for it when he got home, and then send Jak a text in their 'language'.*

~`.`~`.`~`.`~

11: Rain:

He had always loved the rain in Sandover-warm, random, and always at the perfect time. It tasted like saltwater-or freshwater, depending on where you were-and was always a pleasant surprise.

He hated Haven's rain with a passion. You knew WHEN it would come, but never if it would be normal or acid rain. You couldn't frolic around in it-too much pollution. Oh, and his first kiss hadn't been in Haven rain-it had been in Sandover rain. Would that make him biased?

~`.`~`.`~`.`~

12: Content:

There were many things Daxter missed about Sandover, but the heat wasn't one of them. Haven was his perfect temperature, and he got to laze around there. There were pizza places, theaters, and tattoo parlors, saloons, gun ranges, and hundreds of people…

…So why was it he was so much more content when curled up with good ol' Jakky-boy, remembering Sandover aloud so Jak could catch some sleep that night?

~`.`~`.`~`.`~

* The note read, 'Dax, Don't give up. Shadows is just an asshole-I'll even help you study for our next test, just so you can piss him off. Don't stop trying, though-the Middletons raised you better than that. -Jak'. The code is really easy-the alphabet up to M forwards, means N-Z backwards. Like this:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M

Z Y X W V U T S R Q P O N

Tada! Oh, and the capitols are lowercase and vice versa :D

Thank you for reading chapter two! As always, reviews are appreciated but I refuse to beg for them, and I could care less if you favourite or alert but don't review-I know how time rushes things. Until next time, babes!

Love,

~Mel