A/N: See description for backstory before reading.


See Spot Run


"Alright everybody, that's it for today."  The PE teacher blew sharply on a whistle, raising a hand and gesturing people towards the doors.  "Go get changed, and I'll see you tomorrow."  The students all filed through the doorways into their respective locker rooms.  Pausing outside the door of the Boys Room, Deiji sighed softly and closed his eyes, then headed on in.

"Can you believe gym class today?" someone said with a smirk.  He laughed, opening his locker.  "If Mr. Remy keeps wondering why I keep falling asleep in his class, this is why."  His friend beside him laughed, rolling his eyes.

"You'll never pass 9th grade at that rate."

"Enh, I'll just make it up later."  The kid shut his locker with a bang, and he and his friend walked off towards the showers.  Deiji passed them, stopping at his own locker and sighing a little, reaching up to open it.  He grabbed his clothes and looked around, then went to one of the bathroom stalls to change.  Stealing inside an empty one, he quickly shut the door behind him and leaned against the wall for a moment, breathing a silent sigh of relief.  He started to get changed, pulling off his shirt.

A couple of the other boys from class walked into the bathroom part of the room, laughing to themselves.  One of them smirked, turning to look at himself in the mirror.  "Did you see all the little runts trying to do chin-ups?"  Smirking still, he brushed his bangs to one side.  "You'd think that teach thought the bars would make them grow higher, or something."  His friend laughed, then turned to smirk at his own reflection.

"Yeah, especially GiGi..."

Fastening his jeans, Deiji stopped and winced.

"If the teacher's hoping for little GiGi to grow any taller, he'd better keep wishing!"  The two bullies started laughing, before one turned to the other.

"So where is the little poodle, anyway?"

"Well, if I know him..."  The first bully stood up and looked up in thought, smirking.  Behind the stall door, Deiji clutched his other shirt to his bare chest, closing his eyes tightly.

'Don't say in here, don't say in here...'

"...then I'd have to guess that he...."

'PLLEEEAASSEEEE don't say--'

"In here!"  The next moment, the door was slammed inwards by the shoulder of the bully and he smirked darkly, reaching in and grabbing Deiji's wrists.  "There you are!"

"N-no, Bryan, don't-!"  Deiji's gasped protests went unheard as he was yanked from the stall and hurled across from it, his breath leaving his body suddenly when he hit the edge of the sink bank, hard.  Grabbing at it with his hands, he coughed a few times and pushed up slightly.  It was only here he realized that the room had gotten uncommonly silent.  A heartbeat later he realized why.

"...Whoa," croaked Bryan's buddy.  He blinked, then grinned and smirked.  "Hey look!  He's a regular connect-the-dots game!"

"Wow, GiGi."  Bryan chuckled darkly and loomed behind Deiji, poking him in one of the purple spots.  "You're kinda young to get tattoos, aren't you?"

"Nah, they can't be tattoos!"  Someone nearby was laughing now, as Deiji stood up and turned, backing against the sinks.  "He must get someone to draw them on!"

"Yeah, I bet his mommy does it for him every morning!"

"Ain't that right, GiGi?" Bryan said with a cold smirk.  Deiji looked around frantically at the gathered, laughing crowd before he closed his eyes tightly and turned away.

"Aww, I think he's gonna cry!" smirked Bryan's friend.  "Careful poodle, before you make all your pretty purple spots run!"  He laughed, until he was shoved aside and he let out a 'Hey!'  Turning sharply, he blinked, then smirked at Deiji's retreating form.  "Yeah, get outta here, freak!"

Pushing people aside, not caring that he was shirtless and barefoot, Deiji made his way out of the locker room and took off down the hallway.  He didn't know where he was going, he just knew he wanted to get away.  Looking up through tear-clouded eyes, he shoved open one of the doors leading outside and stood there panting for just a moment, before he took off running again.

In a classroom in another part of the school, Legato was bent over his textbook, reading over a passage.  Seemingly subconsciously, his ears perked lightly as if he was hearing a silent whisper.  It hit his mind a second later and his eyes widened, his head coming up.  He glanced over towards the wall to his right and stared at it for a long moment; although nothing seemed to happen, he must have gotten what he was looking for, because a moment later he raised his hand and looked ahead anxiously.

"Yes, Legato?"  A man standing behind the desk at the front pointed his board marker at the student.

"Sir, may I go to the nurse's office?"  Legato gave his best plaintive look, ears sinking a little and his skin turning a little flushed, his eyes gaining red rims gradually enough to not be suspicious.  'When in doubt, cheat..'  He silently thanked his ability to use Fire at will, as he added to his initial plea.  "I don't feel so good..."

"You don't look so good," the teacher remarked.  He nodded and pointed towards the door.  "Gather your things and you may go."

"Thank you, sir."  Stuffing his books inside his bag, Legato shouldered it and walked out, putting on a rather sluggish act.  It was only when he was around the corner from the classroom that he let the whole ploy drop and he paused, looking around before he jogged off to the boy's restroom further down the hallway.  Pushing the door open and looking around, listening, he stepped further inside.  Satisfied that it was empty, he sighed and turned to speak to the empty air to his left, while leaning on the sinks to his right.

"What's wrong?"

A moment passed, and then the emptiness spoke.  "I saw Deiji outside."  At the announcement, Legato blinked a few times in surprise and stood up straighter, his eyes widening slightly.

"What?  Are you sure!?"

"I think I know Deiji by now."  Accompanying the somewhat flip response, a cloaked figure materialized from thin air.  Bass folded his arms, looking at the other figure with both eyes, although only the unscarred one actually saw him.  "He was running across the football field behind the school, and he wasn't wearing a shirt."

"He wasn't...?"  Legato sank back slightly, blinking.  "Something must be wrong...  I've gotta go find him..!"  Hurriedly pushing his bag into Bass' hands, he ran out of the bathroom and off down the hallway.  Withholding a sigh, Bass looked at the bookback, then vanished once again.

Opening a door to the outside, Legato cringed back slightly at the blast of rain that hit him fully in the face.  Wiping water from his eyes with one hand, he ran outside, splashing loudly through puddles as he headed for the football field.  When he got there he skidded to a stop, slipping a little on the wet grass and looking around through the rain.  "Deiji?  Deiji!!"  He huffed out rainwater from his nose and jogged forward, moving across the empty field.  "De-i-ji!!"  On a sweep with his eyes, something light against the shadow underneath the bleachers caught his attention and he started running over.

Deiji hugged his legs tighter to himself, shivering, his back pressed against one of the supports of the bleachers.  His eyes flicked up to the sight of his brother approaching, blurred by rain and tears, and he buried his face in his knees.  Coming up to his side, Legato kneeled beside him and looked at him worriedly, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Deiji?  What's wrong??"  The alarm in his voice only got a grunt in reply, and he tightened his hand slightly.  "C'mon Dei, you can tell me anything...."

"M'sp'ts..."

"What?.."

Sighing shakily, Deiji raised his head and looked at his sibling, his voice choked slightly.  "My spots...  Th'..th' guys in gym class saw 'em, a-an' they started laughin' 'bout 'em..."  Instantly understanding, Legato's expression softened and he moved closer, his knees resting on the wet ground as he slipped his arm around Deiji's shoulders.

"Deiji...  Dei, you can't let them get to you..."  He looked at him softly; Dei turned away, shivering strongly as he shut his eyes tightly.  He tilted over obediently when Legato pulled him closer.  "You're soaked...  Look, let's get you out of the rain..."

"No.."  Deiji raised a hand and swiped uselessly underneath his eyes.  "I..I don' wanna go back inna that school..."  He raised his hands weakly and pushed his brother back, leaning away from him.  "I..I jus' wan' stay here..."

"Look, you have to go back inside sometime..."  Legato looked at him softly; a moment later he was thrown off balance by a hard slap to his chest, and he landed on his rump in the mud.  Leaning back on his hands, he looked up as Deiji stood up and walked away a few paces.

"Have you ever wondered..."  Deiji closed his fists and inhaled deeply, shakily.  "...why we can't be normal?"  Huffing sharply, he whipped about and looked down at his seated sibling.  "I feel like everyone is always laughing at me!  And I try to be strong about it, but it gets so fucking HARD sometimes!"  With a little growl in his voice, he turned away partially, glaring off towards the ground.  "It's times like this, right now, where I almost wish I wasn't even born."

"Deiji..."  Legato stood up, looking at directly at him.  "Do you.. You don't... mean that..."

"Like FUCK I don't!"  He whirled around again and glared at Legato, his body shaking slightly although it was no longer because of the cold rain.  "And you know what the kicker is?  I wasn't even really born!  I was made in one big, huge, glass tube!!"  Turning around again, he stomped off a few steps, then turned and looked back.  "I was made, with no real concern for the end product!  And I've snuck onto Mom's computer, I've seen the files."  His eyes narrowed.  "I'm just one big, extended experiment!"

"That is not true..."

"You know what?"  Deiji let out a short, detached little laugh of sorts and started walking back, his hands gesturing as he talked.  "Do you know how many times I've wished I could rip the Digimon DNA out of my system?  That I could...could stop being that monster??"  He was face to face with Legato now, staring up heatedly at his brother.  "There've been times when I've almost come to clawing my spots off, and the only thing that's stopped me is that I can't even REACH them!!"

Stepping back slightly, the anger in his eyes slipped into something a little more fearful, his voice turning more panicked, as his hands pressed to his chest.  "And you know what I'm scared of?  What I'm really scared of?  The fact that both....CB and Rock have dark sides, and I am terrified that it could be a part of me too..."  Tears started falling down his cheeks again, their warmth almost stinging against his chilled skin.  "Legato, I don't..."  His hands snapped up, grabbing his brother's arms.  "I don't want to do that to anybody!  And that's really why...why I just wish I could be normal!"  The rage snapping back to the surface, he threw Legato back slightly and turned about, walking off a few steps, reaching up and digging his fingers into his hair.

"Deiji.."  The tone of his voice brought Dei's head up and he turned around to find Legato staring directly at him, almost through him.  "We've all got that.  You, me, Serena, Crescendo...  We've all got it, from one or both of our parents."  He started walking towards him, never breaking the eye contact.  "And we're all scared of it.  But in turn, we all know, or can learn, how to control it."  Both his voice and his expression softened as he sighed.  "And you don't think I've never wished that I could be normal too?  But that's not gonna happen, not unless we die and get reincarnated like that..."  He chuckled softly and smiled, stopping in front of the slightly shorter person.  "Someone really smart once told me this...  Take a look at everyone that we live with, and care about.  How many of them aren't normal?"  Legato folded his arms and shrugged, snickering.  "Who'd want to be plain vanilla in a crowd like that?"

Deiji blinked twice, glancing off, before his eyes slimmed and he looked back.  "What, you think you can just laugh this whole thing away??"  When no answer came, he started to stalk off.  "I'm going home."

"Stop."  Legato jogged after him and put a hand on his shoulder.  "I can take you if you want.  It's a long walk, and it'd be faster if we went directly..."

For a few moments, the only sound was of the rain pouring against the ground.  Deiji stared at his feet for a long time, until he rolled his shoulder to shrug off Legato's hand, and started walking again.  "I'm going home.  Bring my stuff when the day's over."

"Deiji..."  Legato took a step forward, his mind searching frantically; he shouted out the first thing that came up.  "You're gonna get suspended for ditching!"

The retreating figure stopped sharply, and he turned.  "Right now, I don't care."  Stuffing his hands deep in his pockets, he headed off.

Legato looked on sadly, his arms dropping as he sighed deeply.  "Deiji...  He..he shouldn't have to go through this...."  He sighed again, his head hanging slightly, shaking softly.  "I...I thought he was the strongest...  The most..carefree...of us..."

"Often it can be the happiest people who bear the biggest burdens."

Nodding to thin air, Legato closed his eyes, wiping them with one soaked sleeve as he started back for the school.

---

Deiji was sitting on his bed, tucked into the corner against the wall, a blanket wrapped around himself; underneath he wore a simple T-shirt and a pair of jeans.  Sighing softly, he stared at his reflection in a square mirror he was holding, the back of it bearing a hook for hanging on a wall.  He balanced it on one knee as he reached up with one hand, pulling the top of the blanket down a little more over his head.

It was when he picked the mirror back up that it tilted, catching a reflection of someone in the doorway.  Looking up, he blinked at seeing Rock there, though he looked away when he started to walk inside.

"Deiji..."  Rock sat on the edge of the bed, looking at him softly.  He sighed a little.  "Legato...told us what happened..."

"I don' wanna talk about it..."

At the rebuttal, Rock fell silent for a few moments, watching him sadly.  Sighing softly, he leaned back against the wall, tilting his head until the back of it gently hit the wall.  "Deiji...  Do you know that I've had at least...five instances like the one you're going through now?"

Hearing that about his father, and realizing he didn't know, Deiji blinked twice and looked at him in surprise.  "Really??"

"Yeah.  And it's really funny 'cause in the first one, I broke a mirror exactly like the one you're holding now..."  Rock gave a short chuckle and looked at him, sitting up more.  "You know that in the beginning, CB gave me a robotic body, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Well..."  Rock sighed through his nose, his green eyes looking off to one side as he slipped back into the past, his head touching the wall again.  "Having the robotic body was great, and I had a lot more freedom than I did as a Net Navi... But I couldn't feel anything...  I looked human, but I wasn't...  It..led to a mini-breakdown."  He blushed slightly, giving a slight, wan smile.  "But it in turn led to the new bodies being developed..."

"Well what about...the other times?..."  Deiji was sitting up fully now, the blanket dropped to around his shoulders as he stared at Rock curiously.

"Those all involved different versions of me."  He held up one hand slightly, sticking out fingers as he stated the instances.  "Becoming Hub for the first time; BugStyle Beast Rock; Forte Cross; and Greiga."  His eyes closed and he sighed, his hands resting in his lab.  "The Greiga beasting in question was the worst one...  I attacked Bass and nearly killed him, I de-winged Crmsn, and I tried to attack CB and Lan...  I myself was almost injured beyond repair just from them trying to stop me."  His eyes opened slightly, looking towards the ceiling, but staring off at something else.  "After that, and after I healed enough to move myself around... I had Medi put chains and restraints on me, and I voluntarily locked myself away in one of the containment rooms in the lab.  I was there for three whole days...  If CB and Crmsn hadn't have found me..."  He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, shakily, his voice cracking.  "I...probably would have died in there...."

"Oh...g..god...."  Deiji swallowed faintly, watching him.  "...R..really?...  Why...why did..."

"Because I didn't want to hurt anybody."  Rock's eyes blinked into focus and he raised his head, looking over at his son.  "I got the idea in my head that locking myself away would be the best thing to do...  Except that that wound up hurting them more than if I'd slashed them through the heart.  Deiji..."  Sitting up, he moved one hand and placed it on his shoulder.  "I know you feel different.  And I know you feel scared.  But think of how many of us live with that every single day..."

"Yeah...yeah, I know...."  Deiji blushed and looked away, his fingers tightening slightly around the mirror.  "L..Legato said that earlier..."

"Legato's got a lot of wisdom for his age."  Rock smiled faintly, tightening his hand on his shoulder.  "And so do you.  I know that somewhere in that head of yours--" He gently tapped his knuckles against Deiji's temple, making him giggle.  "--you know that sitting here, moping around in the dark isn't what you should be doing."

"I know that too.  But--"

"Deiji, you're not gonna let those bullies get to you, are you?"  Rock gave him a confident smile.  "Or let the possibility of having a dark side scare you, even though there's no proof at ALL of it yet?  Come on, you're part of the greatest family in the world!"  He laughed softly, warmly, and smiled brightly.  "How dare you even let that sort of stuff get to you."  He winked and smirked, then gave him a softer smile.  "Dei..."

"You're right."  Deiji chuckled and smiled, handing Rock the mirror.  "I've...I've gotta stay strong... If..if not for me, then everybody else...."  He slid forward and scooted off the bed, letting the blanket drop as he stood up.  "I mean I'm not..."  His voice dropped faintly, as he sighed.  "...not over it all the...the way yet.... But I will be."

"I know."  Rock smiled at him and stood up.  "Just concentrate about the things that make you happy, and the people you love, alright?  And that'll help...SO much...you won't even believe it."  He chuckled faintly, before giving a surprised sound at the sudden hug.

"Thanks."

Blinking twice, Rock looked down at him, then smiled and wrapped his arms around him, giving him a tight hug.  "You're welcome.  And you know you've always got me to talk to, right?"

"Yeah, I know."  Deiji stepped back and gave him a smile, then turned and started walking from the room.  Rock sighed and smiled, following after him for a few steps, but stopping at the door.  He looked up at the empty hook beside it, then to the mirror in his hands.  Sighing softly, he hung the mirror on the wall, staring at his reflection for a few moments.  Smiling softly, he stepped out, shutting the door behind him.

---

Bryan and his friends turned around as the locker room door opened.  Immediately Bryan smirked cruelly, turning around fully.  "Well GiGi!  We missed ya yesterday!"  He snickered and smirked, folding his arms.  "Didja run home to Mommy?~"

Deiji gave him a half-lidded look, then sighed and walked around the group of bullies.  Bryan turned with him, still smirking.

"Hey, get back here!  We wanted to count your spots, make sure all of 'em were drawn correctly!"  At the laughter that caused, Deiji stopped sharply and turned his head, something in his eyes shifting as he glanced over his shoulder.

Moments later the door exploded open and the bullies ran out with their proverbial tails between their legs, eyes wide, shouting "DRAGON!!  DRAGON!!" over and over.  Bryan was at the head of the group, his torn shirt fluttering around him.  Back in the locker, Deiji smirked and blew off his claws, rubbing them on his shirt as his hand changed back to normal.  The finned tail behind him vanished as he turned and headed for the stalls to change, whistling a cheery tune.

~FIN~