Summary: Taichi—every time he "uses" magic, his body grows weaker. Can Yamato save him before it's too late? Yamachi/Taito

Disclaimer: Owns neither Digimon nor any of its characters.

Cursed

By: splintered

For now... the blonde added silently. But then...it wasn't easy... then when I met you....

It happened not long after the dreaded "D-word." (Yamato preferred not to mention the "divorce" around the house. Consequently, the infamous "D-word" got its name.) Hiroaki Ishida had decided to move, as his former living quarters reminded him too much of his ex. So, as Yamato figured, it was Dad's fault that they moved to Odaiba. It was Dad's fault that Yamato was in his current situation. It's Dad's fault---coupled with the fact that he, Yamato Ishida, didn't know his way around a new town well enough---but Yamato mostly liked to think that it was "Dad's fault." It's much easier that way, the blonde decided, shoving the guilt down his throat as...

"Give it up, Blondie." Oh, he hoped he wouldn't throw up. That would only make things worse...as large rough hands forcefully grabbed at his shoulders. He struggled, of course, trying to pull away from the larger boy's grip, but he soon noticed, the more he struggled, the tighter the grip became. "Give it," his tormenter demanded once again, shaking 'Blondie' roughly by the shoulders. The blonde just whimpered in response, sure that his poor shoulders would already be red and raw by now. He hated how easily his pale skin bruised and of course, the thought that this boy's handprints would be imprinted on his shoulders didn't please the blond.

"Aww, I bet he doesn't have anything," his companion whined. For a moment, the Yamato's attention shifted from his tormentor to the tormentor's friend. He was definitely the taller of the two, the blonde observed. Whereas the boy who held him by his shoulder blades was shorter and stockier, the boy's partner was taller and thinner. And he also seemed to hold a position of authority. "C'mon, Trey, let's go."

Or not. "Do you have any money, Blondie?" the bully demanded once again, making no sign that he heard his friend. "Answer me!"

"C'mon, Trey, I'm bored."

"No, this is my park," Trey reasoned. "I'm not letting Blondie go until I get my pay."

"But I don't have any money," the blonde whimpered, finally finding his voice. Seeing a chance for survival, his clear blue eyes shot Trey's friend a pleading look. 'Help me,' he mouthed.

Trey's friend smirked as he watched the helpless blonde. "Well..." he paused, as if he was thinking about the tough decision that lay before him. To agree or disagree? That is the question. "Suit yourself," he finally said, his Cheshire grin stealing whatever conscience he may have previously had. "I think I'll just sit here and enjoy the show." True to his words, Trey's friend found himself a comfortable patch of grass.

Meanwhile, the Yamato's hope vanished as Trey's predatory grin matched that of his friend's. "But...but I don't have any money," the blonde spluttered, repeating himself, pleading his case.

"Well, you should have thought about that before you entered our territory."

"Yeah, what he said," Trey agreed, his grin revealing crooked yellowed teeth.

The Yamato closed his eyes tightly as he held back a scream. He was too young to die! What about all the stuff he still wanted to do? His body visibly tensed under the other's cruel glare. The spooky smile illuminated Trey's features as he watched his prey tremble. 'Blondie' actually shook, heart racing, feeling week to his knees, anticipating the blow...

The blow never came. The blonde opened one eye slowly as he spotted another boy about his age...if not younger. Wild chestnut hair...smooth tanned skin, and that bright maniacal grin. "Hey, you two! Pick on someone your own size!" That smile...it was so bright...like the sun. Like the sun on a cloudy day... you keep on hoping it would appear. The blonde always liked the sun.

"Like you," what's-his-name smirked. "You're even smaller than 'Blondie' over here."

"Well, you can pick on me, if you want...that is, if you leave him alone." That voice...it was reassuring, but it was almost suicidal. But then again, saving him from these two creeps would be probably involve a certain death. The blonde's brunette savior certainly didn't look like much compared to the other two. Size was only one of the factors that the bullies had to their advantage...And they knew it to. But, Yamato sighed, his brunette savior sure was beautiful. Someone else seemed to agree.

"My pleasure," Trey replied, sensing a new victim for his games. "Hey, you sure are pretty," he directed his comment at the brunette.

The blonde snarled. The reason? The blonde wasn't so sure. Maybe it was because Trey's grip seemed to tighten for a second. Or maybe that was just the weight that his heart suddenly felt. For some reason, he didn't want to see this strange boy---his unlikely protector---get hurt.

"'Blondie' here, wasn't much fun anyways," Trey continued with his insensitive degrading remarks. The blonde felt the hand on his shoulder relax as Trey tried to make use of his threat. However, the brunette certainly had other ideas in mind. Perhaps it's true, the blonde later mused, you reap what you sow. But then, where did that leave Taichi? There was no way that he deserved all the things that he got...

Yamato didn't know who landed the first punch. He just knew that suddenly, the two of them were on the smaller brunette, wrestling him to the ground. And just as suddenly, the two were chasing after him blindly---he had them running after him in circles...as Yamato was left behind in the dust, watching in amazement.

"Run," the brunette mouthed as he freed himself for a minute---as Yamato stood staring, gaping at the magnificence. "Run," he warned again.

The blonde shook his head stupidly. "Not without you."

"Don't worry about m---"

Watch out! Behind you! The warning clung to his throat as he watched Trey grab hold of the brunette from behind. Trey's friend blocked the brunette's path in the front. The two mountain trolls (well, the bullies were certainly as ugly and as mountain trolls) had him surrounded! Yamato cursed himself for distracting the brunette---the brunette who seemed to know what he was doing.

The brunette ducked, pivoting ninety degrees before he dived against into the ground and tumbling precariously around the two's feet. .

Ouch, Yamato winced. That's got to hurt. The brunette's skin reddened in the spots where his body collided with someone's foot. Spots that he knew would bruise.

"Did we get 'im?"

"Yeah," Trey laughed stupidly, knowing his work well enough to know that the victim wouldn't be getting up anytime soon. Much to his surprise, the brunette moved.

"Wait...where is he?" his friend asked nervously.

"Miss me," the brunette smirked delivered a flying kick at Trey's side. His foot connected with enough impact that Yamato thought he heard a crack. Then the brunette agilely landed on his feet, his knees slightly bent to support his fall. The other attempted to flee escape but he wasn't fast enough. The brunette clung to his leg in a measly tackle. Although weight wasn't enough to bring the other boy down (how much damage could an eight-year-old do anyways?), the brunette did succeed in tripping the older teen. The two lay sprawling on the ground, as Yamato watched, stupefied that the brunette could bring down, not only one, but two teens that were twice his size and more than three times his body weight.

The bully laughed as he slowly got up. "That all you can do?" he jeered, not winded at the least, as Trey was doing most of the dirty work before. "Heh heh," he chuckled as he towered over the brunette. "Aren't you scared?"

The brunette shook his head vehemently. A fiery passion continued to burn in his eyes as he too rose to his feet, brushing himself off. Yamato admired the kid's growing aura of confidence against the inevitable. Any normal person would have peed his pants by now and ran. Yamato sure would have...that is...if that strange boy wasn't here. Even if he couldn't make himself help fight, Yamato couldn't quite make himself leave either. He wanted to be here, just in case something really did happen to the brunette. He didn't know why he cared, though. After all, the brunette was just a stranger to him---a stranger who happened to save him from two bullies.

Even if the brunette wasn't worried as he stood defiantly under the bully's glare, the other seemed to shrink a little. "Jesus, he's just a little kid," the bully muttered to himself. But there was something unsettling about the kid's eyes. Those golden brown eyes didn't show even one ounce of fear. Who knew what this kid was capable of? After all, this little kid did take down his friend. And he knew that Trey didn't go down easily. "Christ, he's just a kid," he muttered again as he ran.

The brunette stood confidently as the other fled. That grin returned as he raised his arms, cutely flashing two victory signs like an Olympic gymnast who just finished her routine. His smile glowed brightly like the sun. Even on a rainy day, you can always count on the sun to shine whether it be on the next day or the day after next... you can always count on the sun...

"How did you do that?" Yamato asked, as he finally found his voice.

"Magic," the strange boy replied with that huge grin of his. That crazy smile lighted his whole face, a crazy twinkle even reaching his eyes like...magic. And so that's what they still called it, years later...

"You're insane," the blonde returned the grin, "to take on two of them at once. You could have been killed...not that I'm not grateful, of course," he added as an afterthought. But the other boy never heard him---his lidded eyes gently closing as he fainted. "I'm Yamato, by the way. Yamato Ishida."

The blonde paused, suddenly realizing that the other boy wasn't responding.

"Hey, hey!" Yamato suddenly grabbed at the strange boy's shirt, catching the other just before he hit the ground, and laying him tenderly on the grass.

"Hey, wake up!" Yamato's hands desperately roamed the other's body. Under other circumstances, he would have enjoyed what he found. The brunette wasn't really as scrawny as he looked---small, but definitely not scrawny. But, now, as Yamato frantically searched for a pulse, the blonde only hoped that he would be able to thank, and maybe even repay, this strange beauty.

The blonde was rewarded with a faint but steady beating, which calmed his frayed nerves. Later, he was rewarded more so, with the brunette's company, however brief this encounter became. Meanwhile, Yamato admired the resting form of his rescuer. How his chest rose and fell with each breath that proved that the brunette was, indeed, alive. How the brunette had captured him with his wild grin, revealing a perfectly row of pearly white teeth. How the brunette's quick form....How the brunette's sweet fragrance---- The brunette slowly stirred.

"Welcome to the land of the living," Yamato greeted him, as groggy honey brown eyes turned to him in what must have been hours later.

The brunette moaned slightly as he attempted to move.

"Hey, are you okay?" the blonde asked, concern evident on his face and in his voice.

"I'm fine," he other answered tersely, shifting again into a different position. "This," he gestured to his current state, "happens all the time."

"What is 'this'?" Yamato smiled, slightly amused at the other boy's wild gesticulations now that he knew that the other was fine---or at least that's what he had said, hadn't he?

Suddenly, the kid looked more alert---almost frightened---as his body tensed under the blonde's smile. "I...I..I'm n-n-not supposed to tell you," the brunette stuttered, his voice growing softer as he hastily got up. For a second, it looked like he was going to fall, as his slim body swayed slightly, but quickly, he regained his composure.

It was only after the kid ran away that Yamato realized that he didn't even know the kid's name. In fact, Yamato barely caught the boy's whispered fleeing words---almost like a mantra. Or it could have even been an apology.

"You shouldn't have seen me...I can't....I'm not right. I'm not right. I'm not right..."

The boy's words repeated themselves in Yamato's mind---haunted him until the next time they met. Maybe he was like the moon, Yamato mused, and not the sun. The moon is like the sun in every which way, except her shadow is cast upon the night. A bright pale glimmer that is ever changing overshadowed under the sun's image---a cursed beauty that only shows itself at night.

TBC?

Author's Notes:

Well, this is certainly not Shakespeare and his, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" but Romeo does swear by the moon as he compares Juliet's beauty to both sun and moon. Not exactly what I was going for, but hopefully, all the sun and moon metaphors and "Yamato's musings" worked.

Anyways, enough of my babbling. Thank you Courage Sun, AngelSachiya, Krad, and YkittyH for reviewing. Your reviews encourage me to write and I absolutely love to read what you think. I'm glad you guys liked it. I'm never quite sure if I make things too fluffy or if I make it too angsty or if I just go overboard in the emotions area or if I don't put enough descriptions in. I'm absolutely anal when it comes to editing, but mistakes just always have a tendency to slip in. Hopefully this chappie explains more than it confuses. Everyone understands that most of this chapter is told in flashback, right? Okay, good, my job is done. Well, let me know if you have any questions and if things don't make sense! Of course, I can't reveal everything at once, can I? Hehe. And thank you for reading and please drop by with a review. Comments are all appreciated!

P.S. No offense to any LL fans for my last comment. I do respect her as an actress even if I don't quite agree with some of her decisions as a person. And yes, I have seen Mean Girls, Freaky Friday, and The Parent Trap.

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EDITED: 01/17/09