Chapter Text
Follow his own beat? That had been bouncing around Raito’s head for the last several days. He didn’t understand what Gekkomon meant by that. Raito was doing what he wanted, proving he was smarter than everyone else. What did he have to want beyond that?
“Raito,” Monodramon pulled on Raito’s hand, making him turn his head to look at the rookie.
“What?” Raito was relaxing on the side of a hill, watching the clouds as he tried to sort out a training plan for Tenma. The teen had come too early that morning but something was still off so he was being kept an extra day. Raito couldn’t be bothered to ask what else had gone wrong. The nurses got to break the news to Naito so Raito didn’t have to deal with the fallout either.
“Are you sure that training Tenma is wise?”
Raito narrowed his eyes at the digimon, “Why are you questioning orders?”
“It’s not the order I am questioning so much as how things are going to play out. Gekkomon is struggling with this and if he is, then it wouldn’t be a bad guess to say his human is too.”
“And? They have to adapt, that’s all,” Raito scoffed, looking back at the clouds as the plan for the tomorrow started to shape up.
“Don’t you remember-”
“Drop it,” Raito bit out. “I’m not the same as him, don’t try to compare us.”
“Right…” Monodramon muttered, falling silent. Raito huffed but closed his eyes as he thought over everything he needed to sort out tomorrow so he knew what Tenma needed to focus on for training.
The following morning was quiet, no one seemed to be moving around yet as Raito made his way to the infirmary. He was allowed back with just a nod of the head nurse to find Tenma already awake and staring down at Gekkomon on his lap. He was running his hand down the digimon’s back slowly. He looked better, the bruises on his throat having started to fade. Tenma glanced up at him as Raito walked over.
Raito crossed his arms as he stopped next to the bed, Tenma’s eyes seemed to be duller than the other day. “Get up, we have training to do.”
Tenma raised an eyebrow at that before sighing. He scooped up Gekkomon into his arms before tossing his legs over the side and standing up. “Am I training like this?”
Raito snorted, “No, you have a uniform back in your room alongside your glasses.” Tenma nodded as he followed Raito out of the room. Gekkomon moved to lay across Tenma’s shoulders, tail wrapping around his neck like it was trying to hide the bruises.
Tenma was silent as they walked across the building. No questions or comments about anything. Raito had to keep looking behind himself to make sure he hadn’t lost Tenma somewhere. The teen watched the floor as he walked, not looking around even when they passed some of the noisier rooms.
Raito eventually stopped at the entrance to a long hall lined with doors spaced close together down either side. “This is the hall for newer recruits.” Tenma glanced up for a moment before dropping his eyes back down.
“Don’t look like much since I have pretty shit eyesight.”
Raito felt his eyebrow twitch before he started down the hall, stopping four doors down. “This is your room. Make sure to look at the number once you have your glasses.” Tenma nodded before opening the door. He walked only a few steps in, looking around the room. Gekkomon jumped from his shoulders to the desk.
“Tomoro, your glasses are over here,” Gekkomon called out, holding them in the air. Tenma turned to face the gecko before walking over to grab the glasses. Tenma looked around the small room again.
“You have clothes in the closet, just out on the black tank top and a loose pair of pants. We will be moving around a lot,” Raito sighed before he closed the door, walking back down to the end of the hall to wait, his eyes drifting to the door every few moments.
---
Tomoro’s head was an absolute mess, his head was throbbing and everything was too loud and too bright. Gekkomon seemed to have noticed because it was keeping the volume of its voice low. Tomoro took a deep breath before he walked over to the closet, he grimaced at the clothes inside. Everything was green and black and looked to be rather tight fitting. Tomoro didn’t like clothes that fit too snugly but complaining wasn’t going to help.
He sighed before pulling out a tank top like shirt, stripping off the scrub top he had on and slipping on the other. The material was smooth and stretchier than he had expected. Tomoro pulled at it and the fabric stretched a far bit. He could work with that. The pants though were another story, there was only one loose looking pair and it was sweats. The material was so thick and heavy but Tomoro swapped into them regardless.
“Tomoro?” Gekkomon headbutted his elbow, getting Tomoro to look at him.
“Hm?”
“I’m sorry,” Gekkomon muttered, head drooping low.
Tomoro blinked at the digimon for a moment, at a loss as to what the rookie was talking about. “For what?”
“You being hurt again.”
Tomoro stilled, watching Gekkomon before he moved to scoop the small digimon up. Gekkomon buried its face into his chest. “You don’t need to be sorry. None of this is your fault. It’s mine for being dumb and storming off. If I had stayed at the base, we wouldn’t be here.”
“But I got you beaten up,” Gekkomon hiccuped.
Tomoro hummed, “Because you wanted to get us free. It’s not like you acted out with the intention of having Naito beat me senseless.” Gekkomon sniffled, hands fisting Tomoro’s shirt.
“I’m still sorry.”
Tomoro hugged the lizard tighter, unsure of how to make Gekkomon feel less guilty. Gekkomon wasn’t wrong per se since his behavior did result in Tomoro getting beaten but there was no way Tomoro could hold it against Gekkomon since Naito was the one doleing out the hits. Tomoro was also pretty sure Naito just liked pummeling people and Tomoro was his latest favorite. “Gekkomon.” The small digimon looked up, “I’m glad you feel sorry but I really need you to know, I don’t blame you at all. Remember, we need to work together to get away. I don’t want you to think about it anymore.”
Gekkomon blinked away the tears and nodded before hugging Tomoro, “Okay.”
“Good, why don’t you stay here and sleep,” Tomoro tried to put Gekkomon down but the rookie only clung tighter. Tomoro sighed, “Okay, fine.” He moved towards the door, opening it to see Raito leaning against the opposite wall. His foot tapped a mile a minute as he glared at him.
“The hell took so long.”
“Gekkomon was upset,” Tomoro looked down at the digimon in his arms, he noticed Raito made a strange face. “What?”
“Nothing, let’s go,” Raito huffed, walking down the hall with Tomoro following behind more slowly.
---
Tomoro rescinded his complaint from earlier about his head hurting, his head hurt so much more now that Raito had roundhouse kicked him in the jaw. Tomoro was sprawled flat out on the ground as everything spun. Raito stood over him, blocking out the sun as he scowled. “Why didn’t you dodge?”
Tomoro blinked, “Why would I have? I have never really fought anyone before?”
Raito wrinkled his nose, “Never?”
“No, I have had kids in school throw fists at me but it’s not like I fought back. I’d have been the one to get in trouble if I did.”
“Shouldn’t both parties get in trouble?”
Tomoro huffs before slowly sitting up, rubbing his aching jaw, “No, I break shit constantly.”
“Why?” Raito offered Tomoro a hand, pulling Tomoro back to his feet.
“Cause my e-pulse can glitch out tech, including sapotamas. I have lost count how many I have caused to break or need to be reset.”
Raito raised an eyebrow at that, “Sounds like you need to control your emotions better.”
“I don’t think my emotions have anything to do with it. I randomly caught someone’s sapotama because they dropped it and that was enough to cause the thing to glitch out,” Tomoro shrugs before stretching his back.
Raito held his chin as he thought, “So, you need to learn from square one.”
“The fact that you didn’t start there seems dumb,” Tomoro muttered. Raito glared at that and kicked Tomoro in the shin. “What the fuck!?”
“Totally warranted it,” Raito huffed, “So, we will move on to endurance and see how you do there.”
“Endurance…” Tomoro frowned, “So running?”
“Among other things but yes, we are starting with running, unless you are going to tell me that you are totally out of shape,” Raito smirked.
“I mean, not exactly? I can run fast but I’m more of a sprinter than a long distance runner,” Tomoro sighed before nearly face planting as Gekkomon tackled him from behind. “Hey!” Gekkomon crawled up Tomoro like a tree before scurrying down his right arm, “What are you doing?”
Gekkomon licked the bracelet on Tomoro’s arm, drawing his attention to the not so subtle glow, “Your skin is getting icy.”
“Yeah… I don’t feel that at all,” Tomoro muttered as he stared at his wrist. The ice was slowly traveling up to his elbow, “I haven’t seen that yet.”
Raito looked more confused, “The heck is that?”
“Naito’s solution to having digimon feed on me, it drains e-pulse at regular intervals.”
Raito looked up from Tomoro’s wrist, “Huh…”
“Yeah, I’m kinda glad my arms are still bandaged, I don’t know if I want to see all the teeth marks,” Tomoro sighed, dropping his wrist. “I guess we can see how far I can run with this thing going. I’m not feeling tired from it so it might not bother me as much as before cause I’m not sore as hell.”
Raito looked sceptical, “I guess?” He started with a slow pace that Tomoro was able to follow easily, Gekkomon following along. Raito’s digimon was keeping pace with him. Raito slowly increased the pace as they looped around the outside of the building. Tomoro was rather shocked to see how big the place was. He also saw several other buildings in the distance.
Raito had gotten them up to a running pace and Tomoro was starting to feel the fatigue setting in. Tomoro wasn’t sure how long they had been running but he was pretty sure Raito was going to give him shit soon since Tomoro was slowing down. On the next corner, one of Tomoro’s feet slipped out from under him and he slammed into the ground. Gekkomon doubled back and licked his face. “Tomoro, you okay?”
“Y-yeah,” Tomoro huffed, rolling over to sit up. He looked to see what he slipped on and spotted a small patch of gravel. He sighed before trying to get back to his feet, pausing when he noticed he had no feeling in his right arm. Tomoro looked at it, blinking as he stared at the ice that had crawled up to his shoulder. “Um… it hasn’t done that before…”
“It does when you're sleeping,” Gekkomon stated, clawing up to Tomoro’s shoulders.
“Really?”
“Yeah, I don’t think you have been awake when that dumb thing is active,” Gekkomon grumbled.
“Why did you stop?” Raito stood over Tomoro, glaring down at him, “We haven’t even done one… lap…” Tomoro watched Raito’s face go from annoyed to extremely confused. “Is that thing still pulling e-pulse?”
Tomoro looked down to see the bracelet still glowing purple, “Yeah.”
“That… that doesn’t make sense,” Raito muttered, “You don’t look bothered aside from the icing arm. How much e-pulse do you have?”
“How would I know?” Tomoro looked back up at Raito, “Is that something that gets measured?”
“Ah… yeah actually it is,” Raito glanced back at Tomoro's arm before meeting his eyes again, “I guess we keep running…” Raito looked like he wasn’t sure what to do. “If you get lightheaded, we can take a break.”
Tomoro nodded before using his good arm to get up, he flexed his hand and was glad to see moved fine. He just couldn’t really feel anything. “Hey, can we do something before we finish the lap?”
“Funny you think we are only doing one,” Raito raised an eyebrow.
“Can I see how long I can run at full speed with this going?”
“Why? It will slow you down on your laps.”
“Oh. I guess that’s true.”
“We can do that another day if you really want to see but today is about finding your limits so I know how to train you.” Tomoro frowned but followed as Raito got them back up to speed.
---
Tomoro face planted into the bed, ready to sleep the rest of the day. Raito had made him run four laps around the building before doing push ups, crunches and several other exercises. Tomoro’s arm had warmed up by the time they finished running and even though Tomoro was dead on his feet, Raito still pushed him.
Raito looked beyond disgusted with Tomoro’s results, grumbling about how Tomoro needed so much training. Tomoro merely laid on the ground breathing, trying to catch his breath. What sucked more was Raito said they would do the same thing tomorrow. Tomoro really wanted to tell him to fuck off but knew it would help.
Gekkomon jumped into the bed, making Tomoro to look at the rookie. At least it wasn’t looking so heart broken. Tomoro wasn’t sure what to do about his digimon feeling so guilty over something so out of their control.
“Tomoro,” Gekkomon stared down at him, “Aren’t you going to eat?”
Tomoro raised an eyebrow, “Maybe after a nap.”
“Oh… Monodramon said eating after working out is good for you.”
“And why would a digimon know that?”
“Cause Monodramon makes sure Raito eats after exhausting himself.”
“And so you are trying to follow suit?” Gekkomon nodded and all Tomoro could do was sigh. “I am not getting off this bed any time soon.”
Gekkomon huffed, “But you need to eat!”
“I will, just not now. I really want to sleep.”
Gekkomon crossed its arms, “Fine, be that way.”
Tomoro chuckled, pushing up onto his elbows before grabbing the rookie. Gekkomon squawked as Tomoro turned the small lizard into a pillow. “Hey! Tomoro!!”
“Revenge,” Tomoro mumbled into Gekkomon’s stomach before drifting off.