Disclaimer: I do not own Kamen Rider Kiva, it belongs to it belongs to Shotaro Ishinomori who created it and to Toshiki Inoue and Shoji Yonemura who wrote it. This is simply for my own entertainment, and I make no money off of this.
AN: Okay, let me first say that while my OTP in this series is Taiga/Wataru, I definitely paired Nago/Wataru strongly before Taiga showed up and still think the pairing is adorable. This story came to me when I was rewatching Kiva and remembering exactly why I paired those two.
Warnings: Some shonen-ai, some cursing. Also, spoilers for the entire series pretty much (especially parts of the end) so if you haven't finished Kiva or don't want spoilers, don't read.
The Button
Nago was never quite sure what made him pick up the button, but he did. He slipped it into his pocket and promptly forgot about it because he had much more urgent things to think about, with Megumi being kidnapped and all. In fact, it wasn't until a week later that he remembered it again, and then only because he had washed and was wearing the pants again and stuck his hand in his pocket and felt something in his pocket. Pulling it out, Nago saw that it was a gray, fairly nondescript looking button that, honestly, could've belonged to anyone. So, because he was out, didn't see any non-recycle trash bins nearby, and hated litter nearly as much as he hated criminals, he put the button back in his pocket and headed towards the café.
When Nago entered the café, the first thing he saw was Wataru talking – still rather shyly – to Megumi, though honestly Megumi was doing most of the talking. The older male didn't really pay any attention to the conversation until he heard Wataru saw something about one of his jackets having recently lost a button. Nago meant to ask the younger male about the button he had right then and there, really he had, but he was distracted by one of the criminals on his bounty list walking by outside. By the time he remembered, Wataru had already left.
Therefore, in order to actually return the thing, Nago put the button in his wallet so he wouldn't lose or forget it. Unfortunately, while the older male always had Wataru's button, Nago kept forgetting to give it to the younger brunette, especially during the time he was...distressed...over having lost to Kiva.
Then he found out Wataru was Kiva, and all the lines he had drawn separating what was "good" and "evil" in his mind shifted and blurred a bit. But it was all right because Kiva was Wataru – the gentlest, kindest person Nago had ever met – and Wataru would only use Kiva to protect the innocent. So, Nago would help to train Wataru, teach the younger male to be able to fight back as himself and, in the process, improve his skills as Kiva. Nago firmly silenced the little voice in his head that kept saying that a good portion of his desire to have Wataru as his student was so that the younger male would spend less time with that waitress Megumi kept trying to set Wataru up with and more time with him. Even if he did want Wataru to spend less time with that girl, it was only because he didn't want the younger male to neglect his training and fall into impurity by engaging in an adult male-female relationship. Even if he did want Wataru to spend more time with him, it was just so he could help the younger male become stronger and make sure he stayed on the just path.
Then the lines blurred again. Wataru – perhaps the most human person Nago knew – was a half-fangire. He'd suspected it when he'd seen Wataru had the button he'd given to his first love – the fangire Queen ironically enough – when he'd gone back to 1986, but he had denied it. Wataru was nothing like the monsters he'd always had to fight. Despite his heritage though, Wataru was still Wataru, so he decided to help the younger male in his own ways – subtly warning the younger brunette when the exterminate order went out so that Wataru wouldn't falsely assume Kengo, as IXA, wouldn't attack him and then allowing his finger to "slip" on the trigger so that he stopped IXA from killing Wataru. Even when that damn Bishop had awoken Wataru's fangire blood and driven him half-mad, Nago had trusted in the fact that Wataru – despite appearing weak at times – was stronger than those maddening impulses, that the younger male would regain control, and he'd been right. It was the look in Wataru's eyes when he dehenshined – confused, lost, scared – that made Nago even more determined to help the younger male, to protect him from himself and from those attempting to pull the brunette into two directions while aiming to kill or capture him if he fell to the other. He would save Wataru, even if he didn't yet understand why he was so driven to do so.
When Wataru locked himself away after the incident, Nago tried again and again to convince the younger male to come out, to not lock himself away out of fear. He was never entirely sure what convinced the younger male to come out and fight again, and Nago never had a chance to ask him as, shortly afterwards, everything started to change again.
Shima-san was changed into a fangire and then seemingly killed, Nago himself was half-blinded by that goddamn Bishop, and Wataru disappeared for a while before returning suddenly and unexpectedly. When he knew he couldn't fight properly and therefore really couldn't become the new chairman of the Wonderful Aozora Organization, Nago tried to get Wataru to apply for the job and was dumbfounded when the younger male refused. When he asked why – after all this was the younger male's chance to fulfill one of his dreams, to bridge the gap between humans and fangire – and Wataru stated quite firmly that he'd found his own way, Nago had to wonder what had happened in that short span of time the boy had been away that had made Wataru so much more decisive, so much stronger.
Then Shima-san showed up again, and Wataru suddenly declared himself King of the fangire for reasons that Nago couldn't fathom. It wasn't until later, after he defeated Bishop and regained his sight, that he managed to get the full story, mostly from Shima-san who, it seems, had heard the reason from Wataru. Wataru had declared himself King to, essentially, shift everyone's focus to himself. The fangire, Bishop especially, would be too focused on trying to attack Wataru to bother with Wataru's half-brother, who was technically King, or with normal humans for the most part. Wataru was setting himself up to be the sacrifice while also gaining enough power to try and start the changes towards a world where fangire and humans could live in harmony with each other.
Then, everything was over. Bishop was dead, sacrificing the last of his life force to bring back the former King who was quickly beaten by Wataru and his half-brother. There were still rogue fangire, of course, who refused to follow the King's altered rule, but, for the most part, the fangire were perfectly willing to live off of the artificial life energy that Wataru's brother's company was now producing and for the first time in a long time, there was real harmony between the two races. Because of this, Nago found that, despite still hunting down bounties and rogue fangire, he had more time on his hands to just think. It was during this time that he found the button again, still in his wallet where he'd completely forgotten about it, and the button made him think about Wataru and the reason behind his actions the past year.
Before the younger male had stepped into his life, everything was mostly black and white. The fangire were evil and needed to be eliminated, Kiva was evil and needed to be killed should he ever appear, and criminals were evil men who needed to be locked away to repent. While the last never changed much, the older male's views on fangire and on Kiva were drastically changed because of one boy, and Nago had to wonder why Wataru had had such an effect on him, it really shouldn't have been possible.
It was those thoughts that led him to where he was now. He had been at home, but, having decided that he really needed some air, Nago headed towards the park near the café and sat down on a bench along one of the more isolated and less traversed paths. The older male took a moment to clear his mind before turning it on his actions and reasoning the past year. Looking back, his actions at times didn't really seem logical even though they had made perfect sense at the time. He had never put that much effort into helping a single person before, and he didn't even really understand why he had with Wataru. The only thing he'd ever heard of to describe this was when he'd been forced to listen to Megumi going on and on about romantic relationships, but surely there was no way. There was surely no way he could be feeling something like that towards the younger brunette.
Completely lost in thought, Nago didn't notice the person walking down the path until they were right in front of him.
Nago jumped and barely managed to hold back a very unmanly yelp when he heard a familiar voice say from right in front of him, "Nago-san?"
Looking up into a pair of very familiar brown eyes belonging to, of course, the very person he'd been thinking about, Nago felt his mind go blank for a moment before two thoughts flashed quickly through his mind. The first was: He is very pretty for a guy. That was followed quickly by: Well...hell. I am.
Clearing his throat and standing quickly, Nago said, "Wataru-kun. What are you doing here?"
Wataru gave him a slightly confused look before he smiled slightly and replied, "I was just getting a few things from the grocery store. I was running low on a few ingredients I needed to cook dinner."
"Ah," the older male replied, and promptly ran out of things to say. After a few moments of awkward silence, Nago was about to make his excuses and head out, but the younger brunette broke the silence first.
"Ano, Nago-san?" Wataru started, waiting for a slight nod from the older male before he continued, "If you're not busy right now, would you like to come over for dinner? It's just as easy to cook for two people as it is to cook for one, and I got a bit more than I'd need at the grocery store."
Nago thought for a moment, weighing out the pros and cons of going with the younger male – whom he had just come to realize he cared for more than he had previously thought – before nodded in agreement, earning himself a bright smile that almost brought a flush to his face.
As they walked towards Wataru's house, Nago couldn't help but smile slightly when he noticed that the jacket Wataru was wearing had plain gray buttons, including one that definitely looked newer...as if it had just recently been sewn on to replace a lost one.