I never thought of this pairing but it's surprisingly very cute. ATLA's Kataang despite it being poorly written and Kenyako from Digimon Zero Two made me think of pairings where the girl is older than the guy and thus Tagiru/Nene was born. Nene's had a lot of darkness in her past and Tagiru is someone whose ever full of light but he has seen the darkness. Given how much he empathised with Yuu and Makoto, even supporting Kiichi, he'd definitely be a way better boyfriend for Nene than Kiriha. I don't mind Zenjirou for her but there's just something super cute about Tagiru and Nene together, which yes, I know, is a crackship. This is for June of Doom 2024, Day 6 with the prompt "They don't care about you".

1. Selfish

Tagiru stumbled to the ground in the warehouse. He didn't know what Hideaki had done but it was affecting him. He was dizzy and he needed to get out of here. They were friends, weren't they? Then why was this happening? Taiki had been trying to warn him about something on the phone, but he wasn't sure what his friend meant entirely about being careful around Hideaki.

"Hideaki, why?" Tagiru asked, staring as his head spun a little from everything. "I thought we were friends."

Hideaki shook his head, stepping closer and touching Tagiru on the cheek. "Friendship isn't enough, Tagiru. What did you think? You'd tell me you were dating Nene, and I'd just accept it? She's older than you, Tagiru! I was perfect for you, and you never even saw me!"

Tagiru flinched back at that and shook his head. That was disgusting, that was gross, it was unnatural for Hideaki to think like this. Yes, Nene was older, and he had always admired her since he was a kid – almost as much as he admired Taiki-san, but this was different. He travelled around the world for his basketball matches – and Nene was the only one who travelled with him due to now being a nationwide television idol and actress. It had brought the two of them a lot closer – and when that close friendship turned into love, he still didn't know. But he did not regret any moment he shared with her – even now.

"I'm not gay," Tagiru said weakly, trying to find some strength in his voice. "Taiki-san was trying to warn me…about this. I didn't understand. I didn't want to understand…that you'd turn out like this."

Hideaki raised an eyebrow, stepping closer and snaking an arm around Tagiru's waist forcefully pulling him close, causing him to stumble. "Is that so? If he really wanted to warn you, he would have found a way to. Or Yuu would have. They both knew how I felt about you, but they kept you in dark. They don't care about you, Tagiru. But it's ok, I care about you." He started playing with Tagiru's clothes, causing him to struggle.

No, this couldn't be happening. And there was no way Taiki and Yuu didn't care about him – they were his friends. You thought Hideaki was your friend too. He winced – that was true. He had never thought Hideaki of all people would kidnap him and try to…the thought made him shiver.

It's always the ones closest to you that hurt you the most.

It was something Yuu had always said when talking about his past with Nene and how much Nene had suffered in trying to save him. But even though that hadn't been Yuu's fault – this was Hideaki's fault. He had made the choice to do this.

"Get off me," Tagiru managed to get out, feeling Hideaki's hand sneak into his shorts and he shivered, feeling as if he was going to throw up.

"You heard him! Crash Boom!" Sparrowmon dove into Hideaki head-first knocking him away from Tagiru as Nene, Yuu and Taiki ran forward. Nene hurried over to Tagiru's side, but didn't touch him just yet.

"Tagiru-kun, are you ok?" Nene asked, peering at him worriedly.

Tagiru pulled Nene into a hug and shook his head. "No, not really. But you got here just in time before he could…he did something…can't really see all that clearly but you're warm and sweet."

Nene turned a little red and laughed, shaking her head but pulled him closer. "You're still warm too so don't think anything else, ok? I know…sometimes people like that can make us question ourselves."

Tagiru nodded slowly. "I'm trying not to…but he was my friend."

Nene's face fell at that, and she just hugged him tighter to her and he understood. When it was a friend who had hurt you, there was nothing that could take that pain away. None of his friends had been through something like this – Beelzebumon and Dorulumon had lost friends, but it had never been a betrayal on either of their parts. They had just been victims in a way of their own situations.

Tagiru winced a little as he saw the police cars come. It hurt to see Hideaki arrested – there was still a part of him that remembered the moments they shared hunting together, making plans to help Hideaki establish his Takoyaki shop. Sure, Hideaki had been stealing when he first became a Hunter, but Tagiru thought he had grown out of that after they had become friends but now he wasn't so sure.

This was a form of stealing too – he had tried to steal something from him that was only meant for Nene, and he had done after knowing the relationship between him and Nene. Not to mention, he wasn't gay, and Hideaki had still tried to force himself upon him. He hadn't even known Hideaki was gay to be honest – he had always said he wasn't interested in any kind of romance but clearly that had been a lie as well.

"Tagiru," Taiki's voice brought him out of his thoughts and Nene slowly pulled away to allow him to look at Taiki, but Tagiru could not bring himself to meet his mentor's eyes. Taiki had always been like a big brother to him in more ways than one and what had almost happened made him feel icky even if Nene encouraged him not to feel that way.

Taiki touched his shoulder. "Tagiru, look at me."

Tagiru frowned but slowly looked up, the uncertainty reflecting in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Taiki-san."

Taiki shook his head. "You didn't do anything wrong, Tagiru. He's the one in the wrong."

Tagiru looked away but he was slowly starting to gain an awareness of his surroundings enough to respond, at least. "I believed him for a second. He said you and Yuu knew about his feelings and if you guys really cared about me, you would have found a way to warn me about his intentions. I didn't want to, but he was my friend, and he betrayed me, so I thought maybe…" He trailed off and Taiki smiled a bit at that.

"I mean, you were not wrong about that," Taiki said softly. "We should have told you sooner. I should have found a way and the feeling of betrayal? You just had someone who you trusted try to hurt you in a horrible way. It's natural you would doubt Yuu and myself as well because you didn't think that Hideaki would betray you either. I stand by what I said, Tagiru. You did nothing wrong. But tell me something, besides the drugging, are you injured?"

Tagiru should have known Taiki would understand. There was rarely a time when his mentor did not understand. He shook his head. "No, he didn't hurt me outside the drugging." Not physically anyway. He leaned back against Nene who brushed his fingers through his hair. He knew he should probably go to the hospital, but he didn't feel like moving just yet.

Taiki nodded, removing his hand. "Ok, let's get you to a hospital then. Nene can stay with you, right Nene?"

Nene nodded. "I wouldn't leave even if you asked me to, not that you will."

Tagiru smiled weakly. "I would never ask you to."