My acting love - Watashi no engi ai (Aqua Hoshino x Akane Kurokawa)

Chapter 11 - the stowaway

"Bullshit!"

"Say what you want, but it's the truth. If you can't accept it why are you here?"

Hikaru and Aqua sat secluded in a crowded food court in the center of a large mall. The aromas of the foods surrounding them tantalized those who where running on an empty stomach. Hikaru was digging into a MacDonald's burger as Aqua tucked into his sushi.

"Listen, you may have been Ai's quote-on-quote lover, but I was her son. Being an idol was everything to Ai, and her fans just as much. You're trying to tell me all that love she poured into every performance was FAKE!?"

"Jeez, kid, you're starting to sound like a fanboy. Of course, I find it hard to imagine that her love for you was faked. I think she loved you and Fuby* - I mean Ruby - as sincerely as a mother can. Her love for her fans was an act she put on. She wanted to love them. She really did. But she couldn't. She was the embodiment of 'fake it till you make it', and make it she did." Hikaru took another chunk out of his burger. Could this man REALLY be his father? He had to be - the resemblance was too uncanny for the case to be otherwise - but any trace of resemblance stopped there. Aqua was poised, proper and well mannered while Hikaru showed signs of an upper class upbringing, but chose to discard those ideals as soon as he had the chance. Aqua wondered what else, besides his upbringing and Ai Hoshino, Hikaru had taken for granted.

The two ate in silence. It was much more bearable when you had an excuse not to be talking and Aqua wasn't quite on the small talk level of chumminess required to break those silences anyway, so it worked out for him.

Aqua and Hikaru parted ways after they finished their meals. As usual Aqua watched Hikaru's car go as to make sure he didn't follow him home. Their place of meeting was always picked to be somewhere between Aqua and Hikaru's homes for that very reason. After making sure Hikaru wasn't about to double back, Aqua started on his way home.

---------------------------------------------------Ruby POV---------------------------------------------------------------

"Helloooo! Anyone here? Yoohoo!"

Ruby guiltily crept away from the pantry containing an assortment on  M&Ms, Maltesers and various sweets to check who was at the door. Oh, it was Mem-Cho and Loli-senpai. Weird, they didn't have a rehearsal until later that week. If Ruby had to guess, Mem-Cho was bored, messaged Kana telling her to go to Ruby's place, and not bothered to warn the Ruby in question. Yippee. How fun. Ruby put on her happy face and approached the door.

"Hey guys! This is a nice surprise! What's going on with you guys?"

Mem-Cho tackled Ruby with a bear hug. "Heya Ruby! We were just in the neighborhood and we thought-"

"You were bored and came to make that my problem, didn't you."

It was a statement, not a question. Mem-Cho sighed, defeated.

"Yeah... but hey! We brought sweets!"

"Cool. Totally wasn't just helping myself before you arrived-"

"Alright! Come on, Kana!"

Arima Kana had taken a few days to forgive Ruby about her stunt with the whole Aqua/Akane Lovenow! thing, but she had eventually got over it. Kana was interesting like that. After just a few kind words from Aqua, she was back to being an Aqua simp who bared teeth at the mention of the name "Akane".

"Yep, I'm coming! Hi Ruby, who are you-aaaahhh!"

Kana was pulled violently towards the sofa in front of the TV, where Ruby had been watching one of Ai's shows she had recorded. It was the same show she always poured over in the hospital, back when...