AquaMelt Oneshots [Oshi No Ko]

dreamer's ball

Over the past few days, the castle bursted to life with an energy Aqua hadn't seen in months. It was expected, as the big ball that the Hoshino family hosted every year was coming near.

Never the social one, he wasn't too fond of the sudden wave of people that buzzed through the hall like a group of busy bees in their hive.

However, this year his mind was too full of thoughts to be worrying about such things.

He had finally found the name of his father; of the man who was likely the puppeteer behind the tragedy that was Ai's death.

He would remember that name forever. Nor would he let the name slip out of hands after planning his revenge for so long.

Kamiki Hikaru.

Kamiki was a nobleman, Aqua learned through his research. A nobleman such as himself would surely come somewhere as important as the Hoshino's Ball. As far as Aqua knew, every noble nearby would show up— though Aqua spent most years hiding as much as he could.

This year, however, he planned to stick around for  the whole party; with intentions to kill.

With the help of Gotanda, he managed to get his hands on a small bottle of poison. In such a crowded ballroom, it would be so simple for Aqua to slip some poison into Kamiki's drink without any suspicions rising towards him.

Gotanda seemed displeased with the whole plan, though.

"I didn't raise you to become a murderer, Prodigy." He said as he handed Aqua's the bottle of poison with a grim face.

"Don't speak as if you were my father," Aqua scowled. "No, you haven't raised me to kill. But, you knew it would end like this, didn't you?"

Gotanda sighed, shaking his head. "All I knew was that I couldn't stop you. I'm telling you now, Kid, you still have time to turn back."

Aqua gripped the poison in his hand. "Kamiki didn't turn back when he had the chance to kill Ai."

With that, he left Gotanda. They wouldn't speak again until Aqua completed his revenge, likely. Aqua wondered if Gotanda would ever wish to speak to him again.

Gotanda had only wanted Aqua to grow flowers and polish his swordsmanship skills. He often told Aqua that his hands were unfit for murder, and that they were the hands of a gardener. A gardener's hands must carry love in them, Gotanda said, otherwise the flowers wouldn't grow.

Flowers always seemed to grow with ease in Aqua's hands, but clearly, they must have been fooled.

Aqua was not the kind person that Gotanda thought he was. He was not the kind person that the flowers thought he was, either.

Aqua was a living weapon, only living to kill Kamiki, who had stolen the light from the kingdom.

He had fooled everyone around him into thinking that he was the beautiful, caring prince that they wanted him to be.

Perhaps he had even fooled Melt as well, who stumbled upon the truth of Aqua's revenge on accident.

Even so, even when Melt knew that Aqua's intentions were murder, he still had some strange hope in Aqua. Greeting him with a bright smile nearly everyday, Melt seemed to have greatly enjoyed their two years of sword training together.

Though Aqua didn't want Melt to get involved in his revenge anymore than he already was, Aqua often found himself opening himself to Melt on topics he never imagined he would speak to anyone about.

Melt was one of the only people who knew the truth of Aqua being Ai's son— or the guilt that carried him over Ai's death.

Melt, like Gotanda, insisted that it wasn't Aqua's fault. Their words always fell deaf to Aqua's ears, however. How could he believe in them when he was there when Ai died? When he should have risked himself to save her life?