AquaMelt

"You don't have to apologize. I wanted you to get fired up, that's all. After all, acting should carry emotion along with it. You gave a good performance."

- Aqua to Melt on chapter 17.

AquaMelt is the slash ship between Aquamarine Hoshino and Melt Narushima from the Oshi no Ko fandom.

Canon
The two initially have a bad first impression of each other. At their first meeting, Melt was portrayed as too egotistical to fully acknowledge Aqua. It wasn't until after finishing their first project together did Melt finally see him as an equal. As the series goes on, it is now shown that Melt views Aqua as being above him in acting and admires him greatly.

Sweet Today
Aqua and Melt's first meeting was on a drama production of an in-universe manga titled "Sweet Today".

Aqua begins acting again after Kana Arima asks him to substitute for another actor who was casted to play the stalker for "Sweet Today". The actor previous continuously complained about the filming set, which lead to the role becoming unfilled. After Aqua agrees to fulfill the role, they arrive at the filming set and meet Melt Narushima. Melt calls out to Kana who takes the opportunity to introduce the two boys to each other. Aqua bows his head as a polite greeting, but Melt brushes him off as he walks away with arrogance in his tone. Aqua is left confused at the other’s attitude and notably does not get the chance to learn Melt’s name for himself.

Aqua witnesses Melt’s terrible acting as the final episode for drama begins filming. To enhance Melt’s performance, Aqua comes up with the idea of provoking the other and whispers to Melt’s ear, “You’re pretty ugly up close”. Offended by this statement, Melt grabbs Aqua by the collar, shouting at him in rage. Aqua smiles at the success of his plan, dragging Melt to play along.

For the final scene of the episode, Aqua jumps over the heroine in order to act as if he was about to kill her. Melt then punches him, bruising the other’s face. After filming ends, Aqua goes to treat his bruised face, and Melt apologizes for harming him. Aqua accepts the apology and goes on to explain that he just wanted Melt to get fired up because he believed that acting should carry emotions along with it. He compliments Melt, saying that he had a good performance.

Tokyo Blade
Aqua and Melt meet again during a production of a 2.5D stage play titled “Tokyo Blade" on the first day of the cast meeting.

Melt finds himself approaching Aqua and Kana in the hallway, and Aqua gives him a blank expression after finding out that they will be casted to perform together again. During the rehearsals, Yoriko Kichijouji gives Melt a cold shoulder, such as greeting him with a stiff replies. Melt uses Aqua as an outlet to complain about Yoriko’s abrasive behavior towards him. Though doesn’t do much to comfort the other with replies such as, “You’re the guy who ruined Sweet Today after all,” and, “I guess she’s surprised that you have the guts to show up”.

When the cast shows up at Yoriko’s house, it appears that Aqua and Melt are the same age, since both of them mention themselves 16. The author of Tokyo Blade, Abiko Samejima, then says that she wants to rewrite the entire script so it would include a much better spotlight for emotional acting. Neither Aqua nor Melt were sure about whether they could successfully pull off such a performance. Melt falls into desperation at the author’s comment, saying that he wouldn’t be able to do the performance with a one month time span of rehearsals left. While he thinks Aqua could handle the role easily, Aqua also shows hesitation in the script change.

On the day of the play, Melt appears on the stage first for the battle between the characters ‘Kizami’ and ‘Monme’ and has a lackluster performance during the scene. While on stage, he begins to remember the time he asked Aqua for advice while on their jog. Rather than genuine advice, however, Aqua tells him that it wasn’t bad for Melt to be seen as a bad actor. Melt questions Aqua’s words and asks him for something more constructive. Aqua says that he never meant to put him down, instead suggesting to “utilize his shittiness better”.

As the time for Melt to present his sword trick approaches, Aqua’s advice echoes in his head. Thanks to his words, Melt successfully executes his scene, and Aqua is shown smiling behind the curtains as he watches Melt. As the crowd begins to cheer, Kana asks Aqua if it was him who gave Melt the idea, to which he replies, “not really”, he only told Melt to leverage the fact that his acting is terrible. Then, Aqua continues to say that he thinks Melt is a hardworking person and that he was successful because of his own hard work.

After Melt’s scene comes to a close, he goes backstage and recalls the time Aqua told him that acting should carry emotion along with it. He turns to Aqua, saying that he finally understood what he meant and admits that it was fun. Appreciating how Melt took his advice to heart, Aqua smiles at him.

Fanon
While AquaMelt is an unpopular ship in comparison to others within the Oshi no Ko fandom, it is the most popular ship for Melt, as well as the most written slash ship in the fandom.

Currently, the ship has 30+ works written about it on AO3.

Fandom

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Trivia

 * In episode 3 of the Oshi no Ko anime (chapter 14 on page 18 of the Oshi no Ko manga), Kana misinterprets Aqua’s intentions on joining the production when he agrees right after she mentions Melt’s “girlish face”.
 * Melt was shown to doubt his skill whenever he recalls Aqua's acting on "Sweet Today", saying things such as, "Ever since I acted with him..." and, "I know that, ever since I witnessed that performance".
 * It could be said that Melt admires Aqua’s acting ability, as evident by him asking Aqua for acting advice.
 * Melt’s immediate assumption that Aqua could pull off the sudden script change for Tokyo Blade hints towards Melt believing Aqua is a highly talented actor, as Melt thought the performance was too difficult to pull off within the timespan they had.