✶ 天才的なIDOL様！

Admittedly this is a little hard to imagine because in the dynamic as we're shown it in canon, Akane already goes from zero to Getting Weird About It in the space of about two chapters and it's largely Aqua who's unable or unwilling to match her freak. So I think if you were going to push that aspect of their relationship a bit more, most of the change probably has to happen on Aqua's end just so you can get him to a place where he can meet her where she is.

I feel like focusing more on the weird little Oedipal snarl they intentionally create in Tokyo Blade would probably the best place to do it? The story doesn't focus on this as much because it's more interested in playing Aqua's 'impossible dream' moment as a twist (which, btw, isn't a complaint - that moment being so shocking is a big part of why it works!) but when you think about it, Aqua is actually being shockingly vulnerable with Akane here? They're basically re-enacting the formative trauma that hangs over Aqua's entire life and for them to be able to do that, Aqua kind of by necessity has to lower at least a few of his defenses just so Akane has something to work with. And if my understanding of the setup they have with Gotanda is right, he and Akane were doing this in private for weeks and weeks in the lead-up to the play!

This is actually an insane amount of trust that Aqua places in her and we already know that Akane is in a headspace where, after seeing how much Aqua is genuinely suffering and how few outlets he has for the amount of pain he's in, she really badly wants to connect with him on a deeper level and provide him with a safe harbour. So if we imagine a version of the story that focuses on the ebb and flow of those emotions, I kind of like the idea that something in that process just clicks between them and they form a kind of a feedback loop. Akane is performing at 110% because she knows this is important to Aqua and so Aqua is forced to bring up more and more real emotion and pain to keep up with her, which makes him increasingly vulnerable and thus repeatedly puts him in situations where Akane is comforting and affirming him... eventually, something would have to give.