Lin suddenly grabbed my right arm, looking at me, a bit worried.
I inhaled in panic of not being able to tap.
Desperately looking around the room.
"Why do you keep on doing that for?"
---
Lie, Ruth.
Desperately looking for a lie in my mind as his serious eyes stared into mine, worrying.
"U-um, I, I was just counting the stores me & V were in, I promise, she's dragged me into every one in that area...", nervously laughing.
Good work, you're finally learning.
"Aha! V basically loves taking people shopping, and because I'm not that interested, she took her chance today", chuckling.
He believed me, blankly.
I could finally breathe again, after holding my breath for almost 30 seconds.
"I've really gotta go, though. You can be here or just look around a little, you're a free bird! Just don't leave the theatre okay? And be back here when the first act's over"
I nodded, reassuring him that I wasn't planning on that.
"Okay, also... quiet time starts now. See ya in one and a half hours!", whispering with a finger covering his lips, leaving the room after finally letting go of my arm.
Tap. Now.
Frantically counting, I sat in their dressing room until it was over. I couldn't leave until then.
This is your fault, you put yourself in this situation!, I told myself as the tears seemed to run down on my cheeks.
Hearing the opening, singing words filling the quiet, hopefully making my silent crying fading into the blur.
When the final tap touched my stomach, my heart immediately stopped racing. Exhaling from what I think was a few long held breaths, drying my tears away.
Soon I could walk out from the room, after checking that the scars in form of red eyes and running mascara from what had just happened wasn't something you could recognise.
Stepping through each little corridor or room, making sure a crack wasn't even near my feet, smiling at the people I met.
Now and then I touched a few items, because I knew what happened otherwise.
I always told myself what could happen.
Isn't it great to be on the safe side, Ruth?
Tap that lamp.
Or it's not right, and if it's not right, someone will die.
Soon I reached the costume section, and my curiosity was unstoppable as I peaked my head inside.
The man and woman inside looked up, the guy, who looked to be in his twenties, smiling.
"Hi there!", his words sounding like they were on a low volume, like it almost always did for me.
"H-Hi, I don't think I've met you, I-I'm Ruth", waving from the point I was standing in the doorway, looking at the big, costume-filled room.
"Oh yeah hi, Lin's foster kid right?", I nodded. "I'm Nico, nice to meet ya!", he said, and he walked up to me, shaking my hand.
"And I'm Amanda!", the red-haired, forty-year-old looking woman said, while she still sat at her desk, working on someone of the ensemble's costume.
The guy smiled, letting me go inside, while I decided to sit down after touching the sofa 4 times, as he did some work on Eliza's dress in Burn, since the original one had got a tore yesterday.
"So, how's your day been?"
Suddenly Thayne walked in, a cookie in his mouth, right after the first act ended.
"Um, I managed to rip, not only one, but two buttons of my Samuel Seabury coat during my number earlier...", he awkwardly smiled. "Oh and hi Rue!"
"Hi", I replied smirking.
"This is the fifth time in a month, oh my lord, how do you even manage to do that?", the woman, Amanda, said. "Because, Riley's sick today, we're already working on the edge... you'll have to wait 'til tomorrow"
Thayne just shrugged his shoulders and placed it onto a box.
"Well, I've got a back-up, so-"
The idea that came up in my mind in a matter of a millisecond or two was a complete wild card.
Blink your eyes 74 times.
"W-wait, I think I can fix it... if it's okay for you guys?", Amanda & Nico looked at each other, not completely convinced by my sudden suggestion. "I've got an A in needlework? It'll only take like a few minutes"
Amanda nodded and sighed.
"Yeah, yeah, sure. Everything to make our work easier", Thayne threw his fist in the air.
"Yay!", we both said in unison as I took the coat, my fingers moving like never before as I took a new button and began to hand sew it back onto the coat.
"Extra yay cuz my other coat was livin' on the edge of glory", a giggling Thayne added awkwardly.
As soon as the last button was on, I handed it over to him, achieving a big hug.
"Thank you, thank you, thank youuu!", he said, letting go of me and soon leaving the room. After only a few seconds, his head peaked inside again. "Lifesaver", whispering. "Could you fix my back-up coat too?"
I giggled, nodding.
Thayne happily skipped away to get his other coat.
Lin's POV
Ten minutes after the first act, and I hadn't seen a flinch of Ruth.
The worrying inside me began to rise, she'd been very jumpy earlier. Or, well, she's been since the first time I'd met her.
Walking up and down the stairs, peaking inside each room, not succeeding in meeting her. What if she'd ran away?
I sneaked into Daveed's dressing room, looking for her happy face.
"Ey, Daveed, have you seen Rue?"
Both him & Oak shook their heads.
"Is she gone?", I shook my shoulders, sighing.
"Nah, she said she wanted to check out the place, but I haven't found her yet...", I said, failing at my mission of not showing how worried I was. "I'm sure I'll see her strolling around soon though"
And with that, I walked away.
"We'll go look for her too!", they both shouted after me, as I entered the common room where everyone hung out during the 30 minutes-break.
"Hello, hello, has anyone seen Rue?", I looked from side to side, unfortunately not finding her in any of the rooms many corners and crowds.
"No?", everyone answered, questioning my statement.
"I, I just can't find her, she said she'd be back in my room after the performance, and I'm sure I'm overreacting, but she's been real jumpy for the past few days, and-"
"Stop it right there, she's around, okay? I've seen her during the beginning of the show, walking around backstage", Alysha said, and a few more people nodded, agreeing.
I shrugged my shoulder, as a few cast members helped me look around.
"Ey? Why's everyone so worried?"
Thayne, two coats in his arms, said, while walking past the doorway.
My worried face had approximately accelerated from a five to a five-hundred for the past ten minutes.
"We can't find Ruth"
It's been ten minutes, there were only ten til the next act. What if she actually had ran away?
I mean, she'd done it before.
His face turned into the most confused thing I'd experienced in a while.
And then it turned into a laugh.
"But, like, she's with Nico and Amanda in the costume section, helping them out...", he said between laughter. "No one thought to check the top floor, furthest away in the corridor? Or just look in all rooms?"
I could hear myself exhaling deeply over the news. She was still here, still together with us.
"Sorry, y'all!", apologising, running up all the stairs, hearing the giggling from downstairs. 50% over their stupidity, and 50% over my overprotectiveness.
I almost stumbled into the room, catching my breath after running like an idiot.
Surprised, Ruth looked up at me, leaving her phone-screen.
"What the actual fluff was that for?", she said, in a high pitch.
I chuckled.
"Old man Miranda thought you were gone", I casually replied.
"Oh, oh, y-yeah sorry, I to-totally forgot to go back...", her head immediately started twitching, in a way that most people wouldn't have noticed, but when the desperate sight of panic in her eyes filled my mind, I couldn't possibly miss it.
"Hey, it's okay! I just got a little worried, that's all!"
"...LITTLE?!", Leslie's voice shouted from downstairs. "HE BASICALLY MADE EVERYONE TO GO LOOK FOR YA!"
Her panicky way of looking around didn't stop the laughter that started, her giggling as she frantically started tapping her leg with two fingers.
I counted. 23.
"You helping our lovely costume team out, then?", I asked, sounding happy to get her to snap out of the clearly worried phase. Ruth nodded, and made room by her as I sat down right next to her tiny body. I looked over at her phone, seeing the twitter icon, and I couldn't help but show a big grin.
"Um, yeah, it's a little hobby of mine-"
"Wait! You. Have. Twitter?!", I excitedly cut her off, making her giggle in an adorable way.
"Um... yeah?"
"I. Love. Twitter", not even trying to hide my passion for the best social media app I knew, and where I basically spent all my free time. I slid my phone out of my pocket, hiding under Alexander's big coat, opening up Twitter.
"What's your username?"
"@ ruth_or_rue_or_something_in_between"
"Ding, ding, ding! Followed!"
Ruth's pov
A notification showed up on my phone.
@ Lin_Manuel started following you
A few more followed, mostly I'd never even heard of.
Probably hard-core-fans that just followed me for the sake of Lin doing it.
I put my phone down, worrying about starting to worry about what would happen if more people decided to follow me. Was I meant to post more? Would they attack me wanting to know why Lin followed me? Would they get mad that he followed me, an insignificant girl, and not them? What if I'd already upset them?
Blink your eyes 74 times, and you cannot start off until the rythm is completely right.
From the ground floor you could hear Tommy shout.
"CURTAIN CALL IN FIVE MINUTES", and Lin sighed. He gave me a quick hug.
"The silence game begins now", he whispered, leaving the room as I frantically blinked, returning to my phone, not succeeding in distracting myself from the thoughts, the worry.
Blink, blink, blink.
I couldn't end it until it was completely right.
-----
Hello, hello🎈
And in honor of Lin's birthday, I completed this chapter. Woo🎉
Happy Birthday, you lovely piece of existence, thank you for being a brilliant human being with the greatest mind in history. You changed my world🌈
Also, here's a drawing I did a few days ago bc I wanted to do something Hamilton-related. This is what I ended up with;
And hopefully the chap was alright, a lil spice of OVERPROTECTIVE! LIN and just adorable and ruth's mindness. Hopefully this is still an interesting fanfic, and that y'all actually still like it. Like, wut, 1,4k reads AND WE BROKE THE 100 VOTES MARK! YAS!
But tbh, leave a lil comment about what you thought of the chapter. I promise you, I do not bite!🐝
Have a lovely day, leave a vote or comment, keep on sharing the story, promise me you'll be happy, and last but not least;
Sincerely,
C
Published; 16th of January, 2017