Belong - an adopted by Hamilton fanfic [Hamilton]

10. To put: the past behind

Something licking my face, a laughing coming clearer and clearer into my slowly awaking mind.
I opened my eyes, seeing the living room going from blurry to clear.
"Hello there, sleepyhead", Lin said, as I realised that there was a dog licking my cheeks, I immediately sat up, rubbing my eyes. "Say hi to Tobillo, slash Tobi"
The little dog greeting me, excitedly waving its tail.
"Tobi, hi, Tobi!", I went high-pitched almost half-way through. "She's so cute! Why didn't you tell me you had an extremely adorable lil dog?"
Vanessa giggled at my statement, looking through some recipes where she was standing in the kitchen.
"Well - we let her be at my parents' house with her sister until you'd been livin' here for a few days, like if you were afraid or something..."
"Okay, okay", I said, fully overwhelmed by Tobi's hyped jumps, up and down from me to the ground, absolutely going crazy over the new human in her home.
"My parents just came and brought her back, but they'll meet you another time, since you were asleep", I suddenly felt bad, I shouldn't have fallen asleep on the sofa after breakfast, now I'm in the way and making everything more complicated than it already is.
Tap the cushion 73 times.
"Oh, yeah, right, sorry, um...", my words not really teaming up with my brain, Lin worriedly looking at my hand.
My frantically tapping increased, making it almost unrecognisable.
"You fell asleep watching Chuggington with Seb, which is understandable since you seem to wake up at 5 every morning", he said, worriedly trying to find my eyes.
"Oh, um, sorry, you knew that? I-I'm trying to wake up later, it's just, my brain's kinda used to 5:45", nervously laughing, silently counting every time my fingers touched the cushion.
"Sleep, sleep is good for you, remember that, Rue", Lin said, almost like a rhyme, and when he realised that fact it indeed did rhyme, he giggled like a five-year-old.
He stood up, walking over to Vanessa as I picked up my phone, which the System had finally fixed, and checked if I had any possible texts.
A blank screen showed, as usual.

"Hey, Rue, I thought we could go shopping today, shall we?", a smiling Vanessa said. Lin cut her off.
"Not me! Me, Tobi & Homeboy are having our special adventure to the park today"
"Okay, well then it's just you and me, Rue", she said, looking over at Lin, giggling as he sat right next to Sebastian, watching Chuggington. I nodded, giving her a little smile.
"O-okay, then"
Nobody's ever taking me out shopping before.

Vanessa made me go into a seventh store, sneaking around every aisle and clothing-stand, me rambling on how this was enough, gesturing to the many bags both she and I were carrying.
"Really, V, I'm so thankful for all this, but this is more than I need", practically begging for her to stop, but she just laughed.
"Last shop, promise. What about Starbucks afterwards? I mean, it's 12:10, we need to pick up Sebastian at the park in an hour or so, Lin has a two show day", she said, and I let out a breath, nodding, happy that she wouldn't spend more money on me.
Organise that clothing stand in design, colour and size. Otherwise people won't find what they're looking for, and it'll be your fault.
Before I could even blink, my hands moved every little piece that was wrong. People seemed to look at me, but I couldn't understand why. Everyone did this.

Sitting across each other at the coffee shop, sipping a little from my cup. Sipping for two seconds, then putting it down, tapped the table, and repeat.
"Fact: Lin's addicted to coffee", Vanessa said, picking up her sandwich, as we both had realised it was lunch.
"Fact: coffee's addicting", I sarcastically answered, doing a little hair whip, and to my satisfaction, making Vanessa crack a smile. Although, her soft smirk soon turned into a wondering look.
"Um, Rue, the uneven blonde bits in your hair? It's something I've wondered since you stumbled into the theatre"
I glanced at the table, blinking in time with how fast my heart was beating.
"Oh um yeah, that. Not my decision. M-my last foster family, u-um, the girl, she was dyeing her hair and thought it was fun to throw it at me while I was helping her out", I said, shrugging my shoulders, a bit nervous as the incident was something I'd kept inside. Her pitiful glance looking at me, searching for my avoiding eyes.
"Oh, Rue, I'm so sorry!", I shrugged my shoulders for the second time, not letting her words sink in.
She sighed, looking out of the window, but soon turned back to me smiling.
"Rue, you know what?"
I looked a bit confused, probably that if I were to be next to a question mark, it would be hard to see the difference.
"Would you like to cut the blonde bits off?"
I looked at her surprised, but nodding in such a desperate and happy way.
"Look over to the other side of the street"
Still, a bit confused by her sentences and questions, I turned my head.