Belong - an adopted by Hamilton fanfic [Hamilton]

47. To cherish

Rue's POV
"We want to adopt you, Rue", the words just kept echoing in my head - I couldn't comprehend it all. This is home. This is going to be home, like my proper home. Nothing temporary.

But until then, I could worry about every possible scenario along the way. And so I would worry, because that's me like a tin of olives. It's just olives, nothing more - nothing less. You get what you get; a worried teenager.

The mood swings of this morning - from the note, to me being absolutely fooled, to me feeling so ashamed of myself, to me being sorry about the day before and to that they were, really were, adopting me - it, all in all, got me absolutely drained of energy.
I, for one, never seemed to have any proper energy anymore.

As a matter of fact - now, this morning was just pure happiness. Nothing could wipe that hideous smile off of my face today.

Genuinely happy. I wish I could feel like that every day. Walking on sunshine.

Lin had managed to catch me after breakfast, so that I could help him while writing for Moana.

"Is this your way of secretly making me sing?", I was still smiling, looking over the sheet music, right after going through How far I'll go for the second time this morning.
"Guilty", he said, shrugging. "Can't make you go to singing class, Niñita, can I?", I laughed a little, still feeling absolutely happy. "So - yes, I am the substitute teacher"
A thought popped into my head. A good thought, an idea.
"Well, can't we sing something else today then?", I asked, open for literally anything.
Lin gave me a surprised, yet happy, look.
"Superfragilisticexpialidocious!", he exclaimed, taking the sheet music out of my hands, placing it on the top of the piano. "Got anything in mind?"
I shook my head, looking down at my lap. I hadn't quite come that far into the idea just yet.
Lin turned his upper body around, shouting into the living room, to Vanessa who was catching up with an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine she'd missed the other week.
"V! What's a good song?", which only lead to her shouting back;
"Walking on Sunshine!", just taking it from the top of her mind.
"Why do we think the same, may I ask?", he told her, to which, you could hear a laugh accompanying. A laugh, which I joined.
"Rue?", Lin said to catch my attention, as I looked at him. "Let's go", and he played the first chord - as he'd somehow already looked up the lyrics and chords.
"I used to think maybe...", I sang, knowing the words by heart, for some unfamiliar reason that couldn't be detected in this happy area of pure sunshine.

We sang all kinds of songs, just taking it chord by chord. Sebastian joined by clapping his hand, Vanessa singing along too as the episode finished.

Suddenly Lin put up his phone, which I believed was meant to film us.
"I look like Anna when she wakes up in Frozen", I commented, suddenly starting to tick - I was outside the box of comfort. My head was full of references after Carson and I's Disney marathon last week, and Frozen just sticks around. "In other words; I look like shit", I said, tapping my thigh.
I can't even remember fixing myself since weeks back - with the only exception being yesterday, when dressing myself in decent clothes actually happened and I could care to fill in my brows, just because I was meeting people. There was just too much going on and I was just so tired.
"I look like shit too, Niñita", he said, lifting an eyebrow at me. "You okay with you and your singing being on Twitter?", he asked, his parent radar going off at my tapping.
"Okay", I shrugged my shoulders, trying to approach it as it wasn't a big deal.
The small deal grew into a big deal in my head in just a few milliseconds.
"...okay", Lin said, sounding a bit unsure - yet, pressing the record button. "Sing!"
I laughed by surprise, hearing Seb clapping his hands in the background.
"Oh, the bitter winds are comin' in and I'm already missing the summer-", I began, giggling from time to time. I picked up Tobi, as she'd been trying to jump up on my lap for the past ten minutes - she quickly settled in between Lin & I, resting her head on my thigh, where I was tapping.
The chorus began, and I just followed along.
"I'll be your Emmylou and I'll be your June, and you'll be my Graham and my Johnny too-", and that's when Lin stopped and cut me off.
"I have never heard this song before. And it's a frickin' diamond", he exclaimed, looking directly at me, only to make me laugh.
"Is this the real life?", Vanessa jokingly sang as she got into frame when walking by.
"Is this just fantasy?", we shouted in response.
"That's such a banger, honestly", I said, taking up my phone to take a picture of how cute Tobi was, just chilling out by the piano.
"What about this one then?", Lin said, only to counterpunch with the opening line of that song that always sticks around.
"Won't you come see about me?", he sang, only to smile at the camera. "Dear Luz, thanks for playing it non-stop on your cassette player. It is an official banger"
I made way for myself to play one of the few piano intros I could.
Seasons of Love.
"Awww", Lin let out, representing every Theater kid in the world when that song plays.
"Gotcha!", I exclaimed, pointing at him.
"¡Hermana!", Sebastian was pointing at me with a train, as an offer - well, more of a demand - to play with him, to build a train track or two.
I was the designer, he was the driver. The train driver's hat he wore was surely too big for his head. I got him that for Christmas; and every time a train was speeding by on our little train tracks, it was on his head.
Feeling as if I'd won the battle of great, swell and totally singable songs that gets everybody going, one way or another, I got up.
This, meaning that I left Tobi for Sebastian.
Lin reached for his phone, aiming for stopping the recording. This was when he got, what he later would call, a brainwave.
"Hey, Rue!", and I turned my head around, to see what he wanted.
"Yeah?", lifting my face in wonder.
That very smile, so happy with himself.
"Hey Rue, don't make it bad..."
In conclusion: his current dad jokes always included my name, one way or another.