To the Two of Us: Remastered (Anthony Ramos x OC)

One

(A/N: In dedication to my dear friend Raley... rest in paradise, my love...)

[Real life]

Malia watched the cast in pure awe on their opening night. When they all saw her again, she happily congratulated them on their amazing performance. She and Maddie (who struggled to walk due to her pregnancy) went home, Maddie refusing to shut up about Daveed, who chuckled to himself.

She was texting Anthony Ramos. He was currently complaining about her teasing of his two deaths, which she'd been doing for well over a year. (A/N: dw, I'll have flashbacks.).

She smiled to herself about his sad, pouty emojis. "Cute." she murmured to herself as she sent back pink, blue, yellow, and red hearts. The colors of the roles she played.

Being an understudy for all the female leads slowly began to settle in Malia's head. She mentally decided her easiest performances would be filling in for Renée Elise Goldsberry. Sure, "Satisfied" would be a little hard, but she had an advantage: learning from Queen herself. Other than that, she'd been able to get through it Angelica's role in the story without a single issue.

Filling in for Jasmine Cephas Jones was a little harder. It was a dual role performance. And while pulling off Peggy's innocent nature was relatively easy, it was during act two that her problems began. She struggled with the "sultry, seductive voice" of Maria. It was known that Malia wasn't used to the change in importance. As Peggy, she seemed to only be there to make the Schuyler Sisters a trio. As Maria, she played a more important role in the narrative of Hamilton: the first of many mistakes. But the roles were something she was getting the hang of.

Then there came the real challenge: Phillipa Soo.

The role of Eliza came with many difficulties. Firstly, the performance of Phillipa Soo was unmatched. Malia always found herself either forcing herself to do the same inflictions or criticizing herself for not being able provide the same raw emotions as Phillipa. Secondly, she felt so out of place during every moment between Alexander and Eliza. She watched Phillipa and Lin-Manuel Miranda do these scenes countless times. To be in Phillipa's place felt oddly disturbing. Thirdly, she felt uncomfortable acting as a mother to Anthony during act two. Fourthly, the costume changes confused her greatly, as she sometimes had to be reminded which dress to wear for which songs.

However, like the dual role of Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds, she was slowly starting to grasp it. She began feeling more confident about everything and she couldn't wait to be able to perform in front of an audience.

That day came in early October of 2015. Malia was prepared to spend a day doing nothing but be lazy when Lin called her. "Renée is out for a few days on family business. Are you available to fill in?" he'd asked.

She was in.

Malia arrived at the Richard Rogers theatre with a wide smile on her face after driving there listening to her hardest song on a loop. As she got ready before the show, she kept telling Phillipa and Jasmine how nervous she was while still being excited.

"Y'know, I think Lin is genuinely frightened by me during 'The Reynolds Pamphlet.' Is he?" she asked. Jasmine laughed. "Of course he is. When I first saw him teaching you about the musical, I saw how scared he was when you asked to sing Angelica's part in 'The Reynolds Pamphlet.' You turn into a psychopath."

"I get in character." she whined.

Delaney - Daveed's little sister - peeked in, walking over to Malia. "So, you're playing Angelica Schuyler. Daveed's jealous." she said. "Who let you in?" Malia asked. Delaney smiled as she answered, "Linda the Man well."

Phillipa snorted at the offended, "Hey!" coming from Lin on the other side of the door.

There was an hour before the show started when she saw Anthony's Insta with her picture.

(A/N: Hi, it's Alana. Obviously. So, as you can see, I took a bit of a different approach to this version of the story. It is still a social media au, but I want to give more context and depth to the characters in between the social media in this version. Next chapter will obviously be an Instagram chapter. See you there, my loves.)