Quiet Backstage: A Series of Lippa Oneshots

The Guy That Did Hamilton

"How's the writing going, Sweetheart?" Pippa asked, gently wrapping her arms around Lin from behind his chair. She gently kissed the side of his head as she looked down at the paper Lin had almost flooded with ink from his near-dead ballpoint pen.

Lin sighed, spinning around in his chair to fully face his wife. Pippa changed her arm placement so now her arms were loosely wrapped around his neck.

"It's hard..." Lin sighed, looking down at the coffee mug between his palms. Empty.

"Honey--" Pippa started, but Lin cut her off.

"No, no, really, I'm fine." He partially lied.

Pippa frowned, taking Lin's mug and set it ontop of a coaster on the desk. She then proceeded to sit down on Lin's lap, one leg on either side of his desk chair.

"What're you doing?" Lin chuckled gently.

"Hush, you're too stressed out." Pippa spoke lowly, leaning down and pressing a kiss to Lin's lips. "Now," She said once the kiss separated. "What's really going on up there?" She gently kissed his temple.

"I just don't want to always be "the guy that did Hamilton", y'know?" Lin sighed. He shook his head.

Pippa frowned. "You won't be, Sweetheart, where's this coming from?"

"Every announcement of Moana has named me, 'Hamilton Star, Lin-Manuel Miranda...'"

Pippa hummed gently, trying to think of the best words to say here.

This was a lot more than what Pippa expected. She expected a silly complaint from Lin about writer's block, but this was so much more.

He was worried about his entire perception of himself to the public. And it was obvious thoughts like this had been keeping him up at night.

The go-go-go mentality and lifestyle since Hamilton had exploded on Broadway, writing for Disney had begun, and acting for Disney was being talked of, was really taking its toll on Lin.

The stress of it all had resulted in his facial hair growing out longer than Pippa had seen it in years. He'd even dropped some weight between the opening night party and now. His eyes didn't sparkle unless he was in front of a camera, the exhaustion will do that to someone.

Even right now, it was nearing the time they'd usually head to sleep. The dishes from dinner had been rinsed off and put into the dishwasher. Yet, tonight Lin had been holed up in the study, and now his fingers seemed to be cramped in the position how he held his pen.

"Honey, articles just headline like that to one, get traffic to their site by using buzz words like Hamilton. But they also just want something to make you more relatable. Obviously, to die hard fans of the show, think you're their best friend, but Lin, to a casual consumer, you're a celebrity. People know Hamilton. They relate to Hamilton. And yes, you did Hamilton. So tying you back to it will only help you, I promise." Pippa leaned down and kissed his lips once again.

Lin sighed into the kiss. His muscles were still tense from all the stress.

"You've done so much. Don't let labels define your entire career." Pippa stood up, grabbing Lin's tense hands.

After kissing each individual knuckle, she helped him stand up.

"Thank you, Pip. I love you."

"I love you too, Lin. You need some rest, now."

~~~~~

HI FROM STUDYING FOR BIO MIDTERMS