The Story of Tonight

52

*the next day*

Amy's POV
I woke up to my phone buzzing uncontrollably. I picked it up and saw Lin's name. He's next door, he owns a key to my apartment, he could've just walked in and woke up me.
"Thanks for waking me up Miranda." I groaned rubbing my sore eyes.
"Whoa. Sorry Smithy." Lin laughed using a nickname he gave me. I rolled my eyes, sat up and put my slippers on.
"What's up? What do you need?" I asked him.
"I'm going to send you an address, I need you to meet me there and I need you to bring your drums and some coffee."
"One cream, five sugars?" I asked him walking to my dresser and picked out a hair tie and ribbon and tied my hair up.
"That's it." He said.
"Fine. I'll be there soon." I said and hung up. It decided to wear my jeans and my 'All Blacks' jumper. I slipped on my canvas shoes and put another coat on top because it was chilly. Charlie stayed with Dad at Cassandra's house. I poured some dog food into Rosco's bowl and quickly gave him a pat and walked down the stairs. Thankful a new cafe opened up on the corner of the road. I ordered Lin's coffee and myself a Chai Tea. I had my drums under my arm and carried the coffees to the address Lin asked me to go to. I wiped my feet at the door mat and pushed the door open.

"Hi! Do you have a meeting with someone in particular or are you here for a tour?" The receptionist asked me. I took my hood off and looked around the tower. Why did Lin want me to come to a recording studio?
"Oh uh, yeah. I'm meeting Lin-Manuel Miranda." I smiled at her. "I believe it's for Moana." I told her.
"Yes! Come right this way." She said and took me to the elevator. "He is on level 7, room 19." She told me and pressed the button for level seven and clicked her heels and walked off. I walked back out of the elevator and sound room 19. I knocked on the door and opened it.
"Hey Amy! Good you brought coffee." Lin said rushing over to me and grabbing the coffee off me. "Amy. This is Opetaia Foa'i." Lin said introducing us.
"Matua keke. I haven't seen you in years. How's your family?" Matua keke means uncle.
"Pretty good. How's your father and Charlie?" He asked as I sat down across from him.
"Oh they're good. As of yesterday, Dads getting married to his partner and Charlie recently just turned four." I smiled.
"Oh that's wonderful. Has it seriously been that long since I last saw you?"
"I guess so." I giggled and put my Chai Tea on the table next to my drums.
"Y-you guys now each other already?" Lin asked shocked.
"Well yeah, we're New Zealanders. We all come from the same Islands." I said and sipped on my tea. "There aren't many of us."
"She's kidding. There's millions of us. Her mother used to work for me. Tia and I dated when we were teenagers." Opetaia told Lin. "She was my assistant in New Zealand then I moved and so did she. The last time I saw Amy was probably, yeah, probably Tia's funeral." That's why I refer to him as uncle. His very close with my family. I think that's cool that we refer to people as Auntie and Uncle, even if we're not blood related
"Any who." Lin chuckled. "We need another song-"
"Dude. Isn't this movie coming out in like July? I thought you had finished writing everything." I complained and Opetaia laughed.
"We need another song. It's going to be some background music, meaning the characters won't actually sing it. It's a scene between Moana and Maui and they're just defeated-" Lin was cut off by one of the producers of the film.
"Don't say too much." He said. Lin rolled his eyes. He couldn't help himself. He was excited and it was kinda cute on how excited he was. I grabbed onto the rhythm sticks and began to hit a beat.
"No that sounds too much like another song in the film." Lin told me and I sighed.
"Well I don't know what you want." I told him and he sighed and sipped on his coffee.
"Let's just take ten minutes to clear our heads and come back to this." He suggested and I nodded.

"Anyways, how's Charlie. I beat she's grown up a heap." Opetaia said fixing his hat and I pulled out my phone and showed a photo of her to him. "Oh she's adorable. She definitely has Tia's nose. But you have all her features." He said and I locked my phone. So I've been told a thousand times.
"Is she taking an interest in your heritage?" I nodded.
"Yeah. She wants to learn traditional Maori. She can count one to ten and start a conversation, with 'hi how are you?' But that's it." I shrugged. "She's taken an interest in the songs which mom used to sing me. I rarely sing them though. She doesn't understand the meaning of them." I giggled and he chuckled.
"Well it's a whole new language. Our people were voyagers, your father's heritage is vey different. Have you seen Hamilton? It's meant to be very good." He chuckled as Lin walked back into the board room. Lin raised an eyebrow and it looked like an idea had sparked in his head.
"What songs did your mother used to sing to you?" Lin curiously asked.
"Oh, just all sorts of things." I told him truthfully sipping on more tea.
"Like what?"
"Oh, the ocean, the people, her land, anything really." I mumbled.
"What was the first song she taught you?" Lin asked and I looked at Opetaia.
"I think we both taught you 'Logo Te Pate'." He said and pointed to the drum.
"Oh yeah. I think I was three or something." I said looking at Opetaia seriously.
"Well play that, maybe something might come. Some musical juices might flow." Lin said and I picked up the sticks and began to hit the drum.
"Try it double time." Opetaia asked and I hit it a bit faster. Before I knew it Opetaia began singing the tune. I sang first and then he joined in on the chorus. Lin looked at us.
"Guys! That's it! That's the song. What's it called? I need more." Lin said excitedly practically jumping in his spot. "What were you guys singing in?"
"Oh Maori." I said. As if he didn't know that.
"The song translates to: Do you remember, when we did all that, the sway, the energy, expressed in the dance. Do you remember, when we did all that, the joy and sweetness, expressed in the dance. Smile my way, keep on dancing, listen to the pate and keep on swaying." Opetaia told Lin writing down the lyrics on a blank piece of paper.
"It's usually sung during festivals and festivities such as birthdays and anniversaries." "It's a song which the kids love to dance to. It has a really catchy beat. And because I knew Amy knew it quite well, hence why we could perform it faster. The fasted the beat the better the tune sounds and the catcher it becomes. You're going to have to stuck in your head for days now." Opetaia added. Lin looked at us gobsmacked.
"It's the coolest thing I've ever heard." He told us and hugged me. "I knew you and your New Zealander heritage would come in handy one day." Lin exclaimed. "I'm so happy! I think that's the song. All we gotta do is record it and we'll send it to the other producers in LA."
"Who's going to perform it?" Opetaia asked. "We can't get our choirs to come back, they just left." He said.
"You and Amy can perform. You guys clearly know it quite well. You have a strong bond and that will come through it not only the singing but when the finalise the movie it will show the strong connection between Moana and Maui." Lin said gesturing his hands all over the place. I sighed. I can't sing to save my life, but I'm about you.

"You know, you sound just like your mother." Opetaia told me as we entered the recording booths. It was just the two of us on some stools. Lin instructed that he would conduct, even though he didn't know that song very well. I was really nervous and I think Opetaia could see the fear on my face. He placed a hand on my knee and sighed.
"Your mother would be so proud of you." He smiled and kissed my head and I smiled back.
"Alright, you two better be ready." Lin said through a microphone and started to record.

~*~

"Okay, so I brought home pizza. I hope that's okay with you. Sorry I'm back so late. Turns out my audition wasn't really an audition, it was a rehearsal for a movie." Anthony said opening the door to my apartment.
"That's fantastic Anthony." I smiled bubbly walking over to the kitchen and taking a good whiff of the scent of pizza.
"Yeah. I brought home the script." Anthony smiled kissing my lips before opening the pizza boxes. D-did he just refer to my apartment as home? Ohmygod are we moving to fast? He is only saying that because it's only me and him in here whilst Dad and Charlie stay at Cassandra's for the rest of the week.
"What's the movie about?" I asked him getting a my pizza box and a glass of water and sat back on the couch with the pizza box on my lap.
"Well, I play a dude call Kilo. His a bit of a risqué guy. I mean, hopefully it's alright. I'm just trying to get my name out there." Anthony sat and sat across from me. He sat on my ground.
"That's all you need to do. Get your name out there, and just tell people that you're in Hamilton and you should get hired." Anthony laughed at me.
"I'm being serious. You'll probably win a bunch of Tony's and probably a Grammy." I told him keeping his hopes up high.
"How is it you know just what to say?" Anthony asked and I blushed.
"I go that from you." I smiled and took a bite out of my Vegetarian pizza. Why didn't we just eat Christmas leftovers, I don't know. "Oh I have news as well." I smiled and he looked at me confused. "Lin got me a part in his Disney movie. I'm singing a song. It's only a small part but it's really exciting."
"Babe! That's incredible."
"Yeah. I get to sing in my traditional language." I smiled proudly and placed the pizza on the coffee table, took a sip of my water, sat Miles on my lap and feed him some of my pizza crust.
"How did you get that job?" Anthony asked me still munching on his pizza.
"I've been helping Lin with translating music that Opetaia would write and Lin would have no idea what was written. I help him write We Know The Way as well and More. Although I didn't think More is going to be in the movie. Probably just an outtake." I smiled and moved my seat and sat next to Anthony.
"Well look at us making a name for ourselves." He laughed as I kissed his cheek.
"Oh! I almost forgot." I smiled slapping his arm numerous times.
"What?" He asked worried.
"You have 184 freckles on your face. I counted them last night." I giggled and he pinned me to the ground, hovering over me.
"You may have counted incorrectly." He smirked.
"Nah uh." I shook my head. "I counted them twice." I giggled.
"You're so the fucking cutest." He giggled kissing me. I lifted my body up and kissed him back. He pulled away. "What you do wanna do for our one year?" He asked and I gasped.
"That's coming up isn't it?" I asked him and he nodded. "D-do we have a particular date?" He shook his head.
"I think it was the 25th." He said and I smiled.
"That's sounds about right." I smiled. Trust me to forget.  "You're such a girl. Remembering dates and everything." I giggled.
"Right. And you're the guy." Anthony joked and I kissed his chapped lips. "I can get time off if you wanna go ago. We could go to LA or Orlando for a couple of days." Anthony suggested rolling to his side so he could face me.
"Sounds good." I smiled. I can't believe it's been a year already. It's seems like ages ago when we first spoke about being in a relation and meeting him for the first time at Lin's apartment. I ran my fingers through his hair. "Before we go away, I need you to cut your hair." I smirked.
"Oh so you can pull it?" He smirked. Of course his mind goes straight to sex. I rolled my eyes playfully.
"No. It's getting oily and full of knots."

~*~

A/N: the photo is a traditional New Zealand/Polynesian drum. It's called a 'Pate' and the song from Moana 'Logo Te Pate' which is the song I used for this chapter :)