Quiet Backstage: A Series of Lippa Oneshots

Red Wine & Reviews

"Hey, Love." Lin opened the door to the apartment and set his belongings down. He came around the table and gave his girlfriend a kiss.

"Hey." Pippa said, sadly. She took a sip of the glass of red wine she poured herself.

"What's wrong?" Lin asked, knowing that Pippa rarely drank. Only at the occasional party, or in terrible situations. (The last time he saw her "sad drink" was when she was cut out of fifteen auditions in a row, that's when she was still a senior at Julliard).

"They hate it." Pippa sighed, swallowing another sip of wine as she flipped that week's newspaper towards Lin.

"Huh?" He asked, picking up the paper and scanning through it.

"Arts column. Page three." Pippa told her boyfriend. Lin flipped to that page and looked down the print until he found the section in question.

A Brutally Honest Review of Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812

Lin read through the critic's review, changing expressions every few lines. "They just hate innovation." Lin concluded, throwing the paper back down onto the table. He circled around the table, and took the glass from Pippa's fingertips.

"Hey!" Pippa exclaimed. "Give it back!"

Lin just chuckled and pulled a chair up in front of Pippa. "You know how bad alchohol is for you, especially when you have a double header tomorrow." Pippa sighed, he was right.

"I know, but..." Her voice trailed off.

"But nothing." Lin grabbed both of her hands. "I'm not letting you sit here and drink until you can't sing tomorrow all over one review."

"I never said I'd get drunk." Pippa mumbled.

"Still, same difference. It's not good for a performer of your caliber." Lin kissed the tip of her nose.

"You sure about that?" She whispered under her breath.

"Of course I'm sure about that." Lin had heard her. "You booked this show clean out of college! That's immensely impressive! You're amazing!" Lin's eyes lit up, and he shook her hands out of pure passion for what was being discussed.

"Some of us have differing opinions."

"Okay, listen, that was one critic. He's an angry man who just has a bad opinion. That's one opinion, not the end-all-be-all review of your show." He told her.

"But what if he's right?" Pippa whispered.

"What did you just say?" Lin stood up. Tears sprung to Pippa's eyes, out of fear of why Lin was now yelling and standing up over her.

"That maybe the critic is right!" Pippa shouted right back, pushing her chair back as she stood up.

"Phillipa! He is not--" Lin started, but Pippa cut him off.

"If he's not right, then why is Dave threatening to replace me?!" Pippa yelled once again.

Lin's fired up expression soon fell. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that this isn't the first bad review we've gotten. And everyone had something bad to say about me." Pippa sighed, running her hands over her face. "I mean that Dave told me if I can't figure this whole thing out and start getting better reviews, that he is going to have to replace me."

Lin's mind was spinning. What did she mean? Was she serious? Dave couldn't cut her!

"Do you want proof?" Pippa sassily crossed her arms. Lin's eyebrows scrunched together at this newly posed attitude that Pippa was giving him. She left the room and came back moments later with a small stack of newspaper clippings.

"What are these?" Lin asked, taking the paper from Pippa's fingertips. He slid the paperclip off of the stack, and he read through the critic reviews. Lin looked back at his girl, concern marking his features. "Why do you have these? Why do you keep these? Where did these come from?"

"What do you mean?" Pippa exhaled loudly.

"I mean, why do you have these?! Why are you keeping these?! Why can you just go to wherever you went and get these at a moments notice?! Do you even realize how damaging this is?!" Lin sighed. He couldn't understand why she was doing this. Pippa just shook her head. Now that it was brought to her attention, she couldn't put it in words. "You don't know, do you?" Lin's voice now dropped to a normal tone.

"I mean..." Pippa started, but soon just looked down. She stared at her feet and didn't move until Lin went to tilt her chin up.

"Pippa, listen closely. I want you to get rid of these. Not just put them away, no, I mean get rid of them. Okay? I'll do it for you if you can't bring yourself to it. This is doing nothing but just putting unnecessary pressure and negativity onto your shoulders. You'd be lying if you told me that you said these words don't breathe down your neck when you're on stage. I know you would be." Lin rubbed the top of her shoulder. Pippa blinked back her tears and nodded. She took the paper from Lin's grasp and walked back into the kitchen. Pippa took a deep breath before dropping the papers into the recycle bin. Even though it was something so simple, it was just recycling paper, it was something that carried so much weight in Pippa's life right then.

Immediately after she dropped the paper, she turned around herself and immediately spotted the glass of wine Lin had taken from her and set aside earlier. Pippa didn't even look at Lin before she lunged for the glass. She squeezed her eyes shut as she downed the last of the alcohol in the glass. Pippa felt the burgundy liquid burn the back of her throat at the same time she sat the glass back on the table. Pippa coughed in response to how much alcohol she just consumed in the moment, and she broke out in tears. She slowly walked closer to Lin, and enveloped her in a hug. Tears started to soak into the fabric of his shirt. "I'm so scared." Pippa choked on the build up of emotions in the back of her throat.

"I know, I know." Lin whispered. He kissed her hair before laying his head over her shoulder. Pippa tucked her head into the side of Lin's neck as her tears came faster.

"I can't get fired." She mumbled. "Lin, I just can't." Her voice became easier to hear as she moved her head back to just above Lin's shoulder blade.

"You're not going to get fired, Pippa." Lin told her. "Dave wouldn't do that. Sure, he told you that, and sure he's pulling up headshots, but he was just worried. It was heat of the moment. He was feeling all the pressure you're feeling as well. It was just his fight or flight response to this reaction to his show." Lin kept his arms around her, but lifted his head from his shoulder. He titled Pippa's chin towards his once more, moving his hands from her waist, to having them loosely draped around her shoulders, near her neck. "I promise you that you won't get fired. There is nobody in this industry that is better suited for Natasha than you are."

"Do you really think that?" Pippa asked.

"I know that, Pippa." Lin dried the last few lingering tears on Pippa's cheeks and gave her chapped lips a kiss, tasting the aftertaste of the wine she had drank.

~~~~~

A/N: Hello! I hope you enjoyed this one! It might be one of my favorites! Either way, thank you all for reading and voting and commenting, you all make my day! Xx. ❤😘