Nowhere To Go But Up ⋆ Lin-Manuel Miranda x Reader

Chapter Four

"Craig...I need help."

"Darling, tell me something I don't know," the stylist replied teasingly.

"Oh, you're hilarious," I told him, "You wouldn't have an umbrella in your collection of goodies, by any chance?"

"Uhhh..." Craig turned to look in the box in the back of his car, where the crew had been keeping our collection of props for the whole Mary Poppins theme, "Yep! Here - "

He brought one out and handed it to me, and I emitted a noise of triumph and gratitude, "Craig, you're the best, thank you!"

"Again...tell me something I don't know! Why do you want it, anyway?" he asked, eyeing me with curiosity but I tapped my nose.

"All will be revealed....I've got an idea..."

Lin might have been gracious enough to say he wasn't taking the credit for our work today but even so, it was almost impossible for me not to feel really inspired by his presence. 

Spurred on by his words of encouragement from before, and with no shortage of contagious energy or lack of willingness and positivity on his side, it made me relax more, stop being nervous (well, not so much anyway) and actually enjoy myself.

Yes, the pressure to come up with the goods was still there...but who knew when an opportunity like this would ever knock upon my door again?

Although our next stop after leaving St. Paul's was meant to be at the Zoo, I was hit by sudden inspiration.

I suggested to the crew that we went to the embankment down by the Thames. Seeing as Lin was playing a lamplighter in the film, it only made total sense we could make use of the avenue of old fashioned lampposts which lined the river there.

I knew that I was probably pushing my luck with this detour, what with this being my first big shoot and all, but my head was now simply buzzing with ideas like a horde of excitable bees and the opportunity was too good to pass up. I wasn't about to throw away my shot!

To my relief, Lin was all for it, apparently intrigued by what I had in store next.

When we reached the river a few minutes' drive later, it seemed that luck was on my side once again.

The light from the weak October sun was creating this wonderful hazy softness as it reflected off the Thames' rippling surface with a pearly shimmer. Look, I was a photographer - I geeked out over stuff like this!

Us camera-crazy peeps tended to see beauty even in the smallest things...things that generally went unnoticed by the casual passerby.

I was often praised by others for my ability to make even the most ordinary, simple things look stunning, be it a rusty old car, or a romantic fairytale wedding. ("Wow, that's not the same thing I was looking at, how did you do that?")

But I was well aware that not everybody appreciated it.

Some of my non-photographer friends would glaze over, roll their eyes or become impatient with my...strange little habits, shall we say... They would look at me like I was a crazy woman with an actual genuinely concerned, "Is she okay?" when I was practically breaking my neck or lying on the floor, contorting into the weirdest, inelegant of positions in order to nail that perfect shot.