Three days went by that all pretty much consisted of the same exact things: Victoria helping Nellie in the pie shop, Toby trying to find time to see Christine, Johanna and Anthony brainstorming for new match making ideas, Sweeney drinking too much, and honestly not really any interaction between Lovett and Todd whatsoever.
He'd come downstairs to see the kids and she'd go upstairs to carry a few things up every now and then. They'd talk briefly and avoid too much eye contact, and it had been that way since a few nights ago in the closet. Which, by the way, Victoria hasn't let Nellie forget about it since.
"You can't kiss like that and then not talk for three days, that's far too much tension between the two of you. The kind that makes you crazy if you know what I'm getting at." Victoria winked at her cousin Nellie from across the flour covered counter. Nellie merely rolled her eyes at Victoria's drabbling.
"There's no sexual tension, everything is fine. He's fine, I'm fine." Nellie stated blankly, tired of talking about the same old thing over and over again. She grabbed a pile of plates from the counter and placed them into the sink before she began doing the dishes.
Victoria's persistence proved to be quite apparent. "That man is upstairs drinking like a fish and you've been down 'ere cleaning and working your bum off like a maniac! Just go talk to him!"
"We're talking later tonight, we're sharing drinks in the parlour, happy? Now please no more talk of me and Sweeney. At least for the rest of today." Nellie pleaded, making Victoria smile and nod.
"I won't make a peep."
Nellie raised her brows "now that's a change." She thought.
~~
Sweeney Todd knew he'd been drinking more than usual. He was aware of his behavior, and he knew it wasn't a very good thing. Usually he only drank when he was in a really bad mood or if Nellie was drinking too and they'd get drunk together. But lately he's had so much on his mind, and everything going on with Nellie only made things worse. He knew he couldn't have her, that she didn't want to take their relationship any further. It was as if someone put the most wonderful thing in the world in front of him but then told him he could never have it. She was almost worse than the alcohol.
~~
At ten minutes before closing time for the barber shop, Nellie walked in. "Hey love, you closing soon?" She asked with a smile, excited for their pre planned drinking night. It'd be nice to just relax and just talk to Sweeney for a little while.
"Mhm." Was all he mumbled while he stared out of the big window in his shop. She took it as a yes though.
"Alright darling well the pie shop is very busy tonight so I'm afraid drinks will have to start an hour later than as planned." Guilt instantly came over the barber. He completely forgot that they planned to have drinks tonight, he was already drunk. If Nellie noticed she'd probably get pissed off about it, but he wasn't going to lie to her and pretend to be sober.
"It's fine." He replied dryly and finally turned around from the window to look at her. God, she was gorgeous. She was wearing a black dress that complimented her curves perfectly. It was short sleeved, with black lace at her chest. Her dark red hair and blood red lips stood out even more than usual due to the black dress and her pale skin. It was like looking at a painting, a beautiful, magical piece of art.
Usually he'd look around at other things in the room to distract himself from her, but the alcohol in his system wasn't making him think clearly. He wanted her, her and nothing else. All he could think about right now was a few days ago in the closet when he kissed her, or out in the rain a few months ago. How wonderfully her perfect lips moved with his, how warm she was, that familiar scent of vanilla.
He slowly began to approach her and Nellie watched him through narrow eyes as he got closer. She slowly took two steps back, but only found herself against the wall. "Sweeney?" He snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her close to him. With his other hand, he brought it to her cheek and traced her cheekbone with his thumb. Nellie stood unmoving, her arms at her sides. She couldn't exactly go anywhere with his tight grip on her waist, it wasn't painful but it definitely held her closely to him. He drank in the sight of her, his mouth was close to hers and Nellie could smell the alcohol on his breath. "You're drunk." She stated, allowing him to just hold her there.
"You're beautiful." He whispered before he leaned in to kiss her, but Nellie turned her head so he kissed her cheek rather than her lips, like he'd hoped. Todd frowned and looked down at her, she placed her hands on his chest and gently pushed him back.
"I've got to get back to the shop." She told him and turned to leave but he grabbed her hand before she could open the door.
"We've hardly spoken in days." He was right, and she knew he was right. But that didn't change anything, she couldn't keep staying in between everything. In the middle of falling for Sweeney and just remaining friends. She couldn't keep confusing herself, or him, or anyone else for that matter since everyone seemed to be so strangely interested in what she and Sweeney's "relationship" was exactly.
"Wot 'appened in the closet the other night, it can't happen again." She left his shop without another word, there was nothing else to say. Though it hurt her to be so blunt with him, it was something she needed to do.
Sweeney closed his shop and stared at an unopened bottle of gin on his desk. He could feel he was beginning to just drink all of his problems away, but that didn't stop him from opening the bottle.
~~
Victoria watched as Nellie descended from the staircase that led up to the barber shop. She noticed Nellie wore a frown on her face, which was unexpected. Victoria placed a pie down at one of the tables for the customer before making her way over to Nellie.
"Everything alright?" Victoria asked.
"Well we won't be having drinks later tonight." Nellie stated, sounding disappointed. Victoria placed her hands on her hips, frowning.
"Why not?"
"He's already drunk." Victoria could hardly even hear Nellie over the roar of the busy pie shop. She wanted to ask more questions but there wasn't exactly an abundance of chat time right now. There were tables filled inside and outside, people waiting in a line out front for new tables to open up, Johanna, Anthony, Nellie, and Victoria were all on duty. Nellie and Victoria handled the tables outside while the other two handled the ones inside. But it was still hard to keep up with the busy shop, some customers chatted away while others simply got drunk and made lots of noise. That didn't matter though, as long as no one caused any trouble Nellie didn't care how loud the place got. Business was thriving, and while it was exhausting as well, it was very much worth it due to all of the money they were making.
Toby was once again with Christine. Their little romance had been growing these days, which everyone thought was really nice. Recently he'd been coming home a little bit early to help close up the shop since he'd been out while it was open.
At around eight o'clock in the evening, Nellie was walking past a table with three guys, each more drunk than the next. The one man, who looked to be in his forties, waved a hand to Nellie "how about another round over 'ere for me and my friends, huh sweetheart?" He drunkenly called out. The other two guys simply laughed and nodded their heads.
Nellie smiled and nodded before going to grab a bottle of whiskey. She didn't necessarily think it was the greatest idea since they were already intoxicated but she didn't want to upset the customers. After all, the customer is always right. And as long as they'd pay for everything when they're done, she didn't really give a shit how much they drank.
Todd stumbled slightly out of his shop and carefully made his way down the stairs, where Victoria was standing. He noticed she was staring intensely at something, brows furrowed as her gaze didn't move one bit. She looked sort of concerned, maybe not quite worried, but not content either. It was more of an uneasy presence about her than anything. When he got to the bottom of the stairs he stood directly beside her and tried to follow her gaze, but all he saw was a bunch of filled tables with lots of chatting customers. And Nellie, of course, waiting on a few people.
"Wot are we looking at?" He asked Victoria, who jumped from shock since she hadn't seen him.
"There you are!" She chimed, she hadn't expected to see him for the rest of the night. But then she got a good look at him, his eyes seemed far off somewhere, it even looked like he was having trouble keeping them open. "Jesus, how much did you drink?"
"Only two, or maybe two and a half." She noticed his speech was surprisingly fine. He didn't really sound drunk. But she knew he was.
"Glasses?"
"Bottles." He laughed, and Victoria began to laugh as well. She then remembered his initial question that sparked the conversation in the first place. Inquiring as to what Victoria had been looking at.
"I've been keeping an eye on those three blokes over there." She pointed to the three drunk men who had asked Nellie for even more to drink. "They're all pretty drunk, and they're only getting more drunk as the night goes on."
Sweeney looked over at the table and decided it was a very good idea to be watching them. Nellie was at their table right now.
Nellie sat the bottle of whiskey on the table for them "yeh might wanna order something to actually eat to go with all that alcohol. You'll all be getting sick." She told them with a friendly laugh. The three men roared with laughter and the oldest of the three men smirked.
"Well there is one thing I've had my eye on that looks pretty good."
Nellie wasn't stupid, nor was she new to this. She knew what he was getting at and she wasn't in the mood. "I'd be happy to get you a menu so you can see the prices of everything." She smiled and turned to go inside to fetch a menu, but the man grabbed her wrist and she turned back around to face him.
This caught Sweeney's attention, but he couldn't hear what was actually going on. He could only see it since there were so many other people, and the table was a few rows back. But he saw this man grab Nellie's wrist, he decided to wait a minute before going over there, he didn't know what was going on and for all he knew everything could be fine. But he watched even closer now.
"This particular item isn't on the menu." He slurred with an unsettling smile. His two friends laughed, finding it amusing. Finding him amusing.
Nellie smiled as politely as she possibly could, though she wanted to just smack the man. "Well I'm afraid I can't help you with that, sir. But I'd be happy to get you a nice piece of pie."
"Awh come on darlin' I'm sure we'd be able to work something out, right?" The man pulled out his wallet and snaked an arm around Nellie's waist.
At the sight of this Todd nearly went nuts. His eyes widened and he quickly stepped forward to go over there and get Nellie the hell away from that pervert. But Victoria reached her arm out across his chest, pushing him back to where he previously stood beside her. "Hang on." She told him, knowing he was drunk just like those other three men. And if he went over there now things would get ugly.
Sweeney looked at Victoria with panic in his eyes, as if he thought she'd gone completely insane. "He put his hands on Nellie we have . . ."
"She'll handle it. Nellie can take care of herself, calm down love please. Before you get yourself all worked up." Sweeney didn't agree with her, not at all. He knew Nellie could handle herself, and take care of herself. That didn't mean he didn't have the strong urge to go help her anyway. He felt like he should do something, get over there and do something. But he kept his feet where they were. He listened to Victoria and decided to just wait and keep watching them. Now he had all of his attention on what was going on at that table over there, he didn't even blink. Ready to go over there at any moment if necessary.
Nellie took a step back, removing the man's arm from around her waist. Her smile had disappeared and she looked dead serious. "Hands to yourself, sir." She told him firmly before she turned and began walking away from the table.
"How much for a piece of you?" The drunk man asked, reaching his hand out and briefly grabbing her butt.
At this Nellie merely rolled her eyes and whipped back around to tell them to leave immediately. But she didn't even get the chance. The second Todd saw the sickening man's disgusting action he felt his jaw and fists clench. He felt his blood boil and his eyes widen enough to practically fall out of his skull. There was no way Victoria could've stopped him this time. Within a few seconds Todd went from standing beside Victoria to directly in front of the man at the table.
Sweeney forcefully grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt and lifted him up out of his seat so they were face to face before he punched him as hard as he possibly could.
"Sweeney!" Nellie shrieked, where in the bloody hell did he even come from?! Wasn't he just drinking in his shop?!
Johanna and Anthony heard yelling coming from outside and they rushed over to the window to see what all the fuss was about. That's when Toby walked in, finally returning from his time with Christine. He saw the two of them at the window watching something and he walked over to them. Outside he saw a large crowd of people gathered around one table, there was yelling and movement. But it was hard to see due to the surrounding crowd.
"Wot's going on?" Toby asked the two of them.
Johanna squinted her eyes but still couldn't see exactly what was going on. She shrugged "just some drunk fools fighting it would appear." She told him.
Anthony spotted Todd in the crowd of people, the center of attention. "Yeah and one of them is your dad!"
"Wot?!" Johanna shrieked and ran outside, followed by Toby and Anthony.
The man was now on the ground, but Sweeney didn't stop punching him. Some people even began to cheer, excited to see a fight happening. But Nellie wasn't cheering. She was far from excited.
"Sweeney stop it!" She grabbed Todd's arm, not caring if she accidentally got hit in the process. She pulled him away from the man as hard as she possibly could. Luckily he only got about six or seven punches in, which was still a lot. And caused a considerable amount of damage and pain, but she knew if she hadn't pulled Sweeney away he probably would've kept going until he killed the man. Todd tried lunging at the man again, but Nellie pulled him back again "Sweeney!" She made him look at her, actually look in her eyes, so he'd see how angry she actually was. Finally, Todd took another step back away from the man, panting with anger, glaring at the perverted bastard he'd just beat the shit out of. The man's two friends helped him up and handed him napkins from the table for his bloody nose and lip.
Nellie glared up at Sweeney with daggers and oh my, if looks could kill. "Go inside." She told him lowly, angrily. Todd turned to go inside the house, he knew she'd be in after him to hand his ass to him.
"Yeah, that's right sweetheart you tell him! Get that deranged lunatic out of here. Pathetic excuse for a barber, he belongs locked up in bedlam, the crazy bastard." The drunk man laughed. Apparently getting the living hell beat out of him didn't scare him enough to shut him up. Sweeney ignored the man's comment. He didn't give a shit what the man said about him, just as long as he didn't try anything with Nellie again.
Nellie, on the other hand turned back to face the man, wide eyed. "Wot the fuck did you just say?" She asked slowly, warningly. Everyone watching gasped. No one was used to hearing a lady use such language. But Victoria couldn't help but smirk, and Todd was honestly just surprised she said anything in his defence at all. He turned around to look at Nellie, amused at the drunk man's shocked expression. Of course, everyone was especially shocked the next second when Nellie swung on the man, and punched him hard across the face. Once. However, she hit him hard enough that he once again fell to the ground. "Take your friends and get out. None of you can eat here anymore." That was all she said before she stormed into the house. Past a very amused barber and a laughing Victoria. Past the three kids who saw the whole thing, they were just shocked. All three of their jaws were to the floor. Everything was silent. Even the crowd of customers went silent.
Todd laughed as he turned to wave goodbye to the now very embarrassed man who just hit the ground due to a woman's punch. God he loved how she punched someone. Not just someone, but a man twice her size. He continued laughing as he walked into the house to go find Nellie.
Victoria told the kids to get inside and she then faced the crowd of customers who were all staring at her in confinement. She wasn't used to having so many eyes on her in a single given moment. She really didn't know what to do or say, and they all were looking at her as if waiting for her to give some sort of announcement or instruction. Everyone was baffled at what just happened, and even worse, the owner of the establishment was inside the house.
"Uhm, we're closed. Everyone just go home. Your meals are on the house." Everyone cheered at the news of a free meal. But Victoria wasn't sure she should've done that, she let out a nervous groan and quickly ran into the house. She hoped she didn't lose too much money for Nellie and the shop, she just didn't know what else to do.
Inside there were still a few people, but they all just left money on the table and left quickly. Getting the sense it was time to go because of everything that previously occurred outside.
Sweeney followed Nellie into the living room, a smug smile plastered to his face. She turned to face him, glaring, annoyed at the smile he wore. She pointed her finger at him "Don't. Say. Anything." She warned, but it only made him laugh. She rolled her eyes "I swear to God I'll smack that smirk right off your bloody face."
"You mean like how you punched that bastard outside?" His smile refused to fade, and Nellie let out an annoyed "uhgg!" Before quickly walking away from him and into the shop where Victoria and the kids were.
"That was awesome mum!" Toby cheered, very proud of his mum.
"I've never seen a woman punch someone before, especially a man!" Johanna cheered as well excitedly. Nellie however was far less enthused.
"I need a drink." She mumbled to herself, bit Victoria heard her and began laughing as she poured gin into a glass for Nellie and handed it to her. "Guys, I don't want you thinking it's okay to go around punching people. It was stupid of me and I shouldn't have done it."
"Oh lighten up, Nell." Todd's deep voice came from behind. Making her frown and turn around. "It felt pretty good to hit him, didn't it?"
Nellie scoffed "I hardly think that's an appropriate lesson to be teaching and the children."
"Don't worry mum, we're not gonna go start hitting people, we just thought it was cool when you did it." Toby told her, smiling. Nellie wasn't entirely sure that made her feel better. She downed the glass of gin in a matter of seconds before grabbing Todd's wrist and pulling him down the hall and into her bedroom. She closed the door behind them.
Todd raised his brows "I like where this is going." He joked, but Nellie wasn't finding him overly amusing at this particular moment in time.
"You can't just start swinging your bloody fists around every single time someone is rude to me, Sweeney!" Now his smile finally faded and he looked at her seriously, placing his hands on her shoulders.
"He touched you Nell. Three times. He's lucky Victoria stopped me from going over there the first time I wanted to."
"I had it under control. I was about to tell them all to get out when you bloody attacked him."
Sweeney tilted her chin up and smirked "you hit him too, love." It wasn't as if she was entirely innocent either.
"Only one time, and after the damage was already done."
Sweeney scoffed "now you're just being hypocritical."
"This isn't the first time you've done this!" First when they were twelve Benjamin beat the crap out of a kid called Tommy for hitting Nellie. Then a few months ago there was the incident with Charles. And now this.
"They all deserved it. And I'd do it all again. Who knows, this might not even be the last time. We'll have to see if another pig tries to put his filthy hands on you." His tone changed, it got darker, he was looking far off. Nellie sighed, he was getting himself upset all over again.
"Sweeney, love, I don't need you trying to protect me all of the time." Sweeney wasn't a stupid man, he knew she could handle anything by herself. That didn't mean he didn't want to look out for her. And he had a temper, seeing things like what happened earlier easily set him off.
"I know you don't. You can take care of yourself, I know that. But Nell, that man was asking for it. And once again, you hit him too." He smiled down at her, attempting to get her to smile. Ever since Sweeney threw the first punch outside, she'd been tense. Tense and frowning.
"You're a drunk idiot." She turned to open her bedroom door for him, signaling him to leave. But he spun her around to face him "but you're not mad at me?" He wanted to be sure before he left that everything was alright between them.
Nellie didn't meet his eyes, nor did she speak. She kept looking at other things around the room, wearing a slight pout on her lips. Todd laughed at her actions. Once again he tilted her chin, now she had to look at him. "Hmm?" He pressed, smiling down at her. She still hadn't answered.
"No," she finally admitted. "And I suppose it did feel rather good to punch him." She mumbled, wearing a tiny smile that made him laugh again. "You're still an idiot though."
Author's note: Guys! I'm back! So sorry for the annoyingly long wait. Also I apologize if I made lots of typos, I stayed up till 2 am typing this chapter lol. I hope some of you are still interested in this story! To everyone whose stories I read, (PeytonGarrett britishbitchh) and there are some others as well, I will be catching up with reading your stories! Sorry for my wattpad inactivity. I hope this chapter was enjoyable, I promise the next chapter won't take nearly as long for me to publish. And I promise the next chapter is very exciting and very progressive. Thanks so much for reading, love you guys! Have a great day! :) <3