title Lillies
author pinkeop
summary Mrs. Lovett and Mr. Todd dicuss flowers. ( ToddLovett ) ( Oneshot )
authors note Another something I wrote throughout the school day. Something that I thought of when I saw some flowers in a coffee mug in one of my classrooms. Read and review, and enjoy!
Also, I like interacting with the people who are as stuck in the Sweeney Todd fandom as I ( which is why I try to review every story I read (( and liked... )) ). And I thought, wouldn't it be fun if I had my readers give me a prompt for what my next one-shot would be? My friends and I do prompt writing all the time.
So, if you have a phrase, song, quote, situation you'd like to be seen incoorperated into a story, please, leave a little note in a review! I'd love to hear from you.
Now, on with the show!
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Lillies
"Mornin' Mr. T!" Mrs. Lovett sing-songed as she nudged open the barber shop door. The intended was standing with his back towards her, facing the window. Instantly, the baker noticed the stifilling heat that suffocated the inside of the shop. Mrs. Lovett tried to gasp for air, the tray of food she was holding being set on top of the trunk beside the door.
"Goodness, Mr. T!" she complained, proping open the door so what little breeze spun through London could reach the barber shop. "It's so stuffy up 'ere! Would't ya like some breeze maybe, Mr. T?" She shuffled to the small window by the vanity while her barber stayed silent, glaring out the bay window that slanted with the roof. Sighing, the woman moodily pried the old dusty window open, though it only agreed to give so much. She smiled though, when a cool breeze ruffled an auburn curl that hung stubbornly in her face.
"Tha's more like it! Wouldn't ya say, Mr. T?" Mrs. Lovett looked over her shoulder. The barber glanced up, his expression unsure and slightly aggitated, his lips pulled into a very doubtful looking frown. His only other expression than a sneer, she supposed. With a sigh, the baker went back to the trunk where she had left his tray of breakfast.
"I brought ya up some eggs an' biscuits, Mr. T," she said, bringing the tray to a small table she had set by the vanity within the first few days he had become her perminante tenant for a second time. "An' some gravy, too. Now don't that just sound appitizing?"
Mr. Todd grunted and turned away again. Mrs. Lovett stomped to his side, hands curled into fists on her hips. "Ain't you gonna eat, sir?"
"I find myself without much of appitite, Mrs. Lovett," was the barbers gnarled response.
"An' tha's how yeh gonna waste away you silly lit'le thing," Mrs. Lovett scolded, her hands gripping his shoulders and steering him away from the window out of which he gazed so forlornly. She pushed him into the barber chair with a thunk, making sure to keep lightly away from the peddles that would lead to a mighty fateful fall for Mr. Todd. She forced the tray into his lap and watched as he gazed down at the gravy soaked eggs and biscuits, all still warm from the fire. When he finally began tearing at the warm bread of a biscuit and popping the small pieces into his mouth, did Mrs. Lovett seemed appeased enough to turn away.
"What kinna flowers you be thinkin' would make this dusy ol' place a lit'le more friendly?" the baker twittered, running her fingers over the dusty wooden sill of the slanted bay windows. "Daises just don't feel home-y enough."
A stange noise came from the barber chair as Mr. Todd cleared his throat.
"Men come here to... die, Mrs. Lovett," Mr. Todd said slowly, as if speaking to a child. "That hardly merits gillyflowers and roses."
It was to his possible surprise, or maybe simply to his tolerant amusement ( for his expression was of both ) that Mrs. Lovett laughed a high trill of a laugh. She turned to look at him, beaming rather brightly in his direction. "You're up here all hours, Mr. T, pacin' away your wrongs. Some color might ease yeh mind is all."
The man jerked his chin towards the lone truck behind the door where his laundry, bloodied shirts that took forever for her to get the stain out when it was particularly bad, always sat every evening for her to wash. Some days it was only one or two, others it seemed as though the crazy man stood infront of the fray himself! "I get plenty of color," he said, a smile so malicious and giddy gliding over his lips.
"That ain't color, Mr. T," she scolded and her hand reached out to slap his shoulder. "Eat."
Some egg went grudgingly into his mouth.
"Maybe somethin' pretty an' blue, wot ya think?" Mrs. Lovett went on, gazing out of the window. She could remember a time when Mr. Todd- Mr. Barker -would actually partake in such a conversation with a warm brightness in his voice. She could remember a time when he called her by her name, Allo Nellie, how're you keeping? She could remember a time when flowers were everywhere, overflowing into the shop below, through her parlor. But Mr. Todd's only color was red. All he saw was red.
"Nah, blue can get so melancholy," she went on, wrinkling her nose.
"Can't you get them whilted?" Mr. Todd snorted sarcastically. "They'll just end up that way."
"Oh, shut up!" Mrs. Lovett said, giving him another pointed glare.
Some biscuit and egg was sheepishly stuffed into his mouth.
"Roses, maybe?" She went on thinking out loud.
"Poppy," Mr. Todd said gruffly around a mouthfull of gravy soaked bread.
Mrs. Lovett turned to look at him, a surprised look washing over her face. She hadn't been expecting any sort of input from him whatsoever, but the look he gave her- annoyed and playing along simply the shut her up- it was good enough, for now. He wasn't a nice man, her Mr. Todd. He didn't love her, her Mr. Todd. He never would, her Mr. Todd. But prattle on undecided about something long enough and her Mr. Todd would do anything to shut you up.
"Pansies?"
"Daffodils."
"Honeysuckle."
"...Dandelion?"
"That's not a flow'a Mr. Todd," she said with a wrinkle in her brow. "But I appreciate the gesture."
The barber glared and grabbed the tray, as if making a move to stand.
"No you don't! Sit ya down, and eat." The baker said sharply. The barber stood anyway, and shoved the tray into her hands.
"Just gets some lillies from the market, Mrs. Lovett," he said finally, exasperated. "And get out of my sight."
Mrs. Lovett smirked to herself and bustled to the door, the large skirt of her dress swishing around her clicking heels as she meandered casually towards the outside world. She stopped at the door frame, looking over her shoulder.
"I think some lillies would look nice up here," she said fondly, gazing around the room, before slipping out, down the stairs.
Back to gazing out the slanted window, Mr. Todd rubbed the bridge of his nose between his eyes with door fingers and sighed a heavy sigh.
"Bloody woman..."