A/N: So to make up for the last chapter (or replace it if you found yourself unable to read it) here is a lighter story. I am truly sorry about the events in the chapter before but evil plot bunnies can be truly evil so now here is a more softer story to relax everyone and begin to nurse those sad and hurt feels.
Sing Me to Sleep.
Nellie Lovett had always had the habit of singing to fill the silence around her when it was crushing her or she felt overly lonely. Singing brought a sense of calm over her and often reminded her of her mother allowing her to relax after long lonely nights. Never did she imagine her nightly singing was a relaxing reassurance to someone else, someone she never knew even cared enough to listen.
The day had been long and blistery cold, even for a London winter, and yet plenty of men found their way to Sweeney Todd's Tonsorial Parlor for the closest shave in all of London. Normally this wouldn't have bothered her but as it had been since the week began her shop was empty and void of visitors apart a small handful of loyal patrons who only stayed long enough to get a pie and walk back out to brave the cold. She had just given Toby his nightly tumbler of gin before sending him to bed and massaged her temples hearing the rhythmic thuds of Sweeney's boots on the wooden floor above her, 5 steps forward , 5 back and repeat, she knew it better than any dance in the world and yet she could not compose it or execute it the way the barber above could.
Pushing herself away from the counter she moved about the shop turning out the oil lamps and humming as she did so before walking into the parlor looking around. The fire was growing low in the grate sapping the warmth from the room, her arm chair next to the fireplace looked uninviting as did the half read book resting on the seat, she sighed and walked through the room to her bedroom her hums turning into soft words as she closed the door. She shed her heavy dress and freed herself from her corset breathing easier as she cast it aside, her words grew a little louder but were still quiet so as not to disturb Toby or Mr. Todd. Continuing her song she slipped into her night dress and sat at her vanity softly removing the pins from her hair so it fell down her back in a lavender scented auburn curtain before she began to brush it out with the old wooden brush her mother had used on her when she was a child, seeing as it was the only brush that even survived her wild curls, her song never faltering as she went through the routine dance.
Once the knots were all brushed out she set the brush down and moved to her bed slipping under the ruby colored covers and settling in watching the ceiling tracing the invisible footsteps of the pacing man above singing softly all the while. Her eyes began to to close and her words began to waver as she slipped into sleep unaware of the ears taking in her song as footsteps stopped and sleep claimed her. In the barber shop above Sweeney sat in his barbering chair taking in the last words of the song drifting through the floorboards feeling at ease as the very sound of Mrs. Lovett's voice expelled all of the thoughts that plagued his mind.
He'd never admit it to anyone, much less the baker now sleeping below, but her nightly songs relaxed him and brought him an odd sense of calm he hadn't felt in years and he was grateful, grateful that every night Nellie Lovett sang his tired mind and body to sleep and banished the demons plaguing him until dawn brought the start of a whole different dance for both the baker and the barber.
