Don't I know you? (Sweeney Todd fanfic)

Everyone has Fears (Chapter 39)

  (A week later)

**Nellie POV**

It's been about a week since we first took in Danny and after the day when I walked in on Sweeney teaching Danny, he has been giving him lessons every evening since to help him be able to write.
Now a week of lessons later and he has almost learnt how to write properly.

I find it nice for both Sweeney and Danny. Sweeney has something to do other than brood,and Danny gets to become more comfortable around Sweeney.

Also Danny has already made friends with some of the children who live nearby so currently he has gone out to play with them,leaving me and Sweeney alone for the first time in a week.

I was hoping that he wouldn't spend the day upstairs and to my surprise, he came downstairs once Danny left.

I smile at him "Hello love." I greet and I see his face go slightly pink.

"Hi." He replies and sits at a booth.

Recently he has been acting oddly. Well odd in his book.

He has been blushing quite a lot and acting very shy around me.This has given me the suspicion that maybe he is starting to like me. But I don't want to get my hopes up,so I continue to act normally,pretending that I haven't been thinking about this all day.

I am about to sit next to him when I hear the front door open which indicates that there is a customer.

It's just after lunchtime and today has been slow,with barely any customers. And by the look of it,the same can be said for Sweeney's shop as usually he doesn't come down during the day;Wednesday's are usually a slow day for our shops,so I wasn't really expecting any customers right now.

"G'day madame." I hear the customer greet with an Australian accent.

"Hello sir." I greet with a smile,treating him as a normal customer,not thinking much of the fact that he's Australian as I assume that he must be here on holiday.

He then takes a seat at the booth next to the one where Sweeney is sat.

Once again, I don't think much of it but then I look at Sweeney and see that he looks terrified.

I've never seen him look scared before. Usually he's the one who scares other people.

Once I give the customer his pie and ale, I come and sit next to Sweeney.

"Love,what's wrong?" I whisper in his ear and then follow his frozen gaze and see that he is staring at the Australian customer.

That's when it hits me. It's because he's Australian. The accent must have triggered the fear that Sweeney felt in Australia,due to him sounding the same as the people who tortured him.

I don't really know what they did to him in Australia but I imagine that it must have been something awful.

Then he suddenly grabs my hand and I look at him to see that his face has a look of pure terror on it.
I feel that he is trembling and I gently rub the top of his hand to try and calm him down,secretly enjoying being this close to him but I try not to be selfish and focus on calming him down.

"H..he's Australian." Sweeney whispers in a shaky voice.

"Yes he is love,but he isn't going to hurt you." I whisper back,trying to comfort him as he looks so scared that he looks on the edge of bursting into tears, which would only embarrass him in front of a this man and I know he doesn't want that.

I then notice that he's biting his lip very hard, seeming to not be listening to me "Stop that love,you're going to hurt yourself." I say quietly,not wanting him to hurt himself due to his fear.