Habits

No More Hiding

Blood hit Sweeney's sleeve as the Beadles eyes lost their life. The barber smiled down at the kill and pressed the pedal with his foot watching in satisfaction as the body fell. Before he could clean his sleeve the door to his shop opened. Assuming it was Nellie he turned though he was surprised to see Johanna. She looked quite happy and hadn't noticed the few spots of blood on his sleeve.

"Johanna, good morning love." Sweeney said trying to sound cheerful.

"Morning dad!"

Sweeney turned his bloodied sleeve away from her eyes hoping she would leave soon.

"I know this is probably hard to talk about but I have a few questions about my mom..."

The barber froze hearing those words. He didn't think about Lucy much anymore. He barely remembered her, she had yellow hair. Why couldn't he remember her?

"What about her?"

"What was she like?

"She was beautiful, yellow hair..." Sweeney thought hard trying to remember. "Blue eyes, almost exactly like you."

Johanna watched as her father stared sadly out the window hiding his arm. She was confused as to why.

"Dad?" She asked and he raised his head slightly.

"Yes love?" His words were choked.

"You miss mom don't you?"

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Nellie sat on the settee with a glass of gin. Sweeney and Johanna had been talking for a very long time which concerned her. She had assumed that the girl had gone up to say good morning but the conversation had been longer than she expected. The door suddenly opened causing Nellie to jump a little. Johanna walked into the room looking quite sad.

"Everythin' all right love?"

"Father wants to see you..." She whispered in response.

Nellie nodded and left the room her gin still in hand. When she reached the top of the stairs she opened the door to see Sweeney. He was sitting in his barbers chair running his hands through his thick black hair. He looked up when the door opened to see Nellie.

Sweeney stood and walked over to her, his brown eyes boring into hers. He pressed his lips to hers softly, no hunger, just love. This was new, he'd never kissed her like this, it was always out of pure lust, nothing more, but this...

Johanna was downstairs thinking about what her father had said.

"I miss her but she's gone, she's dead and I've moved on..."

"You have? With who?"

"Its... Nell..."

"Mrs. Lovett?"

"Yes... Now please leave me and send her up."

How long had he loved her? Johanna was surprised her father could move on, while they had been up there he'd told her all sorts of stories. She sounded like she was a beautiful woman, but Mrs. Lovett? There was something off about that woman, Johanna could sense it. She always seemed on edge as she went down to the bakehouse and she never let anyone near it.

"Johanna?"

The girl looked up to see Toby standing in the doorway. He walked over to her and she pulled him into a hug.

"Hello Toby."

"I just woke up, somethings happening upstairs... I don't know what happened, I just heard something."

Johanna, worried something happened to her father, ran upstairs Toby following behind. As they pushed open the door Nellie and Sweeney stood in a soft kiss. Looking up as the two heard the door open they pulled apart but didn't step away from each other.

"You really do love her don't you..." Johanna asked sadly, as she had previously hoped he still had love for her mother.

"Yes..."

Both Toby and Nellie looked surprised to hear him say he loved her. Even though he'd said it before Nellie never expected it to be true.

"Ya do Mista T?" Eleanore asked wanting him to confirm it once and for all.

"Its Sweeney, and yes Eleanore, I love you. Loving you scared me at first but your just so god damn beautiful inside and out..." Leaning over and whispering he continued, "and let's be honest Lucy had barely any power when it came to seducing me but you? Well your strong."

Toby, just barely hearing his words, cringed.

"Gross!" He yelled before shutting his mouth not meaning to have said the word out loud.

Sweeney smirked at the boys disgusted expression and wrapped his arm around Nellie's waist causing the boy to look away. Johanna smiled softly, glad that her father was happy. She still didn't approve of Mrs. Lovett but she could at least put up with the woman.

"Well Toby, it looks like Mrs. Lovett and Mr. Todd want to be alone." Johanna laughed watching her father smirk.

The boy turned looking horrified at his mum who giggled as Johanna pushed him out of the room against his will.

"Well shit..." Sweeney said, "they knew our plans all along."

Nellie grinned as he pressed his lips to hers again.

"I guess they did..."

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Toby opened the door to his room to see his mum and Mr. Todd sitting at a booth. Mr. Todd had his arm around Nellie's shoulder and gave her a small peck on the cheek. Toby was incredibly tired, he'd barely gotten any sleep the night before because of the... sound from upstairs. Just as he prepared to walk into the kitchen he heard Johanna start to talk obviously quite annoyed.

"You could have tried to be quiet last night..."

Sweeney chuckled and responded.

"Well where's the fun in that?"

"The fun is that the other people in the house can get some sleep..." Johanna mumbled.

"Oh well the nights already past and though we'd love to go back in time we can't..."

Johanna rolled her eyes. Just then Toby walked into the room rubbing his eyes. So he hadn't gotten sleep either, that wasn't good he shouldn't have had to deal with it too. Johanna gave her father a discouraged look before walking into the living room with a cup of tea ignoring his proud smirk.

A/N: Hey, this chapter was really fun to write for me, especially the ending, I love the fact that Sweeney and Nellie don't give a fuck anymore. Anyway I'll be updating soon, hope you liked this chapter!