Esteemed Malevolence

XVI: Fashionable Role-Play

Christmas Day was certainly never going to be one of Mr Todd's preferred days. And not just because of the joyous atmosphere that seemed to choke him with disgust.

It was the fact he actually couldn't stay up in his shop.

Unlike Mrs Lovett, Mr Todd's business was not worth opening. Most gentleman would be at home with their families or feasting outside in some place like the thriving pie emporium downstairs.

He was stood frozen in the courtyard of said place on the eve of such an important date, as his thoughts took over his entire body.

The baker had persuaded him down from his trusty barber chair, claiming that he'd look rather odd if he sat upstairs all day... and in a way, the barber could see her point. On such a poignant day, he supposed that being a recluse would look suspicious - especially since he wanted to keep the 'affair' charade going on with Mrs Lovett, and he knew what lurid gossip did for business, not to mention for his own vengeance. Reluctantly he'd accepted her proposition to help her for the day.

He narrowed his eyes in curiosity at his accomplice as she bustled by him to rush around the tables - tables that he should have been tending, but he seemed to be lost in his own mind. She held a tray of hot pies in front of her with both of her flat palms, her breaths of fatigue masked by the seemingly welcoming smile she plastered on. She chattered away, too consumed in the role she was playing to notice his attraction to her.

He frowned and didn't take his eyes from her, mindlessly wiping down the table next him like it had been casual for him to randomly freeze in public. He was unaware that she was causing his stoic front to crack and show his true oddities, then again, he was lucky that the droves of customers were oblivious - the more intoxicated and full they were, the better.

He watched intently, the flicker of desire briefly shone over his black eyes as the touch of a smirk played over his lips. She was handing out the batch of pies, rather than setting the tray down to let the customers grab their own - it was too busy to do the latter, and Sweeney knew that she was aware how... problematic certain regular consumers had become. They tended to be more erratic, positively feral.

Naturally, she had Mr Todd put them down immediately with utmost discretion.

After all, crazed lunatics were bad for business.

Both Mr Todd and Mrs Lovett didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with them, of course. They were hell-bent with their corruption, but both of them were fully aware of what they were doing and had even rationally planned their wicked scheme together...

Mr Todd's smirk widened.

He blindly took a few steps forwards, wiping over the other end of the table, so he didn't look like he was staying in the same spot.

The baker let out a forced laugh as a response to a customer and she turned, clutching the tray to her chest tightly as she headed back towards the door which led through to her shop. She still had that warm-looking smile on her face when she neared the door... but she made the mistake of trailing her brown eyes over the rest of the shop's yard...

She stopped dead in her tracks when she caught the diabolical barber smirking at her, the visible starvation in his eyes clear as day even though there was a good few tables of people between them.

Was he purposely ogling her? Purposely trying to rip her sweet mask from her face? She wasn't a nervous wreck like he had probably wanted her to be. Instead, her outgoing, friendly exterior was smeared over with thirsty eyes, drinking in the sight of him seeing as he was only wearing his thin shirt over his chest. She bit into her seductive smirk as she took the risk of winking at him...