A/N: A short oneshot I have written in a studying break. I hope you like it. REviews are always welcome :)

Mrs. Lovett was working hard, as always during the lunch rush. She carried a full tray of pies around, trying to serve everyone as quickly as possible. Toby was working hard too, serving jars of ale to the angry customers, who wanted an even quicker service. Mrs. Lovett was cheery as always, smiling to everyone and moving her hips around the tables. She glanced to the barber's parlor, seeing Sweeney leaning on the window, glancing down at the movement downstairs. She always smiled wider when she saw him, but his answer was the same plotting look, the look of someone who was focusing on everything but her. Everything dark; the bloody judge, his bloody Lucy.

She knew him better than Lucy would ever do; she took care of him in ways Lucy wouldn't. But still, that selfish blonde who had tried to kill herself abandoning a child, their child, occupied all his thoughts. And her insides were torn every time she realized she would never be like Lucy, she would never cloud his thoughts like the stupid blonde did. It didn't matter how hard she tried; it just wasn't gonna happen. And every time he threatened her with his razor, every time he ignored her on purpose, she grew more miserable.

Mrs. Lovett's stomach turned upside down every time he complimented her. He called her pet, love, wonder. And she started to believe they could have a life together. But at the bottom of her heart she knew they wouldn't. She knew he won't ever forget about Lucy. She knew he was using her for his own benefit. And she had let him. She felt foolish and stupid, but that's what love does. She was earning more money though, not that she complained about that, but she was also paying the price: long nights dismembering corpses; long days feeding London with their former neighbours. She began to think if it worth it. But every time she looked at him, she knew she couldn't stop helping him. He would never thank her, but she didn't ask for it. He barely talked to her, but he was manipulative enough to compliment her only when he wanted something from her. If he wanted his shirts to be washed in that exact moment, he will call her love and even brush her arm. And she couldn't resist that. He would have his shirts washed in minutes.

All these thoughts ran across Mrs. Lovett's mind while she smiled to the customers. She was a torn woman but she wouldn't show it. She always looked happy and her movements were the ones of a content person who couldn't ask more from life. But it was all façade. She cried to sleep every day; she barely ate, the knot on her stomach seemed tighter and tighter each day; she had stopped reading; the romance novels remembered her too much of the things she couldn't have. She wasn't healthy and she wasn't happy, but no one would ever know.

Every time she talked to Sweeney she displayed the biggest smile. She made her chores with passion, from dawn to night. No one would ever think she was deeply depressed. But she had something only a few people had: hope. Hope of Sweeney changing his mind; hope of herself learning to live without him, because she was sure he would leave her as soon as he killed Turpin. But she knew she will get over it. She also knew it wouldn't be easy, but she had faced many things in her life before, so this one wouldn't be different. She would wake up one day being grateful of what she had; one day, she would sit after work on her rocking chair and she would feel happiness. That was the thing that had her going on. Everything will be better at some point. Or maybe not, but she wouldn't give up. She was a brave woman. She knew she could survive by herself, and she had done it before. Her dreamed life wasn't anything remotely similar to her actual life, but she knew things would get better. They always did.

When she stopped chopping corpses that same night, she went to bed after taking a bath. And she cried to sleep again. She felt miserable, but she knew she wouldn't feel like that forever; she just had to wait.

A/N: Review please? And go to read my other sweenetts, don't dream it, be it and after! thanks for reading this short piece :)