Title: Elixer
Author: Unicornpearlz
Fandom: Sweeney Todd
Rating: ?
Spoilers: It gives away the elixir and some of the action.
Warnings: I know nothing about cardamom
Disclaimer: While the story of Sweeney Todd is based in fact, this story is based off the recent movie. I don't own any of it.
Summary: Sweeney is trying to figure out what is in Pirelli's Miracle Elixer.
Bunny: #7

Sweeney looked at the bottle of Pirelli's Miracle Elixir.  It had smelled awful earlier and he wondered what his old apprentice was using.  Certainly it couldn't really be magical as he had claimed.  He uncorked the bottle and the gut wrenching aroma filled the room.  He quickly stopped the bottle again, but not before the stench had time to thoroughly fill his nostrils.

"Hah-chiff!" he sneezed airly.  He tired to blow out the stench, but it tickled far too much.  "Hah-Cherff!  Esschiff!  Atecheff!"  He stumbled out the door and downstairs. 

"Toby?" he asked the your boy, who he'd adopted after Pirellis...disappearance.  He scrubbed at his nose, as it tickled furiously. 

"Aye, sir?" Toby looked at him curiously.

"What in this?" he asked holding the bottle before him. "Achesseff!" he sneezed more violently. 

Mrs. Lovett came in from the next room.  "Bless ye.  Sit ya down, and I'll get ye a cuppa tea.  Me gots water already on the hearth."

Sweeney sat, but protested that he didn't need the tea.

"I'll not be telling ye, sir," Toby answered.  "It's quite vile, and no good'll come of knowing."

Sweeney sniffed and blew his nose again.  He touched the tip of it tenderly and guessed that it must be becoming quite red.

"All I'll say is, don't be putting it on your hair, sir."

Sweeney chuckled.  "I wouldn't be doing that.  But, something in it is making me sneeze."  Even as he said it, his nostrils twitched with a tickle.

"Probably one of the herbs, sir."

Sweeney's breaths were coming in deep pants now.  "Hasshefff!"  He blew his nose quietly, but wished the infernal tickle would rid itself.

"Let me smell, I'll know what it is," Mrs. Lovett said.

"No!" Sweeney objected.

But, Toby still opened the bottle. 

Instantly, the stench flooded his senses, and there was no stopping the sneezes.  "Hah-cheff! Hesschiff!  Esc-ta-choo!"

"Forgive me, sir," Toby said to him.  "Quick, ma'am, what do you smell?"

"Hashiff!  Esshiff!  Hah - ah- Akschiff!!"

Mrs. Lovett, who had been pinching her nose closed, released it.  "Garlic, pepper, lavender - well that's odd isn't it?  I'd say these would be the bitter winter herbs. I do wonder what a spring herb like lavender is doing in it."

"Mrs. Lovett... hah- please... Hah-Choo!" Sweeney begged her to get on with it.

"Oh yes, there is another herb there, but I cannot quite place it."

"Ah-eheh-hh-Chessiff!"  The sneeze bent him in half.  "Oh for God's sake!" he exclaimed, rising from the table.  He knew the other herb.  He had encountered it within his travels.  "It's cardamom.  Hachoo!"

"Yes, that's it!" she exclaimed.  "How did you know?"

"Because," he said, hurrying for the fresh air on the other side of the door.  "Cardamom makes me sneeze!  Hachieff!"