#modern Tommy Shelby X oc

[moral-terpitude]

Misadventures - Part 16 (Merry Fucking Christmas)

and it won't be long 'till we drop this match • when I burn to your fingertips, you can throw what's left

A/N: so, this will be the last part until 2024! I didn’t forget about part 15 (it’s still in the works and a bit rocky!) but, this is just where Christmas falls in the story sequentially, so, we’ll have to just do some jumping around here a bit!

[Masterlist] [Series Masterlist]

Misadvetures taglist: @cillmequick @emotionalcadaver @zablife @raincoffeeandfandoms

Summary: Quinn has an unexpected guest.

Word Count: 4,072

Warnings: discussion of childhood trauma, discussion of intergenerational trauma, discussion of childhood sexual assault, missing persons, discussion of character death. This is NOT warm and fuzzy.

Quinn realized, as she sat looking into the yet unlit fireplace, she had never spent a Christmas alone. 

She had decided that maybe coming home and being somewhere familiar, while not with family, would be a good break. 

She hadn’t told Tommy she would be by herself. He had seemed surprised when she said she was going home for Christmas, and she was yet to talk to anyone but her dad, and as far as he knew she was still in New York. 

A good ol’ switcheroo to give her some time to herself.

The drive in the rental car wasn’t terrible, and the weather had just started to pick up once she got settled in, taking the time to stop off and pick up ingredients for dinner even though she definitely didn’t feel like cooking. 

The carrots were steaming in the pan as she pulled the bottle of non-alcoholic wine Tommy had given her from the bag, an actually quite kind gesture the more she looked at it, because it wasn’t just the fake Welch’s champagne her mom would give them on new years as kids, it was really made in a winery somewhere, and she wondered if he had had to order a whole batch of it just to get one bottle, because if he had, it would last her a lifetime. 

She felt somewhat choked up at the thought, because until then, she realized she hadn’t been looking to the future too far with Tommy, trying to not overthink things, but she really liked the idea of him being it for her. 

She didn’t want to go back to dating, and before he sort of fell into her lap she wasn’t looking for someone, so maybe that’s all there was to it, that she’d find the right person when it was time. 

She dug through the junk drawer in search of the wine key, flipping over the salmon in the buttered pan as the potatoes browned in the oven. 

Snowflakes fell outside the window, and as the breeze flung them all through the air, she caught the sight of headlights against the trees. 

Her brow furrowed, pulling the curtain, to see, of all people, her mother getting out of the White Jeep Wagoneer that was parked behind the rental, and trudging towards the door, sputtering as she did so about what Quinn could only guess she was saying was the “fucking stupid weather.”

“Mom?” Quinn cracked the door, peeking her head out, as another gust of wind came through, sending her shivering. 

“Oh, let me through, it’s freezing out here, Quinn.”

Quinn nodded, returning to the stove to shut off the burners. 

The sound of her mom kicking the snow off of her boots sent her back to snow days as a child, all 7 of them busting back into the house for grilled cheese and soup before turning on a movie with mugs of hot chocolate. 

Quinn didn’t turn around as she put the food on the plate, hesitating for a moment before realizing there was enough for both of them, that her eyes had been bigger than her stomach. 

“Have you ate?”

“I left around dinner, stopped off for a coffee.”

“How’d you know I was here?” Quinn asked, pulling another plate out of the cupboard and divvying up the salmon onto the second plate, fresh carrots and potatoes piled on as well. 

She sat them on the table, doubling back for utensils, before sitting herself in the chair, the bottle of wine still unopened. 

“Your dad was showing Amanda how to set up Life360 on their new phones, I haven’t had the notifications on I guess, but it showed you heading through Cadillac.”

“I took everyone but dad off of mine.” Quinn took a bite, biding her time before speaking in an effort to calm herself. “Why are you here?”

Her mother sighed, giving a shake of her head, “To talk. I’m surprised I got this far, I honestly didn’t think you’d let me in,” her brows furrowed as she stilled, the way Quinn would listen as well to see if anyone was around, “Isn’t Tommy with you?”

Quinn pushed the carrots around on her plate before stabbing through one, “No. He has the kids. I told him I was coming home, but, I didn’t tell him I’d be by myself. It just felt…too soon to spend a holiday with his kids. I’ve met them, and it’s not that I don’t want to be around them, I just—“

“I get it,” she nodded, as Quinn took a bite, falling back into silence until their plates were empty and in the sink soaking in hot sudsy water. 

“So, I know you didn’t drive for almost three hours to talk about the weather.” Quinn stood at the counter, popping the cork out of the bottle, before pouring herself a glass. “I’d offer you some, but it isn’t going to do anything for you.”

She saw her mother still out of the corner of her eye, before she stood slowly, crossing to pick up the bottle and examine it. 

“Are you—“

“No,” she drummed her nails on the side of the glass, wishing she would have kept her mouth shut, “it just turns out alcohol and I don’t mix, so, it’s better this way.”

Patti sat the bottle down, leaning against the stove, before huffing out a sigh, “My dad…was an alcoholic.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Quinn bit back, deciding it was best to be a bit on the defensive still until she managed to feel out her mother’s true purpose for the visit, “you’ve never told us anything about him.”

“I know. Because he wasn’t nice. He wasn’t a good man, and he sure as hell wasn’t a good father.”

Quinn thought about watching Tommy and the way he interacted with the kids. By someone’s standards, she was sure, he wouldn’t be considered a good man, but, she thought he was. And a good father, too. 

Quinn chewed the inside of her lip, “I have a feeling this is going to be a long story, so can we sit, please?”

Her mother nodded, and Quinn wandered to the dimly lit living room, grabbing a blanket from the back of the couch, and tucked herself into the corner, watching her mother take the other end. 

Quinn waited. It wasn’t often that the two of them had much time alone together, and maybe that was part of the problem. She wasn’t particularly in the mood for mending old wounds, not bothering anymore to shed tears over whether life was fair and that their relationship wasn’t good, but at the same time, she was tired of feeling constantly at odds with her family, too.

“I know, there’s things I don’t talk about, but I’ve never wanted to burden anyone with them.” Quinn felt her brow furrow, unsure of how to prepare for the incoming information, “When I was young my uncle, for a very long time, lived with us. He was paid disability from Vietnam. Aunt Amelia and I shared a room. Sometimes, since our parents both worked, he would watch us instead of the neighbor lady, and then he eventually volunteered to watch us all the time. Always home.”

Quinn’s stomach sank, the realization of the unwell feeling the words gave her, the prickle of hair raising on the back of her neck, made her dread what was coming next.

“He never…” she watched her mother sigh, averting her eyes, staring at anything but Quinn as she spoke, “it wasn’t sex, but he did things to me. To her. He never looked twice at Pat, probably because he was older, but Spencer was younger and he took advantage of him, too.”

Quinn fiddled with the gold post in her lip awkwardly; was this how Tommy felt when she unloaded everything on him? What was there really to say? 

It felt different, her divulging everything to him, contextually. It was an explanation. An apology. A warning. All tied up neatly with a bow. This was, well, something else entirely.

The reasoning she had been looking for, maybe.

“When your father and I first got married, Spencer was nowhere to be found. Hadn’t heard from him in years. Then he just showed up one day. Rebecca was 5, so I would have been pregnant with Erica.”

Quinn found it funny the way her mother measured time, sometimes. Rebecca being the oldest, must have only known her to be pregnant for most of her growing up years. 

“He said he needed somewhere to go. That it was temporary. He stayed with us for maybe a year, I think, Erica was small when he left. I came home one day from the doctor to your dad and Opa in the yard, with him blathering on, high on something, saying he didn’t know what he was doing and that he was sorry. He was crying because Opa had the shotgun pointed at him and–”

She shook her head, wiping at a stray tear.

“I never thought anything of it, your dad was at work and I couldn’t cart all of the girls to the appointment, so he said he’d watch them. Your dad came home to…”

Her mothers mouth pressed into a firm line, not wanting to admit the words. 

“Lydia didn’t realize until way later on. She was four. Too little to really know what was happening. The first time she ever did anything with a boy she ended up punching him in the face because it came back to her.”

“That’s why she left.” 

It wasn't a question. It all made sense now. At 14-years-old she hadn’t understood the tension all those years, Lydia acting out, never being home, moving out the minute she turned eighteen and, of course, changing her phone number and never looking back.

For a while, Quinn would call, hoping to at least be sent to voicemail. It didn’t take long for the number to be reassigned to someone else.

“I’m sorry, Quinn. I know, your sister will never talk to me, ever again. That’s something I have to live with and something I regret every day.” She chewed her lip, “Neither of you deserved what happened, and, as parents, we didn’t advocate hard enough for you. I was young with everything that happened to Lydia, and I should’ve pushed harder when they tried to say Spencer wasn’t competent to stand trial.”

Her mother sighed, pulling her eyes away from watching the snowfall outside of the window.

“With Gerard, we should have known better and we should have gotten ahold of Tim sooner.”

Quinn nodded, slowly, looking away.

Her whole life could be summed up by “coulda, shoulda, woulda,” if she tried hard enough.

She wanted to yell, be angry, scream, fight, punch, hit, but she was tired of giving energy to the things that didn’t, really, concern her anymore.

It was done. It was over. It was something that happened, and yes, it affected her, but she was never going to change it.

“Gerard has been missing.” 

The comment itself was out of left field, while not really, for the subject they had been on.

Quinn was somewhat disgusted with the gasp she let out; despite the fact she couldn’t stand his guts it was still shocking news.

“The department put him on leave after you left, and he came up missing a few weeks ago. There was a note, apparently he doesn’t want to be found. It didn’t sound like suicide but they haven’t ruled it out either.”

Quinn’s stomach sank, a few weeks ago was, well, Tommy had been out of town for work. It seemed like they hadn’t been back for very long from her meeting Charlie and Ruby to just have him pack up and leave again, this time, without her.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t asked, but the timeframe was just too tight and she couldn’t keep rescheduling appointments just because she wanted to go with him.

Work. 

She tried not to grimace, but it was something she made a mental note to ask him about when she saw him again. 

There was no subtle way to ask that through a text message. 

Hey, did you happen to threaten and kill my ex, because if you did, well, honestly, thanks. 

Despite going against my previous wishes. 

“So they haven’t seen him since, what, Thanksgiving time?”

“Yeah, just about.”

“Damn,” she sighed, “that’s honestly shitty to have happen around the holidays.”

“Oh,” Patti shook her head, realizing that she had forgotten something, getting up and rummaging through her purse, “this was at the house. Your dad brought it in, but, it had your name on it.”

Quinn puffed out her cheeks, taking the purple wrapped box gently from the shipping box it had been in. 

There was a blue satchel inside, the word Shinola being the largest, with Detroit also pressed in gold below it. 

“Oh, fuck,” she whispered, opening the drawstring and removing the blue box, hands trembling as she unwrapped the piece of paper that fell out. 

Quinn, I’m the luckiest man to have found my perfect match in you. -Tommy

She felt all her limbs turn to gelatin and she hadn’t even opened the box yet. How had he planned this? The note was clearly in his handwriting, but– she tried not to overthink it too much, some things Tommy did he just did, and she was trying not to look too far into the rhyme or reason at that point.

Fuck. Don’t cry, do not cry. 

She opened the magnetized lid, the gold necklace situated on a plush white pillow inside. 

All the charms were 14-karat gold, strung onto a pave gold charm and situated gently in the box. A lightning bolt, a golden match with the word LUCKY engraved on the side (which she knew from the online catalog was exactly how it came) and an upright horseshoe engraved on the golden placard hanging in the midst. 

She handed the box off to her mother, resolve finally breaking, as she got up in search of some tissues. 

“Quinn, that's really pretty. Don’t you like it?” 

“I do,” she mumbled, the words coming through trembling lips as she tried to wipe away all the tears, “no; I do, I really really do.”

She let out a sigh. 

“Then what’s wrong?”

“It’s just been…” she turned on the cold tap, filling a glass with water, “tough. Things have been tough. I mean, we’re both juggling businesses, and, the kids. They’re great. They really are. But I don’t think they like me. Well, Ruby does, but Charlie is just cold. And…” she swallowed hard, the water not helping her fight back the tears, knowing she couldn’t unload everything on her mother, “Lizzie is just not easy to deal with. I feel like she’s after me and I’ve not really even ever spoken to her. Sometimes you know when someone wants to kill you with just a look.”

“Well, that’s,” her mom hugged her, and Quinn was surprised when it felt like a real one this time, “kind of the situation you’ve stepped into, my dear.”

“I know,” Quinn wailed, setting the glass down on the table as she gave in to the hug, her mother rocking her back and forth gently. 

“If I would’ve known you were coming I would’ve put up the tree.” She whispered, “What were you going to do, sit here and stare at an empty room all weekend.”

“I thought about it.”

Quinn slumped. The drain of all of the information and the crying finally catching up with her at once, hitting her like a freight train.

“Why don’t we watch a Christmas movie instead.”

“Okay. Will you help me put that on, I can’t with my nails.”

Her mother nodded, “You better message him and say you got it.”

Quinn checked the time, “Wow, it’s late, but, yeah. He’s gotta put gifts out and I know he’ll feel like the worst dad in the world if he forgets.”

“Go, call him. We’ve got time.”

“Wait,” Quinn checked the clock, 11:50, how had that much time passed, “give me 10 minutes then I can say Happy Birthday, too.”

“His birthday is Christmas?”

“Yeah, go figure. But you were born on Thanksgiving that year, weren’t you?”

“Hello?” Tommy cleared his throat, feeling for the light as he realized he was being ambushed with a FaceTime call at exactly 12-midnight. 

“Hi.” Quinn smiled. 

“Where are you?” She watched as his eyes scanned the surroundings behind her, the bedroom at the cabin looking nothing like the one they had slept in at her parents.

“Oh,” she swallowed, “at the cabin. I had changed my mind once I had got off the plane, and came up north.”

It was a fib, but one that wouldn’t hurt. 

“Love, what are you doing spending the holiday alone?” He rubbed at his eyes, trying to keep his voice as hushed as he could, and leaned against the headboard. 

“I’m not. Mom’s here,”

His brows raised in surprise, “How’s that?”

“Well,” she sighed, as he finally took in her red ringed eyes, “I’ve learned some things. I think we’re gonna be okay.” She shrugged. 

“Were you crying?”

“You made me cry.”

“What did I do, eh?”

“You got me a gift?! I didn’t get you anything!”

He smiled softly, shrugging, “I’ve got everything I need, love.”

“And it’s your Birthday and I'm not there,” she whispered, lip puckering.

“Nothing special about my birthday, I’ll just be a year older next time I see you.”

She chuckled, swiping at her eyes, “Don’t remind me.”

“I think you should get some sleep, Quinn.” 

She hated to agree and have to hang up, but the day, and all the new information she had been give, was definitely wearing on her. 

Pulling into the driveway of the farmhouse, Quinn was surprised to see more than just her Opa’s truck parked in the drive. 

Behind it, was a car she didn’t recognize. A little red Toyota with an Arizona plate and two car seats strapped in the back. 

She parked the black Jeep off to the side, not wanting to be in anyone’s way, and killed the engine. If someone else was here she would probably be outlasting them awhile if Quinn wanted to have any kind of serious conversation. 

“Well, I better get going,” there was a sniffle, the words coming out muddled as Quinn entered the house, not quite recognizing the voice above the baby babbles and the sound of the television playing some kids show. 

“Well,” her Opa’s gruff voice sounded softer as the voices got closer, the sound of the door opening and closing, Quinn’s presence, and another vehicle arriving outside going unnoticed, “you know you’re welcome anytime.”

“Yeah, I know,” Quinn held her breath as she rounded the corner and made her way as quietly as she could into the kitchen, “I just don’t get back this way that often and thought I sound come see you. I wanted the boys to at least know some of their family, ya know?”

She was surprised that Lydia still looked the same. Almost 14-years and there wasn’t much that had changed about her, other than the baby she was holding and the other child clinging to her leg. Two little boys with the same brown hair and brown eyes as their mother. 

Quinn couldn’t hold back the little huff that came out as tears welled in her eyes. Out of all of them Lydia turned out the most looking like their dad. 

Lydia nodded as their eyes met, ruffling the hair of the little boy attached to her leg, “Like I said, we should get going.”

She felt like a ghost as Lydia brushed past her, no acknowledgment of her presence, no introduction to the kids, nothing. 

Quinn swallowed hard as the door closed, tears finally falling down her face as she doubled back, letting the door slam closed behind her. 

“Lydia?”

Her sister didn’t look up, continuing to buckle the boys into their car seats. 

“Lydia!” 

Quinn was surprised when her sister’s face flashed with a bit of anger, closing the now running vehicle up a bit harshly before closing the distance between the two of them. 

“Don’t.” Her sister shook her head, “Don’t call me that. Listen, I made my peace with this place. I got out of here, got far away, changed my name, and I’m happy now. I have a family. I—“ she rubbed the bridge of her nose, before looking Quinn in the eyes again, “If all I have to do is keep my kids far away from all of you to keep them safe, then that’s what I’ll do.”

Quinn felt her lip pucker, no different than the day that Lydia (whether she wanted to be called that or not, Quinn realized that was all she ever knew her as) left the first time. She wondered if it would have been easier to think of her as being dead all these years. 

It seemed like it was what everyone else did. 

“Mom told me—“

“Me being here wouldn’t have changed what happened to you, Quinn.” She glanced over her shoulder at the vehicle, “I have to go.”

She took a shuddering breath, watching the vehicle drive away. 

No ‘I love you’ or ‘what’s your phone number?’ like she had hoped if she ever saw her sister again. 

Quinn swallowed hard, wiping the tears from her cheeks before they started to freeze and hauled herself back into the house, kicking off her shoes, before returning to the kitchen to see a steaming mug of tea waiting for her on the table. 

Quinn didn’t speak until the tea was gone, a plate of food sat in front of her.

Hashbrowns, eggs, wheat toast, and six strips of, surprisingly, store bought bacon. 

She cleared her throat as her Opa filled the mug with another round of hot water, sliding in the chair across from her at the table. 

She popped the egg, dunking her toast and taking a bite, before speaking. 

“You ran out of bacon? Never thought I’d see that happen.”

She tried to not be sour, but maybe the new year would bring better things. 

Taking a sip out of the mug, she fiddled absentmindedly with the necklace from Tommy, thankful that she at least had some positivity to return to. 

“Yeah, well,” she watched her Opa’s eyes flick to the rest of the pack of bacon on the counter, the lid of the rubber made container open that he intended it to be put into, as he dug the pouch of tobacco out of his lip and set it on the edge of his plate, “hogs got sick awhile back. Think they ate something that didn’t agree with them.”

She blinked, taking in what he had said.

Lots of things seemed to be happing awhile back. 

“Around thanksgiving time?” She questioned, trying to remain nonchalant as their gazes met. 

“Well, now that you say that, I guess it was.” 

“Hm,” Quinn huffed, stabbing into the hashbrowns, “interesting.” She cleared her throat, quickly chewing and swallowing the bite, “I should’ve told Tommy to come see the horses while he was here a few weeks ago.”

He nodded, looking back into the plate, “You coulda. Domino is still getting acclimated but someone breaking her in might not be a bad idea. Otherwise, I ain’t never seen hide nor hair of him.”

Quinn stared at him, the wrinkles and valleys in his face, as she took note of his rather purposeful double negative. He always hated when she talked that way as a kid, told her when he was young his mother woulda beat the ‘ain’t’ out of him if he talked like that. 

She knew he never would have been able to help Tommy haul a body into the enclosure with the pigs, but he definitley was the one that held the keys to it, and she knew if Tommy asked him to dump the body there he’d sacrifice his bacon one million times over to do anything that helped Quinn. 

Quinn decided she didn’t enjoy the fact that all the holiday left her with was more questions than answers. 

She needed a fucking cigarette and it wasn’t even noon yet.

Maybe it was the last time she would come home for Christmas ever again. 

This has been up my sleeve for so long I’ve been trying to be patient with myself and not blow it!

#tommy shelby #peaky blinders #peaky fucking blinders #peaky fookin blinders #quinn meyer #misadventures #tommy shelby fanfic #peaky blinders fanfic #fanfic #peaky blinder fanfic #modern day au #modern au #modern thomas shelby #modern tommy shelby #modern!tommy #modern!tommy shelby #modern Tommy Shelby X oc #tommy shelby x oc

[schoollover]

AU: your camera roll, but you're dating modern Tommy Shelby 

#alternative universe #tommy shelby #thomas shelby #peaky blinders #peaky blinders x reader #peaky blinder imagine #imagines #imagine #peaky blinder fanfic #tommy shelby x y/n #tommy shelby x oc #tommy shelby fluff #tommy shelby x wife #tommy shelby x reader #tommy shelby imagine #tommy shelby fic #cillian murphy #cillian murphy fluff #cillian murphy x reader #modern tommy shelby

[justrainandcoffee]

Like roses and bread (Alfie Solomons x fem!oc + Luca Changretta) [Part 1.]

«Crime sometimes smells like roses and bread...»

Alfie Solomons x Rose Coldwell (ofc) masterlist

Summary: Crime not always involved murder. Sometimes it's something harmless for the rest of the world, like money laundering. The problem is that now, a private detective is behind them and for the first time maybe they're about to be exposed. The couple needs to be smarter than Detective Changretta, something not easy at all. Not even with the help of Alfie's ex: Tommy Shelby.

Warnings: None. || Next chapters Tommy will be part of it.

Words: 1.8 k || Series Masterlist

2021

A bald man was sitting in front of Detective Changretta. The day before he called him asking for an appointment and Luca agreed.

The man was in his 40s and his clothes were smart. He tried to hide it, but Luca could see an expensive gold watch and his perfume was clearly one of the finest you could find.

Something about him disgusted Luca. He was arrogant and the kind of man who thinks he's superior to the rest of the humankind.

The kind of man Luca despised.

Luca's orange cat named Dante jumped on the desk and the man tried to push it but when Luca stand up, the man thought it better.

"If you don't like my cats, Mr. Ferguson, then you should've read the sign on my door first. If I were you, I'll think twice before trying to do it again."

"I'm allergic."

"Not my problem. There's the door, go to another place, find another detective. There are thousands."

Ferguson shook his head. "You're the best, that's what people say. My boss needs the best."

"Yes, your boss. Talk to me about him. Who's your daddy?"

His client gritted his teeth. If the detective weren't so prestigious, then Ferguson could spit on that face. Luca Changretta was nothing but a cockroach compared to him. Fuck him and his ugly cats. And yet, Ferguson answered to him.

"It doesn't matter who he is. He wants to remain anonymous. The thing that matters is the people who you need to investigate."

"The owner of the Inn: Alfred Solomons." Luca checked the notes he wrote the day before.

"Yes. And his woman."

"Just two civilians. I don't investigate people who just work, Ferguson."

"That's the problem. They're not just two civilians…at least him. We don't know the woman but we suspect that she's his accomplice."

"Of what exactly?"

"He stole money from my boss' account." Ferguson, cleared his throat "last year, during the quarantine. In June."

"Really? How?"

"Solomons played dirty. My boss didn't know the kind of man he is. Solomons is a corrupt man!" One of the veins in his head was throbbing.

"And so is your boss. I don't think he's a little lamb."

"How dare you! He's a good man, a man who cares about people."

"Yes, sure." Luca rolled his eyes "Do you know I'm not cheap, Ferguson? Don't you? High quality equals high price. I want 60% in advance plus extra cash because I'm about to be a father, so, my baby needs a present. I know you can afford it. Do it for her."

Luca stared at him. Ferguson disliked him and it was mutual but he needed the job and that's why he accepted the case. It was true that he was going to be a father. His ex wife was pregnant and the baby was his. Despite they were exes, one night they shared a moment together and that same night she got pregnant. Now, eight months later, Cathy was waiting to arrive in their lives. And for Luca, both mother and daughter, deserved the best.

Ferguson gave him a cheque, before standing up and walking towards the door "Just do your job, detective Changretta."

"Just don't be an asshole, Ferguson."

Never trust a person who doesn't like cats, thought Luca. And Ferguson, clearly, disliked cats.

.

In the same city, but far away, Rose were working on their new place. The inn "The Wandering Jew" was open and Alfie was, of course, still his owner. But at the same time they opened a bakery months ago called "Cyril's cakes."

It was a project that both of them thought about during  2020 and finally it was real. And it was quite successful, too. They had to hired another baker to help Alfie while Rose was in charge of the customers.

Nicely decorated, delicate colours and always smelling like fresh bread, "Cyril's cakes" was famous for having a statue of Cyril itself. People, kids especially, used to take pictures next to it. The real dog was never there, so, for customers that was the nearest they could be to him.

That particular morning, she smiled when saw Alfie crossing the door. They've been together for over a year now and even when it was quite recently, it felt like much more than that.

Alfie removed his mask to gave her a kiss. COVID was still a real thing and every precaution was necessary. Still, he didn't want to waste another minute to greeted her. Not that she resisted him.

"Fucking missed you. Horrible day," she let him put his arms around her waist "Karens everywhere."

"Story of my life," he responded, kissing her now blonde hair. "I'm here now, love. Anything new?"

She shook her head. It was an ordinary day and apparently it wasn't going to change. In fact, the whole week was ordinary. Until, it wasn't anymore.

That morning at the bakery had been the calmest of the week, which Rose was grateful for, considering that dealing with difficult customers took a lot of her energy. Of the list of people who had placed an order for that day, five of the six had already gone to pick up their cakes. So only one remained. The rest of the customers were just casuals who were just dropping in to buy something before going on their way to work or back home.

Rose was texting her brother when a tall, thin man made her lift her head. His curious hazel eyes were looking around him and had a mysterious aura. Behind his mask, Rose could notice that he was smiling.

"Good afternoon, miss."

"Good afternoon, sir. How can I help you?"

Luca looked at her. He assumed that she was Alfie Solomons' girlfriend although, for the moment, he knew nothing about her. Not even the name but he did know that the woman worked there.

"I ordered a cake two days ago. I'm Vicente Young." Luca said. He used his father's name and his ex's last name to cover his real identity.

There was the last of those who had placed an order. It was a chocolate cake with cherries, simple but tasty. She asked him to wait while she went to the refrigerator at the back of the bakery. Luca just nodded.

There was nothing in particular that caught his attention and definitely if what Ferguson said was true, then the evidence wasn't going to find it there. Still, pretending to be looking at his phone, Luca snapped several pictures of the place. Including Rose. Luca tucked his device into his pocket just as the man of interest appeared behind her.

Alfie Solomons was there. Wearing a flour covered apron that he took off and left on the back of the chair where Rose was sitting moments before.

"I have to go with Ollie," he said "the boy doesn't know how much one plus one is. But it's all done."

"Ok. I'll see you at home later then. Take care of yourself. Love you."

"Love you too. See you."

Alfie barely glanced at Luca as he passed, just gave a nod of his head by way of greeting and continued walking out of there.

"Your husband?" Luca smiled amicably, trying to take information away from her.

"No," Rose replied, letting out a chuckle "We've only known each other for a year."

"So you met during the pandemic?"

"Yes. Long story. I was stranded in London and during that time I met him and well, a year later here I am."

"A good 2020, then, more than most people can say. He's the one who's in charge of baking?"

"Yes. Cooking in general is not really my best ability, let alone baking. But he's really good and enjoys it," Rose's phone on the counter began to vibrate. The incoming call cut off the conversation between Luca and her.

Luca pretended to look for money or a card in his wallet to pay for the cake while she took the call. The detective didn't know who was on the other end of the line but clearly the woman had been forced to give her name and in the process, Luca had saved himself a step in finding out her identity. So Alfie Solomons was dating Rose Coldwell who, according to her, had been stranded in London the previous year and had been there ever since. The detective was still amazed at how easy it was to get information if you knew how. People, as a rule, were too trusting.

Luca said goodbye to her after paying and left. For a first meeting that wasn't bad at all. In addition to the two names of the people he was interested in he had gotten a third: an Ollie who he would find out who he was. He needed to go back to his office and use one of his whiteboards exclusively for this case he called "bread and roses."

There were times when the work was repetitive, but this didn't seem to be one of them. If there really was something illegal behind this recent pairing then there were also more people involved than just the two of them. There were always more people, the issue was who. And finding out was the best part of it all.

He thought about going to see Aveline. But at that hour, Linnie was sure to be taking care of her sick mother so he decided to see her later and ask her personally if she needed anything. For the time being, he would go back to the office .

.

The sun had been out for at least half an hour. Cyril's cakes was already closed for customers and Rose was ready to finally rest on her couch, cuddling next to Alfie. That was the best part of the day. Rose had secured the door and was pulling down the blind when something that looked like a rock hit her shoulder, causing her to groan in pain. But when she turned to see what was happening, she only saw a hooded figure running away.

"What the…"

The rock on the floor was wrapped in paper and she picked it up. Only two words were written on it:

Enough to make her heart beat fast. We know.

Rose quickly got into the car and drove home. Now she really needed to see Alfie.

We know.

#alfie solomons #alfie solomons x ofc #alfie solomons x oc #peaky blinders #tom hardy #peaky blinders x oc #modern au #luca changretta #luca changretta x oc #tommy shelby

[sneakyblinders]

superstition - modern!tommy shelby x ofc

A/N: hello! this is something i've had brewing in my mind for quite some time! Modern!Tommy Shelby x ofc, Amandine. Based in southeast Louisiana. (If you ever have the opportunity to go... please take it. It's one of the best places on earth.) If you're wanting some ambiance, or getting the vibe of the story... take a listen to this ambiance music on Youtube! warnings: language, cheating, sexual themes. not canon. an au.

1998–Southeast Louisiana

“You know what you’re getting yourself into, don’t you, Thomas?” Polly asked a pink cheeked teenage Tommy as he stumbled in the backdoor, tucking his shirt back into his pants. 

He licked his lips, sweat running down his back. “What do you mean?” he asked. 

“That girl, Tommy,” she paused. The ceiling fan whirred, kicking away the leftover smells from dinner. The heat. “Amandine,” Polly shuddered. “Her family is dangerous. Her grandmere is a seer, you know.” 

Tommy nodded. He did know. “I love her, Pol,” he said, straightening his back. 

Polly chuckled. “You’ll see what someone like Amandine Theiriot does with love.” 

2011–Southeast Louisiana

The restaurant bustled. Dishwashers were running furiously, line cooks and waiters bickered over a particularly fussy patron. Amandine rolled her eyes. The heat was overwhelming. July in Louisiana was brutally unbearable, and a heatwave made going into the kitchen every day damn near impossible. 

“Dine!” Gio, the sous chef called out to her. “Dine, there’s somebody here fer ya!” 

Her eyes wandered tiredly to the man in the corner. Her man. “Tommy?” she breathed quietly. So quietly she wasn’t sure if anybody but herself heard her. 

He didn’t smile at her. All joy was gone from his eyes. His lips were in a firm line, hands in his jean pockets, his military backpack slung over one shoulder. The kitchen staff moved out of Amandine’s way as she made her way to Tommy, moving in a trance-like pattern. 

“You’re home?” she asked. He smelled like the bayou. Faintly like aftershave. Smoke and whiskey. He’d not come directly here. 

“Here I stand,” he drawled, the deep baritone of his voice sending a chill down her spine like only he could. 

“I waited,” she said gently as desire filled his eyes. 

“I see,” he responded as she reached out to touch his cheek–touch a scar she hadn’t seen before. “Let’s go home, baby,” he said, her touch filling him with the deepest sense of belonging he’d felt in nearly eight years. 

The staff mumbled under their breath as their head chef walked out for the night, dinner tickets be damned. 

Amandine sensed a darkness in Tommy’s spirit. A darkness that wasn’t there before the war. Before Iraq. She guessed too many tours would do that to a person. Her heart felt heavy as he drove them through the windy southeast Louisiana streets, back to their once shared home. Before the war separated them. He didn’t speak. Neither did she. 

The bayou, their home, was dark. There weren’t too many streetlights on these two lane roads leading them to their home. The home they’d purchased at eighteen and nineteen before the world went upside down. 

Tommy drove his truck, the truck Amandine had been using the last seven years, up their gravel driveway, the motion sensor lights at the top of their home kicking on. It looked a little cleaner than when he had last seen it seven years ago. 

The garage was the entire bottom floor, two flights of stairs leading to the house above. In the swamp, a house on stilts, or raised houses, are normal to aid in air circulation and prevent flood damage when the inevitable hurricanes blasted through the swamp. Tommy tiredly dragged his legs up the steps, Amandine following behind him. 

He fumbled with his keys, finding the right one for the front door and unlocked it, shocked when he saw the difference in the house. “You fixed it up?” 

She smiled softly. “Yeah,” she looked at him nervously. “Daddy and Grandpere and the boys helped. Thought you might like it,” she said. 

He let his dusty backpack fall to the floor with a thud, closing and locking the door behind them before he pushed her up against the door, crashing his lips to hers. 

It was a mess of clothes and sloppy kisses, but they made their way to the bedroom where they devoured one another. 

The next morning they woke up next to each other for the first time in seven years. An uncomfortable silence had fallen between the two of them the night before, causing them to fall asleep with their backs to one another. Something had shifted–something had changed. 

“So,” Amandine began the next morning, sun streaming in through the slats of the blinds. “Who was she?” she asked. 

“Who was he?” Tommy asked, reaching for a cigarette on his nightstand. 

“I’ll tell you if you tell me,” she said, sitting up in bed, leaning against the headboard. 

“Deal,” he said nonchalantly, exhaling smoke. 

“Vincent Camponi,” she said. She could faintly see his jaw twitch in anger. 

“Grace Burgess,” he said, mind wandering to the blond he fell in love with at war. The one who had almost cost him his life. 

“Will you go to her?” Amandine asked. 

“Can’t,” he said, not meeting her eyes. “The curse,” he exhaled. “The bond,” he said, holding up his palm, the faint scar from where they’d joined themselves together in Gypsy tradition so many years ago. 

The curse he referred to, was also cast that night they made their vow. That if anything should separate them, they would be dually cursed for the rest of their days. Bad luck following. Their children would be cursed. Their families would be destined for doom. Their businesses would decline and their money would disappear. 

“Where’s Della?” he asked to change the subject. 

“With Mama and Daddy,” Amandine said. 

“Let’s go get her. No sense in keeping us all apart for any longer than we have to, hm?” he said, stubbing out his cigarette and walking to the shower. 

“Yeah,” Amandine said softly. “No sense in that.” 

#tommy shelby #tommy shelby x ofc #tommy shelby x oc #tommy shelby x amandine #louisiana au #peaky fookin blinders #peakywomen #peaky blinder fanfic #peaky blinder imagine #thomas shelby x oc #thomas shelby x ofc #thomas shelby #sneakyblinders #modern!tommy shelby #modern!tommyshelby x ofc

[evita-shelby]

Lookalikes and harbingers of doom

Or modern!tommy x Eva ft the Oscars

Gif by @crackshipandcrap

He sits on the couch in his joggers and Eva draped her long legs on his lap to get his attention.

“I don’t see it.” Tommy admits as they watch the Oscars together.

Eva has been going on and on about how he looks like Cillian Murphy despite the man being a decade his elder and Irish.

“I will admit I look sort of like Adria Arjona if you admit you look like Cillian Murphy.” Eva proposes as she takes one last look at the baby monitor and ups the ante. “We can even recreate that scene of hers with Pedro Pascal if you’re game, Tommy.”

They enjoy fucking too much to actually refuse an offer, especially now that they are trying for baby number two. A sweet little girl to name Florence Elizabeth for their aunts and born on the day Charles the Third shuffles off his mortal coil.

After all, Trisha Paytas is having another little harbinger of doom this year as well.

#eva smith shelby #tommy shelby x oc #modern!tommy shelby #modern!eva #modern!tommy shelby x eva smith #evacore

[pacifymebby]

t r o u b l e / Chapter Ten

a peaky blinders Modern AU balletcore story?

Chapter List

Previous Chapter (in case u missed it bc tumblr is being weird)

John

"Don't like this John," hummed Esme where she sat in the bedroom window, her hair wild and long, trailing down her back her curls knotting down to her lower back, brushing over her bare thighs when she turned to look at me over her shoulder. She'd been up half the night with the baby and now that the littlen had finally settled down she was sitting alone watching the dark garden, wearing one of my tshirts, one which had been worn to death and had grown with her baby belly throughout her last pregnancy. She still wore it now, when it was late and she couldn't sleep. She'd taken to sitting in that window all through the night, starring out at the garden like a caged bird, smoking her cigarettes one by one.

"I know love," I sighed stepping up behind her, letting my hands hold her shoudlers, thumbs rubbing over the bones. "Won't be for long, we'll go back to the farm soon..."

"Thats what you say," she said turning back to the garden with the dark shadowy eyes of a girl. A girl pining. Which is what I knew she was. She was restless and she had been for a long time, long before this shit with the Italians. I'd been trying my best on the farm, trying to help her feel free, connected to the earth. I humoured her when she walked out in the garden barefoot, curling her toes into the muddy vegetable patches when it rained. I'd promised her we'd travel, that we'd pack up and take the kids with us, and I'd meant to keep that promise. But now there were other shadows looming over us, and not just over me and her but the whole family. And keeping my promise to Esme would mean betraying my brothers and sisters.

I couldn't even toy with the idea. Of course sometimes the way Tommy was made me want to say fuck it and leave, but the rest of them, no. I couldn't leave Ada and the twins. Couldnt abandon Arthur who needed the family to stay together more than any of us.

And even Tommy, at the end of the day, no matter how cruel he could be, how unfeeling, he was still my big brother. And he wasn't as selfish as he seemed, it just takes a lot to lead a family, especially one like ours. He was just doing his best to be the person steering our battered ship.

"We're never leaving here," Esme said, her voice low and dark and gloomy like the empty garden at night. That expanse of lawn, so tame. That wall of trees just that, a wall that hedged us all in. Marked out our bit of land and kept it ours. A perimeter that  Esme understood, kept her caged.

That was why she spent her evenings starring out at it with dark eyes and a heavy heart. Smoking her cigarettes. Making me feel all kinds of guilt and inadequacy.

"We will flower, just as soon as this is all over, gonna take you and the littlens far away," I said leaning over her, tilting her head right back so that i could kiss her from above. I meant it, in my heart when I said it I meant it but we were neither of us naive and so we both found ourselves looking out at the garden then, whistful and doomed.

This wasn't going to be over quickly. Might never be over at all.

The house was quiet but only just and only for now, the twins had gone to bed, too shaken up for my liking - and I felt guilty for that because I'd aided in the shaking - but Arthur hadn't returned with Ada and I knew that she had all the fight of little Sylvie and all the zeal of having grown up in a shithole like small heath. That is to say I knew she wouldn't be affraid to tell Tommy exactly what she thought of him. How much of a cunt she thought he was.

When our mother had died Tommy had stepped up for the girls because they were only small and suddenly left without a mother or a father to care for them. He'd tried to be that father figure to the best of his ability, which was limited because he'd never really had a sturdy father figure himself. As a result the girls had wound up with this fear of him, that fear only a father can instill. In healthy relationships its known as respect but theirs was a distant and troubled relationship and so fear was the only way of describing it. Ada hadn't had that, didn't fear him and probably wouldn't ever. So I knew that when she got here she'd do the shouting and the fighting for all three of them. Wouldn't give a fuck that it was 4 in the morning and the littluns were in bed, that I was in bed, only just managing to drift off. Would blame me for that, would tell me it straight.

"Ada will stay," said Esme then, "she's not stupid she knows whats at risk..."

"Yeah," I sighed, "its the girls ain't it," I said, "gonna be trouble..." I said and she smirked as if to say 'you don't know the half of it' but I did because every step of the way we'd done everything wrong. We'd sent them away, let them grow up wild in some far away city, in a boarding school that taught them how to lie and cheat their way to the top, taught them they could have everything they wanted if they were cut throat and selfish, if they thought only about where they were trying to go and took wild risks, pushed themselves too far.

And it was obvious looking at Sylvie, that the both of them had taken on board everything that theyd been taught. That they weren't affraid to push themselves too far, test their limits. That they didn't mind their own safety when it came to taking risks to get what they wanted.

And they'd take these risks because we'd always tried to keep them sheltered, always tried to keep them seperate. The twins had never seen their brothers with bullets in their chests, they'd never seen the men we'd snatched from wives and children. They didn't really know what we did with the bodies. They didn't know about the arms severed, the threats sent. They didn't know the things we'd done to our enemies, they thought our wars were all money and talk but they were usually always retaliation to meetings gone sour, deals fucked up, families we'd made the mistake of only half slaughtering.

And because they didn't know any of those things, then they could never really understand what they were risking, what our enemies would do to them, how they would be used, how they'd be tortured.

It wasn't even a year passed since our Aunt Pol had narrowly escaped death at the hands of the Changretta's. They'd had her neck in a noose, left her balanced on her tip toes for days, a sinister act of torture we were all certain had tipped her over the morbid edge she'd been teetering on for years. They'd told her they had all of us, tricked her into believing that whilst she stood their desperately trying to keep her balance, feeling the strain of the noose against her neck every time she faltered, that each of us was fighting for our lives in an equally painful way.

No one knew, not even her, how she'd actually managed to escape. But it hadn't been any of us who had cut her down. Tommy said she must have done it, must have worked out a way to cut the bonds on her hands, to sever the rope around her neck. Polly insisted that it hadn't been. That it had been the ghost of her mother, that now she'd spent several days with death hovering around her, waiting for her muscles to spazm and falter, she could see death all the time. That she could hear the voices of those past, that she could see their shadows lingering around the living.

And though it all seemed a little mellodramatic to me, seemded like rot to Arthur, I could tell Tommy empathised with the darkness. And we couldn't laugh her off because of what she'd gone through. The days of pain, her muscles sore to burning, her adrenaline savaging her body so that when she finally returned home she was a shell of her former self. Something changed behind her eyes.

That was the darkness our fens were risking every time they fought back against Tommy. If they disobeyed him, if we couldn't keep them here, safe with us, well, thered be no ghosts that came to save them.

"Sylvies got her brothers temper," said Esme, her strange impersonal judgements reminding me that they'd never really met. That the wedding had been the first and last time they'd seen one another. So it was all the more strange, all the more uncomfortable.

"Aye but which brother..." I smirked making her laugh, making her dark brooding eyes light up for a moment as she shook her head.

"Well," she let her smirk linger, her dimple etched into her expression so that she appeared impish in the pale nights light, "ain't arthurs is it..."

"Shes nothin like Tommy," I said shaking my head, refusing to believe that that could be true, refusing to believe that there was anything about my brother that could possibly have been passed onto little Sylvia who had always been so wild and sweet.

"They're like our mum," I said trying to reiterate my point. Trying to prove Esme's observation wrong, "I guess you wouldn't see that yknow," I shrugged turning away from the window, pulling my shirt over my head, knowing there was no point trying to get to sleep. Lying down anyway and asked her to lie down with me. For want of nothing else to do.

"Come on love, can't sit in that window all night you'll get cold..."

"What and I spose you're gonna keep me warm?" she asked turning with that clever little smirk, outsmarting me again.

"Aye," I said with a cheeky caught out grin of my own, "Somet like that aye..." I chuckled opening my arms out for her, letting her crawl across the bed to me, that too bed tshirt hanging from her soft curves as she moved feline and feminine over covers to come curl up in my arms.

I kissed her hair and let my hand trail over her thigh, fingers teasing a line up to the hem of her underwear. I knew how to ease her troubled mood, even now when her eyes were dark and I could see that she was worrying.

So we didn't get any sleep, and when Arthur returned with Ada and Karl, their voices ricochetting down the corridors, their disturbance caught me and Esme off guard. Her beanth me, her thighs trembling on each side of my neck as I ground my hips against her hips a little harder than before, burying myself deep inside her.

We'd been close when that front door had slammed and Karl had woken, started crying but the moment Ada's sharp words began tumbling vitriolic and shattering the silent house, we knew it was over.

"Fuck sake," whined Esme burying her face into my neck, clutching at me still, her body clinging tight to mine. She didn't want to let go and I didn't want to pull out and away from her but I knew that any second now Ada would be hammering her fist on that bedroom door demanding to drag me into the battle.

I laughed, let my grin linger because there was nothing else I could do. Just had to keep smirking through it and appreciate the humour of it all, forty fuckin one years old and still being cockblocked by my big sister.

So I accepted my fate, kissing Esme on the nose as I pulled out and she whimpered again. Smirking at her sweetness because it wasn't a side to her that came out very often. Had never been a side she liked to show. One it had taken me a long time to find hidden and secret beneath all those rough and wild layers of defense.

"To be continued," I said pecking her cheek, trailing teasing kisses down her body, leaving one between her legs that made her whine and then push me away, kicking at me playfully as she let out a dissatisfied sigh.

"Fuck sake John," she groaned as she pushed herself up and wrapped the covers around her. "I'm going to sleep, better not wake me up when you get back..." she threatened, her smouldering eyes teasing me, her sullen lips leaving me longing to kiss her again, push her buttons just a little more.

"Oh you'll be awake lass," I grinned, "Ada'll make sure of that..."

And Ada did make sure of that. She'd no patience because despite what he said, Arthur had done nothing to calm her on the journey home and even then, when I came stumbling into the corridor tugging my tshirt over my head, laughing at the drama of it all, Arthur was watching her despairing and nervous.

"Fuckin hell Ada some of us are tryna sleep here, its 4 in the fuckin mornin..." I said still chuckling, knowimg that I was risking her temper and carrying on anyway. I was her little brother afterall, I could get away with it if I tried.

"Perhaps you'd be having an easier night if you didn't always bend over backwards to accommodate our canniving pig of a brother," she said sharply, standing in the hallway lit up by the the little light coming in through the front door and the windows in the cieling.

She looked pale as a ghost and just as cold and I didn't know what to say to her because she wasn't wrong. Wasn't right either. I wouldn't have had an easier night because Tommy would have killed me and then he'd have sent someone else, someone like Isaiah, and then my ghost would have been haunting the halls all eternity with the guilt of having left my little sisters in the hands of someone else.

It wasn't that I wouldn't have trusted Isaiah with my sisters, it was that really when it came down to it, I didn't trust anyone with them. Not even my brothers. Not to do things right anyway.

If Arthur had gone for them he'd have lost his temper because he'd have been scared, because he'd have been paranoid that they didn't respect him, because he'd have been angry at himself for not being able to do as Tommy had asked. For not being the kind of brother his little baby sisters would trust.

If Tommy had gone, then the speech which had brought Sonya to petrified tears in the office that night, would have been given much sooner, with no care for the audience, no care for who was watching, recording or making notes. He'd have lost his temper because he'd have realised they only feared him, didn't respect him. And they were more delicate than either of them liked to let on. Sonya and Sylvia had always been a little less Shelby like our father. Much more like their mother than anyone wanted to admit.

I had noticed it in Sylvia straight away. The thin quality, that washed out pale tone, the greyish brown which shadowed her eyes, which lingered and left her looking tired. Sonya had hidden it better but I'd still seen it there. They were both just so much smaller than they should have been but I knew that if I mentioned it to my brothers they'd tell me I worried too much, that they were tougher than I gave them credit for.

"Ada love come on now eh its late, you'll wake the twins..." said Arthur, all sheepish and tired, one hand on the back of his neck, his features flushed, embarassed to be approaching 50 and still unable to quell his sisters temper. If there was one thing you could say about Ada it was that she'd always been the one to put us in our place. Humble us when we let our position and our reputation get to our heads.

"You care for their wellbeing so much then why in gods name would you drag em back to this fuckin place?" and then she sighed and shook her head, "fuckin go to bed arthur it aint you I need to speak to..."

"Tommys in his..." I trailed off when my eyes met my brothers down the hall, he was walking slowly, a shadow approaching, a cigarette unlit hanging between his lips.

"Ada love," he said making her jump but doing nothing to hush her or shake her determination. "Good to see you made it up safe an sound..." and when I saw his patronising little smile I resigned myself to a sleepless night and a long morning of achey heads and sore throats. Tension bristling.

It was exactly what we got, but not what we didn't deserve.

🔪🦢

"She won't forgive you you know..." said Polly the next morning when it was only myself and her left in the dining room.

Sylvie had left with an angry static buzzing all about her, Tommy had sent her to fetch Sonya and, in his usual tactless charm, had said something so patronising that I was surprised our Fen hadn't torn his head from his neck right in front of us.

"No," I said with a sad smirk, "Fens right, gonna fuck Sonyas whole career up ain't it, poor lass must fuckin hate us..." but when I said it Pol just chuckled and shook her head.

"I wasn't talking about Sonya," she said lighting up her cigarette and drawing in a long leisurely inhale, "Sonya knows she can't go back, I don't even think she's going to put up a fight..."

"Its Sonya who's losing her job not Sylvia," I shrugged a little confused, not understanding when Polly laughed.

"Ha," she said, "stupid lads the lot of you..." she turned her head from me, looking across the dining room and out the window at the gardens where the mist was just beginning to thin.

"What?" I couldn't keep the confusion off my face despite wanting to hide it, I hated it when she made me feel stupid like that, perhaps I deserved it, perhaps I was as daft as she said. Even so I didn't like the fact being highlighted so bluntly.

"Since their mother died those two girls have had only eachother... Their big brothers weren't there were they? In London? Learnt to look after one another didn't they..."

It was painful to hear it from her, our Aunt Pol who has always been the matriarch, the one who looked after us all, the one we all looked up to. She it was painful to hear her tell it so straight, how we'd let them down. How we'd abandoned them. Left two little girls down south on their own, fending for themselves among strangers.

"I should never have let him do that," said Polly then, her voice as dark and gravelly as her eyes, that harsh kind of doom lingering around her like a shadow. One of those auras she claimed to be able to see around people these days.

"When our Tom puts his mind to somet..." I started only to trail off, only to remember that none of us had really fought against it, "we all believed it was for the best..."

"Fools," murmured Pol sucking in another drag on her cigarette, watching the cloud of smoke linger and then disperse just in front of her, "the lot of us."

#peaky blinders imagines #Trouble #tommy shelby modern au #peaky blinders modern au #peaky blinders x sister!reader #peaky blinders x oc #Alfie solomons x oc #peaky blinders fanfiction #peaky blinders imagine

[fkmarrycill]

I started a modern Tommy story a little while ago. Wanted to give myself some inspiration to finish it. 🤔🏃🏽‍♀️💻

#tommy shelby #modern tommy shelby #tommy shelby x oc #wip #peaky blinders

[look-at-the-soul]

The Photoshoot-Part 42 The Date edition

Cillian Murphy

Series Master list 2014, 2015

A/N: I want to start this chapter by celebrating @peakyscillian for 1.5 k followers ! Congratulations dear Lau! I hope you get a lot more! ✨🎉💐 so I was inspired by your amazing dating series but I made my couple go on a date. ♥️

Especial notes: 1) You don’t have to follow the series to read this part, the only things you need to know is Cillian’s wife, Yael is a photographer, the story is set in September 2015, they met at a Photoshoot Cillian did at the end of filming S2 of Peaky Blinders and they are struggling with infertility at the moment, Cillian decides to take her on a special date as he needs to get in the skin of Tommy Shelby.

2) For this part I got the amazing help of two people who actually know about horses, my dear Cia (holacia2) & @notyour-valentine I can’t thank you both enough for all the input you shared with me -the one who knows nothing about horses- you made me imagine everything while writing, thank you for making this possible (you will find your names through the chapter as my way to thank you for your support) 🥰

Her whole body ached, specially her legs after that barre class. Cillian had convinced her it would be a good thing to go back to do the things she loved the most. It wasn’t easy for her, but at least she wanted to try, for him.

Taking her bottle of water, she took a big gulp, just as a voice called for her.

“Hello!”

Turning around, she found another woman smiling at her.

“Hey.”

“It’s good to see you back,” but looking at Yael’s puzzled look, she touched her arm, “oh! I’m sorry we never talked but we’re in the same class, I’m Liv.”

“Nice to meet you, I’m Yael.”

“That’s such an unique name, never heard it before…”

Yael chuckled, the amount of times she had to write it down because people couldn’t understand it…

“I missed coming over, now I’ll feel so sore tomorrow.”

“No pain, no gain… or so they say.” Liv laughed. “I’m heading for a coffee, do you want to come?”

To her own surprise, Yael found herself nodding. There was something so charismatic about that woman, she had a light blood and nice energy around her.

“Sorry if I made a face before, I don’t have friends here, all the people I know is friend’s with my husband…” Yael apologized as they were waiting in the queue.

“No worries, we never talked before.” She mumbled while checking the menu. “Where are you from?”

“The UK.” Yael answered ordering the same coffee she always got. “Are you Irish?”

“Nope, I was born in the UK as well, but we moved over here since I was a toddler, so I’m basically another local.”

“That’s really nice.” She waited until Liv ordered to walk to a table. “Thanks for reaching out, all my close friends aren’t here… and I could use one right now.” Her eyes watered in a snap, her pain right there in the surface.

Liv reacted the only way she knew. “Oh darling, what’s the matter? We can sit outside the terrace is empty.”

“Sorry, I’m just all over the place.” Taking her sunglasses from her bag, she decided to hide beneath them. “God, what you must be thinking of me right now, how embarrassing.”

“Nothing bad, just that you need someone to listen.”

Liv moved back in her chair as their coffees arrived, and offered Yael a napkin.

“You know, I could use a friend too, but I’m too shy at the class because all of those ladies look me upside down.” She made a face and rolled her eyes. That made Yael chuckle.

“Most of them look like frustrated ballerinas.”

“But I mean it.” Liv looked at her, feeling like she was a good person. “Whatever is bothering you…”

The day was beautiful, Yael noticed, the sun up and bright, the terrace had big trees in front of it, surrounding the locals.

“I really appreciate your kindness, but it’s a little bit recent and the last thing I want to be thinking of is that. Maybe I’ll tell you another day.” She gave her new friend a try of a smile, it was just too personal to share. “Did I interrupt your reading?” Yael asked taking a look at the book poking out from Liv’s bag.

“Not at all, I always have a book with me, as I’ve to wait in the boring queue at school to pick up my kids.” She then went on to take a bite of the muffin, “Oh! This is so good, you should try it!”

Yale accepted one small bite and offered some of her own to Liv, but with that small detail she realized how Liv really was a good person, without knowing her, she was willing to share her food. She liked her already.

“I love reading as well, maybe we can exchange books or something.” Yael proposed.

“I’d love to do that! Let’s make this a regular, class, coffee and books.” Liv suggested with a huge smile.

And Yael couldn’t agree more, they spent some good time chatting about their lives, another things they enjoyed to do, their families… As they waved goodbye to go on their respective days she hugged Liv and thanked her one more time for her kindness, feeling like a nice friendship was starting, she felt so grateful for meeting someone like Liv.

***

“So I was thinking, maybe I could invite her somewhere? A little dinner to celebrate Liv’s belated birthday?” Yael asked Cillian from the en-suite, running her eyes over the bottles of shampoo, body lotion and other toiletries they would need. “Love?”

Cillian’s eyes were lost in thoughts, sitting by the end of the bed.

“What? Yeah.” He shook his head a little.

“You’re not paying attention.”

Cillian scoffed. Busted. “You’re there talking in your underwear… how am I supposed to focus?”

Yael blushed, suddenly aware, feeling self conscious, she took the leggings she just bought from the shelf and then threw the fluffy sweater over her head, it was longer than a usual jumper, so it covered her bum perfectly, her dark curly hair was now dry, so she did a quick messy bun at the top of her head.

He loved to listen her talk about her activities, especially now about the new friend she just made, until now he didn’t think of how lonely Yael was, of course his family was close and that was such a relief for him, but it wasn’t the same, soon he would be gone for months to film the upcoming season of Peaky Blinders and having a friend close could make things easier for his wife.

“Are you sure these are fine? You said comfortable clothes…”

“That’s perfect.” He smiled, glad that she had been taking her barre classes constantly, listening to her little stories of her new friend, and the excitement over the secret date he had been planning.

Walking towards the bed, Yael left the things she was holding next to her weekend bag, then quietly made her way to sit on his lap, passing her arms around Cillian’s neck.

“Hi.”

His hands linked automatically around her waist. “Hey you.”

“I want to thank you for all the things you’ve done over the last days… I haven’t been on my best and-”

“You have nothing to thank me for.” He fixed his blue eyes on her features.

“I know, but really,” she tried to distract herself with the top button of his denim shirt, his lotion filling her senses. “You’ve been cooking most of the time, listened to my stupid fears over the treatment and I know I didn’t make it easy.”

She brought her lips to met his in a small peck.

“Without you and your support I wouldn’t be able to hold it together, I just want you to know I really appreciate the extra effort you’ve put to make things easier.”

Cillian’s fingers moved in slow circles over her jumper, he wanted to do more, do anything to take her pain away.

“I’d like to do a bit of thinking of our options, investigate more to make a decision of what’s the best road for us, both IVF and adoption are long and tired process and I don’t want to feel pressured.”

Cillian smiled pleased, she always dedicated a huge amount of time before making an important decision, she helped him be less impulsive, think of all the possible scenarios and outcomes.

“We’ll do this on your pace, take all the time you need.” He kissed her, feeling her worries melting away. Her lips telling him a lot more than words could.

“You’re seriously the best husband ever.”

He chuckled. “Ah, that’s because I’ve the best wife.”

“Does it means I’m your favorite?”

Cillian arched his eyebrows, “of course you’re my favorite wife!”

And they embraced each other in a tight hug, feeling some kind of weight was lifted from their shoulders, their journey wasn’t easy, but they got to face it together and that was exactly what they needed. Support, teamwork, union…

“Will you tell me of this secret plans you have?”

“Not yet.”

Yael looked at him with a pout.

“Just a little hint?”

Cillian groaned and made her stand up. “Fine, Tommy needs to come out from the wardrobe for the new season, I need to remove the dust from him.”

Yael squealed as she felt his hand sneak down her back, then to her bum to give her a squeeze and a wink.

“Are you going to tell me what will happen to him?”

But he was already shaking his head before she could finish. “No, you asked for a hint of the plans not the script.”

“Ah, I won’t tell nobody.”

Cillian stopped at the top of the stairs, holding the bag in one hand, bringing her close by the waist with the other. “You’ll have to ask Thomas Shelby.”

She was surprised by the sudden brummie accent, his deep voice making her purr internally, a tingle running up and down her body. But she still tried to get him to speak as they drove to his sister’s house, Yael was extremely excited for the small change, for getting out of the house since some days were harder than the others.

Scout didn’t pay them any attention as they walked out the door, he was busy chasing after Sienna, bumping the stuffed animals with his nose.

“Do you know why is he so mysterious?” Yael squinted her eyes at Orla, keeping her voice down.

“No, he never tells… once he took Evan to Aspen for snowboard lessons and didn’t say anything, until he saw Joseph Gordon-Levitt and freaked out.”

“I swear if he takes me to a shooting camp, I’ll come back walking.” She joked wondering if she could switch places with Orla’s husband.

Orla suppressed a laugh as her brother walked out of the bathroom.

“Enjoy the weekend.”

Over an hour later, Yael saw they were entering a huge ranch, it seemed like a private property full of big trees, a huge structure in the back.

“Where are we?” Her mouth was hanging open by the sight before her eyes.

“This is a horses sanctuary.” He smiled proudly, offering his hand to help her out of the car.

Before Yael had time to react, two women approached the car and as they got closer he greeted them.

“This is Val and this is Cia, let me introduce you to my wife, Yael.”

“It’s so nice to meet you!” Cia welcomed her in a short hug, followed by Val.

“I’m so glad you made the reservation.” She stated.

“When I started to prepare for my role in Peaky Blinders, I came here to take riding lessons, they showed me how to mount a horse, to caress them, well everything.”

“It’s nice to meet you, this is such an amazing surprise.”

Cillian took her hand while they walked around the property, they explained it was a business ran by a family and they were both in charge on the riding sessions.

“This is where we train the young horses we get.” Cia pointed to an big area protected by a tall fence.

“This is beautiful.” Yael breathed out, taking a look around she felt so much peace.

“Wait until you see the horses, that’s the real beauty of this place.” Val offered guiding them to the large stable.

Yael squeezed Cillian’s hand when they entered it, feeling so small in such a huge place, she kept looking everywhere like a child in a candy store.

“This is Thunder,” Cia pointed caressing the first horse. “That one is Sonny, he was born here on a sunny day that’s why his name, and that beauty over there is Star, Penny, is living here temporarily,” she touched every single horse on her way with such a love oozing, and the most impressive thing was they equally gave it back. “Oh, bless you Moose.” She chuckled as one of them sneezed.

“Badger, usually kicks in excitement don’t get scared” Val started to explain just as they hear a loud kick, the hit on the wood echoed and Yael jumped in surprise. “There it is, he’s like a kid with hyperactivity.”

“Where’s Toni?” Asked Cillian remembering the one he used to learn to get used to horses while preparing for his role.

“Oh he’s at another fascility right now, working with children with special needs.”

“I came here to learn how to ride for the series.” He explained to his wife. “They take such a good care of them here, help them heal if they’re sick and show them how to be gentle with people, I met a boy with Down Syndrome while riding and his father told me it helped him so much with his skills and self esteem.”

“Would you like to give them a snack?” Cia asked, barely holding her excitement.

Yael doubted and took a step back, she had never been around horses before.

“It’s alright baby, here, let me show you.” Cillian took the apple slices from Cia’s hand and showed her how to do it. “It’s just like a big dog.”

“Yeah like ten times bigger!” Yael replied with a nervous chuckle still unsure, would the horse bite her hand?

“I’ve been told they can feel our emotions, our fears…” He understood her reluctance, at the beginning he was scared of riding a horse too. Cillian started caressing the muzzle of the horse to show her nothing bad would happen.

“If you don’t want to touch him in the face, you can caress his neck, they are very gentle.” Val offered from the opposite side.

As Yael nodded, she moved automatically to walk around to the other side, to stand next to Val, but her husband caught her right on time.

“It’s the other way around love, you never should walk behind the horse, he could kick you.” He explained so tenderly guiding her by the shoulders.

Yael chuckled nervously, it made sense. After touching the horse with just her fingertips, she realized he was so soft, but firm, moments later, she had completely warmed up to Harrison, smiling up whenever he made a little sound or move his ears, an indication that he was enjoying the petting and attention.

Cillian stepped back, watching his wife taking in the horse, the sparkle in her eyes didn’t go unnoticed to him, he was relieved to see her happy, enjoying the moment, Yael even asked to give Harrison another snack and laughed loudly when his nose touched her hand, it had a funny texture. They showed her how to brush the horse’s hair, it was surprising they had so many tools and it was a way to show some love and respect for the animal, the most beautiful thing about that sanctuary was that, they didn’t do it for the money, they wanted people to understand and value the animals.

But when the horse looked into her eyes, something changed inside of her. It felt as if the horse knew her battle. It was an indescribable moment, she was lost for words.

“Shall we go for a little ride?” Cia proposed and then Cillian winked at his wife.

Yael looked at every single person around with panic written all over her face.

“I tell all the couples that this is the test of fire, if they can ride together, they can live together.” Val encouraged them.

“The look on her face is screaming she’s scared he will throw her.” Cia joked.

“I’ve never been on a horse, and he’s usually making jokes and pranks…” Yael tried to explain.

Cillian faked indignation. “I’d never do such a thing.”

Val and Cia laughed, every single man who said that, did exactly the opposite to his wife.

“Don’t worry, you can ride with us, Cillian can ride by himself.” That seemed to calm Yael, because she accepted the boots Cia offered.

But it wasn’t just like that, let’s go and ride, boom, you’re on the horse, no… they spent a good amount of time showing Yael how to get on the horse, she had a good pliability by her years practicing ballet, but taking the impulse and swing your leg to then land carefully on top of the horse was a completely different task. And she failed several times on the saddle they set up to practice, but she got the chance to learn to control her body as well.

“Alright, keep your back straight,” Cia instructed Yael once she was on the horse, she could tell Cillian’s wife was so tense by her posture, “relax, it can feel a bit weird at first, let the horse guide you.” Cia was sitting behind Yael, holding the reins while she was holding onto the hom tightly.

“Ready?” Asked Val, she would guide Harrison by foot, to help Yael feel more comfortable with the ride.

“Are you sure he’s not going to run?”

“Harrison is very good, he’s such a gentleman and you’ve got Cia to control the pace and moves, don’t worry I’ll guide him slowly too.”

“Baby, you’ll feel a little pull at first.” Cillian warned Yael from his own horse, he was past that initial scary moment now, but he knew it was all new to her.

“Oh my freaking God!” She expressed in a panicked tone as the horse started to move. “Why didn’t you invite Evan to do this?” Yael closed her eyes tightly.

Everyone laughed, both Cia and Val were used to reactions like this when it was someone’s first time riding, it depended on the trust and bond the person could build with the horse.

“Try to not press your legs so much.” Val pointed out.

And finally after a few seconds, Yael opened her eyes, it felt a bit strange, the position she was sitting on, the movement, the way everything looked with the back of the head of the horse so close… but when she looked to her right and found Cillian smiling at her riding close, there were no words. She knew she would do it all over again.

“Eyes on the road please, you’re making me nervous.” She admitted loud enough for him to listen.

But this time, Yael laughed with them, she had started to feel comfortable enough to caress the horse’s hair and neck -trying not to lean too far-, but she was past the shock now, Cia even showed her how to take the reins, giving Yael instructions on how to make the horse take a left and then a right, showing that she was in total control.

“Oh wow, the stable looks so tiny from here.” Yael stated, looking how far they had moved.

“Do you wanna go back now?” Cillian asked, stopping his horse right in front of the other.

She nodded and they started to ride back, Val had to go back earlier to attend other customers. The view was absolutely breathtaking… as they got down from the horses, Cia suggested them go to the picnic table a few meters away from them. She gave the couple a look as they walked away, hoping the details Cillian requested would work, perhaps she should propose the romantic idea to the owners.

Reaching the picnic table under the tree, Yael gasped surprised as she saw everything; the table set for two, lemonade, tea, a pie, a basket with fresh fruits… she was touched by his gesture, her heart could explode from all the love she felt for him.

“This is beautiful, thank you.” She brushed her lips against his.

Cillian sighed relieved that she liked his plans.

“Had to compensate for the scary moment of riding a horse.” He chuckled.

She offered him a bite of one of the sandwiches and Cillian took it, looking right into her eyes, a soft smile decorating his lips. Taking a sip of his lemonade, Yael brushed a small leave from his hair, a lot of things were on her mind, but right there, looking at Cillian with the sun kissing his skin, the wind moving his hair, he was all she could focus on.

They enjoyed the food, it had been a long day and they would be staying close for the rest of the weekend, more riding lessons waiting for them. He needed to get into the mindset of his character and riding a horse was a fundamental part of Tommy Shelby.

“I’ve been thinking on what Val said earlier… about riding together.”

That caught Cillian’s attention, he fixed his eyes on her.

Taking a deep breath, Yael took his hand, looking for comfort, trying to ease her nerves by his touch. “I’d like to go for a ride… with you.”

Cillian was taken by surprise, the last bite of his sandwich stuffed into his mouth, but he was on his feet in seconds, taking a couple of cookies in his hand he offered his free one to his wife.

“Let’s go before you change your mind.” He celebrated pulling her excitedly, she laughed because of his eagerness.

Moments later, they were riding a beautiful dark chocolate horse named Brownie, but Cillian took her on another route, enjoying the calmness, riding together, he sitting behind Yael, his arms around her waist taking the reins, her body pressed gently against his chest, now knowing what to expect from the movement of the horse, trusting Cillian totally to take her wherever he wanted to.

She didn’t know how long they have been riding, but it surely helped her to clear her mind and heart, without realizing soon they reached the beach and the atmosphere changed completely as the sun was starting to go down,reflecting beautifully against the sea gifting them a breathtaking sunset.

One of his hands sneaked around, to wrap around her stomach, his thumb running small circles over her sweater, Yael bit her lower lip lightly thinking of this beautiful moment with her husband, of how much she had learned of herself in the last hours about horses, about riding, about trust.

“I want to try, Cill either way… IVF or adoption, whatever it is, as long as I have you by my side.” She didn’t have anymore doubts left, everything he did for her that day had been cathartic.

Slowly, she turned her head around to look at him, finding so much love in his eyes, she saw him nodding, now that she said it out loud it felt easier, lighter.

“Thank you for today, thank you for this beautiful date.”

Cillian brought up the hand that was holding her to cup her cheek, leaning his head forward, he captured her lips in a tender kiss. The sun lighting her features, making her glow.

He would take her on a hundred more dates.

****

Next part

A/N: Thank you for reading ☺️✨💐 I loved writing this part so much, I wanted them to have a moment of peace, romance, you already know it, your thoughts help me keep going and it’s the best payment I could get ✨

I read somewhere Cillian took a friend to do snowboarding while preparing for his role in Inception, I took inspiration from there too

Tag list: @lyarr24 @runnning-outof-time @cillmequick @gypsy-girl-08 @datewithgianni @cloudofdisney @lespendy @onlydeadcells @fastfan @winchestergirl22 @stevie75 @prettylittlehoneyeyesxoxo @esposadomd @strayrockette @forbidden-forest-witch @elenavampire21 @forgottenpeakywriter @peakyscillian @moral-terpitude @babaohhhriley @queenshelby @heidimoreton @ange-thoughts @shelbydelrey @shaddixlife @sloanexx @cilliansangel @rangerelik @already-broken144 @alessioayla @paprikabadger @dolllol2405 @conversationpits @itsilvermorny @lafell @imichelle-l-rigby @yrli8 @cutecurly-hair @mrkdvidal1989 @hyperfixationsonshuffle

#That’s what Cill said #cillian murphy #tommy shelby #cillian murphy imagine #cillian murphy fan fiction #cillian murphy x tommy shelby #modern tommy shelby imagine #cillianMurphy #cillian murphy x oc

[moral-terpitude]

oh, and my love • did mistake you for a sign from God • or are you really here to cut me off • or maybe just to turn me on • ‘cause these days • I would be lying if I told you that • I didn't wish that I could be your man • or maybe make a good girl bad

sleep token, the summoning

Misadaventures Moodboard #not sure how many

#tommy shelby #peaky blinders #quinn meyer #misadventures #tommy shelby fanfic #peaky blinders fanfic #fanfic #modern day au #modern thomas shelby #modern tommy shelby #modern Tommy Shelby X oc

[strayrockette]

I’ve got an itch to write a short story about a modern girl in peaky blinders. I don’t see many fics with this genre and I’m wondering if I should even bother. Anyone got any thoughts about it? 

Update: I just posted an intro for the story. If anyone is interested in checking it out!

Give Me Peace Over War. 

#peaky blinders #peaky fucking blinders #thomas shelby #peaky blinder fanfic #peaky blinder imagine #peaky blinders headcanon #thomas shelby imagine #modern girl in peaky blinders #thomas shelby x oc #shelby family x oc #tommy shelby headcanon #tommy shelby imagine #tommy shelby fanfic #tommy shelby x y/n #tommy shelby x you

[justrainandcoffee]

Like roses and bread – Masterlist

An illegal poker online. One lucky night and 10 million pounds in his pocket.

A perfect combo. But not if now he has that amount of money that he can't explain legally how he got it.

Easy if he now needs to make it disappear. All he needs is: his girlfriend and his ex.

Not so easy if behind him, a sly detective is following his steps. Someone it's not happy and hired detective Changretta to expose Alfie Solomons.

Three minds vs one . Maybe doesn't sound fair, but definitely it is.

Part 1.

#alfie solomons #peaky blinders #alfie solomons x ofc #alfie solomons x oc #alfie x rose #alfie x tommy #tommy shelby #modern au #luca changretta #luca changretta x oc #masterlist

[sneakyblinders]

Superstition pt ii modern!tommy shelby x ofc

A/N: pt 2 of superstition! tommy x amandine, a new ofc! set in Louisiana in modern day. read pt i here. listen to the ambiance here. warnings: sexual themes, violence, superstition, not canon, weapons, war.

Amandine watched as Tommy pulled his clothes on. Jeans, t-shirt, holster over his shoulders, gun loaded. He pushed his rings on his fingers, his signet ring and a ring she had bought him years ago. She was surprised he still wore it. He clasped a chain around his neck, one from his brother, Arthur. He sprayed his cologne on and turned around, blue eyes beaming at her. He felt more human today. 

“Ready?” she asked, already hot in her sundress. 

“If you are,” he said, walking out to the living room, ceiling fan chugging away at the already oppressive heat. 

The drive to Amadine’s parents house was quiet. They lived about twenty minutes from them, closer to the center of the small city they lived closest to. They pulled up to the old house, which always made Tommy seethe. It screamed old money. White brick, four white pillars holding up the second story balcony with the biggest porch on a house he’d ever seen. Rocking chairs on the porch, rocking gently in the breeze, air circulating well thanks to a ceiling fan that whirred on the ceiling of the first floor. 

They could smell the food from the driveway– the smoked boudin and collards, the peach pie–from the front porch. 

“Della, I think someone’s here to see you,” Roseanne Theiriot said, dark eyes serious as she met Tommy’s eyes through the screen door. 

Amandine and Tommy heard little footsteps running down the tile floors, stopping short when she saw her daddy. “Daddy?” she whispered. 

Tommy knelt down. “It’s me, baby,” he said. 

She smiled, running to him, crashing against his chest. Tommy wrapped his arms around his little girl. This little girl who he’d only seen pictures of–only ever heard her voice over a fuzzy phone call. 

Amandine had gotten pregnant right before he’d enlisted in the service and gotten sent to the sandbox. He’d been away at war ever since–a topic that Amandine and Tommy fought over often. He had the opportunity to come home on leave but never took it–always choosing to stay with his men. 

“This is really him?” Della asked, looking up at Amandine. 

Amandine’s emotion caught in her throat. “Yes, sweetheart. This is your daddy,” she said, nodding. 

“Thomas, I need to speak to you,” Roseanne said in that eerily quiet voice of hers. Gus, Amandine’s father and Roseanne’s husband walked down the hallway, and after seeing Tommy, groaned. 

“Ah, fuck,” Gus groaned.

“Good to see you too, Gus,” Tommy said, standing up, Della clutching Tommy’s legs. 

“Della, baby, Grandmere needs to talk to your daddy for a minute, okay? I’ll bring him right back,” Roseanne said, talking to her grandchild in a voice she only reserved for her. 

Roseanne Theiriot was a force to be reckoned with, and one of the few people Tommy feared. Her hair was black, dark eyes, an olive skin tone. She always wore flowy dresses that billowed in the wind. Many people who did not understand this life, this culture, would refer to her as a witch, a fortune teller, a necromancer, a palm reader. The mystical power that was Roseanne Theiriot scared many, and enchanted all others. 

The Theiriots and the Decourdreaux’s, Roseanne’s family, had been in Louisiana for generations. The land Gustav and Roseanne owned belonged to Gustav’s family going back to the 1800’s. Roseanne was raised in New Orleans. Her mother, and her mothers mother, and all the mothers before them, had been cursed with the gift of the spirits. Gifts going back to their Creole and Indigenous American roots from before Louisiana was even a state. They made their money telling fortunes and reading palms in Jackson Square. It’s how she met Gus, actually. 

Gustav’s family roots traced back to the original Acadians, French immigrants pushed out of Nova Scotia in the late 1700’s. Amandine, and as a result, Delphina, affectionately nicknamed Della, had strong Louisiana roots that tied them to this land. This culture. 

The Shelby’s had settled in Louisiana sometime around the 1930’s during the Great Depression, forsaking their traveler ways, but never forsaking the superstitions and beliefs that they so deeply to their core. The Gypsy beliefs that mimicked the beliefs of the Theiriots. 

Roseanne pulled Tommy to the sitting room, where she shut the French doors. He pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it, knowing it would bother her. “I knew you were coming, Thomas,” she said in a calm voice. “The waters were disturbed before you came back.” 

Tommy tried to remain unphased, although being alone with Roseanne always sent chills up and down his spine. “Is that right?” 

“I know what you did in Iraq,” Roseanne said, walking closer to him, her dark eyes boring holes into his soul. “Who is Grace?” 

Images of her flashed through Tommy’s mind. Her on top of him, her lips on his skin. Sinking into her. Then her gun to his temple, nearly pulling the trigger before his men stormed the barracks, aware of the mole. The rat. 

“No one,” he said simply, eyes meeting Roseanne’s. 

“You should know better than to lie, Thomas,” Roseanne warned, jaw clenched. “The curse,” she shook her head slightly, her turquoise jewelry rattling. 

“I haven’t betrayed Amandine in any way that she hasn’t betrayed me,” he said plainly. 

Roseanne slapped Tommy across his cheek, a stinging pain shooting through him. “Don’t speak of my daughter, and the mother of your child in that way,” she seethed. “She has taken care of all your filthy business and ran it through her own business as a damn cover operation, evading arrest multiple times all to continue the filth you started, just so you would come home to her.” 

“She did it for the same reason I came back to this shithole,” Tommy argued. “She did it because she doesn’t want to live the rest of her days with the mark of Cain, and a curse to rival hell’s fury,” Tommy exhaled, annoyed already. “I have a child I need to introduce myself to, so if you don’t mind, I’ll be seeing myself out. We won’t be staying for lunch,” Tommy said, forcing himself past her and out the doors. 

Amandine found herself back at Marie’s the next night–the restaurant she had opened the year she fell pregnant with Della. Tommy and Della were alone together for the first time. He had decided to take her to a movie and out for pizza. 

Sweat ran down Amandine’s back as she grilled off steaks and asparagus, before one of her waiters came asking for her. “Somebody here to see you, Ma’am,” the young waiter, no older than seventeen said. 

“Who?” she asked, unbothered by him and far more concerned with the char on her New York Strips. The muscles in her back flexed, reminding her of the gun she had tucked in the waistband of her checked pants. 

“Uh, Vincent, ma’am,” he said uncomfortably. 

“Alright, I’ll be out as soon as I get this ticket done.” 

Vincent Camponi was a farmer and fisherman who Amandine bought her produce and shrimp off of for the restaurant. They’d fumbled into each other one night at a bar. One thing led to another, and they couldn’t keep their hands, or mouths, off each other ever since. 

“Hey, baby,” he drawled, his thick Louisiana accent making Amandine’s stomach flip. 

“Vin,” she began, putting her hands on his chest to avoid his kisses. “Vin, Tommy’s back. I–I can’t do this.” 

Vincent’s eyes became dark, the often playful look that was in them disappearing completely. “After the hell he’s put you through? After all the neglect? What did he do to deserve you, Dine?” 

His lips were dangerously close to hers. So close. “Not a damn thing,” she breathed before their lips crashed together. 

That night, Amandine tried her best to sneak home, but Tommy was up, whiskey in his hand, gun on the coffee table. Della was asleep in the recliner, curled under her favorite blanket. 

“Where the hell have you been?” Tommy asked, eyes heavy with fatigue. 

“Working,” she said. 

He checked his watch. “Restaurant closed damn near three hours ago,” he said. 

“Lots of dishes,” she said, the lie rolling off her tongue easily. 

Tommy stood up, stalking towards her. “Are you trying to ruin our lives? To ruin our daughter's life?” 

“What are you talking about, Tom?” Amandine sneered, trying to push past him. 

“I can smell his cologne on you,” Tommy seethed, backing her against the wall. “You’re the one who made your mama cast that damn spell,” he pinned her hands above her head, against the wall, his hips crushing against hers. “And you’re gonna keep the end of the damn bargain, woman,” he sneered. 

“You wanted that spell as much as I did,” she countered, wiggling her hips against his. Talks of curses and spells be damned, he had a spell on her. On her body. How she craved him. How she needed him. 

“What an idiot I was,” he chuckled to himself. 

“Do you love me, Thomas?” she asked, emotion cracking through her voice. 

He shook his head, in disbelief of himself, of his life. “With all I fucking am,” he breathed before crashing his lips to hers. 

After Tommy rolled off her for the last time that night, collapsing into exhaustion and blissed out sleep, Amandine had some time to think. Reflect. On this life. This confusing as hell love she and Tommy shared. 

They’d met in high school, what seemed like eons ago now. They’d fallen head over heels in love with one another–lost their virginities to one another, shared hopes and dreams, slept out under the stars in the canals, the swamps, together in his pirogue. They’d graduated a year apart, buying their house the day after Amandine graduated. 

Tommy had gotten mixed up in the wrong crowds that first year out of high school, a result of Arthur’s dealings and out of a necessity for money. The drugs had begun flowing freely when they began working as protection detail for big time dealers. And the money followed. 

Amandine had proven her talent in kitchens time after time. And before he went away to war, he had bought her Marie’s–a restaurant named for her Grandmere, who taught her everything she knew about the kitchen. He had bought it for her under the condition that she would use it as a cover business to funnel his drugs through. He, Arthur and John had managed to make their own name in the business, also continuing to illegally produce their own alcohol. A form of moonshine, outlawed in the States for decades. She had reluctantly agreed. 

Before Tommy went away to war, the couple, still desperately in love, bound themselves together spiritually. Roseanne cast a spell over the two of them, binding them together in love and devotion, with the warning that if their love was ever broken, calamity would befall them and all their children for the rest of their days. 

The scars on their palms were from where they had bound themselves together with blood. Bodies and souls–forever bound. 

Despite their awkward reunion, their wayward hearts and confused minds–Amandine knew she and Tommy would always come back together. The love they had ran deeply. 

Deeper than most understood.

#tommy shelby #tommy shelby x ofc #tommy shelby x amandine #tommy shelby x oc #thomas shelby x oc #thomas shelby x ofc #thomas shelby #peakywomen #peaky fookin blinders #peaky blinder fanfic #peaky blinder imagine #sneakyblinders #louisiana au #modern!tommyshelby x ofc #modern!tommy shelby

[evita-shelby]

Caption This!

#thomas shelby #cillian murphy #modern!tommy shelby #eva smith shelby #tommy shelby x oc #evacore #caption this #incorrect quotes #golden girls

[pacifymebby]

t r o u b l e // Chapter Nine

A peaky blinders modern au balletcore story

Chapter List

Sonya

I felt like such a child fleeing from them like that but I couldn't stand to be in that room, having Tommy look at me with such disgust, such judgement the way that he was. I could feel the blame he placed on me then, as if he thought that the hit on Michael could be a direct result of something I'd told Freddie. But if Tommy had bothered to ask he'd know I hadn't told Freddie a thing about my family. That I'd been doing all I could to forget about my brothers whilst it seemed they had forgotten about me.

I burst through the study doors making the two lads who were loitering just outside jump with a start. I couldn't bare to look at them but I did because they'd startled me too and Id frozen like a rabbit in the headlights, my eyes full of tears, my view of them blurred. I covered my mouth with the back of my hand trying to stifle a sob, gasping with the hurt I couldn't contain, so humilated to have them witness my frankly tragic display. But I couldnt help it, I'd always been that kind of girl. The fragile one, the kind if girl who couldn't control her wild emotions, the kind of girl who's emotions controlled her.

I was shaking as I raised my other hand to my mouth, clutching the hand which already smothered my sobs, holding onto it tightly desperately.

For a second the three of us stood frozen, Isaiah watching me with a kind of familiarity, a pity in his eyes as they rested on my distraught flush. The glowing pain in my dark eyes as they darted between him and Bonnie. Bonnie watching me too, his expression hard to read, tranquil as ever and yet, the slightest tug on his brow, his eyes sorry too, something which looked like concern gathering like a shadow in his greenish eyes.

I stood there, frozen, chest rising and falling eratic and ragged. And then just like that I was gone. Like a doe fleeing the road. And fleeing was exactly what I was doing.

I ran down the hallway, feet light and quick on the stairs as I fled to the only place I thought I stood a chance and peace. The only place I really knew how to get to in that big house which my brothers kept calling home but which felt far from it to me.

I darted down through the door at the bottom of the stairs, under an archway and across a smaller room, the marble floor cool through my socks as I ran, barely skimming the floor. So light on my feet. Unaware that I was being followed because the lad ib pursuit was just as nimble as me.

When I slipped through that little door into the damp little tunnel which led out into the meadow, far across the grounds of the Shelby Mannor, I felt the damp from the cold stone floor soaking into my socks, felt the strange weight of the water soaking into the thick fluff. But I didnt care about the water, didn't care if I was ruining Sylvie's socks because my heart was pounding and aching in my chest and my mind was shaken with sorrow. With the hurt of those awful things Tommy had said to me.

Why the fucks he with you eh? What other reason could he have for getting so close to you?

Tommys cruel words played over and over in my head and every time I remembered the vitriol with which he'd slung them across the room at me another choked sob wracked through my body. By the time I reached the meadow and the lake I was breathless and I could barely manage to carry myself to the waters edge before I crumbled and collapsed in the grass, holding myself, legs in a w on the ground like a little girl, arms wrapped around my body, holding my shoulders as I bowed my head and sobbed my heart out on the floor. The tears relentless, my crying disturbing the peace and quiet. So dramatic, my grief ricochetting off the trunks of near by trees and bouncing back to me like a mirror.

I didn't realise I was breaking more than my own heart. That someone was watching me and the sight of me like that, so distraught, was making them think they might start crying too. At least I didn't until they sat themsleves down beside me in the grass, reached out carefully for one of my hands and let their fingers brush delicately over my trembling fingers.

"Y'know lass if you keep this up you're gonna have me cryin an all," said Bonnie softly, his eyes soft but still aglow with that teasing humour, his smile small but still cheeky as he withdrew his hand from mine. The gesture had only been intended to get my attention but as he sat back up and pulled away from me his eyes lingered on my fingertips and then on my sorry expression.

"Tommy make you follow me?" I sniffled wiping at my eyes with the palm of my hands, trying to hide myself behind them so that he couldn't see the mess I'd made of myself. I wasn't a pretty crier, my eyes went red too quickly, swollen and sore looking, my whole expression puffy and childish when the waterworks turned on.

"Nah lass," he said with half a lass, looking up and away from me then with that lingering amused half smile on his open mouth.

"Thats not true," I said still sniffling, wincing at the pain of trying to swallow down a more violent sob. Every now and then one snook up on me like a hiccup sharp and sudden so that it stung my throat and left me feeling bruised. "Tommys got you spying on me or somethin now right... Youre not allowed let me out your sight or something I don't know..." I trailed off, cut off ultimately by another embarrassing sob. But Bonnie only frowned, he seemed to be thinking carefully about what he said, seemed much more pensive than he had when we had first met earlier that morning.

"Its true that he asked me to protect you.." he said smirking at me and rolling his eyes as if me and him were in on some joke I'd forgotten, his smile almost drawing one from me. "But it ain't true thats the reason I followed you out here..."

Perhaps if I hadn't been feeling so sorry for myself I'd have matched his smirk with one of my own. As it happened however I just kept sniffling and sobbing, trying to catch my breath and hold it together, completely unable to control my emotions and my tears.

"Then why did you?" I asked a little confused as to why he was sitting down in the grass opposite me, one knee bent, his arms crossed over it as he watched me in all my heartbroken tradgedy.

"Cause," he shrugged, "You're cryin your eyes out lass, didn't want you contaminating me lake with all that salt water... S'bad for the ecosystem see.." he said with another smirk, his eyes sparkling with that gentle teasing. His smile growing with his confidence when I couldn't help but smile at his little joke, biting back a sob which shook my spine, blushing through the smile I tried to hide.

"Hmm," he said stroking his chin as he pretended to study me, "thats a small improvement but I'm still worried about them tears yknow..." he said with a little chuckle when I bit back a giggle that mixed with my crying and left me uncertain as to why exactly I was shaking.

"Sorry," I said then, trying to force a wider smile, remembering who I was, remembering that Shelby girls didn't reveal themselves like this, didn't let strangers know them to be vulnerable the way I was doing just then.

"Don't say sorry to me lass, its the Cattails you should be worryin about," he said still grinning, still trying to encourage a smile from me too as he shifted where he sat and wrapped his arms around his knees. He was watching me. Even when we fell into silence, just me sniffling and wiping at my tears, him sitting still and quiet, he carried on so that I felt studied, my skin prickling under his gaze. Struggling to ignore him.

"Why'd they all call yous Fen?" he asked after a minute or two of not quite awkward silence.

"What?" I frowned uncertain as to why he was trying to make conversation with me, why he was asking a thing like that instead of asking me what was wrong or why I insisted on being such an unpleasant snob around him. He had no reason to smile at me or talk to me this way, I'd given him no reason at all to be nice.

"The both of yous like, ain't it weird to be called the same thing like that?"

"Well I don't know they just always have since we were little like... Well not always I guess," I said pressing the ball of my palms to my eye sockets trying to gather the last of my tears though I knew they weren't really going to be the last.

"Must be funny being twins an havin to share everythin right down to your own name..."

"We don't share everything," I lied knowing he was almost right, since we were young we'd always shared most things, our clothes getting confused in the wash, our bed when we were still poor and living on watery lane, our dream of becoming a ballet dancer, so many rolls throughout school because the director enjoyed being able to swap us in and out from scene to scene. Enjoyed not having to worry that the understudy would change the aesthetic of their vision.

"Don't do that to your eyes darlin," he said then, reaching forward to me, taking my wrist in his hand and tugging it gently from my eye. If I'd put up a fight, even just a small protest, I was sure he'd have let go and left me to it. But I didn't because I knew he was right. "Just makes em more swollen, you need some cold water on em, draw the red out... I mean don't get me wrong, you don't need to do anythin," he said speaking quieter then, his own cheeks a pale shade of pink as he averted his gaze, chewed his cheek, all the arrogance I thought I'd recognised in him, all those Blinder traits vanished when he suddenly receded and mumbled, "y'still look dead pretty either way..."

I didn't know what to say to him then, my own smile kind of shy, kind of awkward as a blush blossomed on my cheeks too. This time when I sniffled I was smiling through the tears and I felt a little less like I was sitting stranded in the Birmingham countryside completely on my own.

"Its cause we got lost in the fens when we were little girls," I said, "we were still travelling then... y'know before our mam died... Think John was meant to be lookin after us and he lost us,"

"In the Fens?" Bonnies eyes lit up, his smile tickling his features, making me smile too. He'd probably been down that way many times before with his own family, probably knew those grassy marshes, the endless expanse of flat dry ground in the summer, so suddenly rich and dense, swampy with the first fall of rain, all the little becks and drainage streams trailing off into the wash. As a little girl those fields of long grass, with all its little creatures, all those miles to explore, had been such an adventure. Bonnie probably had similar memories. For all that shit I'd thrown at Tommy he was right, me and Bonnie would have lived similar lives up to the point of my mothers suicide.

"I don't remember it," I said, "but me an Fen didn't know we were lost, we were having a lovely time playin in the marshes," I said letting out another little laugh which Bonnie echoed. He held his shins with his hands as he leant in to listen to me and I realised that we both must have looked like to children sitting there in the grass. "By the time they found us again we were soaked to the bone and freezin, covered in mud and bits of pond weed stuff, came down with a nasty fever a few days later, mam was livid, I think John got into a lot of trouble for it..."

He grinned, chuckling away, telling me he remembered getting into similar trouble when he was a wain.

"Don't really remember me mam, but I remember the trouble me sisters used to get for letting me off on me own when we were out to play," and then as if a distant memory, one he'd almost forgotten, had just washed over him like a wave he laughed, his grin lingering as he looked up at the sky and then into the distance somewhere over my shoulder. "There was this one time actually, we were travelling along down the east coast of scotland, they let me off on me own at the beach, you know one of those lovelyns where the forest comes right down to the tide line... They let me off on me ones and I built a raft, tied all these bits of drift wood and branches together with kite string and then tried sailing it... I was half way out to see before anyone realised what I'd done and me dad had to swim out to get me cause.." he trailed off, his own amusement overtaking him for a moment, his eyes really bright when he laughed, "cause I couldn't fuckin swim," he said sniggering into his sleeve, his laugh making me laugh too, just as shyly, hiding my smile in the crook of my elbow as I tried to hide away. It felt strange that he could have changed my demenour so quickly, i didnt like that I appeared so easily moved then.

"Think my mam would have killed our John if me an Sylvie had ever done something like that," I said with a lingering smile trying to imagine him as a little boy, sailing out to sea. Bonnie just chuckled, this fond little smile lingering on his lips when he shrugged his shoulders.

"Aye," he smirked, "think she probably did half kill our Esme for it," he said, "fuckin stupid kid though I was, bet yous two never did anythin that daft..." he was blushing again, only slight, his eyes taking on that dark, pensive shadow again when he met my gaze. I was blushing too, I didn't know what to say to him. But the longer we lingered in that comfortable quiet, those small smiles on our lips, the worse I felt for the hostility I'd shown him all day. Because it wasn't him I'd been wanting to hurt with all my vitriol and childish remarks. It had been my brother. Probably everyone knew that except Bonnie.

"You know you don't have to stay out here waitin on me," I said quietly, picking at pieces of grass, snapping the thin green stems, looking down at my feet, "I know Tommys got you followin me round like I need babysittin an all but I'm fine out here on my own..." I said awkwardly.

Still Bonnie just leant back in the grass on his elbows, legs stretched out in front of him as he relaxed, laidback grin, his eyes scanning the sky, one dark curl falling across his forehead. He really did look out of place then in his jeans and that bright blue adidas jacket, the polo tshirt he wore tucked into his waistband a little baggy, a little too 80s to be hanging round the grounds of a country estate with a forlorn ballerina in her white tights and her sisters slipper socks.

"Don't take this the wrong way darlin but, you're still cryin... Don't really seem fine on your own to me..."

"Didn't my big brother warn you, I'm always crying," I said sulkily, making him chuckle with my pouted lip and still teary eyes, my lashes lined with tears that were waiting to fall.

"That true?" he asked still smiling, still looking at me from under his lashes like he already knew me. Like he wanted to know me better.

I bit back a shy little smirk.

"Uhuh... I know," i rolled my eyes, a little melodramatic, "I'm a real cliche..." but Bonnie just smirked and shook his head.

"Well thats the saddest thing I ever heard," he said with a small shrug, his eyes flickering over me again, meeting mine and holding my gaze until I couldn't hold his anymore, averting my eyes to my hands, wiping another tear on the back of my hands.

"Its not that sad," I said with a self concious shrug, receding into myself and away from him. I couldn't tell if he was flirting with me or not. It didn't feel like I was being charmed, didn't feel like he was using well practiced moves and lines to chip away at me. He wasn't exactly like any of the lads I was used to, the actors I'd gone to school with. Those competitive boys with famous surnames, old money parents who'd taught them exactly what to say and to who and when.

Everything Bonnie had said and done so far that morning had seemed so natural, a little clumsy a little shy, but natural. I didn't feel like he was acting, didn't feel like I needed to put on an act for him.

And yet I knew that this was exactly what made me the weak link in the family, the least Shelby of us all. It had hurt to hear Tommy say it outloud, for him to call me naive in front of Sylvie, within earshot of Bonnie and Isaiah, but it had hurt because it was true. Bonnie was proving that to me now because all he'd done was follow me outside, show me a little smile when I was crying, and there I was opening slowly like a shy flower in the evening sun. A little slither of dusk and I was looking at him with my most honest eyes.

"Its not sad," I said it again, sucking my cheek in and then cracking a self aware half smile, "If you cry over nothing and everything all the time no one can ever really tell when you're genuinely upset, maybe I'm just leaning into drama..."

"Yeah? What about now, are you leanin into drama or is this just now, genuine?"

I bit my lip, a little caught out because I'd been expecting my words to wash water off a ducks back the way that kind of talk usually did. Usually people rolled their eyes, called me aloof behind my back, told me I was 'mysterious' to my face. But Bonnie, despite his teasing smile, seemed to want a real answer. So I gave him one.

"I'm fine Bonnie Gold," I said my eyes meeting his, his name foreign on my tongue as my lips curved around the syllables for the first time, "Its just my brother see, I don't know if you know this about him but..." I trailed off, forcing a smile, one which probably looked far more sorry than it was supposed to when tears still gleamed in my eyes, "but he's a little bit of a cunt..."

He laughed then, a real laugh. I'd shocked him with my harsh words and he was, for a second, speechless.

His grin lingered as he looked away and when he looked back at me he was still laughing so that the longer it went on, his beaming smile poking dimples in his rosy cheeks, the more self concious I became, feeling my own cheeks heat up. An awkward smile on my lips.

"What?"

"Nothing, its nothing," he chuckled settling down though the grin still lingered and when he looked me up and down I got the feeling he was still trying to work me out. "Just don't sound right thats all, you sayin a word like that with your pretty little accent..."

My smile grew, awkward and shy. His green eyes still watched me but I couldn't bring myself to hold his gaze for very long.

"I don't have a pretty little accent," I frowned, "are you callin me a fuckin toff?" I narrowed my eyes at him, suddenly so aware of my annunciation. Cheeks burning, temper prickling though I couldn't wipe the smile off my face.

"Nah," he chuckled, "certainly don't sound like your brothers though do you lass..." he said giggling somewhat pleased with himself when my frown etched deeper into my brow and he realised that his teasing was really winding me up. "See if you don't wanna be around that cunt of a brother today..." he started, running his hand through his messy curls, turning away from me to look out at the grounds, "you could come to my place yknow, lay low stay out the way whilst they uh... Hash it all out?"

I chewed my cheek, looking at him a little uncertain. Tommy trusted him so I could trust him. And he was right, I didn't want to see my cunt of a brother again, not just for the rest of the day but for the rest of the week if at all possible.

"And why would you want to invite someone like me back to your place?" I asked still picking at grass stems, remebering again all those disparaging things I'd said about travellers to Tommy in front of Bonnie.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Well what about all that shit I said earlier for a start..." i chewed my cheek looking guilty.

"Ohhh" he breathed pursing his lips together holding back his smile for a moment, "right yeah that... For a start lass you're pretty transparent and I know you didn't really mean any of em..." he said tilting his head looking at me from under dark lashes, his eyes dark and marbled and still so understanding, and then he smirked and shrugged his shoulders, "and for seconds, this just gives you more time to say you're sorry."

And with that he jumped up and held his hand out to help me, the wink he shot me leaving me speechless and burning with a blush.

#Trouble #peaky blinders imagines #Bonnie gold #Tommy shelby sister! #tommy shelby modern au #peaky blinders modern au #peaky blinders fanfiction #peaky blinders imagine #Alfie Solomons modern au #peaky blinders x sister!reader #peaky blinders x oc