a song of foxes and flowers ( peaky blinders )

fatigue and films

notes : no warnings :) sorry this took me so long :// no excuse just lacked direction , but now i got it lol

In this town, they were Timmy and Alfred, not Alice and Lily. They were two street urchins, not two children directly tied to organized crime. They were here to eat, rest, and bathe before continuing their journey closer to Oxford. That was the task.

Only two days after the incident in Oswald's pub, the small trio found themselves in a mid-sized town going by completely different names. Stag had given them a small amount of money to pick up a meal for themselves while he gathered information from the pub.

Alice hypothesized he actually just needed a break from the two children, but couldn't be arsed to really feel bad about it. She was just as irritated with him as he was with them.

He didn't sugarcoat anything. Ever. Especially when she needed it. When he woke to the two girls firing a gun into a flower field, he literally encouraged it (in his own gruff, grumpy sort of way) but then told them to "stop fucking wasting bullets on the grass, save it for the Communists and the Irish Republicans." She had no idea if that was a joke or not.

That made Alice was just fine with Stag leaving them alone for a bit. Besides, she wasn't worried about being hurt - the gun tucked into her waistband made her feel more secure than when she started this journey (against her will).

The heavy, elderly reaction, however, was her biggest problem. It hadn't left her mind and body since Oswald's Pub, exhausting her in a way that made her relate to Tommy more than she ever had before. She had hoped she could climb back from the trenches, and be the Alice she was once before - but it didn't seem possible. Could she really fall back into her place as the protected, sheltered Shelby girl after being directly forced into the ugly world?

Would that hurt the family, she wondered? A girl would eventually find her way home, surely, but it wouldn't be the same little Alice they once had. That little girl was still stuck in Oswald's pub.

Lily was talking to the baker, buying a big bag of treats instead of the dinner they were supposed to be getting. Alice stood, several feet away, staring down at the glass display of intricate cakes and pastries. The colors reminded her of the flower field. A little slice of beauty.

Finn would be so jealous of this.

The two left quickly after, Alice remaining mute for a good minute as they strolled down an unfamiliar street without navigation. When she felt like this, she lacked the words to speak. Nothing came to mind, only glimpses of topics to bring up. Their location, for example. Unlike Birmingham, the smaller town still had green in between the buildings and the cobbled streets.

"We were supposed to get supper." Alice muttered after the thought made it's way through her sluggish mind, eyes catching on the wedding dresses as they passed the bridal store. Ada loved to admire them back home.

"I know. But hell, Shelby, we might be dead soon, so fuck it." Lily offered her a red lollipop. Alice took it without hesitation. Lily had come out of her shell more and more since they murdered a man together, and now she hardly shut up. Alice didn't know how to feel about any of it.

"You really think that?" She spoke with the candy in her mouth. It tasted like pure sugar, the kind you're not supposed to eat until after supper.

"Yeah."

"You don't think we'll get home?"

"Not really." Lily shrugged at that, like it wasn't a big deal. Like she was already dead.