Nicotine // [michael gray / peaky blinders]

One

I've known the Shelby family my whole life. I've known them so long that some people still aren't sure if I'm related to them or not, because of how close our families are—were. It probably doesn't help that more than once, I've said that my last name was Shelby so I could get people to do things for me.

My oldest brother, Charlie, is the same age as the eldest Shelby, Arthur, and although he now lives in Wales for most of the year, at least, living his true Gypsy life, him and Arthur were inseparable before the passing of my mother, which happened after the death of my other brother, Daniel, who died in the war. My mum got caught up in the smoke, as Polly calls it, and she passed peacefully in a very drunken, tablet induced slumber.

Strangely enough, the Shelby's were the only stable thing in my life, which sounds mental to anybody who has ever met the family. Between my parents drinking, Charlie going to get lost and then come back for a couple of weeks because he misses the crime life, and me not being able to keep some jobs because of my life of accidentally being friends with the Shelby's (although I'd never tell them that, we don't need them murdering for no reason), the Shelby family has been constant for me.

"Flo, I need you to do me a favor." Thomas Shelby says, coming up to me as I walk out of my house.

"Christ, Tommy." I say, clutching my chest. "Scared the shit out of me."

"Sorry. I'm going to find Pol's son. He lives somewhere in Sheffield. He's seventeen, turning eighteen soon."

"Okay?"

"I want you to be there with me."

"And why is that?"

"Because you make me look nicer."

"Fine, but you better pay me. I'll be missing work."

"You work at the Garrison." He scoffs, putting a cigarette in his mouth and offering one to me, which I take. "Which I hate, by the way."

"Why do you hate it?" I ask, letting out a puff of smoke after a quick inhale of my cigarette, that he lit.

"Because it's dangerous. You could've been there when it exploded."

"But you made sure I wasn't."

"That is true." He says with a smile.

"So why am I going? Actually."

"Because you two are around the same age. You were friends growing up and I'd like to see if he remembers anything about you." He says and I nod.

"Fine. My mum told me about him when I was young. Michael."

"How is your mum? Contacting you in dreams still?"

"No, she's stopped that." I laugh. "I think Polly told her to fuck off." I say and he laughs.

"Sounds like something she'd be able to do." He says, stopping our walk at his car. "Let's go. I want to show you something."

-

"Who's house is this?" I ask, getting out of the car.

"Polly's. I got it for her birthday." He says and my jaw drops as he closes the car door for me. "I'm glad you like the idea. Come, I'll show you round." He says, heading towards the front door.

"It's beautiful, Tommy. I think she'll love it. I think she'll love being out of Small Heath."

"She knows that I want to get Michael back for her. This is where she can raise him, even if he'll be eighteen soon."

"Is that why you want me around him? Because we're the just about the same age and you want me to marry into the Shelby family officially?"

"You're always seventy steps ahead of me, aren't you, Florence?" He asks and I shrug.