peaky blinders imagines

from france, with love; tommy shelby

You had known Ada, and so by extension known Tommy, for the better part of fourteen years. She had persevered in school long beyond her three older brothers, far more cognizant than them to the importance of a good education. That was where you and she met, both just shy of precocious and earning very high marks in difficult courses. After learning you lived just four houses apart from one another, you'd made it a tradition to walk to school together, and you spent more time at Ada's than you did your own home, preferring its warmth and abundance of humanity.
Tommy, her middle brother, was little more than a casual acquaintance to you, greeting you kindly as you walked in the door but then slinking off to find out which of his brothers he could entice into a fist fight. He had grown to know a fair amount from you through Ada's rants, and when one of his sister's many boyfriends broke her heart in a shitty way, he was impressed to see you right there with him, mad as hell and prepared to defend Ada. He'd confessed to Ada, though she swore never to tell you because she felt you deserved better, that he'd started to notice you were very pretty when he was eighteen and you sixteen. Your spitfire personality fit well with your bright eyes, and he found himself watching you while you absentmindedly braided your hair, thinking to himself that he'd sit and braid it for you for hours if he could ever get up the courage to ask you on a date.
You were not so oblivious as the two Shelby's believed, and were at least partially aware of Tommy's affections towards you. He'd started kissing you on the cheek as a way of saying goodbye when you left his house, something he'd never done before.  Tommy had also taken to giving you small compliments fairly regularly, whether on the color of your dress or the quality of the baked goods you sometimes brought around. Your mind was almost completely absorbed with academics, and you never stopped to consider his feelings towards you were more than just aesthetic appreciation.
How depressing, Tommy had thought many a time, that the girl he loved so much for her brain was so consumed in it she didn't believe he'd have any actual interest in her. Still far too intimidated by your overwhelmingly attractive personality, he was content to watch you from the next room over, and to carefully guard the secret that on particularly lonely nights he hugged a spare pillow close and pretended it was you.
The war came abruptly, as war generally does, and so Ada's happy home, which had come to include you in a honorary sort of way was split. You were asked by both Ada and Tommy to come to the train station and see them off, and you found yourself with no position or reason to say no. It was harder than you thought, watching scores of young men board trains and knowing many of them would never come back, but when you vocalized those fears to Tommy as he stood, awaiting his turn to be called at the end of the alphabet, he scoffed. When his name was finally called, and his two brothers had gone already, he turned to you, gripped the sides of your face fairly firmly, and kissed you. You found yourself, somewhat to your surprise, kissing back, and then he was gone, hanging out the train window and waving to you with a lovesick grin on his face. All Ada could do was smirk.
You found your thoughts virtually encompassed by Tommy in the years that passed. You'd taken on a part time job at the Garrison, and still spent most of your time with Ada Shelby, listening as she confessed to missing her family dearly and being a shoulder to cry on during her worse days.
The first letter from Tommy came in the midsummer, and his sister again smirked knowingly as she acknowledged it was addressed to you and not her.
Dear y/n, it read,
It has taken me the better part of two months to work up the courage to send this letter to you, and it most likely would have taken much longer if John had not constantly bothered me about it.
I am sure that my kiss at the train station was confusing to you, and I figure now is the best time to make this confession considering I won't have to see your reaction. I love you. I have for what feels like a very long time now, but has most likely only been a year.
You are beautiful, and strong, and I find that I miss you more with each passing day. If you do not want to be with me, I will understand, but I await your response eagerly either way.
With love and hope,
Tommy
You couldn't hide your blush. Ada was delighted.
Dear Tommy,
It took you riding away like the hero you are to France for me to realize how I truly feel about you.
I love you. I most likely have for half a year now. You must have the patience of a saint to have waited for me for so long, but I promise that I will be waiting at that same train station when you return.
Love, y/n.
You exchanged letters with Tommy frequently over the next three and a half years. Speaking with words, with a disconnect between your partner in conversation, makes it far easier for secrets to spill out onto the page. You learned intimate details of the horrors in war, and it became clear how terrified Tommy was that he would be the next man to step wrongly onto a landmine and lose an arm and a leg. His worries became yours, to, as even a day's delay from the usual week it room for his letters to arrive had you assuming the worst. Every policeman walking down the street became a Royal Army official coming to give his condolences for Tommy's passing, and every loud noise you heard while in the Shelby home was Polly, collapsing with grief after receiving a letter saying your Tommy had been captured by the enemy. The day the war ended was the second best day of your life, and the day you got to see Tommy again was unequivocally the greatest.
There was a light, pleasant drizzle dropping that day, so you, Ada, Polly, and Finn huddled under a dark red awning. Polly had long since learned of your love for Tommy, and the knowing smile she threw you when you squeezed her hand a bit too tight in anticipation caused you to blush a color comparable to the fabric protecting you from the rain.
The Shelby brothers were among the first fifty to step off the train, which diligently pumped smoke into the sky as war-battered men escaped its confines, and they made a beeline to your small group. You beamed up at Tom as he approached, and as he opened his mouth to greet you, you cut him off with a firm kiss to the lips, and he immediately burst into a wild smile, gripping you by the waist and pressing himself close to you. As you broke apart, he opened his mouth to speak, but you again cut him off.
"I want to be the first one to say it."
The uncontrollable grin was back.
"I love you, Tommy Shelby."
He hugged you close again, so close you could easily feel his heart beating wildly under his shirt.
"Christ, I love you," he mumbled into your hair, and some small portion of your life was totally complete. You had known Ada, and so by extension known Tommy, for the better part of fourteen years. She had persevered in school long beyond her three older brothers, far more cognizant than them to the importance of a good education. That was where you and she met, both just shy of precocious and earning very high marks in difficult courses. After learning you lived just four houses apart from one another, you'd made it a tradition to walk to school together, and you spent more time at Ada's than you did your own home, preferring its warmth and abundance of humanity.
Tommy, her middle brother, was little more than a casual acquaintance to you, greeting you kindly as you walked in the door but then slinking off to find out which of his brothers he could entice into a fist fight. He had grown to know a fair amount from you through Ada's rants, and when one of his sister's many boyfriends broke her heart in a shitty way, he was impressed to see you right there with him, mad as hell and prepared to defend Ada. He'd confessed to Ada, though she swore never to tell you because she felt you deserved better, that he'd started to notice you were very pretty when he was eighteen and you sixteen. Your spitfire personality fit well with your bright eyes, and he found himself watching you while you absentmindedly braided your hair, thinking to himself that he'd sit and braid it for you for hours if he could ever get up the courage to ask you on a date.
You were not so oblivious as the two Shelby's believed, and were at least partially aware of Tommy's affections towards you. He'd started kissing you on the cheek as a way of saying goodbye when you left his house, something he'd never done before.  Tommy had also taken to giving you small compliments fairly regularly, whether on the color of your dress or the quality of the baked goods you sometimes brought around. Your mind was almost completely absorbed with academics, and you never stopped to consider his feelings towards you were more than just aesthetic appreciation.
How depressing, Tommy had thought many a time, that the girl he loved so much for her brain was so consumed in it she didn't believe he'd have any actual interest in her. Still far too intimidated by your overwhelmingly attractive personality, he was content to watch you from the next room over, and to carefully guard the secret that on particularly lonely nights he hugged a spare pillow close and pretended it was you.
The war came abruptly, as war generally does, and so Ada's happy home, which had come to include you in a honorary sort of way was split. You were asked by both Ada and Tommy to come to the train station and see them off, and you found yourself with no position or reason to say no. It was harder than you thought, watching scores of young men board trains and knowing many of them would never come back, but when you vocalized those fears to Tommy as he stood, awaiting his turn to be called at the end of the alphabet, he scoffed. When his name was finally called, and his two brothers had gone already, he turned to you, gripped the sides of your face fairly firmly, and kissed you. You found yourself, somewhat to your surprise, kissing back, and then he was gone, hanging out the train window and waving to you with a lovesick grin on his face. All Ada could do was smirk.
You found your thoughts virtually encompassed by Tommy in the years that passed. You'd taken on a part time job at the Garrison, and still spent most of your time with Ada Shelby, listening as she confessed to missing her family dearly and being a shoulder to cry on during her worse days.
The first letter from Tommy came in the midsummer, and his sister again smirked knowingly as she acknowledged it was addressed to you and not her.
Dear y/n, it read,
It has taken me the better part of two months to work up the courage to send this letter to you, and it most likely would have taken much longer if John had not constantly bothered me about it.
I am sure that my kiss at the train station was confusing to you, and I figure now is the best time to make this confession considering I won't have to see your reaction. I love you. I have for what feels like a very long time now, but has most likely only been a year.
You are beautiful, and strong, and I find that I miss you more with each passing day. If you do not want to be with me, I will understand, but I await your response eagerly either way.
With love and hope,
Tommy
You couldn't hide your blush. Ada was delighted.
Dear Tommy,
It took you riding away like the hero you are to France for me to realize how I truly feel about you.
I love you. I most likely have for half a year now. You must have the patience of a saint to have waited for me for so long, but I promise that I will be waiting at that same train station when you return.
Love, y/n.
You exchanged letters with Tommy frequently over the next three and a half years. Speaking with words, with a disconnect between your partner in conversation, makes it far easier for secrets to spill out onto the page. You learned intimate details of the horrors in war, and it became clear how terrified Tommy was that he would be the next man to step wrongly onto a landmine and lose an arm and a leg. His worries became yours, to, as even a day's delay from the usual week it room for his letters to arrive had you assuming the worst. Every policeman walking down the street became a Royal Army official coming to give his condolences for Tommy's passing, and every loud noise you heard while in the Shelby home was Polly, collapsing with grief after receiving a letter saying your Tommy had been captured by the enemy. The day the war ended was the second best day of your life, and the day you got to see Tommy again was unequivocally the greatest.
There was a light, pleasant drizzle dropping that day, so you, Ada, Polly, and Finn huddled under a dark red awning. Polly had long since learned of your love for Tommy, and the knowing smile she threw you when you squeezed her hand a bit too tight in anticipation caused you to blush a color comparable to the fabric protecting you from the rain.
The Shelby brothers were among the first fifty to step off the train, which diligently pumped smoke into the sky as war-battered men escaped its confines, and they made a beeline to your small group. You beamed up at Tom as he approached, and as he opened his mouth to greet you, you cut him off with a firm kiss to the lips, and he immediately burst into a wild smile, gripping you by the waist and pressing himself close to you. As you broke apart, he opened his mouth to speak, but you again cut him off.
"I want to be the first one to say it."
The uncontrollable grin was back.
"I love you, Tommy Shelby."
He hugged you close again, so close you could easily feel his heart beating wildly under his shirt.
"Christ, I love you," he mumbled into your hair, and some small portion of your life was totally complete.