Childhood Memory (Finn Shelby)

Part 30

Elsie felt as if she was being watched as she walked through the streets of Small Heath and the surrounding areas. "Who the fuck is following me?" Elsie decided to shout in the middle of the street causing a few onlookers to look over at her.

"Sorry, Elsie. Both Finn's and Tom's orders" Mickey said, coming out from where he was hiding behind a wall.

"You could've just came up and spoke to me instead of lurking in the shadows like a creep" Elsie laughed.

"You looked like you need your space." he told her, walking next to her.

"He told you what happened, didn't he?" Elsie said briefly looking at him.

"He did. But Elsie, he is truly sorry. He's just a bit of an idiot" Mickey commented which made her laugh again.

"He's an idiot but I love him" Elsie chuckled.

"Finn told me that Arthur has given you two a house" Mickey said randomly and Elsie froze.

"What!" Elsie exclaimed, "when did this happen?"

"Today, I thought you knew." He put his hands up in surrender, not wanting to feel the wrath of Elsie.

"He could've told me!" She exclaimed before making him take her to the house in Artillery Square. When they got there Elsie opened the door with Mickey behind her. "Finn!" She shouted into the building.

She heard a crash and a loud "fuck".

"Finn? Are you alright? Why's there's lots of broken glass and plates everywhere?" She questioned, carefully making her way further into the house, staying clear of the debris.

"That wasn't me" Finn said walking down the stairs. "I think it was Arthur"

"Oh." She looked around at all of the religious stuff on the walls, "so this is your house now?"

Finn frowned, "I was hoping it'd be our house" Finn said, Mickey then told the pair he'd wait outside.

"My house is in the countryside with my stables and horses, Finn. I love Small Heath but I can't think of it as home" Elsie told him.

"And that's fine but I want this to be ours. You can redecorate it. Make this like a holiday home" Finn suggested.

"It'll be your house, Finn" Elsie sighed, "not my holiday home, this'll be your house." She moved over to him and wrapped her arms around her neck and his went to hold her waist. "I'd be more than happy to stay with you here when I'm in Small Heath, but I cannot live here permanently"

"I'll take that" Finn said, gently placing a kiss on her nose which she scrunched up and whined, he laughed and kissed her properly. "You know, now that you're here, you can help me clean up" Finn said once he pulled away.

Elsie gasped over-dramatically, "I knew you were using me" she went over to the door.

"Where're you going?" Finn questioned.

"I'm going to go pack my things, you should join me, get everything moved here now so we don't leave it last minute"

Finn joined her and walked with Mickey back to their previous accommodation, Mickey went back to his place and Finn and Elsie packed their items away, they had to take multiple trips backwards and forwards (with the car that Elsie had previously at their other residence) but eventually they were on their last load. "Finn, have you seen my gold necklace? It has a horseshoe on it, I wore it a few days ago and I realised I haven't packed it"

"I haven't seen it, Elsie" Finn frowned, looking around the room, "what day were you wearing it?"

"The day I got drunk and slept with someone" Elsie said timidly. "Do you think I left it there?"

"It's possible, we'll check over the house once more before we leave, but it's likely you did leave it there"

They spent an hour thoroughly looking over the house, trying to find the golden horseshoe necklace, but coming up empty handed, apart from some coins and a few stray bullets.

"Shit" Elsie said in frustration as they met back up at the front door. "That was the last gift my dad gave to me, it was my Christmas gift"

"Oh, Elsie. I'm so sorry" Finn hugged her.

"It's okay, it's not your fault. It's mine. I shouldn't have been so careless"

Elsie decided to push away the thoughts and they decided to go back to their new home. They had placed all of their items in a spare bedroom and decided to clean up all of the broken bits of glass, plates, cups, etc.

Charlie had came around in the midst of all of that with some rat poison, "there are fucking rats in this house?" Elsie exclaimed.

"Apparently" Charlie said, placing down the poison since he offered to do it for the couple.

"Well, you two can stay down here, I'm going upstairs to unpack"

~:~:~:~:~:~:~

"So, I was thinking of having a big table here, enough to fit eight people around it comfortable and and perhaps a couple more if need be" Elsie said, gesturing the middle of the room, "perhaps a circular table, it's better for playing cards" she turned to Finn, "were you even listening?" She asked.

He looked towards her, "a circular table sounds great" he smiled, "you're really enjoying this, aren't you?"

"Yep" she beamed, "I haven't decorated a house in a while. Should we have a cabinet here?" She then asked, pointing to a wall.

"Sure, anything you'd like" he smiled lazily at her and she pouted.

"Finn, you can't keep saying "okay", this will be your house, I want you to like it"

"I do like your ideas, El. It all sounds perfect" he told her truthfully. "Let's go to the Garrison to celebrate, okay?"

"All right" she beamed.

A/N sorry I didn't post yesterday, I was (and still is) quite ill and my head's been killing me. But here's a part 💕💕