Oceans [A.Shelby]

FOUR

LILLIAN SAT in an armchair by the fire, night was hanging over them, and it was causing all sorts of silent trouble in the May-Shelby household.

Arthur was sat on the sofa, a glass filled with whiskey in his hand as the pair sat in silence- it wasn't always this way. They used to sit together, they used to talk. The war had changed everything for the pair.

"Do you remember when we first met in the theatre, and you asked me to the pub?" Lillian broke the silence. Arthur thought it was her reminicing, he didn't sense the deep-seated hurt in her voice.

"There's a er, a pub down the road.." Arthur trailed off, an amused Lillian could tell that the man didn't become nervous very often.

"Are you asking me out?" Lillian raised a brow as she held her hat against her.

"Yeah er, yes I am." Arthur clesred his throat.

"Good, well I hope there's gin in this pub, I'm very thirsty." Lillian smiled, Arthur holding out his arm for her to take, which she did, and they both stepped out of the theatre together.

A few heads turned in their direction, Artgur Shelby with a beautiful and expensive-looking girl on his arm. What a sight it was.

"I don't usually do this, you know," Lillian commented as she looked around at Birmingham's sites, dingy and dirty housing, kids playing in the road, open furnaces spitting fire and ash.

"What's that then?" Arthur asked her.

"Oh many things. I don't go to pubs when I have a whole room dedicated to all sorts of liquor in every one of our estates, I don't venture to the darker parts of the country.. And I most definitely don't let men take me out only an hour after I meet them" Lillian laughed.

"So what's so different about this occasion?" Arthur asked.

"You, Arthur Shelby." She replied, the corners of her mouth creeping upwards.

Arthur couldn't hide the small smirk that came to his lips either.

"Like it was fucking yesturday," Arthur replied with the deep chuckle of his, one corner of his mouth turned up.

"So, when you take the other girls to the pictures, do you take them to the pub too? Or do they take you to their beds?" Lillian asked, her jaw clenched as she crossed her arms.

"Wha-"

"No, Arthur, you aren't allowed to say 'what are you fucking on about' because you bloody well know." Lillian raised her voice, Arthur sinking back in his seat with his lips in a firm line.

"I'll tell you something, I was in the sweet shop earlier with John's kids and a woman came in and she said 'Mrs shelby, I saw your Arthur earlier' and I thought, she couldn't have done, but she said 'he was with two of the whores from the Marquis, walking to the pictures'. Two fucking whores." Her last words were bit out.

"Lils," Arthur spoke, the words he was meaning to say to her weren't forming on his tongue.

"No, Arthur." Lillian replied, her voice hard, "I am your wife and I have been for 6 years, you worship me like Polly worships fucking God or I'm on a train straight back to London, understand?"

Arthurs eyes lowered as his head hung low, Lillians eyes softened a fraction.

"Christ, what happened to you, Arth?" Lillian asked softly, Arthur's heart bet faster with the emotion in her voice, "I want my husband back, the man I see now, it's not him"

"Im sorry Lils, I'm not a good man. You're better off without me, you've always deserved better than me" Arthur clenched his jaw as he looked down at his hands, playing with the rings on his fingers as Lillian glanced down at her wedding ring.

"Yes I do deserve better. But I want you, I married you. That's the point, Arthur" She replied quietly.

"I'll sleep down here tonight," Arthur muttered.

"Thank you, Arth."

•••

Lillian woke up in her bed alone, part of her had expected Arthur to climb in with her part way through the night.

Instead, Arthur respected Lillian's wishes and respected that he had wronged her.

Lillian could never stay mad with Arthur for too long, it was the war that changed him, made him drink more, do things that 1913 Arthur Shelby wouldn't do. But Lillian made it her duty to bring her Arthur back, even if it took years. Even if it took a miracle.

Lillian was up and dressed by 10am, it being her day off, she granted herself a lie in, it seemed Arthur had too considering he was still at the kitchen table with the morning paper in hand.

"Did you get any sleep?" Lillian asked him.

"No" Arthur grumbled, a small smirk coming to Lillian's lips as she rubbed his back, Arthur could hear her unspoken words.

Lillian had already began brewing a pot of tea when there was a loud knock on the door, Lillian raising a brow as she shuffled through the hallway to get it.

Behind the door stood her brother, Ed, standing in a city where he so clearly didn't belong given the shoes that he wore cost more than what the men surrounding them earned in a month. For some, even a year.

"What the bloody hell are you doing here?" Lillian asked him, dumfounded.

"I've come to visit my big sister," Edward grinned, shoving past his sister and away from prying eyes.

"Really?" Lillian asked as she closed the door.

"Why do you sound so surprised?" Edward asked her.

"Because mother and father never in their right mind's would allow you to come to Birmingham!" Lillian exclaimed.

"Let him be, Lils. You can have the spare room, kid," Arthur told him as he walked into the hall.
"No he is not having the spare room, because he isn't staying. He's going home before my father comes marching down here for him," Lillian crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Oh, let me stay one night Lily, please!" Edward pleaded.

"Ed, no. I didn't think you were serious when you said you would disappear one day, and if you're doing your seaech for a good woman, you're going to find nothing but married women or whores in Small Heath,"

"Or gypsies," Arthur added.

"I'm going to pack a suitcase and take you back to London myself, there's breakfast on the table. You can help yourself."

Lillian was quick with packing her small suitcase, Arthur however, could argue that it looked like she was staying in London much longer than one night.

"Lils.." Arthur trailed off, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her close to him, Lillian could hear the unease in his voice.

Lillian sighed in response, placing a gentle kiss on his lips, despite his stint the morning before.

"I'm going to take Ed home to London, stay with my parents for a day, and then I'll be home." She told him, pulling away and picking up her case.

"Come on Ed, there's a train at quarter past." She told him, Edward followed his sister out the door, and it closed behind them. Then there was silence, and Arthur felt exactly what Lillian felt when she doesn't see him all day. He felt alone.

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authors note; happy peaky day, enjoy! x