Gun metal and Daisies (Thomas Shelby)

Rome wasn't built in a day, but it did burn down in one.

I sat inside a room with nothing in it and realised it was still full. This is when I knew I was enough.

Dorothy spent the rest of that morning attending to her duties in the bakery. Mrs. P came in that morning with a horrible cough so Dorothy, after much convincing, managed to send her home. Thursdays were slow days anyway.
Everyone wanted to wait til Saturday so they could swoop in and get the cheap bread. She didn't blame them.

It was safe to say though, that Dorothy was officially bored. With the slow business on Thursdays and Mrs. P being sick. She didn't have anyone to talk to. Only the gramophone to keep her company as she sung to the lovely tunes that crackled out of the fine machinery.

The gramophone started buffering weirdly, small blips of peculiar sounds flitted out sporadically, becoming louder and louder.

She fiddled with the needle on the board and only huffed. She turned it off in a hopes that it would be ok when she turned it back on again, only to realise that when she turned it off, the sounds didn't stop.
And they were still getting louder.

Dorothy looked back into the shop of the bakery, her brows furrowed - there was no one there.

Peaking out of the shop windows, she saw a van with men surrounding it and walking in front.
Men, with guns.

A rather Pompous looking man with a nasally South London accent was barking orders.

She scrunched her nose at the greasy looking man.

When he got around 20 metres away from the bakery, he stopped. The men held up their guns in front of them.

Dorothy did not fear guns. She heard the shots every night where she lived. She only feared those who could pull the trigger.

It was only when the pompous man stepped off the van and carried on rambling did she realise there was a second party.

Looking the other way, she spotted a group of men that she feared.

She did not fear these men for being men. She feared these men for the burden they carried and that they would unleash that burden for any cause that suited them.

She feared the Peaky Blinders.

——

Oh Icarus! For all you have fallen, still you flew!
And for a moment, the sun knew of you, too!

Thomas was not a man of violent rage. But Thomas had his moments.

Thomas had these moments only a few times in his life.

He had this moment when he found out his sister Ada was pregnant with his ex best friends child.

He had this moment when he lost the guns.

He had this moment when he realised that Grace was a spy. When he found out that the woman he'd almost fallen in love with, was an agent of the crown.

"Posh toffs." Thomas scoffed, "always bad news."

Thomas was fuelled by rage as he came face to face with Kimber's men. Anger at this posh twat for being... there? In his way. Blocking him from climbing the food chain.
He felt anger to Grace and her deceitful lies and curious glances.

Thomas only felt his rage dampen when he pulled up to the street where he was meeting Kimber.

The market.

A very specific part of the market.

Outside of the bakery.

The bakery where his Bonny worked.

Thomas' thoughts left Kimber, left Grace.
He focused solely on the woman he knew was peaking through the windows like other shop owners as they strained to hear the commotion going on outside.

He thought of the way her hair curled into ringlets, perfectly intertwining with other strands, framing her face. The way her small fringe fell In front of her eyes as she constantly fiddled with its placement on her face, bringing the curls to rest on her glasses that sat delicately on her youthful face.
The glasses that made her eyes look wide as if they were staring into his soul.

He thought of the way her hand fit into his when she held it that morning.
He clenched his fist, desperately, in an attempt to see if he could replicate the warmth she exerted.

Thomas couldn't bring himself to look at the bakery. He knew she was watching.

The way she reacted that morning to the presence of the Peaky Blinders left no doubt in his mind that when she put the pieces together, their short time of contact and pleasant silences, would come to a close.

Thomas, for the first time, wished he wasn't who he was.

But Thomas also realised that without being who he was, he wouldn't have met her, that stressful evening in the safe house.

He didn't know if it were a curse or a blessing

He cursed himself for not examining her beauty that night as she slept in the chair in front of him all that sleepless night.

——

The exchange went by in a blur.
Dorothy tried to process what she saw. She desperately racked her brain for excuses as she saw him.

Bubs.
Her Bubs.
Walking with the Peaky Blinders. He was the Peaky Blinders. He was the leader of the Peaky Blinders.

Her mind could only work at turtles pace as she tried to comprehend the information.

It was only now as Dorothy examined her roller dex of memories that she realised that she had never come into contact with a single Peaky Blinder.

Only seeing their peaked caps and razor blades from afar.

She heard stories of Thomas Shelby. Dreadful stories of Thomas Shelby.

But Dorothy was stubborn in her beliefs and Dorothy decided in the moment the first gun shot went off, that the man who was standing not even 30 metres away from her, was not Thomas Shelby.
That was her Bubs.
And her Bubs had just been shot.

Dorothy only gasped when when a man came leaping forwards in front of him collapsed as bullets penetrated his skin, shielding her Bubs.

Dorothy had seen death. But she feared that she'd never grow used to it. Not with the brutality that was just committed.

Dorothy missed the girl standing in the middle with a pram. Dorothy missed the greasy man get shot in the head. She missed the man walking out with a heavy artillery machine gun.

All she saw was her Bubs.

——

The opposing group dispersed and wondered away, unsure of where to go.

The Peaky Blinders started to dwindle away, the excitement gone and no more toys to play with.

A few men grabbed Thomas but he waved them off, telling then to get a drink.
He may be bleeding out, but he had one last thing to do before he went to get himself sorted out.

The men slowly left, sending him confused glances which he ignored as he slouched in the direction of the bakery.

Thomas had one last thing to do. He was selfish, he knew. But he needed to see her one last time, before she would waltz out of his life, probably the same way she waltzed in.
Fire in her eyes, determination raw and unfiltered.

He stood in front of the shop as it dauntingly looked over his body.

Thomas was only severed from his thoughts when he was pulled in to said bakery.

——

A very tense moment...

I'm excited for the next chapter. I like pulling last minute surprises out of the bag and I'm debating how to go about this one!
Also, thank you so much for 200 reads, we got 100 then all of a sudden smashed 200! The support means the world!
Thanks for the support.
All feedback is welcome.
See ya next time!