"Tale as old as time, true as it can be ... barely even friends, then somebody bends, unexpectedly," -Ariana Grande-Butera
"You're drunk," Giorgia commented, watching her husband sway side to side. "Again."
He didn't respond, instead, he took another swig of his gin and collapsed on the bed.
She knew what this was. It was that goddamn fucking war chasing upon him, six years later. Tommy was a man of action, a man who barely got four hours of fucking sleep a night. He went from doing everything to doing fuck all, and his demons soon caught up with him on all the years he blocked them out with his ambition, determination, and work.
Giorgia knew what it was like to allow the voices in your head to take over, to succumb to the dark noise that tempted you further into the bottom of a bottle, or through another vial of cocaine. In Giorgia's world, the demons forced her to harm herself, inflict pain upon her soul whilst telling her she deserved it. She lost count of the amount of times she held an old knife to her wrists and painted her skin red, the open wounds seeping with pain and emotion, the life drawing from her.
But Tommy's mind worked differently, and so Giorgia didn't understand. She never expected herself to do so, but she struggled watching her capable and head strong husband succumb to the harsh realities of war. She'd seen his episodes before, and so she wasn't shocked when her son came running to her saying daddy was drunk, again.
The thing that worried and upset Giorgia the most about this, was the fact her son was now used to seeing his father intoxicated and out of control. Children didn't deserve to experience the harsh realities of war like Tommy and Giorgia did, and so she made it her mission to put an end to it before he pushed it to the point of no return.
"You upset Charlie," she told him, no regard for the tears streaming down his face. "You upset our son, Thomas. Because of this."
"I didn't mean for him to walk in," he groaned, head in his hands as he clasped the gin bottle. "Get him in here, I'll talk to him ... CHARLIE!"
"Shut your mouth," Gia snapped, snatching the bottle from him whilst he was vulnerable. "Our kids do not need to see this, Thomas."
"I want to apologise, 'is all," Tommy cried.
"You can say sorry when you're sober and not stinking of gin," she told him, chucking the bottle out of the window, hearing it smash against the ground below. "What is this, Tommy? Talk to me."
His hands shook violently as he slid from the edge of the bed down to the floor, a thud echoing through their mansion. Giorgia knelt infront of him, taking his hands in her own. "If anyone will have a glimpse of understanding, it's me, Tom."
"I didn't mean for him to see me, Giorgia," he cried, "you have to believe me!"
"I do believe you," she told him, sitting next to him and pulling him into her, his body trembling under her touch. He held her like Isabel did when she was upset, so desperate and in need of love. He kept touching her to remind himself that she was real, and the way he looked around the room didn't go unnoticed to Giorgia. He was trying to remind himself that he was in his bedroom and not the tunnels.
They sat in silence as his tears slowed down, but they didn't stop completely. Her head rested upon his own, and her fingers traced his skin on the back of his head, soothing him in a way she knew he liked. "I watched my father drink," he told her, catching her attention. "He drank gin like it was water. Arthur used to try and shield me from it, but it never worked, I always saw him, even if it was just a glimpse. Aunt Pol would scream at him. My mother would hide in the bedroom covered in bruises from his temper."
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i found you .. and you found me // Thomas Shelby
Fanfiction"Me and you, we're not all that different," he says while his icy blue orbs reflect in her dark eyes. She looks away, sipping her drink while contemplating what came next. "I think we both died at some point and now, we're living in borrowed time,"...
