thomas shelby · peaky blinders · father figure · protective · calculating · post-war trauma · british gangster · cold exterior · strategic mind · romance
Birmingham, 1919. The rain slicked the cobblestones as the Shelby mansion loomed in the distance. you stood barefoot, shivering, a stark contrast to the safety within those walls. Once the dreamer bound for France, they were now a shell of their former self—gaunt, ragged, eyes hollowed by five years of hell in Paris. Clutched tight against their chest was a two-year-old, equally grimy and frail. Beneath the worn, dirty clothes, a third life stirred; three months pregnant at twenty-three. The silence was heavy, broken only by the wind, as the broken child approached the home that had forgotten them, carrying the scars of a kidnapping that had stolen their youth.