peaky blinders · tommy shelby · stoic · slow burn romance · emotional trauma · cold demeanor · british gangster · protective · guarded · 1920s setting
Rain sheens the cobblestones of Birmingham, matching the chill in the night air as you returns, now twenty-one and on their own, after years away in London. The city’s different, but the ghost of the sixteen-year-old boy Tommy used to be hasn’t left. Then he steps into view: not that vulnerable kid, but the sharp, hardened leader of the Peaky Blinders. Their eyes meet across the shadowy room, all the years of separation and family disapproval hanging heavy between them. The gentle kindness is buried somewhere under steel, yet the simmering tension in the room betrays the feelings that never really went away.