#zablife housekeeping

[zablife]

I'm Back!

I had the most incredible holiday, but it's good to be home settling in again. I'll slowly be answering messages and catching up on all the amazing work I missed. Tysm for the kind notes I've yet to respond to esp on my "accidental series" Now You Know the Truth. I'm working on the last part to it now along with another chapter to my ongoing series Partners in Crime! Looking forward to interacting with everyone again. I've missed you 💕

[evita-shelby]

Hunt

prequel to Chase and sequel to Stay

cw: implied sex, mentions of racism, intrusive fans, secret relationships, after effects of a bad break up. idk what else

@justrainandcoffee @zablife @mischievouslittlecreature @call-sign-shark @thegreatdragonfruta

He has never cared to be serious about any woman in his life, not the girl he had been arranged to marry before he seized his chance to leave Canton nor any woman that he took to his bed.

And yet Brilliant finds himself ruminating over the witch’s words.

Exclusive devotion.

One woman for the rest of his life in exchange for the entire universe.

Billy had meant it when he called Shelby a fool for not taking such a good deal.

The businessman then does something he’s never really done before: he sends the chorus girl away without fucking her. Before morning word on the street was that Brilliant Chang, the so-called Dope King, is off the market.

The girls do not give up, why would they when it could be any of them that he’s singled out for this next part of his life? They throw themselves at him even harder, hoping they are the one and the driving themselves mad to know who the lucky woman was.

And so the hunt for this mystery woman began.

The people in his entourage knew, but nothing could ever get them to reveal the identity of the woman who had captured his heart before he had even known it. It was a good game, to see how long until the fanatics hounding him would piece the puzzle together and solve it.

“Why are you so sure they won’t tell?” Eva asks sprawled over his chest as they celebrate the new development in their relationship by lounging in bed all day. The housekeeper had been surprised to learn Brilliant’s mystery woman had stayed the night and had hidden her disdain when he paid her for her silence when she brought them breakfast.

He would get a new place, hire the right help and stop the dirty looks he gets for fucking his woman in every way he wants. Billy had never considered settling down even at his thirty-five years.

It was high time he moves from a bachelor’s apartment and into one for a family. Eva rented her own home, paid with her own money, but Billy wanted to start this new chapter in their lives properly.

“They trained with a Shaolin Master just as I did. It would take more than a few wild girls to get them to break.” He answered with a smirk before pinning her under him for a post breakfast indulgence.

Chang Chan Nan could have made it as a fortune as a fighter had he not had a knack for business. The witch had seen him spar a few times in his dojo, mastering new forms from a master from Japan with ease.

Eva gets as wet as the Thames from watching him thrash his opponents, if she didn’t have her array of potions to help them, they wouldn’t be able to carry on like this.

“Sometimes I wish we didn’t have to hide it.” The witch admits in between kisses. She is as insatiable as him, compatible in ways that make the rest of the women he’s been with forgettable and dull.

“I want to enjoy being with you without the whole world harassing us every moment of the day for a little longer.” Chan Nan has never desired peace until this fucking year.

He liked the attention when he was the smooth-talking refined entrepreneur, but now he is the wicked chink seducing white girls into ‘white slavery’.

Eva had some notoriety, the rumors of sleeping with the Prince of Wales had been true and her status as the divorcee providing consulting services for things of this world and the next paled in comparison to his. She’s never been accused of murder, even her former fiancé’s suicide is framed on his father for ordering her execution.

“Please, if you didn’t run for the hills the moment you learned Tommy Shelby was my husband, what makes you think I would run the moment the whole of England learns I took you off the market?” she uses his real name to show how much she means it. “I am far stronger than you give me credit for, Chan Nan.”

He never uses his Chinese name with his women, and then Eva convinced him to tell her his name and teach her how to pronounce it correctly. She has never gotten it wrong.

“I know, it’s one of the many things Ilove about you, Evita.” Billy in turn calls her Evita, he doesn’t feel comfortable calling her Evie as that is what Tommy Shelby continues to call her. Just as he doesn’t feel comfortable in her townhouse even if Shelby doesn’t actually own it.

“Mhm, what else do you love about me?” the witch loves him, and he loves her. The words do not slip easily from their tongues as it would’ve been had they met before Shelby broke her heart, but they have and the wait had been worth it.

“Why speak when I can show you?”

It is always a chore to leave.

Carefully and through the service entrance of the home so no one can get hide nor hair of the mystery woman who’s making an honest man out of Billy Chang.

His driver would take her to Billy’s office where she’d take a cab home or to wherever her client would meet her. The only people they encounter are the housekeeper and her son who acts as a footman and even valet for the guests.

Even she had not seen the rabid young woman with the portable camera. By evening Eva and Billy are on every tabloid from London to Acapulco.

By evening she is subjected to another screaming match with her ex-husband. It always ends the same way these days.

“I could make you happy, just like you wanted me to.” His eyes are glassy from the tears he refuses to shed.

He is heartbroken, just as she was and just as Lucy was when she decided that she needed time away from Small Heath to find herself. Perhaps the thing Eva loathes of their situation is that while they have a rught to feel what they feel it is still a fucking nuisance to deal with them.

“You say that now, but the moment Lucy returns I would lose you again.” Eva reminds him, knows well enough that they would be in a worse bind than the first time around. As tempting as it was, Eva had a real chance at happiness now and she wasn’t going to squander it for a man who will only make her unhappy. “The three of us would be miserable, I would be your bitter wife who hates the two of you, you would hate me for keeping you from her and she would hate me for the woman I would become because of you.”

She could make him forget her and ensure she has that picture perfect life she saw in Brighton. Eva knows the words and the ingredients for the tonic, in fact, she nearly did when he finally gave up looking for Lucy and came on his knees to beg for her forgiveness. But she is not that sort of person, to bind him to her like that would remove his free will and make him her puppet.

“You wouldn’t lose me, not this time, I promise you.” Tommy hates being alone, cannot sleep at night without a warm body in his bed to remind him the war is over. “I will not have other women, no whores no Lucy, no one else but you.”

The words she had wanted to hear the day he told her he loved her and wanted to marry her. Too bad they came too late for them.

“But you will always want Lucy, and I will never be enough for you. I need a husband who has no space for anyone else in his heart or his bed.” If she sounds resentful of him telling her exactly what the witch once wanted to hear, it is because she is. She has every right to be, just as Lucy deserves to be angry at Tommy for putting them in this situation in the first place.

But Lucy never went against him, it was the one thing Eva can actually say she hates about the woman. A woman as free and as independent as Eva will always look absolute loyalty like that as a defect in the person. They may be friends, have some in common, but deep down they would never work.

Eva has never lied to Tommy. He knows that when he fucks up she will tell him even if it hurts and should their son or Finn or any member of their families is put in danger because of him, she will turn on him and he will regret ever making her do that.

Tommy Shelby knows not to push her to her limits, even he barely knows what she is truly capable of.

“And is Chang that man?” he responds in like, anger that now he is the one not enough for him,

Good. Now he knows how she felt every second of their marriage.

“Yes. I do not know if will be, but chances are he could be that man.” Eva loves Billy, the man he is with her, the man who treats her as his equal and does not try to constrain her in any way because his family does not find it proper she be as involved as she needs to be.

She is more herself with him than she was those scant months she was with Tommy and Lucy.

The Shelbys had their heart in the right place ---most of the time--- but they had the tendency to think her as Tommy’s wife and not their equal. Esme has no place at the table even if she is the reason the Lees are in their corner and manages the Betting Shop as good as Polly does.

Don’t even get her started at how well the family took their divorce.

They blamed Lucy for staying even if Tommy was the one who asked her to stay in the first place. They blamed Eva for being ‘too weak’ to handle having a disloyal husband and letting him have Lucy live with him and continue working for him. They blamed Tommy for allowing both women to leave and not force them to endure their awful words any longer.

Eva had refused to set foot in Small Heath even after the necessary apologies had been made, she won’t unless she has to. Too many people are not minding their own business in this world.

“I can’t let you go.” Not you too, he means to say.

“But you must. You are my soulmate in other lifetimes, just not this one, Tom. You have to let me go.

Just as I have.”

If only her words had not fallen on deaf ears.

Not that Tommy will succeed in ruining her new love, not when Eva’s willing to brave the world for Brilliant Chang.

[zablife]

Zablife WIP Update

Hi lovelies, I have one Corrupt a Wish fic to write (for Ada and Tommy) then I'm moving on to other WIPs (see below). I'd love to hear what you'd like to read next or any general encouragement bc I'm lacking sufficient motivation atm 😫 Sending positive energy to my other writer moots who are also in need of some love ✨💗

→ Dark!Bonnie enraged by the decision to throw a fight

→Part 3 of Ada series Green Gloves

→Providing Tommy an heir

→Tommy's music festival romance

→Troy inspired Tommy fic

→Holiday movie themed Tommy fic (taking suggestions for the film!!)

[zablife]

✈ Hiatus

I'll be traveling until the beginning of March with little free time to check in. I've set up a queue so I don't disappear from your dash completely tho! And I hope you'll continue to tag me in your fics, GIFs and anything else you think I'd enjoy. Love and light ✨

[zablife]

Hi, I'm Lee! I'm an adult who enjoys reading and writing fanfiction in my spare time. Sometimes that includes dark themes or nsfw. Please read all warnings carefully.

Characters I write for can be found on my Masterlist . Fandoms include: Peaky Blinders, The Bikeriders, Top Gun Maverick, The Last of Us and The Bear.

My requests are currently CLOSED. When open, I respond if you're polite and follow a few simple rules:

‣ MDNI (I block blank and ageless blogs)

‣ I reserve the right to decline any request

‣ Tell me if you've sent the request to another writer

‣ Comment and reblog fics you enjoy!!

I do not give consent for my work to be copied, translated or posted on any platform, including Tumblr.

[zablife]

Tagging Issues

It's come to my attention that tagging might not be working for me?!?! 😫 If you've missed some of my recent work I'm posting it again here.

A Night Like Tonight Tommy Shelby x gf

Partners in Crime - New part added A Small Favor John Shelby & Solomons sister reader

Now You Know the Truth- New Part 5 and Part 6 added Tommy Shelby x wife reader

[zablife]

Zablife Update

Quick post to let all my beloved Peaky/Cillian moots know I haven't lost my mind, I'm just a bit distracted atm with a new fixation so I've not been reading or commenting on your work as usual. I would apologize for all the Bikeriders spam, but it's actually lovely to feel so inspired again, along with discovering new writers whose work makes me positively giddy.

With that being said, I'll be slowing down after next week bc I'm gainfully employed once again! So for anyone bored of me, don't worry you'll be seeing less. It's actually a good thing tho as I get my life back on track, happier and healthier (60 days and counting, Yay me!)

Last bit of housekeeping, I know there are at least 3 requests to finish for my 2.5K celly and I promise to return to them soon! If you'd like to catch up on what I've already posted, you can read them here. Love and light ✨

[zablife]

Hey lovelies, taking an unexpected break to do some adulting. I'll resume Corrupt a Wish when I return. In the meantime, I've loaded my queue with dark and spooky stories. Enjoy!

[zablife]

Lovelies, I haven’t stated this before, but I do not consent to the translation of my work or reposting on other platforms. I’ve had inquiries lately so I updated my bio. Ty for respecting this rule!

[zablife]

WIP List 29/3/24

Hi lovelies, here's everything I'm working on atm and a few updates below the cut.

I should be writing 🙈, but instead I'm organizing the remaining fics I have in my inbox before announcing any plans for a 2.5k celebration which is long overdue! (If you have any ideas for that, pls send them my way!)

BLURBS:

Currently taking requests from this prompt list. So far I have received:

❧ It terrifies me what I would do for you. w/ Tommy or Luca from @cillmequick

❧ I've killed for you. Who else can say that? w/ Tommy from @thomashelbyswife

ONE SHOTS:

❧ Lovefool Tommy x gf reader

Summary: An infatuated Tommy finds his gf in a state of confusion, leading him to question her devotion. Will she say she loves him and not another?

❧ Secrets and Lies- Tommy x OC

Summary: The new barmaid has a secret she's desperately trying to hide from Tommy. When her past begins to threaten his family's future, who will he remain loyal to?

❧Untitled -John x female reader and Tommy x female reader

Summary: When John's fiancé offers comfort to a distraught Tommy, they forge a bond that threatens to break the alliance the Shelbys have worked so hard to forge with the Lees.

SERIES UPDATES

Recently completed:

❧ Now You Know the Truth - Tommy x wife reader

Returning soon:

❧ Tachipen- Tommy x female reader

Summary: With the flip of a coin, Tommy makes a deal to bring a gypsy girl into the Shelby clan. Considering her too young to marry, he employs her as a nanny. When tragedy strikes, he’s forced to confront the truth he has always known. 

Discontinued:

❧ My Sun, My Moon and All My Stars- Luca Changretta x OC (Aurora)

[zablife]

Like many of you, I'm having issues with notifications so as I reply today, I'm also tagging the person I'm responding to. I apologize if you end up with double notifications in the process! I want to go back to bed now, Tumblr is hurting my brain 😫 Btw, to all my lovely moots, I'm quite behind on my reading. Comments are coming, darlings 💕

[zablife]

GIF credit @drrav3nb

Sorry about the spam guys, I've been rearranging my masterlist! I think I have something I can live with for now tho and feels cozy. Now to tackle the WIP list to see what stays 😬

[zablife]

An Evening at Arrow House: A Collection of Harrowing Tales

Here you'll find all the spine tingling fics and haunting artwork created for my 2K follower celebration. All writers have the same goal- to frighten, deceive and otherwise torment Tommy Shelby's new bride until she leaves Arrow House permanently. As submissions are posted, I will add them here or you can follow #zablife 2K celebration. If you enjoy dark fics, you're in the right place ❤ If not, you might want to follow Mrs. Shelby to the nearest exit.

My fics and moodboards

Meeting Arthur in the Wine Cellar

A Walk in the Garden with Heaven Shelby

Michael's Wedding Gift

Ruby's Tea Party

Drinks with Polly in the Parlor

Mary the Helpful Housekeeper

The Last Supper

Careless People

A Wrench in Our Plans

No Peace For You Ever

Ada's Tour of the Library

Thanks to all my lovely and talented moots who have contributed! ❤

Fics

An Evening at Arrow House by @there-goes-thefighter

The Attic by @noforkingclue

Bad Omen by @peakyswritings

Barbe Bleue by @notyour-valentine

Behind the Green Door interactive fic by @raincoffeeandfandoms

Betrayal short story by @cillmequick

The Choice by @look-at-the-soul

Codependent Siblings by @multifandomwriter56

In the Graveyard with Lilith Rose Shelby by @chaosinkest1996

Love in a Haunted House and Part 2 by @pacifymebby

Love Ritual by @call-sign-shark

Mrs. Francesca Shelby by @kmhappybunny240

Nightcap by @murderousginger

Nocturnal Me by @emotionalcadaver

Polly's Intuition by @the-makingsofgreatness

The Red Room by @evita-shelby

There's Something About These Grounds by @runnning-outof-time

Third Time Lucky by @brummiereader

When They Cry by @thegreatdragonfruta

Which One is Safe to Drink? game by @raincoffeeandfandoms

Moodboards and GIFs

An Evening at Arrow House by @cljordan-imperium

Arrow House Riddle by @moral-terpitude

The Brides by @thomashelbyswife

Butcher!Alfie by @alicent-targaryen

Dusk at Arrow House Stables by @holacia3

Nocturnal Me by @emotionalcadaver

Psycho!John by @alicent-targaryen

The Red Room by @evita-shelby

There's Something About These Grounds by @runnning-outof-time

Music recs

An Evening at Arrow House Playlist by @shelbydelrey

"Girl With One Eye" Florence + the Machine

"Francesca" Hozier

"A Heart Made of Yarn" Franz Gordon

"Dead Come Talking" Roe Kapara

"Me and the Devil" Soap and Skin

[evita-shelby]

A different sort of man

Chapter 5

Cw: cheating (technically?) Racism

Taglist: @thegreatdragonfruta @zablife @cillmequick @look-at-the-soul @midnightswithdearkatytspb

Gif by @jeonfknjungkook

“I will not leave until I have seen him.” Grace demands with her arms crossed.

“The Lady is not to be disturbed, please come back later.” Lady Smallbrook's housekeeper stands her ground and tried to get her to leave.

But Grace heard it all the same, god, he was never this enthusiastic in bed with her.

Angry tears welled up in her eyes.

Wasn’t it enough that she’d given him the boy? Wasn’t it enough that she had killed for him?

Grace takes her gun and aims it at the servants.

“Tell me to leave one more time, and I will shoot.” The Irish woman warned and went to confront her dirty gypsy husband.

He's got dirty blood, no amount of money’s going to wash it off, her aunts and uncles had said and she hadn’t paid attention to their cruel words even when she discovered he still had his way with Lizzie Stark during their long engagement.

“I love you, Evie,” her husband said to the woman who she had believed to have gotten rid off for good in 1919. “God, I missed you.”

Campbell had promised to send her back where she came from for interfering in her mission.

And yet here she was in bed with Grace’s husband.

She could kill them both. She’s got the bullets for it.

But she doesn’t.

Not when the whore takes Thomas’ gun and aims it at her.

“Fire that gun, Miss. Burgess, and I’ll make sure you it’s you who meets us in hell.” The woman threatened and Grace does the best not to cry, but her angry and heartbroken tears flow freely as she stands there like the pathetic wife in a novel.

“How could you?” she shouts at them, at her husband. “How could you?”

“Fuck, fuck,” Eva paces as she tried to make sense of what went wrong.

This Eva has a baby, a complex business and hopefully a diary of sorts.

The only diary, Eva has kept was that one with visions she had in the desert and of no use.

Or could it?

“Call Polly, she might be helpful.” Thomas, not the Tommy who lives here, suggested as he dressed for today.

She should do the same, but in her panic when the three-year-old boy cried for her, she forgot.

There are photographs, a list the other Eva made for Thomas and hopefully a Polly Gray willing to help.

They still spoke to each other, not as warm as it used to be. Polly thought she had been using them when she was told to choose between certain death or boring Lord Smallbrook.

“I know, Shelby. I’m not stupid.” She told her apparent husband.

What had she done wrong? She said the words exactly as it said, what went wrong?

“Should we stop her?” Eva asked and Tommy shrugged as Grace ran out in tears and saying all the horrible things she had been holding back.

Gypsy bastard, bean-eating tramp, son of a whore, brown-skinned foreign whore, fucking tinker.

Tommy wondered if this Thomas knew how racist his wife could be when pushed over the precipice.

Eva never stooped that low, the most hurtful thing she said to him was that he had big fucking head for such a short man and immediately apologized after.

“She’s not my wife, I don’t know.” He said wanting to return to much better things.

“No, but she thinks you are her husband.” Eva pointed out.

“Fuck.” How do you explain, I am not your husband, at least not in my universe?

How do you explain that the Thomas who loves her is stuck in a universe where he got over her less than a few days after she left?

Fuck.

It was one thing pretending to be this Thomas for a day, it will be hell to be Thomas Shelby for any longer than that.

Hell, he already had ruined his marriage in the span of twenty-four hours.

Oh, well, there was nothing he could do about it.

“Do you know what you fucked up in your spell last night?” he asked turning to his real wife.

“I have some theories. One involves the house.”

Up until this year, Eva was relatively weak.

Somewhere, an Eva had begun using her magic to its full potential and opened the tap for every Eva in every fucking universe.

Every attempt at scrying used to end with a headache, once she lost her shadow at a party and her husband may have died because she separated his soul from his body when she played the wicked witch and tied him to a cursed chair.

This Eva had chosen at random following a dumb question by her husband.

What would my life be without you, chovvikanon?

And as luck would have it, the spell had worked and sent him to Grace Burgess’ bed.

At least that universe had her, some universes Eva has been dead for years, is married to someone else, or flat out doesn’t exist.

The obsidian mirror Eva inherited from her late aunt manages to become clear as a window and reveals, not Tommy and his wife. No, it reveals and absolutely livid Grace who just trashed Arrow House in all its gaudiness, packed her things and has her muttering the letter she has written to her cheating husband.

“I lied; the boy isn’t yours.” She says and ordered for Mary to give this to her husband.

“I’m sorry, Thomas.” The witch apologized to the man who is more heartbroken about the boy not being his than his wife leaving.

“I had my suspicions about the boy, but it wasn’t your fault.” He dismissed her apology as he watched Grace take the crying boy and leave his life forever. It hurt him, not that the man would admit it.

“Still, I’m sorry this happened to you.” The witch said softly, and he nodded accepting her sympathies.

When they arrive at Arrow House, a grim-faced Polly and an apologetic Johnny Dogs greet Tommy.

“She took the boy and left a letter, Tom.” The Romani man said, taking his hat off and giving him his sympathies.

“A problem for the other Thomas, Johnny.” Polly said as she took them inside where every painting has been torn apart, everything breakable broken and a letter in a vase missing roses and filled with thorns. “This one is just relieved Grace won’t be an inconvenience.”

“Unfortunately.” Tommy said with a shrug.

[evita-shelby]

National Anthem

Chapter 2

Cw: mentions of injuries, death, sex and scars

Taglist: @thegreatdragonfruta @zablife

“I thought you were a nurse during your war.” He said tracing idle circles around a spot on her shoulder where a bullet grazed her and left its mark on her.

They had ended up at his place, tearing each other’s clothes off and fucking again in his magnificent four poster bed.

She’d never been with a man, done things that had him question her uncle’s claim until he learned it for himself.

Eva had wanted him to take her in the confessional, and he had, against the wooden walls that were supposed to be holy.

A religious experience in many ways.

You are the first woman I fuck here; he had said out of breath after.

The only woman you will ever fuck here and there and everywhere, she had corrected, and he agreed only to humor her.

I’m gonna return you to your uncle with a limp, Mrs. Nelson, he had promised as he carried her over the threshold of his house like a bride.

He had no driver, thank God, it had been so long Eva had ridden in the front seat of a car.

They had decided on the flowers, the colors and the name of their first child by the time they got to his place, a lovely townhouse he shared with his sister-in-law who mercifully was visiting family in the country.

Didn’t help he was calling her Mrs. Nelson and introduced her as such to the housekeeper, a middle-aged woman with an Irish accent strong enough to remind her of her grandfather.

“Nurses are in the line of fire too, you know.” She responded, keeping her secrets to herself.

The witch isn’t sure if she trusts him enough to tell her what she really did during the war.

Would he look at her the same way when she tells him she killed Americans by the dozen to avenge her parents, neighbors, and friends?

It is better if we forget it happened, her aunt had said as they wiped her records clean.

But she cannot simply shut the door behind her.

It comes and goes as it pleases, sure her sobriety has helped quiet the screams and the grief that led her to try and take her life several times, but it will never be over.

Jack was lucky that his post as the newly minted General Manager exempted him from military service.

There was a part of him that hated he was seen as less manly for not having fought in France like his brother had, though, but Laurance Nelson had died in his first real battle and left little Gina and her mother in his brother’s care with his kid brother resenting him for leaving them all behind.

Jack had lived and risen to great heights his brother never got to see. Would live to see his children have grandchildren of their own.

Still, Jack has his own set of scars, scars she kissed and caressed as they come to know each other here.

Eva kissed a faded stab wound near his clavicle and kissed every inch of skin down his sternum.

Marked him as hers to the next lady he fucks, then he’ll know she meant what she said that she is the only woman he’ll have from now on.

He had another one in his abdomen, had found him to be ticklish there as she ventured lower until she reached that wondrous thing that made her see God several times that morning.

Jack was an open book, with the right person.

His past he keeps guarded under lock and key and yet she knows it.

Grown up being an errand boy to a gangster and eventually Party Boss of South Boston, who had taken him and his brother under his wing once they were old enough.

His mom had been his whore for a while, needing to keep her children clothed and fed by any means necessary when his father up and left her with four little ones.

By the time Jack and his brother, Laurence, had become men, they’d seen so much death.

After their little brother and sister died, their mother followed shortly after.

Asked PJ Kennedy to watch over them for her on her deathbed and good old Pat had sworn on Saint Patrick himself to honor her last wishes.

The man had done more than that, he’d left him and his brother everything, including the steel factory that Jack eventually became General Manger of in 1914.

She wasn’t supposed to know that. Eva had learned it when she had seen him from her window when he came to meet her uncle on business.

He hadn’t seen her, but she had gotten a good look at the tall American man who came looking for a wife.

Saw his intentions and past laid out bare before her as he came into the house.

“Frank Wallace, Gutin Gang tried to hijack me thinking I’d gone soft when PJ gave me Bethlehem Steel. Last time they every thought of fucking with me.” He says before she asks.

They have been doing this for a while, worshiping each other’s scars and learning the context for them.

“Zacatecas, artillery felt like it was raining from heaven. Didn’t notice I was hit until we got my brother, Alan, to the only hospital left with an operation theater.” The witch supplies feeling more comfortable as she returns her head to his chest. “He died of sepsis a week later.”

“Laurence died in his first battle. Went in ‘because he wanted to die, and God granted him his fucking wish. They gave him a fucking medal for bravery and called him a hero.” Jack says not bothering to hide his bitterness at having his big brother abandon him and his daughter and have only a fucking medal and a folded-up flag to mourn him.

“I’m sorry for your loss, it must have been terrible for you to lose your brother that way.” She says because she understands his pain. “And I’m sorry for making the both of us dredge up the past, Jack.”

Gabriel could have chosen to accept the deal with Carranza and wait out the war in the safety of America with their uncles.

But when he refused to stop fighting, Eva stayed by his side because she didn’t want him to die alone.

In the end he did, everyone dies as alone as they came into the world.

Such a dark turn this wonderful moment took.

“Got to admit for first dates, it sure as hell it’s gonna be one to remember, Mrs. Nelson.” He said, tilting her chin up and kissing her.

“It sure is, Mr. Nelson.”

[evita-shelby]

Mandy the Cat

For @dancerlittle006

Taglist: @joossieisdabomb @johnathancanines @peakyblindas @whitejuliana1204 @kissmyquill @zablife

Gif by @pcllygray

For Charlie’s fifth birthday, Tommy takes initiative and takes him to a local pet shelter to pick a puppy of his own choice.

While Cyril was greatly cherished by the boy, he wasn’t the dog he wanted. Picking out a puppy that his father would let him adopt with absolutely no judgment would be a great way to fix the disaster of 1926 ---when they realized Tommy had stolen a dog from a not-dead Alfie Solomons.

Eva’s reasoning, Cyril was the family dog, this new pet would be Charles’ personal pet dog and a way for Tom to make it up to him for last year.

Gabe sleeps soundly swaddled tightly to her chest. He’s a month old and Eva wouldn’t trust anyone with him who is not blood.

Dia at almost two still likes Polly best out of anyone and because Pol wants to keep Aberama at bay, Eva has allowed her husband’s aunt to take her for the day.

Tommy’s campaign had focused on him being the family man, working class self made millionaire who was still very down to earth and as such needed to be seen getting his kid the dog he promised him.

Eva felt terribly for using Tommy’s political career against him, but he had brought it upon himself when he did not remove the fucking collar off Cyril when he stopped to put a bow on him.

The telephone rings and Eva doesn’t need Frances to tell her who it is. “Mr. Shelby is on the line, said it was urgent.”

Eva thanks the housekeeper and takes the call, speaking softly so as not to wake up Gabe. “Did he kick the reporter who took a photograph of him in the balls again?”

Her sweet boy panicked and often reacted badly ---and occasionally violence--- to people taking photographs of him when he didn’t consent.

It was adorable, it was funny and a lot of people agreed that Tommy Shelby had done a great job at teaching his young son how to defend himself.

That had been taught to Charlie by Linda, something Eva, Linda, Arthur and Polly felt Linda deserved all the credit for.

“No. The reporter made sure to ask Charlie if he wanted his photo taken and he said yes. Unfortunately, the boy chose a cat.” Tommy is trying his best not to laugh.

If he doesn’t come home with a dog of his choosing, I’m kicking you out of the bedroom again, Eva had playfully threatened this morning.

“No, he didn’t.” Eva was tough to surprise, but when it happened it was rarely a good thing. She likes cats, had a beautiful Siamese cat imported from China growing up.

It was just, Charlie had made no mention of wanting a cat at all.

“That’s not even the funniest part.” Tommy said preparing her for whatever it is. "Try to laugh too loudly, he might hear you."

“I promise I won’t laugh, Gabe just fell asleep.” Somehow Eva knows she will break that promise.

“Amanda has a full goatee.” It was rare to hear her husband laugh. She loved hearing it and she had missed it so much thus past year. “Fucking cat has better facial hair than most men I know.”

“Amanda? He named her after his teacher?” Eva asked. She shouldn’t judge, she had a chicken named Majo after cousin Maria Jose.

“Yes, and told the man from the Birmingham Daily so.” There is a pause, she can see him in her minds eye, running a hand through his face. “Mandy Russell already hates us for what Ada did to her in school.”

Oh, Ada, why did you have to steal Amanda Russell’s boyfriend and ruin her hair in secondary school?

“I’m sure it will be fine, Tom. We’ll laugh about this awful coincidence when you two come home.” She said feeling the baby stir. He was a light sleeper; any sound was enough to wake him up. It was a miracle he hadn’t woken up when Tommy called.

“Fine.” He said before adding,” I love you.”

Tommy Shelby, despite all his faults and the image he projected, was a loving man who had just discovered he liked to say I love you at the end of a phone call to his wife.

“Love you too, now hang up before he finds another cat to name after Eden.”