The softest blush of rose petals permeated the small bedroom set nestled on Watery Lane. It was a gentle aroma, resembling the fragility of a new spring breeze. For it fought for a presence amongst the strength of rich tobacco that engulfed the atmosphere, clinging to the sheets messed on the narrow twin bed and nearly sewing itself into the very stitch work of the dress that flowed down your frame. The floral notes were weak in comparison to the heady masculine scent of Tommy Shelby's distinct and damningly intoxicating cologne. Lingering in the air from his early rise with the morning's fresh light and remaining on the pillow case that absorbed the spice of his scent.

The bottle glinted the faintest spark of light that the Birmingham sky would allow, even as morning had engulfed the atmosphere, the smog and dense ashen haze persisted as if you were never bound to see the sun again. The delicate glass bottle clanked as you set it back down on the mahogany dresser, relishing in the way your skin carefully absorbed the sweet scent. The aroma that you loved dancing along the curve of your neck, seeping across the collar of your powder blue dress. For it was a scent that felt like it didn't belong here in the cold and depressing streets of Small Heath and yet, when you wore the perfume that erupted like the blooming of fresh petals, it reminded you that even in the shadows where perhaps God didn't often look, beauty was still possible.

Looking up from your fingertips that grazed against the side of the cool glass, you caught your reflection in the mirror and felt frozen staring back. For to any other, today was simply another day. The sun would rise and the moon would surely take it's place at the end, but something imbued through the atmosphere of the Shelby house and it felt all-consuming in it's indisputable presence. Today was not just any ordinary day, today was Black Star Day, the day Thomas Shelby would take down Billy Kimber for good.

Releasing a shaky breath through the soft part in your lips, you watched as your chest dropped with your exhale, but none of the anxiety that clutched to your heart that strived to beat through the sensation, was alleviated. For you could feel the nerves gnawing at you from the inside out. Your stomach twisted into a million tiny knots, as though it just might never unwind. Your chest felt tight, like the oxygen that continued to flow down into your lungs, had to force their way, fighting to get you your each and every breath.

The day fell cold on the other side of the ghostly frosted windowpane, but the cold that consumed your body was different. For your flesh felt clammy, as your palms wrung anxiously over and over in front of your chest. Heat flushing your cheeks, appearing as the only hue of color to grace your suddenly paled and weary expression. The anxiety flooded you with warmth that threatened to make you dizzy, but the trepidation for the day's events, sent the blood coursing through your veins running cold.

"You look as if you've seen a bloody ghost."

Perhaps, you'd known he had been standing there the entire time. For you knew if your eyes had the clarity to focus on the entirety of the reflection in the small dresser mirror, apart from the sole sight of your nervous expression, you would've seen Tommy leaning his weight against the doorframe. Clad in deep charcoal tweed and a three piece suit that fit him to perfection. His peaky cap snug against his scalp, pulled lower than any of his brothers as though he aimed to hide the power that resided in his blinding orbs of rich cerulean blue. His hands hidden away in the depths of his pockets, the faded light that had glinted across your perfume bottle, finding the gold chain along his waist coat.

Blinking your eyes as they'd begun to burn from the lack of motion, feeling the wild flutter of your lashes batting against the flesh of your cheekbones, you centered your attention on the Tommy's reflection. The glass distorted his expression in the space in which he stood away from you and from the lack of pristine clarity of the glass itself, but you swore you were still able to observe the ghost of a curl along the stretch of his plump lips.

Pursing your own, as you shake your head ever so softly at Tommy's gently spoken observation, you stare into his reflected eyes as you respond in a shaky voice. "No ghost I'm afraid."

"Then how come I can just about see right through you, eh?"

Maybe Tommy already knew the answer as to why it was you who resembled the ghost, with the color draining from your flesh and the shakes jittering through your hands. Maybe he simply wanted to hear the words fall from your own lips, confirm what he already believed to be true. But the words never came. Perhaps they just couldn't form against the tip of your tongue, or maybe the fear that began to soar right along your cold running blood, simply overcame you. But you couldn't admit to Tommy, even when he already knew it to be the reason behind your shaken state, that you were frightened for what was in store for the day.

Tommy didn't receive the answer he sought for in the clear ring of your voice, but rather he watched as your eyes left his in the mirror and your head dropped to gaze down at the dresser in front of you. The bedroom was quiet, as the daunting notions of the day hovered within the atmosphere as though a darkening storm cloud, looming until it made it's harsh contact with the ground below. But Tommy's presence, could break through any void. For his footsteps strode with ease along the floorboards and you listened to the creaks that groaned beneath the clamber of his strong steps. It was not a long space between the doorway and the dresser, as the bedroom was small and rather tight, but it felt like he'd found you faster than ever before as he halted a single pace behind your frozen frame.

Your eyes remained in the cast downwards, staring at the unique lines in the deep wood but not truly seeing anything at all. It was only as something stretched forward in your peripheral that made your lashes bound and flutter, breaking through your stilled sight and you glanced to the right. Catching sight of Tommy's hand reaching towards the edge of the dresser, his hand curled into a soft fist as he rested his now removed peaky cap down against the surface. It made not a sound, even as it's ashen fabric brushed against the glass of your perfume bottle and Tommy's hand disappeared from your vision. But it didn't abandon you, for it was a single heartbeat before the palm of his bare hand found your hip and closed that single pace remaining between your bodies.

The scent of him engulfed you before his arms encircled your waist. The spice of his cologne, the heady aroma that lingered on his skin from just his natural musk and the faint tinge of crisp soap along his freshly shaven jawline. The warmth of his breath fanned against the nape of your exposed neck, as Tommy brushed his chin against the tip of your shoulder, lips hovering just above the touch of your flesh as if simply to tease the surface with his agonizingly close presence. His palms, smooth with the faintest callouses hardening his fingers, slid along the curve of your hips until they connected in front of you, flattening and curling against your flat abdomen.

Tommy Shelby wasn't always the most affectionate man, he struggled somedays with being a loving man, but when Tommy hugged you, it felt as though you were being encased in the very embrace of safety and comfort itself. And this, as his arms wrapped around you from behind and he pulled you close to his chest, until your head had no choice but to recline back against the tattooed muscle that lay over the beating organ in his chest, was your favorite way that Tommy held you.

"I know you're nervous," His breath trailed along your skin, carefully making sure that his lips never quite touched down upon the flesh of your neck, and you couldn't help but wonder just how pleasure he was deriving from depriving you of the touch of his alluring lips. "about today. About me, about all the fucking things that could possibly go wrong."

That was the thing about Tommy, he knew how your head worked just as you knew how his operated as well. The only thing that separated his genius and your nervous wreck, was that while Tommy overthought and over planned because he was methodical and always calculated to the absolute finest and minuet detail, you overthought because you feared a little too much. Tommy saw all of the same dangers that you did, but when he focused in on how to avoid the brunt of them, how to curve the straight line of fate to better fit his plans, you focused on all of the possibilities and what if's that kept you up at night. Perhaps, you'd always been this way, but it only appeared heightened after you met Tommy. Stepping into a world encased in unknowns and dangers that he strived to shield you from but all the while, you were the one who over worried about who might just be protecting him from those very same dangers.

"But it'll all be over after today love," With those words, Tommy's lips finally descended upon the nape of your neck and the warmth of his voice and breath, infused with the combination of smoke and soft mint, danced along your senses. His kiss was chaste as it pressed tenderly along the muscle of your neck that moved with your deep swallow, but he didn't remove his touch even as he continued to speak against your skin. "just think of it."

Your eyes that had long since fluttered shut in the instant coil of serenity and comfort Tommy's embrace provided, squeezed softly behind your closed eyelids as you felt your next words slip through your lips before you had that slightest chance to stop them. "You've to come home to me first, Tommy."

His lips pulled away from your flesh as your words rung clear and painful in the cavity of his ears, leaving your neck suddenly frigid as though he'd torn the single source of warmth in Small Heath right along with his touch. Tommy's hands unclasped and moved to press against your hips once again, except this time, there was a firmness to his touch that was strong and authoritative. For his fingers dug into the soft fabric billowing down your frame, not harshly enough to leave marks in tomorrow's light, but enough that Tommy could turn your body. Forcing you away from his chest and turning until you faced him now.

"Hey." Tommy commanded in a low voice, there was not a shred of anger or exasperation but there was a commanding underlying tone of sternness, one that forced your eyes to peer up through the timid flutter of your lashes. Only for Tommy's right hand to lift away from your hip, having pressed the small of your back gently against the edge of the dresser, and his fingers pressed firm beneath your chin. Flicking his wrist in a single swift motion, the cautious but commanding force of his knuckles lifting your face upwards, until your eyes met his own burning blue eyed gaze and kept you steady as he studied your expression for a split second. As though to evaluate just what was swirling around in your head, extracting everything he could possibly need to know from the sheer reflection in your eyes, having been able to read you like an open book since the moment you met.

"There isn't anything that'll keep me from coming home to ya, alright?"

The ghost of a smile tugged at the corners of your shaky lips, for you wanted nothing more than to simply fall into the comforting assurance of his engulfing voice, allow your worries to fade into the sound of his fierce and passionate tone. Tommy's eyes stared straight into your own, his dark dense lashes never once beating down upon his faintly freckled cheekbones, as if he were determined for you to witness the belief and the self-assurance that blazed within his orbs of pure blue. As if they burned like the dancing flames of a fanned fire, only in his eyes, they were calm in their appearance of harshly blistering passion. Waves of a fiery presence that could not be extinguished when Tommy Shelby believed something so fiercely to be true.

The smile that fought for a presence along the swell of your lips, faltered as the strong confidence blazing in Tommy's stern and overwhelming scrutiny, simply wasn't enough in that moment to keep that smile steady and in place. "It's frightening Tom, how assured you are of the world, how assured of your place within it."

Maybe, not a single soul could truly be sure of the world, but Tommy Shelby, rather approached life as if he had the right as any other man to own every bit of it that he could. That's what made him so sure, that he could make his way through this life, that he would make his place within it's grasps. But it was frightening, although he had proven himself time and time again, that the world could simply alter and scramble the foundation he believed to be steady beneath his feet. Tommy Shelby held more of the universe's answers than anyone you had ever met, but he still was only one man and in that, a man that the universe had tried time and time again to defeat.

"I know my place," Tommy's voice dropped down a peg, not soft enough that it fluttered on the current of a whisper, but lower that you could nearly feel the rumble deep in his chest. His knuckles shifted along the flesh of your chin, cradling your cheek with the flat palm of his hand and allowed his thumb to brush softly along your cheeks that held the only hue of faintly beating peony. The pad of his thumb was smooth and bewilderingly warm given the Birmingham unrelenting cold. And there were moments when Tommy touched your face with such gentleness, while staring intently into your timid gaze, that made you feel as though he needed the touch more than you. "it's with you."

For even as he was never one for big public displays of affection or getting intimate as John and his lovely new bride Esme endeavored to be where eyes could wander, Tommy craved human physical connection. Even if it were nights when your bodies remained fully clothed and your eyes fluttered with the sleep that had found you hours earlier in the evening, Tommy still reached for you. Whether to coil his arm around your waist or brushing the strands of flyaway tendrils from your forehead as you dozed, there was something about him that needed the touch of others.

"And we're moving up, ey."

You didn't have time to come up with a response to his words that startled your heart and forced it to beat a thump or two faster, but perhaps that was his plan all along. For before your thoughts had the chance to collect and your heart had time to feel the return of certain nerves in place of the mixture of love and lust from his honesty, Tommy leaned forward and kissed you. Capturing your lips in a swift motion as though they were more his property than your own, for he knew how to collide and pull at their most sensitive spots with ease, proving yet again that he knew your body better than you did.

His kiss was intoxicating, as smoke laced his lips and the cooling sensation of peppermint soared along the edge of your taste buds. Only whiskey missing from the taste of Tommy's tongue, as he'd made it clear to keep the liquor to a minimum until celebrating a win when all was said and done. But it felt like he hadn't even needed it, for as you kissed him, you could've sworn you got dizzy right there off the taste of his dominating kiss.

Tommy's hand squeezed the skin of your cheek softly before he pulled away, a soft nearly imperceptible pop of his retreating lips and he gazed down at you with a small smile tugging at the corners of his own lips. His hand slid down from your face, trailing down your arm until he curled his fingers with your own, squeezing one last time as though to bid his goodbye for the day in an intimate action of silence. But just as you began to feel the tips of his fingers slip from your grasp, you bolted forward and clasped your hands around Tommy's wrist. Forcing his steps to instantly halt and look back at you as his name fell from your lips in a suddenly desperate breath.

Tommy's brows furrowed as he awaited your words, knowing that they waited trembling on the very edge of your tongue and with a brave breath, you let them topple and spill in a vulnerable exhale. "I'm pregnant Tommy."

"We're going to have a baby."

The words that you'd held inside of yourself since you found out only a week before, didn't feel real. They hadn't since the doctor confirmed the strong heartbeat and the reason behind your persistent sickness in the early morning hours, but you had only hoped that once they hit the air and fell from your lips in the sound of your own voice, that it might settle inside of your chest with a realness that made it all seem like reality inside of a waking dream. But as your lips remained parted from where they had formed the words, watching Tommy closely as to capture every ounce of a visible expression from a man who scarcely revealed one, it didn't solidify the reality as you'd hoped it would. In fact, it only made the anxiety churning in your gut grow to exponential heights, as your heart hammered to the suffocating seconds of Tommy's silence.

The nerves of a baby born in a little less than seven months time and of the reaction from it's father looming in a void of unknowns before you, forced your voice to shake and weary tears to pierce your wide eyes. Swiping your tongue along the suddenly dry nature of your bottom lip, as you tightened your hold around Tommy's wrist, you spoke up in a voice that was drenched with the vulnerability you hated to reveal to him.

"And I'm scared," You confessed with an emphatic shake of your head, but never once abandoning Tommy's unnervingly steady eye contact. For while your sight nearly drowned beneath the overwhelming weight of the burning discovery of fresh tears, Tommy's gaze was as frozen and calm as the ice that captivated the hue of his irises. "so fucking scared."

Perhaps, there was weakness in your admission, but it was the truth. The God's honest truth, that fear had settled into your very bones. It ate away at you, day after day, as the truth of a new and unfamiliar future loomed across the horizon while never having the courage to share it with the one person who needed to know about it most. And as today drew closer and finally arrived with the melancholy overcast morning sky, the fears you had for Tommy only increased as the thought of raising a baby alone if anything were to go wrong, scared you more than any fear you'd ever known in your life.

Tommy's eyes were still, as if his eyes were simply ice left in the place his orbs should reside. Staring deeply into your own, nearly freezing over the tears glistening and glossing over your sight and the lines of his face, were concealed as though they simply faded from his flesh. Giving not a single glimpse into the thoughts surely running through his head, the emotions erupting through his remarkably calm chest, not revealing in the slightest what his true reaction might possibly be.

You wished in that moment, that you had the ability that you discovered Tommy had from time to time, irritatingly able to read your mind before you even voiced your thoughts. You searched his eyes, the stilled expression of a blank canvas, pining for something, anything that might alert you to what was going on in the head you just couldn't break into. But as your anxiety began to peak in the accelerating thumps of your pounding heart beat, Tommy's next action slowly began to alleviate the nerves threatening to eat you alive.

For he stepped forward, closing the pace of two lingering between your bodies, until he was standing right in front of you as he was only a few short minutes before. His sight hovering down, as the scrutiny of his intense stare overwhelmed you like the shade of a stormy night, you peered up with pure trepidation through your tear dampened lashes.

Tommy's wrist withdrew from your tight grasp, although to him it appeared easy to simply slip his hand from your hold, as though you hadn't an ounce of strength as you thought you had. But the touch of his flesh didn't abandon you for long, as his hand raised and his knuckles found your chin yet again. But this time, as the warm flesh of his hand touched upon your face, his movement was gentle. It was not as stern as the last, it was not as forceful, but rather careful and tender as though you were made of fragile glass in that very moment. Tipping your chin up with the raise of his knuckles, Tommy urged your gaze to lift and stare straight into his ice blue embrace. And there, as your heart threatened to beat right out of your chest, you caught the first glimpse into Tommy's honest reaction to the news you'd spilled nervously in a high stressed moment.

Tommy leaned down, until his nose nearly brushed against the tip of your own and the warmth of his breath fanned along the flesh of your lips, as if he might just exhale his words right into your lungs. Even as his face hovered ever so closely to your own, the curve of his lips and the softest display of a genuine smile toying at the edges, did not evade your sight. "What I tell ya, ey?"

"We're moving up," Tommy's smile deepened with the passion in his voice, his words dancing on the tone of a hushed whisper but they settled against your heart with the volume of a resounding bell chime. "and when today is all said and fucking done, we're gonna have ourselves a baby, yeah. And I'm gonna get ya that damned ring you've been hinting at and a big fucking house, you hear me? We're moving up and this is part of it."

Maybe, you could never truly believe that Tommy had the world completely figured out and had his hand on the neck of fate itself, with the ability to twist it to his every whim. But in that moment, as his smile collided with the strong blue of his irises and his words graced your ears with an emotion that he didn't often allow himself to convey, you let yourself let go and ease into the comfort of Tommy's confident assurance.

Tommy Shelby had no way of knowing the blood that would be spilled as the day transpired, but he knew of the life that awaited him at the end of it all and perhaps, that was the last push that you needed, to let the fears that ate away at your heart, finally go for good.

A/N: Okay, this one is a softer one and I'm not too ashamed about it! I really liked this idea when it first came to me and it proceeded to grow and develop into the piece it is now and I am very happy with how it turned out!❤

It's a softer piece, something that definitely gives me a bit of writing anxiety especially with this character, but I try to remind myself when I get these ideas and coinciding doubtful thoughts, that Tommy does have his soft and loving and romantic moments. They're rare and preserved, but they are there and beautiful and I shouldn't have to shy away from writing some pieces that aren't as angsty or painful, and so I am very happy with how this turned out and can only hope that you all enjoyed it as well!❤