𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐁𝐘 | peaky blinders

02; The devil was once an Angel

The soft breeze hit Elsie's face and caught her cheeks and the tip of her nose; her cheeks were a rosy red, breaking close to the surface due to the strong pump of her heart. Her long dark locks floated down her back in loose waves and the short wisps around her face fluttered in the breeze.

After another few minutes of silently walking, Elsie and Finn spotted the Clarke siblings, James and Isaiah. Mary held a circular cake on a plate in her hands, it had and a big 17 in the middle with blue icing on one side and red on the other, Elsie and Finn's favourite colours.

"Thank you so much Mary!" Elsie said as she hugged the girl tightly. Elsie was truly grateful that Mary had gone out of her way to bring a cake, even if its only small thing, it meant a lot to her. She didn't have many friends due to the fact that people didn't want to associate with her because of the family's reputation and more so the fact that she didn't even know if she would ever want to have another close friend after what happened with Lilian.

"No problem, happy birthday to the both of you" the young woman beamed with a bright grin on her face. Finn mumbled a small "thanks" before turning to Isaiah and James.

Elsie spun to face Will who had a lopsided smile on his face. "Well well, happy birthday to the infamous Elizabeth Shelby" he cocked his eyebrow to the side after seeing the unimpressed look on her face. Will Clarke was a known flirt around small heath, albeit he wasn't like Isaiah Jesus in the sense he had sex with every girl that came his bloody way.

"Shut your mouth William Clarke" She smirked back knowing he too hated his full name, the older boy clenched his jaw but didn't really expect a different response from the girl in front of him.

"Fine, we're even. I remember being Seventeen once Elsie girl" He stated as he looked into her eyes. Her eyes. They were crystal blue but brighter, if possible, and put the purest of oceans to shame. The young Shelby girl possessed the most beautiful pair of eyes he had ever seen and it was so simple to get lost in them.

"Will, you don't need to remind me of your old age" she laughed.

"Oh, you wound me!" He declared dramatically with a hand over his heart and a smirk playing on his lips, "Although I am only 2 years older than you" Elsie stared at him and when she didn't reply he chose to speak again, "Anyway I'm gonna guess your brothers weren't too happy about you being here with boys like us, especially Tommy, he's the devil in disguise that one"

"Why do you talk so much?" she deadpanned, he opened his mouth but before he even had the chance to reply she held her finger to his lips to silence him. She turned around to re-join the rest of the group a few meters away but not without saying, "even the devil was once an angel"

Depending on what you believe, it is true that the devil was once an angel. In Thomas Shelby's case he was somewhat an angel before he left for war but after being in those tunnels, experiencing near death many times and seeing his friends die, he came back a shell of a man. The old Tommy was long gone, buried deep in the soil of France.

The next couple of hours were spent story telling, flirting and drinking. While the boys preferred to drink whiskey from the bottle, the girls drank wine as they were always taught it was classier for women to drink wine. A few hours and three bottles of wine later, she was undoubtedly drunk.

In all honestly, the whole group was fucked. The lads were far worse than Elsie and Mary after drinking their whiskey and snorting cocaine.

Elsie got up and began dancing, the others clapped and sung along, she grabbed James's hand and pulled him up. As the began to dance, Elsie saw William staring daggers at the pair. Oh so he's jealous? She found it quite amusing. She had always found it difficult to pick between Will and James.

It was Mary and Finn's turn to dance as James stopped and pulled Elsie down onto his lap. She turned around and gave him a bright grin which he returned.

She put her arms around him and buried her head in the crook of his neck, he wrapped her arms around her waist and whispered into her ear, "you're beautiful".

"As are you J" she giggled. The pair sat in silence and stared into each others eyes before James placed a gentle peck on her lips.

Will stood up and left, she did feel bad for stringing them both along but at the end of the day she was just having fun... if that makes it any better.

Mary and Finn left a while ago, both stumbling down the path to probably find somewhere private. When Will left, Isaiah got up and announced he was leaving to "find a beautiful lady down the pub and have some fun" Typical. Thought Elsie. He was only 19 and was already known round town for being a manwhore, it didn't make it any better that he was the preachers son.

"I really like you y'know El" James said as he softly stroked her hair, her relationship with James was different to her relationship with Will. With Will it was just flirting and mocking whereas with James it was gentle and they shared many soft moments.

She could see herself marrying a man like James, however she was easily tempted by William's recklessness.

"Shit!" She cried as she realised it was already dark, Polly told me to be back before dark! She mentally cursed herself. "My brothers will no doubt send a search party out for me if they haven't already"

"Fuck" James muttered, he stood up with Elsie and the pair began to walk down the lanes to her house.

Elsie stopped for a moment and turned to face James, "I really like you too, by the way" the teenagers leant in and shared a short yet passionate kiss, it wasn't like the rough kisses she shared with Will in the past.

Authors note

What do you guys think of Will and James?????? For those who remember how the story used to be, it was just Will but I added James to create a bit of drama. So far it looks like she prefers James but we will see...