FINE LINE | t. shelby

before

Thomas Shelby grew up with Charlotte Winslow, almost every memory from his childhood up until his teenage years involved her. Ever since the Winslow's moved in next door to the Shelby's on Watery Lane thirty years ago, the two families had been close and because of that the children of each family were close too. They had always been a unit, it was well known around Small Heath that the Winslow's and Shelby's were a package deal. One doesn't come without the other. Perhaps this is why it came as so much of a shock to everybody when Tommy and Charlotte, who had been close since kids, began to drift apart. Although most people wouldn't call it drifting apart. It was more like a pulling apart and the pulling was coming from one side only, Tommy's. The idea of Tommy and Charlotte ever not being close seemed impossible to everyone who knew the pair, which is why it came as such a shock when the duo first fell apart. There was absolutely no reason for it either. There wasn't a massive argument where the two fell out, there hadn't been any wrong doing from either side and there wasn't any bad blood between any other Winslow or Shelby to cause the rift. It was completely out of the blue. One day Tommy just didn't talk to Charlotte like he used to, didn't try to spend time with her like he always tried to do and didn't so much as acknowledge her when they were in the same room. The rest of the members of each respective family were just as close as they had been before, arguably even closer. Which is why it was so hard to understand the reason why the only two who drifted were Tommy and Charlotte. The ones who nobody ever thought would.

Charlotte and almost every other member of each family had questioned Tommy multiple times about why he changed so randomly and quickly, only to get an 'I don't know what your taking about' in response every single time. That was the most infuriating thing about the whole situation, Charlotte never got given a reason or an answer. Instead she was left to lie awake at night wondering why she wasn't good enough for Thomas Shelby. Eventually, after realising that she was the only one who Tommy seemed to have a problem with and the only one Tommy seemed to hate being alone in the same room with Charlotte came to the conclusion that he just didn't like her anymore. Charlotte truly believed Tommy hated her. Nobody else was convinced by this theory. In all honesty it was near impossible to hate Charlotte Winslow, she was as pure as they came. It's an infinite pain to feel like the person you love most in the world hates you. Thomas Shelby was Charlotte Winslows person, best friend and twin flame. There was nobody in this world that knew her like he did, and vice versa. Charlotte Winslow had never imagined a world without Tommy being by her side, neither had he, but now they were both living in it and it was so much worse than they could've anticipated.

The only person who knows the truth about this situation is the person on the other side of it, Thomas himself. The theory Charlotte concocted in her head couldn't be further from the truth. He would never let anyone know, but the real reason why he took himself away from Charlotte wasn't at all because he suddenly hated her. In fact it was the opposite. Tommy only ever had Charlotte's best interests at heart, and because of this he took away the person he thought wasn't good for her, the person who would taint her pure soul and the person he feared would ruin her. Himself. Having to distance himself from Charlotte was a struggle from the beginning and still was now even all these years later. The two obviously ran into each other often with the families still being close and her brother being a peaky blinder. It's difficult enough going from talking everyday to no communication at all but having to see them everyday as well. That makes it a thousand times worst. After the first two years Tommy had learnt to cope with going day to day pretending he was never close with Charlotte but it was the days when he could tell the girl was particularly low that were the hardest. There had been a number of times were Tommy had been close to breaking his promise to himself of keeping Charlotte away from him. When her mother died, when her father abandoned them or when they were all called up for war. Yet he didn't. He had held himself back from Charlotte for all these years.

Now, freshly back from the war, business is on the up for the Peaky blinders. Certain circumstances seem to pull Thomas and Charlotte together despite Tommy trying to keep the distance between them. Putting Tommy to the test and challenging the promise he made himself all those years ago.

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