red↳ thomas shelby

- XXI. -

[ B i r m i n g h a m , 1 9 2 1 ]

Thomas Shelby was losing his fucking mind.

For once the gangster had no clue what to do. Something was terribly wrong, he could feel it, but he had no idea what was wrong and it was driving him mental.

Zara hadn't been the same since the Garrison reopening the night before. She thought he wouldn't notice, but he did. While she played pretend in front of his family for the rest of the night, at home Zara would avoid her lover like the plague. She resorted to sleeping in her office, only coming out to use the bathroom, and left for work only if she was one hundred percent sure that Tommy was not home.

He didn't know what he had done wrong to deserve this treatment from Zara, and it not only pissed him the fuck off, but it made him incredibly sad. Zara was his partner in all meanings of the word, and he was distraught without her presence, even in the short time that she had distanced herself, he was becoming unhinged and angry.

But alas, there was business to attend to, so Tommy pushed down the urge to break down that fucking office door, take Zara into his arms, and never let her go again. Instead, he passed her office door on his way to the Garrison, knowing that he would see her there for the interviews.

She arrived only a few minutes after Tommy did, settling into the booth next to John in the snug, as far away from Tommy as she could get. The atmosphere in the room was awkward, with both John and Arthur noticing that something was going on between the couple. Now that they had all arrived, the interviews could begin, with Finn sending in useless man after useless man.

"Next." Finn called, alerting the next candidate that it was his turn. A skinny boy in a bowler hat stood up and shakily walked towards the door to the snug. Tommy looked up from the table as the boy walked into the room, looking him over carefully.

"All right then. Name?" Arthur said.

"Digbeth Kid." The boy stuttered.

"What are you? A boxer?" Arthur chuckled.

"Digbeth Kid like Billy the Kid."

John tried to stifle his laughter as Tommy started to talk. Zara just remained in silence, face void of emotion.

"Spend a lot of time at the pictures, eh?" Tommy asked. "Cowboy pictures? Tom Mix? Yeah?"

The Digbeth Kid nodded, slightly moving his jacket to reveal a gun belt.

Arthur and John pulled their guns on the boy, making Zara snort. "It's not a real gun, you two. It's just painted wood." 

The Digbeth Kid nodded frantically, confirming Zara's statement.

"Let's have a look then, eh." Tommy said, reaching for the toy gun. He chuckled as he realized it was in fact fake, and pointed it at his family. "Bang. Bang." He pointed it at Arthur pretending to shoot.

"Pew, pew!" Arthur pretended to shoot his gun back at Tommy.

"Bang." Tommy said, pretending to shoot John this time. John exhaled his cigar, leaning his head back, pretending to be shot.

Zara just rolled her eyes, wanting the day to be over as soon as possible.

"Very nice. Where'd you get the gun belt?" Tommy asked, sitting down in his chair again.

"My sister made it out of an old blacksmith's apron. Me mum did most of the stitching. She's not my real mum, but..."

"She does what mothers do." Tommy nodded, looking at Zara quickly. "So she made you a gun belt."