i found you .. and you found me // Thomas Shelby

49 - fake smile

"I can't fake another smile, I can't fake like I'm alright, oooh, oooh.. and I won't say I'm feeling fine, after what I been through I can't lie, oooh, oooh... fuck a fake smile," - Ariana Grande-Butera

"What the fuck is going on?" Giorgia announced as she walked into Ada's house on Watery Lane to find blood smeared into the carpets, the curtains, and quite frankly, all over the fucking place.

"Ah, Gia," Arthur called awkwardly, looking around the place for an excuse. "Don't worry, I'm fine-"

"I don't give a fuck if you're 'fine' or not, Arthur," she growled. "What the fuck happened?" 

"Wops, two of 'em," Arthur spoke as Gia chucked him a towel to clean up with. "Tried to kill me."

"By the look of you, I'd say unsuccessfully." 

"Yeah."

Then, the silence consumed the room. Arthur took his clothes off and changed into some new ones, while Gia sat on the sofa, one leg crossed over the other, smoking a cigarette in the peace. Arthur wasn't the smartest and he, like his brother, wasn't the best at deciphering human emotions - especially when it came to women -, but he knew something was bothering Giorgia, something he often found on the look on her face. Maybe it was because he, unlike her husband, cared enough to notice. 

Maybe it was the whole situation with the Italians, and maybe Gia was feeling guilty. She, as an Italian American woman, was smack bang in the centre of this war, and Arthur for one knew how conflicting that could have been. But, he also knew about her 'no shits given' attitude, one he'd appreciated the second he'd met her. She was a closed book, and he soon gave up trying to read her once he'd watched her smoke four cigarettes in the space of ten minutes. 

"You're just like your half wit of a younger brother, you know that?" 

"Which one we talkin' about sweetheart? I have three." 

Scoffing, Giorgia stubbed out her finished cigarette. "Your oldest, youngest brother." 

"Ah, Tommy!" Arthur announced sarcastically, attempting to sort his bow tie. "He means well, G, he really does." 

Thinking about it for a second, Gia looked at Arthur with a raised brow. "If you knew half of the things that man has done to me, you'd kill him yourself." 

Arthur didn't need much explanation, he knew exactly what she'd meant. A part of him felt guilty, as the older brother. John was dead, Finn was lost in his world and Tommy was laying his hands on his wife and fucking any woman he could. Arthur had always been the protector, the father, the big brother. He'd never known anything else, and he felt like he was failing them all. Arguably, it hit Arthur the hardest when John died. Finn cried for weeks, Arthur actually showed his emotions but Tommy, well Tommy was just Tommy. 

"You don't have to look so guilty," Gia told him, fixing his tie for him after watching him try too many times. "I'm a big girl, I can deal with it." 

"I don't doubt that," Arthur told her, kissing her on the cheeky quickly before his gathering his jacket. "Now, you coming to this fucking meeting with me or what?" 

Smoking another cigarette, Gia called, "I already went to the fucking meeting, and we took a vote on your behalf." 

"You fucking what?" 

"Guess who?"

"Bastard," Arthur mutterred. 

"Look, Tommy wanted to get rid of the law of the bullet, that anyone can kill Luca. I said no, and I stand by that. I want to be the one to do it, but, between you and me, if you get your hands on that slimey bastard before I do, make him suffer, yeah?"