devil's backbone 🗝 tommy shelby

chapter 2

Sybil, unfortunately, was practically forced to stay for the rest of the reception and celebration for her cousin and her new husband for hours and hours more than she deemed necessary. But when she was finally able to leave, she practically ran home, walking back to her flat in record time. She still couldn't believe it. A man she'd been raised to fear since she was old enough to walk, had spoken to her about something so profound that the only way to get it off of her chest was to a stranger. But he wasn't a stranger. He was a thief, and a killer, and a gambler, and a violent man with violent means of destruction. A criminal of the first degree. The leader of the most notorious gang in all of Birmingham ― perhaps all of England. The man she feared more than god himself: Thomas fucking Shelby.

Throwing her hat, she flopped down on her mattress and groaned into a pillow, not caring that it was "unladylike".

"Of all the people in the world," Sybil spoke to herself, flipping into her back. "It had to be Thomas bloody Shelby."

She lied on her bed for a while longer, replaying the conversation that she'd had with the Peaky Blinder on a continuous loop. Then, she let her mind wander.

Why was he at the wedding in the first place?

Why did he sit next to her, out of all the people in the church?

Why did he care about what she thought of love?

What did he know about it?

All of the questions that began running through her head were suffocating, and were beginning to make her feel dizzy.

"Come on, Billie," She chided herself, standing up. "Get a hold of yourself!"

And with another deep breath, she did. She composed herself back into the poised woman she was before the wedding, standing up and looking at herself in the mirror.

Noticing she was still in her clothes from the wedding, she took them off and replaced them with her usual simpler clothing, giving herself a nod of approval. Grabbing her clutch, she decided that the thing she needed most was a night out on the town. And she was going to have it.

Because Sybil Day always got what she wanted.

Walking down the streets with her head held high, she walked down the streets of her Birmingham and passed the Garrison, off to her own bar of choice that was a little more tasteful.

Also one that didn't have any Peaky Blinders.

But little did Sybil know that from the inside of the Garrison, there was a man, watching her every move as she walked down the streets. The same man that she had shared her philosophy on love with just hours before.

Thomas bloody Shelby.

Tommy knew of Sybil Day very well. They'd grown up together, but at the same time, they hadn't. She'd always been warned about his family, and was taught to see them as nothing more than criminals and that she should stay away from them. Not that Tommy could blame the Day family, as that's exactly what they were, but even so, he'd always had a little infatuation with the girl.

She was ahead of her time in so many ways. She was well educated, not giving one flying fuck as to what other people thought about that. She lived alone in a flat and never bothered with any male suitors, not because she couldn't get any, but because she didn't need any. She was independent and fierce in ways that even Tommy couldn't quite understand. Sybil Day was poised and dignified and always seemed to wear a serious expression on her round face. Not that he minded — he found it refreshing. Comforting, even.

He found himself thinking about her a lot while he was in the war, remembering her blonde hair and brown eyes to match walking down the streets of Birmingham as if she owned it. How she did her makeup, how she only seemed to wear clothes of the darker variety, and how she always had her nose in some book that she'd take from her father's study.

He also remembered the time that he beat some little punk to a pulp for saying that she was a freak for loving to read when she was around the age of nine and he was twelve. Not that Sybil would've known he said this, seeing as Tommy made sure that there was a cap on it, but he would've done anything for her back in the day. Whether she knew he did or not.

"She's a fine one, ain't she, Tom?" Arthur slurred, snapping his brother out of his trance. "'Bout time you finally set your eyes on a girl! And what a pair of legs she's got on her, indeed!"

"Oi, Arthur, watch out!" John teased. "Don't you know who that is?"

Arthur, in his drunken state, squinted out of the small window by their booth, trying to make out who the woman was by the back of her head.

"It's that Day girl," John rolled his eyes, chewing on his toothpick. "Billie or whatever."

"Oh, yeah! You always did have an eye for her, haven't you, Tommy?"

Tommy kept his face emotionless through his brothers' teasing, taking a sip of his drink before addressing them.

"I ran into Ms. Sybil Day at the wedding this afternoon. That's all."

"Yeah, sure!"

"You hear that one, mate?! He ran into her at a wedding! A bloody wedding! Next one they run into each other at will probably be their own!"

Tommy ignored his brothers' drunken banter, knowing well that they wouldn't remember a single thing about his Sybil Day when they woke up in the morning. So, he let them have their fun and made sure that they finished the bottle, captured by his own thoughts.

Sybil Day being the subject of every single one of them.