CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

               "DON'T YOU EVER STOP talking?" John complained to the blonde of whom was sat before him, and she pulled a face in an automatic childish response.

It was only the Shelby's — and Felicity, of course — who occupied the once—bustling pub at this very moment, although just why Tommy had asked Harry to close the Garrison for the night was beyond her. She hadn't the slightest idea, yet from the startling expression of self—pride that had taken hold of his features, she guessed that for once it might be in celebration for something rather than to warn the clansmen of another feud between families.

"I've hardly said a word," Felicity retorted back as she lazily swirled her glass bottle and watched as its contents sloshed about inside.

"Well, you've said more than anyone else," the man huffed. "And that's too much."

"If it bothers you so much, leave!" She argued, nodding her head over towards the door.

"He'll do no such thing." Tommy leaned back against his chair as he watched the petty, sibling―like retaliation that had been firing between his brother and the blonde for the past five minutes.

Felicity turned to him. "He might as well, because you've refused to tell us just why we're all here," she almost whined, causing John to roll his eyes and for Tommy to try and repress his own amusement.

"None of you are particularly patient, are you?" He noted with a sigh of disappointment that was only partly serious.

"Not when I have to go and do things, no," John said, tipping his head back so to get out the last of his beer.

"Stop lying, John ― we all know you don't do shit."

The man scowled and kicked out under the table at Felicity. "You're a bitch."

"No more than you are, John―Boy," she retaliated half―heartedly.

From the head of the table, Polly glared at the pair of squabbling grown―ups before turning her weary expression towards Tommy. "This had better be worth it," she said with a sigh.

Before he could respond, the door was pushed open, revealing a tentative Ada as well as Freddie Thorne, who had in his arms Karl. A grin plastered itself upon Felicity's features the moment she caught sight of her friend ― whom she had greatly missed for the few weeks that she and her husband had left the city and escaped to London.

"Ada!" Felicity exclaimed with an excited screech, jumping up from her seat and rushing forward to hug the brunette. "Ada baby, I've fucking missed you!"

She laughed as the girl's arms were flung around her neck. "It's only been a couple of weeks!"

Felicity stepped backwards and slipped back into her seat, so to allow the others to greet her. "You forget," she reminded her pointedly. "That's a couple of weeks with your brothers — one of which tests my patience beyond belief, good God."

"Fair point," Ada chuckled as she untangled herself from Arthur's hug and returned to the side of husband.

Felicity couldn't ignore the faint hint of hostility that radiated between him and the rest of the Shelby siblings ― one that she hoped they were attempting to push through and look past, if not for the sake of Ada, then for the sake of the wide―eyed, eager baby that was taking in the sight of the family before him.

⎯

             If there was one thing that Felicity Woods knew, it was that birthdays were cursed.

They had been for as long as she could remember. . . if not longer, because the reiteration of her very first one was one that stuck in her mind the most, even if the memory of it was not precisely her own.

Her first birthday had been the day that her mother had rushed from the Woods household, without a warning, without anything in her arms other than a singular trunk and a letter that she would later drop off at her husband's desk. She'd left her daughter with what she had assumed to be the best out of the two parents and after she had planted a soft kiss upon the sleeping baby's forehead, she hadn't looked back. Her father had blamed the girl for it ― just why he did so, he wasn't sure, other than the fact that he thought their marriage had been secure before the golden―haired infant had entered their lives and intruded upon their world ― and despite him not being known for being a particularly caring father in the first place, he took it upon himself to amplify his interest in his business and his distaste in the girl.

And thus began the curse that had been placed upon birthdays. Perhaps it was only hers, though, she wondered? Everyone else seemed to be perfectly capable of enjoying the day that was only theirs. . . so why wasn't she?

Felicity had decided weeks before that she wouldn't alert her friends nor the Shelby family of this upcoming milestone. She told herself that it was because she didn't want them to trouble themselves with celebrations ― yet really, it was because she didn't want the curse to ruin the day for them, too.

"I'll see you later?" Tommy had confirmed with her as he was leaving the bed of which they had once laid together, their limbs tangled within one another.

She simply nodded and watched him with weary eyes as he dressed for the day ― pulling his shirt on, buttoning his trousers, and all the while, completely unaware of the date and of all that was running through the blonde's mind. So he left, and the girl did the same not ten minutes later, pushing herself up off the covers and trying to get rid of all the anxieties that ran through her veins. Felicity decided to get on with her day just as he was with his, figuring that the sooner it was over, the sooner she found herself back in that very same bed intertwined with Tommy, she'd be alright. Safe from a curse that had raged for years ― nearly the entirety of her life, in fact. Safe because she knew that no harm could come to her so long as she had him by her side.

Luckily enough, Ada had taken it upon herself to stop by the Shelby household at the very same time that Felicity was escaping downstairs. Seated at the table with a mug of almost―forgotten tea in one hand, the day's newspaper in the other and a devilish, smug smile creeping upon her lips at the sight of the Woods girl, she greeted her, her words coated with the same girlish intrigue that was so often found in the voices of adolescents.

"Are you going?" The brunette then asked, flicking through the paper idly.

She nodded, confused as to why she wouldn't be. "I've got work, haven't I?"

Ada shot her a glance of distaste. "Can't Harry manage on his own?" She queried. "You know, at this busy hour of. . . ten o'clock?"

"Harry doesn't get in for at least another hour," Felicity corrected the other woman with a smile. "And I might as well go in now, tidy the place up. I haven't got anything better to do."

"You could stay here with me." Ada suggested. "Keep me company ― Pol's gone to the market and only God knows where Freddie ran off to at this time."

"How about work?"

She laughed. "You know damn well he hasn't worked since they let him go from the factory."

The girl allowed her friend to ramble on about the complaints she had in regards to her husband ― complaints she suspected that Ada was only partially serious about. Felicity had found that love, whilst it did come to be an antidote for much of life's issues, was also particularly good at masking all the insecurities and problems that came with the one you loved. So she listened and made nonchalant, agreeing noises at the right times.

"You're not doing anything today, are you?" Felicity eventually asked. 

Ada was right, Harry could manage on his own. He would understand when she turned up the next morning ― besides, it wasn't as though she was a terrible employee. . .  if anything, it was her who was keeping the pub on its feet. What with all of the family issues that Harry had to leave the town for recently, she often found herself alone behind the bar. 

Or, not alone. Often, Tommy would sneak out from the booth and join her, claiming that he was helping her pour the steady flow of clamoured―for pints, when really, his sole point in being there was to sneak kisses when his family weren't gathered around, or to curl his arm around her waist and pull her into his chest. And it would then take everything in her to not say 'fuck it' and let the bar go just so that she could spend more than a couple of moments alongside the man. 

Ada shook her head.

"Can we go out for the day, then? Go to the pictures, or something?" The golden―haired girl asked, trying not to show her desperation for a distraction show itself to her friend. 

Thankfully for her, Ada didn't ask any questions. Maybe that was the result of living with the Shelbys for all those years ― you learnt not to. Got on with life with as few worries as you could manage because, after all, worrying got you nowhere.

The brunette looped her arm through the blonde's and tugged her out of the house. And as the pair left the home and exited onto the sparse street, Felicity decided that the sooner she got the day over with, the better. 

✧

Four hours. Four painstakingly long hours until she could fall into her beloved's arms and sleep the rest of the day away so that the next one would arrive. . . and then she would have a whole year to prepare for the celebration that would occur once again.

Perhaps she was being dramatic? It was a birthday, was it not? Curses can't occur on birthdays ― birthdays were the one day a year that you got to be free from all of your stresses, all of your anxieties.

Felicity shook away these thoughts and instead turned her gaze towards the brunette who had linked their arms together. As they walked the streets, she kept her attention on the crowds of rowdy men that were beginning to parade the road alongside them: no doubt on their way to whatever pub they would stumble into first. Raucous laughter spilled from their lips as they pushed their grease―stained shirts up and over their elbows, showing off equally tainted arms that bore both the marks of war and work. She caught Ada as she wrinkled her nose up at their attempts to secure the girls' attention, and thus the blonde chuckled slightly. 

"Charming, aren't they?"

"I'm jolly glad I'm married, that's all I'll say," Ada responded, raising her eyebrows at her friend as they passed the men. 

Felicity pressed her lips together to repress her laughter, and her heart almost dropped when she caught sight of the frosted glass on the building that loomed before them at the end of the street, with the glass reading The Garrison in its immaculate lettering. 

"Y'know," she turned to her friend with a thought lighting on her mind. "I don't much fancy serving bastards like those men back there for the rest of the night."

"What are you saying?"

Felicity shrugged. "Should we just go home? It wouldn't hurt anyone for me to take a day off." 

Ada shook her head firmly. "It's only a couple of hours," she reasoned with the girl. "And there wouldn't be anything to do if you were to go home. You'd end up curled up on your bed whilst you waited for my damned older brother to return from God―knows where. Besides, I want a drink, and Harry doesn't make half as good conversation as you do."

"You have booze at home!" Felicity whined, but that didn't stop the determined Shelby sister from marching towards the door of the Garrison with her hand clamped firmly around her wrist. 

"That's beside the point," Ada countered. "You ready?"

"For what?" 

The raucous cheer of happy birthday! that met her ears answered her question before Ada even had the chance to. And thus the brunette pushed the other girl through the swinging door and into the room, that was filled with the Shelby clan alongside all those that walked alongside them, as well as the other friends that Felicity had made and managed to keep this past year. . . what with everything else going on having an effect to push away associates. 

And stood in the middle of them, with his hands shoved into his pockets and a smile threatening to tear his usual cold demeanour, was Tommy Shelby.

"Happy birthday, Felicity." 

As she walked towards him, trying to shake herself out of her initial shock whilst she did so, the smile won out. It wasn't huge, but it was there, and it was enough for Felicity. Her own lips grew, forgetting all about the curse and letting the confusing sense of surprised elation soar through her — a feeling that she hadn't expected to show. 

She barely managed to stutter out her tentative thanks before she was being pulled into the arms of another.

"Happy birthday, darling!" Polly exclaimed, lightly kissing her cheek as she enveloped the girl in a warm hug.

Felicity hugged her back, thanking her. The older woman simply smiled, squeezed the girl one last time comfortingly, before leaving her to Arthur, who had escaped from the crowd with a beer bottle in one hand and a large grin in the other.

"Twenty fuckin' six, eh?"

The girl nodded, returning the smile. "Seems like it."

"Enjoy your night, alright?" He continued. "You deserve all the good there is to give in this word, Felicity, don't forget that."

She merely nodded, and tightened her smile with the hopes that he wouldn't notice her doing so ― she didn't have the heart to tell him she didn't believe his words for a moment. 

Birthdays were cursed. She knew that.

So Felicity Woods watched as he went off, snaking through the room to make idle conversation with anyone he passed. Yet her silence didn't last long, as John soon came with birthday wishes spilling from his lips and his arms pulling her in for a short hug.

"Well done for distracting Tom enough to keep him off our backs for the whole of the year," he said, appearing totally serious as he did so. "We owe you, Ti."

"You do realise you could've said happy birthday and left it at that,  hmm?" 

John shrugged. "There's no fun in being polite."

She wrinkled her nose up. "If you say so."

"I do."

Felicity laughed. "Go away."

He raised his arms in mock surrender. "I'm going!"

She rolled her eyes and as he turned away, she did too, so that she might be able to escape back towards Tommy whilst avoiding any other birthday wishes. She was overwhelmingly grateful, don't mistake that, but when she had expected to be spending the night in a quieter atmosphere with only the drunks and Ada to converse with, Felicity couldn't help but feel marginally overwhelmed. 

And so she returned to where the man stood, leaning against the bar with a pint in his grasp as he talked with Ada and with Polly. Ada quickly caught onto her falling expression and swapped it with a full glass, all while claiming that getting ridiculously drunk was most definitely the answer. Not even Polly argued with her, as she too seemed to be taking the night off and using it as an excuse to forget the worries that had plagued them for the last couple of months. 

So she took the glass from the brunette and tipped her head back without a second thought.

Ada and Polly soon left the couple to themselves ― Polly gently reminding the mother that she should probably get home to her infant and husband, to which Ada retorted that he had looked after Karl enough times to do it alone ― and that was that. Felicity finished her beer, discarded the glass on the counter beside them before leaning back against his chest. 

Sights of merriment filled her eyes, all with a hazy amber glow covering them, and she allowed a small smile to play upon her lips as she watched those that she had grown to care for laugh the night away without anything to distract them. A small gathering, sure, but it wasn't as though that mattered because after all, she hadn't planned to even mention the date to anyone. She hadn't planned to celebrate it at all. . . yearly celebrations weren't her thing. They hadn't ever been her thing, and a few hours ago, she didn't want to begin such an engagement.

"How'd you know?" Felicity asked, her voice soft as she turned her head a fraction upwards to meet the man's adoration―filled eyes. "How'd you know it was today?"

His gentle laughter resonated through her. "I just did."

"Bullshit! Who'd you ask, Thomas Shelby?"

Her heart suddenly dropped. "Tell me it wasn't my father," she groaned. "Tell me my father isn't here ― please."

Pleads filled her voice and she spun in his grasp so that she faced him. Her concern clearly showing, her desperation becoming overwhelmingly evident. 

"Trust me, he's not," Tommy attempted to reassure her, using his thumb and forefinger to tilt her head up to ensure their gazes would meet. "I wouldn't have that man within a mile with you if I could help it."

Felicity forced a smile upon her lips, believing his words to be true but still anxious that it may be her father behind all of this. "Who'd you ask, then?" She queried, to change the conversation and its tense tone back to the previous one of elation.

"That boy at the factory? Jack, isn't it?"

She raised her eyebrows. "You talked to Jack?" 

Felicity had almost forgotten about her childhood best friend. . . almost. She couldn't help but remember the days when she would escape to his house across the road from hers, and considering just how much time she spent there, she could never fully forget him. Not when her meeting with him in the factory had led to her introduction to Tommy, even if that introduction hadn't been the best of ones.

Tommy nodded, but before she could pester him with any more curious questions, he shushed her by sealing her lips with a kiss. Felicity sighed but even she couldn't suppress the smile that grew upon her features. As each sound hollowed around them, blending into one as nothing else seemed to matter at that moment. Nothing else was important, not when the very man before her had seemed to lift the curse. 

She didn't even bother to wonder just how long this euphoria would last. She didn't care ― not now, not when this moment was everything she needed. 

AUTHOR'S NOTE
i bullied myself into finishing
this chapter and i'm proud of
myself   for   doing   so ―  i'm 
hoping to get another chapter
out this  week?  just  bc  i  can.
#generousasf ILYSM THOUGH