Work Text:
Ever since Thomas Shelby moved into his new mansion three weeks ago, he felt a bit uneasy. The ever rational man shook it off rather easily, convincing himself that it was due to the fact that this house was massive. His ancestral home was considerably ( smaller than Tommy’s current residence. He was living in the huge house all by himself, after all. Tommy was in the process of hiring some staff, a few maids and a cook. If the right person came along, maybe even a stableboy. But for now, the house was just him and his thoughts.
After those three uneasy first weeks, he started to doubt himself. Some maids moved in, people came over now and then. The uneasiness remained and was felt by the maids and guests as well.
During a family meeting one afternoon, completely out of nowhere, a lamp fell from its table. Tommy looked at it with a raised eyebrow and a puzzled expression. Arthur on the other hand..
“This house is haunted, Tommy! Haunted, I tell you!” he screamed. “Things should not just fall of their tables for no explicable reason whatsoever. This. House. Is. Haunted!” Tommy’s expression never changed. “Arthur. Ghosts and such are not real. You know that. Maybe keep off the snow a bit more, ay?”
Later that night, Tommy sat himself down in his big chair in the reading room, poured himself a decent glass of whiskey and evaluated the day. He came to the conclusion that, okay, maybe his mansion was actually haunted. He barely even believed that he, Thomas Shelby, was actually considering that being haunted was a thing now. Tommy was never really one to believe in spirits or ghosts or such, especially after everything that had happened with his mum.
But he was doubting himself. And Tommy never likes it when he’s doubting himself. So he went over his options. If the place was haunted, Polly could help. But right now he was in no mood to call Polly, to have her over and to give her the satisfaction of acknowledging the talking-to-ghosts-thing.
So Tommy did the only other thing he could think of. He phoned Alfie.
“This is Solomons speaking. Who thinks he can phone me at this ungodly hour?” Alfie’s voice sounded like pure thunder.
“It’s Tommy Shelby.” Thomas said with a very flat and monotone voice, pretending that his heart had not just skipped a beat when he heard Alfie’s voice, even if it was a growly one.
“Tommy! Shalom! How are you, mate?” The growl in Alfie’s voice disappeared in an instant, making room for a much happier chime. The one Tommy was finally getting used to.
“Well, I have a situation, and I think you might be able to help out. If you’re willing, of course, and if you’re in the neighbourhood.” Thomas felt a nervous knot forming in his stomach, but he couldn’t really place why.
“Well, it’s late now, innit? So how about I try to be over as soon as possible, to help you out with the situation?” Alfie hummed, Tommy melting a bit inside.
“That’d be great. Thanks, Alfie.”
“Good night, Tommy.” Alfie hang up.
Apparently, ‘as soon as possible’ was very soon. Tommy woke up to the sound of a car engine under his window. He stumbled out of bed to look who the fuck dared to visit him when it was still dark. A
quick glance to the clock on the wall revealed that it was not even six o’clock yet.
“Fucking hell, Alfie.” He swore under his breath the second he saw the man getting out of the car. He recognized the hat.
Tommy tried to gather his clothes in a rush, putting on some trousers and a shirt. He was buttoning his waistcoat when the doorbell rang.
“For fucking fuck’s sake, Solomons. You’re waking the maid.” Tommy let out. He only now realized how much effort he was putting into his appearance. Was this him really trying this hard to look good for Alfie? Tommy shook his head, trying to get rid of that thought. He quickly put on his shoes and grabbed his jacket, putting it on while walking down the stairs. He had completely forgotten to fix his hair.
He passed Mary on her way to the door, wearing her nightgown. “Mr. Shelby? You’re up early.”
“Yes, Mary. Early guest, it seems. You can go back to bed. I won’t need you for breakfast.” Tommy almost yelled at her when he passed by on the stairs. Mary was very confused, but didn’t mind an extra hour of sleep. She turned on her heels and went back upstairs.
Tommy took a deep breath and let it out slowly, before opening the door.
“Alfie.” Tommy stated, nervous as fuck, but not showing one bit of that.
“Tommy!” Alfie went in for a hug, but once look (once looking, one look) at Thomas’ hair stopped him from doing that.
“Love the new haircut, man.” he snickered. Tommy’s head went bright red.
“Fuck.” he whispered, but Alfie heard.
“It’s fine, Tom. What about you let me in, we’ll have a go at these ghosts, yeah?” Alfie asked, even though he was already inside. Tommy tried to ruffle his hair a bit, to no avail.
Alfie looked around the large hall. He eyed all the paintings on the walls, the weird statues and art. Even went to sniff on some flowers. He hummed during all of it.
“Anything that seems off to you, Alfie?” Tommy just followed the other man around, hands behind his back and observing every move.
Alfie didn’t seem to find anything in this particular part of the house, so he moved to the big room. Apparently, he saw something that Tommy didn’t see, because Alfie reacted. Weirdly, according to Tommy.
Alfie’s eyes had fallen on a big statue in the corner of the room, and immediately spat three times.
“Oi! That’s my carpet you’re spitting on!” Tommy cursed.
“Yeah, well, that statue over there has to go! It’s fucking horrible.” Alfie raised his voice as he pointed to the marble thing.
“It’s not that ugly..” Thomas’ eyes looked a little bit droopy. He kind of liked the thing.
“Well, it’s one of your problems. It has to go. I’ll take it with me to get rid of it, together with the other things we might find.” Alfie continued his search for haunted objects. Then he realized something.
“Tommy, dear. You’re a gypsy, right?” Tommy hummed. “How come you can’t do this shit yourself, then?”
Tommy hadn’t prepared himself for this question. He took a minute to answer.
“Well. I’m not that good with this stuff. I just needed the help of an expert, that’s all. Arthur won’t visit me until this problem is solved.” Tommy avoided Alfie’s eyes while explaining. Lies, they were lies. He just wanted to have an excuse to get Alfie to come over. The only truth was Arthur not visiting. The boy almost shat his pants the last time he was over.
“Okay, let’s pretend to believe that, shall we? Carrying on.” Alfie smiled and moved to the corners of the room. He was placing some stuff in all of the corners before coming over to Tommy. Suddenly, the bearded man was extremely close to Tommy. Tom could feel Alfie’s hands moving to his sides, fiddling to get into Tommy’s pockets. The man who always had a remark ready, was speechless. He had no clue what the fuck Alfie was doing. And he didn’t dare to ask.
“Why the red face, Thomas? It’s just salt.” Alfie almost barked, he loved seeing Tommy like this. He loved teasing.
“S-salt?” Tommy stuttered. He fucking stuttered. What the hell was wrong with him.
“Yeah, salt. I've slso put it in all the corners, it’s where the creatures hide. It keeps them away.” Alfie turned around and went upstairs.
Tommy just stood there, for a second. It felt oddly good to see Alfie wander around his house with such ease. Like he belonged here. The thought put a smile on Tommy’s face.
“You coming, Tommy?” Alfie yelled from upstairs. Something inside Tommy felt so warm, he couldn’t even care about Alfie waking the rest of the house with his deep voice.
“Yeah, wait a minute.” He yelled back, trying to wipe the smile off his face.
Tommy found Alfie in front of his bedroom door. “I have a very strong feeling there is something that needs my attendance in this room. But I’m going to need you in the room as well.” Alfie motioned to the door, and Tommy, as obeying as he suddenly was, opened his bedroom door and stepped inside. Alfie followed, closing the door behind him. There was some more salt put in corners, some more spitting on carpets, but over all, the bedroom seemed safe enough for Tommy to sleep in.
“How should I thank you, Alfie?” Alfie walked up to Tommy, very close, almost nose to nose. He grinned.
“I have an idea.” Alfie’s wrapped his arm around Tommy’s waist, very slowly, to make sure Tommy was on board with this. He seemed to be so.
Because not two seconds later, Tommy Shelby’s lips were firmly pressed on Alfie Solomons’.
“What about the other rooms with ghosts?” Tommy asked between two kisses.
“Fuck that, Tommy. Now hush and kiss me back.”