#lois bennett x charlie shelby

[evita-shelby]

Tie your heart to mine

Chapter 17

Charlie knows Harry Chase is what’s stopping Lois from becoming serious about him.

He would’ve hoped she’d gotten over him after six months of silence, but the fucker stayed there on her heart like he was branded on it. He really likes Lois, she was beautiful, kind, politically minded like him and so determined to shine no matter what cloud stood in her way.

“Something came in for your sister’s, ah, friend.” His father said, refusing to call Lois anything else but Diane’s friend. He hates Tom for obvious reasons, and despite how well he gets on with Douglas, he refused to acknowledge that Diane will be Diane Bennett come hell or high water.

Thomas Shelby holds a thick envelope marked with the neat handwriting of Florence Rosenburg ---or Frida Solomons as she had been named at birth--- naming Henry Chase.

It had Harry’s picture, name, address and other pertinent things. There was also a file wedged inside it with a sperate photograph held to it with a paper clip. He could decipher the top of a blonde woman’s head.

Charlie is no idiot.

Harry Chase had gotten married in Poland, that is why he never wrote back. Not only married a different girl, but a blonde.

Lois will be crushed.

“I can take it to Diane, maybe she can break the news gently to her.” Charlie says fighting the urge to peek into the files and see what this dime a dozen interpreter had that he didn’t.

Henry Chase was handsome, blue-eyed and the type of boy girls like his own sister would sigh over. Had he been available, he knows they’d be having this conversation about how to break this to Diane.

“If you are a gentleman, you will leave that file unopened.” His father sat back on his chair and stared at his son to see what he’d do. “If you are my son, you will open it and take flowers to console the girl.”

That settled it.

“And because I am your son and a gentleman, I will be leaving it closed and buying flowers for Lois.” Charlie knows his father was expecting him to do the latter –unless mama was nearby then he was the perfect gentleman she raised him to be--- and the man looked positively proud that he found a great space in the middle for himself. “Do you have anything for Dia?”

“Keep Douglas’ boy out of her bed for me, your mother doesn’t want a grandchild for her birthday.”

Despite his resolve to become a pacifist, Tom cannot escape fate. Or so he says when he is provoked by some young man he knows and joins the navy to show he is not a coward.

“We could run to Mexico, the war won’t touch it for a while. We could live there in the sun, on the house by the beach.” Diane suggests gently pushing his hair away from his face as they lounged in the couch.

He’d come here after a row with his dad, with Lois and him leaving on the same train, poor Douglas was at his wit’s end. Lois told him their dad had a night terror and chewed him out for not being there for him, Tom now felt guilty for causing him such trouble.

Always causing trouble for him, he’d said as he’d come in and asked her to join him on her couch.

And what better way to assuage his guilt for leaving him than by pretending the world doesn’t exist beyond the door of her room.

No sex, just them cuddling on her too small couch pretending to hear the opera playing in her wireless.

“No. And leave dad all alone when Lois is going too? Can’t do that to him.” I’ve already disappointed him enough. Rather die a hero instead of a coward, Diane can hear the words as if he’d said them. “Besides we’ll win the war, we’ll get married and tell little Vera and Junior about how daddy became a war hero.”

He is saying that to make her feel better as if he wasn’t the one going to his death. You’d think their hypothetical children would be the last thing on his mind.

“Not even married yet and you’re thinking of having a second child, Tommy.” She looked up at him to see that cheeky grin of his.

“Gotta give you something to do while I’m at sea, Mrs. Bennett.” The way he says it makes her forget this isn’t them joking about their future life together. “Gotta give me reasons to keep my mouth shut and stay alive.”

Sounds so sure of it, as if he was the one afflicted with clairvoyance instead of her.

“You shouldn’t say things like that, I might believe you.” She warns him and part of her hoping he means it.

“Why not, my wages and my leave time go up if I’m married and we could share the lease until I save enough to pay for half the house we’ll get.” So he had been given it a thought or two when he was in jail.

Two weeks alone can do that to you.

“Tell me the other reason, Tom.” There is one. One reason he’s afraid to say. Not afraid for her saying no, but afraid because he might never come back.

“If you’re my wife, I can leave knowing you’d take care of Lois and my dad for me.” He can be serious when he needs to be, most people take what they see thinking there’s isn’t much else to Tom.

But there was.

His jokes, brashness and carelessness were his way of moving through life. When you needed him to be serious, to be the man he knows he must be, he delivered on that.

“I’d take care of them for you even without a ring, Tom.” The witch let her hand trail down the side of his face and tried her best not to think about him never coming back.

“But I want to. We can marry later, when the war ends or never if that’s what you want. Fuck, you don’t even have to give me an answer now. Won’t leave for training yet, anyways.”

Diane knows the answer, there’s no need to think it, but she can’t seem to voice it.

The witch is relieved when Mrs. Johnson interrupts saying Charlie’s calling from the station.

While Diane and Charlie claim it’s a bad idea to look at files meant for someone else, Tom has no qualms in reading what Shelby managed to find on Posh Boy.

It was worse than any of them had initially thought.

Harry finding a girl in Warsaw was not a big deal.

Harry marrying a girl in Warsaw and bringing her and her little brother to Manchester was.

To think Tom had stuck up for him when Lois asked him his opinion on Harry’s silence the day he came back from Strangeways.

His sister was going to be crushed. She’d already said he had been different when she saw him a few nights ago at the dance hall and then last night at his mother’s.

She’d come back angry or so his dad had said when he asked why she was stomping around looking like she could burst into tears or kill a man at breakfast.

Fuck.

She already knew, probably met the new Mrs. Chase and had her heart broken at the old bat’s house.

“I could break the news to her if you want.” Diane offers and he shook his head. Lois deserved to hear it from the people who loved her most.

If Diane told her it would have her shooting the messenger. She’d lash out thinking they could’ve spared her the heartache and humiliation yesterday evening.

“Has to be me. If anyone has to break Lois’ heart with the news, it has to be me.” Tom only shook his head and closed the file holding a photograph of Harry and the girl, Kasia something, on their wedding day. “If you want to show her not all Posh Boys are the same, Shelby, she’s doing a farewell show tomorrow night.”

[jessicaaatje]

People I'll write for

Some will be platonic, but sometimes I can make them not platonic. You can make couples, then I will maybe write a poly fic, or one where the couple are the parents of the reader.

WOSO

Alex Morgan

Christen Press

Ashlyn Harris

Ali Krieger

Tobin Heath

Lindsey Horan

Emily Sonnett

Kelley O'Hara

Hope Solo

Leah Williamson

Jill Roord

Jackie Groenen

Vivianne Miedema

Alexia Putellas

Jenni Hermoso

And more...

STRANGER THINGS

Max Mayfield

Eleven

Nancy Wheeler

Robin Buckley

Susy

Erica Sinclair

Chrissy

Kali

Platonic

Will Byers

Mike Wheeler

Lucas Sinclair

Dustin Henderson

Eddie Munson

Steve Harrington

Parents

Jim Hopper

Joyce Byers

Bob Newby

Murray

MARVEL

Natasha Romanoff

Wanda Maximoff

Yelena Belova

Daisy Johnson

Jemma Simmons

Melinda May

Kate Bishop

Elena Rodriguez

Bobbi Morse

Sprite

Darcy Lewis

And more...

Platonic

Leo Fitz

Deke Shaw

Mack

Peter Parker

Pietro Maximoff

And more...

GLEE

Santana Lopez

Quinn Fabray

Marley Rose

Mercedes Jones

Platonic

Kurt Hummel

Noah Puckerman

Blaine Anderson

DC

Sara Lance

Zari Tarazi

Zari Tomaz

Spooner

Astra Logue

Gideon

Amaya Jiwe

Charlie

Ava Sharpe

Kara Danvers

Alex Danvers

Maggie Sawyer

Lena Luthor

Laurel Lance

Thea Queen

Mia Queen

Dinah Drake

Felicity Smoak

Killer Frost

Caitlin Snow

Nora West-Allen

Allegra Garcia

Jesse Quick

Lois Lane

Sarah Dawes

Nyssa al Ghul

Platonic

Most of the boys in the arrowverse

CRIMINAL MINDS

Emily Prentiss

Jennifer Jareau

Alex Blake

Kate Cahallan

Elle Greenaway

Penelope Garcia

Platonic

Derek Morgan

Spencer Reid

Parent

Aaron Hotchner

David Rossi

Jason Gideon

PITCH PERFECT

Becca Mitchell

Chloe Beale

Aubrey Posen

Emily Junk

Fat Amy

QUANTICO

Alex Parrish

Shelby Wyatt

Nimah and her Sister

DISNEY

DESCENDANTS

Mal

Evie

Uma

Audrey

TVD

Caroline Forbes

Bonnie Bennett

Lizzie Saltzman

Hope Mikealson

Josie Saltzman

Penelope Park

Rebekah Mikealson

Hayley Marshall

Davina Claire

Freya Mikealson

ARCANE

Jinx

Powder

Vi

Lost In Space

Penny Robinson

Judy Robinson

Platonic

Will Robinson

HUNGER GAMES

Katniss Everdeen

Foxface

Primrose Everdeen

Johanna Mason

And mkre from the 74th hunger games women

TWILIGHT

Alice Cullen

Leah Clearwater

Reneesmee Cullen

Rosalie Hale

HARRY POTTER

Ginny Weasley

Hermione Granger

Luna Lovegood

Tonks

Daphne Greengrass

Lily Evans

Platonic

Fred Weasley

George Weasley

Parents

Remus Lupin

Sirius Black

James Potter

Remus x Sirius

James x Lily

ZERO CHILL

Kayla

Ava Hammerstrom

Sky

GAME OF THRONES

Arya Stark

Sansa Stark

Ygritte

Brienne

Margaery Tyrell

Daenerys Targaryen

REIGN

Mary Stuart

Lola

Kenna

Greer

THE 100

Clarke Griffin

Octavia Blake

Harper

Raven Reyes

Lexa

Anya

Madi Griffin

Cobra Kai

Sam LaRusso

Top Gun

Penny Benjamin

Amelia Benjamin

Natasha 'Phoenix' Trace

Platonic

Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw

'Hangman'

Parents

Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell

'Iceman'

'Goose'

More To Come!

[evita-shelby]

Tie your heart to mine

Chapter 18

It was easier to think of the other girl as a faceless entity who was Jan's sister.

It is difficult to know Kasia is beautiful and sweet and undeserving of the hell she’s suffering through.

Kasia Tomazeski has lost both her parents and fights for freedom in Nazi occupied Poland...

...and Lois slept with her husband.

Lois feels disgusted with herself because Harry tried to explain things to her, to break things off for good and Lois had to tell him she loved him.

Even worse, she gave him her virginity because he said he still loved her. Because everything was going to change and she wanted one thing in her life to be as it as before.

She doesn’t tell Tom any of that. She couldn’t take his disappointment in her when he discovers how stupid she was.

Why couldn’t you be more like Tom? She hears Connie’s voice say in her head.

Tom was irresponsible in almost everything except his sex life. Left when he started noticing the signs his girl had the wrong idea about him, made sure he always had sheaths to spare so there was no consequences and never went after those spoken for.

Dad would be so disappointed in her for this.

He encouraged freedom as long as it was within his lines. Bad enough she’d joined ENSA and already packed her bags, now this.

“I’m sorry, Loo.” Tom said softly and kissed the top of her head like he always does when her romances fail spectacularly.

“Do they know what’s in here?” she asks burning from the humiliation of it.

She doesn’t like pity, no one does.

Diane could understand, but Charlie? Charlie who has been nothing short of Prince Charming for her and she decided to ruin it all because she thought Harry was the One?

“They say its bad manners to look at someone’s else’s files without permission.” He answered with a bit of a scoff. Neither of them has been able to get used to how normal things like getting government files on someone was for them.

How different they were and yet Lois has never seen Tom so serious and in love as hew was with Diane.

“I suppose that’s a good thing.” Lois dried her tears and slammed the door on her past with Harry. “Won’t have them look at me with pity tonight.”

There was no way she was going to stop living for Harry, no way she was going to spend any more seconds of her life thinking about him.

Fuck him. Fuck Harry and his fucking lies.

Tom hasn’t spoken much to his father since he came that morning.

It had been a week almost, he’s leaving for Cornwall on Monday and even though he knows this is isn’t the end, it feels like it.

As if the Tom that leaves isn’t the one coming back. He knows what shellshock does to man, he knows how it is to have your dad have it and know you can’t be a normal kid or a normal teenager or even a normal adult because of it.

And yet he says this when he and his dad sit alone waiting for Lois to come home. She’d gone to get adjustments made on her ENSA uniform with Connie and Diane and putting up a damn good fight against her heartbreak by letting Charlie Shelby treat her to lunch.

“I’m gonna marry her, dad.” So you have someone taking care of you when we’re gone. So I can die knowing I existed beyond a fucking number and a grave.

Tom doesn’t need to say it, his dad did the same in the Great War. Told Josie Vera Jones he’d marry her when he left for training and made her Josie Bennett in 1916 because she was two months pregnant with him.

“I said the same to your grandfather when I signed up in ’14.” His father stopped smoking when mum got sick, when the smoke made her cough until she spat blood and yet he takes one out of his pack and gave into the old habit.

Only did so when he was terrified to death.

Like when Lois started going out with boys or got her first gigs and they feared some bastard would take advantage of her. Several times they’d ended up here smoking on the table after Tom thrashed a man getting handsy with his little sister.

Or when he taught Tom how to drive on a borrowed car and he crashed it because he saw a pretty girl walking by the street.

Tom couldn’t help but laugh at the memory, him and his dad sitting on the table wondering how the fuck they’d pay for it. Sitting here being closer than they’ve ever felt even if his father is angry and terrified underneath the veneer.

“And what did grandad say?” Tom asks taking a drag from his cigarette in an odd imitation of the man in front of him. It had been he who taught him to smoke, when he’d caught him with a fag on his mouth wanting something to calm him down after the first time he’d been sent to jail.

“You need a ring for that.” His dad answered and stood up with a groan and proceeded to dig up mom’s things that he kept in his room.

Lois had all her things, the clothes she could refit to match the fashion and her size, the jewellery she treasured and even the perfume.

But there was one thing she hadn’t gotten: her wedding ring.

‘That’s for the lucky girl you’re going to marry, Tommy,’ she had said and told them how granddad gave dad the ring grandma used to wear as his blessing.

Back then Douglas was brash and carefree and happy, just like Tom was, or so what’s left of their family and friends love to point out.

War made a man out of him, the men like to say.

Your mother made a good man out of me, his dad says when they visit her grave.

“I don’t even know if she’ll say yes, dad. Save the ring for later.” Later when I can prove to myself I can.

“It’s like I’m hearing myself talk. Next thing you’ll say is that you’re moving out once you have enough for a house.” His father laughed nostalgically, like he did when telling them stories from his youth.

“I suppose we’re more alike than we think, aren’t we?” Tom can’t help but grin as he opened the ring case and saw the simple gold band carved with orange blossoms.

He has never been this serious in his life, as if knowing it could end any moment had changed something in him.

“Yeah, we are.”

He is not stupid.

He knows she doesn’t mean it when she flirts and touches him as they walk alone in the park.

Even worse, Charlie knows she doesn’t mean it when she kisses him because it would hurt Harry who came here with his little brother-in-law.

It’s not the first time Charles Absalom Shelby has felt used, and it won’t be the last.

“I shouldn’t have done that.” She apologizes after he doesn’t reciprocate the kiss.

“Yeah, you shouldn’t have.” He could’ve kissed her back, given into his attraction to her, but Charlie wants a woman who is with him for the right reasons and not because she’s hurt. “I’m not a toy, Lois.”

“I know.” Lois said looking ahead in embarrassment.

“But if you wanted me to help you hurt him, you could just ask, as a friend would.” He makes it all worse.

“As a friend?” she asks noticing the change with displeasure.

“As a friend.” He nods. Charlie had pursued her and given up, now she was disappointed in not having him after wasting her time on Chase.

He’d treated her for lunch as a friend would. If she wants him, she’d have to do the chasing and the wooing from now on.

“And what things could I ask of you, Charlie?” she asks turning on her charm all the way.

It shouldn’t be surprising that they end up in his hotel room and thanking his lucky stars he came prepared for this.

[evita-shelby]

Six sentence Sunday

Charlie knows Harry Chase is what’s stopping Lois from becoming serious about him.

He would’ve hoped she’d gotten over him after six months of silence, but the fucker stayed there on her heart like he was branded on it. He really likes Lois, she was beautiful, kind, politically minded like him and so determined to shine no matter what cloud stood in her way.

“Something came in for your sister’s, ah, friend.” His father said refusing to call Lois anything else but Diane’s friend. He hates Tom, for obvious reasons, and despite how well he gets on with Douglas he refused to acknowledge that Diane will be Diane Bennett come hell or high water.

Thomas Shelby holds a thick envelope marked with the neat handwriting of Florence Rosenburg ---or Frida Solomons as she had been named at birth