I was fifteen when our relationship changed. Tommy started hanging around with Ada and me after the debacle with Harry Waller, almost as though he didn't trust us to be alone. It was…nice. He was quiet most of the time but he always joined in with conversations, adding his own stories and jokes. He laughed a lot more than I'd expected, especially when he and Ava were on good terms. He was about twenty, I thought, and had started to work with Arthur and his father when he'd turned eighteen. I didn't entirely understand what it was that he did, something to do with betting and horses, but Ada said it was mostly illegal. I'd replied that surely the police wouldn't allow something illegal to happen so openly, but she'd told me that a lot of the coppers were in on it. What I'd heard when I was a kid had been right after all.

Tommy and I were…friends. We talked together, laughed together, he walked Ada and I anywhere we were going if he wasn't too busy. He'd complained quietly to me before that he was pretty much running the company, even though that was meant to be Arthur's job since he was the eldest. Their Aunt Polly helped with the running of it also, but in the end a lot of the planning and executions of their work were orchestrated by Tommy. He was far far more intelligent than I had ever given him credit for. Than anyone gave him credit for. He would be why their company thrived, not Arthur or Polly. He found it stressful but in secret, I noticed that he flourished when he was in his work zone. He seemed thrilled by his cleverness, that it was him who could solve a situation nobody else could. He got almost giddy (or as giddy as someone like Tommy could be) after whatever he'd planned had been executed without a hitch and that was when he was at his best.

The Shelby's, or the Peaky Blinders as I'd heard people call them (and the people in on their work) around the streets and heard Arthur shout when he was rallying his team, had returned from one such successful outing that day it all changed. Tommy walked through the front door of The Garrison to find me and Ada sat in a corner, her telling me everything that had been happening between her and Jack - she was actually planning on having sex with him next week! They'd done everything else and I was a little hurt that she was only telling me then. Ada had told me explicitly that sex and the things related to it weren't just for the boy, but the girl too. She told me she'd never felt anything like it when Jack's hands were on her private areas, but that it was only good if the boy knew what they were doing. As Jack and her had been dating since we were kids, I had asked her how he'd gotten so good at it. She'd not spoken to me for a week after I'd asked that.

Of course, she'd stopped talking about sex when her family walked in, but my face clearly still looked sour and a little hurt because when Tommy came over to kiss Ada's cheek, he bent down towards me and my cheek and muttered, "Everything alright?" I nodded silently, because what else could I say? I couldn't exactly start talking to him about how Ada and Jack were going to do it in the bedroom next to his next Saturday, could I?

A few hours later, once everyone had finished celebrating and were starting to trawl home, I hugged Ada and told her I'd see her tomorrow. I looked meaningfully at her so that she'd know I was going to have something to say about her and Jack's relationship.

If I'd have been willing to admit it, I would have told her that I was simply jealous. Nobody wanted me the way Jack wanted Ada - he worshipped her. You could tell by the way he looked at her, full of longing and hope. Like she was everything he'd ever wished for. It made me wonder if the other girls he'd "practised" on to get good at sex was just so he could show Ada and make her feel the best she could. The only way boys looked at me was as though they were waiting - waiting for me to finally do it and I could be classed a whore and everyone could have a go. I'd heard them all whispering and laughing about it. It wasn't fair - if Ada had sex, nobody would care. She was with Jack and he was from a good family. Not exactly rich, but definitely not poor. But if I had sex… I would be considered fair game. Because I wasn't rich or even comfortable. I had nothing. Not a penny to my name. I had no education, nothing that was going to help me in the future. Just a good relationship with the Shelby family and I would have to hope they'd help me in a few years when I turned eighteen and I needed money or a job. Mrs Light, the neighbour who often gave me clothes when I needed them, had started teaching me how to sew and make clothes so that I could make dresses and shirts when I was older and sell them for a living. It seemed a bit far fetched, but it was something. I knew I needed some kind of plan for when I turned eighteen and got kicked out of the orphanage.

Ada left with John, Arthur and Polly, leaving me and Tommy alone. It had become standard procedure for him to walk me back to the orphanage at the end of every night. It was often the best part of my day. Sometimes we didn't even speak and we just walked, the sounds of Birmingham the only thing breaking the silence.

Tonight was one of those nights. He just gave me a look and I immediately jumped up and grabbed my coat, and followed him out of the door. It took until the orphanage was in sight before he said something.

"I saw you talking to Johnny Rich tonight."

I slowed down but I didn't stop. He wouldn't like it if I stopped - it'd put him off talking. He liked everything casual, Tommy did. I'd noticed it over the years. When we spoke on the walk home, just me and him, if I stopped to speak, he'd change his mind about whatever he was going to say and carried on without me, only tuning his head to the side to see if I'd catch up. So I'd learnt to never put too much importance on our quiet talks that we had in private.

"He came over to talk to Ada and we got chatting, I guess."

It hadn't been anything important. It was him being polite to Ada's friend, I was sure.

"You should stay away from him, he's bad news."

I rolled my eyes at him. Whenever me and Ada talked to boys that weren't Jack or his family, he didn't think they were good news and always told me so. It had made me laugh when I'd first clicked on to this and told him that he and his family were the worst news in Birmingham. He'd laughed loudly at that. Tommy Shelby laughing was a sight, indeed - it was like seeing a rainbow through the smoke of Birmingham centre: very very rare but a sight you couldn't take your eyes off no matter what.

"Are you rolling your eyes at me, Daisy Smith?" His voice was his usual deep monotone, but it had a teasing lilt to it. It made me glow like a kid when he teased me, or did anything with such familiarity to me. Especially when it was just me and him - it was intimate, almost, our walks home. It made my heart beat faster when he cocked his head in his "get your coat, we're off" way and I knew that for the nest fifteen minutes at least, it would just be me and him.

"Johnny's nice, Tommy. He was the only boy in there that you or Arthur haven't scared away from me and Ada yet."

"That'll change" I heard him mutter under his breath.

I laughed once, and nudged him playfully in his arm forcing him to drop the cigarette he was holding. Knowing how seriously he took his smoking, he was always smoking, I snorted a laugh and dodged his arm and he reached out to push me back, a small close-mouthed grin on his face.

"Why would you want to inhale more smoke when we've got so much around here anyway?" I asked him for the millionth time; it was a running joke between us.

"Because not everyone is as innocent as you Daisy and once you've had a couple, it's hard to stop," he told me, looking down at the new cigarette he was lighting, still slowly walking forwards towards the place that housed only hatred towards me.

I walked alongside him, looking at him - I was always looking at him while he looked down or straight ahead or anywhere but at me, because these walks home were the only way I could look at him like I wanted to - and smiling disbelievingly at his words. "Innocent? Me? Have you not heard about all the trouble I get myself and your sister into?"

"That's just cause you've got a smart mouth and don't ever think before you say anythin'."

This was true. I'd learnt that early on - it was what always got me into trouble with Joe, who was always so careful to hit me in places no one could see after he'd bruised my eye and Tommy and Arthur had gone to talk to him about it. Now he just hit me on my stomach mostly, so Tommy couldn't see, and Joe had told me about his friends in the gypsy clan that the Peaky Blinders didn't like so much, and how he'd get them to pay Tommy a visit if I said anything to him. I was so used to being hit, and so worried about anything that'd ruin mine and Tommy's friendship, that I'd not told Tommy that Joe was still hitting me. My smart mouth often got me into trouble and trouble often got me walking with a hunch every now and then. I didn't really want Tommy to know I wasn't smart enough to avoid being hit, or tell Ada that I wasn't strong enough to stand up for myself like she would. Smart mouthed, yes, but smart minded?

My smile dropped as I thought about Joe and Tommy clearly noticed when he glanced up at my lack of reply.

We were quiet again, still walking agonisingly slowly down the road, as though neither of us wanted to reach the orphanage. What a belly-warming thought.

"Do you wanna try one?"

I looked up in surprise. Arthur had offered me and Ada many cigarettes in our time at The Garrison, but when Ada looked at him in disgust and told him that in no way was she going to smoke one of those things, I'd had no choice but to agree with her and say no.

"Really?"

He nodded, still taking drags of his. "I'd rather you try it with me than with someone like Johnny fucking Rich."

Rolling my eyes again, I wandered closer to him and took the cigarette he offered to me, holding it between my two fingers like I'd seen Polly do, rather than between a finger and a thumb like Tommy did. It looked more ladylike, and anything that made me look more feminine (cause God knows I didn't look much like a girl at all with my lack of hips and breasts) was a positive in my mind.

Feeling stupid, but older than my fifteen years, I stood there with this burning cigarette in my hand. "Um, what do I do?"

He smiled indulgently at me and explained, "Put it between your lips, suck on it and then inhale some more so you feel it in your chest, hold it, then breathe out."

I blushed a little bit at his explanation of it, and was grateful for the darkness that he couldn't see it. I did as he instructed… and spluttered out my breath in a hacking cough.

Waving my fingers in his general direction so he'd take the burning thing from me, I wiped my eyes to get rid of the water that'd gathered from my coughing. When my eyes opened again, I saw he was laughing over my coughs, his eyes a bright blue that was only intensified with laughter.

"You've really not done this before, have ya?"

Still coughing, albeit not nearly as hard as before, I looked at him with an irritated expression on my face. "I told you I'd never tried it, Tommy! Thanks for the bloody warnin'."

Throwing the burnt out cigarette to the floor, he put his hands in his coat pocket, still grinning a little. "Girls lie about things sometimes."

What an odd thing to say. Who would dare lie to Tommy Shelby? "Not me."

His smile slowly dropped and his expression got more serious as he stared at me. "No, not you."

It was only then that I realised that we'd stopped walking. He hated to stop walking, he liked our talks to be casual and light, but he had stopped and his expression was so intense that nobody could ever look at the two of us in that street and call us casual and light.

Finally, he reached into his pocket and got out another. "Come 'ere," he said with the cigarette in his mouth.

Swallowing deeply, I walked towards him, my red hair blowing across my face in a mess that prevented me from seeing him for a second. I pushed it away, and stopped when I was a meter or so away from him.

He cocked his head to indicate that I come even closer so, holding my breath, I did. Closer and closer until we were basically flush against each other. If I took another step we would be.

He inhaled his cigarette, and, bending down so his lips were right next to mine, he paused for a moment, waiting for something. It clicked that he was waiting for me and, instinctively, I opened my mouth a little bit. He breathed out the smoke and I breathe it in. It didn't burn my throat and lungs this time; I just felt warm. I didn't think the smoke had anything to do with that though - just Tommy's closeness.

I expected him to lean back and continue walking down the street, but he didn't. He just stood there, his lips so so close to mine, and his eyes were glued onto mine. Blue into green.

Not wanting to ruin this moment, the moment I'd thought about only in my wildest dreams, I stayed silent and I didn't move. Just stared back at him.

Finally, I had to ruin it. It was getting awkward and I didn't want to seem like a silly girl who didn't know how to behave around someone like him. So I cleared my throat a little, licked my lips and started to step back from him, before his hand shot out and grasped me around my neck. He exhaled sharply, harshly, as though he was mad or determined or frustrated, and in a magical moment, his lips crashed onto mine.

My upper body jerked back at the force of his kiss, but he counteracted it by using his other hand, cigarette thrown to the ground, to pull the small of my back closer against him so that I was arched into his warm, strong body.

It was everything I had ever wanted it to be. When Harry Waller had tried putting his tongue in my mouth all those years ago, I had found it disgusting, but when Tommy did it, I actually sighed into his mouth. Not knowing really where to put my hands, I decided to throw any caution I had to the wind and did something I'd wanted to do for years: I pushed off his cap so I could get even closer to him - careful to mind the razor blade I knew was tucked away in the front - and grasped onto the base of his neck, feeling the short hair coming through from when he'd last had it cut into the classic Peaky Blinder style.

The kiss lasted all of ten seconds, a forceful and passionate whirlwind of tongues, lips and hands, before he wretched himself away from me and did the same thing I'd done at twelve when Harry Waller had stopped kissing me - he wiped his mouth.

Frowning, I stepped forward after him, not understanding anything that had just happened. The kiss or the retreat. "What—"

I broke off when he bent down to get his cap and looked away from me, breathing hard through his nose.

"Fuckin' fifteen," I heard him say to himself.

I swallowed shakily, knowing what he was about to say. I was too young, too much of a kid to be able to handle someone like him, too naive, too silly.

"Daisy, you're—"

"I know what I am," I interrupted coldly, hurt by him pulling away. "I'm just a silly little girl." I laughed humourlessly, and started ambling back to the orphanage, not able to look back at him and see the regret in his face.

"I'll see you soon, I guess, Tommy."

He didn't follow me, insisting that he walk me the rest of the way like he always did. He didn't shout anything at me, and I didn't look back to see if he was still there once I got to the orphanage. I just walked inside, saw Joe sitting drunk at the kitchen table, and heard him slur, "What time do you call this?" as he stood up from his chair, his fists already clenching in anticipation.