WHEN they reach their quarters Daenys put her hand out, preventing Aemond from pushing open the door. Seeing her apprehension he cocked his head to the side, analysing her sudden change in demeanour. 

"What you said about the winter rose..."

"We do not have to go in," Aemond stated, understanding her train of thought. He would not let his uncle cease their last piece of pleasure. He would grasp it if his life depended on it. "Come," he grabbed her shoulders, caressing her arms until he interlinked their hands, pressing kisses to each one. "How ravishing." 

Sparing a look at the guards outside their quarters, he sent a nod, dismissing them. 

"My Prince," they spoke, inclining their heads "My Lady."

Not wasting time, Daenys drew Aemond for a desperate kiss, unclasping his hair in the process, letting his moon-kissed locks cascade, swarming her face. A small whimper escaped her lips when he pulled away, her pleas caused him to grip her hands, pushing them above her head. 

"Aemond," she moaned as his other hand grasped at her skirts, "How tactless, pleasuring your Lady Wife for all to see." A smirk kissed his lips as they descended onto her chest, nipping at the bust and growling into her cleavage. He wanted nothing more than to rip her bodice to shreds, but her dampening thighs called to him. Beckoned him, she lured him like a siren. She gasped at his touch, fingers crawling to where they both desired most. "How perfect, they fit me so well Husband."

He grunted, adding another finger to her core, feasting on the moans pouring from her mouth. 

"My shift, I cannot breathe with it, it suffocates me so," letting go of her hands, he tugged at the front of her shift, revealing her breasts, on display for him to see, and only him. His lips peppered over her nipples, as his pace sped up. "More... I need it, need you closer."

She cried out, uncaring of the maids scattering away at the mere sound of her debauchery. 

"Peak, Wife," he craved it, wanting her release on his fingers. His lips parted and his gaze darkened when her head tossed back against their chamber door. "That's it." Her silent cry of his name almost made him spill in his breeches. Riding the wave of pleasure, Daenys eyes fluttered as he pulled his fingers away, wanting to sample a taste of her sweetness. "Exquisite."

She flushed as he licked every last drop, before smashing his lips against hers, leaving her whining and pleading for more. 

"Our children wonder about our whereabouts, don't you think?"

"You villain," she went to reach for his jerkin. 

"When I check for monsters under our children's beds? Tis indeed shameful. Before they come to join you in our chambers, I will let you return the favour, if that is what you desire." 

She mirrored his smirk.

"Very much so."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chip walked through the rustic door of the Divine Barcanist, a bell chiming as it opened.

"Rufus you here?" He called out to the empty store.

"Oh goo-ood you're here." He heard coming from the room behind the counter, the drawn out sound confirming it was Rufus, "Flip the open sign on the window would ya? We're clo-osed for the night."

Chip turned to flip the sign but saw it was already flipped to "closed".

"What'd you need my help with Rufus?" Chip started walking through the displays of magic items, stopping to marvel at a particularly ornate and slightly glowing scimitar. "It's getting pretty late and I don't know how much I trust that Price can't send more of his goons after my crew, no offense to your wife's work, of course."

"Oh don't wo-o-orry my friend, I've got a tight schedule to keep too," He reassured Chip, "now could you come back here and help an old dog pick out an outfit for his date?"

"Date?" Chip walked into the hallway behind the counter, "Why'd you ask for *my* help getting ready for a date?"

He opened the door into Rufus's bedroom, it was quite big, there was a large bed with purple satin sheets, covered in small orange and brown hairs against the back wall of the room, a large vanity made of mahogany with a gold-framed mirror on one side of it with tons of different kinds of makeup that Chip had never seen before. On the other side was a smaller bedside locker, with an intricately designed lamp made to look like a sakura tree with pink and white petals, a framed picture of the Black Rose's jolly rodger next to it. A large tapestry of a town made of huts on stilts just above the water with different colours flowing through the air which Chip assumed was supposed to represent magic covered an entire wall of the room. Rufus sat on the side of the bed, his face and floppy dog ears drooping as he looked into his open wardrobe where he had two well kept suits, one a deep purple, the other a sleek black. Next to the wardrobe was a bamboo changing screen with the scene of a large island with a cherry blossom tree big enough to cover the whole place under its canopy, raining its leaves down and into the ocean around it.

"Woah!" Chip looked around the room in awe, "You're fuckin loaded!"

"Weellll selling mag-ical objects has it's perks," Rufus said sheepishly, "They're all quite unique and, as a result, *quite* valuable."

"Suddenly I don't feel as bad about the discount you gave me on Ollie's belt." Chip couldn't take his eyes off the tapestry, which he assumed must've taken months if not years to make. "I mean shit man you could probably afford to buy some of the islands we passed through. Why the fuck are you-"

"Chip can we focus on my date please?" Rufus cut him off, "Amber should be home in a few minutes and I'm trying to make su-ure this night is veery special for her."

"Ohhh it's that kinda date huh?" Chip smirked, "Rufus you sly dog."

"Chip it's no-ot like that!" Rufus scolded, "I just want to ma-ake sure that she enjoys the night. She's been working reeally hard recently and it's been stressful for her, especially with the who-ole... situation with Captain Price last night." He let out a deep sigh, "I just want to make sure she has a nice night because it's starting to feel harder and harder to doo-o-o."

Chip looked down at Rufus and saw he was quite tense and his eyebrows were furrowed still looking straight ahead at his two suits. "Hey man, make sure you're enjoying the night too y'know?" He put a hand on his shoulder. "Now, what do you think Amber's gonna be wearing?"

"Well I to-old her to go out early and buy herself something nice while I get re-eady." Rufus explained, "She was wearing her favourite pu-urple dress, it really brings out the colour of her fur, yoou should see her in it, she looks be-e-eautiful." He visibly relaxed while talking about her, and Chip thought to himself how nice it must be to be in love like that.

"Well, if you want to match with her you gotta go with the purple." He started inspecting the suits closer, noticing a faint glitter on the purple one, as well as golden buttons on the cuffs, "but if you really want to give her all the attention you should go with the black so she stands out more."

"When did you-ou learn so much about fashion?" Rufus chuckled a bit as he said it.

"Well you pick up on some things when you make disguises to get into snobbier places than you're supposed to be." Chip sized up both suits and began to suspect they might not fit Rufus anymore, though kept quiet about it. "You definitely made the right choice asking for my help and not Lizzie's though."

"She's never really see-eemed the type for romance, even as a youngster on the Midnight Ro-ose." Rufus smiled, "half of Captain Rose's crew was taking bets on whether the two of you would get together when you got older."

"Ew" Chip interjected. Rufus laughed.

"The half that knew the two of you better was taking bets on whether she'd throw you overboard."

"Yeah that makes more sense." Chip laughed a little too. "Now come on, we haven't got all night here."

"Oh alright," he stopped and thought for another whole minute, "I suppo-o-ose I'll go with the black suit."

He took the suit from the wardrobe and moved behind the screen to change.

Chip sat down on the bed, and then, being uncomfortable in the silence began to chat with Roofus after a few moments, "Y'know Roofus, I've got a wife too." He said, almost surprising himself that he remembered her.

"Oh well that's great Chip," Roofus responded, almost as if he expected it, "It's no surprise a young man like you has found someone already, yo-ou should bring her around to the shop some day." He paused for a moment, "I might see if Amber can make something special as a gift for her."

"Oh, no it's uh, not like that." Chip stuttered out, "I was like, really drunk and don't even remember the wedding." He felt embarrassed admitting it to Roofus. "And like, I didn't really like her like that, but she really liked me, and Gillion officiated the wedding with some weird Undersea stuff so we couldn't just break up so I kept trying to fake my death cuz like, "'til death do us part" and all that, but she kept saving me and this one time she like, caught me as I was falling and it made me realise how strong she was and I can't really tell if I started getting feelings for her or if it was just nice to be held but I didn't really wanna think about it cuz we were already planning four other ways to fake my death and I was starting to have fun with it so I just pushed down the feelings like I do with everything else until we were leaving the island-"

"Chip I'm gonna need you to slow-ow down there because I didn't get a word of what you just said." Roofus cut him off, "What's her name?"

Chip took a breath, "Amanda Rinn."

"And what's she like?"

"I honestly don't really know?" He thought about it for a second. "I mean I spent most of the time I knew her just avoiding her and uh, trying to die in front of her."

"Well that's just a shame." He sighed, "You married this lovely woman who-o saved your life and you don't even kno-ow why you fell in love with her."

"Woah I wouldn't say I fell in love with her, we just got drunk, like, black-out drunk." Chip couldn't stop feeling more and more embarrassed, "She probably doesn't even like me that much anymore."

"Well from what I'm hearing, she kept saving yo-ou from danger every time you were in it. It takes a loot of courage, and a lot of love for the person you're saving to keep risking your own life like that."

"Well the danger wasn't real!" Chip knew he was running out of excuses, and the ones he did have didn't mean much.

"Do you think she knew-ew that Chip?" Chip could hear the smile in Roofus' voice. "I think at the very least, she deserves to kno-ow how you reeally feel."

"Fine." Chip conceded, frustrated, "I'll write her a fuckin letter or something... Eventually."

"And mayybe when you're writing it you-ou'll accept your own feelings for her too-oo." Roofus chuckled.

"Roofus I don't- I told you it's not like that!" He was getting annoyed now, "I shouldn't have brought it up in the first place."

"Oh alright," Roofus sighed, "Could you give me hand closing up my jacket, it's been a little while and I'm uh, not quite as fit as I u-used to be."

Chip got up and walked behind the screen to see that Roofus had just about managed to close the button on his pants, though it looked like it could pop open at any second, and though the suit's shirt managed to just about fit snuggly over his big belly, the jacket was straining to get buttoned below the chest.

"Alright you big old dog," Chip grabbed both sides of the jacket, "On three, you pull your stomach in and I'll get a button through, and then you'll be able to get the rest through yourself."

Roofus nodded.

"One."

"Two."

"Three!"

Chip ripped the button and the hole together as Roofus breathed in, and then ripped the button right off as he breathed out.

"Shit!" Chip ran after the button which was rolling across the floor. "I am so, so sorry Roofus I really didn't mean to."

"Oh it's alright Chip." Roofus took off the jacket and hung it back up in his wardrobe. "I think I've just been a little bit too lenient on the treats." He looked over to his purple suit and sighed, "I don't suppo-ose this one would fit me either."

"Yeah probably not," Chip picked up the button and walked over to Roofus, "look man, I can get some money somewhere and pay you back for this."

"Oh I wouldn't worry about that Chip." Roofus took the button off him and placed it gently on his bedside locker, "I'm sure Amber can sew back on. She's quite the skilled craftswoman."

"You sure?" Chip asked, "Cuz I can get a little gold for it if you need, I don't wanna keep costing you so much money."

"Don't worry about it my friend." Roofus reassured, "I just don't know what to wear tonight now, and I'm sure Amber will be home aaany minute."

Chip thought for a few seconds, then an idea popped into his head. "Here," he took off his red and yellow magical bandana and held it out to Roofus, who recoiled as Chip's facial features shifted just slightly and a few of his uglier scars reappeared. "What?" Chip exaggerated a look of hurt.

"I'd just forgotten about how this magical bandana works is all." Roofus was clearly unnerved by Chip's face shifting.

"Whatever, point is, you can take this and wear anything you want with it, just make sure to get it back to me tomorrow, and make sure you wear something under it, the clothes are *not* real and you *will* get cold, trust me." Chip stopped waiting for him to take the bandana and tied it around his head.

"Thank you Chip." Roofus put a hand on his shoulder and looked into his eyes, "I really do appreciate the help, old friend." He looked down at his much too small suit and before Chip's eyes the outfit seemed to magically loosen itself and close up around Roofus' body, a small silver watch appeared on one of his wrists, and a thin silver bracelet appeared on the other.

"Oh dude you don't get it, you can make literally *any* clothes you can imagine," Chip took the bandana back from Roofus and held it against his forehead, and immediately a glittering suit made of solid gold appeared in place of his tattered shirt and pants. "Like anything dude." He handed the bandana back to Roofus.

"Oh I understand how it works Chip, I just rather like my suit." He chuckled, "Wouldn't have had it tailored if I didn't."

"Your choice man, but I'd be going with the golden blazer if I were you." Chip started heading for the door, "Where are you going tonight anyways?"

Roofus took his pyjamas out and went behind the changing screen again, "There's a lo-ovely restaurant here in the Golden Circle Market called "The Shining Supper." They have some veery special dishes that you can't find anywhere else in the world anymore."

"Dang, you're really going all out tonight old man." Chip remembered walking past the restaurant and thinking it was way too gaudy for him to ever eat there, it had gold and crystal chandeliers and that was enough for him to hate it, though he thought it might've been nice to bring Ollie there if he could ever afford it.

"We-ell my Amber is worth every last copper." Roofus sighed, "I'm so lucky to have her in my life. After the Black Rose-"

"Roofus I'd love to reminisce some more but it is gonna be dark out soon and I am not in the mood to get jumped by more of Price's goons so can we wrap this up." Chip interjected rather abruptly, "Not that it's not been nice hanging out with you again, I just wanna make sure we can do it again after tonight."

"Ooh alright, drop by tomorrow whenever you can and I'll ma-ake sure to have your bandana in pe-erfect condition." Roofus walked out of the room with Chip and then walked him to the front door to say goodbye.

Chip was greeted on the other side of the door by a kitsune woman whose fur was orange with white stripes, she wore a deep purple eyeshadow with gold glitter, which matched the colours of her slim fitting sleeveless dress. She had numerous detailed golden bracelets covering the length of both of her forearms, she had a small ankle bracelet around one of her legs, which ended in sparkling purple high heels. "What are *you* doing here?" She sounded disgusted at Chip's presence, "*Please* tell me you're not going to ask me to curse another powerful artefact."

"Oh, I'm just on my way out." Chip slipped past her and then bowed a little more sarcastically than he actually wanted to, "Enjoy your date, Roofus is lucky to have you, and uhh, thanks for looking out for the old man."