the sun a'setting

Chaos parroted Shaye's name and Valentine had a "yep, he's mine" moment. Valentine gave Chaos a knowing look and then nodded a little as he tried to nudge him in the right direction. That's right. Her niece, Shaye, mother of Rhyme's inbred kids, and all around typical Destruction, had died. The old king willed his son to behave. The mouth nearly every member of their family shared liked to pop off at the worst of times - which was usually great, honestly - but this time was a little different. This was Rhythm. Valentine was relieved when it seemed to click and Chaos launched into a polite answer.

His eyes narrowed and his lip twitched at the mention of an escort. Now it was his turn to be polite. He didn't need no damn escort. Period, full stop, etc. Valentine was also tired of being treated like an old man. Yes he was of a rather ah, advanced age, but he was still capable and his mind was still sharp enough to recognize that some of his kids were continually trying to scale his ventures back - to peel open his hand and take the car keys out, so to speak - and he hated it. Maybe he was wrong, maybe Chaos would have made the suggestion for anyone, but he'd started the request with the caveat that he knew Valentine was a capable fighter which led Valentine to think his son had an ulterior motive for asking.

Valentine sucked on his teeth for a moment, the displeased sound audible, and then nodded stiffly. "Yeah, they can come along. It'll be good for them." He was not going to use the word escort, nope. Turning to Rhythm, he nudged her shoulder and asked, "Since we need to give the kids some time to get ready and we have some time to kill, are you sure there's nothing you want to bring with you?"