Sandor Clegane considered summer to be, at the same time, the worst and best time of the year.
On one hand, he could not deny that the warm weather was responsible for the dramatic increase of sales revenues of his Clegane Rosé and the hundreds of thousands of Golden Dragons his bank account would receive were welcomed with great enthusiasm.
On the other hand, Westerlands Wine Country was flooded with tourists making the now world famous road trips, visiting vineyards, tasting a wide variety of wines and of course, being obnoxious, loud and annoying cunts.
Sandor would have prefered to simply lock his doors and refuse the groups, but that would be bad PR and he was a businessman, after all. Besides, he had Tyrion Lannister to cover this part of the work; Sandor had to admit the little man was in his element and had negotiated a good deal with the County Travel Bureau. The Imp loved nothing more than to be the center of attention, lauded as the master mind behind their success story. Sandor was satisfied in playing the man behind the scenes role and the wine was actually named after him.
As it turned out, The Hound and The Imp formed a highly effective team, together in the pursuit of what really mattered. Profits. Well, it is actually more complicated than that, but "profits" is the single easiest explanation to why Tyrion and Sandor decided to produce Rosé wines, in spite of the fact both absolutely hated their award winning product.
Sandor had worked for the Lannisters every since he was a boy of 12, so he knew Tyrion for most of his life. Even when he got sick and tired of that bloody family and re-entered the Army, he ended up in the same division of Jaime Lannister and under his command. Old habits were hard to kill and extra money led to Sandor work as bodyguard for that sorry excuse of human being called Joffrey between deployments.
Tyrion was also under great stress his entire life because of the bad relationship with his father and his condition. Being the only dwarf amongst the legendary good looking, blond haired Lannister family would have been a terrible blow to even to the sanest individual. Only wine - and whores- could dull both men´s misery.
So, more often than not, Sandor and Tyrion would find themselves sharing the same table and they would engage in deep conversations about their passion: while Tyrion favored Gold Arbor, Sandor was ever faithful to Dornish Red. One day, Sandor had had enough of Joffrey and quit. Partly because he knew that boy was a time bomb and would end up killed sooner or later. He obviously did not want the death of a client on his pristine bodyguard Resumé, but he left mostly because of the young man´s behavior towards the Little Bird.
Sansa Stark dated Joffrey for a couple of months, but the relationship had freezed during a trip the Baratheons and Starks took to Dorne. The little shit basically killed Sansa´s dog. By that time, Catelyn had already left with the two younger boys to Kings Landing, planning on going North afterwards, but all flights were fully booked, leaving Eddard and the girls behind for two days. Joffrey had confided in Sandor that he was planning on making a visit to the girl, who had locked herself in his bedroom . Sandor managed to talk to Sansa and alert her and, since he was leaving on a military carrier the same night, he offered to take her with him, but she was obviously still too scared of his face and bad manners and decided to stay.
But Sandor left as he said he would and joined the Army. In the Riverlands, during a war exercise, he identified Sansa´s sister, Arya, who had lied about her age and was trying to get to her brother, Robb. Sandor took upon himself to deliver the little wolf bitch to his brother, however things got way more complicated than he had anticipated: Robb died in a freakish accident that sounded more like an ambush; Catelyn Stark, their mother, was attacked by men connected to the Freys, and left for dead and her former bodyguard, Lieutenant Brienne of Tarth somehow thought Sandor was helding Arya against her will and attacked him. Arya escaped them both and Sandor ended up at the Quiet Isle Retreat for Veterans.
After some weeks of both physical and psychological therapy, Sandor decided to accept an honourable discharge from the Army. Elder Brother, the director of the retreat, explained him that as a veteran he would be eligible for full scholarships, either on the technical or college level education and so they went over the list of options for institutes, community colleges and courses. Sandor was not sure of what to do, but winemaking had always interested him. Westerlands University had a 18 month Certificate of Winemaking Program that he could start online while on the retreat. Elder Brother also suggested Sandor to attend Business Classes at the local Saltpans City College, which he did and was forever grateful.
Not long after this life change decision were made, a couple of unfortunate events that enabled both Sandor and Tyrion to combine their assets and open shop at Clegane Estate started to unfold. The so called "Twincest Scandal" was proved to be a fact after DNA tests made in the aftermath of Joffrey´s incarceration for harming a prostitute named Ros showed he could not possibily be a Baratheon. At this point, there was very little the mighty Tywin Lannister could do other than put a brave face and send his well trained pack of lawyers to harass the press and his enforcers to call in favors from members of the Judiciary.
Unfortunately, Tywin was dealing with other powerful families and the whole bullying strategy was only working short term. Anyway, the release of Joffrey on bail was as good excuse as Tywin could get to remind everyone that the boy had his full support and a massive party was thrown to celebrate the occasion. Joffrey once again proved to be a disapointment and a party pooper : he died during the festivities, choking on a chicken wing.
The shock must have affected the old patriarch more than anticipated, because he saw fit to have a romantic encounter with Tyrion´s mistress, Shae, a couple of days after Joffrey´s funeral.
Now, regarding Tywin´s cause of death : if you believe some rumours, it might have been a single fatal shot wound to his chest inflicted by his enraged son when he went to his father´s chambers to discuss details pertinent to the lawsuit and found him with Shae.
Or you could choose the version Cersei Lannister had approved: a sudden and fulminant heart attack, obviously caused by the stress of an unjust lawsuit and the loss of a beloved grandson.
Well, since Tywin Lannister´s will had been dictated a couple of months before the scandal broke and not changed, the bulk of his Estate went to Cersei and Jaime. Tywin would have hated his legacy tarnished by families disputes, so he left a hefty sum of money to Tyrion, with the stipulation he would lose this benefit if he would choose to challenge the will.
Nobody could accuse Tyrion of being stupid: he took his check, left Casterly Rock Manor and promised himself to become the richest Lannister, which would not be that hard all things considered: Jaime had no interest in running the business; Cersei was not only unprepared but possibly mad and her aggressive spending and impulsive decisions would possibly be the end of Lannister. Not to mention the fact that most of the gold mines were exhausted and the myriad of uncles, aunts, cousins and widows with shares and participation in the company spelled trouble for anyone with half a brain.
So, Tyrion had enough money when he bumped into Sandor 5 years ago while he was visiting the campus of Westerland University to finish his Certificate.
As it happened, Sandor had also came into an inheritance: in this case his brother Gregor had been found dead not too far from the Quiet Isle and left no will or known heirs, except for his younger and estranged brother.
The man known as the "Mountain that rides" apparently lost control of his customized Harley and crashed against a solid weirwood tree. The impact was so intense that he was all but decapitated.
Despite some people whispering foul play, the forensics team labelled the case an accident. Truth be told, the Police Department of Saltpans was notorious for avoiding lengthy and complicated cases and a man like Gregor had an almost unlimited list of possible suspects and of people who would have liked to see him killed, among them powerful and rich families such as the Martells, Tullys and Targaryens.
The rise of the Westerlands wine began about 30 years ago and more or less coincided with the invention of the White Zinfadel, a specific sort of Rosé wine that took Westeros by the storm. The carefully executed market research that Tyrion and Sandor made showed that there was still space for another Rosé winemaker, in spite of the recent 5% decrease of Rosé on the market participation, Zinfadel occupied third places of sales and there was almost unlimited promise of sales growth for the foreign markets.
Tyrion was a genius of marketing, a natural born salesman and promoter, capable of charming people as different as the though CEO of a great supermarket chain to the prickly editor in chief of specialized magazines. Tyrions qualities combined with Sandor´s hands on approach on winemaking and obsession with quality guaranteed Clegane Rosé´s well deserved history of success and it did not take too long before nominations and wins for prestigious awards started to come their way.
Even better: the money they were winning with the fruity, light, perfumed Rosé was more than enough to allow Tyrion and Sandor to buy cases and more cases of Dornish and Arbor wines.
"Sansa, you drive like an old lady,why am I so NOT surprised by that, huh? I mean, I bet Old Nan would go faster than you, ha! We are on the fucking highway, for fuck´s sake! "
Sansa knew that her relationship with Arya was now one of trust and friendship, but her sister could be a pain in the ass sometimes and right now was exactly one of those moments. Of course Sansa regretted having mocked Arya during their childhood and still felt guilty about having dismissed her warnings against Joffrey back in the day. However, the 4 hour complaining session about her lack of desire to drive recklessly in her opinion is more than enough punishment for any past and future sisterly transgression.
"Shut up, Arya! I am driving as fast as possible, but there are speed limits. Not that you, with your collection of tickets, would ever know or care about."
How could she get mad at Arya, when her wild wolf of a sister had agreed with Sansa´s crazy idea of making a road trip through Westerlands wine country, even though she was pregnant and still holding a grudge against Sandor, who owned one of the vineyards they were about to visit?
" We are almost there anyway. We just need to check in at the Bed and Breakfast, freshen up a bit and call Tyrion. He will pick us up and we head to this very famous restaurant, Fair Isle. The Penrose Guide gave it 3 stars last year so I am very excited Tyrion managed to get us a table in such a short notice!"
It took a couple of weeks to convince Arya. And years for Sansa to finally have the courage to try and find out what had happened to Sandor.
The weekend he left her was a long one. Sansa could sense that the relationship between her father and Robert Baratheon was under duress, but she could not have anticipated the strong reaction of Eddard to what would have been seen as a simple break up between teenagers. Joffrey had been charming in the beginning and Sansa, as naive as a very sheltered 15 years old girl could.
There was no flights to Kings Landing that day and her mother managed to secure the last seats. Sansa, Arya and Eddard would have to endure another night with the Baratheons. Sandor and Arya had always told her the truth and she refused to listen because both of them were harsh about it. Sansa had not realized that life was not a song.
It was painful to come to the conclusion that her parents, although loving, had neglected to properly prepare Sansa to face the world on her own. When winter finally came, she was basically left to fend for herself.
They managed to leave together and arrive in Kings Landing, eventually staying one night at Stannis home. Eddard and Catelyn still had to go to this social event and Stannis was preparing some documents and stayed with the Stark children. Two days later, Robert Baratheon died under mysterious circumstances; his last and final will was not found and Stannis started a much publicized lawsuit over control of Baratheon Corporation, based on the fact that Cersei´s children were not Robert´s therefore had no right to inherit his shares.
Unfortunately for Sansa, the moment the information was made public, she had gone to the Baratheon to properly say goodbye to Myrcella and was held as a virtual prisioner for a couple of weeks, as leverage. The only sane adult person in that family was Tyrion Lannister, who took upon himself to protect Sansa from Joffrey´s outbursts and managed to contact Catelyn Stark in the midst of the legal battle and arrange for her release. Sansa was pretty sure this was only possible because Cersei, who was usually drunk, was beyond herself and not paying too much attention when Joffrey was arrested in relation to some horrible crime.
However, her father was killed in a freakish car accident and because her mother was paranoid after this event and the suspicious fall of her little brother, Brandon, from a tower and Catelyn had asked a childhood friend of hers called Petyr Baelish to escort Sansa to her aunt´s Lysa home in the Vale, where she was to start school and be kept safe from possible reprisals from the Lannisters.
Long story short: worst .decision. ever.
Eventually, great uncle Brynden Tully rescued Sansa and her cousin Robin Arryn from the hands of Mr Baelish and the Starks pieced little by little their family together.
Although Sansa kept in touch with Tyrion, sending the occasional email, they never talked about the past really, preferring to keep the communication a bit on the superficial side. It was only a couple of months ago that Sansa actually asked Tyrion about his life and, eventually, if he knew what have happened to Sandor.
Looking back now, how could have Sansa not asked about Sandor before? From time to time, her thoughts would drift back to would remember how afraid she was of his angry eyes, but also how she had grown to like to be called "Little Bird", to hear that raspy voice and the crude remarks that made her blush.
Sansa often missed Sandor´s fierceness and dirty mouth , wishing she could be a little bit like him or even Arya. In time, Sansa eventually learned to use a bit of what she had learned with Sandor to her advantage.
Like the day Sansa surprised Arya with a very primal reaction, trully worthy of the famous irascible Hound : after finding out that her then boyfriend, Harry, had cheated, Sansa proceeded to kick the young man´s very personal and private parts, calling him a " small dick cunt", and only stopped the vicious attack when Gendry restrained her, which gave Harry the opportunity to flee the scene, never to appear again.
"Oh, it seems we have arrived! It looks exactly like in the picture, but somehow...different. Well, it was the only place with vacant rooms." Sansa parked the overstuffed car without difficulty in the semi-empty lot. The place looked old and a bit on the "rustic" side. Anyway, Tyrion had offered them a place at Clegane Estate, however Sansa preferred them to have rooms elsewhere, just in case things got weird with Sandor.
" Why on Westeros are we in front of the Maggy´s Bed and Breakfast? The place is a dump!"
Tyrion had somehow convinced Sandor to venture out of Clegane Estate. Since everybody in town actually knew Sandor and was used to his scars, Tyrion really did not understand why his partner was always a bit reluctant in venturing out of his cave.
" I told you already, Hound: I have a surprise for you. Two, actually."
The first thing that came into his mind was that The Imp had booked a couple of rooms and invited some professional female friends over. As far as Sandor knew, Tyrion had never set foot at Maegi´s- the kind of trap that only unadvised guests would dare to stay longer than a couple of nights. But perhaps Tyrion was not planning on let the "surprises" much longer there?
"You should wait here outside. I go to the reception to pick up our dates for what promises to be a very exciting evening." Tyrion looked too pleased with himself for Sandor´s taste, but hey, the little man was known for his good taste, so, why not?
When Sandor was getting used to the idea of a self indulgent night with lovely ladies of pleasure, he saw a couple of very familiar faces.
His jaw dropped.
He felt the corners of his mouth moving up.
A smile?
" Sandor!"
Sansa was an absolute knock out, exactly how he remembered her, but better. She was dressed in knee length black dress with white polka dots, some throwback style. Sandor could only feel the warmth of her body, close to his, because as soon as she screamed his name, she had ran for his arms and locked him in an embrace.
" Seven Hells, little bird, it has been such a long time! And look at Arya bloody Stark! Are you a lady now, wolf bitch?"
Arya was already rolling her eyes. " Why, are you handsome now, Hound?"
Tyrion saw fit to interrupt what could have been a playful exchange between Sandor and Arya. " Good, I see that my surprise was well received. Now that the emotional part of this meeting is over, we should make our way to the celebratory dinner!"
" Better not be one of those restaurants with tiny portions. I did not come all this way south to starve, Lannister! " Arya was barely out of the first trimester, always hungry and she managed to sound terrifying enough for Tyrion to turn red.
" Fear not. They offer a good variety of hearty comfort food with organic ingredients and, of course, outstanding regional wines." Maybe trying to deflect a possible reprisal, Tyrion added. " Sansa actually took a look at the menu and approved the choice