"It makes a lot of sense to have priors about the world, to make predictions, and - I am sure that gave adequate predictions in the past." Yet again he's dully angry with Asmodeus, though he doesn't have much energy to put into it. "I cannot promise no bad things; it has caught me by surprise before." Starwind, slipping an artifact from under his robes, shoving him to the ground– "But we are well protected and I do not foresee any specific risks, and danger does not catch me off guard all that often." 

"I know. I'm - really lucky to have you. And everything today was wonderful and this is wonderful." Nervous smile. "It'll just take a little while for all of me to catch up. I don't have to wait for it, though."

"I would have said I was the one lucky to have you." He looks her in the eye, then reaches in to cup her face between his hands, and kisses her. 

Eeeeeeeeeee her husband is kissing her in a way that is very romantic and - calm down, he explained his whole thing, he's going to need a lot of time to get to the point where he wants you and that's fine -

Leareth is very tired, but this is the first time they've had un-pressured time alone in weeks, now, and being exhausted is a bit like being mildly drunk, and in short he has no desire at all to stop kissing her and go to sleep. It's not even that late, for people with a Ring of Sustenance. 

Eventually he scoops her up and carries her over to the bedroom. 

It's so romantic and perfect and calm down, they will do some kissing and snuggling and then he will start thinking about the layout of his operations base probably, you still live in the real world even if it's gotten awfully surreal lately -

Leareth remembers the way he felt in Khemet's demiplane, the sense that neither past nor future were his problem right now and he could just be here-and-now; he can't recapture all of it, here, but he is definitely not thinking about his operations base layout at all. 

He undresses his wife - feels slightly giddy about the 'wife' part - and kisses her some more, and–

Leareth thinks she's enjoying herself? Probably? But he's not Khemet, he doesn't have apparently-not-magic mindreading, and also all of Carissa's default expectations about sex are horrible, so... 

He pauses. Takes a breath. :We ought probably - do some communicating here. I want you. I - have not actually done this with a woman before, though, so - I could probably use some guidance here: 

(Before, Leareth considered asking Khemet for advice on this and then decided he was absolutely not going to do that.) 

- blink. :Do you - want to have sex tonight -:

:If you feel ready for it then - yes, I think so: 

:I want to.: There are a lot of emotions there but none of them are hesitation. :Uh, but I don't really know exactly what I'm doing either. I know that ideally you touch me first and then I'm more relaxed. - I guess I could. Show you how to do that.:

:I would appreciate that. And - then we can figure something out. We are both clever people who also have intelligence headbands, after all: 

:You're very good. I'm glad - I don't even know what I'm glad of.: She's glad that somehow despite having spent her life as a completely reasonable person who wasn't optimizing towards this goal at all she is on a honeymoon on a different plane with a prince who is going to take her virginity and then make her immortal and also she can learn magic with Aroden and it feels - pretend, it still feels pretend, but she wants it more than anything and she can trust it as far as this, right, she can trust the ground not to twist under her right this second -

- she can teach him how to touch her, and then conclude that if she's impatient that probably means that's enough of that, right -

Probably! She should tell him if they need to slow down, of course, but he is a little impatient too - 

- it turns out that when Leareth is very relaxed and happy and in a place where he's not watching his surroundings (and probably the tiredness has something to do with it too), and also is around someone who doesn't have powerful shields against everything but formal Mindspeech, he shields less and starts accidentally projecting overtones of whatever he's feeling. 

This is very good because those emotions are positive! It's so implausible of him to on top of all his other good qualities like her and want her and be able to let her know it. She cannot quite fathom it and she wants it so badly and probably it'd be distracting and totally throw off the mood if she said 'I love you' and she doesn't even know what those words mean so she doesn't but she kisses him and tries sending impatience right back in his direction though she's not sure if that works.

If she's not just failing to hedge him out but actively shoving thoughts and feelings out for him then he can definitely pick them up. 

Leareth is thinking, deep enough that he's not projecting the thought itself, that he probably loves her. He's also confused about all the shades of meaning in that word, but - in the end the part that matters is the reality of it, which is that they're married and they just pulled off a fairly impressive state wedding in two weeks together, and he's so, so grateful to suddenly be in a world where this is even a possibility he can reach for. 

Leareth, of course, has no discomfort at all about reaching for something he wants and can see is possible.

He's so happy.  

...there turns out to have been some good reason for the advice to take it slowly your first time or it'll hurt, but she doesn't actually care because she is very happy and married and Iomedae was right and everything is wonderful and she is too distracted to doubt all these very implausible opinions of hers, right now, and maybe for a while.

There are a lot of hours left in the night, too, for people who have Rings of Sustenance. Though it was a really long day and Leareth has been out of Lesser Restorations for a while, and well before the time they usually go to sleep he's out of energy to do anything more than flop and cuddle. 

:It is a word with complicated meanings: he sends, :but - I think it is accurate enough, now, to say I love you: 

- it probably can't ruin everything if you're just saying it back -

:I think I probably love you too.:

Nothing seems to be ruined at all! Leareth keeps holding her and quietly projecting contentment. There are still problems to be solved, and endless work ahead, they're not done, but all of that can wait until next week.