Zak needs a little bit to stop laughing, during which Alis just sulks and waits. When he has enough breath to speak he says, "Stop hitting yourself on the head, you absolute fool! Trust her! Tell her! In the worst case she will turn out to not have been trustworthy and we can wave it off as some light sword touching and say that anything anyone says about us being in love is lies, which yes is awful but the awful part would be the betrayal itself, and it's better to know than not, right? But she won't. She's not telling a soul."

He covers his eyes with a hand, then, and leans his back against the wall turning his face to the ceiling. "But what if I hurt her because I love you and not her?" he asks in a tiny, fragile whisper.

"...my love. My Alis. You already love her."

His head snaps back down to look at Zak so fast he actually cracks his neck. "We've just met!"

"Yeah, that's crazy, right? But I guess it was love at first—maybe sight, actually, Lord Arryn told me about your first encounter. I am sure you were very taken by her right then and there."

He just stares at Zakary for several seconds, breathing heavily and not really having any facial expressions.

Then he covers his face with his hands and says, "Oh, gods, I am in love with her."

Zak leans forward and places one hand on the side of Alis's face, lightly scratching the back of his neck with his fingers. "Yes you are, love. Surprise, everything the stories tell you about true love is lies. Some people have more love in them than just for the one person."

He lowers his hands from his face and then places one of them on top of Zakary's. "I did not sign up for this," he sighs.

"You did not sign up to love and be loved by more than one person? Well, tough shit, brother. And can I just say? There is no one else in this world that would react the way you just did to realising they are in love with their spouse."

Alis laughs weakly. "When you put it like that it is kind of ridiculous."

"You've always been ridiculous about these things. Ever since we were children. Ever since I noticed just how much I wanted you, how much I wanted to be with you, and you noticed the same, you've been ridiculous. You spent a month avoiding me after we kissed for the first time!"

"You kissed me in the baths, anyone could have walked in and seen!"

"And yet you only took notice of it after we'd had our tongues down each other's throats for five minutes and I was on your lap. See what I mean? Ridiculous."

"Well, you cannot hold things I did as a child against me."

"As your brother, it is my solemn duty to hold everything you did as a child against you."

He sighs. "Fine, Zakary, fine. You win. I will talk to her."

"Good boy. Now I have some more things to do before supper, so I shall see you later, brother." He gives Alis a light peck on the lips then walks off to wherever it is he needs to go.

Alis stays where he is for a while longer until he is definitely not blushing anymore and definitely not, not... whatever he is. He loves Zakary dearly but Zak can really be a bit overwhelming. Sometimes it feels like having a chat with a maelstrom.

He doesn't really have anything scheduled until supper, and he feels like if he tried to do anything serious he'd just be distracted all the time, so instead he'll go back to his chambers and read his book some more.

His bedsheets have been changed, the chamberpots have been emptied and cleaned, and the oil lamps have all been refilled. He can hear the bustle of servants outside the door of his guest chanbers, but they're all aware he's in, and they leave him alone. He is free to read until supper.

—and also probably people are passing the bedsheets around so that they know for sure that his wife did in fact lose her maidenhead there. For some reason this bothers him more than the thought of having been listened in on. He thinks he feels somewhat offended by the idea—of course he was going to consummate his marriage, he made his vows!—but he supposes it makes sense for people who are not as honourable as him.

(He does not like people who are not as honourable as him.)

So when it's about supper time he leaves his chambers and goes to find it, and hopefully his wife will already be there, too.

He ends up finding his wife before he finds dinner. She's very easy to spot, in a nice central sitting room at the end of the hallway. In her hands is a grey handkerchief she seems to be embroidering. After years of household management, she's learned that she does more harm than good when trying to assist while supper is being directly made. Preparations and acquiring supplies to make dinner is a different matter, but the actual chopping and boiling and cooking tasks and whatnot? Nope, she makes the poor cooks nervous. So: she is not there. She's where she can be easily found if someone for some reason needs her to solve a lady-shaped problem, but those are actually fairly rare.

"Oh, hello, dear!" says Anavett, brightening immediately upon seeing him.

"Hello, milady," he says, also brightening considerably. When he gets close enough to her he takes one of her hands (being slow and predictable enough to let her pause her embroidering and being careful not to mess it up) then bows low enough to kiss it, keeping his eyes on her face.

She sets her embroidery aside and beams at him, delighted. Such a good husband!!!

"Supper should be ready soon, we can have it somewhere private or in the main dining hall, whichever."

...having it away from people sounds horribly tempting actually. But on the other hand it is good for morale to spend time with his men. On the other other hand most of them will be hungover until tomorrow from the feast and might not even themselves be all there. Plus if he skips supper to be with his wife that'll feed the rumour mill about them even more.

...

"If it please milady, I would love to share that meal with her alone."

"It would! As long as I'm not imposing. But we've every right to be newly weds, I suppose."