"Then we shall snuggle and there shall be scritches only on decorous locations."

"Maybe until he goes and sees a movie with Renée instead."

He shudders a bit in anticipation. "Yes, ma'am."

"Getting on the train now, I'm gonna lose my signal. I love you, I love you so much."

"Okay, ma'am. I love you, too. You're more than I could have ever dreamt possible, and I still think I'm the luckiest person alive to have met you."

"Love you," she sighs into the phone, and then the line goes dead.

Well. Now he just has to... wait.

He leaves the room to give Alex back his phone.

"You feeling better?"

"Yeah, significantly."

"Okay. Whaddaya want for dinner?"

"I don't want anything in particular at the moment."

"Okay, I'll just do tacos then. You need anything?"

"Tacos sound good, and I could use a shower. I brought money to buy stuff, and my backpack has a few changes of clothes and toiletries."

"Shower's all yours, keep your money, don't steal my loofah."

"I will stay away from your loofah," he says, and retreats to the shower.

After that, he goes check on Renée.

She's finally gotten off the phone. "It sounds like you might be able to get emancipation," she says. "You'll likely have to wait a few months for a hearing, but it's likely you can get legal permission to live away from him in the meantime. He's going to get back to me about whether you can re-enroll before you're emancipated."

He blinks. "Really?"

"Yes. It's not trivial, but it does help that you're a mage - you might want to line up one of those stipend-now-for-work-later arrangements, it'll establish that you have independent income."

"Oh." He finds the nearest wall to lean against, looking a bit faint.

"Are you all right?"

"Y—yeah. Just. This—actually, um, I hadn't actually believed it could work at all and had just been going through the motions, and..."

"It's still complicated and difficult but it's not impossible."

"Yeah, but still—thank you. Really, thank you. You really didn't need to."

"I wasn't going to tell you to turn around and go back!"

He shrugs. "I wouldn't need to go back, I could have dealt with it, I lived alone for two years when I was ten and I expect I'm better at it nowadays," he says with a wry smile. "So really, thank you," he repeats fervently.