"It's... not?"

"They think trade is a zero-sum thing where one country benefits from getting more gold and silver and the other country loses out because it has less. But it's not. If I give you some money for a candy bar you didn't win the interaction because you got money, we both won because I valued the candy bar more than the money and you valued the money more than the candy bar, and the same thing is true for countries. And if countries do different things they can specialize-- it doesn't benefit anyone if Auradon City is growing its own crops instead of having Morgendammerung grow them, uh, that's a little complicated to explain but I can explain it if you're interested-- anyway everyone keeps trying to win at trade so the tariffs are really really high and if there were lower tariffs there would be more trade and everyone would be better off instead of walking around with a bunch of metaphorical candy bars they have nothing to do with."

"...What."

Kaleva is so good. 

"...You don't ever talk in class."

He remembers that he is talking to a room full of people who are soon to be the most powerful people in the world.

"Uh. Class is scary."

"You're really smart."

"No, I'm not. I just read a lot."

He tries to tell Asher I've been telling him this for a year and a half with his face at the same time as he tries to tell Kaleva you're very very good also with his face. 

"I want to hear more about why Auradon City shouldn't grow its own crops."

Kaleva grabs a napkin and a pen from his pocket and starts to diagram it. "Imagine you're on an island--"

Asher is looking at Kaleva with an oddly warm expression.

So is Chen. 

Eventually Ben says, "--I think we're late to class."

He glances at his phone. "We are. Back here after class is done?" 

"Sounds good."

He can't concentrate in class that day; time feels like it's moving slower than usual. 

(He can't stop thinking about Ben, Ben's smile, what it felt like to have Ben in his arms, his face buried in Ben's hair, falling asleep curled up with Ben —) 

He contributes what he can that afternoon, which mostly boils down to an overview of of Chinese bureaucracy, and watches Ben's face, watches him smiling, and — 

Doesn't examine that. Doesn't examine the pit in his stomach when he sees Audrey in the halls. 

He hasn't told Audrey. Doesn't want to tell Audrey. He keeps thinking to himself "I can't be picky about who my real advisers are, I need people I can trust" and then he just-- doesn't.

Audrey is beautiful, popular, from a royal family, good at dancing and drawing and music and languages. His parents like her. He kissed her and it was fine. A little gross and slimy but that seems like the sort of thing that kissing just is. She's said she's his one true love and he-- doesn't disagree. He doesn't have any sick and perverted and wrong feelings for her, so that might make her his true love.

She can comfort him when he's doing something stressful. That's what your one true love is for. Even if she hasn't studied economics like Kaleva or political activism like Asher or government like Chen she can still be useful in comforting him, right?

But that night he pulls Chen aside and says, "I liked it when you held me."

"I liked it too." (He liked it too much.) "Your rooms might be better if you want to do that again, I don't want to kick Kaleva out." 

"That sounds good. Maybe I should try not to fall asleep on you this time." 

"It was sweet, you looked very peaceful. — but it did not look particularly comfortable, no." 

Or maybe we could cuddle in a bed, he doesn't say.

"I'll probably need to actually get a good night's sleep if I'm going to be a king!" He doesn't manage to completely prevent the faint hysteria on the last words.

"You need a good night's sleep anyway. C'mon?" 

"Yeah."

If Ben were a good person, probably he would say something like 'I am pretty sure the reason I like you cuddling me is that I want you to kiss me, and also to torture me, and I have no idea why I want those things but I am pretty sure both of them are gross and wrong and I'm sorry I'm doing this to you'. But Ben is not nearly as good a person as Asher thinks he is, and he wants Chen to think well of him, and he really wants Chen to hold him, so he doesn't.

Being a king when you're sixteen is really stressful. People need stress relief, and being held is really good stress relief, and if it makes him a better king probably it is okay. Ben tells himself this repeatedly but doesn't really believe himself. He's pretty sure if his dad said he wouldn't be king until he was thirty-five he would be trying to get Chen to hold him anyway.

Chen — needs to stop thinking about how much he wants to hold Ben, it can be something he gives Ben when Ben needs it but it shouldn't be something he seeks out — if he were as good of a person as he pretends to be he would admit to Ben that he likes this more than he should, but. He isn't. He doesn't. 

Once they're in Ben's rooms he pulls Ben down to sit on the bed with him and wraps his arms around Ben's torso and puts one hand on the back of Ben's head.