"I'd offer to help you study but I don't think I'd be much of a help. And maybe we should check out England sometime." 

"We could study together."

"We could." 

It's good seeing Kaleva smile. 

"It hurts less than it did," he says. "And-- maybe it will hurt even less. Over time."

"...I don't know if you ever really stop missing people, but — it gets less." 

Kaleva kisses his forehead again. "King Ben is going to get your friends from the Isle."

"I know. But — they might be on the other side of Auradon, they aren't going to put people near their old gangs — and Auradon is big and it'll have been years and —" he buries his face in Kaleva's shoulder. 

"We can move to where your friends are. You could probably do it right now, honestly, Charlotte would just be like"-- he puts on a falsetto and a bad attempt at a Louisianan accent--"'oh, friendship matters a lot, of course we can move to wherever your friends are, isn't that right, Ralphie? I always said friendship was as important as two bugs on a log! I'd like to get out of this humid New Orleans air' and then we'd have to hear about the weather for two hours."

He laughs and doesn't move away from Kaleva's shoulder. "You're excellent." 

"I would be such a wreck if I didn't have you."

He hesitates for a moment, chews on his lip — 

— it's an okay thing to say in Auradon, it isn't like — 

"— I'd be really lonely without you," he says, and his voice is small. "I was really lonely without you." 

"It's okay," he says. "I won't go away unless you want me to."

"— that's kind of terrifying honestly, but — it's good terrifying. 

Thank you." 

"I am.. part of your gang?" he tries. 

"...huh," he says, like he's only just realizing it. "Yeah. You are. We keep each other warm and safe and okay and — you're my people." 

Maybe they should be kissing now. 

They should be!

Good. 

(Kaleva is his people. Saying it doesn't make it any more true than it was before but it — feels different, now.) 

In the morning Kaleva pokes him and says, "I got Charlotte to bring us beignets. Studying now."

"Studying now," he agrees. 

He... was kind of hoping studying with Kaleva would make him more able to do it, but doing math exercises still feels like beating his head repeatedly against a wall. 

"How are you doing?"

"I'm doing fine." 

(He's pulling his hair like he does when he's frustrated or overwhelmed, and not when he's fine.) 

Kaleva doesn't comment.

"It might help if you try to explain the problem to me. Lots of things are easier to figure out when you talk through them to someone."

"...I can't even do that." 

Kaleva hugs him. "Do you know what the problem is?"

"...I know we've been over this kind of problem, and I know they thought I'd be smart enough for this level, and I keep looking at the problem and knowing I can't do it and thinking what if they decide I'm wrong for this after all and then thinking what if they send me back and then I kind of want to cry and I'm still not any closer to understanding what they're asking me."