"Sure, just letting you know."

Shrug.

"Advanced classes have even more technical vocabulary to look up later."

"Ooh."

"Shoot apical meristem," she says, wiggling her fingers at him.

He laughs.

There is a knock on the door, and then it opens.

Presumably this is Odette's dad! Milan smiles at him.

"Ah, hello," he says when he sees him. "--Milan?"

"Good guess!"

"It's good to meet you. Karole Zavier."

"Good to meet you too!"

"Have you had dinner yet, I'm guessing no."

"I have not."

She goes over to the cold box, gets out the dumplings, warms them, and hands them to him.

"Thank you," he says, and kisses the top of her head.

Aww.

(He misses his family again.)

"Welcome to Genosha. I hear you're taking classes, so soon?"

"Auditing, anyway, yes."

He waves a hand. "Same thing, really. You're learning, and that's what's important."

"That is the idea, yes!"

"What are you studying?"

"Everything I can get my hands on. Science and magic particularly, since they're the most exciting, but I was a history major in my home universe so I'm picking up a little of that too."

"I see. I suspect several of our historians would be fascinated to hear about your world."

"I only have one semester of history to offer them, but I'll do my best!"