"Yup. I guess I thought maybe science where you're from would have fixed that problem, though. If you can make food, then making tasty food seems like it should be a thing." He wonders if there's food scientists working on it. That would be a great job - getting to taste food all day after science-ing.

He smiles up at Kirk, not bothered by the nudge. It's prolonged physical contact that sounds like a bad idea right now. This is fine. Actually, this is pretty cool, all things considered. Sure, he has a headache, but he's getting to talk to a guy who works in space!

"I sleep better in winter when the heater in my room is rumbling. It's harder to get to sleep when I visit the rest of my family, although my mom says that's because people get attached to their own beds." Which was a valid point. His bed has the cool comforter with the blue and white star pattern on it; it's pretty dope, as his cousin would say.

Alex chuckles, ducking his head. "Sorry, I'm not laughing at you. But that's kind of how I am about languages. I know some stuff, since my relatives speak different ones and I always ask my mom for books on them. When I talk to grown ups, though, I don't know enough to keep up and I guess it's kind of annoying to them." A portion of his time in Nunavut had been spent pestering his Aunt Timmiaq to teach him Inuktitut, something she'd indulged him in more than most. She was pretty nice about it, but a lot of adults have no patience for a kid's random questions.

"Yeah, NASA's a thing. I don't know if I'm smart enough to study space, but I'd like to try, someday."