Slowly, he moves his legs to put them on Jim's lap, defaulting to his first language when he's not sure what words to use. It's not chess, to him, it's just simple human contact. Kyle's not sure how Jim will deal with it, but the man did hug him and-- all he'd known was sex and violence when people touched him. It made Kyle determined to make touch mean something else. Friendship, and his head tilts to the side as he contemplates.

'I feel like I'm constantly messing up,' he says, quietly. 'I feel like a goddamn rookie in front of you and-- I haven't felt like that in years. I don't know how to fix it. Every time I try, we end up at a dead end. Like right now, I don't even know if this is going anywhere. All I do know is that I won't leave you behind.'