It's not like missing the place where one grew up is a foreign concept (the book on learning Chinese that's currently in Sasha's bookbag comes to mind) but it takes him a moment to work out that yes, people who are not from the Isle probably have specific foods that they miss from home. 

"He usually sits with his teammates — he's never mentioned missing things but he wouldn't have mentioned it either way." 

"Oh well, I can make it for him some other time. It's not going to taste right for him anyway, I can cook Chinese food but when I'm trying to be impressive I stick to the stuff I've been cooking since I could walk and hold a knife."

It's....hard to juggle Asher's reactions and Kaleva's. 

Fuck it. "You're sweet," said with affection. 

"You're sweeter."

Kaleva had two crises so far today and he is not going to have another crisis. He is going to eat jambalaya and contemplate all the excellent food this arrangement will bring him. 

(Chen loves him! Chen loves him!!)

He watches Kaleva's face and eats. 

Chen loves him and Sasha loves him and Kaleva has delicious food and Asher is in love with Sasha and not going to throw anyone into a dumpster! This is the Best Day.

Oh good, he's happy. 

He's not particularly trying to communicate nonverbally but his face goes all soft when he looks at Kaleva and Asher has probably noticed. 

That is adorable. 

Asher is aware that he is biased in favor of thinking that everything about Sasha is extremely good, but he is pretty sure the way Sasha looks at Kaleva would be adorable even without the bias.

I've got you, I've got you, and that thought doesn't even make sense to have, there's nothing he's protecting Kaleva from right now, no safety he's providing, but he keeps thinking it anyway. 

You've got me, towards Asher, and that thought makes marginally more sense, Asher's bringing food and offering more, but — 

Chad Charming has observed that Asher is not sitting with the rest of the tourney team and is instead sitting with a villain kid and Chen's weird roommate. This seems like a situation where it's a good idea to harass someone!

"Why are you sitting at the loser table?"

"How can it be the loser table, Chad, you're not sitting here," Asher says mildly.

"You know it's easier to just not engage, right?" He doesn't acknowledge Chad's presence. 

"I don't like it when people insult you."

"That must be hard!" Chad says. "Because people probably insult Sasha a lot. Because he's a loser."

"What's going to happen," Asher says in a bored tone, "is that you're going to keep saying obnoxious things until you decide to punch me, and then I'm going to dodge, and then you're going to punch me again, and then I'm going to dodge again, and then I'm going to knock you on your ass and you're going to slink away in humiliation. Can we please just skip ahead to the part where you slink away in humiliation? I was enjoying my lunch."

"You're very sweet but I really don't care that much if Chad Charming thinks I'm a loser. Chad Charming's opinion of me has zero effect on anything that would actually meaningfully affect my life and it's really not worth fighting over." 

If Sasha doesn't want to be defended then he doesn't have to be defended! Asher is very obliging like that. "So," he says. "Kaleva, is it just me or is the book we're reading in lit class literally the worst book of all time?"

"You can't just ignore me!"

Asher can't say "I clearly can just ignore you," because that would be paying attention to him, but he's thinking it really hard.

"I don't know that I'd go that far," he says, continuing to act like Chad Charming isn't there. "When your supply of books comes entirely from what people throw away you get a lot of really, really bad books." 

"I really want to hear about this!"

Kaleva is totally failing to ignore Chad. He looks terrified. 

They can't just IGNORE CHAD. He is a PRINCE. They are an evil villain, some random duke of some iceberg somewhere, and a guy who used to work at a restaurant. It's disgraceful! It's enraging! Something has gone WRONG.   

As predicted, Chad tries to punch Asher and winds up, to his great confusion, punching air. He tries again and once again his fist only connects with air. He tries a third time and is suddenly blinking in confusion at the underside of the table. 

"...Anyway."