Breda set aside her sewing and cleaning tasks for the now in order to watch Arc. She was suspicious that this little meatball was hiding something from her, though she had yet to see anything that confirmed it. The way he carried himself was far too orderly, he didn't stumble over himself when he crawled, he didn't roll over randomly, and he was far too quiet. She also found it odd that he didn't seem to 'relieve' himself as often as her children did. Up until now she had chalked it up to the trauma surrounding his birth, maybe something was wrong with him. But she also found it almost creepy that he hesitated whenever she attempted to feed him, and she swore he could perfectly understand whatever she said. Often times her conversations to herself would evoke some sort of reaction from him, though she couldn't be sure it was the content of her talks that drew his attention.
But his apathy towards every other toy but these blocks was the final straw, and for the first time she started actively observing him, noticing a few odd things about him that her almost non-existent supervision from before failed to take in.
The very first thing Breda noticed from her position located on the couch behind him was how refined his movements were. There was very clear path to all of his movements, like he had total control over his limbs. Even her three year old was not as controlled, let alone Ering. She was convinced that there was something wrong, or rather right, with him. She continued to observe, trying her best not to draw his attention. She took a mental note of all of the oddities she noticed, planning on having a conversation with Jamie when he returned.
Breda was stunned.
His movements, steady hands, precision and endurance were all saved within her mind, leaving her shocked the entire time. However the thing that surprised her the most was the result of Arc's work. A stubby tower that sat as tall as he did was in front of him. The only block he didn't use was a disformed pyramid block that was clearly the result of some person's teething process. This was far beyond the scope of what she thought he would be able to do, and she was unable to stop a sound of surprise and awe from escaping her lips, alerting the target of her suspicions.
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Arc was at a loss.
All of his work trying to be covert over the last week looked like it had been ruined by his eagerness. He had been excited about these blocks because they presented him with a new task that would help him gain agency, that being depth perception and coordination. He was already pretty stable but he wasn't too precise yet, causing him to focus all of his attention on his tower of blocks and making him completely forget about Breda who was behind him. He had legitimately thought she would have gone back to what she was doing before.
'Now she DEFINITELY knows there is something wrong with me. Shit.' He cursed his own stupidity inside as he rushed to knock over his test of motor skills, with the timely assistance of an excited Ering. 'Maybe if its knocked over she will shrug it off as a fluke.' He prayed that his mistake would not have any serious ramifications, he was told to stay low after all.
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Ering was excited.
She finally had a partner to play with. Although friend wasn't very talkative or active, he was fun to watch. All the time that Arc had been building with his blocks she had been looking on with confusion and intrigue. This was the first time she had seen anything like this and wanted to touch it, as infants tend to want to do to new things. When Arc started collapsing his little venture into architecture, Ering was far too happy to join along, finding the process of tearing it down to be even more satisfying than watching him build it.
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Arc's mind immediately went into overdrive trying to figure a way out of this undesirable situation. His first thought was to play along with Ering and giggle and emote with joy as the tower crumbled, but he still felt Breda's stare on his back. He struggled and started to panic until he had an idea, one that might not work but was his only real shot at erasing suspicion.
He started to help Ering build a tower much like he had done before. She was quite enthusiastic about it as well, which made it easier for him to pull it off. All he had to do is look like he was having fun. Erina would pile a brick on top of the structure while he would make sure that it remained stable, careful to make his actions look accidental or unintentional. Each time they built the tower, they would destroy it soon after, sure to make noises of entertainment afterwards.
The point of this was to make it seem natural to her that a baby should be able to do this as her own child was participating, taking suspicion off of his back. Of course he didn't know that this would be irrelevant at this point (Breda simply had seen too much), but it did make it so that she wasn't wary of him anymore, merely thinking he was a smart baby rather than one with problems or possessed.
She wondered when he would start to speak or do other such things as he seemed to be very bright. She wore a soft expression as her child dozed off after they finished, but not before Ering gave Arc a hug and declared "Friend!"