"…"
"…"
A pair of clear, amethyst-like eyes gazed at Lín, revealing the innocence of a child. Chubby little hands patted his helmet, seeming to love the feel of the smooth material.
Lín lowered his head and glanced at her.
"Hmm?" The light from Lín's blue visible window made her look curiously at the hexagonal grid pattern, making little cooing sounds.
Lín thought for a moment, then lowered his head slightly to let her touch it.
"You actually have patience." Mobius, twirling a pen with one hand and keeping the other in the pocket of her white lab coat, walked up to Lín. She looked at the tiny life in Lín's arms. "I wouldn't have thought you'd be one to care for a child."
She pulled her hand from her pocket, attempting to stroke the child's face, but the child displeasingly dodged her, causing Mobius's expression to stiffen.
How strange. Why would this little one rather stay with the fierce-looking Lín than let her touch her? Was this man really that appealing to children?
"Haven't they come back yet?" Lín asked calmly.
Lín was asking about Mobius's former assistant, Blanca, and her husband, Seele. Lín had come to Mobius's lab for his routine physical examination today and happened to run into Blanca and Seele, who brought their child to visit Mobius. Then, upon receiving a communication, the two hurriedly left to attend to some unknown matter, leaving the child with Mobius.
Thus, the important task of caring for the child had fallen to Lín's shoulders.
"Who knows~ Anyway, Griseo likes you so much, what does it matter if you hold her a little longer~" Mobius's final syllables slowly elongated. This intentional attempt to sound cute gave Lín a strong sense of déjà vu.
Griseo, that was the child's name.
Children born within the Moth of the Flame were exceedingly rare, as the place was not suitable for new life.
Therefore, people's curiosity towards the child far surpassed the child's curiosity toward them.
Nuwa and Fuxi crowded around. They were the two youngest in the lab in terms of tenure and were unexpectedly delighted to see a child even younger than them.
"Is this child called Griseo?" Nuwa carefully extended her finger, hovering it over Griseo's little head to tease her. "So cute."
"Nuwa, be careful. Don't poke her." Fuxi said this, but she herself was restlessly trying to pinch Griseo's cheek.
Griseo made tiny, protesting sounds against the two's teasing, but the maternal-flooding sisters couldn't be stopped.
"Haha, look, Griseo is hugging Lín's helmet."
Even Kléin, who was working overtime to handle the lab equipment warranties, was drawn over. She walked up behind the group, tilting her head to look in, and saw Griseo cooing and snuggling into Lín's arm.
Kléin's tired eyelids immediately lifted, and her eyes sparkled.
Children are a healing balm for people—that statement was true in a certain sense.
"Griseo, can you talk yet?" Kléin asked.
Lín looked down at Griseo. Griseo also looked up at him with her big eyes, making meaningless syllables.
The time it took for a baby to associate words with people was about one to one and a half years. By then, they could usually say one or two simple words and know what they meant.
Griseo laughed and extended her little hand: "M-ma, ma~ ma~"
It seemed she could indeed say simple words. It was unclear how advanced her learning was, but Blanca, being a scholar, surely wouldn't neglect the child's early education.
"She really can talk!" Nuwa exclaimed.
"Nuwa, don't get excited." Fuxi brought her face close to little Griseo's. Her usual expressionless face forced out an awkward smile. "Griseo, say Sister~"
"Yee~ Sis… sis…" It was clearly a new word for Griseo. She mimicked Fuxi's tone and pronounced the word with a slightly rolled tongue.
Nuwa's eyes lit up. She pushed Fuxi aside and leaned her face close to Griseo, giggling and pointing to herself: "Little Griseo, I'm also Sister~"
"blum…" Griseo was startled by her abrupt movement and snuggled into Lín's arms. "si… sis…"
"Sister!"
"sis… sis…" Griseo wasn't as smooth this time, but she pronounced Sister very standardly.
This child's learning ability was very strong, inheriting the excellent genes of her mother.
Lín looked up at Mobius. Although she looked unconcerned while watching Nuwa and Fuxi, her eyes occasionally flickered towards Griseo. It was obvious what she was thinking.
So Lín nudged Griseo toward Mobius so she could see Mobius's face.
"…What are you doing?" Mobius glanced at Lín coldly.
"You care about it."
"Why would I care about a child who doesn't even know what she's thinking?" Mobius curled her lip in disdain, then reluctantly looked at Griseo. "But this is Blanca's child. If she doesn't learn to recognize things soon, she won't catch up to her mother."
Griseo looked at her: "Iya?"
Mobius gave a rare benevolent smile: "Griseo~ Say Sister~"
"…"
Hearing this, Lín instinctively looked at Mobius.
Lín wasn't sure of Mobius's exact age, but judging solely by her mature and voluptuous figure and unique demeanor, she was at least half a generation older than Lín.
She was also the tallest woman Lín knew.
Mobius noticed Lín looking at her and immediately huffed in dissatisfaction: "What are you looking at? I'm about the same age as you."
"I'm about twenty." Lín was only a high school student before joining the Moth of the Flame. After a year and a half, he was only around twenty years old.
"That's about the same."
Did "about the same" mean an age difference of nearly ten years?
Griseo tilted her head, looking at the sweet-faced elder. After a few seconds, she smiled joyfully and opened her little hands—
"Aunty~"
"…"
Was the pronunciation so clear that one would doubt a small child said it?
Lín saw Mobius's face instantly cloud over, and the muscles around her eyes twitched, as if she had been punched hard in the face.
"It's Sister." Mobius stubbornly corrected her.
"Aunty~"
"…"
Mobius gave a cold glare, immediately silencing Nuwa, who was about to laugh out loud.
At least this proved that Blanca valued Mobius and had taught Griseo how to address Mobius first.
Regardless, Griseo's arrival brought a splash of color to the originally lifeless lab. At the very least, no one would be displeased with a cute child.
"Right, what does she call you?" Mobius looked at Lín, who was meticulously caring for Griseo, with interest.
And Griseo, as if she had heard her, pointed to Lín's black helmet and laughed:
"Coo~ Coo~ (Ku~ Ku~)"