It seems a weird thing for a parent to do to her child, but Kit can only make this assumption based on the (few) decent parents he's had cause to be around since coming to the surface. If his folks were the type to cover up his childish creativity, he has no memory of it... or them, frankly.

He plays his hand, and it's a particularly good one--good enough for him to grin lopsidedly in victory. Bam. "No hard feelings," he tells Benedict, smiling at him; even in triumph, he tries not to be too much of a dick.

"Dunno about scrounging up paints for you but I can see about nicking an art book from the library," he says, picking up the threads of their conversation