Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you have now was once among the things you only hoped of. Epicurus (341BC – 270BC).
Lambo was excited: it was Valentines' Day and he could carry out his special mission! Nobody else knew about the mission, because he'd been given it in the future. Eiiko-ji had given it to him last time he was there. Lambo liked grownup Eiiko-ji because grownup Eiiko-ji made him hot chocolate, let him use the shooting range, asked him all about how he was doing at kindergarten and told him about what a super hitman his grown-up self was. Lambo wasn't stupid though and he could tell grownup Eiiko-ji was sad. Lambo had asked why and Eiiko-ji had explained that he missed Lambo's Mama, which made sense because Lambo's Mama was the wonderfullest lady in the world.
But last time he'd been in the future Eiiko-ji had told him that Lambo's older self had visited his Mama over breakfast on Valentines' Day, so Lambo deliberately got the Ten-Year Bazooka out even though he didn't much like visiting the future other than when he got to see Eiiko-ji. The future wasn't very nice: I-Pin wasn't there for him to play with and everybody except Eiiko-ji was grownup and boring! Well, if he used the bazooka early it wouldn't matter much because he'd be in his older self's bedroom and could look at all the photos of his older self doing stuff with Dame-Tsuna, Aho-Dera, Hibari-san and Mama. There were other people in the pictures too, but he didn't know them yet. Some of them looked mean or scary but that just proved that he was going to be a super hitman when he was older!
Carrying the bazooka into the kitchen, Lambo saw his Mama had laid out breakfast on the table and was making little chocolates in moulds. Lambo immediately climbed onto his chair and started eating while talking to his mama. He could go back after breakfast and Mama had bought chocolate cereal as a special treat! While he was eating he watched Mama pouring chocolate into moulds and turning out finished shapes onto tissue paper. There were chocolate animals, chocolate dinosaurs, chocolate ghosts, chocolate fish, chocolate stars and more boring normal shapes like squares and circles. Lambo knew Mama had lots of people to give chocolate to because next to the tissue paper was lots and lots of little boxes she was going to put chocolate in. There was also a much bigger box, but Lambo didn't think that was for him. Mama was very strict about not giving him much chocolate because too much gave him tummy ache.
Having finished eating, Lambo hopped off his chair and used the bazooka before Mama could try and stop him. Mama knew he didn't like the future much but hadn't asked why, letting him keep it a secret. When the smoke cleared he was sitting in a big bedroom with lots of photos on the walls and clothes strewn all over the bed. Ignoring the mess, Lambo dragged a chair over to the nearest wall so he could get a closer look at the photos. He wanted to find out more about Dame-Tsuna's future Famiglia!
Lambo had gotten up a bit earlier than usual on Valentines' Day this year because this year it would be ten years to the day since his first Valentines' Day with Mama. What with how hectic thing had become in the past year he'd entirely forgotten about the Ten-Year Bazooka until he found himself face to face with Young Vongola's teenage self over dinner rather than playing poker with Eiiko-ji and Basil. Seeing Mama looking so young and pretty had been like a knife to the heart and it had take him a week to get his composure back, but his renewed heartache had actually made him more effective in a fight rather than less so he'd been getting more missions all over the place. Randomly swapping out with his younger self for five minutes was inconvenient when he was trying to get stuff done, but so long as he kept his afternoons mostly combat-free –since as far as he remembered he'd mostly used the bazooka when Tsuna-nii had returned from school for the day– it wasn't too bad.
He knew everyone else in the Vongola was really jealous he was getting to go back and spend time with Mama though.
Picking out the right outfit was a bit more of a challenge than usual, but Lambo managed to find something he was happy with and had just been reaching for his ring when the world was swallowed up by purple smoke and he found himself standing in the kitchen of the house in Namimori that he had spent the happiest year of his life in, with his Mama standing at the stove with her back to him. He still couldn't quite understand how he'd managed to get taller than her.
Mama turned, glancing up over her shoulder at him just as Eiiko-ji wandered into the kitchen, yawning and completely ignoring him like the short blond's older self still did before he'd had his first cup of coffee. Of course Mama had never let Eiiko-ji drink coffee when he was a teenager, so it had taken the older boy longer to wake up properly if he hadn't had enough sleep.
"Good morning, Lambo-kun," Mama said with a lopsided smile. "I was hoping you'd show up today." She handed him a little chocolate cow, the ones she'd always made for him on Valentines' Day when he'd been little. "Happy Valentines' Day bratling."
"Heh." Lambo chuckled with a bittersweet twitch of the lips, popping the chocolate in his mouth. He never turned down chocolate, especially not on Valentines' Day, but nobody had ever managed to give him chocolate that equalled his Mama's. Several people regularly accused him of exaggerating, but Hibari-san never did. Lambo wasn't sure if that was because petty bickering was beneath the Skylark or because the chilly, distant Cloud agreed with him, but still felt an odd solidarity for the Young Vongola's most reticent Guardian on Valentines' Day.
"Nobody has ever made Valentines' chocolate as lovely as yours, Mama," he said after finishing it. Mama smiled, handing him the saucepan she'd melted the chocolate in and waving a hand at the thick slices of warm bread piled on the table.
"Here; I'm sure that what with how grown-up and responsible you've become it's been a while since you last ate pan scrapings."
It had been far too long actually, now he thought about it. Lambo quickly sat down at the table and used the bread to scrape the cooling chocolate out of the pan, happily enjoying the best breakfast he's had in months. Mama's home-made bread fresh from the oven and chocolate? He was so lucky!
He was almost finished when Mama took the pan off him and pushed a large paper box into his hands. Blinking in confusion, the Lightning Guardian looked up to meet the eyes of the only mother he'd ever known.
"You're going to be going back in a few moments," Mama told him with a small smile, "so I needed to make sure you had enough chocolate. Be sure to share it, Lambo-kun: I don't think you're the only one missing me, are you?"
Lambo's throat constricted and purple smoke swallowed him before he could reply.
Lambo landed back on his chair at the kitchen table to see Mama holding a saucepan that still had some chocolate stuck to the inside. He instantly brightened; who cared that he didn't know who most of the people in his older self's pictures were! There was chocolate!
"Mama? Can I scrape out the pan? Please please pleeease!" He pleaded.
Mama chuckled, handing him the pan and returning to her work as he greedily scooped out bits of soft chocolate with his fingers. Mama eventually took the pan off him and sent him to wash his hands and face, which he did with a pout. He wanted more chocolate! But Mama had said to wash up so he had to, because obeying orders was something all proper hitmen did and Lambo-san was the greatest hitman in the world!
When he came back to the kitchen after having cleaned all the chocolate up Mama was ready to take him and I-Pin to Kindergarten, so he had to put on his shoes and coat. But when they arrived at Kindergarten Mama not only gave them their bentos, but gave him a little paper box with two little chocolate cows in.
"Happy Valentines' Day, Lambo-kun," Mama said, kissing his forehead. "Be a good boy for me today, won't you?"
Mama always asked him that, so Lambo said what he always did before dashing off to play: "I promise Mama!"
More Lambo, both of him, and more forshadowing. I do have a proper plot for this, but the action is still a while off.