Reina's next stop was the park; she figured that there'd be some vendors there who'd be selling food of some kind for cheap. There weren't many people there since it was the heat of the day, but she could faintly hear people cheering in the distance; probably a little league game. She stopped at the first stall she found and purchased an American hotdog. Not her favorite meal, but it would quiet her protesting stomach for now. She had barely taken a bite when she felt an odd sensation on her leg; she looked down and found Lambo beating against her calf with his tiny fists with a determined look on his face.
"Can I help you?" she asked with an arched eyebrow.
"Reborn-baka said if I beat you then you would play with me!" the five-year-old said, keeping up his barrage on her leg. "So The Great Lambo-san will defeat you so you will play with me!"
"Yeah, no," she snorted as she nudged the boy away from her.
"Why not?" the boy pouted.
"You're what, five? Come back in ten years and then maybe you'll have a chance," she advised, turning away from him as she took another bite of her hotdog.
Lambo started wailing behind her, but Reina ignored him. Then she heard the click of a trigger being pulled and she froze, just waiting for the bullet she was certain would follow. But it never came. She turned around slowly expecting to see the barrel of a gun pointed at her; she was in no way prepared for what she saw instead.
A teenage boy was standing in front of her looking around in a bewildered manner, and Reina was sure that her expression matched his. He wore a cow-printed collared shirt tucked into a pair of khaki pants held up with a brown leather belt with a large silver buckle shaped like a cow's skull. When his green eyes found her a new expression crossed his face; a strange mix of apprehension and delight.
"Reina-nee!" he cheered as he launched himself towards her.
Well… she hadn't been expecting that…
She tried to take a step backwards out of his range, but he still managed to wrap his arms around her waist and burry his face in her chest. This threw her off balance and sent both of them to the ground, Reina taking the brunt of the fall.
"I've missed you so much!" the boy wailed as he started to nuzzle her breast.
"What the Hell?!" she shrieked as blood began to rush to her face. "Get the fuck off of me! Pervert!" she ordered as she tried to shove him off of her.
"Ah, good old Reina," the boy sighed to himself as a blissful smile crossed his face. "You even smell the same! Ha ha, imagine that!"
"What're you on about?" Reina grunted as she tried to pry his arms off of her. "And who are you?"
"Ah! That's right," the boy said as he finally let go of her, "you're not very familiar with the Ten Year Bazooka yet."
"The what?" she blinked at him, still sitting on the ground.
"I'm Lambo," the boy introduced himself, "from ten years in the future."
"Lambo?" she repeated in a disbelieving tone, "you mean to tell me that you're that annoying brat from next door?"
The stricken look that crossed the boy's face was almost comical, and it would've been if it hadn't been for the river of tears flowing from his eyes it had been paired with.
"Yep, you're Reina-nee alright," he sobbed into his knees which he had brought up to his chin, "still as mean as ever."
"I swear," Reina started as she got to her feet, "you are going to start making sense right now, or I will—"
"You always did like I-pin more than me…" he sighed, cutting off her oath. "I guess that's to be expected though," he continued with a wistful smile, "the younger me was quite a pest to you."
"You're telling me," she snorted, crossing her arms, "being asked to play every time you step outside gets old after the first few days."
"But can you blame me?" the boy asked, looking up at her now. "You always seemed so far away, like the biggest prize at a carnival, and every time you said yes it was like I got closer and closer."
"What're you on about now?" she sighed in exasperation.
"The younger me idolized you quite a bit," he admitted with a faint blush, "I still do."
"Are you trying to tell me that you love me?" Reina dead panned with a blank expression, "Because if you are then the answer is no, I don't want to be branded as a pedophile."
"Wha-what?" he spluttered, "No! Not that!" he said as he waved his hands around, "I was just saying that I look up to you! That's all!"
"Well, so long as I'm not wearing a skirt when you look up to me I don't care," she said.
"Ha ha! You haven't changed at all!" he threw his head back and laughed. "Before I go I just want to say," he started in a serious voice, "I understand why you did what you did and, well, thank you. Thank you for making the hard decisions that nobody else wanted to."
"What," Reina frowned, her bows knitting together as her mind raced through all the decisions that she had ever made, "what're you talking about?"
"In the future," he started, but then a cloud of pink smoke erupted around him, and when it cleared the Lambo she had come to know and mildly tolerate was sitting on the ground before her. When he looked up at her she thought he was going to start crying again, but instead a huge grin broke out on his face and he launched himself at her, wrapping his arms around one of her knees.
"¡Oye! What're you doing?" she grunted as she grabbed a hold of the tail attached to the back of his onesie, trying to pull him off of her.
"Yay! Higher!" the boy cheered as his grip tightened around her leg. "Lambo-san wants to go higher!"
"What the," she grunted as she hopped around on one leg, the one with Lambo attached to it raised into the air so she could get a better grip on the child. "Let go of me, you freak!"
