They had been walking the streets for half the day now, one turn after another stop and then down an alley, but it all leads nowhere.
Lambo can tell that, whoever the contact had been, Reborn plans to murder the liar. His face is stony, but there is a hardness to his lips and an edge to his eyes. Whoever they had originally been after, they postpone to instead hunt down the faulty contact.
Lambo had almost been sad for whoever it had been. And then lunch had ticked by with no food and now he rather hopes Reborn catches him soon.
He is hungry.
It isn't until nearly six in the afternoon that something happens.
They are walking through yet another alley, a pile of crates to one end of it and a dumpster near the opening. Reborn gives it cursory glance, starts to turn around – and then pauses. Lambo can see enough of his face to see the small quirk of one corner of his lips as he leaves the alley and continues walking.
Lambo looks down the alley, but doesn't see anything. After a moment, he walks after the hitman, frowning in thought. Had someone been hiding in the crates? Reborn was the kind of 'cat-and-mouse' hunter; a man who enjoys giving one last hope to his enemies before killing them coldly. Lambo is so used to it, it had never bothered him.
Behind him, there is the sound of wood falling and then a man is running out of the alleyway they had previously walked in to. It is the same bald, lanky man that had given the fake information to Reborn.
When the man goes down, no one is around to see it happen. He gives a blood curdling scream, but no one rushes to his aide. After all, they had seen Reborn, the renowned hitman of this part of Italy, walk into that same place, so they would not get in the way.
The man lies on the cobblestone, blood seeping from one thigh as he tries to stand again and run, but fails on both accounts.
'click-clack' 'click-clack' 'click-clack' goes Reborn's loafers against the ground as he stalks with sure intent to the fallen man. Lambo stays where he is, hands in his pockets, as he waits.
"Sono stato minacciato! Se io non ti danno le indicazioni sbagliate, che stavano per uccidermi! ( - I was threatened! If I didn't give you the wrong directions, they were going to kill me!)" Blurts the man immediately. He's holding one hand up to ward off Reborn, his eyes wide and desperate and his bottom lip quivering.
Lambo can only see Reborn's back, but he knows well enough that there is a small, seemingly-appeased-but-actually-pissed smirk on his face. "È così? Non hai mai pensato a cosa avrei fatto quando ho scoperto che mi hai tradito? ( - Is that so? You never thought of what I would do when I found out that you cheated me?)" He points the gun between the man's eyes.
He screeches as if he were being torn apart. "Luhnghezza!" He wails, trying to crawl away. "si nascondono in Luhnghezza! (they're hiding in Luhnghezza!)"
"Luhnghezza…?" There is a moment of suspense and then Reborn walks pass the man, gun hidden wherever it is Reborn holds it. Lambo cocks his head, but follows wordlessly.
Behind them, the man begins sobbing, only too relieved to still be alive.
"Are we going to Luhnghezza, then?" Lambo ventures, but goes unanswered. He glares at the back of Reborn's head; that stingy bastard could have at least acted a little, tiny bit as if last night had happened. Somehow, though, he isn't actually annoyed and he isn't really surprised.
They walk back through town to their hotel. Lambo begins making porcini faro soup, nibbling on Panini buns while he does so.
He's holding the bun between his teeth as he boils the porcini, throwing in the salt, pepper, and dried oregano. He's stirring it all together when arms wrap around his waist and a body pushes flush to his back; he nearly drops the Panini in surprise.
"I've called Tsuna." Reborn states against his ear, his tongue flicking over the shell of it. "He wants us to return home, since the group is no longer here." A hand slips into his pants and trails over his manhood; the tease makes him buck. "So you will be getting your wish anyway, won't you?"
He had no clue what he was talking about for a moment. And then he remembered last night when he had said he wanted to go home… they were going home now, weren't they? That was kind of funny, actually… except he isn't laughing!
"R-Reborn! You can't do that while I'm cooking, I might burn myself!" Reborn doesn't listen to him, kissing his neck and using his free hand to pull the collar of Lambo's shirt out of his way as he licks over his shoulder. "Yare, yare, now you are feeling affectionate?" He can't help but be a little hurt that he had been ignored the whole day and only now realized.
'What if… what if he is using me for sex?' The thought disheartens him; his mood goes from trying not to be horny to not horny in the least. Is he just being used?
He pushes at Reborn's head. "I'm cooking dinner." He whispers in a lower voice, his head ducked down so that his eyes are hidden.
He can't see it, but he feels Reborn's mood change as well. He's ripped away from the stove and slammed into the counter next to it, facing the hitman now. Fingers on his chin force his head up, but he just looks away.
"What's this?" Reborn's voice is a warning, demanding that he be obedient and answers the question. "Why so suddenly cold, cow?"
He shoves at his chest. "I'm not in the mood." His hands are caught and held above his head against the cupboards.
"Not in the mood?" A hand cups his face, a thumb teasing between his lips. "What a pathetic lie; now tell me the truth." He leans so close, his lips nearly touch Lambo's cheek. "Are you feeling insecure?" He doesn't wait for the guardian to even try to answer. "You feel used and lied to." He's being rhetorical now. "Guess what?" He purrs near Lambo's ear.
His hand on Lambo's tightens to the point of pain and Lambo is pressed with bruising force to the counter. He cries out in pain, tears trickling from his eyes. He looks at Reborn through one, hurt eye, his lips trembling.
Reborn returns it with a cruel smirk. "It pisses me off." He states so blithely, it belies the black fury in his eyes. Lambo begins shaking, afraid – he's shaking altogether –, but he doesn't start wailing. He is far too scared to wail, even though he knows that where Reborn is holding him is going to hurt for days and he has wailed over much less. Reborn's cruel smirk fades slowly and the fury dies into emptiness. "I have lied when it comes to many things; but there is one thing I have never lied about." His grip loosens and he backs off enough that Lambo can breathe properly.
He doesn't kiss Lambo on the lips; he kisses away each tear with a tender softness. "I would never lie about loving someone I do not. I told you I love you, didn't I?" He kisses underneath his jaw where one tear had trailed. "And then we made sweet love – why would I consider your pleasure if I was only striving for my own?"
Lambo watches him through one teary eye. He wants to ask 'than why do you hurt me?' or 'Why do you ignore me?', but he already knows the answers. Reborn is… Reborn. He hurts everyone (in physical ways) because it either teaches them something or… they so happen to be Lambo. He ignores everything not important to what he's doing. Lambo isn't important in this mission, not in any mission.
His hands are released and that haughty air is back; the arms drop around his waist and lift him onto the counter. "Kiss me." The hitman suggests.
Lambo blinks. "Wha?"
"Kiss me," He says again in a low voice. "or you can be on the flight home tonight and hide until you die."
"EH!" Lambo's eye widens. Why would he have to do that?
"Because, if you don't, I will find you and you will never be free of me. I am not the man that admits to loving someone and then lets that person walk away whenever they are upset with me or they think they find something better." He says all of this, but his eyes are strange voids.
Lambo ducks his head; 'so scary…' "Yare, yare… You could have just said 'kiss me' and then stop there." His arms are coming up and circling his shoulders. "Stupid Reborn… You really could have just said that you honestly do love me and left the rest out." He's lifting his face up, eye at half-mast. "If I wasn't so used to your threats… that might have made me run away in fear." His lips are about to touch Reborn's when he smiles. "We have a really strange relationship." It is a soft kiss which conveys a message to Reborn that Lambo doesn't realize: 'I love you too.'
Strangely enough, he still has not a clue his true emotions for the hitman. Others would have actually left or later on called the police, saying that their lover had become abusive and had threatened them. Really, what else is there to expect from Reborn? He's cruel, he's mean, and he's thoughtless of others emotions, but that is just Reborn. Reborn had treated him this way his entire life, the only new factor being that they had never made love before… and it was the first time that Reborn had ever threatened him for not following him.
It was kind of cute, because, if you think about it and rearrange the words a little, you get: 'I don't want you to leave me.' Which Reborn would never outright say because he is Reborn, the greatest hitman on earth with the personality to go with it.
He has a hand buried in the spiky glossy black hair, the other clutching into the sleeve of his jacket, while he opens his mouth and lets Reborn's searching tongue in. There is a tango and a war simultaneously as Lambo thrusts his chest into Reborn's, urging to be touched.
A hand slips up beneath his cow print shirt and pinches one nipple – is something burning?
"GAH! The soup!" He squirms, but there is no escape.
"We are going out tonight." States Reborn as if that had been the plan all along. He shuts off the stove and then leaves the pot to itself, the contents off it half on the stove surface and the other half inedible.
"This is your fault!" He tries in vain to free himself from the cage of Reborn's arms.
"Yes." He leaves the stove for the clean up crew to have fun with, lifting Lambo up and over one shoulder.
"Reborn!" He grabs the tails of Reborn's jacket and tugs; he gets no response.
They're in the eye of the public by the time Lambo falls still. There are people staring. He expects, at any moment, Reborn to dump him on the ground, but he doesn't. As a matter of fact, he seemed to have forgotten that he had Lambo over his shoulder, even though he keeps an arm curled around his waist.
He isn't released until they had entered the restaurant and found a table. Reborn sits across from him at the booth, jaw in hand and smirk on lips. Lambo glowers at him.
"I could have walked." Reborn doesn't even dignify him with an answer.