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Shifting the child in his arms over to his other hip, Devon grunted with the effort, his swift passage through the park brought to a halt by the weight. "Geez, Nacho," he muttered under his breath, "you're really packin' on the pounds there. What're people feeding you when I'm not looking?"

Ignacio tilted his head and stared up at his ill-chosen father figure and blew an eloquent spit bubble. Then, as if to reinforce his point, he clapped his hands and laughed. Devon rolled his eyes. "This you sayin' I should get a stroller?" The child did not answer - frankly, Devon would have fainted if he had - and simply reached for the chain around the young man's neck. "Uh uh. You're not stranglin' me again." With a few quick strides, Devon made it to a clearing of grass and deposited his burden on the lush greeness before the child could get a firm hold of the chain holding his cross and St. Christopher's medal. Last time he had done that, Devon had sworn he saw the last few moments of his life flash; the kid was ridiculously strong and quick.

Not the least put off by his relocation, Ignacio promptly flopped forward on his stomach and began chewing on grass. Devon covered his face and sank downwards to sit beside him. He had no idea if the grass would hurt Ignacio or not but, judging by the other dozens of weird things the kid had swallowed, he had a cast iron stomach so probably not. "You're gonna give me heart failure," he sighed. "Maybe I should call up that Shiori and you can play with her kid for a while. Give her a heart attack for a change."

Ignacio made a noise that sounded as if he agreed. Then he pushed himself up into a sitting position and calmly began nibbling at a dandelion.

Before the distraught little girl could decide on her next step, the forlorn horse had been spotted by Ignacio. He cooed, dandelion petals exploding outwards at the noise. Toppling himself forward, he quickly crawled over to pick it up and set the horse on his legs. He promptly fell over, too top-heavy to stand.

Ignacio burbled in displeasure and shifted to sit again before he dragged the horse onto his lap. Thoughtfully, he petted its mane. Then, as Devon looked over to notice, he neatly inserted one of the toy's ears into his mouth and began sucking.

"Ignacio! s**t, stop that." Grimacing, Devon scrambled over and tried to pry the horse from his child's hands. "You don't know where it's been."

"C'mon, c'mon." Devon resisted the urge to pull harder; he didn't want the toy to get ruined in case its owner returned. "Ignacio Garcia, let it the hell go before I..."

Abruptly (and thankfully for the child's young ears), Ignacio released the toy. He had seen something in the shadows of the tree and it looked much more interesting. He fell forward onto his hands and knees and, making as if he was stalking something, crawled slowly in the direction of the movement. "Bah?" he asked. "Bah wah bah?"

Devon looked up from his inspection of the horse to squint at his kid. "What now, Nacho?" The little boy pointed. Devon sighed. "You're not going to try and eat the tree, are you?"

Ignacio put his palms against the rough bark of the tree and, to his caretaker's mild horror, took a moment to sniff it. Then he gave it a quick lick which only resulted in a horrible gagging and coughing. He fell back to land heavily on his diaper-padded bottom. Devon sighed and watched, the horse on his lap. "Do you really have to do that with everything, Nacho?" he asked. "It's pretty foul."

"Bah bah," answered the child and he scrambled up onto his hands and knees again. More firmly, he repeated, "Bah bah!"

"Uh, right. Bark."

Ignacio wrinkled his nose. Then he carefully began stalking around the tree trunk again. This time, though, he moved extra-quiet.

Her hopes were doomed to be broken, though, as Ignacio finally completed his stealthy reconaisance. He appeared at her right elbow and beamed up at her toothily. "Bah bah," he greeted cheerfully. Then he flopped onto his stomach and stretched out his hands towards her in greeting.

Ignacio howled in shock and scrambled towards Devakanya on his hands and knees until he was between her and whatever just fell. His back to her, he hissed at the man who had landed and growled under his breath. If he had been planning to defend his would-be playmate more fiercely, however, he was prevented abruptly as he felt himself part company with the ground.

Devon clutched his wayward child under one arm, balanced precariously on his hip, while he tried to maintain hold on the stuffed horse and the small, blue girl that had been the "bah bah" which Iggy had been so excited over. "s**t," he muttered as he tried to scramble further away from the stranger.

Devon blinked and took another step back, awkwardly adjusting his hold on both children to the movement wouldn't dislodge them. "Like hell," he shot back. "You almost landed on her, jackass. I'm not gonna let some freak just pick up a cute kid like her."

Ignacio added a growl to his guardian's words, eyes narrowing and his little fists swinging a bit. "Mmm, nah!" he managed to holler back.

"Her parents are probably somewhere around here."

Ignacio blew a loud and obnoxious raspberry at Zack. Devon, meanwhile, looked down to the little blue-tinted girl cradled against his side. "Is that for real?" he asked with clear disbelief. "Is this bonehead your dad?"