WHO DID IT?
Bonus: Time Can Never Mend

As per Red Alert's rules, every client requesting to hire a specific person is to see that person to discuss the terms and conditions, because every member good enough to warrant a special request from someone will most likely have their own conditions before they agree to an assignment. Being Red Alert's best assassin, I was one of those members.

I was sitting in one of the special meeting rooms when the husband arrived, a briefcase of cash in his hand. I smirked a little, sadly, when I saw his eyes widen, the expression of his face turning from neutral to concerned. I braced myself for the usual remark…

"You're…a little child." he stammered out. "Are they serious?" he muttered under his breath.

I chuckled. "No. I just look like one. I've been alive for more than five years, now."

"O-oh." the husband responded. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine, I get that a lot." I said, chuckling more at the end. "So, let's start the discussion?"

"Yes, let's." he said as he sat on the couch in front of me, setting down the briefcase. "So, what are your additional terms? Do you need me to increase the pay?"

"No. As long as Red had said yes to whatever you've brought here, I have no objections." I responded. I never really cared about money beyond it being the reason for financial stability. I'm here for my friends and family. "Whatever terms and conditions I'll give usually depend on the kind of assignment I'm given. So can you fill me in with the details?" I asked.

"I…I want you to kill my cheating wife." he said, with a low voice and a hanging head. He looked up slightly to meet my gaze to see my surprised expression. He looked away afterwards in response before continuing his speech. "I'll give you a bonus if you kill her boyfriend, too."

"I-I'm sorry." I reflexively said. Whenever I received these kinds of assignments, I always felt my heart aching.

The husband chuckled bitterly. "No, you didn't mean it."

"I do." I gently responded. "I know the feeling. I had been cheated on twice before this."

"Really, now?" the husband said with a sad smile on his face as he looked at me. "You're not going to refuse and tell me to fix things up with her?"

"If you're here, it means that you know that it's pointless. Most likely, you've already tried." I explained my logic.

The husband's smile got wider, but there's still sadness in it.
"Yes. Yes, I have. This isn't the first time she's done this…it's the second. I was able to forgive her the first time, but now…when I found out from her friend that she had done this to me again, I just…I can't even look at her face anymore. It hurts too much.
I come home after work every day, hear her say 'Welcome home, Honey' every day like she's not cheating on me, eat dinner with her every day, sleep on the same bed with her every day…all those routines hurt me too much for me to continue on with them anymore, because seeing her, knowing that she's here hurts me too much." he told me his story, and paused for a while to wipe his tears with a handkerchief.

"I thought of letting her go. Get a divorce, kick her out of the house so she could leave my life and be happy with her lover…but after what she had done to me, I feel like I couldn't let her be happy." he continued, his voice distorted by his tears, and his futile attempt to hold them back.
"Hahah…look at me. I'm supposed to discuss the terms and conditions of my request in a professional manner, and now I'm telling a sob story in front of an assassin…I'm sorry." he remarked.

"No, it's fine." I responded to him, holding back the urge to pat his shoulder. "I know exactly how you feel. To this day I still remember the vivid image of my then-girlfriend and the guy he cheated on me with, having lots of fun on my bed."

"You have a lot of heart for an assassin." he commented, wiping his remaining teardrops.

"Really, now? Thank you." I responded, a sad smirk on my face. "But I just feel for you, a lot. I know it hurt a lot just coming here to sentence your own wife to death."

"I loved her." he started telling me more of his story. "I'm a busy man, so as much as I want to spend as much time as possible with her, I can't. I think that was why she cheated on me once. So after that, I decided to step down from my position and let a new CEO take my seat. But even now, I'm not good enough for her…"

He continued to sob, possibly because he was assaulted by memory after memory of him and his wife. I bit my lip as my heart ached for him, and I got off my couch to sit beside him.

"It's okay," I gently said to him as I pat his shoulder. "Just let it out. I'm right here."

After a few minutes spent sobbing, he stopped. I got off the couch to get him a glass of water to drink. After drinking it for a bit, he set the glass down.

"I can't believe you're an assassin, their best one to boot." he remarked. "You're very kind."

"I just think it's the right thing to do, is all." I responded, with a small smile on my face.

"I don't know why, but I feel that I can trust you. I feel that it was liberating to open up to you like that. Maybe because you didn't judge me…" he chuckled. "Honestly, I expected literally everyone to tell me I'm a vengeful lunatic who needs to calm down and approach my wife again with more love."

"I wish people realize that you can't fix everything that's broken." I remarked. "But anyways, I won't judge you for hiring an assassin to kill her, even if you hired someone else to do it. I told you before; I know exactly how you feel." I continued as I repressed the pain in my chest as I recalled the memories of my second girlfriend, who had the guts to cheat on me after I told her that I had been cheated on before, and I wouldn't forgive her if she does it to me.
That bitch making out with her fucktoy on my fucking bed. The poor guy cowering in fear when I barged in on them in the act, blurting out that he had no idea she had a boyfriend. Me ripping off his arm to beat her with it until she stopped moving. And, in the end, I threw her unmoving body out of my window before paying the guy a sum of money to get himself a new arm. To this day, I never knew if she's still alive, or if I had killed her. I never cared to find out anyways.

The husband smiled sadly at me when he looked at my face. "Yeah, it must have been tough for you, however your story was." he commented. "So, back to the original topic at hand. I'm going to a business trip tomorrow night. I need you to kill her the morning after. There's a bridge and a river under it, between our house and her boyfriend's. I want her to feel fear before she dies, so maybe you can just stand on that bridge?" he elaborated.

"Fear? Me?" I laughed. "Really? You thought me a child when you first came here."

"She's hired Red Alert before." he explained. "I don't know if you remember her, but she told me once that she's hired you before. A boy with two guns, she told me. Didn't believe her at first."

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't." I said. "But either way, alright. Anything else?"

"She might try to get the boatman to help her cross over. There's a boatman under the bridge who makes a living ferrying people around the river. The view's nice there…that's where I took her out for our first date." he explained more, smiling sadly at the end before continuing. "I don't want anyone to help her, but I don't want that old man to die, either. Can you threaten him if she tries to do that?"

"Got it." I said, nodding. "Anything else?"

"Aside from the fact that I want no one else but her, and possibly her lover, dead," he said. "No. Nothing else. What about your terms and conditions?"

"Nothing for this assignment. It's nice having your business, Sir." I said. "Anything else you'd like to tell me?"

"No. That's all. I'll be leaving now. Have a nice day...and I hope you find happiness."

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Funny how the bonus is longer than the actual story, but oh well. The subtitle for the bonus is, again, taken from Careless Whisper, part of the lyrics this time. And yes, PMGR's Axl/Lambda's had a long, complicated love life.