Chapter Ten: Seeking Answers

It was a silent standoff.

Mercenary Bugs Bunny stood behind his prey as the sniper gun was in his left hand while his finger was ready to pull the trigger.

Unfortunately, as soon as the prey has asked the question, he grew unresponsive and hesitant.

Was he going to kill the target or not?

If he did the deed, he was off this life for good. But if he didn't, then he's in this for the rest of his life. He wanted out of this life and the only way to accomplish that is to kill the person held responsible for voiding his retirement by killing his two recent targets: Lola Bunny.

Bugs thought that it would be easy to eliminate a target, yet he found it difficult to eliminate this one. Try as he might, but he couldn't perform the kill shot. Why? Then, the realization dawned on him as his eyes slightly widened.

'Holy shit. I am havin' feelings for her.' His thoughts spoke.

Could that be the reason why he couldn't initiate the kill earlier on the rooftop? Could it be why he couldn't kill the female that's in front of him now?

The whole situation was starting to come to light for the gray mercenary by way of memory of their involvement with each other throughout the few days. He was in love. And he couldn't perform his task of elimination on her because of his feelings for her.

With those thoughts in mind, he slowly lowered his gun from aiming view, yet held on to the gun before his expression grew stern.

The memory of what he discovered earlier was fresh on his mind, which means there were questions to be asked, and regardless of his feelings, he needed answers.

"Assassin. Dat's yer night job?" He asked upon recalling her words from before.

But Lola provided no response, as her eyes were glued shut before Bugs provided another question on his mind.

"Why am I on yer list of targets?" He asked. "Hmm? Did ya know about me all along?"

No response.

Grimacing with a hint of irritation, Bugs approached towards her.

"Answer me, god—"

As soon as he placed his right hand roughly on her left shoulder, Lola quickly opened her glaring eyes, twirled counterclockwise, and used her left hand to knock the gray mercenary's hand away.

The action took Bugs off-guard and by surprise as Lola capitalized on that by issuing a punch to his sternum, which was enough to have the gray mercenary, who was staggering from the attack, to relinquish the hold on the sniper gun.

As the gun collided with the ground, Lola quickly took a stance and threw a left roundhouse kick in the mercenary's direction.

Immediately, Bugs saw the move and ducked away from it.

As he stood back up, he used his right hand to intercept the left wrist of Lola Bunny, who vainly attempted a back fist.

As she struggled to get free, both rabbits glared into each other's eyes as Bugs yanked Lola closed to him.

"Answer my question, goddamn it! Who do ya woik for dat got me on yer hit list?! Huh?"

Instantly, she issued a head butt to the gray hare as Bugs grunted and his head recoiled from the impact while his hold on Lola loosened.

Upon notice of that sensation, Lola relinquished herself from his grasp into a grab of her own to his wrist and, with brute strength, threw him onto the nearby bed.

As soon as Bugs collided on his back with his head on the foot of the bed, Lola was immediately on top of him in hopes to finish the job.

But Bugs, with brute strength of his own, managed to reverse the maneuver so that he would be on top of her. Upon that success, he used his hands to pin her upper wrists over her head while he used his legs to keep her legs at bay with no means of escape as she struggled in vain.

"Get the fuck off of me!!" She shouted, but the mercenary persisted.

"Not until you answer me. Why am I on dis list?!"

During this time, Bugs could almost clearly see the tears relinquishing from her eyes as Lola momentarily ceased her struggles before sobbing her eyes out in despair.

The simple fact that she was crying both concerned and confused the gray mercenary, yet he kept his hold on her to provide no assurance of escape.

"Please…" He spoke calmly as a means to reason with her while simultaneously relinquishing his right hand from her left wrist – her left arm falling to the side as a result – to take the list from his pocket and showing it to her. "I want to know why you have me on dis list. Did ya intentionally bring me here for you to kill me?"

With her breathing at ease, Lola issued a soft nod in response.

"Why?" He asked.

As the tears fell from her closed eyes, she spoke.

"Because I have no choice. Now they are never gonna let me go." She said as she sniffed her tears. "They are never gonna let me go."

In that particular moment, Bugs realized what was going on which led to sympathy towards her. She was in the same predicament that he was in. He was on the target list. If the task wasn't perform, no retirement.

It would seem that these two rabbits have a lot in common: They like carrots, they're both trained assassins, they're strong in combat, and they both wanted out of their previous life to which they find themselves in the same situation.

Bugs could simply relate to this as he slowly relinquished his left hand from her right wrist and softly caressed away the fallen tears from her eyes. Afterwards, he caressed her blonde hair while she sniffed up her tears.

When Lola found herself free to move her arms, she thought about fighting away from him, but found that she was caught in a trance by the time she caught sight of the eyes of the person that she was charged to kill.

Then, the realization struck her. Could she be having feelings for him? Is that why she couldn't administer the kill before?

As he was wiping away the remainder of her tears, Bugs found that he was in a similar predicament as his eyes met with her beautiful blue ones.

During this trance, both rabbits found themselves slowly starting to move their faces closer to each other. By the time that happened, they were engaged in a tender kiss.

The kiss was warm and luscious as their tongues danced along their mouths.

Lola moaned slightly from this passionate sensation while Bugs did the same.

During this passionate moment, Lola started to sit herself up and wrapped her arms around the gray hare's neck while Bugs did likewise with her mid-waist.

Simultaneously, they started to undo each other's clothes while stopping the kiss to accomplish most of that.

However, Bugs only succeeded in undoing her tank top that exposes her breast including her skirt until her bare buttocks was shown while Lola only undid his pant and slid it, including his poke-dot boxers, down halfway leaving his shirt untouched.

As soon as that was done, they resumed the lip-lock while both were half-naked as Lola braced the gray hare's right cheek.

It wasn't long before Lola reversed the maneuver so that she would be on top of Bugs.

After a while, they released the kiss as Bugs sat up and caressed his lips to her exposed left nipple while at the same time, feeling his rabbit hood snake its way out, to which the gray mercenary took note of, yet grew careless about at this time.

Lola, with her head tilted back, issued a passionate moan upon the massage before noticing the gray hare's sex organ rubbing up against her tail and her buttocks.

With a lust for more, she decided to position herself on the organ as Bugs moaned from the sensation.

Lola, on the other hand, cringed upon feeling a sudden pain from that action, yet the pain subsided quickly before a sensation of pleasure took its place as she bounced up and down onto the gray hare's sex organ with a soft rhythm and a passionate, yet erotic moan.

Bugs cringed and moaned from this sensational feeling as he positioned his lips towards the right nipple of her breast while at the same time rubbing her slender back with his hands.

As Lola, with her eyes closed, moaned from the massage of the gray hare's lips to her left nipple area, Bugs reversed the maneuver once again so he would be on top of her while the tan bunny wrapped her legs around his waist without the purpose of release.

Afterwards, they resumed their romantic, yet sensual moment of lovemaking.

(Fifteen Minutes Later)

Fifteen minutes has come to pass as Bugs and Lola, who moments ago has placed their clothes back on, were trying to keep their breath under control at the moment from their sensual experience.

Recently, Bugs, out of worry, questioned Lola on the consequences of their tryst, while the tan bunny spoke on the matter in the form of birth control that she took recently, which eased the gray mercenary of his worries.

After they were done catching their breath, both were silence, unable to exchange words to each other at the moment.

But it almost struck Bugs as odd at having an intimate tryst with someone that he was charged to kill, vice versa with Lola.

Almost instantly, they started to speak at the same time, before halting in anticipation to that.

"You go first." She spoke.

Bugs nodded before speaking the words that has been recently on his mind throughout the past days.

"You know, when I came back here to Los Angeles, all I eva wanted to do was get off dis job. You know, have a normal life." He spoke before diverting his gaze to Lola, who took notice. "And den, I met you. And from dat point on, I started havin' dese unusual feelings dat I couldn't shake. You know? Even on da job, I couldn't shake dese feelings dat was on my mind."

Lola grew silence for a while before speaking.

"So these feelings that you have, were you having those feelings for me?"

Bugs almost stammered upon the question before his cheeks involuntarily turned red.

Lola noticed and snickered.

"I'm sorry. I didn't--"

Bugs shook his head.

"No, no. It's okay. I always blush involuntarily."

Lola shook her head while diverting her gaze from Bugs.

"No, it's not that. It's just…" She started as her mind trailed in thought for a while. "It's just that I had no idea that you had those kinds of feelings for me."

Bugs issued a slight smile upon those words before speaking.

"Guess I was kinda shy."

Lola issued a snicker from her mouth before issuing her gaze to the gray hare.

"Is that the reason why you didn't pull the trigger?" She spoke.

Bugs' smile diverted to a soft frown upon the question, yet he nodded in response.

With her gaze diverted downward, Lola grew slightly stunned by the response, yet she nodded.

"Oh."

"What about you?"

Lola looked up to Bugs.

"Me?"

Bugs nodded.

"On da rooftop, you lowered yer gun. Was it because you were out of ammunition or something else?"

In silence, Lola took this into thought before speaking.

"Both."

Upon that response, Bugs showed no immediate reaction to this. Instead, he nodded in comprehension.

Then, a thought recently came to the gray mercenary's mind as he spoke.

"How long have ya known about me?"

Lola shook her head.

"I didn't until the list gave you away."

Bugs grew slightly confused upon the comment as Lola noticed.

"Da list? What about—"

"The expression on my face when I saw you behind me?"

Bugs nodded.

"I was shocked both ways: The fact that you were on the list and the fact that you've known the truth about me."

In silence, Bugs nodded in comprehension, yet questions were still on his mind.

"When you said dat da list gave me away, den—"

"Certain people were suppose to be on that list, such as drug dealers, arm smugglers—"

"And professional assassins." Bugs spoke upon anticipation as Lola nodded. "But I don't get it. Why would dey want me dead?"

"That's a question I should be asking you on an opposite scale."

Bugs anticipated this statement and quickly got on the topic of the matter.

"I'm looking to retire from dis business. And in order to do dat, my boss instructed me for one last job. Unfortunately, dat didn't happen because two of my targets got on your list."

"Russell Styles and Damon Mortimer." She spoke upon anticipation.

Bugs nodded.

"Yep."

"And my interference into this matter has put me on your target list."

Bugs nodded.

"Dat's right. But da real remaining question is: Why was I on yer target list? I mean they gave me the task of taking you out not only because you interfered, but because it's valuable for my retirement. Why would dey make me your target when I didn't do anything remotely provocative on your end?"

In silence thought, Lola shook her head, yet her expression grimaced in anger upon the situation.

"I don't know. But I'm not liking it one bit."

In silence, Bugs grew in pondering thought for a while before speaking.

"What if…" He started, but hesitated at the last moment as Lola noticed.

"What?"

"Uh, 'dis is probably just an assumption, but what if da people dat we woik for is attemptin' to get rid of both of us? You know, kill two birds with one stone."

"More like kill two rabbits with one stone." Lola countered.

Bugs nodded.

"My point exactly, but what if it's possible?"

Lola took the theory into thought for a while.

"It's possible, but what do they have to gain by taking us out?"

Bugs pondered that question as well, yet his answer grew in silence.

Suddenly, a knock at the front door issued their attention.

"Eh, expecting someone?"

Lola shook her head.

"Not to my knowledge. Then again, this wasn't the first time this kind of thing happened."

A second knock issued as Lola got up from her bed and headed out towards the front door with Bugs trailing behind her.

As they entered the living room, Lola spoke during their approach to the front door.

"Who is it?"

"Housekeeping." A woman spoke in a brief, fearful whimper from the other side of the door.

As Bugs positioned himself on the left sidewall next to the door with his arms crossed, Lola, rather than look through the peephole, grasped her left hand to the doorknob in her attempt to open it.

However, she halted upon a sudden anticipation as Bugs noticed.

"What is it?" He questioned out of curiosity.

In slight silence, Lola diverted her attention to the gray mercenary.

"I don't remember a housekeeper being in this apartment." She spoke in a whisper.

Before he could speak on the matter, Bugs' attention was directed to the peephole where, to his alerting shock, a faint red laser sight was positioned at the left side of Lola's head.

Lola took note of his expression, but before she could speak, Bugs grasped her right wrist and yanked her towards his position before a silence bullet breached through the glassed peephole, yet missing its mark.

With Bugs' gaze fixated on the door, Lola, regardless of her relief from harm's way, snatched her wrist back, which deterred his attention from the door to her.

"You okay?" He asked.

Lola nodded.

"Yeah, but in the future, go easy on the wrist, all right?"

Before Bugs could speak his apology, a banging sound issued his and Lola's attention back to the door.

BANG! BANG!

Then, the door breached open by the third hit as an unknown masked entity, who shoved the frightened woman aside due to un-needed help, started to approach towards the inside of the apartment complex with the sniper gun at the forward aim.

During the slow approach, the mysterious entity started surveying the living room area.

Nothing was inside, yet the mysterious figure was unconvinced as the masked person crossed the threshold into the apartment.

Suddenly, from behind a chair next to the entrance, Bugs ran out from his hiding spot, grasped the mysterious figure on the shoulders from behind and threw him up against the wall.

As a result, the masked figure's sniper gun was relinquished from its hand and thudded to the ground.

Upon quick recovery, the masked figure took note of its gun and started to reach for it before halted its stop at gunpoint from a stern, hardened gray mercenary.

"Don't even think about it." Bugs spoke, his sniper gun, which he has managed to snag from the bedroom, trained on the masked entity.

During this predicament, Lola took the time to go out the front door and tend to the lady that was shoved aside only to find that the woman was gone, quite possibly back to her apartment room.

To this knowledge, Lola could only assume that this woman has already called the police of the incident, which means that they have to leave.

As she got back into the apartment, Bugs unmasked the gunman to an unrecognizable face. It was the face of an orange mid-30s tiger with whiskers on his cheeks and blue eyes.

Lola looked to the tiger with wide recognition planted on her face.

"Who the hell are you?" Bugs sternly spoke.

The tiger grew silence in defiance as Bugs slowly grimaced with irritation before taking close aim to the tiger's temple with his finger ominously firmed on the trigger.

"Unless you want a bullet into your goddamn skull, you tell me who da fuck you are right now!"

Slowly, the tiger's facial expression grew of defeat due to the gray mercenary's promising threat as he spoke.

"My name is Jason Weaver."

"Who sent you? Why are you even here?"

"Who sent me isn't your concern. Why I'm here is to finish the job that she can't."

"Eliminate me." Bugs anticipated.

"That's part of the reason."

Lola's expression grimaced with anger upon the previous actions that was performed earlier by this assassin.

"And the other part was a laser sight directed at my face?"

"Lola…" Bugs started in his attempt to calm her down while his sight was still trained on the assassin before Lola resumed.

"Since when has my becoming a task of elimination has been part of a failed assignment?"

Jason chuckled wryly.

"Come on, you know better than that. You want answers, you go to our bo—"

Suddenly, a silent gunshot zipped through the glass window from the outside and pierced its way through the assassin's cranial skull, splattering blood onto the wall that he laid upon.

When the gunshot started, both Bugs and Lola flinched in startle shock from that event.

Upon quick recovery from the shock, they saw that Jason Weaver, the one that was just about to provide them with answers, now lies dead in Lola's apartment building.

But upon this revelation came to anticipation to both mercenaries: A sniper was on the roof trying to gun them down with an automatic weapon.

Wasting little time, both mercenaries made haste out of the apartment room in hopes to make their way to the adjacent apartment on the outside to apprehend the sniper while at the same time, the silent gunshots trailed behind them from the outside window.

I apologize for the long wait to get this story back and running again. Like I said, I had a lot to deal with in the real world these days. Anyway, keep on the lookout for more. Ciao!

Next chap: Stanley and Winifred gets themselves involved in a high-speed chase.