Reno plugged his nose, the smell in the old house too much for even his hardened senses. Elena stood next to him and surveyed the house, a handkerchief over her mouth. "What are we here for again?"
"Checking up on an informant, but judging from the smell I'd say he is already dead." Reno held his EMR at his side and tromped through layers of trash that covered the floor of the run-down home. The level of disrepair wasn't the worst Reno had seen, hell, he had grown up in worse, but he still had to cringe and try not to think about what he stepped on. Roaches scattered as he knocked over their nesting places and he heard Elena retch behind him at the sight. He rolled his eyes and walked towards the smell, knowing their informant would likely be there. "Grow up, Laney, we've seen worse."
Elena's eyes watered at the smell as she followed closely, a gun in one hand and her handkerchief in the other. "That doesn't mean I have to be used to it yet."
"No, but you do need to stop gagging and being all girly." Reno kicked open the door to the next room, unable to open it by hand. "Wonder if he locked himself in or if someone didn't want us to find him."
"I doubt a dead man locked himself into a room." Elena followed Reno into the room, cringing at the sight inside the room. "That's sick."
Reno nodded and walked over to the body, taking a moment to collect pictures. "Looks like it was an execution. This guy was in deep with some bad people. That's why he had so much information, and why they stopped him from giving it to us."
Elena frowned. "If he was executed, why hasn't anyone come to clean up the mess yet?"
Reno frowned and prodded the corpse with his EMR. "Probably waiting for us to get in here before they torch the place. Keep an eye out. They knew we were coming."
Elena raised her gun. "How do you know?"
Reno rolled the man onto his back with his foot. "Well, I'm not the best detective there is, but considering that they pinned a note to his shirt that says, 'die Shinra die', I'd say they were planning to ambush us when they slid the bastard in here."
Elena frowned, peering back into the larger room. "And they stuffed him deeper into the house so we wouldn't be able to get in?"
"Yup. I'm pretty sure half that trash or more is pretty flammable. The smell of corpse kind of masks the smell of gasoline, but it's there. Wonder why they haven't started up a match yet." Reno searched the dead man's clothes and pulled out the contents of his pockets, taking the note as well.
"Well, we better hurry either way. I'm not exactly eager to burn to death." Elena frowned and watched the front room cautiously, looking for any signs of movement that couldn't be attributed to mice, rats, or roaches.
"Like I'd let that happen, Laney." Reno rolled his eyes and put the evidence he had found into the bag Tseng had provided for it. "Oh, there's a sucker in here!" Reno grinned childishly and, to Elena's disgust, pulled a neatly wrapped sucker out of the man's pocket and unwrapped it, popping the candy into his mouth without a second thought.
"Reno, that's disgusting! That was in a dead man's pocket!" Elena stared at him in utter disgust.
"So what? It's still free candy." Reno stood up, sucker held between his cheek and teeth like a trophy. "I've got all we need. Let's go."
Elena wrinkled her nose and followed Reno out of the trashy house. She would never understand the man for as long as she lived. "What kind of person eats something they found on a corpse?"
"I don't know, but if I ever find a girl who does it too, I'm gonna marry her. She'll be a keeper." Reno teased Elena, grinning around his sucker.
Elena rolled her eyes and, once the front door had closed behind them, tossed a match into the disgusting hovel. "Such high standards, Reno."
"Only the best for me!" Reno chuckled and hopped onto the motorcycle they had used to make it to the house. "Come on, let's go tell Tseng what's what."
Elena slid onto the bike behind him and grudgingly held his waist. "I wish they had given us two motorcycles. This sucks."
"I showered today, Laney, it's safe to touch me." Reno started the bike and sped away from the quickly burning house, sucking his candy prize without a care.
"That's what you think." Elena rolled her eyes and held Reno's waist with one hand, texting Tseng with the other to let him know they were on their way back.
When they arrived back at the Shinra building, Tseng was there to greet them in the spacious garage behind the main entrance. "Give me the evidence and then head back out. I've got another lead for you to follow up on."
Reno groaned and passed Tseng the bag of pocket scraps. "Damn, Tseng, such a slave driver!"
Tseng took the bag and gave Reno a note with an address on it. "You're getting paid extra so shut up. It's the same situation. An informant has lost touch with us and we need to check in on him. I'm guessing the other one was dead?"
"Correct! Here's your prize for guessing the obvious!" Reno placed the stick of his sucker into Tseng's hand and grinned.
Tseng frowned and dropped the stick. "Reno, that's disgusting. Do I need to send you to etiquette classes again?"
"Why bother? I don't learn anything useful." Reno shrugged and started the bike up.
Elena opened her mouth to beg for a second motorcycle so she could get away from Reno, but the redhead had already sped them away from the building and she never got her chance. She frowned and slapped his shoulder. "Asshole! I was going to ask for another bike so I can get away from you!"
"But I like you riding bitch, Laney, it suits you!" Reno grinned, knowing he'd get hit for his comment.
Elena frowned and fulfilled Reno's wish by punching him squarely between the shoulders. "Pig!"
"Ah, shut it, Laney. Just hold on." Reno laughed and sped towards their new address. As much as he hated getting the grunt work, he couldn't say he didn't enjoy every opportunity he had been given to torment Elena. He quickly hatched a plan to gross her out even more, something involving the next corpse and a few harsh prods with his EMR, and sped towards the new mission with gusto.
Author's Note: The prompt for this story was the word corpse and, even though this one didn't go according to my initial plan, I still like it for the interaction between Reno and Elena. Plus, Reno eats a corpse sucker. Lol. That's my favorite part.