Sadistic Tendencies

By: Fantasie in D Minor

Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII or any of the sequels/prequels. Just the horrible innuendo.

Summary: Reno hated the rookie. It was a principle of honor; he would not be substituted by a woman. Tseng should understand that, right?... Too bad mother luck was never very gentle with the red-head.

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We are what we repeatedly do.

Aristotle

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Innuendo

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Elena inquired, sliding a questioning gaze over her partner in arms, who—might as well be mentioned—wasn't batting an eyelash at her perplexed question. Needless to say, the persisting silence did not thrill the blonde rookie in the least. "Reno!"

"I heard you." The male in question drawled out flippantly. Elena could do nothing but snarl, irritation plainly displayed on the delicate features of her face.

"I'm glad your precious ears haven't given up on you as of yet." The blonde noted icily, not seeming as happy as she claimed to be. She leaned back in her chair and concentrated her gaze on the window, which greeted her with the wet, gray outlines of Midgar. From the 66th floor of the ShinRa building, the undoubtedly trash-littered, gray concrete certainly looked much more appealing. In fact, it seemed that the whole city looked much more appealing from this—somewhat—third person perspective. The rain was tirelessly spilling onto the lively streets, and the peaceful scenery below seemed to glisten. A rare and rather magnificent sight, Elena had to admit.

"And that's implying?" Reno cut through the rookie's poetic musingly unceremoniously. It took a few second for the blonde Turk to get her thoughts gathered in a bunch and comprehend what the red-head was referring to, but when she did, an evil grin almost immediately graced the straight line of her lips.

"That's implying that other parts aren't as readily functional." Elena's previous remark was uttered simply for the sake of sarcasm, but considering that Reno was so willingly prompting, how could she skip the opportunity to get under his skin just a little? God knows, he's been doing enough of that for their limited—but ample in diverse events—time as acquaintances.

Reno might not be the most perceptible human being on the face of the planet, but the faint stab at his—in Elena's opinion—impotency problem didn't fly over his head.

"Aw, are we a bit bitter about being preceded for the title of company slut by Scarlett?"

"Why would I be?" The rookie diverted her attention back to the rusty mane, which was the only part of Reno perceptible to her keen eye. The rest of his face was hidden as he bent over the newly acquired piece of evidence (consisting of the PHS), refusing to allow his own dwindling attention to wonder.

"Not being able to find out first hand." The statement was muffled, but certainly not inaudible. Elena could almost imagine the devilish smirk on his hidden face, but couldn't do much more that send a penetrating glare at the crimson mass of hair across the room.

"Sick bastard."

"Why thank you." This time Reno couldn't resist shooting the blonde a triumphant smirk.

"Aren't we mature?" The rookie grounded out sarcastically. "Mature and innocent."

"I am innocent." The irony certainly didn't slip past the two occupants of the room.

"You're a sadist." Elena corrected the earlier statement in a matter-of-fact manner. Reno had to admit, that comment was not without basis.

"That would make you a masochist."

"Not if I shoot you."

"That would be against the rules." Reno paused and grinned goofily at her. "And we all know how much you like those." Elena grumbled something under her breath, but decided upon not voicing the elaborate defense.

"Idiot."

"Priss," was the immediate reply.

"Asshole."

"Ditz."

"Smartass."

"Blondie."

"You…you…meanie!" Elena could have slapped herself at that moment. Where the heck did that come from?

"Meanie?" Reno tried holding back the peals of laughter threatening to escape his lips as he repeated the supposed insult. "Come on 'Laney, even you could do better than that."

She certainly could! She didn't vocalize most of the murderous thoughts running through her head when the crazy son of a bitch was driving, but they were fully decorated with all kinds of vibrant swearing one could possibly think of. Certainly not something that would normally come out of her mouth, but the damn man was pushing it! She started to protest, but in the course of the second that it took her to start speaking, the content of what came out changed.

"You called me by my name." Reno rolled his eyes and went back to playing with the PHS.

"Brilliant observation Holmes." Elena huffed at the obnoxious remark. No one can really blame her for noticing the use of her name from Reno…this was the first time he pronounced it—mind you a bit distorted—since their first less than pleasant meeting.

"I still think you shouldn't look through the messages on that thing." The rookie, smartly, decided to change the subject and not prompt any more irritating comment from the red-head. At the rate he was going, she'd have to strangle him by the end of the day. 'At least that will ease his shoulder pains that he's been complaining about.' She mused with an amused grin forming on her face.

"Too late for that." Reno's triumphant smirk was already engraved into his features when he lifted his head. Apparently, his efforts to get into the password-locked 'personals' folder weren't in vain. How he managed that one was beyond Elena, and something was telling her that she didn't want to know. Some things are better left in the dark, otherwise they're detrimental to one's health.

"So what's in there?" Reno quirked an eyebrow at that one.

"And since when did you get so interested?" Elena rolled her eyes heavenwards and walked towards the red-head's desk.

"Since now." Reno decided not to push the topic further. The woman didn't seem in a nice enough disposition for such banter. He quickly went through the list of text messages and after finding that search futile went for the voice mailbox. The young man wasn't exactly sure what he was searching for, but the circumstances under which the phone was found were much too convenient for the piece of technology to not be connected in any way to the fleeing figure from earlier. This silent conjecture was only proven when the synthesized female voice informed Reno that there was one message in the aforementioned voice mailbox.

"Hopefully my PHS has gotten into the correct hands." Came a baritone voice as the recorded message started playing. Elena leaned over the desk and pressed her own ear to the other side of the PHS after seeing the somewhat baffled look on Reno's face. "I have information concerning a murder that I believe could be helpful. This message must remain in complete secrecy. Meet me on the corner crossing of 13th Avenue and Mitchells. Tonight at 9 sharp."

"And so it was the figure in black." Reno breathed out as he and Elena exchanged a knowing look.

TBC

Author's Note: Thank you so much for all the reviews! I'm sorry for the lack of responses this chapter. XD I don't have enough time right now and rather than delaying posting I'd rather apologize ten billion times and give everyone big thanks and cookies. Please R&R, and I hope you've enjoyed.