Chapter #2

»̶✽«̶ Cleffy looked genuinely horrified, but if anything, Roselio burst out laughing.

"Oh, going to torture me to try and get to her, huh?" the Thorn Pokémon said despite Bisharp's blades just nearby.

Bisharp frowned at him, as if he couldn't understand why he wasn't scared. "Well, yes. Darkrai said that we needed the girl alive because she'd be useful to get information out of and could also act as bait, but we have no use whatsoever for you. So, yes."

Roselio laughed again. His eyes were glinting.

"Seriously? It took you two whole days to think of that plan?"

This time Bisharp's face went red.

"See!" he exploded. "You always get onto everyone's nerves. The sooner you're gone, the better!"

He turned back to Cleffy. "All right, tell me where your friends and the Time Gears are! No lying - I'd know it if you were!"

Bisharp was holding his blade so close to Roselio for comfort that Cleffy was on the verge of telling him when she caught Roselio's eyes.

Don't tell him, they said. Don't tell him, whatever the cost.

That was when it struck Cleffy like a bolt of lightning.

"I w-want you to do that whatever they do to us, OK? I want you to do that at any cost."

Roselio had known it would eventually come to this. That was why he made Cleffy promise - twice - that she wouldn't tell Bisharp at all costs. He made her promise to stay silent even if it cost him his life.

Cleffy's heart felt like breaking. He was willing to sacrifice his life to save the world from a future of darkness.

Even worse, there seemed to be no way to get out of this sticky situation.

"Well?" Bisharp's voice cut into her thoughts. "Are you going to tell me or are you going to watch your little friend suffer?"

Cleffy very nearly opened her mouth, but she caught his eyes again and quickly closed it tighter than before.

Roselio, I'm sorry.

However, if anything, there was an unusual light in the rose Pokémon's eyes - could it be pride?

Bisharp realized that Cleffy wasn't going to say anything, which meant he could do his job. Well, no matter. He loved his job anyway.

He pressed the tip of his blade against the poor Thorn Pokémon's upper arm. Then he glimpsed back at Cleffy to see if she might give some sort of response.

She didn't. Her eyes were staring into Roselio's, although her lower lip was trembling and tears were falling silently onto her pale cheeks.

Bisharp looked at Roselio's eyes, and to his surprise, he saw a light in them. Could it be pride?

All that aside, Cleffy Clefairy hadn't answered his question. That meant he could start doing the most fun part of this whole process. To him, at least.

He pressed the tip of the blade deeper until it punctured the skin. Then he drew it down along his arm to his elbow, opening an angry wound, red and bleeding.

This time, he saw excruciating pain written across the rose-shaped Pokémon's face. However, he also saw that he tried to conceal it, to suppress it, maybe because he didn't want Cleffy to see how painful it really was.

Well, if he thinks he can hold it back, I'm just going to have to do it again.

Bisharp repeated the process, only this time, the cut was even deeper. There was more blood - in fact, so much that it ran down his arm and collected on his red rose. Roselio groaned in pain, but he couldn't do anything because of the shackles.

Cleffy was officially crying now - she was whimpering pathetically and hiccuping.

"Well? Do you maybe want to tell me now?" Bisharp asked, drawing back his blood-covered blade.

The girl swallowed, but shook her head, biting back tears.

Bisharp frowned. For a girl, she was quite stubborn and heartless. How unusual. But that only meant he had to do it yet again.

Another vicious and even deeper cut made more blood run down as if it was a red river that ended at a sea of red rose petals. Roselio let out another cry of pain. He knew it would only make Cleffy realize how much pain he was in and that would make her snap faster, but he couldn't help it.

He gritted his teeth and shook his head, trying to endure the vicious pain shooting up his arm like a one-way street. Cleffy hiccupped and bit her lip to keep her from saying anything, but eventually a tearful sob escaped out of her.

Bisharp drew up. "I think you're quite ready to tell me now, Cleffy Clefairy. "Roselio's blood dripped from the tip of his blades onto the floor.

"I... I..." Cleffy stammered. "B-B-Breloom and T-T-Treecko... th-they're ..."

"N-n-n-no..."

Bisharp had at first been pleased that Cleffy had been about to give him the information he needed, but of course even at this point Cleffy's little rosy friend had to interrupt and ruin everything.

He looked down at the bleeding Roselia by his feet, his face red with exasperation. "You be quiet! I'm in the middle of some important business here!"

However, Roselio just kept on talking.

"D-d-don't... do it... Clef..." he grunted. "I won't let you do it whatever th-th-that g-goon does to me. D-don't do it."

"B-but...!" Cleffy cried out tearfully. "I can't-"

The Roselia raised his head. "You promised."

That shut Cleffy up. She could only sob and bite her lip. She did promise, but now she was finding it extremely hard to keep it.

"Arrrghh!" Bisharp shouted. "I was right about you - you always ruin everything and get onto my nerves...!" In a sudden angry motion, he brought down his blade onto the Thorn Pokémon, creating a deep gash in his right shoulder.

"Gghh...!" Roselio grunted. The gash was big since Bisharp had done it spontaneously out of pure anger, and the pain was so intense that he almost passed out from it.

Cleffy screamed. "No! D-d-don't hurt him! I can't bear to s-see him like this; stop it already! I'll t-t-tell you where Breloom and Treecko are, just leave him alone! Breloom and Treecko... they're... they're in-"

"LA LA LA. I CAN'T HEAR ANYTHING," Roselio said loudly to drown out Cleffy's voice.

Bisharp growled and turned to the Grass-type. His blades were already raised again. However, the Roselia's only response was to look up at it blankly while still talking at the top of his lungs.

"LA LA LA. YOU BETTER STOP THIS, CLEF. I CAN'T HEAR A THING YOU'RE SAYING... Gah!"

Bisharp's next slash got him on the same cheek he had cut two days ago. It painted his already red bowtie even redder, and it was excruciatingly painful for the previous cut hadn't healed yet. Everything was slowly fading to black.

He fell to his knees, staring at the spot on the ground where the little, falling droplets of red became messy red splatters. Even the red was starting to get darker and darker and his vision smaller and smaller.

Without warning, he collapsed onto the ground.

Cleffy couldn't take it anymore.

"R-Roselio, why won't you let me do this!" she screamed hysterically. "I'm sorry, I c-c-can't keep my promise! I can't bear to see you hurt like this! D-don't you understand? I'm sorry, I have to do it. P-p-please don't hate me for this... you're m-my most special f-friend..."

Though he was only half-conscious, he still whispered, "N-n-no..."

Cleffy faced Bisharp. "Breloom and Treecko are..."

"N-no!"

Cleffy kept her face straight, pretending not to hear Roselio at all. "Breloom and Treecko are..."

"Right here!"

There was suddenly a new voice. New... but familiar.

And the next second, Bisharp was hit by a jaw-crunching Sky Uppercut.

»̶✽«̶

Bisharp was sent flying and crashed into a wall. He finally landed on the ground with a catastrophic clang, and was left groaning and moaning and rubbing his head.

Cleffy stared openmouthed at the two figures standing at the doorway.

"B-Breloom and Treecko?" she whispered.

"That's us," Treecko said seriously. "We got here when we heard from the Treasure Town folks that you two were missing. This place is heavily guarded, but lucky for us we have the element of surprise. They were searching for us, but they never expected us to be right under their noses."

"Yep, but we can't chat right now, Treec," Breloom said lightly as he bounced over to where Bisharp was sitting. "We gotta deal with this asshole first." He grabbed Bisharp by the throat and hissed, "How did ya like tormenting Cleffy and hurting Roselio, huh? Ya know what I think, big guy? Ya ought to at least pick on someone your own size."

Next came a DynamicPunch and more clanking sounds.

Treecko turned back to Cleffy and then to where Roselio was lying unconscious. For a second, his expression was that of sympathy.

Before joining Breloom in the brawl, he went over to Cleffy and used Leaf Blade to cut her rope and shackles and then did the same to Roselio's. Then he dropped his Treasure Bag.

"Take care of him," he told Cleffy, referring to the Thorn Pokémon, jutting his chin at the bag. "His injuries look pretty bad."

Cleffy swallowed and nodded.

»̶✽«̶

As the clanking sounds intensified, Cleffy rummaged around in Treecko's bag. She pulled out some Oran Berries and some bandages. She cleansed the wounds with Oran Berry juice and bandaged them. There was a whole roll of them on his arm, the one Bisharp had cut open. Another piece wrapped his right shoulder, and a third one covered the wound on his cheek.

When Breloom and Treecko had finally overpowered Bisharp so that he was lying out cold, Cleffy had finished with her healing duties and was sitting next to him like a guardian angel.

Breloom and Treecko were about to walk over to her when Treecko noticed that she was holding Roselio's red rose in her hand, running her finger along his rose petals. Treecko motioned Breloom to stay.

And then Breloom and Treecko both witnessed Cleffy do something they'd never imagined her to do.

Not knowing that she was being watched, the Clefairy slowly bent down and gently kissed Roselio's unbandaged cheek.

"P-please wake up, Roselio," she whispered. "Everything's OK n-now, we're safe. P-p-please, you're my m-most special friend..."

...and then she looked up with a start and realized that Breloom and Treecko had been watching.

"Ah..." she gasped, letting go of his hand.

Breloom went over, and he was smiling a small smile. "Oh, he's still out cold, ain't he? In that case, we'd better carry him outta here." He didn't acknowledge the fact that Cleffy had done anything out of character.

Cleffy nodded quickly. Breloom didn't mention anything, and that was fine with her.

...

Roselio came to when Breloom and Treecko were carrying him out of Bisharp's fort and Cleffy was walking a bit behind them. Once he was fully conscious, he insisted that he was well enough to walk on his own.

"Well, OK," Breloom gave in, and then he and Treecko deliberately walked in front of them so that he would be alone with Cleffy.

For a few seconds, no one spoke.

And then Cleffy broke the silence.

"...I'm g-glad you're awake," she whispered. "I'm s-so glad..."

Roselio nodded, but his face showed that he wasn't even half as relieved as Cleffy.

"Did you tell him?" he suddenly blurted out.

"Wh-what? N-no," Cleffy said quickly. "I d-didn't tell him anything. Breloom and Treecko suddenly just showed up."

"Oh."

Cleffy wrung her hands, immediately feeling guilty. "Please believe me," she cried. "I really d-didn't tell him anything. And I'm s-sorry I almost b-broke my promise, b-but it was because I simply couldn't bear to see you hurt. I'm sorry, Roselio. I'm sorry for b-being really soft-hearted... I just couldn't do it..."

By now, tears were spilling onto her pale cheeks. She knew she was being an even bigger softie, but she couldn't help it.

"No."

Cleffy was surprised when she felt Roselio's soft petals against her fingers, and the next second his vine was wrapped around her hand. She found the sensation difficult to define - his petals felt delicate like something she had to take good care of, but at the same time they felt strong as if they were able to protect her.

It was a nice feeling.

"I'm the one who should be sorry, Clef," he said, his eyes looking deep into her own. "I'm sorry I snapped at you. I was worried; I didn't want Breloom's and Treecko's plan to fail just because of me."

Cleffy was unable to meet his eyes for long, and she shyly looked down at her feet. "N-no, it's all right. I knew you m-meant well," she said quietly. "Besides, we're s-safe now-"

She stopped speaking when Roselio's other vine moved to her chin and gently drew it up, forcing her to look at him.

"Cleffy..."

Cleffy was tongue-tied.

"Thank you. For being strong while we were in there," he went on.

Cleffy blushed. "M-me? S-strong? N-no, I wasn't strong at all..."

"Of course you were strong," Roselio insisted. "You could have broken down anytime, yet you didn't. I loved it when you stood up to Bisharp and gave him the good kick he deserved."

"Th-that was n-nothing," Cleffy whispered. "And you're w-way stronger than m-!"

Cleffy could have sworn that the next moment, she wasn't walking out of Darkrai's fortress, she was living in a dream instead. She didn't know how it happened, but she did know that suddenly she found his lips pressed against hers.

What... in the world...?

At first, her eyes opened wide with surprise, hardly daring to believe that this really was happening to her. But then she saw how close he was, how his eyes were closed, how his soft petals brushed her cheeks, how she could feel the bandage covering his own, and came to the mind-boggling realization that this really was happening.

This is real, she thought in disbelief.

This is very real.

Cleffy suddenly felt a foreign feeling.

It was real...

...so why not enjoy it?

After all, her feelings were reciprocal. He felt the same way about her. She would be a fool to withdraw at the last second after all they've been through, especially when he was making a move.

And so she did. She enjoyed it. Very much.

That fluttery feeling stayed even after it was over and they were hurrying after Breloom and Treecko.

Words couldn't describe how relieved and happy she was to get out of that harrowing situation. Now she could do more than whisper "if only"s. Now they could start being "more than friends".

That was when she remembered what Roselio had said on the first day they were captured by the Sableye — that her teammate and best friend Lombre was in Dusknoir's hands. The Time Gears also needed to be taken to the top of the Temporal Tower.

She was going to have much more important things to concentrate on — more important than she and Roselio being "more than friends".

She suddenly realized that the danger was not over. This wasn't the "And they lived happily ever after." Not yet.

But even so, with him at her side, she somehow felt a tiny bit better.

End of Fragment No. 1.