Hi people! As usual, thank you to the wondrful people who reviewed! Sorry this ch. took so long (more thaem a month *gasp*); actually was planning to upload this chapter yesterday, but the Document manager wasn't working... Hopefully I'll be updating "The Thin Line Between Love and Hate" earlier this week since school's almost OVER!!! Three more days! (But it also means finals...-_-') Anyways, please enjoy this ch. of "Chinese Finger Trap" and review!

Disclaimer: If Pokemon was mine, I wouldn't really need this disclaimer now would I?

Red's P.O.V.

"Is it still hurting?"

"Huh?"

Yellow gestured, pointing to the wound. "Your leg; does it still hurt?"

"Oh! No, not at all!" I shook my head hastily. Honestly, it did hurt quite a bit, but I didn't want Yellow to worry. Even after I had reassured her, Yellow's cute face still held a worried expression.

"I wonder…" Yellow mused silently to herself. I watched her as she sat quietly, hands folded in her lap, staring at the ground, and biting her lip.

I cleared my throat to get her attention. Yellow's head immediately snapped up. "Yes Red?"

"What are you thinking about?"

"Well…" Yellow started, fiddling with a hanging thread on her sleeve. "…I was thinking about using my powers."

"Powers?" I stared blankly at her in confusion.

Yellow nodded hesitantly. "You know, the ones I received from the Viridian Forest? I can read emotions and heal Pokemon wounds, but I'm not sure if I can heal people's wounds…"

"I'm sure you can do it," I said, reaching over to pat her on the shoulder.

Yellow's face seemed to turn slightly pink, though it was hard to tell in the dim light. "A-are you sure? What if I mess up?"

"You won't mess up," I replied confidently. Yellow nodded, her bangs covering her eyes as she knelt over the scrape on my leg.

"Okay. I'll do my best." Yellow's hand hovered over the spot as she hesitated. "If it starts to hurt…please tell me and I'll stop."

I merely grinned back at her and gestured with my head for her to continue. Yellow looked down at the wound and closed her eyes. I watched Yellow as she focused intently on her power. I took in every detail of her features from her glowing blond hair to the smooth, angelic expression on her face. At that moment I realized Yellow wasn't the little kid I'd saved from a wild Dratini five years ago. She was becoming a mature, confident, pretty, and (I blushed) more well-developed girl. Slowly, I reached out toward Yellow's face.

"Done!" I retracted my arm instantly as Yellow's eyes snapped open. She sat back, breathing slowly. "It should be fine now."

"Wow…" I moved my leg slightly from side to side. "It doesn't hurt at all anymore." Then I pulled up the pant leg of the injured side. "And there's no sign of any injury…" In place of the wound was now my skin, completely woundless and scar-free. "Thanks Yellow!"

Yellow nodded and rubbed her eyes. She sat back against the wall and blinked sleepily. "This was the first time I've ever healed a human before…it was always Pokemon. I've tried healing humans, but it never works…I wonder why…"

I shrugged. "Maybe it has to do with your bond with the person or Pokemon you're healing."

Yellow laughed tiredly. "Maybe. Then I guess I must be close to you huh?" Slowly, Yellow's head began to nod and her eyelids started to close. "But you know Red…" I heard her murmur softly. I leaned over toward Yellow to hear her words. "…I'm glad you were my first…"

I sat back up, feeling myself grow warm at Yellow's words. I looked down, just as Yellow leaned to the side, right against me. Carefully, I extracted my arm from its position between Yellow and I and put it around Yellow. She let out a small sigh and snuggled closer as I blushed but kept a firm grip around her and sat back, waiting for something to happen.

Ruby's P.O.V.

"Ugh…Ugh…Ugh…"

I twitched slightly. "Would you stop that?!?"

Sapph turned and glared at me. "Why should I?"

"Well for one thing, it's annoying!" Sapph merely glared harder and tapped her foot impatiently. I stared up at her from my seated position on the ground. I'd been sitting with my right arm held up slightly since Sapph had been leaning against the wall.

"Hey, what time is it?" Sapph asked.

I squinted down at my watch. Since I had suggested to Sapph to return Toro to her ball (it was getting too cramped in the small space), it was much darker than before. "It's about 12:45."

There was a slight pause. "So we've been stuck in here for…an HOUR AND A HALF?!?'

I sighed heavily. "…Yes." Once again, a silence fell over us. Then, completely out of the blue…

"GHASTLY!"

"Wah!" Sapph jumped back as a familiar looking Ghastly from before popped out of nowhere and stuck out its tongue.

"Grr…COME BACK AND FIGHT DAMMIT!" Ignoring Sapph's yelling, the Ghastly floated around her, just out of her reach.

"Damn you-!" Sapph lunged for the Ghastly, pulling me up to me feet, as she threw herself at the little ghost Pokemon. It merely chuckled and floated faster away from her. Sapph chased after it, just as the Ghastly flew out of the room through a wall with a last cry of "Ghastly!"

"Grr…dammit! Dammit! DAMMIT!" Sapph kicked the wall the Ghastly had gone through viciously. She kicked harder with each yell and I saw the Protect shimmer with each kick. "OW!"

I blinked at the sudden change in Sapph's yells. "Are you okay?"

Sapph knelt down, clutching onto her foot. "I'm fine…" she managed to say through gritted teeth.

"Liar." I sat down, pulling Sapph down next to me, ignoring her protests. When she was finally sitting next to me, I pulled her legs onto my lap and ignoring the heat I could feel creeping onto my face. Slowly and carefully, I wiggled the left shoe off of Sapph's foot.

"What are you doing?" Sapph interrupted as I managed to get the shoe off her foot.

"Checking to see where you hurt yourself," I replied shortly.

"I told you, I'm FINE!" Sapph tried to jerk her legs out of my lap as she spoke. I reached forward and grabbed onto her ankles with my free hand. She immediately stopped moving.

I looked straight at Sapph's dim face. "No you're not."

Sapph stared at me as I continued to try and see her in the dim shadows. I could feel her legs quiver slightly in my lap and looked away. "Anyways…I just want to check and make sure you're okay…" I muttered.

Since I didn't get a response, I decided to move on. Hesitantly, I put my hand over Sapph's foot which was covered by her short white sock. I began to move my hand over the foot, feeling for any signs of bruises.

"Ah-!" Sapph flinched, pulling back slightly.

"Is this where it hurts?" I asked. Sapph looked away to the side and nodded once.

"Hm…" I placed my hand lightly over the spot and began to massage it slowly. I felt Sapph stiffen then begin to relax as I continued to massage the spot.

We sat there in silence, Sapph staring at the ground and me massaging her foot. "You know, you're a lot of trouble," I said aloud to Sapph.

She looked up and smirked slightly. "I know. Mom says I'm going to be a handful for my husband when I get married."

"Married?" I repeated. "Honestly, you're the last person I would think of that imagines their wedding or marriage."

Sapph shrugged. "Not me! Mom says it all the time. Besides, at the rate, I'll never be able to get married."

I looked questioningly at her. "What rate?"

Sapph held up our linked fingers. "Idiot, if I'm still stuck with you, how am I supposed to get married?"

"I guess I'll have to be the groom then," I said jokingly, expecting Sapph to laugh or make some kind of crude comment about how she would never marry me. Instead, it was silent once again. I looked up at Sapph worriedly. She was staring down at our connected hands.

I opened my mouth to tell Sapph that I was just joking about the last comment when she spoke first. "Yeah, sure… you be the groom and I'll be the bride." As she said this, I saw a faint blush spread over her face. I looked down as another silence ensued, feeling my own face redden as I continued to massage Sapph's foot.

-in the control room-

Green's P.O.V.

"Ghastly!"

Blue turned around quickly, her brown hair whirling around just as fast, narrowly avoiding hitting my face. Her face broke out in a huge grin as she spotted the ghost Pokemon.

"Ditty!" she cried out happily as she ran forward. With a sudden "pop-!" the Ghastly disappeared to be replaced by a small, pink gelatinous blob that fell into Blue's open arms. Blue hugged it as the Ditto wriggled snuggly in her embrace.

I stared in disbelief. "You mean that…?"

Blue looked at me and smirked. "That the Ghastly that was bothering Sapph was actually Ditty? Yep!" She patted the Ditto and crooned at it, "And you did a great job!"

"You've got to be kidding me…" I muttered. Blue turned and pouted at me, still clutching onto Ditty.

"Well it worked didn't it?"

"Sapph got hurt because of what you did," I stated calmly. Blue petted Ditty once more before recalling it into its ball.

"It was for the greater good!" she snapped defensively.

I raised an eyebrow at her. "The greater good?"

Blue nodded firmly. "Love! It's my mission to get Ruby and Sapph together! Not to mention the other two idiot pairs…"

"Your mission?" I repeated.

Blue threw her arms up in the air with an exasperated sigh. "The whole reason why I stuck Ruby and Sapph's fingers into that Chinese finger trap in the first place! Sooner or later they're going to have to acknowledge their feeling towards each other! And I'd rather have it sooner than later!"

"And why did you choose a Chinese finger trap in the first place again?" Since she was telling me her whole evil plan, I'd rather know all of it now than having to figure the rest of it later.

"Why not?" Blue countered. "What else would you expect me to use?"

I looked at her, not believing she would ask that kind of question. What else would she use to chain people together? I could think of about a million things. "Handcuffs for one…" I muttered to myself.

Blue grinned (she must have overheard me somehow) and waggled a finger at me. "Handcuffs? Geez Green, you're such a pervert!"

"What?!?" I couldn't help retorting. "I didn't mean it like that!"

"If you say so," Blue said in a sing-song tone. "But I always knew you were a closet pervert."

I glared at Blue's back, the urge to strangle her was overwhelming. She really knew how to get on my nerves. Suddenly she turned around to face me again. "But to answer your question…I used a Chinese finger trap because they're so much cooler than anything else. Besides, handcuffs are so un-original. They're in all those corny romance stories!"

"And you're not afraid it might come off or that Ruby or Sapph might think of using their Pokemon to help and try to get it off?" I might as well ask since it was something I'd been wondering about.

Blue gave me a "do you really think I'm that much of an idiot?" kind of look. "Of course not! This isn't just any regular Chinese finger trap. It's waterproof, heatproof, electric-proof…" Blue continued rambling as I lost track of her list. "…and it can stand the weight of a Nidoking!" she finished triumphantly.

"But you can still take it off like any regular finger trap?" I asked skeptically.

She nodded. "The very same way you would a normal finger trap."

I shook my head. "Where in Mew's name do you get this stuff?"

Blue smirked mischieviously. "I know people…"

"Pesky woman…" I muttered.

Blue stuck out her tongue at me cheekily and sat back down on her chair. I sighed, before sitting back down as well, looking at the screens once more.

Yay, one chapter down, a few more to go! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I was actually quite pleased with the Specialshipping in this one (that's just my opinion though), but I hope I got everyone in-character. (Sapph's character may be slightly iffy, but in the manga when she's confessing to Ruby she seemed a little more placid so I tried to portray it in this chapter.) Since it's almost summer break, I'll probably have more time to update. If you review, I'll update quicker (reviews are writing fuel for me), so please REVIEW!