Duo's POV

Warnings! Okay, here we go…

We have yaoi, a lime and lemon(s) in later parts, child abuse/rape, violent cursing, and major AU/OOC. Oh and death ^_^ You've been warned!

The Darkness Can't Last

Duo's POV

            When I was very young, only about four or five I was in a fire. The fire was devastating. It killed my parents…and my sight. After the fire, I never saw again. The world became a world of darkness. All was black…

            I have memories of color. One memory stands out in particular…

            A bright red against the clear blue of the sky with puffy white clouds…when I remember those colors my hands reach out to touch them, to gather them closer to me. Oh, what I would give to see yellow again! Yellow, the color of sun! The sun that doesn't shine for me. Oh, how I love yellow!

            I can't see. I don't even dream in images anymore. My dreams are all words…or they are the few times I've slept deeply enough to dream. I live in, what we affectionately have nicknamed it, 'a hellhole'.

            I live with two men. I don't like them. They don't like me. But I need them because my blindness makes me helpless and they need me because neither one of them has the energy to cook or clean. They're either too drunk to even think of it or they're hangover's too bad. Or some times, they have friends' over.

            I never liked Heero. He was too cold. His voice was always a sharp bark when he spoke to me and if I could see, I imagine his eyes would be the cold, hard, unimpressionable color of black. I hate black. Blackness surrounds me and I hate it! And I hate Heero for making me remember…but yet, I am grateful to him because he took me off of the streets and into his home. Why, I will never know. Most likely he was drunk and it seemed like a good idea at the time.

            I hate knowing I was just his drunken idea, that he doesn't give a shit about me one way or another.

            When I was younger, I liked Trowa. If he wasn't 'entertaining' friends, he would play me his flute. And sometimes he would sit next to me by the window and describe what was going down in the busy streets. When I was little, I was fascinated by his voice. It was always smooth, calm, and level. It never rose in anger like Heero's and he never used the foul language Heero flung around so carelessly.

            But one night, Trowa came into my room.

            And I stopped liking his voice.

            Heero found Trowa in my room one night. That was the only time he did something for me. He was half-drunk, but he was conscious enough to realize what was going on. "Trowa, you bastard! What the fuck do you think you're doing? For Chrissake, he's only a kid!" Heero screamed, dragging Trowa off of me. "You sick pervert! You pedophile! What the hell have you done to him? You want the cops to go after us? Huh?"

            I could hear Heero hitting him and I could sense Trowa's calm acceptance of the blows Heero was battering him with. "You bastard! He's not one of your customers! Stay out of the kid's room, you hear me? Stay out of his room!"

            I curled myself in a ball, my thin back pressed against the headboard. "Please stop," I whispered in a quavering voice. "Please, let them stop."

            And they did. Heero smacked Trowa once more before storming out the door. Halfway out the door, he turned and came into my room. He stood in the doorway and asked, "You all right kid?"

            Although I wasn't, I nodded and whispered, "Yeah, I'm fine Heero."

            "Good. And if that bastard ever tries to touch you again, you bite and kick and scream until he lets you go! Promise you'll never let that pervert do that to you again!" I could feel the cold glare of Heero's eyes on me. "Promise!"

            "I promise," I answered.

            "Good…" he slammed the door to my room and stalked out of the apartment.

            No one talked about what had happened the next day. But Heero brought home a half-melted carton of chocolate ice cream and Trowa never went near my room again.

            After that, I stopped letting people do what they wanted to me. Just because I'm blind doesn't mean people can abuse me like that.

            One day I'm going see the light again.

            The darkness can't last forever.

Wufei's POV

            When I was a kid, I saw a bunch of boys throwing stones at a harmless old man we'd nicknamed the neighborhood crazy just because he had five cats. He never did anything wrong and yet we tormented him. I used to think that was the saddest thing I'd ever seen.

            But today, I saw something worse.

            Some guy, who could've been my age or twenty years older, he was so wasted on his booze, it was hard to tell. He was dragging a very reluctant kid, about my age in years, but he looked much younger in maturity from the vulnerable air that practically radiated from him. He was dragging the poor kid down the street, screaming at the top of his lungs, "You fuckin' bastard! What the hell, did you think you were doing? I'll beat you, I will. And maybe I'll one of that white trash that hangs around our place have a go at you! Would you like that, kid? Huh!"

            The boy was struggling and screaming something back at the drunk I couldn't understand but the older man must've because he turned and back-handed the boy. "Hey!" I yelled before I could stop myself, "What the hell d'you think you're doing!"

            He turned and glared at me through blood-shot, red-rimmed eyes. "I'm disciplining the brat, that's what I'm doing!"

            "Abusing him's more like it," I snapped. If there's one thing I hate, it's a guy who can get away with abusing someone smaller, younger, or weaker than him. "You trying to dislocate the poor kid's shoulder?"

            "He's blind for Chrissake! He don't know what he's doing!"

            "Just because someone's blind doesn't mean they can't hear or see to feel and think!" I yelled.

            He glared at me and the ugliest sneer I've ever seen crept across his face. "Get the hell out of my way. I don't need a fuckin' foreigner to tell me what to do."

            I truly did see red then. In all my life, I'd never had anyone say anything about my race before. So I did the only thing that seemed acceptable at the time. I hit as hard as I could.

            The disgusting bit of human life glared at me and rubbed his face. "Bastard. You want the little blind kid? You can have him China-man!"

            With that he shoved the poor kid at em and stormed off. I glared after his retreating back. The kid swallowed audibly and said, "I'm sorry."

            I glanced down at him. He was a nice looking boy and had probably gotten hooked up in the wrong crowd. "My name's Wufei. What's yours?"

Duo's POV

            I wanted to stare at the man Heero had fought with, but I didn't. I didn't want him to see my mess of a face and anyway, what good would staring do if I couldn't see him? After a moment, I heard him say his name and ask mine. Wufei… I rolled the unfamiliar name around in my mind for a few moments. I liked the way it sounded in my mind and was eager to say it. "I think my name is Kid, Wufei." I was pleased that I'd pronounced his name right, I often got the pronunciations of words wrong. Being in a home where everyone was half-wasted and slurring all the time hadn't done anything to improve my speech skills.

            I could feel his gaze on me. "Kid? What a horrible name. What's your real name?"

            I blanched for a second. My real name…I've never been called anything but Kid! I had a vague memory of someone saying, 'Duo' but that might not have been me they were talking too. I decided to risk it, "Duo. My name's Duo."

            "Duo…that's a better name," Wufei's voice was vague-sounding, as if his mind was preoccupied with other thoughts. "How old are you? I'm eighteen."

            I loved the way he was volunteering information about himself. Trowa and Heero had never volunteered any information about themselves and always ignored my questions. "Eighteen."

            "Thought so." Even though he hadn't said very much, I liked his voice. It was deep and soft, but unlike Trowa's; it had risen in anger. I liked listening to him talk. "Duo!" From the sound of his voice he'd said something to me several times.

            I smiled. I'd never heard anyone say my name before. "Say my name again."

            "What?" I could feel his surprised look.

            "Please…say my name."

            "Duo…" I smiled again. I liked the way my name sounded in his voice. "Do you have anywhere to go?"

            "Back with Heero and Trowa. That's where I live," I answered.

            "No! I refuse to let you go back with that bastard." I'd never heard bastard said so many times in such short time. "Come on, you can hang around with me for a while."

            I smiled and looked up at him, "Thank you."

            "Duo!"

            "What?"

            "Your face!" The shocked tone was gone and a more sympathetic tone in its place. "Duo, what happened?"

Wufei's POV

            I was ashamed of having jumped at the sight of his face. I'd only seen him at a profile and he looked normal from a profile. But seeing his face…oh Gods, it was shocking. After a while I'd get used to it, but for the moment, it was a shock.

            "My face!" His voice was panicked. "My mess of a face!" He reached up and felt the scars. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean-,"

            "It's fine." I said firmly, "I just wasn't prepared for the shock. I'm over it now. Now, Duo, tell me what happened."

            "A fire," he said in a flat voice. "It killed my parents and left me blind."

            "How'd you get in with that guy who was dragging you?"

            "Oh, you mean Heero? When I was about eight he found me wandering around in the streets and took me home with him," Duo shrugged. It was disturbing to see how he accepted the blows life had dealt him. "I've lived there ever since."

            "Gods…" I murmured. Well one thing was for sure; I wasn't going to let Duo go back to those assholes. "Well, now it's my turn to take you in off the streets."

            "You'd take me home with you?" His tone was disbelieving.

            "I never lie Duo."

            "I do."

            I gazed at him. His frank, blunt way of speaking was unsettling. "I lie a lot. But I won't lie to you." That blunt way of speaking was both intriguing me and annoying me.

            I sighed and said; "Should I uh-hold your hand?"

            "Yes. I'll learn the sounds of your footsteps so I won't always have to do that though," he said.

            I picked up his hand. It was so slender and small in mine; I was surprised. He hadn't seemed so thin, but the baggy black clothes that he was wearing hid most of his frame.

            "What do you look like?"

            Again, his question surprised me. "Well…" I tried to think of a way to describe myself.

            "Can I feel your face?"

            "Uh, yeah." I answered. What have I gotten myself into? Duo removed his hand from mine and gently placed his fingers on my face.

            I felt a shiver creep down my spine as his hands moved slowly and delicately over my face, feelings the curve of my lips and tracing my cheekbones. "Thank you Wufei," he said suddenly and stepped away.

            "Um…you're welcome." I was surprised to feel a heated blush flooding my cheeks. "Come on, I'll take you home now."