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."