Duo's POV
After I removed my hands from Wufei's face, I felt slightly disappointed. I liked the way his smooth skin had felt beneath my fingertips, the way my touch had sent a shiver down his spine, the way I heard his breathing quicken. But I had removed my hands, afraid of what he might do if I over-stepped my boundaries. I knew he was embarrassed from the way he walked quickly and avoided looking at me. I could hear his eyes shifting to look at anything from me. But, despite his less than friendly attitude, he kept my fingers grasped tightly in his.
"Wh-where do you live?" I asked after almost fifteen minutes of walking.
"Close by. Only about five or ten more minutes," he answered.
I was enjoying the way his hand curved protectively around mine and wanted to slow down so he would be touching me longer. I didn't though, I was afraid of angering him and he'd already been kind to me.
"We're here. Come with me," his voice wasn't as urgent and brusque as before.
A rush of cool air hit me as I entered what I presumed was the lobby of his apartment building. "What was that?" I asked, my voice higher than usual. "Why is it so cold in here?"
I could hear people slowing down as they passed and I had the strangest feeling they were giving me a sympathetic smile. I hated it. I hated the darkness more than ever then. "Wufei?"
His voice
hid gentle laughter as he answered, "It's the air conditioner."
"Air conditioner?" I
whispered, feeling stupid. But how was I to know? I'd never been out of the
apartment before and our apartment was far from up-to-date and modern. Heero
and Trowa never volunteered any information about the outside world and I had
never heard of an air conditioner, let alone been in a room with it. "Oh…I'm
sorry."
"Don't be.' His hand was gentle on my arm as he guided me towards something. "You couldn't have known."
"We didn't have an air conditioner," I told him, trying to excuse my behavior. I think he might have nodded, but I didn't know. It was hard to identify sounds with all the noise around me. "Do you live here?"
"Yep. And now, so do you."
The thought was miraculous to me. I was going to live with this man who'd already shown far too much kindness to me…
"Are you yellow Wufei?"
Wufei's POV
I was still wondering over the shock of the air conditioner when he asked me if I was yellow.
"What did you say?" I turned towards him, frowning. Where did he get a nutty idea like that?
"Are you yellow?"
"N-no…why?"
"I'm surrounded in black. My whole world is darkness. Ye-yellow is the color of the sun. And…" he trailed off, flushing a dramatic red against his ivory cheeks.
"Oh…I understand." I felt something akin to sympathy as I stared at him. I hadn't thought about it much, but now it really sunk in. Duo *could not see*. He couldn't see at all. All he ever saw was darkness…then, rather than pity; I felt the strong urge embrace him, to comfort him and to wipe the bad memories away and leave only the good. I resisted the urge and instead, grasped his hand to lead him onto the elevator.
"Have you ever been in an elevator before?" I asked as I hit the eight button.
"N-no…" he shifted his weight nervously and avoided looking at me.
After a while, I realized he was frightened. "You're breaking my fingers," I said gently, prying his death-grip off my hand.
"Oh…sorry," he whispered, standing still. "Wufei…"
"Yeah?"
"Can we take the stairs next time?"
I smiled, "Of course." I'd only taken the elevator because I'd wanted Duo situated before I had to go to work that night. "Look, we're on my-our-floor."
Duo's POV
"Do you want something to drink?" I jerked myself out of my thoughts.
"Um…no, that's okay," I said. I was lying though, trying not to make any trouble for him.
Wufei must've seen through my lie though because a moment later he was pressing something cold into my hand. "Do you like iced tea?"
"I've never had it before," I admitted, taking a cautious sip. "It's good…at home the only thing besides water was Heero's liquor."
I could sense the darkening in Wufei's face, "This is your home now," he said quietly.
"Yes," I responded, not knowing quite what to say. I felt like thanking him, but it seemed like an awkward thing to do.
"Do you want me to show you around?" he asked next.
I'd wanted to ask Wufei the same thing. "Yes. Would you?"
"Sure…" He inclined his head towards me, "Can you follow me around?"
"Yeah…there's not so much noise here."
"Okay, come on. Here's the kitchen right next to the den…"
After a while, Wufei's voice faded into nothing but a pleasant sound as I explored each room. Unlike Trowa and Heero, he didn't seem to mind me touching things and asking questions. In fact, he seemed to enjoy showing me everything and took a pleasure in answering my questions.
"What do you do for a job?" I asked him suddenly.
He probably gave me a strange look, he had just shown me the bathroom and now I was talking about jobs. "Oh…I work at the school."
"Are you a teacher? You'd be a good one."
He laughed, "No. But I might be someday. Right now I'm just a night-custodian."
"…Oh."
I could hear his shrug, "I'm putting myself through college, I need whatever jobs I can get. I work another job as a waiter."
And here I was, another person for him to support. "I can try and do something. Heero and Towa never let me try anything other than house-keeping…but I bet I could do something!"
"No, I want you to go to school too."
"I couldn't."
"Why not?"
"I can't see! How can you teach a blind man to read? To write?"
Wufei laughed gently at me. "Duo…have you ever heard of Braille?"
"Vaguely."
"That's the way blind people like yourself learn to read and write!"
"No," I said in disbelief.
"Yes!" He affirmed.
"You'd let me go to school?"
"Duo, I'd make you."
I couldn't speak. I wanted to fling my arms around him and shout thank you! But I was wary of showing too much gratitude; afraid I might irritate or embarrass him.
So I said simply, "Wow."
Wufei's POV
"And here's your room," I announced, flinging the door open. I stood in the doorway, watching as Duo investigated the room, picking things up and running his hands over the bed and dresser.
"It's nice," he said softly. He turned towards me and a smile lit up his features, "Thank you."
"It's nothing," I said, feeling unexplainably embarrassed. "I hope you like it."
"I do…" Suddenly, he whirled around and said, his voice high with fear, "You won't-you won't come in here at night will you?"
"What? No, of course not! Its *your* room and you can have privacy in here."
Duo let out a shaky sigh of relief. "Good…" He glanced up at me, "Trowa used to come into my room."
That sick bastard. "Well, I won't."
"Good…I like you Wufei," he whispered.
I hoped that meant he trusted me. "I like you too Duo."
He smiled, "Thank you."
Duo's POV
The next few weeks passed by in a blur for me. I didn't want too much and Wufei was over-whelming me with the extent of his generosity. Time and time again I begged for him to stop showering with gifts and he simply laughed and told me he liked spoiling me.
At first I was exceedingly grateful, thinking that he was doing this out of the kindness of his heart. But it didn't take me long to realize there was much more than kindness in his actions.
Wufei made me feel things I'd never known existed, let alone things I could feel. When he was nearby, I felt an over-whelming sense of joy, the touch of him made a warmth rush over my body, the scent of him made me heady with excitement. I couldn't understand the feelings; no one had ever explained anything about love and sex to me. All I knew about sex I had learned from listening to what went on in Trowa and Heero's bedroom late at night and the times Trowa had entered my bedroom. And love was a foreign object to me, as mysterious as the sunlight I so desperately wanted to see.
But some how, I felt my feelings towards Wufei were good and completely unlike the hatred I now felt towards Heero and Trowa. And I couldn't stop my ever-growing want to be near Wufei, to be with him, to hear his voice and feel his touch.
Very quickly, perhaps too quickly Wufei was becoming my whole world.
Wufei's POV
I loved spoiling Duo. He was so surprised by any little kindness, so grateful for anything I did for him; it was an almost unsettling experience. I often wondered exactly what kind of treatment Duo had gotten in the household he'd grown up in, but refrained from asking. So I simply contented myself by bringing him small niceties he'd never seen before and enjoying the way his face lit up with childish delight.
Something about him, I couldn't quiet put my finger on it, was different. And it wasn't just the fact that he was blind.
Maybe it was his vulnerability, or maybe his childishly frank way of speaking, but there was something about Duo that intrigued me and drew me closer to him. I wanted to spend every waking moment with him, to watch his face light up when he was happy and to cheer him up when he became depressed.
Very quickly, I was devoting almost all my time to Duo.
And that scared me.
