Wufei's POV

Wufei's POV

I couldn't understand why Duo refused to let me enroll him in school. He'd seemed so eager to learn and now…he seemed to grow upset and angry with me at even the mere mention of the word.

So finally, I just went and enrolled him with or without his consent. Damned if I was going to let his stubbornness keep him from getting an education he deserved.

"You WHAT?" Duo yelled at me.

"I enrolled you in school. You can start on Monday," I said matter-of-factly.

"No! I'm not going!" Duo snapped and whirled around so he wasn't facing me.

I sighed and stepped up behind him, placing my hands on his shoulders and turning him around. "Please, Duo. Tell me why you won't go."

"Leave me alone," he ordered, but without any real feeling or conviction.

"Tell me!"

"No!"

I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes, before saying in exasperation, "Well, if you don't give me a reason, then you're going!"

"You'll have to drag me with bodily force!"

"You know I will!"

"Damn you!" Duo cried and raised his fisted hands as if he were going to hit me. Instead, he rested them on my chest and leaned into them, his thin frame racked with sobs that never fell.

"Duo?" I asked in puzzlement as I embraced him to me.

"Wufei, I'm so tired. Please, let the subject drop," he whispered, even as his arms wrapped around my neck and drew me closer.

"Duo…" I wanted desperately to just forget everything and to just put him to bed, but I *needed* to know. "Just give me a reason, even its something stupid like you don't want to do homework."

He smiled wryly and said, "Your right. It is stupid."

"And?" I pressed.

Duo sighed and jerked himself out of my arms. He exhaled loudly as paced the apartment before finally collapsing in a kitchen chair. "Do you know what I grew up with?" Duo asked as I entered the kitchen after him.

"Well-yeah," I said in surprise.

"No you don't. You know about the ra-Trowa and you know how Heero treated me. But you only know the physical end of it." Duo took a deep breath as he continued quietly, "Wufei, I'm afraid to go to school. All my life I've been called stupid, shiftless, a worthless piece of shit." He spat each word out as if it was dirt in his mouth. "All my life…never once did I hear anything kind. Not even to each other. Wufei, I heard their most intimate moments and the things they would call each other," Duo shook his head, than looked up at me. "Wufei, it's horrible to have live with that."

Duo sighed and lay his head down on his folded arms on the table, "The day I met you…I was trying to leave. Just for one day, to spend the day in the sunlight and fresh air, away from the foulness that haunted our apartment. The things I was called…just because of my face. Because I was blind." He swallowed audibly before continuing, "Freak. Retard. Reject. Disgusting. Even…one kid, he sounded around six or seven called me a monster. A monster, Wufei, a monster! Sure it's only a kid-but to be called a monster just because of your physical appearance, of a handicap you can't help! It's prejudice Wufei, and I hate it!"

"Duo," I broke into his painful recount. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because it seemed stupid! Like me! That damned prejudice, it's torn every last shred of self-respect and pride from me! I have nothing left now that they've torn my integrity to shreds and stomped on it. That's why I can't go, Wufei! I can't go through the insults, the rejection, all of the repulsion again! I can't do it"! His voice rose, as he finished, "I won't do it I won't let you put me through that kind of humiliation again!"

"Duo," I whispered, kneeling beside him in his chair. "Don't degrade yourself like this. Don't!"

"Don't you get it Wufei?" He laughed bitterly even as I wrapped my arms around his waist and drew him near. "It's not me. It's people! People just like us! They're the ones who've made me feel like this-like this piece of dirt!"

It frightened me to hear Duo speak like this. I'd never seen him so full of pain or hatred before. "Stop it Duo! Stop it! You're better than this! You're better than all this hate!" I ordered, my hands clasping tightly around him.

He slid off his chair to kneel in front of me, still in my embrace. "Wufei, I won't let the little bit of pride I have left be taken from me!"

"You have so much more than pride," I cried. "You have a sort of inner strength most people will never have! I know I won't and I envy you for it Duo! Yes, I envy you! Look at yourself Duo! How many people do you think would have risen above the horrible conditions you've lived in, would have been able to escape that hellhole like you did! Duo, if it weren't for your strength you never would have left the apartment that afternoon and I never would have met you!" I stopped suddenly and trembled as I clasped him tightly to me. "If I had never met you…" Neither one of us could speak anymore, his hands were moving over my face and hair tremblingly and his lips were on mine for a long moment.

As we parted, he whispered, "Wufei, can we just-go to bed?"

I nodded heavily as we got to our feet. "Bed…that's a good idea."

That night as I was just on the edge of sleep, I felt Duo's arms wrap around me and his voice in my ear a she whispered. "Wufei, I love you."

"Love you too," I mumbled sleepily, rolling over and kissing him.

"…I'll…go to school for you Wufei."

"No, you'll go for *you*," I said firmly, kissing him again.

And that was the end of it.