Yellow, A Buck Finalist

Author's Note: This follows Yellow, one of the Bucks, and picks up after the events in Daria's branch. You can find more information about some of the events referenced here in those chapters.

He wasn't actually named Yellow, everyone just called him that. Why? He was in his final of three years at F&R, three years he had spent causing trouble with his best friends, Red and Green. Everyone called them 'the Bucks' and Red's name was actually Red, the colour theme had stuck and he had become 'Yellow', with the final of the trio becoming 'Green'.

It had been a few weeks in since the start of the year and Yellow was troubled. He sat opposite Green in the dining hall and frowned into his lunch.

"I don't understand why he would just disappear like that, he knows he can talk to us right? We've always got his back..."

Green shrugged, chewing nonchalantly on his sandwich, before speaking with a partially full mouth, "Your overthinking it dude. He ain't going to be gone for long he's just taking some time out that's all. I mean, you had a few run ins with hench horse didn't you? You know what he's like."

Yellow feigned a nod of understanding, trying to avoid looking too suspicious. In all honesty, his meetings with 'Hench Horse', the Prefect Blake hadn't been remedial, not that Green knew that. Red's meeting however, had been, and the Buck had been absent for a few days since.

Yellow sighed, "I'm just worried, you know how I get..." He frowned again, "They've just been waiting to throw the book at us y'know."

Green scratched his ear, "Dude. Drop it. He'll show up again and we can back to our norm'. If you're missing it so much how about we go and find someone before my lecture?" He grinned at Yellow, "And don't worry, I'll exercise my privileges if your too scared to." He teased him a little.

"Hey! I'm not too scared! Just 'cause you and Red have the libidos to rival a mutt in heat!" Yellow fired back, laughing, "Eh, I'll give it a miss though. I do wanna get some work done in my free, last year and all."

Green looked a little disappointed, "Your loss dude." He glanced over at the large clock, hanging over the western entrance to the hall. This part of F&R was one of the original buildings, and the clock was no exception. It's ornately carved wooden housing dominated the west wall, and the ticking off it's mechanism could be heard, even over the buzz of the other students in the hall. "You mind if I bounce? You may be preparing for the priesthood, but I wanna indulge myself."

Yellow rolled his eyes in mock exasperation, "Why'd you ask me? You're going to go anyway?" He chuckled.

Green slapped him on the back, "Knew you'd understand dude! See you later!" Green pranced from the room, off to find his next conquest.

Yellow sighed, it was odd to be alone. He'd been by himself before, but he only realised how much Red kept them together now he was gone. They'd go out, play around with a girl, have a laugh... Without him it just felt like he was feigning his enthusiasm for Green's sake. He sighed again.

"Well, I hope that long face is for me?" A cocky voice spoke up behind him, a voice Yellow recognised immediately.

"Red!" Yellow leapt up from his seat, and was about to throw himself at the Buck behind him, but caught himself. Red didn't see him like that. They where good friends, that was all. A pained memory of Yellow attempting to hug him, only to be rebuked with some revulsion surfaced from the depths of his mind. They had been kids at the time, but he wasn't taking any risks. Not after his friend had been gone for so long.

He saw Red offer a strained smile, "Yellow, it's all right man. You can give me a hug if you-" Red didn't manage to finish his sentence before Yellow embraced him.

Yellow gently wrapped Red in his arms, taking in the Bucks' scent, a fragrance of pine and holly. It had only been a few days, but man Yellow had missed him. As he withdrew, careful not to prolong the gesture, he saw Red's smile had grown a little further. His antlered figure moved to sit opposite him.

Yellow could barely wait for him to sit down before blurting out questions, "Where have you been? I was worried about you. What happened with Blake? Are you okay?" The barrage of questions flooded forth.

He saw Red laugh in his ever confident manner, and his heart fluttered a little, "Seriously, man. You'd think I'd nearly died or something." He waved a hand dismissively, "I was gone a few days. It’s nothing big, just a sore behind." He chuckled, "I suppose that also answers what happened 'ey?" He winked, "A taste of my own medicine apparently, but it'll take a lot more than that to rattle me." He smirked.

Yellow tried to look visibly relaxed, consciously releasing the tension from his shoulders, but inside he was aflame over Red’s words. Part of him was upset, something had clearly happened to his friend… the other part of him was melting from that wink he had given. Whatever his feelings where, he was grateful for one thing, Red was back, confident and outgoing as ever. "Phew, sorry." Yellow apologised, "I just thought you might be upset." The statement probed subtly, an attempt to get something more out of him, but nothing was forthcoming.

Red grinned, "Nah! You know me. Although..." He leaned in, "It may not be me you need to worry about. Is it true what that bitch's sister did to Green?"

Yellow nodded, "Yep, she came in swinging, and then told me to leave. I don't know what happened after that though." He frowned, "I could smell her perfume on him a couple of days later... If he actually had the guts to exercise his privileges, wow."

Red gave a low whistle, "Silver-tongued devil that he is, I'm sure he could manage it. Although speaking of those two, probably best to leave them alone. I got the impression Blake is quite protective of them and let me tell you, he is just waiting for us to trip up," He smiled reassuringly, "but we aren't going to give him the satisfaction."

Red changed the subject, " So what's been going on while I've gone? Any good catches?" The question may as well have been rhetorical. Yellow wasn't much of an instigator in those situations, usually leaving it to Red to take the lead, and was quite laid back on the privileges front, for... reasons. Yellow was pretty sure the other two at least suspected, where his preferences where, but they’d never asked him about it and he sure as hell wasn’t going to tell them. Green, on the other hand, was in his element when surrounded by even the most moderately attracted individual. The horniest of the three, it was often Red’s job to reel him in, and stop him from propositioning every women they met. With Red gone, and after he had recovered, Green had gone on quite the spree, which Yellow now recounted,

"...and then there was a leopard, or was it a cheetah? Then a pair of rabbits, he enjoyed that, and then that cow, Sammy? Samantha?" He finished.

Red smirked, "The horn dog's really going for it. I'll have to put him back on his leash."

An errant thought wandered into Yellow's mind, I wish you'd put me on a leash, and he tried not to blush. Distracted by the he caught sight of Red giving him an odd look.

"You okay?" he asked

"What? Uh, yeah," Yellow stammered over his words, "Just zoned out that's all." He tried to look innocuous.

"Right."

He could see a look in Red's eyes that he might want to push the issue further, but when he spoke again, he had moved on. "As I was saying, what about you? Anything good?"

Yellow shrugged, shifting nervously. He never really liked to talk about these things, "You know me," He feigned confidence with a smile, masking his somersaulting stomach, "I'm fine just watching." He probably thinks I'm a voyeur or something. Yellow shifted uncomfortably.

Red didn't seem to notice, "Sounds fun... You really should try getting involved though, it'll be good for you to let loose. It's been what? Two years? I can count on one hand the number of times you've actually gone hands on with someone."

"Can we not talk about this?" Yellow shifted again. He hadn't been 'hands on' for good reason.

This was about as close as they ever got with discussing ‘it’. It was how Yellow knew they at least suspected he was gay, but he would always deflect and

Red gave resigned sigh, "Fine." It didn't take a mind reader to know that he wasn't satisfied with that answer.

The two sat in awkward silence for a good few minutes, neither making eye contact with the other. Yellow finished of the remnants of his food and Red sipped at his water. Eventually, Red mustered the resolve to break the silence. "So, any plans for the afternoon? You've got a free right." Yellow nodded. "Want company?" Not if your going to keep bringing that up. "Sure, why not." Yellow sighed, "Let's go and find somewhere quiet."