Work Text:
In the distance, he could see yellow, a tiny rectangle slowly expanding with each passing moment. He kept his eyes trained ahead, fixated on the faint glow before him.
A loud buzz was audible over the steady sound of four wheels on cool pavement. Irritating, meaningless chatter from a boy he barely knew. An enemy, even, on a pathetic yellow bike.
He had wanted to be alone after the race’s conclusion, the day’s outcome making him feel sick to his stomach, greenish-yellow bile stuck to the roof of his mouth. Underneath the safety of his mask, he felt his tongue run along his tooth’s jagged edge.
Disgusting.
A yellow beam illuminated the road, cutting through the blue-black darkness. Another triangle of light shined next to it, too close, uncomfortable from where he sat on the saddle. Lifting himself up, the other boy disappeared from his periphery, wind drowning out the incessant babbling.
He watched the yellow shape on the horizon grow bigger, the building attached to it a void adjacent to a million stars.
Briefly, he glanced over his shoulder. The other bike was only a pinprick of light, pure yellow. He faced forward, pedaled faster.
He had stopped beside a parked car, its yellow paint peeling away to reveal flaking rust below. The other boy arrived moments later, breath heavy, weighing down the night air.
He counted fireflies as the boy rambled on, either too self absorbed or unaware of social graces, though he would guess the latter. In the neon yellow, their shadows stretched across the parking lot, taller and lankier than even he, the monster from the whispers he had always ignored.
The boy just smiled, too earnest, warm light reflecting off his round lenses; in the space above his head sat a crown of blinking yellow.