Duck hauled the bucket towards the door. Well, it was less hauling and more shoving a dead weight across a stubbornly rough carpet. He had half a mind to not just kick it over in frustration and let the water spill all over the place, but he knew better. He'd just have to clean it up later anyways. And he might get his fancy yellow striped super tall socks.
After what felt like hours, the little boy and finally managed to reach the door way. Now he just had to... put it... on the... door... hmm.
He didn't think this through very well.
The little boy paced back and forth, ruffling his hair and shoving his hands into the pockets of his brand new fancy brown jacket thingie. After another five minutes of progressively louder humming, Duck startled at the sound of Yellow saying "What're you doing?"
"Huh- uh, oh I'm just- Wait were you here the whole time?"
"Mhm! Isn't that cool? I bet you didn't even see me!"
"Uh, yeah yeah, anyways-"
"I'm very good at blending i- oh wait sorry you were talking." Yellow's eyes almost seemed to flit around sporadically for a moment before he shut himself up.
"Right. Well, I'm TRYING to prank whoever walks through this door next but I didn't actually think about how I'd put the bucket up there. There's not exactly anything to climb on that I can move," he gestured to the room filled with heavy furniture. "So I'm at a tad of an impasse."
"I can help with that!"
Duck rolled his eyes. "Really? How?"
"Pick up the bucket."
Duck practically fell backwards with the weight of the water against his tiny fragile body. "O- okay- now what?" he sputtered out.
Duck didn't have to wait long as seconds later, Yellow slid underneath Duck and lifted him up into the air so that the green haired boy was standing on his brother's hands. He let out a very autotuned screech and frantically grasped at the bucket to stop it from falling. "WOAH HOW ARE YOU DOING THAT?!"
"I'm really strong!" was all Yellow said to explain himself.
"YEAH NO KIDDING" Duck gasped out. Regardless, he recovered from his shock and slowly balanced the bucket on the ledge of the door. Yellow threw the boy up in the air and caught him in his arms, placing him back on the ground.
Duck shook as he weakly spluttered at his brother. "N- never do that again! B- but also- th- that was really cool-"
Yellow simply smiled back at him and sat down on the floor. "So now what?"
"Now... we wait!" Duck dramatically flared out his arms.
A few minutes later, Roy walked through the door and a bucket of water landed directly on his head. The two kids burst out laughing and collapsed on the floor, Yellow desperately trying to contain himself while Duck practically bursting at the seams.
"See? Comedy gold! He's not even mad at us, look!" The boy pointed at Roy's empty, hollow face as he slowly pulled the bucket off his head and dropped it on the ground. Yellow half expected his dad to start yelling but he just turned around and left. He didn't even slam the door!
"Wow! That was impressive!"
"You better believe it!" He shoved a pointer finger in his little brother's face. "Never doubt my abilities!"
...
"Jeezum grice it's so hot out," Duck complained.
The virtual sun beat down on the virtual world but it didn't make their miserable stickiness and sweatiness and heat exhaustion any less real. The trio had conceded to hiding under a tree instead of actually doing anything fun like they wanted to. Red had finally agreed to take off his hoodie and tie it around his waist, which was a certainly a shock to the other two, since he never took it off. Duck completely refused to even put a single inch of skin in the sun, claiming he was so pale already, he'd probably set on fire if he went out there.
"Ugh, you're right," Yellow flicked at a clump of grass. "What's the point of even having a virtual world of you still have awful weather?"
"Can't you just ask dad to fix it?" Red's muffled voice came out from under his arms.
"Huh. Yeah I guess I can! Be right back!" Yellow sprinted down the hill before tripping and rolling all the way to the bottom.
"Holy crap are you okay!?" Duck shouted.
"Yeah!" Yellow responded as he burst across the grass. Duck shrugged and lay back down on the grass. A thought ran through his head as he took in the light fracturing through the tree leaves, and he turned his head to his older brother. Completely quiet and still as always.
"Do you like it here?"
"...do you?"
"Of course I do!" he sat up, "I get to stay with you!"
Red pulled his arms away from his head and he contemplated for a moment. He sat up as well and gave a concerned look to Duck. "Would you have followed me anywhere? Even if I got sent to some sorta... horrible... uh cannibalistic... cult factory?"
"That wouldn't have happened but yes, yes I would have." Duck smiled and finger-gunned at the older boy. This didn't alleviate Red's worries in the slightest; he instead turned away and gazed at the house. What if he WAS sent somewhere awful? Duck would have come with him, and then he'd be stuck in some horrid place, all because of him. It wasn't right...
But this place wasn't horrible. They had a sweet little brother and an... alright dad. And honestly, a magical virtual world where everything about it except the people can be controlled by a machine in the real world was more than he could've asked for, or even imagined to be honest.
Seconds after that thought ran through his head, a pound of snow dropped on him.
"What the fu- frick?!"
"HA! Looks like Yellow got the weather working after all."
"Ugh, I'd like to see YOU l- laughing when a p- pound of snow-"
A barrage of water shot from the sky and drenched Duck completely.
"W- well, would you look at that," Red chuckled.
"I'm going to kill you."
...
Yellow scribbled aggressively onto his paper with the set of worn out crayons. Duck, on the other hand, was carefully sketching out... something. Red didn't pay mind to either of them though. He was exhausted. Again.
More and more sleepless nights were piling up. After they'd moved in, Red had gotten a bit of a normal sleep schedule, but it didn't take long for his exhaustion to come creeping up on him yet again. He couldn't help himself. It was so difficult sometimes. He didn't know why, it SHOULDN'T be so difficult for him. He should be perfectly fine, he shouldn't be so tired, he shouldn't be so angry, he shouldn't feel so... empty.
He didn't even notice Yellow was talking to him.
"I said, why don't you draw something too?"
"Hmm? Oh, I don't think I have anything to draw. I'm not very... artistically inclined."
"You don't have to be! You can draw your emotions, like I did!"
"That's a picture of us."
"Uh, duh, family is an emotion!"
"It's... not." Still, maybe Yellow had a point. "What did you draw, Duck?"
The green haired boy pulled up a weird, multicolored picture of... what he could only assume was an animal. "Uh. Great... cat..?"
"Come on! It's a bee achieving transcendence. I got inspired by that one movie with the bee and the human and the-"
"Yeah yeah, I got it." Red sighed and picked up a mechanical pencil, tapping it gently against the table. Draw your emotions? He didn't like what might come onto the paper. Still, might as well give it a shot.
Red slammed his hand onto the table and practically tore the paper to shreds with how hard he pressed the pencil to it, stabbing into it over and over again and spreading lead onto his hands and hoodie sleeves. He worked himself into a one minute long fervor as he destroyed the page before screeching to a halt and easing his head around to stare at the other two.
"Do you like it?" he muttered through clenched teeth. He didn't know what exactly he was angry at but it certainly wasn't his brothers. He shouldn't be so aggressive. He immediately caught himself and retreated to his shell of apathy.
"It's... it's nice," Yellow murmured. "I really like it."
"Yeah, although maybe next time, don't stab your emotion paper?" Duck then laughed at the absurdity of his own sentence.
...
Red stared at the computer screen for hours, scrolling through page after page, blog after blog, video after video. For once, it wasn't his own miserably malfunctioning brain that was keeping him up, but technology. It was an absorbing thing, the internet, especially for a kid in the mid to late 2000s. He sighed, as he used his own hair as a pillow against the wooden desk in the trio's room. He was so engrossed without even paying attention to what was on screen, that he didn't notice Yellow walking up to him until he tugged on his shirt.
Red jolted up and spun around in the chair to face the kid. "Wh- huh? Oh. What is it?"
"I had a nightmare."
Red rolled his eyes at the cliche'dness of that statement, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to help a scared little kid. He sighed and responded, "What was it about."
"Well," Yellow crawled up and sat in Red's lap without asking, "I'm in a really dark room, and a very tall guy's there and he starts yelling at me," Yellow seemed to fall into trance, "and I think I'm supposed to know what he's saying but I don't and he gets mad and starts kicking me and he kicks me in the chest and my ribs really hurt and then I explode and I wake up." Yellow looked at Red with blank expectancy. Meanwhile Red's face had gone from boredom to confusion.
"Oh." Yeah, great start, you're so good at this. "Well... if someone were to try and hurt you... hmm... I would stab them." WAIT that was supposed to be a joke why would you say that to a scared kid you complete-
Yellow giggled, then burst into laughter. "You're really really funny!" Red breathed a sigh of relief and continued. "It's true though! If someone hurt either of you, I would in fact stab them."
"What if I did something bad and that's why they hurt me?"
"Well, you're also... 6 years old. I doubt anything you can do is bad enough to warrant something awful happening."
"Okay!" Yellow piped up and hopped out of Red's chair. "I'm going to sleep now!"
Red nodded awkwardly and turned back to the computer. That was almost too easy.
"You should too." Yellow muttered, almost angrily?
A few hours after the teen heard the other's breathing soften, he thought about what happened. Yellow actually trusted him enough to go to him. He wanted HIS help. He cared what he said. He could've talked to dad or Duck, they were more 'acquaintanced' with him, and yet he went to Red. A smile crept onto his face.
...
The trio wandered through the woods on another nice day of nothing. The sun wasn't burning, the sky was clear, and the air was fresh. Red readjusted Yellow, who he was carrying on his back, and caught up to Duck.
"How come you don't carry me too?"
"You're getting too heavy for it," Red replied in a monotone fashion.
"Oh, pishposh applesauce, I know you can still carry me! In fact, I bet you can carry both of us at the same time!"
"I don't see how-"
"Oh that's a great idea Duck!" interrupted Yellow. "I can ride on his back, and he can carry you in his arms!"
"I- I don't think-"
"PERFECT!" Duck dropped into a running stance and burst forward to jump in Red's arms, or more likely to tackle him.
"Oh no you don't!" Red dodged out of the way and sprinted ahead in the woods, making gains ahead of the 9 year old. Still, he did have a small child as dead weight on his back and it didn't take long for Duck to catch up. The little boy hopped up on a log that Red had vaulted over and catapulted himself towards the duo, crashing all three of them into a nearby stream and soaking them completely.
Yellow grinned and shoved Duck underwater, a little more aggressively than he meant to, but Duck spun away and pushed him over in vengeance.
"Oh shit!" Red exclaimed to himself.
The other two froze mid-battle and turned to the 15 year old. "What, what's wrong?" asked Duck.
"I- oh thank God, it's okay."
"What what?"
"I- well..." Red stepped out of the stream and wrung his hair dry. "I figured... y'know since it's been a year since we came here... I could, celebrate it with presents or something. Like a bonus birthday." He reached into his pocket and pulled out two objects, tossing them to the respective sibling. "I got a box of crayons and a joke book. Cuz... y'know. I'm good at reducing people to their interests..." It was a joke, probably. Thankfully, the other two were too invested in their presents to notice the self deprecation.
"Oh this is awesome!" squeaked Duck, hooping up and down in place. "How did you get these?"
"Well I asked dad and he said he'd make an exception..."
Yellow tackled Red again, practically on the verge of tears, "YOU'RE THE BEST!"
"It's- it's really not that big a deal."
"Oh but it is! We- we have to get you something too! Oh but it's probably too late to-"
"I know!" Duck shoved in, "You're always sleepy right? Let's make him a pillow!"
Red blinked. "Huh?"
"Ah yes, the perfect scheme," continued Duck. "Let's go gather a bunch of feathers and stuff, it'll be the fluffiest pillow in the UNIVERSE!"
"Bold claim. Here, let me help." He started to stand before the two of them shoved him back on the ground.
"Nope! This is your present, AND you're tired. We got this!"
Red sat alone in the virtual forest while the other two terrorized the virtual birds.