color selected doesn't appear unless I click it again

I clicked on the fill bounded area button and then select the color I want to fill apart of my image. When I click on the area I want to fill the color doesn't appear. So I have to go to the menu on the far right and click on the color again before hitting the image again. Also I notice that the window that displays which color is selected has the transparent squares next to it. How do I make the transparent squares go away and only have to click the color once.