May 2: The Bi!Jane AU Pt. 12

[kinetic_elaboration]

On the train again. It’s been a while. I want to sleep. I want to read. I want to write. I want a coffee. I feel like I should continue my fic, since it’s been so long but also—it’s been so long! Where was I? But I guess I should soldier on with it a little bit.

“And I’m sorry I was so weird about that thing with my brother,” Jane calls back. “About you liking him, and all.”

She knows she’s really over it because she isn’t embarrassed, even though Jane is outright yelling her old secrets out loud. She’s mostly caught up on that word—weird—how it describes Jane’s cold, standoffish reactions whenever Trent was around, the fight she picked when they got stranded on the road on the way to Alternapalooza, the forced casual way she talked about Monique—you know they’re never going to break up. It was all very weird. But also how it describes nothing at all.

When Daria doesn’t answer, Jane adds, “That was sort of lame. I feel like we should say something else.:

“Um.” To hell with it. They’ll probably live. “I wish my parents had stopped at one child.”

“I wish they’d never added those ugly blue M&Ms.”

It still doesn’t feel like enough. She glances over at Jane. What would she tell her if this was really her last chance? The only thing she can think of is Tom, in incoherent, frozen thoughts, and then Jane’s head pressed against the side of her leg.

As she’s still looking at her, the unceasing blast of the wind in their faces abruptly eases, not much but enough, and then picks up from the side. And without the white blur of snow just ahead of her, Daria thinks she may able to pick out some landmarks. Maybe.

“And, hey, Daria—” Jane starts, serious, as if her thoughts had traveled somewhere else far away—and then cuts off just as abruptly, as her feet slip out from under. Just for a second. A patch of new-formed ice beneath the snow. She reaches out and grabs on to Daria’s arm.

Daria halts and holds her up. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” She seems steadier. But she doesn’t let go from where her hands have gripped Daria’s hands.

“What were you saying?”

“What? Oh.” She hesitates, so Daria knows that she’s about to hear a lie, and in a way it doesn’t matter what it is. “Nothing. Just more on the M&M thing.” She stands up straighter and lets go, and after a short while looking around, suggests that they head left.

*

When the snow lets up, it’s sudden, and immediately the air starts to warm. They find Mr. DeMartino—mortifyingly, playing charades with Daria’s parents—and, upon a silent pact by all attendees to never speak of this again, the Morgendorffers pack up their stuff and then offer Jane a ride home.