"So why did you want to see me after class Daria? Did you want to grab some Pizza again? Grab some books at the bookstore?" Lapis said

"Um, I wanted to ask you something."

"Yes?"

Daria knew that people usually flirted a little before getting directly to the point she was driving towards. What did that site say to do again? 'Touch him in simple places like his arm to make him feel wanted.' That sounded like decent advice. She placed her hand flatly on his chest for exactly three seconds while looking into his eyes, then dropped her hand. She didn't want to seem weird. She assumed it worked since it put a smile on his face.

A little ways down the hall, the fashion club looked at the events transpiring as if a train wreck was occurring. She was doing none of the flirting correctly.

"Uh, Quinn. Why is your cousin or whatever flirting in such a horrendous manner?" Sandi said. She was steaming just looking at this, for several reasons.

"I think she's asking him out, and doing some things she remembers me saying. Badly."

"Girls don't ask guys out. We drive them crazy with our looks and dropping little crumbs for them to follow until they notice they can ask us out."

"I mean….she's weird. She doesn't really care about gender roles like that. She probably doesn't want to waste time waiting for him to figure out he can now."

"Your cousin is actually really smart Quinn!" Stacy beamed, which actually got the tiniest smile out of Quinn, until Sandi looked as if she was going to torture her for a thousand years if she even thought about complimenting that weirdo again.

"Plus Sandi, he's kind of weird too. I don't think he cares about looks very much, at least not at the expense of her being a brain."

"He's….kind…..of…..cuuute." Tiffany said at her lovely slow pace.

"Yes Tiffany! Which makes it all the more disgusting that he's hitting on Quinn's nobody relative instead of someone with a more de-serv-ing status. I might have even let him sit at our table if he had talked to Quinn first."

Quinn's mask dropped just for a few seconds, no eyes were on her anyway. Sandi just didn't get it. In hindsight this guy made the right choice. As long as Daria is pretty to him that was all that mattered, and it's not like anyone in the fashion club would have actually made him their boyfriend. To them guys were disposable tools to help boost their popularity. Sandi was completely self absorbed with consolidating power and popularity which would instantly disappear after high school, Stacy was probably a stalker who was obsessed with her, and, to put it nicely, Tiffany simply does not possess one of the qualities he looked for in a girl. Even if she is sweet overall. At best he would have maybe gotten to feel them up and makeout. Possibly third base if one of them was feeling frisky enough. Although that was becoming increasingly rare since Sandi didn't want the school to think that the fashion club was just full of trendy sluts. She was still jealous of Daria. Why is it that her sister was the extremely unpopular one but it felt like she was the one that was trapped?

Quinn heard then saw the dreaded and extremely disrespectful two snaps in front of her face. She was drawn back into abysmal reality.

"Of course we can go out this afternoon! I know just where to take you." Lapis said.

The fashion club watched as he hugged her fairly snuggly. Daria nestled into his chest, eyes closed and smiling (At least what she would call a smile) as if she didn't have a care in the world.

Sandi scoffed and continued her rant. "You ignored me because you were staring at them so hard. I gueeeesss what I had to say wasn't very interesting to you Quinn."

"Oh noooooo Sandi of course it was! I was just thinking about how blind he must be to be choosing a plain girl over a more popular one. It's like he doesn't even care about his popularity." She said with a nervous giggle.

"Right. It doesn't matter how he dresses, he still thinks like a loser. Let the weirdo have him."

"Ewwwwww creeepy." Tiffany said before following Stacy and Sandi.

Quinn looked on as Lapis kissed the top of Daria's frazzled hair and listened to her making a joke about him loving physical affection, and her not hating it.

"Quinn what are you doing!? Come on!" Sandi tapped her foot impatiently.

"I have to go to the principals office. You might not see me for the rest of the day. Sorry guys."

Sandi turned around and flipped her hair. "Come on. More boys for us at lunch." She tried to say quietly, although clearly she intended it to be just loud enough for Quinn to hear. Probably to try to keep the frienemyship going.

Quinn looked back at the two as they parted ways. She got a slight sinking feeling as she saw the longing gaze before they eventually could see each other no longer.

"Yeah…..he was the loser in this situation."

Daria was confused to say the least. She didn't have one foot in her classroom door before Ms. Li had called her into the principals office. Quinn had said that they needed to go meet their mother at a Doctor's appointment. The halls were pretty clear but she was still all kinds of surprised that Quinn held her hand and almost dragged her out of the school. When they were about a block away she snatched her hand away.

"Where are you taking me, and why did you get me out of class? Did you want to use me as another alibi for another one of your stupid mall trips?"

Quinn inhaled and exhaled rather dramatically through her nose. "Daria. For once can you just shut up and trust me? I need your help and you need mine."

That sounded surprisingly unQuinnlike. Whatever she had planned, it likely beat sitting through another three hours of classes with only the occasional quip from Jane to help shorten the flow of time, so she let it pass. She instantly knew they weren't going to the mall when Quinn breezed right past the bus stop. A few more minutes into the walk and it seemed like they were just making a beeline for the house. She still didn't comment….yet. Her sister never talked to her unless she wanted something or she wanted to insult her in some capacity. She failed to believe that she just got her out of class to be nice.

Once they made it home Quinn yelled out "Hey daddy, me and Daria had a half day so we'll be in my room."

"Sure thing Kiddo!" Jake said then turned back around and concentrated on his previous task. After he heard them walk off he thought about it and hadn't heard anything about a half day, but he got distracted on his model train set. He couldn't get one damn piece to work again. "Damn smoke pellet!"

Upstairs Daria began to trail off towards her room. "Well, this is shockingly kind of you, but I think I'll retreat to my humble abode now. Thanks." Before she could reach her doorknob Quinn snatched her hand again and lead her towards her room. She sat her at her mirror stool.

"What do you plan on wearing on your date?"

"Excuse me?"

Quinn repeated herself, slowing down to an almost drawl which she knew would annoy Daria into answering. She was correct.

"What I normally wear."

"No."

"Excuse me!?"

"I said you're not wearing that on your first actual date."

"And if I say no?"

"You'll have to go through me!" Quinn said with more confidence than she had inside. Daria's glare made her feel small and helpless, and she knew she couldn't beat her in a fight. "Look….it'll be payment for you helping me. And you'll look good for your boyfriend too."

"Quinn. Nothing I can do will make me look as attractive as you. It's nice that you went through this girl power right of passage thing to help me, but it isn't going to work. Just tell me what you want."

"Lapis seems to think you look better already." She knew she had a chance when Daria blushed at the mention of his name. "I promise I won't put on a lot of makeup. You'll feel normal. I just wanted you to not look like a homeless person on your first date."

"Gee thanks."

"Plus you have mom's genes too. I bet you're super cute." Quinn stared at Daria's frazzled hair, slightly chapped lips, and clothes that didn't quite hang on level or match in any noticeable way. "Somewhere under there."

Daria rolled her eyes and groaned. "Go ahead." If she was willing to get beaten up for it then that meant she really believed in this. She wasn't going to let this go. She didn't want to get grounded anyway. Her mom let her off last time, but assaulting her sister for trying to dress her up for a date was definitely in the bad territory.

Quinn began by brushing her hair with a….heated brush?

"What the hell is that thing?"

"Daria it's just a straightening brush! Calm down."

Daria readjusted herself in the seat and looking in the mirror as Quinn did her hair. She had used a straightening iron before and didn't like it. This didn't seem nearly as hot and when the tips touched her scalp she didn't feel as if she was being burned. She barely felt anything. It almost felt calming. She watched as her frazzled kind of curly hair actually almost resemble Quinn's. Or her mother when she was younger. They sat in relative silence for about twenty minutes. Daria stole occassional glances at Quinn but she showed an almost scary amount of focus when it came to her hair. When she brought out the next device Daria was confused but at least understood what it was.

"What's the point of straightening it if you were just going to curl it back up anyway?"

Quinn rolled her eyes as if she had to explain something simple to a toddler. "Daria, I can't curl curls. Your natural hair has a lot of tight curls. I want to give you soft curls and keep a lot of the top straight. Don't tell me how to make you look pretty."

Daria didn't understand most of that so she changed the subject to something that made sense. "Quinn, why are you doing this? I can't remember you doing anything nice for me….ever."

"I did tell you I needed your help with something too." Quinn said while stroking parts of her hair and looking in the mirror to make sure it was even. "Your eyelashes are actually pretty good so I wont bother with those." After she finished making sure the curls stuck she said. "Onto your makeup. He likes your normal face so that means I should do the natural look. Let me get my kit. I'll work on your bangs later once everything settles."

"Um. What could you possibly need my help with? Homework? I don't see how else I can benefit you."

Quinn sat a giant toolbox worth of makeup in front of her makeup mirror then began comparing shades of eyeliner to Daria's skin tone. She was a bit more pale than her for obvious reasons. "I need to know how you function while not caring about what others say about you."

Daria grabbed her wrist while she was reaching for the facial cleanser and forced her to look at her. "Why are you asking me now? To make fun of me?"

Quinn smirked. "We both know I don't need makeup for that."

"Then why now?"

"I have my reasons Daria. I'm only asking you one thing in return for at least two hours of makeup and possibly letting you borrow my clothes. I think you could at least be grateful for that."

"If you want a real answer then you'll have to be honest with me. I'm not just going to speculate so you can come to your own conclusion. That happens enough with Kevin."

Quinn began applying makeup but looked rather dejected.

"Quinn!"

"Okay! I chose to be popular because it's the one thing you were never any good at, but now I'm not sure if the popular personality is really me or if it's just me trying to be better than you, and if that really makes me happy."

"Your personality is overtaking your ego."

"I don't think you're using those words correctly Daria."

Daria clenched her fist but refrained from insulting her sister. She wanted to be nice. She wished people understood that the most common use of a word isn't the only definition and it can be based on context. "My point is, if putting on this facade doesn't make you happy then what's the point of it? If you're going to be unhappy anyway you might as well be acting however you want to act, whatever personality that may be."

"Thanks Daria." She said before patting Daria on the head twice.

"Third times the arm."

"You mean charm?"

"No, pat me again and you lose the arm."

"You let Lapis pat you. I just watched him do it at school this morning!" Quinn watched Daria's frown pop up again. She angered easily because of how defensive she was regarding emotional things. She decided to just drop it. She hoped her real personality didn't also resemble a doberman.

Lapis knocked on the door for the Morgendorffer residence to pick up Daria. Some random girl opened the door. She was about the right height and also brown hair...but Daria didn't dress like that. Besides the boots anyway. Her hair also had soft curls and some bangs, the hair went down to the middle of her back. She didn't even wear glasses. She had on a black button up skirt and a plain white sweater. Maybe an older sister. Whatever. Good looks just ran in the family he guessed.

"He could you get your sister Daria for me? I'm here to pick her up for a date."

Daria turned in a complete circle then replied. "Alright, I just got her."

"Daria!?"

"Yes. How may I help you?"

"You just look…." He looked her up and down several times "wow. You didn't have to dress up for me." He said nearly breathlessly. He thought she looked like an angel before but….damn.

"I am still the exact same plain girl you liked all those weeks ago. There's nothing special here."

Reflexively since her words hurt him a little, he wrapped her in a a giant hug around her waist and spun her. She was smirking when he placed her back down and rolled her eyes. Seeing his goofy happy face made her happy. She didn't hate physical affection nearly as much as she thought she did when she actually liked the person either.

"Huh." A male voice said.

Lapis and Daria looked over to see the rest of the Morgendorffer family staring at them. Daria's sister almost looked….proud? He could swear she hated her sister though. He began stuttering out an apology before Daria grabbed his collar and dragged him away while her parents smiled. Honestly they thought Daria would be thirty or something before she got her first boyfriend.

Her parents were honestly just glad she was behaving like a normal teenager for once and going on a date. Hopefully she wouldn't come home too early. Midnight at least.

Outside while they were walking to his car he grabbed her hand again.

"What?"

"I just had to look at you again…..wow."

Daria was getting embarrassed. "Oh stop, I cannot be the prettiest girl you've ever seen."

"At this point that simply isn't debatable. You could stop traffic." He ignored the eye rolling. "Seriously you didn't have to dress up for me. I like you how you are."

"Don't get use to it. It's all downhill from here."

He decided it best not to comment on how if she looked anything like her mother at that age it wouldn't exactly be downhill.

Daria hopped into his beater that looked like it was from the late eighties. "Nice ride."

"It gets me from point A to point B."

"Yet I didn't see you driving it until now. Is it strictly a point A vehicle in the equation?"

"Ha ha. No. I just don't see a need to drive the five minutes to school every day. Plus it helps me avoid a certain kind of person."

Just a few hours ago Daria's mind instantly would have jumped to Quinn, but now..."Some people aren't as bad as you think they are if you give them a chance."

Lapis couldn't look at her for long since he was driving, but the short glance she did see let her know he thought that remark was insane. She couldn't blame him. She gave Jodie a similar look when she said that to her verbatim. When someone shows you who they are, believe them, would be the colloquial phrase.

"I'm guessing you're talking about your sister?" He said

"How did you.."

"It's hard for me to read emotions so I have to notice patterns. Your sister is the only person you associate with that wears a mask in public."

"If you know she's faking it then why can't you accept that she's not as bad as you think she is? That doesn't even make logical sense."

He slightly bit the inside of his lip while he thought. It was very difficult to put the thought into words. "Do you think everyone has an inner self?"

"You mean like a soul? If you thought I was the religious type you're going to be sorely disappointed."

He stifled a laugh at her candor. "I meant more like thoughts, emotions, insecurities."

"Yes."

"Well, other human individuals can't see those. They can only see the actions that are the result of the combination of those things.

"Your point being?"

"My point is even if a person isn't bad deep down that doesn't really affect me, or most people. If all of your actions are bad, then you're bad. Or in this case, even if your sister isn't vapid, shallow, and stupid, if that's all she chooses to display then I have no reason to want to be around her."

Daria understood his point, but after today didn't want to insult her sister. Hopefully she had changed for the better. "If I hadn't been around her today then I wouldn't look like this."

"Maybe she isn't all bad then." He said as he parked the car "we're here."

La La La La La

His surprise was taking her to an art museum. She had to admit that it was a fine choice. She wasn't very good at making any art outside of writing, but she did find fun in deriving meaning from the pieces that she did look at.

"What do you think this one means?" Lapis said

"Isn't art about what you perceive it to mean?" Daria said.

"To an extent, yes, it's up to interpretation. I like hearing my own earthly angel speak though."

Daria smirked and once again looked at the painting. It was a a beautiful female(?) fallen angel falling from a circle in the clouds, with her wings burning from white to black. "Well, it has at least two meanings to me."

"Interesting. Alright, what's the first meaning?"

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

He almost burst out laughing. "What kind of association did you use to get there?"

"Well, the angel is very beautiful so I would assume it's Lucifer. In most versions of the story she isn't actually an antagonist, and depending on your philosophy it wouldn't make sense if she was. God wanted to keep the humans ignorant as some sort of long term messed up experiment. Lucifer gave them Knowledge. Dad punished her."

"That's an interesting take. Book of Enoch?"

"Yes. The second idea is much simpler. Earth is her hell. Which isn't far off from how I feel most of the time."

"Now that's a sentiment I can get behind."

Daria watched as he looked around at other paintings but never strayed too far from her side, as if he was afraid of losing her. It was the cutest thing. She stood in place for a few seconds. Attempting to work up the courage for something.

"Lapis?"

"Yes?"

"Why didn't you correct me when I said that Lucifer was a woman?"

"Why would I assume that one of the most powerful beings in the universe with no stated gender, and who's brethren in all appearances seem to be androgynous, is a man? If anything it's just a myth to both of us so it doesn't matter."

She stared at him intently, he just seemed to be enjoying the eye contact. "Close your eyes."

"I'm going to take a leap of faith and assume that you aren't going to mug me in public, so I'll trust you." He closed his eyes after his little joke, then felt a surprising softness on his lips. It was only there for a second, but by the time he opened his eyes after the initial shock she was already back to standing normally looking at the paintings.

"Would you have changed anything about that event?" She said.

"I probably would have done something with my lips."

"Maybe later." She said. Remembering that Quinn said something about making the guy wait to build up anticipation. Although for once her hormones were raging and she wanted to be the trashy couple making out in a public place. She found it a bit funny really. The brain acting like one of the people that perpetually annoyed her.

They looked at a few more paintings in this section before moving on. Religious pieces were nice, but usually have similar themes. At least from an outside perspective anyway. They stumbled upon a rather...unique section given the town's demographics. Jewish art. Something about celebrating their heritage and acknowledging their struggles this week. Lapis grabbed Daria's hand and began to walk forward, but stopped in his tracks when He felt himself tugging on her arm. He turned back and it seemed as if she had a thousand yard stare.

"Daria?" Lapis said. She still had no response so he pulled her into a hug, which seemed to get her out of whatever zone she was in. He had never seen her like that in school or when they hung out. It was odd. They separated after about a minute.

"Are you good?"

Daria tried her best to revert back to her standard face. She can handle this. He doesn't need to know. Just make it through the day and don't act weird. "I'm fine. Lets go. Hopefully it's as interesting as the last section."

They started their walkthrough and it was about what you would expect. Some nice pieces here and there but not much was mindblowing. Some pieces speak to some more than others is an old saying. Most just contained conservatively dressed people doing everyday things. Or places of worship. Daria once again froze and Lapis had to freeze mid step to prevent himself from tugging her. Apparently one picture spoke to her loud and clear.

Daria's feet felt like lead. She was staring at a painting called Blind Man in Belsen. She didn't need to read the description, it was obvious. The painting displayed what jewish survivors looked like leaving a concentration camp. Ghastly, starving, and injured. They almost appeared living and dead. She felt like she was about to throw up.

Lapis watched as Daria covered her mouth and practically power walked outside. Either she was sick or she didn't like what she saw. Either way this date was over.

Usually silence wouldn't bother him, but the silence on the ride home was defeaning. Daria didn't even say two sentences. All she said was "Take me to your house." Her tone seemed to imply that she would be having no arguments, So he just did as he was told. Even with him being terrible socially he knew he wouldn't be getting laid based on her reaction earlier. Now he was curious as to what she had planned. Was she anti semitic? Was she Jewish and that triggered her? There was no way of knowing without asking her, and which was impossible at the moment. He sighed to himself and was glad that they had almost reached their destination.

"My parents weren't expecting me for a few hours so they'll probably be in relaxing. You'll have to say hi..."

"That's fine." Daria said curtly.

Lapis parked in the driveway and she got out on her own. Daria only turned to stare at him from the front door. He wished he knew how he could help her right now. All he could do was watch as she seemed to be mulling something over internally. He let her in and as he expected his parents began to pester her with greetings, questions, and jokes.

"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Chamberlain. I'm Daria." She said flatly. The house and his parents looked about as she expected when he said they were previously hippies. His father looked like a slightly older clone of his son. He was clean cut but in casual dress meaning he was relaxing after work. Although he wore a Dashiki instead of a regular T shirt. His mom wore a headwrap with long flowing braids. Her t shirt was form fitting but she had on sandals and...harem pants? Bohemian? She didn't know what the hell they were. Fashion wasn't her strong suit.

"Hello Daria. Hey son. You weren't lying when you said she was beautiful. How did you get her to go out with you though? She could do so much better." Mr chamberlain said while nudging his son lightly.

"So could mom, but here we are over twenty years later." Lapis shot back reflexively. His mom giggled but his father wasn't quite done with the jokes.

"You're home early son. You never go out late so we didn't even give you a curfew. Guess I shouldn't have given you that condom huh?"

If Lapis was a few shades lighter his blush would have been quite apparent. "Jesus christ dad can't you go one day without embarrassing me!? Daria. Please go upstairs. Now. Please."

"Then I wouldn't be doing my job son." He said with a hearty laugh.

When Daria didn't quite move fast enough Lapis grabbed her wrist and almost stomped up the stairs. The whole escapade brought a slight smile to her face before she remembered what she had seen earlier this evening.

"I'm sorry Daria. My parents are pretty nice, but someone THINKS HE'S FUNNIER THAN HE IS!" Lapis said loud enough for his parents to hear. Which elicited another round of laughs from them.

"Do you have some place we can talk?" Daria said quietly.

"Uh, sure. We'll have to go trough my room though. I hope that's okay."

Daria rolled her eyes and said in a deadpan tone "Yes, you've had me alone several times, but now is when you will make your dastardly move. Lead the way."

In truth she was slightly confused when he said they had to go through his room. The house was about the same size as theirs. Maybe there was some secret crawl space but that would be kind of weird. She saw what he meant a few seconds later when he opened up his window and place a food out.

"Are you insane?"

He cocked his head. "Pretty sure that's not a clinical psychological term."

"Ass." She said while watching him finish climbing out the window. He then reached a hand in for her since she was too short to step over the bottom of the frame like him.

"Daria, it's nice to know where you were looking but I'm trying to help you out the window."

For once Daria did not have a retort prepared. The subject matter had thrown her off. When she stepped out she noticed that the section in front of his window was flat. You couldn't do backsprings or anything but it was a nice place for sitting for one or two people. If you fell the fall wasn't really high enough to give you a serious injury either….although she wouldn't want to test that theory. She took ques from him and sat down and looked at the sky.

"How did you decide I was your best option?" Daria asked

"Excuse me?" Lapis said jokingly. He took her blank face as a response saying she was not amused by him mimicking her.

"You heard me. You said you had been looking at me for a while, which meant that you were looking at other girls when you got here before you decided on me. So why me?"

"Why I like you, or why I ignored the others?"

"Let's go with the latter option for right now."

"Most of them just don't catch my eye to begin with." He paused when Daria looked at him funny. "What? You're the prettiest girl there."

"Whatever you say."

"Sandi is stuck up. Tiffany has a learning disability that needs to be addressed, and even if it is we have nothing in common. Stacy is weak."

"It's not like the others lifted a thing in their lives either."

"I meant weak mentally. I don't want someone that might ditch me on a whim because some family or friends said I wasn't cool enough. Or they said….other things." Daria got the implication and placed her hand on his. "Quinn just seems really manipulative, I'm good on that."

"You really did think this through didn't you? What about Jane? Most people think we're two sides of the same coin."

"She seems emotional, she's also artsy and adventurous. She seems like she'd drive eight hours round trip for a concert she wanted to go to and drag me along. That's not really my thing. She's pretty and all, just not my type."

"But the plainest girl in the school is."

"You know what? I'm not even going to dignify that with a response. You already know how I think you look with or without makeup."

Daria just accepted that her future boyfriend probably needed glasses or was dropped on the head as a child and it affected his perception. Although his observations were pretty spot on so she could just be wrong about her looks due to her low self esteem. Her mom could be right about her being outta sight to somebody even if she wasn't to everyone. Ew. She just admitted her mom was right.

"So, now that I've answered your question, can you answer one for me?"

"Here it comes."

"Why did you act that way earlier? I've never seen that behavior from you before. Are you jewish?"

"….Not exactly. Look, it's not important, just drop it."

"Daria." He said while gripping her hand and staring at her.

He looked almost like a puppy. He was so cute. "Dammit." She said while looking away and closing her eyes. That was unfair. Taking advantage of her raging teenage hormones like that. "It's a long story."

"It's not like we have school tomorrow or a curfew."

"A few years ago I got a genealogy project for a biology class. I thought it would be pretty simple, ask for family names up to great grandparents, look at newspapers or online for those I didn't know. My father's side just stops at my grandfather though.

"Did he never talk about his father or something?"

"I meant it literally stops. No sisters, no brothers, no mother, etc."

"That's….weird."

"I asked for my grandfather's citizenship papers and it turned out that he was an immigrant. He came over in late nineteen forty five."

"And he was escaping the war?" Daria was silent so he asked again, slightly more emotion entered his voice. "And he was escaping the war?"

"His real last name was Morgendorf. The name is Morgendorf. He was a mid rank Nazi SS officer. He felt like he couldn't stay in germany and he had the means to get out. For information that helped lead to the conviction of his superiors, he got citizenship here. When I looked at those pictures I just...I just couldn't. I have that disgusting Nazi blood in me."

Lapis pulled her head into his shoulder. "Daria…."

"I promised myself I would never be like him. Just following orders to kill groups of innocent people. I would rather die. I have to do what's right."

He understood a bit more about her psychology now. He wasn't quite sure what to say so he just said the first thing that came to mind. "You're not a monster Daria. And you're not disgusting….you're wonderful."

Daria cried into his shoulder. She had finally told someone, anyone, this secret that she had been holding in for years. Now the weight of her burden didn't feel as heavy.

I finally moved into my new house and I'm settled in so I cranked out a new chapter. Hopefully you all like it. I'm working on a few others as well. If you have any story ideas for fics I'm working on that you want to see let me know. Sorry that I was afk for so long. Things have settled down quite a bit now so I should be able to write, even though my internet speed will be horrific for a few months.