Chapter Thirteen

"Say it."

"No."

"Say it."

"Fine. You… did a good job."

"Darn straight."

St. Patrick's Day and Cupid stood invisibly off the side of the crowd on that balmy summer's day. They opted to wear jeans and T-shirts in case they needed to come in contact with any mortal.

"I thought for sure you'd make a bags of doing it." Pat shook his head and took a sip of his drink. "You put them through dating hell, and now everything is better than before?!"

"Well, if the commitment ceremony is any indication, yeah," he waved his hand around to indicate the large gathering of well wishers among them. A moderately sized group of Daria and Tom's friends and family had come to their commitment ceremony to wish them luck on their later marriage.

"So I guess you're done with this case?"

"Yep. Everything is taken care of. It's time for me to move on to another couple."

"Who is it this time?"

"Oh, I dunno…..Memorial Day has been giving you the eye lately…." he teased.

"Woah, laddie. I can take care of my own love life, thanks."

"Surrre you can," said Cupid, trying to dig through his bag. "Now let's see…what do I use on you next time you aren't looking? The Dazed Dart Gun? The Love Lasso? The---"

"How many stupid gadgets with stupid names do you have in there!?" Pat asked irritably.

"Woah, that's not cool!" Cupid frowned. "If you're going to act like that, I'll just shoot you with the Sling of Spinster-ness!"

"You wouldn't!"

"I couldn't. Made it up," he grinned.

"Ha ha, laddie. Very funny." St. Patrick's Day rolled his eyes. "Almost as funny as those cereal jokes I get every day…"

Cupid grinned. "Oh yeah, that reminds me, Pat…how's your drink? Is it 'magically delicious'?"

"Don't make me hurt you."

"Ok, ok, just chill, dude," Cupid pacified Pat, grinning. "Listen, could you hold my drink? I want to go make a request to the band."

Pat accepted Cupid's drink with a raised eyebrow. "I dunno if they'll be able to play your favorite song, laddie."

"You heard them before….they want to 'expand their horizons by agreeing to experiment with previous music and blah, blah, blah.'"

Patrick still looked dubious, but said, "I guess, but be quick about it. You know as well as I do we aren't really supposed to be seen."

"It'll be fine. I doubt anyone will notice me as long as I'm in this getup," said Cupid, gesturing at his T-shirt.

"Yeah, much better than your usual diaper."

"It's a toga!" Cupid's ears glowed a bright red.

"If you say so, lad. Now, go request your little song!" Pat waved him off, and Cupid left for the bandstand, glaring over his shoulder as he went.

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"Jane, what was that?" asked Daria, toying at the bottom of her short, plain white dress.

"What was what?"

Daria frowned. "I saw thought I saw something near the band for a minute. It looked like….white wings?"

"Wow. A bird. In the outdoors. Amazing." Jane smirked.

"I don't think it--"

"Unless the birds start going all 'Alfred Hitchcock' on you, I don't think you have anything to worry about. This commitment ceremony thing seems to be going pretty well."

Deciding to let the subject of the wings drop, Daria answered, "Yeah, it's kind of surprising. No yelling or bloodshed or anything."

She was rather relieved. She had been a bit worried before that her wedding would become a family fight fest as her cousin Erin's was, but things seemed downright pleasant. Daria and Tom's families seemed to be getting along swimmingly and her mother had wisely opted to stay as far from Rita as possible.

"Yeah, it's going well." Jane cleared her throat. "Anyway…so…."

"So?" Daria said.

"Do you feel….I dunno….married?" said Jane.

Daria couldn't suppress a slight smile. "Hey, we're not getting married until after college. This is just like a practice run and a replacement for a wedding shower."

"Yes, yes, but all future marriage dates and odd party substitutes aside…. do you? You did have a sort of ceremony after all," Jane pressed her.

"The truth?" Daria asked. Jane nodded. "….a little," said Daria quietly.

"Ha!" she gloated. "I knew it." She took a sip of her drink. "Where is that no-good husband-to-be of yours, anyway?"

"Two of his aunts cornered him around the punch bowl a minute ago."

"An aunt ambush. Poor kid. Never stood a chance. Why don't you go be a good little bride and try to rescue him?"

"Why don't you go rescue Carter from Taryn's jaws-of-life grip?" She gestured across the party at Taryn with an arm clasped around Carter's waist.

Jane snorted. "I only went out with the man once. She can have him." She shook her head. "I don't know what came over me when I met him. Darn aliens and their behavior-controlling devices."

"Yes, Jane. Some supernatural force just happened to make you go ga-ga over Tom's best friend for a day."

"Hey, it could happen." She glanced over Daria's shoulder, spotting a stately blonde 20-something man. "Um…speaking of ga-ga….I'll be right back."

She waved a brief goodbye, promising to come back to chat soon. 'Some things will never change…' thought Daria.

Suddenly a squeak from a speaker made Daria turn her attention to the band.

"Hey….we're Mystik Spiral," Trent rasped in the microphone.

"We're the band!" said Jesse.

"Um….yeah…anyway, we've got a request here. We don't really do this kind of music, but….well, we can try." Trent shrugged. "This one's for Eros!"

With that, Trent let out a guitar riff and the band began to play the song's introduction. He wasn't kidding when he said it wasn't regular Mystik Spiral. It was quick, upbeat, and… were those major chords? Daria wasn't sure, standing in shock as she realized what song they were playing.

"The first, the last, my everything….and the answer to all my dreams. You're my sun, my moon, my guiding star…..my kind of wonderful… that's what you are."

A Barry White song.

The vision of white wings she saw earlier came back to Daria in a flash. 'Cupid….' she thought to herself. '…..no. I'm being stupid. Just because some guy with the nickname 'Eros' requested a Barry White song doesn't mean that he's here. He was just an illusion…a stupid high school dream brought on by week-old Chinese food.' She looked at the engagement ring on her finger, gleaming white in the sun. 'But, if he is real, did he…'

She shook her head and turned her attention back to the band, until Tom, having just pried himself from his aunts, came over and slid his arm around her waist.

"Trent is playing Barry White?" he said incredulously.

"Must be a sign of the apocalypse," smirked Daria, collecting herself again.

"Darn, I was hoping that would wait until at least after the honeymoon," said Tom cheekily.

Daria smirked and rolled her eyes.

Tom smiled, then looked back to the band. "Hm…A punk rock version of My First, My Last, My Everything…I wonder who requested that one."

Daria frowned and cocked her head. "You know… I'm really not sure."

Not knowing exactly what she meant by that, Tom raised an eyebrow, but decided to let the subject drop. They quietly enjoyed each other's company with Tom's arm draped around her until he finally broke the silence.

"So I guess this is the part when we live happily ever after?"

"'Happily ever after'? How about something a little less sappy and a little more original?"

"Ok." He thought for a second. "'We live tolerably in each other's presence until one of us is dead. The end.'"

Daria favored him with a smile. "No, Tom. It's 'The Beginning'."

"Now who's being sappy?"

"Oh, shut up and kiss me."

Tom, needless to say, was all too happy to oblige.

"I know there's only, only one like you. There's no way they could have made two. Girl you're my reality….. but I'm lost in a dream….. You're the first, you're the last, my everything……"

The End

Author's Notes

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1. All Daria characters are the property of MTV/Viacom.

2. All others are mine, but the names of Taryn, 'Kristenique', Beth, Elizabeth, and Krysten, Scarlett, Chelly Ann, Roger, Brandon, and the restaurant Angellin's Italian Café are based on the names of some PPMB members who so graciously allowed me to give them cameos. Any or all characteristics I gave to the characters, however, do not necessarily represent the real life personalities of those people.

3. I bow to my betas, Tananda, Lawndale Stalker, Robert Nowall, and Angelinhel!

4. Any Barry White songs mentioned don't belong to me.

5. Parts of this, as if you haven't realized, are novelizations of events in the actual show, such as the break-up scenes from 'IICY', the car scene from 'Boxing Daria', and the chocolate-eating scene from 'Sappy Anniversary'.