Author's notes: Wandering back into the Daria fandom with a short thing I made for Tumblr's Writer's Month, with the prompt "Fireflies."
"Hey, look." Jane jerked her head toward the quad, and the twenty or so little lights that danced above the grass. "Fireflies."
"Ugh," Daria said.
It wasn't a particularly passionate grunt, but it was enough to raise Jane's eyebrow.
"Did you just 'ugh' at fireflies?"
"I've always called them 'lightning bugs.' But yeah."
"But they're..." Jane struggled for a descriptor that wouldn't sound shmaltzy or childish, then gave up. "Pretty. I dunno."
"Bugs that are pretty. Sounds to me like the worst of both worlds."
Daria turned back to where they were flittering around. One of them was buzzing in their direction. To Daria's surprise, Jane reached out a hand and managed to snatch it out of the air. It sat passively as she opened her fingers, its golden backside illuminating her palm.
"You know, if I smashed this, it's glowy stuff would be all over my hand. Penny used to make war paint out of it."
"You could smash it, but it's not even smart enough to fly away. They're like the insect version of Quinn. Shiny and happy and stupid."
"I used to like drawing them when I was a kid," Jane said, a little defensively. She shrugged, regarding it again. "Besides, they do it to attract mates. So they're more like the insect version of Brittany. Here."
She tried to pass the firefly to Daria, who made a face. Jane insisted, however, and transferred the little bug into Daria's hands. It fluttered its wings but remained in place.
Daria stared at it for a moment. Up close, it looked even grosser than she expected. And also prettier.
She suddenly wished that she did like this little pest more, and simultaneously felt annoyed about that.
For its part, the little firefly finally rose up and flew back to rejoin its friends.