Helen Morgendorffer knocked on the front door of the house of Jane Lane, Daria's new friend. She was elated to discover Daria had made a new friend - the only people she had hung out with in Highland were those two...odd boys. However, she wanted to meet with Jane's parents, get to know them, find out if Jane ran with any bad crowds.
She was about to knock on the door when it opened up, revealing an older woman - her eyes a faded blue, a few wrinkles set on her face, her honey-colored hair with a few strands of gray in it, all framed by teardrop-earrings as big as Helen's big toe.
Helen stuck out her hand. "Hello, I'm Helen Morgendorffer, our daughters are friends," she greeted.
"Helen! It's been years!" The woman lit up in recognition.
Helen jogged her memory. "...Amanda? It's you!" Surprised, she hugged her old friend. "I haven't seen you since...since my commitment ceremony with Jake," she said, realizing it was nearly two decades since she had seen Amanda.
"So it has, so it has. And you say our daughters are friends? What a happy concurrence! Come in, please, I'll fix you some tea."
Helen sipped at the piping hot mugful of liquid, amazed she had forgotten the pleasures of some hot tea. Amanda carefully sipped at her own mug as well, making small noises of contentment.
"It seems to me that you didn't wear anything as formal as that," Amanda finally pointed out.
Helen looked down at her pantsuit. "Oh, yes." She frowned. "Amanda, I'm afraid...I've never been very loyal to the cause."
"Which cause, Helen? Taking down 'the Man'?" Amanda smiled playfully. "Vincent and I were late to the game, but even we figured out we had lost that 'fight' by the time the Berlin Wall fell."
"Oh, I know, but Jake and I could have stayed with you and Vincent and the commune!" Helen suddenly felt very guilty for her upward mobility.
Amanda patted Helen reassuringly on the knee. "Helen, please don't have any regrets about what you can't change."
"But I'm a complete sell-out!" Helen set her tea down and covered her face with her hands, ashamed.
Amanda moved closer to Helen and put her arm around her old friend. "Helen, didn't you always say you wanted to become a lawyer?"
Helen nodded, not moving her hands away from her face.
"Did you?"
Helen nodded.
"Well, there you go. You snuck inside, you ARE 'the Man', and you can effect positive change...and provide for your daughter," she added wistfully.
"Two daughters," Helen added, taking her hands away from her face.
"How wonderful," Amanda smiled briefly. She turned away from Helen. "I almost envy you, actually. Summer, Wind, Penny, Trent, Jane...Vincent and I had to sacrifice so much just to keep them in this house, with food and clothing. Vincent does freelance work all over the world with his camera, and I spend half the year making pottery here and the other half selling it all over the country." Amanda sighed. "They resent me for it, but I love them so much. You do whatever it takes to nurture your children."
"You're right, Amanda," Helen finally said. The two embraced again. They were both smiling when they pulled back.
Then, Amanda reached one hand out and cupped Helen's jaw, her thumb rubbing Helen's cheek. "I wonder, Helen," Amanda said, her voice a little deeper. "Are you still as good of a kisser as you were 20 years ago?"
Helen began to blush. "Am-Amanda, we...I...I'm married!" she finally came to say.
Amanda shook her other finger in a no-no gesture to Helen. "So are Vincent and I, Helen. We were married even back then, and you certainly didn't have a problem doing this..."
Amanda leaned forward and reintroduced her lips to Helen's. After a moment, Helen responded, returning the kiss and increasing its passion.
The two pulled back, panting a little. Amanda stood, took Helen by the hand, and led her to the stairs, and her bedroom.
Well well!
I was inspired to write this when poking through the Daria Wiki, and noticed one of the entries in the Tired Fandom Tropes page complain that the Helen/Amanda pairing was largely ignored. Well, not anymore, now.
I've been writing a sequel to this, called Commune-ists. You can check it out at FF.Net and the PPMB and, once I finish it, here on OD.