A/N: Written for the Tale in Fragments Challenge, 10 prompts List 1, prompt #09 – sun, and for the Female Character Appreciation Competition (with Ruki), both on the Digimon Fanfiction Challenges Forum (link's in my profile).
Enjoy. :D
Picnic Day
9. Sun
The plan had been to sleep the day away, but Ruki finds herself waking up again before midday because the sun's too bright and it forces its way through her curtains and her eyelids. She tries to hide under her blankets, but that gets too hot too quickly, and she eventually drags herself out of bed and to the breakfast table.
Her mother is there, looking as bleary eyed as Ruki herself but still functional. She's cooking something: a rare sight Ruki finds herself getting more used to as the years go by. Before meeting Renamon, she doesn't remember ever seeing her mother cook. It's always her grandmother.
But her grandmother's sitting at the table, knitting happily with a cup of steaming tea in front of her. She gestures at the empty chairs, and Ruki takes one.
'Your mother's in high spirits today.' Her grandmother looks a little tired, but peaceful as her needles clicked together. 'It's not often I get to taste my daughter's cooking.'
'I'm allowed to show off a little,' Rumiko laughs from the stove. She sounds full of spirit, like going shopping or to a photo shoot – all those things she enjoys.
A few years ago, Ruki didn't think it possible for them both to have enjoyed the same thing. She didn't think it was possible to share anything digimon-related with her mother: a mother who'd thought the game was a "boy thing" just like so many other people… And even when she won the championship and was dubbed the "Digimon Queen", people still looked down on her as a player because she was a girl.
They don't do that anymore, now that she's one of the heroes that saved the world. Which is a little silly in its own right, because by that point she didn't care about her title anymore. She'd lost Renamon – and now she's found her again and that's the most important part of Digimon, she thinks.
And Renamon's a permanent part of their family now, coming down from her silent spot on the roof and taking the chair to Ruki's right. And Rumiko continued humming some nonsense song Ruki doesn't recognise and shuffling between pans and pots and saying in between that brunch will be ready soon.
And it is, except it's more a feast than a brunch, Ruki thinks, but now that she sees it she's suddenly ravenous so it doesn't really matter. Sparring with Ryo takes up a lot of energy after all, and her mother makes delicious food when she has the time and energy to cook. Since she's always working, that's not very often, and now Ruki knows to savour those times.
Not that her grandmother isn't a good cook, but it's nice to have her mother cooking every once in a while. More often now after the whole world saving thing – and that's when, Ruki reflects, she really started appreciating her mother. Or maybe a little before that, when they first went to the Digital World to go and rescue Calumon.
It was because of the Digital World, and Renamon, that she really appreciates her life now. And she can be happy and content in it.