"I can't believe it!" Rumiko cooed. "My daughter-" (she barely stopped herself from saying 'baby') "is having her first slumber party!"

"No, Mom." Ruki was almost begging. "It's not a slumber party. It's not even a sleepover, okay? Juri is spending the night. Nothing else."

"Nothing else, hmm?" Ruki did not like that look; it was a 'mom look' and it meant she was losing… something. She wasn't sure what, but she was definitely losing, and that always sucked. "So you're just going to throw your guest into a sleeping bag and ignore her until morning?"

"Manners, Ruki," Seiko murmured. Her cup of tea hid her smile, and unless Ruki missed her guess, the cup her grandmother was passing to Renamon was to serve a similar purpose.

"All right, fine, we'll do something fun," Ruki grumpily conceded. "But nothing girly, okay?"

"How girly is 'girly?'" Rumiko asked eagerly. "Painting each other's nails isn't too bad, right? Maybe hair curling…?"

"Mom, we're probably just going to play Digimon all night," Ruki sighed.

"All right, all right." Rumiko sighed, too—before a bright idea brightened her back up.

"Can I play, too?"