Chapter Text
”What?” Gem exclaimed. “What do you mean you don’t know how long you’ll be gone?”
“I know, I didn’t think this through very well,” Impulse sighed. “I probably should’ve said something sooner. But I really want to do this challenge! And I don’t know how long it’ll take, if it’ll end up being a weekly thing or all at once. So that’s that.”
Gem turned away from him slightly with a huff, and Pearl put a hand on her shoulder. “Come on, Impulse. You never mentioned this at all, not even a hint, and now you’re just leaving for who knows how long? That’s not cool, man,” Pearl said disapprovingly.
“I know.”
The silence was heavy, like an ocean’s worth of pressure in an underwater cave. Impulse added softly, “I’ll still be here for another two days, though, so it’s fine, right?”
“Two days?” Gem burst out again. “We’re all close friends, we’re a team, and you think you can just wait until two days before leaving to tell us about it? How was that possibly going to go well? I- what are we supposed to do?”
Pearl looked from one to the other, and moved her hand to hold Gem’s. “Let’s just… take a moment, alright?” At Gem’s nod of agreement, she guided her out of the room.
Impulse had the sort of feeling of watching a building be destroyed by a tornado- the sinking devastation at so much damage happening so quickly.
He’d been the one to cause the storm.
“I can’t believe him,” Gem said, voice full of frustration, though her eyes betrayed the undercurrent of shock behind it. “I just- argh!” Furiously blinking to stop the tears, she stomped her foot- something she only rarely did, because instead of ever helping, it just hurt a bit and made her feel stupid.
Neither of which was a helpful thing to feel when already completely overwhelmed.
“He didn’t mean to,” Pearl responded, though both of them knew it was a pathetic response. “I mean- Gem, he probably was worried about what we were going to say anyways, he does stuff like this all the time.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not usually this bad,” Gem mumbled, and Pearl could see her about to fall apart, so she followed what she’d picked up from Impulse and just opened her arms, offering a hug. Gem practically fell into her arms, holding on tight.
This is the part where you’re supposed to say something helpful, Pearl thought. This is when you do the thing, when you comfort her and convince her that it’ll be okay, so you can both say goodbye to Impulse properly.
But I don’t know how to comfort people. I just don’t want them to be fighting this bad.
“At least you’re here,” Gem said quietly, still holding on. “You wouldn’t just leave me like that. I hope.”
“Yeah, I think I’ve been betrayed enough that I don’t want to do that to anyone else,” Pearl agreed with a slight laugh, stepping back. Maybe in murder games she could be more ruthless, but when it came to actual relationships between people, drama was definitely more of a bad thing. “Look, I know this is… honestly pretty terrible, but Impulse is going to be miserable if he leaves and he still thinks we’re mad at him. So what do you say we just try to be positive for now, and we can roast him about this when he gets back?”
Gem looked at the ground, hesitating. “Okay, I guess,” she agreed. “Just- no guarantees. I don’t know how I’m supposed to act normal knowing one of my best friends will be gone so soon,” she added with a nervous laugh.
“Yeah, I second that,” Pearl sighed. “We’re gonna miss him.”
Gem nodded, biting her lip and taking a deep breath. Both of them looked at the door, the only thing separating them from Impulse and the shattering news they’d just been faced with.
“...Should we go back in?” Gem asked quietly.
Pearl nodded. “Yeah, that’s… we probably should.”
The two days passed painfully quickly, and Gem felt like no time had passed at all by the time they were waiting by the portal to actually say goodbye. She was pacing back and forth, trying to take even the slightest bit of focus off of the emotions threatening to break through. At the same time, Pearl was being unusually still, just leaning against a wall and staring at the ground.
Tango and Zedaph showed up only seconds after the girls, and if Gem had to guess, they were probably also pretty shaken by the sudden news. But there wasn’t any time to ask about that, because Impulse flew in soon after, smiling and clearly excited for the hardcore challenge he was about to leave them for.
There were hugs all around as those left behind gave their quiet goodbyes, and Impulse luckily seemed oblivious to the tenseness everyone carried. At least he would end up fine.
Just like that, he stepped through the portal. Gone, for who knows how long.
Gem shakily pulled on her elytra, then rocketed away as fast as she could, where the wind and clouds could dry her tears before anyone else had to see them.
Hours later, her heart hadn’t stopped hurting, and she wasn’t sure what to do about it.
Usually, she’d track down Impulse for this sort of thing, but he wasn’t there, he was gone and that was the whole problem. So naturally, she set out looking for Pearl, who was working inside a massive tunnel and arranging dirt blocks along the walls.
Gem just watched for a few minutes, standing at the edge of the tunnel. The first portion of it was decorated with brightly-colored, dimly-lit buildings, and it looked like Pearl was planning the next section. After a minute or two, she swooped down into her storage room, and Gem called out to her. “Pearl?”
“Oh- hi Gem!” she responded cheerfully, though it wasn’t quite as bright as usual. “What brings you here?”
Gem looked away, trying to find words, but there were none. She knew that they both knew what was going on, but there was nothing either of them could do about it. What she really needed to talk about was that she couldn’t stop focusing on how bad this was, but… how? Looking back to Pearl, she panicked slightly- what am I even supposed to say?
Pearl put the blocks away in her inventory, then walked over to sit on a nearby anvil, figuring out what she was supposed to say on the way. Bringing up the incident probably wasn’t a good idea, but she couldn’t pretend to be clueless, either. “It’s okay if you need a minute,” she told Gem. “I can wait.” It didn’t feel like a very comforting thing, that was more what Impulse did… but Pearl could at least try.
Gem just nodded, and after a few seconds quietly said, “I’m just sad, I guess. Don’t know what to do about it. I just… was hoping this would be a distraction, I guess.”
“Oh.” Pearl glanced back at the dirt structures. “Wanna help me see if I have all the blocks I need for this?”
Gem perked up a little, even managing a smile. “Sure, what am I looking for?”
Pearl led the way into the storage room, looking through the barrels placed near the outside. “Prismarine, warped wood, copper… some moss and stuff would be good, plus any white or light gray sort of blocks.” Scooping up a few stacks of copper, she walked back towards the entrance. “I’m just gonna start placing these so they start oxidizing, if you could look for the other things?”
“Got it.” Gem gave her a thumbs up, and went back to the storage room, ready to search through every single chest if she had to (though they were so well organized she probably wouldn’t). Maybe it was a pretty mundane task, and maybe it would only save Pearl a few seconds in the long run- but it was something else to think about, and the calm, colorful enviroment was somewhat comforting, too.
That night, Gem couldn’t sleep, because how could she? There were no hopeful thoughts that they’d all get to hang out soon, or that tomorrow would be better, or even the comfort of the barely-finished day being a good one.
There was something about the thought that Impulse was gone, that he’d barely thought to mention it before he left-
no. You’re going to feel better if you sleep, and thinking about that will just keep you up longer. Just stop it.
Despite her best efforts to keep all thoughts away, it took a long time before she finally fell asleep.
And in a brand-new, far away world, Impulse was starting to feel a little guilty about not telling everyone sooner. Because no one had reacted well when he told them, they’d all said he should’ve said something before. And maybe they were all nice about it at the portal, but what if they weren’t so nice when he came back?
Would it be better if he stayed away for longer, let them forget about the incident before he had to face them again?
Would it be better if he didn’t return at all?