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It's mother's day.
Everyone else got their mothers gifts.
Skid got Lila a bunch of gifts from some random goddamn demon he summoned, which somehow went pretty well.
Robert, Radford, and their little sister baked cookies for their mom and gave her home-made cards, too.
Ross spent the entire day with Jaune, watching every single one of Jaune's favorite shows with her, and helping her around the house.
And, hell, even ROY did something for mother's day and got Carmen a mothers day cup and a lousy card, even if he didn't want to that much and mostly did it because he knows he would get glared at if he didn't.
But, what about Pump and Susie? What did they do for mother's day?
Well, Susie did nothing except try and call them a few times, exactly three times, and all those attempts ending up with no answer. She knows it would be a waste to do anything else for mother's day, or try to keep calling, since she knows that her parents wouldn't show up or answer any more calls anyways. She knows that her parents aren't going to answer her calls any time soon and she knows they aren't going to come back anytime soon.
But Pump on the other hand? He made cards and even got a box of chocolates from that demon that Skid summoned earlier that day! Pump had some faith that maybe, just maybe, his parents would show up this mothers day and stay for a little while.
But a few hours passed.
And another hour.
And another.
And another.
It was already around 7pm, and Pump's and Susie's parents didn't show up. So, since they weren't showing up, Pump tried calling them by Susie's phone from her room, quickly went to his room with Susie's phone, and sat in the corner of his room, trying repeatedly to call his parents until they answered.
Yet, they never did answer.
But Pump wouldn't give up that easily.
He tried calling again.
And again.
And again.
He would be trying for an hour. It would be his 20th attempt to try and call them, and every single attempt just ending up with the same voice mail, "Hi, this is Mrs Wonder speaking! We are currently very busy, so leave a voice message at the beep!" Is what it would say every. single. time.
So, Pump finally decides to leave a voice message.
"Hi, mom. I-its me, again. I hope you have a happy mom day, and Susie hopes you have a happy mom day, too. I was thinking that maybe just maybe you and mm would show up " Pump mumbles, It would probably be hard to understand him due to his sick-like voice, but it's not like his parents are actually going to hear the voice message anyways…right?
Pump sits there on the hard, cold, ground for a moment. Right as he was going to try and call again, Susie burst in. Seems Susie has finally noticed that her phone is gone.
"HEY! How many times have I told you to stop taking my phone just to play games on-" Before Susie can finish her sentence, she stops herself after seeing Pump sitting in that dark, cold corner, all by his lonesome, with her phone.
"W-wait, Susie! You don't understand, I was just trying t-"
Susie interrupts Pump before he can finish talking,"Call mom and dad?"
"..yeah.." Pump says, more in a mumble than anything else.
Susie sighs, getting down on her knees in front of Pump so they would be almost eye to eye.
"I tried to call them earlier, too. They're not going to answer. you know they're not gonna answer, Pump." Susie tries to grab the phone from Pump, but Pump quickly pulls his hand back so Susie couldn't.
"W-wait, Susie! Let me try again, just one more time! I'm sure they'll answer this time!" Pump pleads, but to no avail, as Susie tries to grab the phone again, and actually succeeds this time.
Pump started to tear up a little bit underneath that pumpkin mask, he was going to start trying to convince again, but before he could, Susie hugs him. Tightly. Susie mumbles something to Pump, even her own voice cracking a little bit while mumbling,"Pump, they're not going to answer, They're not gonna show up. if they wouldn't even show up for your birthday, they're definitely not gonna show up now."
and that's what broke the dam, the little dam inside Pump that hasn't been broken in a hell of a while since he's always a happy going kid who just wants to talk about Halloween with Skid and do his silly little dance, yet now he's crying. Crying right in front of his older sister, like the cry baby he is, all because Susie is simply telling him the hard, cold truth.
And He's getting the inside of his mask all wet, all because of his stupid little crying!
suddenly, Susie pulls back from Pump, having a little bit more of a sympathetic look on her face as she thinks to herself, 'ah, fuck, seems I actually have to be a good sister now..'
Susie takes off Pump's mask, sitting it aside for now.
Pump looks up at Susie, still crying, tears running down his cheeks and dropping onto the floor.
"Hey, hey. Look, It's alright, okay? It'll be alright!" Susie's trying her best to comfort. She's never been the comforter type, and sometimes even made people cry harder on pure accident.
"I-it'll be alright..? You promise..??" Pump's voice was a little hard to understand since he was still crying, but he's crying a little less now.
Susie really didn't know if it would actually be alright, or atleast alright to Pump, but she can't say no, she knows she'd make Pump cry harder, so she promises it's alright, "yea, Pump. I-i promise, it'll be alright. You still have me and grampa, and that's all that matters." Susie wipes away some of Pump's tears, trying to be as comforting as she can.
Pump starts to slow down his crying, and within a minute he stopped crying, though he didn't say a word within that minute, and neither did Susie. Pump just looks at the ground after he stopped crying, a frown visible on his face, with dried up tear streaks on his cheek.
Then, Susie remembers something. She still has about ten dollars from a a week ago when she went around doing chores for people to earn some money from it. Now, usually, she wouldn't spend money on Pump, since it's her money, but now is an excuse for that.
"Hey, Pump, i have about ten dollars, I say, we go into town and get us some ice cream, maybe some candy too, and you can ramble on to me about Halloween, or whatever you wanna call it, on the way there. Does that sound alright?" Susie speaks with a little comforting smile on her face, trying to get Pump to lighten up a little.
Pump immediately perks up. Ice cream, candy,and he gets to ramble? Fuck yeah, that sound more then alright to him!
Pump quickly nods, his usual joyful smile returning to his face, despite the dry tear streaks still visible on his face.
Susie's smile becomes a little bigger as she speaks, clearly happy she managed to bring Pump's smile back to his face,"Now that's the smile I wanna see! C'mon, let's go now so you can actually come home and get into bed at the right time tonight." Susie gets up off of her knees, standing up now. She holds out her hand, offering Pump to take it so she can help him get up.
And, of course, Pump takes her hand, and Susie helps him get up.
Pump picks his mask off from the ground, and puts it back on.
"Y'know, I don't see why you like that mask so much." Susie mumbles.
"What?" Pump clearly didn't understand that, but he did hear it.
"Nothing."
That causes a little look from Pump, but he decides not to dwell on it and just shrugs, going with Susie's response.
The two then head downstairs, making sure it was okay with their grandpa to go out first, and head out and into town to get that ice cream and candy, with Pump rambling the whole time there, which drove Susie crazy, but she didn't stop him, she said he could so she's not going back on that.
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And it was alright.
Everything is going to be just alright
… Isn't it?
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Later that night, after Susie and Pump got the ice cream, candy, and came back home, They were watching a random movie they found, eating some of the candy they got while watching.
Susie had her phone on silent so no notifications would distract her or Pump from the movie.
And, only after the movie is when Susie realized she missed a call from someone, and that someone left a voice message.
That someone was her mom. Susie stares at her phone for a moment, surprised that they actually responded for once.
She decides it's probably best if Pump hears this too, so she calls him over, "hey, Pump, I think you should listen to this."
Susie plays the voice message once Pump gets over there where he can actually hear the message.
The voice message plays, "heya, honey. I'm sorry that we couldn't show up..again. this 'little' business trip isn't as little as we thought. I promise, we'll get back when this business trip ends, and we'll throw both of you a big party for every event and birthday we've missed. I want you too know that both me and dad miss you very much. Love, mom."
Pump and Susie stand there for a moment, just kinda.. processing what they just heard.
After a moment, Pump has a big smile on his face. "Did you hear that, Susie?! She said she'd throw a big party for us when they get back! I wonder when they'll get back, I'm sure they'll get back soon!" Pumps tone was the definition of 'hopeful' and 'joyful' right now. Susie sighs. She's heard that 'they'll be back soon' too many times. At this point, it's probably a lie, but she's not going to tell Pump that, "yknow, forget what I said earlier. They'll come back soon. I'm sure they will."
Pumps becomes even more happy, flapping his hands in excitement, (stimming), while giggling.
"Alright, alright, don't get too excited now. I don't want you getting to exicted where you can't go to sleep. And, on the topic of sleep, it's you bedtime. Cmon, go. Get to bed." Susie says, Pumps stimming immediately stopping in disappointed after hearing it's his bedtime.
"Aw, come on, Susie! Can't I stay up for just another hour..?"
Susie glares at Pump a little bit while speaking, "No, Tonight is a school night, meaning you gotta go to sleep. Now."
"Fine, fine…. goodnight, Susie." Pump starts heading upstairs, and Susie responds right before he gets out of hearing range.
"Goodnight, Pump."
After Susie hears Pump's door close, she sighs.
She looks over at her phone, at the voice message. She stares at it, a look of sorrow on her face for a moment.
A few seconds pass before she grabs the phone, and deletes the voice message.
"they're not coming back soon." Susie mumbles to herself, not evening wanting to believe herself.
She wants to believe Pump, believe them, but she just can't. she wants to believe it so bad, she wants to believe they'll actually going to come back soon..
but she knows,
Deep down,
that they wont.