Lucy didn't know what she did.

Gru had been treating her so coldly since the last mission. He barely talked to her, he hadn't looked into her eyes for days, he spent his time in his lab, ordering his munchkins around.

"Goodnight Agnes. Goodnight Edith. Goodnight Margo." He had even given up saying goodnight to the girls. Now that was Lucy's job.

Lucy kissed Margo goodnight. That was an amazing feeling she thought she might never get used to. Being a mother was wonderful.

"Lucy," Margo's voice snapped her out of her contemplation. "Is everything okay with you and Gru?" The brown-haired young lady sat up in her bed. "He's been kinda... Detached..." Her voice trailed off a bit, as though she regretted asking. But the truth was, that was the question on all of the girls' minds. Even Lucy was wondering the same thing as she replied,

"I don't know, Margo. I think it has something to do with our last mission." She thought back to the perilous night. The couple had escaped unscathed, with their lives intact, but it was such a narrow escape that it had both parties thinking back to what could have gone wrong. "I'll talk to him." She tucked Margo in. "I'm sure everything is fine."

Lucy shut the door behind her. Hoping that the girls would get some sleep, she gathered her nerves and started towards Gru's lab. Halfway there, she stopped in her tracks. A wave of thoughts flooded through her mind. What if Gru really was angry with her? What had she done wrong? What if... he wanted to break up?

Her heart was pumping furiously. Every organ in her body felt sick, her throat tightened, her lungs... "Oh, right." She thought and took a great breath of air. "I forgot to breathe." A weak chuckle escaped her. "Silly me." It was now or never. Anything was better than this silence...

She descended to the lab, her nerves rising. As she entered the room Gru was in, he had his back turned to her. He was working on some contraption, with his munchkins handing him tools and things. She didn't care. He heard her footsteps behind him. "Gru?" She called weakly. A noise escaped Gru, somewhere between a groan and a sigh. "Minions, disperse." he ordered, but kept his back to her. The little yellow whatevers flooded out of the room, but neither Gru nor Lucy noticed Jerry and Dave lingering behind, hiding and watching in silence.

"Gru?... Gru, tell me what's wrong." She walked up behind him, draping her arms over his shoulders. "Please?"

Gru was silent.

Lucy waited.

After a couple very long seconds he turned around slowly and stared into her eyes for the first time in days. He gave her the coldest gaze Lucy had ever seen from him, the look a man gives a lifeless criminal. As though whatever she had done, Gru would never forgive her. She felt little bits of her dying with every second he looked at her like that. She fought past her nerves and opened her mouth to speak. But then her mouth was blocked.

Before she knew what was going on, Gru was kissing her deeply, his hands behind her head pulling her closer. A few shocked moments passed before Lucy returned the kiss, feeling very confused but quite relieved.

"Whoo! Heh heh." Dave chuckled. Jerry smacked him, not pulling his eyes away from Gru and Lucy. "Ow."

The couple eventually pulled away for air. Lucy pushed her hair behind her ear. "Wow, partner." she chuckled, panting slightly. "What was that for?"

Gru pulled her into a hug. He clung to her almost desperately, like he couldn't stand to let her go. "I nearly lost you, Lucy." he said weakly. "You were that close and then you could have gone away, and then what would I do?"

For once in his life, Dave was quiet.

So was Jerry.

So was Lucy.

Her arms hovered above his back for a moment, then rested on his shoulders. She had never expected this from Gru. She had always assumed that he meant more to her than she did to him, and she was okay with that.

But she was pretty okay with this too.

A drop of water hit the floor.

"Gru, are you... Crying?"

"What? No, I never cry."

"You are so crying."

"I am not crying! You are crazy." But still he didn't let go of her.

There were a few more seconds of silence.

"Hey." Lucy whispered.

"Hm?"

"I don't know what I would do without you either."