Chapter 2

A/N- Whoop. Next chapter XD i'm on a roll with this story actually. Happy times! Enjoy!

Disclaimer- I don't own DM.

Margo opened her eyes slowly as the sun's rays began to streak in through her window. She yawned slightly and rubbed her eyes slowly, sitting up in her bed with a tired smile present on her face. She pulled on her glasses and glanced over at the window when she heard the birds singing outside and got out of her bed, stretching up high so she was stood on the tips of her toes, her arms in the air. She deflated slightly, running her fingers through her hair and inhaled, catching the scent of pancakes from downstairs, and her face lit up.

"Mr Gru's making pancakes!" she beamed, running over to Edith's bedside, lightly shaking the blonde, her lips curved up in amusement as Edith moaned and covered her face with the pillow. "Edith, wake up"

"Go. Away" Came Edith's muffled reply from under the pillow. "It's too early Margo…"

Margo sighed and lightly shook her head, but made her way over to Agnes's bed, whose eyes were fluttering open slowly, having heard the noise her sisters were making.

"Come on Agnes" Margo urged, lightly shaking the three-year olds shoulder to wake her up. "Mr Gru made pancakes for breakfast"

Agnes sat up and pulled her thumb out of her mouth, stretching her arms with a wide yawn.

"Huh?" she asked blearily, her hair in complete disarray, causing Margo to stifle a laugh. She picked up a hairbrush and clambered up onto the bed, sitting cross legged and pulling Agnes gently onto her lap. She pulled the scrunchie out of Agnes's hair and began to brush it gently, giving Agnes time to wake up properly. She tied up her hair on top of her head as it was typically done and nodded, beginning to run the brush through her own hair.

"Mr Gru's making pancakes?" Agnes suddenly asked and her eyes widened. "Maybe he'll make mine look like a unicorn! I'll go ask him!"

She jumped out of the bed and ran quickly out of the room, all fatigue and confusion gone from her face as she thought happily about her soon-to-be unicorn shaped pancakes. Margo laughed to herself and tied her hair back in a low pony tail, glancing over at Edith who was still making no signs of moving. She rolled her eyes and jumped off the bed, leaving Kyle to continue sleeping and headed down the stairs, following the scent of the pancakes and the sound of Agnes's excitable chatter.

"Morning" she called out, pushing the kitchen door open with a smile, seeing Gru stood at the stove and Agnes sat down, her face eager.

"Ah! Good morning Margo!" Gru said with a smile, glancing over at her. "How vas your night?"

"Good" Margo replied, sitting down at the table next to Agnes. "One of the best night's sleep I've had in a while actually"

"Because Mr Gru gave us good-night kisses!" Agnes piped up, grinning at the bald man, who looked at her with narrowed eyes

"Goodnight kisses? No no, I do not know vat you are talking about" he stated curtly, a tiny half smile on his face. Agnes pouted, and stared at Gru imploringly, her brown eyes wide.

"But you did!" she protested, and Gru simply grinned, shaking his head at her expression.

"Okay, okay! I gave you good night kisses, now come, stop making zat face" he told her, and sighed when Agnes crossed her arms stubbornly, her lips still pressed into a firm pout. Gru muttered a quiet prayer up to the ceiling and moved forward with his pan and let a unicorn shaped pancake slide onto Agnes's plate. "Happy now?"

Agnes's face lit up, and the pout disappeared completely as she reached for her knife and fork, staring at the unicorn pancake with a look of delight in her eyes.

"You're the best daddy ever!" she beamed, causing both Margo and Gru to look at her in surprise, and Margo noticed how touched Gru seemed by those words, though Agnes didn't even seem to notice, instead she was smothering her pancake with syrup and singing the song she sang every few nights at the orphanage. "Unicorns I love them, Unicorns I love them!.."

Gru caught Margo's eye, who was watching him intently and cleared his throat, snapping himself out of the daze he was in before sliding a pancake shaped like an atomic bomb onto her plate.

"Vere ees Edith?" Gru asked, glancing around for the usual pink hat clad girl.

"She was still in bed when we came down" Margo answered him with a shrug, knowing how lazy her sister could be, especially in the mornings.

"Morning" Edith muttered, dragging herself into the room, pulling herself up to sit next to Agnes, her hat slightly lopsided on her head. She nodded at the three of them before her head slumped down onto the table next to her plate.

"Good morning Edith" Gru stated, trying to hide his amusement as he laid a skull pancake on her plate.

Edith pulled her head up with what looked like some difficulty and grinned lightly at her plate, looking back up at Gru.

"Cool"

Agnes licked her lips and looked over at Margo, who was idly pushing her pancakes around her plate with her fork, lost in her thoughts. She was eager for the pancakes when she had picked up their scent, but now she just wasn't feeling hungry. She had looked at the atomic bomb and it had hit her suddenly. She had made jokes about it to Edith the night before, sure...but now it was really becoming clear to her. Gru was a super villain! He had stolen and hurt people most probably, so why did she feel so safe when she was with him? It was almost a knee-jerk reaction that when she thought of Gru, she thought of home, but her mind was whirring with confusion.

"Are you gonna eat that?" Agnes asked sweetly, a wide smile on her face, and Margo shook her head, pushing the plate towards her younger sister, who took it eagerly. She rested her head on her hand and watched Gru try to entertain Edith, who was pointing her fork at him and laughing loudly, shaking her head.

How could he be a villain? Granted, he was cruel and cold when they first met him, but he wasn't evil!

Margo shook her head slightly, trying to make sense of it all, when Gru's voice startled her out of her thoughts, causing her to look up at him surprise.

"-lright?" he asked, looking at her in concern, and Margo blinked, shaking her head to clear her head so she could concentrate on him.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" she asked sheepishly, and Gru frowned but repeated himself.

"I said, are you alright?"

Was she alright? She didn't really know. She was so confused. She loved Gru, without a doubt. He brought back the feelings she had when her parents were still alive, and those feelings were those of which she had missed dearly.

"I'm fine" she tried to reassure him, adjusting her glasses slightly. "I just don't feel too good"

"Oh..." Gru said slowly, looking slightly perturbed, not really knowing how he should look after a ill little girl probably.

"I'll be fine" Margo said, waving a hand in dismissal. "I think I just need some fresh air"

Without another word, she walked out of the kitchen and headed upstairs to get dressed for the day, leaving Gru and her sisters staring after her in slight concern and surprise.

(linebreak)

Margo sat on the bottom step of the house, her knees held close to her chest as she looked out at the neighbourhood. It was quite a clear and sunny day, and the birds were still singing, so she closed her eyes to listen, feeling slightly pacified by the sound.

"What is wrong with me?" she mumbled to herself, dragging a hand down her face slowly. She was supposed to be happy. Gru had taken them back, everything was supposed to just go back to normal... But why hadn't it?

"I don't zink zere is anything wrong with you" Gru's unmistakeable voice said quietly, and she shifted slightly so he could join her on the bottom step, clasping her hands together. "Margo? Please, tell me vat is wrong"

Margo bit her lip, and was slightly ashamed to find tears building up in her eyes. What was WRONG with her? Why was she having these doubts? Why did she want to cry all of a sudden?

"I'm afraid..." she whispered, and as soon as she said it, everything suddenly made sense. She was afraid. Of being left alone, of what happened, of being forgotten. The pain she had felt when Gru had given them back to Miss Hattie was sickeningly painful, and she never wanted to feel that agony again.

She felt his arms wrap around her tightly, and she clung onto him as tightly as she could, closing her eyes and just relishing the moment. It felt so good to have a hug from an adult, someone who she could call a parent.

"Of vat?" Gru asked her, and Margo pressed her lips together. Should she tell him? It might hurt him that she was feeling this way, and that was the last thing she wanted.

Margo sucked in a deep breath and began, her hands gripping onto his grey sweater as she spoke.

"Everything I guess... I'm scared that one day i'm gonna mess up or something and that you're gonna send us back to Miss Hattie and she'll tell us it was our own fault for not being obedient enough, and then she'll make us stay in the box of shame, and-" She was babbling now, and she knew it, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was letting this out.

"Whoa, whoa whoa" Gru said quickly, pressing a finger to her lips, silencing her. "Box of Shame? And Miss Hattie said zat...?" he narrowed his eyes slightly and looked down at Margo again, who was biting her bottom lip hard.

"It was just a box which we'd have to spend days in if we misbehaved, and there was barely any food given to us as a punishment" Margo explained quickly. She hated thinking about her times in the box, they were her worst memories of the place.

Gru mashed his lips together and Margo felt his body stiffen and had a good inkling of what he was probably feeling, and quickly laid her head on his shoulder, causing him to relax and look down at her in confusion.

"Margo" he said quietly, and his voice was gentle. She liked it when his voice was gentle, more fatherly, it made her feel at ease. "I vant you to know that zis was not your or your sisters fault at all. You vere all very vonderful, and I loved spending time with you. I don't zink I can ever forgive myself"

Margo smiled slightly at that, it felt good to know he had really missed them when they had gone back to the orphanage. "I'm also scared of what happened yesterday" she admitted. "When we fell...I mean... You caught me, and I- I'm so happy you did, but i'm scared that one day he'll come back and something bad will happen to us"

She personally thought at that moment, that she sounded so weak and vulnerable. It wasn't like her at all to feel this way. She always had to be the brave and calm one out of her sisters, never showing her fear to make sure they stayed calm too...But with Gru, she felt that she didn't have to.

"I promise" she heard him began, and she glanced up at him, her brown eyes desperately searching for some form of reassurance. "Zat I vill always protect you and your sisters, and I will never let him.. or anyone else, try to hurt you again"

Margo's eyes probed his face for a moment, and she looked slightly sceptical, until she saw the sincerity in his eyes, and she felt as if another huge weight had been lifted off of her chest, and her fears suddenly seemed trivial and childish to her. She smiled and wound her arms around his neck in a tight hug, smiling when she felt him hug her back just as tightly.

"Now come on" Gru urged her, pulling away with a wry smile. "I have a surprise for you and your sisters"

"A surprise?" Margo asked, looking slightly wary. "You didn't get Edith a freeze ray did you?"

"Are you insane?" Gru asked, shuddering at the thought. "I've already had to hide my own freeze ray and lock it up! I'd never get Edith vone of her own"

Margo laughed and stood up, all traces of her fears gone for the moment. "You know she'sgonna find it somehow"

"I'm pretty confident she von't" Gru said with a scowl, standing up slowly, though his eyes were playful. "You gurls are going to be the death of me vone day, you know zat?"

"Oh I know" Margo agreed, lightly taking his hand to pull him into the house. "But you still love us right?"

Gru sighed, but couldn't stop the small smile forming on his face.

"Without a doubt"