Well, Despicable Me 4 got announced, so it's only fitting that this one-shot series also got a fourth entry. Plus, I needed something to release while I'm still working on the next DTB4 chapter, which I PROMISE I'm working on!
This takes place after DM3. Hope it's an enjoyable read :)
4. From One Mother To Another
Lucy sat on a bench at the local park, an absentminded smile tugging at her lips. The AVL weapons department had given Gru an especially large job; the development of an advanced paralysis ray that made apprehending criminals a whole lot simpler. It had taken some persuasion to get Dr. Nefario on board with a, what he coined, 'goody-two-shoes job', but he soon gave in to make his best friend's life easier. Therefore, the two of them were currently cooped up in the lab, getting it finished.
It sucked that they chose such a pleasant day to do so, as there wasn't a chance that Lucy and the girls were lounging around at home. Once lunchtime had passed, she'd brought them straight down to the park, not wanting to waste an ounce of sunlight.
Her gaze briefly regarded Margo and Agnes, who were playing on the teeter-totter blissfully. Then she looked to the swings, where Edith was launching herself dangerously high into the air. There was little point in telling her to slow down; that would only make her speed up. Besides, she'd be okay. The blonde had an impressive ability to avoid injury, regardless of how hazardous a situation she put herself in.
Despite the sunny weather, there weren't too many people around, apart from the odd family or couple. That meant loud noises were at a minimum. You could even hear the light breeze in the air, complementing the ambiance of tweeting birds and distant cars. Lucy leaned her head back somewhat, enjoying the peaceful environm-
"MOM!"
Her head snapped to attention in an instant, but when her brain registered that the shouting voice belonged to a young boy, she soon relaxed. Intrigued eyes swayed to the left, where she found said young boy at another bench with a brunette woman, presumably his mother. He was incessantly tugging at her sleeve, while she tried to ignore him to focus on the phone call she was engrossed in.
"MOM! MOM!" He shouted once again. "Can you push me on the swing!?"
The woman finally gave up some attention and placed a hand over the receiver.
"Brandon, be quiet. Mom is very busy." She hissed in a low yet agitated tone. Returning to the call, she smiled and continued conversing as if nothing had happened. "Yes, yes, sorry about that. Where were we?"
The boy, defeated, pouted and moseyed away from her. Lucy watched them both for another second or two, before realizing that she was maybe being slightly nosy. She reached into her handbag and took out a book she'd been delving into recently, 'A Guide To Expert-Grade Combat'.
It had been pretty predictable so far…
Ten minutes of pushing herself as high as possible was now leaving Edith bored. It had started off fun, but as time passed, her hunger for risk was craving something a little more daring. So, she stopped kicking her legs back and forth and leaned forward in the seat. Once she was soaring forward through the air again, she let go and leaped from the swing.
She completed an overzealous front flip and settled on the grass with a somewhat janky landing, as she stumbled but kept herself on her feet. She peered back and couldn't help but frown. It was only because she didn't have her ninja suit on. Her usual pink attire just wasn't cool enough to ensure a clean landing.
It was then she noticed a boy slightly younger than her slowly approach the swings, fascinated eyes locked on her. He must've seen her do the front flip, and she couldn't deny, the awe he possessed almost made up for the slight stumble. After a moment, the boy beamed and held his hands up.
"That was super cool!" His exclamation almost immediately put a smile on Edith's face. There was nothing more she adored in life than looking cool. Excited, he ran up to get closer to her. "You gotta do that aga-"
SLAM!
However, it seemed such excitement affected his awareness, as he unintentionally tripped over a small rock on the floor. He landed close to Edith with a heavy thump, causing the nine-year-old to blink and step back in both surprise and concern. Shaken up from the fall, the boy briefly glanced up at her, before wailing in a pained cry.
His mother was still occupied by her phone call, which was a lot easier to focus on now that Brandon's constant nagging had ceased. She idly looked around while discussing some business plans with her colleague, when she noticed her son lying on the floor in front of Edith, crying his eyes out. This time, she didn't turn back. She stopped mid-sentence and instantly shoved the device into her pocket, before leaping up to worriedly rush towards him.
"Brandon! Are you okay!?" She exclaimed as the young boy continued to cry. She kneeled and helped him onto his feet, where she gave him a once-over. After which, she shared a prompt but agitated glare with Edith. "Did this girl hurt you!?"
Edith was thrown off-guard by the very sudden accusation, electing her eyes to widen once more in surprise. It appeared Brandon was too, since he'd halted all tears to closely study his mom's concerned face. That wasn't for long, though. Once he'd shared a look between her and Edith, he let out another pained cry.
"Yeah! Yeah, she pushed me!"
"What!?" Edith instantly snapped. "No, I didn't!"
"Aww, it's okay. It's okay, sweetie." Brandon was pulled into an embrace by his mom, who soothingly rubbed his back. He closed his eyes and cried into her arm, provoking the woman to glower at Edith. "Look how upset you've made him! Are you happy now!?"
Not one to be frightened by an angry adult, the tomboy held her hands out and glowered back.
"I DIDN'T push him!"
Lucy's head sprung out of her book when she heard Edith shout. Her eyes almost burst from her skull when she saw the woman from earlier yelling at her. At almost chemical reaction speed, she dropped the book and jumped from the bench like a shot.
The woman didn't take kindly to the child's aggressive response. "He said you did, so I believe him!"
"What's going on!?" Lucy appeared from behind Edith to stand beside her daughter at a hurricane's pace. Her shoulders instinctively stiffened, like she was ready to protect her from the devil themself.
Both Brandon and his mom were startled by her arrival, but it didn't take long for the young boy to return to his cries for sympathy. That instructed the woman to continue berating Edith.
"Is this your daughter!?" She questioned irately, standing up straight. Lucy's significant height advantage meant that she was still craning her neck to look down at her, ensuring that she was far from intimidated.
"Uhh, yeah?"
"Well, your daughter just pushed my son!" She looked down at Brandon as she yelled, who was inspecting his left leg, which had been causing him discomfort. She noticed a small scrape on his shin, which in turn, boosted the volume of her yelling instantly. "Look what she did! He's bleeding!"
Brandon, almost on cue, exaggerated his crying when he realized his mom's attention was placed on him again. "It hurts! She pushed me on purpose!"
Lucy looked down at the little boy as he entered the heated conversation. She raised an eyebrow at his yell.
"I didn't, I didn't do ANYTHING!"
At the sound of her furious voice, however, Lucy swiftly put her attention on Edith.
The pink-adorned girl was glaring up at her, desperation swimming in her eyes. Her yell wasn't just filled with anger, there was also a good heap of fear in her tone as well. That made Lucy raise her other eyebrow. Edith was a girl who took nonsense from no one, that was an obvious fact about her. The idea of her pushing a boy was far from off the cards. However, another fact about her was that such an act would probably fill her with pride.
Lucy knew Edith wasn't a mean kid. She only got into fights when kids were being mean to her. So, when she pushed someone, she knew the girl was proud of herself for giving someone who had been annoying her their comeuppance…
"Are you calling him a liar!?" Brandon's mom regathered Lucy and Edith's attention. Eyes irately glued on the AVL agent, she continued charging on the offensive. "You should put that BRAT on a leash!"
When that sentence left her mouth, Lucy froze on the spot and glared at her in silence for a lengthy period of time.
Despite not moving a muscle in either her face or body, Brandon's mom could tell that she may have overstepped the line, just from the feeling in the air. The rage in her face, while subject to Lucy's suddenly cold demeanor, began to diminish. Edith responded to the insult by vehemently balling her fists together, instincts telling her to unleash some ninja moves on the woman. However, she held herself back, opting to simply look up at her mom instead…
That's why it shocked all three of them when Lucy started to laugh as if she'd just heard a hearty joke.
"Ya think!? Okay, understood. Y'know, this is kinda off topic and all, but I've been working at the AVL for a little while and I've spent a lot of that time in combat training." She stepped forward and reached into her pocket as she spoke, in order to fish out her lipstick taser. Realizing that it was upside down, she quickly flipped it 180 degrees and gave a somewhat embarrassed smile. "Whoops! Sorry…"
That smile instantly faded when she flicked the lid of the lipstick off. Every ounce of anger in the woman's face died when she saw the tip spark.
"Insult my daughter again and I'll show you every last moment of it…"
The threatening statement, along with the venomous expression, frightened Brandon's mom more than she ever could've anticipated. Looks like that feeling in the air wasn't lying. She'd definitely overstepped the line, with definitely the wrong person. Tugging at her son's arm, she very quickly spun around and excused them both from the confrontation.
However, Lucy wasn't quite finished yet.
"Oh, and by the way!" She called. The mom paused and turned back in fear, but thankfully, that bitter venom in Lucy's eyes was no longer present. "From one mother to another, pay more attention to your kid. Then, maybe he'll stop lying to you to get some."
The woman raised an eyebrow and looked down at Brandon, who under the scrutiny of his mother's interrogating gaze, guiltily turned away to stare at the floor. Frowning, she briefly glanced up at Lucy in frustration, before pulling him away with a huff.
"Come on, let's go…"
Lucy continued to watch after them for a few beats, head shaking in disappointment. Obviously, she wasn't about to start throwing out combat moves at a civilian in a local park, but it was good to know that she could still pose a convincing threat when required. Nobody called Edith a brat, especially when she'd done nothing wrong.
"Well…" Turning back around, she smiled and put a hand on her waist. "Wasn't that fun?"
Edith, who was still irritated by the situation, angled her head up to stare at her. "I promise I never pushed him! He just fell over and blamed it on me!"
"No need to tell me, kiddo." Lucy kneeled to the tomboy's level, so she didn't need to crane her neck up in such a panicked way. "I know you didn't."
The young girl raised a puzzled eyebrow. "You do?"
"Yep. I'd know if you were lying to me. I can tell by looking in those pretty eyes." She put a hand on her shoulder warmly, an act that made a smile crawl across the middle child's lips. "Besides, if you'd actually pushed him, he'd have a lot more than a tiny cut on his leg, right?"
Edith giggled at the little compliment and nodded proudly. After which, the nine-year-old watched her mom for a few beats, grinning from ear to ear. Eventually though, her eyes were drawn to the other side of the park, where Brandon's mom was angrily collecting their things to leave.
"I was totally expecting you to kick her butt."
Lucy followed her daughter's gaze and shrugged.
"Eh, there was no need." Her attention swayed past the mother, focusing instead on Brandon. He was loudly complaining about having to leave, but each yell was clearly falling on deaf ears. She sympathized with him; being ignored can make you do some pretty silly things. At that thought, she turned back to Edith with a loving smile, who was still watching them in interest. "Her only crime was not knowing her children."
It was at this point that two pairs of excited footsteps came barreling towards them. They both looked behind to see Margo and Agnes approaching at speed, the eldest of whom ran up to the swing. Agnes, on the other hand, crawled in between Lucy and Edith to gaze up at her mom in her usual explosive excitement.
"Mom! Can you push me on the swing!?"
Looking down at her, the AVL agent smiled and nodded.
"Of course, I will, sweetie."
As usual, if you choose to review, it's deeply appreciated!
