I was sitting around the house doing nothing today when this little idea popped in my head. Don't know where it came from, but here it is.
This is set towards the end of Despicable Me 2, somewhere in the midst of Gru and Lucy's 147 dates. To be a little more specific, sometime before they got engaged or chose to move in together.
Hope you enjoy!
2. Finger Guns
"Persistent heavy downpours and borderline hurricane-force winds are expected to last the next few days right across town. Long or unnecessary trips are not recommended, and if it's possible, citizens are advised to stay inside."
The strong pitter-patter sound coming from the roof was well-enough to prove the weatherman wasn't lying. That and the view behind the window, which the girls were staring out of with frustrated expressions.
"It's really coming down, huh..." Agnes said, as she arched her head upwards to catch a glimpse of the dark grey clouds. They seemed to expand far beyond the horizon, as if someone placed an infinitely long blanket across the earth.
"Uh-huh. When am I gonna practice my ninja moves now?" Edith moaned, begrudgingly planting her head into her crossed arms, as she sat beside the window with a frown. "This totally sucks..."
"Well, not for some of us." Gru spoke with a coy smile, as he entered the living room. The three sisters turned to face their father with perplexed looks, as he practically skipped over to the couch. "De timeeng of dis rain ees absolutely perfect!"
"What are you talking about?" Margo questioned, arching her brow a little.
"Well, weeth all dis bad weather, de AVL have called a raincheck on our next mission..." As he spoke, his eyes caught another view of the almost blinding coat of rain from outside the window, practically transforming the front lawn into a marshland. "...literally."
"But I thought you enjoyed your AVL job?"
"I do, I do! But since dis rain has trapped us all inside today, dis ees de perfect chance for me to work on de grow ray, especially after yesterday's events." With a stern frown, he turned to face a nearby gang of minions, a few of whom were only a few inches tall. They looked up at him innocently, as if there was absolutely nothing wrong with their little group at all. "Out of all de weapons een de lab to fight weeth, yoo choose de shreenk ray."
"Boomba felley eel." One of them replied, shrugging.
"I don't care eef eet was fun, don't do eet again!" Gru yelled after roughly sighing with annoyance. "Why can't yoo guys just steeck weeth de rocket launchers?"
"Wait, you're working in the lab all day?" Edith exclaimed, a touch of sadness in her voice as she slowly lifted her head out of her arms.
"Well, dat's where all de tools are, so eet would appear dat way."
"But...but what are we meant to do? Today's gonna be super boring without you."
"Ah, well, dat's where I've got yoo covered. Seence all of de AVL missions have been called off, Lucy hasn't got much else to do today, so-" At that point, the sound of the front door practically crashing open and shut interrupted him, as if it had been timed for that exact moment. "...here she ees now."
Sure enough, when he walked back out into the hallway, his thoroughly soaked girlfriend stood near the door, hanging up her drenched light blue coat on the coat-rack.
"Jeez..." She spoke through harsh gasps, her nose and hair dripping like a broken tap. "Since when could clouds hold that much water?"
"Y'know, yoo deedn't have to come over eef yoo deedn't want to." Gru said, approaching her with a chuckle. "De weatherman deed advise people to stay inside..."
"Oh, come on, Gru. I've had a fight with a villain halfway up Mount Everest in the middle of one of the fiercest snowstorms to ever grace the planet." She replied, shrugging as she removed her scarf, which was equally as wet as her other articles of clothing. "You really think a little rain's gonna hurt me?"
"Good point." He chuckled, as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and placed a kiss on her dampened cheeks. "Sometimes I forget how cool yoo really are."
"Not as cool as you, Mr. Moon Stealer." Lucy replied, responding with a kiss of her own. The couple shared a short but very sweet hug in the hallway, despite the fact that Lucy was as soaked as a wet sponge. "Anyways, I'm sure I didn't almost drown in raindrops just for a hug and a kiss. Was there something you needed?"
"Oh, well...see, I was planneeng on workeeng down een de lab all day and...seence de rain has trapped dem een de house...I was wondereeng eef yoo could maybe give de gurls some company for a few hours." Lucy's face almost instantly brightened up, but with his nerves suddenly acting up a little, it appeared Gru was having trouble deciphering her reaction correctly. "Ees...ees dat okay?"
"LUCY!"
At that moment, Agnes came sprinting out of the living room and over to the redhead at an almost blistering pace, where she climbed up and tightly wrapped her little arms around her neck. Within a few seconds, her two sisters followed and did the same to her legs, instantly trapping her in place with giggles and smiles.
"Well..." Lucy spoke, chuckling as she lovingly wrapped her arms around Agnes in return. "Looks like I don't have much of a choice..."
Lucy and the girls sat quietly on the crocodile couch in the living room, watching the TV in silence. For the last hour, the same re-runs of the cartoon that was on every week were being shown in succession, and with each new minute, they were falling more and more into boredom. Even the always-full-of-energy Agnes was practically falling asleep on Lucy's lap, proving truly how tedious this was becoming.
After letting out her fourth yawn in the past five minutes, Margo decided that she'd had enough, and moved over to grab the remote control from the coffee table.
"Right, that's it." She pressed the big red button and shut off the screen, immediately directing everyone's attention towards her. "Can we do something else?"
"Yeah, sure." Lucy shrugged, giving the bespectacled girl a smile. "What do you have in mind?"
"Ooo, ooo, can we play unicorns!?" Agnes chirped, jumping onto her feet in sudden excitement.
"Ugh...no, Agnes!" Edith groaned, slumping back further into the couch. Considering how tiresome the cartoons were becoming, she originally thought it wasn't possible to slip any further back. But, the mention of unicorns certainly proved that theory wrong...
"Why not!?" The six-year-old sulked, crossing her arms unhappily.
"Because we always play unicorns! Either that or stupid board games!"
"You don't have to play with us, Edith." Margo argued, putting her hands on her hips. "Nobody's forcing you."
"Well, I would play with the minions, but half of them are like that!" The tomboy pointed down at the armrest beside her, where a shrunken Tim smiled up at them and waved. Lucy chuckled in confusion and waved back, deciding it would be better to not question it. The Gru household was much funnier without questions. "So, what else am I supposed to do!?"
"Look, it's either unicorns or nothing, Edith!" Margo snapped, tired of this same old argument. Obviously, she loved her sister to death, but if there was one trait she held that she could get rid of, she would happily remove her persistent complaining.
Sighing with ire, the nine-year-old crossed her arms and turned away, putting her head down to look at the floor.
"Nobody ever listens to me."
At that point, Lucy picked up more sadness in her voice than anger, and with that realization, she knew she would have to get involved. Growing up in the orphanage, nobody ever really listened to her or did what she wanted to do either, mainly because most of the other kids there were either flat out bullies or simply just disliked her. Seeing Edith upset in this way made her feel fairly defensive for her.
Of course though, it was pretty obvious that Margo and Agnes weren't intentionally upsetting her in the same way that her old bullies used to, but that didn't mean it was right to keep doing so...
"Wait, wait, hold up here a second." Lucy spoke softly, raising her hands as if to halt the situation. Clearly confused, Margo and Agnes looked up at her inquisitively, unsure what she was going to say. "Girls, when was the last time you did what Edith wanted to do?"
Exchanging glances between Lucy and her younger sister, Margo's face dropped a little and she shrugged slightly.
"Well, I...I can't remember."
"So, does that seem very fair?"
"No, b-but...we used to do what she wanted, but everything usually involved pain. Like the time we played 'shelf climbers' and Agnes almost broke her arm. Or the time we played 'the fastest lawnmower' and we almost ran over Kyle. And don't even get me started on 'can you survive the mace'!"
Letting out a little sigh, Lucy turned to Edith and put a hand on her shoulder, inviting her attention.
"What'd you fancy doing then, kiddo? Preferably something that doesn't involve danger or...y'know...possible death."
Turning to her two sisters, who were both giving her quite apprehensive expressions, the tomboy dropped her head in thought and considered for a few seconds. Choosing something from her bank of ideas that didn't involve danger was pretty difficult, but eventually, she fell upon one that seemed to fit the criteria pretty well.
"Can we play finger guns?"
"Finger guns?" Agnes inquired. "What's finger guns?"
"Well, we just use our fingers like guns and we go around pretending to shoot each other," She explained, extending her fingers out in the shape of a gun. "And if you get shot then you're out."
"Hmm...well, that does actually sound kinda fun..." Margo replied, shrugging with a small smile. "...and safe."
"Also, why don't we split up into teams?" Lucy suggested, noticing how much Agnes was struggling with turning her fingers into a gun. Considering that, there probably wasn't much of a chance she would survive on her own. "You and Margo join up, and I'll go with Agnes."
"Yeah! Okay!" Agnes screeched, leaping back up onto Lucy's lap. She turned to her two sisters with a threatening smile, something that was just more cute than actually threatening, and made a little evil laugh. "You guys are gonna go down!"
"Nuh-uh, we'll see about that." Margo responded, as she laughed and ran out of the room, Agnes leaping down to the floor and chasing after her a few moments later. Before Edith stood up and did the same, she quickly turned and wrapped her arms around Lucy's shoulders, smiling up at her.
"Thanks, Lucy."
After a moment, she let go and ran in pursuit of her sisters, giggling as she disappeared out of the room. Before she would most definitely do the same, Lucy simply sat there, staring forward with a smile.
She recalled that moment a few days ago at their restaurant date, when Gru told her that she would be an absolutely great mother. After mentioning it, he seemed to splutter a little and blush, as if he'd made some sort of mistake that she couldn't really identify. Either way, looking at how she handled that...
...maybe he wasn't far from the truth.
An eerie silence filled the upstairs hallway. Occasionally, a distant shuffle could be heard, immediately alerting the two figures who were carefully making their way down it. As she neared an open doorway, Lucy jolted forward and spun to investigate the room behind it, in search of one of the two little girls in hiding.
Not a soul in sight. Which begged the question, where was the shuffling coming from?
As Lucy peeled her eyes and carefully examined every inch of the room, Agnes tip-toed over and hid behind Lucy's back, giggling to herself happily as she held onto her shoulders. Turning to her with a smile, Lucy placed a finger on her lips and indicated for the small girl to be quiet, but after witnessing Agnes slap a hand on her mouth and make muffled laugh sounds, Lucy couldn't help but break out a giggle of her own.
But then, at that moment, the sound of an object falling to the hard floor struck the air, immediately attracting their attention. They weren't 100% sure, but they could've sworn it came from the study...
Giving each other a nod, mixed in with one final giggle, the two crept towards the aforementioned room at a slow and steady pace, still keeping a close eye and ear out for other sights or sounds. Eventually, the two made it over to the slightly open study door, and as she sucked in her breath to avoid making any more noise, Lucy peeked her head through. Sure enough, laying there on the floor, were a pair of black nunchucks.
Those could only belong to one person...
"Okay, here's the plan..." Lucy whispered quietly, as Agnes leaned in forward so she could hear her. "You go in and try to drag Edith out of her hiding spot, and once she has, I'll jump out and get her. Understand?"
"Uh-huh. Uh-huh." Agnes replied, nodding her head at speed as she trudged her way into the study. As she entered the room, the six-year-old narrowed her eyes and pointed her finger gun forward, searching for any trace of her older sister.
Unfortunately, when Edith finally did reveal herself, Agnes was looking in the wrong direction, and by that point, it was over.
"BANG!" She exclaimed, as she leapt from behind the desk and pretended to shoot her finger gun, which was aimed right in her little sister's direction. "Ha! Got you, Agnes!"
After realizing that she'd indeed been pretend shot, the six-year-old at first looked down at the floor and frowned in a sulk, but after a moment of remembering her plan with Lucy, looked back up at Edith with an evil smile. Confused, Edith raised her brow and returned an odd look.
"Why are you looking at me like th-"
"BANG!"
To her shock, the study door flung open at speed, and before she could decipher what was even happening, she was shot by an ecstatic Lucy.
"Got you!" The redhead exclaimed, smiling down at the nine-year-old, who crossed her arms and sighed in frustration.
"Ugh...you did." She groaned, flinging her arms to her sides unhappily. "Looks like I'm out. Why didn't I see that coming?"
Now, she may not have known the girls for an exceptionally long amount of time, but she'd had enough experience with them to know when they were faking or lying. And judging with Edith's tone of voice and pretend irritated expression, she knew something was up...
That was pretty much confirmed when a soft footstep sounded behind her, making her instantly spin and catch Margo just as she jumped from behind the doorframe.
"BANG!" They cried in unison, shooting each other at the exact same time. Their eyes widened slightly in surprise when they realized what happened, and before they could react, a loud cheer sounded from behind them.
"Yayyyyyy! Lucy, we won!" Agnes bellowed, as she jumped up and down on the spot.
"What are you talking about!?" Edith argued, holding out her arms in disagreement. "Margo shot her first! We won!"
"Nuh-uh!" Agnes exclaimed in response. "Lucy shot her first!"
Seeing where this was going, Lucy and Margo shared a look and rolled their eyes, before the AVL agent intercepted things before it got out of hand.
"Okay, okay, let's just call it a draw. That way, everybody wins." She said, chuckling. "Now how about we order a pizza? I dunno about you, but I'm starving."
Seeing food as a reasonable compromise, the two sisters turned to each other with a semi-serious frown and stuck out their tongues, before leaving the room without any commotion. As they disappeared down the hallway, Margo nodded and gave Lucy a smile, seeming quite impressed.
"Well done."
"What for?" Lucy replied, returning the smile.
"Well, dad used to struggle a lot with those two when they started squabbling, and it took him months to realize that food was the best way to make them get along. How did you figure that out so quick?"
As she watched the two girls descend down the stairs, Lucy shrugged and broke out into a humorous smirk.
"Well, I guess great minds think alike."
Gru exited the lab elevator with a yawn and a stretch, both his muscles and eyes tired from the excessive work. It was certainly worth it though, since the grow ray was now fully complete, and any more future shrink mishaps can be rectified pretty easily.
Sure enough, nobody was present in the living room, evident by the fact that the elevator actually worked. For safety precautions, if somebody was inside the living room, it would always disable itself. Since there was obviously no need for it before, that was a feature he added not too long after the girls arrived permanently, for reasons that don't need explaining.
Out of curiosity, he looked up at the clock and checked the time, which currently displayed '9:45PM'. The girls were supposed to be in bed 15-minutes ago, but knowing them, they probably found a way to persuade Lucy into staying up later. He didn't necessarily have a problem with that. He just enjoyed seeing Lucy bond with them, even if it would result in tired faces the next day.
However, when he entered the hallway, he quickly realized just how quiet it was in the house. Oddly quiet. Even if the girls were asleep, Lucy's bubbly attitude and energetic way of life still made some sort of noise, even if she was just walking through the upstairs hallway.
He immediately grew concerned. He knew things were probably fine and that he was stressing over nothing, but whenever he was met with this deathly silence inside of his usually very loud house, something in the back of his head always provoked worry. He hated it, and because of that, grew to hate silence as well.
Before he made his way upstairs, he decided to check in the kitchen, just in case they decided to have a late-night snack and was hence too busy eating to talk or make noise. But when he was met with a pizza box on the table, of which still held one slice of pizza atop it, his heart-rate almost trebled.
The girls never left pizza...
Now freaked out, Gru ran back out the kitchen and made his way for the upstairs. Did something happen while he was gone? Did one of his old villain enemies break in to hurt him? Did Vector come back to enact his revenge after returning from the moon? He didn't know the answers, and because of that, couldn't help but become totally petrified.
But...
He knew right from the beginning that he was indeed worrying over nothing, since when he practically threw open the girls' bedroom door in a panic, there laid his girlfriend and his daughters in the middle of the floor, cuddling each other atop a large pillow.
Upon laying his eyes on this adorable sight, not only did his heart-rate slowdown, but his heart itself pretty much melted in his chest. They all seemed so comfortable and happy laying there, that disturbing their sleep seemed like an impossible challenge. Thankfully, his panic-induced burst into the room didn't seem to wake the girls.
Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for his redhead girlfriend, who slowly stirred a little and looked up at him in confusion after a few seconds.
"Woah, big guy..." She spoke softly and quietly, giving him a weak, fatigued smile. "What's with the grand entrance?"
"O-Oh...u-uh...sorry..." He replied, chuckling nervously. "I...I was just a bit worried, dat's all."
"Worried?" Lucy questioned, as she slowly sat up from the pillow, trying her hardest not to disturb the girls. "Worried about what?"
"Well...eet was really, really quiet een here..." He replied, rubbing the back of his neck, something Lucy noticed he always did when he felt embarrassed. "And...and dere was a slice of peeza left downstairs..."
"A slice of pizza?" Lucy replied, her light chuckle now evolving into a quiet laugh. "What, were you worried that its life goal of being eaten wasn't achieved?"
"Come on, yoo know de gurls love peeza. I can't remember de last time peeza survived more dan ten meenutes een dis house." His head now fell a little, a clear expression of discontent on his face. "I thought...y'know...seence eet had been left dere, dat...sometheeng might've...happened to yoo."
Lucy found it extremely adorable how worried he got over the girls, and even her for that matter. She'd seen so many little things trigger deep worry within him, but I think a slice of pizza has certainly topped that cake. It was obvious he loved his little girls so much, to the point where he was as dependable on them as they were on him.
Growing up, she'd always longed for someone to depend on her like that.
Judging on how worried this amazing man looked right now, it was safe to say she'd found that someone.
Strutting over to him, Lucy wrapped her arms right around his neck, as he looked up at her with a faint smile.
"You know, you look so cute when you're worried." She spoke, as she planted a kiss on his cheek. "We should have rainstorms more often."
Chuckling, Gru returned the kiss and softly moved past her, his eyes fixed on his comotosed daughters.
"Right, after I get dese kids een dere beds..." He spoke, turning to face her with a huge smile spread firmly across his face. "How about we go downstairs and watch a movie?"
"Ooo, yes! We can watch 'The Love Will Never Die' again!"
"Ugh, not dat mushy tripe." Gru groaned, rolling his eyes in apparent disgust. "Can't we watch sometheeng weeth more...I dunno...action een eet?"
"Nope. BANG!" Lucy extended her fingers out and pretend shot Gru in the leg, leaving him to stand there with a perplexed expression on his face. "And now you're out, so you don't get a choice."
Unsure of how to reply, Gru looked her up and down for a few seconds, as she stood there with an evil smirk, her arms still out extended and her fingers still forming the shape of a gun. After letting out a small chuckle, Gru shook his head and smiled widely, something Lucy couldn't help but reciprocate.
"Yoo're so weird, Lucy Wilde." He spoke, catching a glimpse of a minion walking down the hallway, one of his shrunken friends sitting on his shoulders.
"Yoo'll fit een pretty well here..."
So there we are. Just something a little cute that I fancied writing. Hope you liked it.
If you decide to review, it's appreciated :)