Hi all! I'm back with yet another DM fanfiction. Only this time, I'm committing to multiple chapters for once! Woo-hoo!

I wrote this little story about ten years ago when I was a little angsty teen. As a result, I'm heavily editing it as I go before uploading. However, I'd say it still retains a little spark of my old writing style, and I left the plot mostly unchanged. The main change involves toning down the fluff and cutting out unnecessary detail. While I love me some Grucy, younger me wrote a LOT of generic romantic drabble that wasn't necessary to the story-nor in character, haha. I'm still keeping some sweet Grucy moments, but I'm trying to make them a bit more realistic.

Also - I thought now was the perfect time to release this, since if I was going to imagine this in the timeline, it'd be set not long before DM4 :)

I hope you enjoy this little decade-old glimpse into my imagination!

Despicable Me: Father's Day

Lucy Wilde tossed in bed for the thousandth time that morning, burrowing deeper under the covers. This time, her tossing and turning left her facing her husband, who snored peacefully beside her. Despite her annoyance at herself for failing to get out of bed once again, Lucy couldn't help but allow a small smile to creep across her face.

Gru was so adorable while he slept, especially when a big mission the day before absolutely knocked him out cold.

Which it had.

Lucy sighed quietly enough to avoid waking Gru. The thought of yesterday's mission made her even more reluctant to leave the warmth of the bed and her husband, but she couldn't delay much longer. Picturing the look of delight she'd soon witness on Gru's face, she heaved herself up out of bed.

Now eager to wake the girls and begin carrying out their (significantly less high-stakes, but still important) mission, Lucy skittered down the hall beaming her usual grin. She swung open the door to the girls' bedroom without regard for the creak in it.

The sight that greeted her abruptly stopped her in her tracks.

Agnes clutched Fluffy the unicorn in the crook of her arm, sucking her thumb with the other. Margo's hand rested under her cheek. Half of Edith's body hung limply off the bomb bed, and she snored loudly enough to rival Gru.

Lucy gazed at the sleeping faces with sparkling eyes, nearly forgetting about the mission entirely.

They undid her without doing anything at all. Some days she still couldn't believe she got to be their mom.

But, before long, thinking about being a mom prompted Lucy to think about Gru, and she remembered the task at hand. Collecting her wits and revising her original plan of waking the girls in an abrupt fashion, Lucy crept over to Margo's bed first. Kneeling next to the bed, she stroked her eldest daughter's brown ponytail softly.

"Margo."

Margo stirred, blinked a few times, and reached for her glasses. Her eyes sparkled back at Lucy.

"Morning, Mom."

Lucy's heart fluttered.

She'd always dreamed of one of the girls calling her that when she and Gru were dating, and now that she and Gru were married, she had heard them each let the name slip a few times. Embracing the moment, she wrapped her arms around Margo in response.

"Good morning, sweetie! Ready for our plan?"

"Yup—Agnes is gonna be excited, too. Good luck getting Edith up, though."

Lucy glanced over at the blonde, who currently laid in a sizeable puddle of drool.

Opting for the easier choice first, Lucy gently rubbed Agnes' back. "Agnes! Hey, Agnes, do you want to help us make breakfast for Dad?"

Agnes' chocolate brown eyes cracked open. "It's Father's Day!" Agnes smiled toothily and dove into Lucy's arms.

Lucy laughed and reciprocated the hug. "It sure is…and your dad's breakfast wouldn't be complete if you didn't help!"

Agnes pulled back from Lucy slightly. "'Course I'll help! This is gonna be the best Father's Day ever!"

"The greatest." Lucy smiled to herself. She couldn't wait to see the look on Gru's face this afternoon. She had so much planned, and the first thing she needed to make it all happen was her helpful little girls. "But to make it really great, we have lots of things to do. Aaand…we need Edith."

Slowly Lucy removed Agnes from her lap and inched towards Edith's bed. The blonde's pink beanie was pulled over her eyes, and pools of drool dotted her pillowcase. Lucy couldn't help but lovingly smirk at the sleeping girl, but the second she thought about waking her, she winced.

"You're a freaking AVL agent," Lucy muttered to herself, "you can wake up a—"

"Best way is to just get it over with," Margo interjected, rudely poking her sister. "Edith!"

"UGH!" moaned Edith.

"Edith, wake up."

Lucy stifled a laugh at her blonde daughter's protests. She could spend forever lingering like this with her girls. But her thoughts drifted back to her husband, who was sleeping peacefully down the hall. This was Gru's day to receive attention from the girls.

Lucy prepared to put her foot down and get Edith out of bed once and for all, but then Edith groaned a bit and sat up. She brushed her beanie out of her eyes, and, surprising everybody, she hopped out of bed. "Well?"

"Well, what?" Margo crossed her arms.

"Well…? Are you guys ready for the plan?"

Lucy laughed. "Of course we are. We thought you'd be the one snoozing, blondie."

"Not today! Let's move, people!"

Giggling uncontrollably, the team scampered down the winding halls of the Gru mansion. But Lucy dug in her heels when they approached Gru's room, prompting the trio of girls behind her to stop short. Smiling, Lucy held a finger to her lips. They couldn't wake Gru up just yet.

Not without the feast they had planned.

When the four entered the kitchen, the giddy laughter resumed.

"Okay, okay!" exclaimed Margo. "Lucy—what first?!"

"First…um…yeah…what first?" Lucy bit her lip. Truth was, she didn't have the first clue how Gru made breakfasts that put diners across the nation to shame. Her pancakes always ended up in choppy pieces that resembled scrambled eggs. Her bacon always tasted more like beef jerky. "Uh," Lucy said finally, "Well, you could make toast. You can use the toaster, right?"

Margo returned the question with a blank stare. "Of course I can use the toaster, Lucy."

Lucy gulped. "Oh, right—sorry!" She laughed nervously and turned her attention to her other daughters, avoiding insulting Margo further. "Edith and Agnes…," Lucy paused to open the fridge and pull out some strawberries. "Can you wash and cut these for me? Agnes, you can wash, and Edith can cut. Just…don't use the sharpest knife."

"Pfft, please. I could cut these with my katana and be fine." But Edith smiled to herself. She wouldn't ever show it, but she secretly liked it when Lucy demonstrated motherly concern.

"While you guys do that-," Lucy scratched the back of her neck, "I'll have to figure out how to make pancakes." She glanced sideways at her girls and laughed.

"Finally!" exclaimed Lucy after flipping the sixth (but only second edible) pancake she'd made that day. "Two decent pancakes." Lucy sighed, proud of herself.

Agnes leaned over to examine Lucy's handiwork and nodded in approval. "They look like Gru's! Good job, Mom!"

There was that word again.

"Thanks, sweetheart." She kissed Agnes on the head. "I think they could use some…some touch-ups, though."

Edith glanced over. "How 'bout banan—,"

"DON'T SAY IT," Margo hissed, detecting the sounds of minionese in the next room.

Edith narrowed her eyes. "But we have plenty of them." She creaked open a cabinet to unveil a massive supply.

Margo surged past her. "Then don't say, just do."

Margo tore a banana off the nearest bunch, peeled it, sliced it, and began arranging the slices neatly in a circle on top of the stack of pancakes.

Suddenly Lucy noticed the squeak of a shoe on the tile floor. Her eyes widened with realization. "Uh, Margo? I don't mean to alarm you, but—you've got an audience."

"BA-NAN-AAAAAA!"

Chaos ensued in the kitchen. The tiny frames of around twenty minions blended into an indistinguishable yellow ball as minion tackled minion in hopes of securing the coveted fruit. Margo toppled off the stool she'd been standing on, and Lucy instinctively dove right into the mayhem to catch her. Stuart went so far as to snatch the spatula out of Lucy's hand and begin beating a fellow minion.

"WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE?"

Lucy and the girls whipped around to see Gru appear in the entryway, just as mashed banana hurdled in that direction. The sticky substance slapped his face and drooped over his eyebrow. Gru frowned.

"Uhumm…surprise?" Lucy grinned at her husband sheepishly. The chaos dwindled as the minions beheld the looming form of their grumpy boss.

Lucy inched over to Gru and smirked maliciously. "Here—I'll get it…" Lucy started rubbing the banana off her husband's face playfully. "Oh…it's…it's just spreading…"

"Haha, very funny," said Gru flatly, but he cracked a smile.

Lucy stopped mid-rub to lean in and kiss him, banana and all.

"E-ew!" Edith wrinkled her nose and buried her face in Carl's head. "I'm gonna have to move down to the lab with you guys if they keep this up."

Smiling, Gru reciprocated the kiss. Then his brow furrowed as he noticed the tray on the table. Despite being sprinkled with banana chunks, it remained mostly intact. "What's all this?"

"It's your Father's Day breakfast!" Agnes beamed.

Upon closer examination, Gru found a note that would have confirmed the same.

Happy Father's Day! XOXO, Lucy, Margo, Edith, and Agnes.

The girls started giggling uncontrollably and rushed to hug their father. Gru bent down and scooped the three of them up in his arms, kissing them each on the head.

"Thank you, kittens."

Gru gently set his daughters down on the ground, and they scrambled up into the booth. "And thank you, Lucy."

Lucy walked over and leaned on his shoulder, smiling contentedly. "Anytime, partner."

Gru sat down and began digging into his almost-cold pancakes. He smirked a little, patting the space beside him for Lucy to sit down. "Did you make these?"

"Yeah…why? Did you think I couldn't? I'm not that incompetent!"

"No! That's not what I'm saying, it's just…," Gru sliced through the pancake with a knife to reveal raw pancake batter.

"Aww, man!"

Lucy slapped her face with her palm before pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration, a habit she'd picked up from Gru. After a few moments in that position, she studied the pancakes with an intense frown.

Gru's eyes widened slightly as he examined his wife's reaction. "Lucy, it's really okay. There are a lot worse things than a little raw pancake batter."

But her expression had shifted entirely. Before, he'd found her face flushed from standing in the warm kitchen and from her frustration over the pancakes. But now, all the color had drained from her face. Gripping her mouth with her hand, Lucy muffled a small gag, leaping out of the booth slightly.

Gru's eyes enlarged further. "Are you okay?"

Lucy stood silently for a few seconds, her hand still cupped around her mouth. The girls exchanged worried glances. Their mother rarely demonstrated any form of weakness. Besides, if Lucy got sick, phase two of the plan would be a lot more difficult to pull off.

Finally Lucy took a deep breath and offered her family a wobbly smile. "Yeah, yeah—I'm all right! Don't worry, I just…whew! Those botched pancakes were really bumming me out, that's all." Lucy let out a small chuckle and then cleared her throat. "Well, girls? Are you ready for…you know what?"

Edith and Agnes nodded in excitement. Margo eyed Lucy suspiciously for a few moments, but soon gave into her mom and sisters' enthusiasm.

Gru blinked. "What?"

"We gotta pick up—," began Agnes.

"Shh," said Margo. "We have to go out and make some…arrangements."

Gru feigned woundedness. "You're going to leave me here all by myself on Father's Day?"

Agnes, the family empath, folded her hands in front of her heart and looked at her father with sad eyes. "Just for a little bit…we'll be back, I promise!"

Gru smiled warmly and patted her head, warmed by his youngest daughter's missing his joke.

"Actually, you won't be by yourself," said Edith, gesturing to the cluster of minions who'd navigated to the neighboring room after the banana incident.

"Yeah," Lucy cut in, "we were thinking maybe you could do some fun guy stuff with the minions for a little while. I bet they're a riot to play laser tag with."

The minionese chatter in the next room grew louder in excited response.

The girls' eyes lit up. That sounded like fun.

Lucy saw their excitement and decided to tone her suggestions down a notch. "Or," she chuckled, "y'know, something less fun like trying out that new weapon—,"

Edith cocked her head. "That doesn't sound less—,"

"Okay, well if you all insist that you want me gone," Gru teased, "I'll go down to the lab and see if—,"

"No!" Lucy exclaimed.

Her husband looked at her in surprise. "I thought you wanted me to go…?"

"I mean…I do, but—you need to finish eating before your food gets colder than it already is. I'll go down there and see who else wants to come along."

"Lucy…are you sure? You look a little sick and well, honestly, you're acting kind of weird."

"Yep—I'm sure, honey—you keep eating."

Gru eyed her suspiciously as she strode out of the room, then glanced at the girls and shrugged helplessly.

"OKAY GIRLS, LET'S GO!"

Lucy reemerged with Lance, Kevin, Dave, and Tim. Before entering the kitchen, she bent down and whispered, "Remember, guys, whatever you do, don't let Gru come back here until four. That's when the party starts. You've gotta keep him out until then, no matter what he says, okay? I'll see you fellas later."

Lucy waved them into the kitchen and followed behind quickly.

"There you are," said Gru, and Lucy noticed a hint of concern in his eyes. She felt awful for worrying him, but she couldn't bring herself to forgo the surprise.

Smiling, Gru speared the last bit of (edible) pancake onto his fork and popped it into his mouth. "All right, guys," he said, turning towards the minions, "We can go now—that is, if Lucy's okay with that."

"Yeah, I'm fine, Gru."

"Are you sure? You could stay—I really don't need anything big…,"

He spoke so softly and earnestly that Lucy nearly relented. But the minions had already worked so hard on setting up most of the surprise party down in the lab, and she would have to call a whole lot of shops in Paradise Mall to cancel her orders…

Lucy wrapped Gru's scarf around his neck and gave him a peck on the lips. "I know you don't need it; we want to do this for you. You guys have an amazing time, okay?"

Gru smiled and sighed, knowing Lucy had made up her mind. "Okay. We will see you later then."

"All right, girls," said Lucy once they were in the car. "The mission begins now." She put on her best enthusiastic face and held out her fist. The girls piled theirs on top of hers.

"Go team!" Lucy shouted, breaking them apart and turning the key in the ignition. The girls cheered.

Operation Father's Day launched.