Well here it is. At 9am Christmas morning. The final chapter and it is GOOD! Read on! Unless, of course, you're opening presents like I'm about to do! (:

Seven Days of Christmas, a Despicable Me fanfiction

Chapter Seven: Saturday, December 25, Christmas Day!

The girls awoke bright and early and hurried into their father's bedroom. Like little wolves attacking their prey, the threesome pounced onto Gru's bed with grinning faces. Much to their disappointment and confusion, however, it was empty. No Daddy lay under the covers, unsuspecting of his ecstatic children that would have landed on him had he, in fact, been there.

"Aw, where is he?" Edith questioned to no one in particular as she sat on her feet on the soft comforter, which was very contradicting to the deadly, not-so-soft spiked headboard.

Margo tilted her head slightly. "That's weird."

Agnes, who had landed on the bed in a position like a crouched animal, stood up with her unicorn stuffy and searched the room from her advantageous vantage point. But still, there was no Daddy in sight. "Where could he be?" she asked Margo sweetly.

Shrugging and shaking her head, Margo responded, "Maybe he's downstairs, you know, waiting for us."

"Already?" Edith questioned. "But it's only 5:30."

"You're telling me." Margo yawned sleepily. "Well let's go see."

"Yay!" cheered Agnes, reaching her arms out to Margo who easily removed her from the bed and set her safely on the ground.

The three headed downstairs together, each wearing a pair of slippers, and Edith wearing her fuzzy Santa hat.

"It's Christmas, it's Christmas!" sang Agnes joyously.

"And Christmas means presents!"

"Edith, Dad's tight on money, remember?" cautioned Margo with a frown. She understood that Christmas meant being together with family, but she still would have liked to have gotten something. Her father wasn't rich, though, and they all had to make do with what they had, which was each other.

"So? Didn't some of his weird little helpers get jobs at like, the supermarket and stuff?"

It was true. Several of the minions had successfully found work outside of Gru's laboratory. It had been their own decision and so far, everything had been going well for them. Of course, they had to wear silly disguises to work every day and try their best not to speak to anyone, but at least there was a little bit more income coming in. What would a bunch of minions do with a paycheck anyway? It wasn't like Gru took it from them, though. It was the minions who decided to hand over some of their mullah to the boss for everything he had done for them.

"Edith!" Margo scolded her sibling. "Christmas isn't all about presents. It's our first one with Dad and we should be happy with whatever he decides to do today."

The younger girl frowned and withdrew slightly from Margo.

"Understand?"

Edith nodded and they continued down the stairs.

"Besides, I'm okay with no presents. I'm sure Dad will…" Margo's words trailed off as her eyes grew as big as oranges.

Agnes and Edith saw it too and they all became speechless as their jaws dropped.

"Merry Christmas, gurls," said a smiling Gru beside his massive, sparkling creation that had somehow managed to fit in the living room.

Instantly, Agnes and Edith bolted towards their father at speeds he didn't realize were possible coming from two tiny children. But when they noticed that their oldest sister wasn't beside them, they paused and turned around.

Margo hung back for a moment, still taking it all in. It was amazing. No, utterly beautiful. Never had she seen something as wonderful as what she was looking at then.

"Come on , Margo!" shouted an overjoyed Edith. She hurried back to Margo along with Agnes and together the two grabbed the older girl's hands and ushered her to their dad.

Gru's arms were wide when they arrived and he kneeled down to embrace them all.

Agnes, however, preferred the shoulder and she scurried up Gru's arm like a cricket until she was perched up high.

Giggling, Gru pulled back to see his daughters. Every one of them had a smile the size of the moon itself plastered on their faces and their eyes were as bright as the stars, which were probably still shining at 5:30 in the morning.

"It's so cool!" cried Edith, a little too close to her dad's ears.

He cringed, but smiled still.

"So I am thinking that you gurls like eet?" he said in a questioning tone, although he knew the answer already.

"Yeah!" Edith said excitedly.

Then Agnes slid off her dad's shoulder to inspect the giant structure alongside Edith.

"While you are under there, keep your eyes peeled for a few leetle treats I got for you gurls," advised Gru.

That made the two children double their inspection efforts.

"You…made this?" Margo asked quietly, not quite believing her eyes yet. "For us?"

Gru continued to kneel in front of her. "I thought eet was customary to do put one up." He was suddenly nervous that he had been wrong.

"Miss Hattie never had a tree for the orphanage, so I guess I sorta forgot about it." Margo couldn't take her eyes off it. It was huge!

"Well, I am not Meess Hattie and you are not at the orphanage. You are home and at home there ees a Christmas tree for Christmas."

With her smile widening, Margo looked at her dad and nodded.

"Now, there ees a leetle something for you under there eef you want to look for eet." He motioned for her to look under the tree and she was quick to join her sisters.

Gru hadn't intentionally hidden the gifts, but the tree took up almost a quarter of the living room and so the base was a place where anything could get lost under. The minions had to take separate pieces of the tree up from the lab and then put it together in the house because common sense said that it simply would not fit in the lift.

They had worked all morning on it, putting it together again, making sure every piece sparkled when it was time. Gru had helped as well and oversaw its completion while he and the minions nibbled on the cookies that were left for Santa. And now it was finished and his girls had obviously never seen anything quite like it and certainly never would again.

Gru glanced up at his fine work and grinned with pride. The tree, if one could really call it such, wasn't a real coniferous and it wasn't even green. There weren't fake pine needles anywhere to make it more natural-looking. No, it was completely the opposite of anything natural. The trunk was made up of a strong, light-weight, steel aloe that held it up sturdily. The rest was made entirely out of thin metal sheets that branched out from the trunk in all directions, resembling the shape of an actual Christmas tree. And because the whole thing was metal, every bit of light that hit it caused everything to sparkle in a dancing array of colors that reflected off the little sheets and bounced on the walls and ceilings. The sun wasn't out, though, and so there was hardly any sparkling going on. But that problem would be solved shortly.

"UNICORN!" screamed Agnes suddenly from deep within the tree's base.

No longer staring at the tree, Gru looked down to find Agnes emerging. In her arms was a brand new, minion-made unicorn toy. At least this time they used fabric and attempted to stitch together a toy, as opposed to using household items like a toilet cleaner. The attempt, while noble, was lacking in skill. Stuffing popped out of the seams and already one of the eyes had gone missing, but none of that apparently matter to Agnes.

"It's beautiful," she said, a bit more calmly this time, to several minions that had emerge from the lab and had come to watch the Christmas morning unravel.

"Pa poi," one said, smiling.

Edith then crawled out from under the silver tree and shouted, "Oh yes! A hat!" She held it up and waved it around her head before ditching the Santa hat and plopping on her multicolored kitten cap that came complete with little cat ears and cute black eyes.

"Haha, I knew you would like that, Edith," commented Gru delightfully. "Have you found your present yet, Margo?"

Just then, the oldest girl emerged with a strange look on her face and an odd-looking contraption in her hand. "It's, uh, what is it?" she asked as kindly as she could, afraid of hurting her father's feelings if he had thought that the answer should have been obvious.

"Eet's a camera! I made eet!" Gru said proudly.

A minion approached Gru then and said with a not-so-happy look on his face, "Ma opta."

Gru frowned before giving Margo an innocent grin. "Well, I made eet weeth their help." He motioned to the yellow bean things in the room. "Heh."

The minion nodded and smiled up at Margo as she clutched the hand-made camera. She wasn't exactly sure how well it would work, but she did enjoy photography thanks to her creative side, so either way, she loved her gift. "Thanks, Dad. It's great."

For a moment, Agnes abandoned her unicorn toy to check out Margo's funky camera, but then something else caught her eye. "Candy!"

"What? Where?" asked Edith curiously, searching the room for the goodies that Agnes had apparently spotted.

"In the stockings!" Margo said, pointing towards the window that their stockings hung below.

Gru giggled. "Now don't eat eet all at once or you weell be seeck. And then there wouldn't be room for cookies!" But already his daughters were digging into their "sockies" madly.

Sighing, Gru took in the delightful sight of his three girls blissfully tearing apart their candies, all the while still clutching their presents, except for Edith who was wearing hers. A sudden tug on his pant leg brought him out of his pleasant revere. "Yes, Dave?"

"Ah, gopta oh mi poi, eh, es min peck tico?" The little minion stood with his hands clasped behind his back while he innocently twisted from side to side and stared up at Gru.

"That's right! Gurls, gurls! I have to show you something!" he said as he stepped back towards the crocodile couch and removed a small red and green remote from his jacket pocket.

"Ooh! What is it?" Agnes wondered.

"Come over here and you weell see," responded her father, smiling wildly.

Dave, the minion, walked over to Gru and asked before he could press any buttons on his remote, "Es min peck tico?"

"Oh, uh, fine. You and Steward are no longer grounded, but I'm not asking for your help to hold anymore ladders." He waved a finger at Dave sternly and the minion bounced happily and ran over to Steward to hug him now that they were no longer grounded from the TV or tea time.

"Okay, anyway," continued Gru. "Here we go!" And he directed his remote at the giant tree and pressed its silver center button.

All the girls grinned expectant and wiggled beside Gru with excitement.

But nothing happened.

"Huh?" said Gru, suddenly very confused and becoming angry as he repeatedly clicked the button. "What ees the problem? Minions, check eet out!"

"Um, nothing happened."

"I know that, Edith. I don't know what the problem ees. Eet worked perfectly down een the lab." Gru frantically pushed the buttons on the remote, hoping for a response, but the tree did nothing.

"Is it broken?" asked Agnes.

"I…eet…" He didn't understand and neither could the minions who had come up empty when trying to fix the problem.

"Do I have to do everything?" asked a familiar voice in the hallway.

Everyone's eyes went wide and the minions flooded over to…

"Uncle Nefario!" cried all three girls as they hurried over to him, squeezing past the many minions.

Gru's eyes went wide and he stopped messing with his remote. "Dr. Nefario? You are back." He stared for a moment. "You are back!" He, too, rushed up to greet his old friend who was seated in his scooter.

"Yes, yes, well I decided that maybe I was a bit too rash in my decision to leave. I had some time to think and I suppose spending Christmas with you guys is more important than being evil. I'm, uh…" He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry for walking out like that."

"Yay!" cried Agnes, jumping up beside her uncle.

"So you'll stay?" Margo questioned hopefully.

"I'll stay."

Gru smiled at Dr. Nefario and extended his hand to him. He took it happily.

"Now, I see that you are having some technical difficulties," commented Nefario in an attempt to stop the hugging and mushiness going around.

"Eet was working fine before, but now I am getting nothing." He frowned at the remote.

Dr. Nefario drove his scooter over to the tree then and said after only a moment of inspecting it, "Do you think this could be your problem?" In his wrinkly old hand was a black cord that stuck out from the tree.

Gru blushed. How could he have missed that? Better yet, how could the minions have missed it? "Gurls, eet's ready! Eet's…where's Margo?" wondered Gru as he scanned the room.

"Here I am!" she announced as she headed back down the stairs. No one even saw her leave, but now she had returned and with something in her hand and a weird-looking dog on her heels.

"It's your stocking, Daddy," said Agnes lovingly as she scooped up Kyle. "We made it for you."

"Yeah, and there's a card in there too." Edith smiled.

Margo handed her father the stocking and watched his face light up as he read the glittery, colorful card, trying to ignore the close proximity of his dog.

"'For being the best dad in the whole, wide world, have a very merry Christmas! From your favorite kittens, Agnes, Edith and Margo.'" Gru was speechless momentarily, but he looked up at his girls and managed a loving smile. "Eet's beautiful. Thank you."

"You're welcome," said the girls in unison.

"I drew the unicorn!" commented Agnes, as if no one would have been able to figure it out.

"And eet ees very nice. Eet ees all very nice. I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful card and socky."

Margo giggled quietly at her dad's mispronunciation of the word "stocking" for the hundredth time that week.

"Now what did you want to show us?" asked Edith delightfully.

"Ah, yes! Uncle Nefario, if you would be so kind?"

The Doctor smiled and plugged the black cord into the wall socket. He yelped as sparks burst from the wall and into his face, creating a cloud of black smoke that choked the Doctor and sent him rolling back.

Gru didn't seem to hear him struggling and he pressed the silver button. The tree flickered before going dark, as did every other light in the house.

The girls gasped.

"Deedn't I tell you to use the energy converters?" Gru growled while glaring at his many minions in the dark.

They shied away, realizing that they had forgotten to put the small contraptions into the tree's creation to prevent it from blowing a fuse. Dave punched Jorge's arm, as if it had been his entire fault. Jorge grumbled sadly. It probably had been.

"Weell someone flip the sweetch back, please?"

Dave then grabbed Jorge and squeezed around his midsection until a small crack could be heard. Then he was shaken up and down madly before being told to lead the way. Jorge's glowing yellow body acted as their glowstick flashlight. It took several minutes of bickering and occasional tripping in the dim light to find the fuse box somewhere at the other end of the house. But nonetheless, it had been found.

Then all at once, the tree ignited into a brilliant show of flickering colors that bounced all over the room. Gru had been very clever and had put tiny little lights around the center of the tree so that once they were turned on, the colors would find their way out and sparkle across the room.

And that's what they did.

The whole living room was washed in a rainbow array of colors that lit up everyone's eyes and crafted smiles on their faces, even Dr. Nefario's who was jittery after he had been electrocuted.

Gru had outdone himself and he knew it and he hadn't managed to hurt himself, but it was only six in the morning so there was still plenty of time for that. Putting his arms around his children's shoulders, he said, "Merry Christmas, gurls," and hugged them close.

I'm actually a little sad that I'm done. It was a great ride, though, and I'm so happy for all the lovely comments that really helped keep me going with this fic. Yes, I know that Gru didn't get hurt in this chapter, but Nefario sorta did when he got electrocuted! Lol! Now I hope that everyone has a WONDERFUL holiday, which ever kind you celebrate if you celebrate at all, and be safe and have fun!