Archive of Our Own ^beta

Agnes hid under her bed as she stifled a laugh. This was their third round of hide and seek, and she was sure she wasn’t going to get caught this time.
She pressed the soft unicorn plush closer to her as she tried her best not to make a sound. A glimpse of something crossed her mind, yet it remained intangible, just a glimpse of something much bigger. 

Heavy footsteps. 

Her fingertips pressed against the dusty floor. 

She shook her head free of these thoughts, as she heard Margo entering the bedroom. 

“Come out, come out wherever you are~”, Margo whispered softly, as she tiptoed into the room. 

Agnes couldn’t understand it but a feeling of fright traveled down her spine. This seemed familiar– it was strange. Had it been from a dream? A nightmare? 

Her heart raced. 

The bed sheet was moved out of the way, and staring back at her was Margo’s friendly face. Her lips turned into an instant smile “Found ya!”  

“No fair!”, Agnes whined. She felt dumb, of course it was just Margo! Who else would it be?  

“You did pretty good, you were the last one. I already found everyone else” 

“I was the last one?!” her eyes brightened up, “you mean it?!” 

“Yup, you were so hard to find I almost gave up” 

“Yesss!!!”, she shouted as she ran out of the room, her unicorn tight in her embrace. 

Now alone in the bedroom, Margo sighed. 

She had seen it, the frightened look on Agnes’ face when she had found her hiding spot, it had just been for a second, but she had seen it. 

She looked around the room, they had great memories here, pictures of their family together lined the walls. 

It almost seemed impossible to think that there had been a time when being in their bedroom had been scary.

 Back then, way before Lucy and way even before Gru and their life now, deep in their past. 

She hadn’t even been sure if Agnes remembered, though now it seemed like she did. 

Margo being the oldest, she remembered it the most. 

 Their initial nights at the orphanage had been littered with painful memories that wouldn’t shake loose no matter how hard she tried. Though those nights couldn’t even compare with before. Their house had been a storm, the yelling and the crashing of the furniture had been the thunder. They weren’t used to the quiet, the quiet felt like a bomb waiting to go off. 

She thought she would feel relieved at the orphanage but instead she felt so alone. Her younger sisters could rely on her, but who could she rely on? 

She hadn’t thought of that feeling in a while. The nightmares had been gone for a long time too. 

She remembered Agnes, barely a toddler, huddled in on her lap tears falling from her eyes. Margo had placed her hands protectively over the youngest ears to drown out any sound. Being the oldest was hard, but during moments like these it seemed impossible. Edith was hiding under a pile of pillows a few inches away, creating a bubble around herself. 

Nothing in the world seemed fine in those moments. 

Agnes barely remembered it now, just small glimpses of it here and there in her subconscious, just a bad dream. 

The first nights they had been taken in by Gru, Margo was wary, scared all families would be the same. The yelling, the violence, the anger… 

But not this time, this time it was different. 

A good kind of different. 

For the first time she felt safe. 

She felt loved.