(So, I've been updating once a week since the beginning of April. I'm going back to Tuesdays AND THURSDAYS now. :) Phineas and Ferb does not belong to me.
“Uh, Candace?” Phineas reaches up to scratch his ear nervously. “Can we… talk?”
Candace barely looks up from her book. “That depends.”
He sits down on the couch next to her, making sure to keep some space between them. “What’cha readin’?”
A book on how to prepare for an evil dictatorship. Apparently I wrote it.” She crosses her legs, unconsciously creating a physical barrier between herself and her brother.
Phineas leans back into the couch. “Where did you get it from?”
“Perry gave it to me. He said that my other self gave it to him before she went back home.” She places a bookmark between the pages, letting her gaze linger on the words as she moves slowly and deliberately.
The inventor reaches up to scratch his ear again. “I wish you would relax a bit more around me. I’ve told you so many times…” he bites his lip, looking downward and placing his hands in his lap awkwardly.
Candace slowly closes her book, having finished the last sentence in the chapter. “I… I’ve tried, Phin. Believe me.”
“You know, Candace, I think that I’m more afraid of it than anyone else…” He looks over at his older sister, “Perry told me that I should try and develop it. So when you see his black eye, that was maybe my fault.”
She laughs. “How did you hit him? Perry is the best agent in O.W.C.A.” Candace looks down at the book in her hands. “Didn’t he see it coming and dodge?”
Phineas smiles in spite of himself. “His problem is that he trusts me too much. I tricked him into closing his eyes.” Then he sighs. “I feel like a horrible person.”
“Meat-Brick deserves to be punched every now and then.” Candace rubs the back of her neck. “I think that he thought so too.”
“What do you mean?” Her younger brother stares at her openly, “You think he let me punch him?”
Phineas’ reaction makes Candace smile a bit. She relaxes a little, uncrossing her legs. “Perry can sense a punch even with his eyes closed. Didn’t he tremble a bit as your fist got closer?”
Phineas thinks back, “Yeah… why would he let me hit him? Now I really feel horrible.”
“Don’t.” Perry comes in wearing a pair of steak-specs. “I can’t believe that I said that to you. If you weren’t going to hit me, I would have gone and asked Heinz to. He always enjoys it when I ask him to hit me.”
“How often..?” Phineas breaks off mid question as Candace puts up a hand.
She shakes her head. “Perry, that happened once.”
The platypus salutes them as he walks out of the room again. Phineas stares after him, “What? Did I miss something?”
“He made an insensitive joke. When I wouldn’t hit him for it, he walked over to Dr. D’s and somehow got the guy to whack him across the face with a monkey wrench.” Candace sighs. “It was actually slightly comical.”
Phineas stares after his platypus. “As comical as those things that he was wearing on his head?”
“No, I don’t think that’s possible.” Candace grins slightly. “Although, you and Ferb can do anything.”
“Why would we try to make something funnier than…” He looks at his hands, puzzled. “what were those, anyway?”
His sister shrugs, “Well, when there was something that was deemed impossible, you guys always used to jump all over the opportunity to prove it wrong.”
Phineas sighs. “Well, what if we grew out of that? Ran out of ideas?”
“What? No, Phineas. That’s what’s impossible! You can’t grow out of defying impossibility, because that’s what makes you guys…” Candace clasps her necklace in her hand tightly, “That’s what makes you guys who you are. It’s your strongest quality.”
“Maybe I’m scared to do it anymore, Candace. Maybe as I’ve grown up, I realized how dangerous it always was… maybe-” He collapses into the couch.
She stares at him. “You were a little irresponsible at times, and that scared me. But you never did anything wrong.”
Phineas looks over at her. “Then why were you always trying to bust us?”
“I never did, did I?” She smiles half-heartedly. “What would you say if I told you that I was jealous?”
“Why would you be jealous?” Her brother sits up again, looking at his sister with a new view point.
Candace stands up, and starts walking around in circles. “You guys never seemed to be worried about anything. You always seemed to come up with a plan so fast, and you were never worried about what anybody else thought.” She sits back down again, rubbing her necklace. “Plus, I couldn’t just relax and have fun. What if you or Ferb had gotten seriously hurt? I could never live with myself.”
Phineas stares at her, “You… why…” He looks down. “It was dangerous, and I know that now… but-”
“But you always had a backup plan. You never got hurt. And I want you to stay who you are, Phineas. I’ve always admired your optimism.” She grins, thinking of the girl who came through that gate over and over again. Every day of every summer, always asking the same question. “And not just me.”
(Yeah Steak-Specs! I really wanted to write those into this story, and Perry getting a black eye was too good an opportunity to miss. :P I have realized that I write a lot about Perry getting hurt... you'll see more of that later in Chapter 51.) Please Comment!