Siblings' Quest |Phineas and Ferb Story|

Part Five: A Life of Lies

"Well, that was a waste." Candace said in defeat, as she and her brother carried the yearbooks up the stairs. After having the brief talk about the last time she saw her father, the two decided to put the books back before their mother returned.

Phineas gave his sister a sympathetic look, feeling pretty useless in the situation. He wanted to know who his real father was, he wanted to help her find him and reunite them. But he never even met his father, and didn't know a single thing about him. He wanted to help, but there wasn't much he could do.

As they walked into the master bedroom, Phineas glanced back out into the hall, seeing his own bedroom door shut. "Hmm. Ferb's been in there a while. Should we check on him?" He asked, feeling a little concerned for his stepbrother.

Candace waved a hand dismissively as she set some of the yearbooks on the bed. "You go ahead, I'll put these away and be there in a minute." She said nonchalantly.

Phineas nodded and stepped out into the hallway, walking over to knock on the door. "Ferb? It's me, can I come in? Please?" He asked. Even if it was his room too, he felt he should ask in case Ferb wanted some privacy.

But after getting no reply from the quiet boy, Phineas decided to just open the door, slowly. He stepped inside, seeing Ferb laying on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He had something in his hand, most likely a photo, but had slid it under the blanket when his brother entered.

"Ferb? You okay, buddy?" The redhead asked, furrowing his brows in concern. Ferb was a mysterious one, but Phineas could usually tell what was going on with him. He could see when Ferb was unhappy, afraid, mad, confused, etc. But at the moment, he had no clue what his brother was feeling. And the fact that he wouldn't even say anything only further frustrated Phineas.

Ferb paid no attention to his brother, just gazed ahead at the ceiling. Phineas felt bad, since normally Ferb would tell him what was wrong. The boy was quiet and introverted, but around Phineas, he was actually pretty open about his thoughts, especially now that he was older and maturing.

"Ferb? Can you at least look at me?" Phineas asked with a sigh.

But to no avail. Ferb just wasn't having it. He didn't flinch, didn't respond in any way. His eyes remained fixated where they were, his body still on the bed. It was almost as if he was dead (not entirely, since his chest still moved).

"Ferb." He said firmly, growing annoyed at the lack of interaction. "What's going on with you? You've been acting weird since lunch. You know you can talk to me, that's what I'm here for."

There was no movement, except this time Ferb finally averted his eyes over to his brother. Not directly at him, but at least at his figure. Phineas felt as if he'd finally gotten to him, until he looked back up at the ceiling after a moment of silence.

Phineas stared at him frustratedly, "Look, if you don't wanna talk, that's fine. But you don't need to ignore me like I'm not even here."

"Just...get out." Ferb exhaled, seeming just as annoyed as his stepbrother. He clearly just wanted to be left alone.

"Excuse me, this is kinda my room, too—" Phineas said, but was interrupted by Ferb repeating firmly,

"Get out."

The redhead bit his lip, not wishing to stay and argue with the taller boy. "Fine." He said defeatedly, walking out of the room and closing the door behind him. He sighed and murmured to himself, "If you're gonna be a dick, be one by yourself."

He walked back into the master bedroom, where he saw his sister standing in the closet, reaching up to place the stack of yearbooks on one of the shelves. "Well, Ferb's clearly in a mood, so I guess it's—"

He was cut off when Candace accidentally knocked over a shoebox, everything inside of it spilling out onto the floor. She groaned and placed the books down before kneeling to pick the things up, with Phineas' help.

"Man, this box must've been in here a while." Phineas commented, noticing how dusty the shoebox was.

As they picked up the items that fell out, Candace started to pay attention to what they actually were. Several jewelry items, including what could only be a wedding ring. Many letters dated back to 1999 to 2005. Several old, low quality pictures of Linda and a man, many of which were wedding pictures. One of them had really caught her eye.

She slowly picked up the picture, seeing her mother with bigger, wavier hair and wearing a plaid dress. A man, standing above her with slicked back orange hair, freckled skin, a big smile across his face. In Linda's cradled arms was a baby, about 9 months old, with bright growing orange hair and pale skin, donning a tiny red church dress.

"Candace?" Phineas asked, taking a look at all the photos scattered across the floor.

Candace then picked up a paper card, covered in glitter and sequins, with the words written in markers: Happy Father's Day!

"She— she said she'd mail this to him." She whispered, furrowing her brows. "She kept all of this from me."

"Is this Dad?" Phineas asked, holding a wedding photo, clearly taken in an older decade.

Candace didn't answer, since she was still in awe and disbelief at what she was seeing. She lied all this time...