Siblings' Quest |Phineas and Ferb Story|

Part Nine: Days Turn to Weeks

Things were certainly not the same in the Flynn-Fletcher household. Barely anyone said a word to each other. Ferb never spoke at all, especially not to Phineas. He would barely even look at the redhead unless he had to. Linda found herself doing chore after chore, running errand after errand, just filling up her schedule to keep herself busy. Lawrence stayed at work all day, sometimes most of the night. He didn't like the way things were at home. He hated that his family was falling apart, and knew there wasn't much he could do to prevent it. It was life in England all over again.

Phineas didn't do anything. He would rarely eat, rarely speak, rarely even move. He was heartbroken over what was happening to his family. A family that was once so close and so happy, was now broken, no one even wanting to be near each other. His sister was nowhere to be seen, not even heard from. His brother clearly hated his guts. His mother was overworking herself. His stepfather feeling guilty about the whole thing.

And he, doing nothing to stop it.

Days turned to weeks. And nothing had changed. Phineas texted his sister everyday, just hoping for a single response. But to no avail. Candace wasn't answering a text or call. Neither was her boyfriend. Phineas didn't care if he was probably annoying her, he just wanted to hear from his older sister. He wanted to be sure she was safe. But it was starting to seem like he'd never know.

Two weeks since the fight. Two weeks of silence and heartache. Two weeks since the last time he saw Candace, the last time he heard Ferb talk.

He laid in his bed, staring at a small photo in his hand. He actually had a whole pile of pictures scattered across. Most of them were old; Candace when she was younger, Linda's wedding pictures with his mysterious dad, him as a baby swaddled in his blanket. But the one picture that he couldn't look away from, the one that almost made him cry. A family photo. Him, Candace, Ferb, Linda, and Lawrence.

He missed that version of his family, when they were all younger. He had barely known Ferb, but he already considered him a brother and a best friend. Though Candace didn't act like it, she loved being an older sister to them. Linda and Lawrence were happily married, after escaping bad previous marriages. They were good times, times he missed so much.

He could never get those times back, could he? With the way things were now, it seemed like he'd never see any of them smile like that again.

Phineas looked up when hearing footsteps from the hallway. He saw none other than the green haired boy, who once again just ignored his presence all together. Ferb entered the room, avoiding eye contact with the redhead, walking over to his desk.

"Ferb." Phineas spoke, but got no response. He tried again, louder this time, "Ferb, would you at least look at me? Would it actually kill you to look at me?"

Ferb was still for a moment, his fingers remaining where they were atop his laptop's keyboard. He side-glanced his brother, hesitant to oblige to his request.

"Please, Ferb." The redhead said, his tone and expression becoming more vulnerable. "I don't know what I have to do anymore. I've tried apologizing, being reasonable, being there for you, but it's clearly not working. What's it gonna take for us to move past this?!"

No response. Barely even a breath.

Phineas stood up from the bed, still holding the photo in his hand. Hell, he practically clung onto it. "Ferb, I'm doing my best, okay?! I don't know what's wrong with you and it doesn't help that you just ignore me! I don't know what it is I did wrong, but whatever it was, I'm sorry! Okay? I'm sorry for hurting you, for dragging you into this mess. Hell, I'm sorry I was ever born!"

Ferb flinched at the increasing volume of his brother's voice, and his choice of words.

"But I can't fix whatever's happened to us. Clearly you hate me, Candace has fallen off the face of the earth, and Mom and Dad want nothing to do with me!" Phineas said frustratedly, nearly crinkling the photo as he clenched a fist. His voice was cracking, his face growing red as tears threatened in his eyes. "I don't know what to do and normally I have you, but you hate me now. All I wanna know is why?! I'm begging you!"

Ferb finally turned to look up at the redhead, slightly taken aback by his distraught face. Phineas looked like he had witnessed a damn murder. He wasn't just stressed about the situation. Stressed didn't even begin to describe it. He was miserable, he was drained, he was scared. He was in hell.

Ferb didn't say anything, still. It wasn't that he didn't want to. If anything, he wanted to tell his brother everything at this point. He wanted to explain how he knew about Phineas' father, what he thanked Linda for, why he was being so distant, why he didn't want them looking for their father, etc.

But he just couldn't. His mouth refused to open, his throat felt dry at just the thought of speaking. He didn't even want to muster a noise, in fear of a bottle being thrown at his face. An odd fear, but he had his reasons.

Phineas sighed at the silence, taking it as an answer. He shook his head and spoke weakly as he left the room, "Fine."

He walked out into the hall, throwing the photo to the floor. He pulled out his phone and once again dialed Candace's number, waiting a solid thirty seconds before it was sent to voicemail.

Ferb watched as his stepbrother left, nearly tearing up. He forced himself to whisper inaudibly, even if it sent fear through his body. "I'm sorry."