Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated!
It was a rainy Saturday afternoon when Doofenshmirtz decided to take a break from making -inators. He noticed one day that, when he sat still and looked out the window, he could almost remember better times. Only almost, because they never really happened, but it was good. He could sometimes even watch people stroll by, mothers and children, whole families, or even loners, and imagine their lives. He imagined their pain, what made them happy, wondered what their hobbies were.
It was better than making -inators for the most part. Sometimes it hurt, sure, but to be perfectly honest so did making his inventions. Perry was worried at first, naturally, but Doof felt like the platypus understood him on some level. Sometimes it was just better to sit back and enjoy life. It wasn't like they had to fight every day, right? There was tomorrow. There was later.
With the time off, so to say, Doof also noticed things more.
He noticed how honestly Norm tried to impress him. The cakes, the jokes, everything about the robot suggested he honestly cared about Doof, and it was something he couldn't understand. This hunk of metal cared about him more than his family ever did.
He noticed Perry's caring attitude. The casseroles he brought, that companionable silence as they sat. Perry was a platypus and an agent, but he was also his best friend.
He noticed Vanessa's laugh. Her smile. How she changed favorite songs every week and it was always something he had never heard, but usually liked.
Of all of them, though, he noticed Vanessa the most.
He loved his daughter more than anything else in the world, and would give up anything for her in a heartbeat. When he was busy he realized he missed out on a lot when it came to her, and they just didn't connect like they had when she was little. Due to his own experiences with parents he had always vowed to be there for her, and that was a promise e never intended to break. She was his daughter, no matter what.
Well, so he thought. Fate has a funny way of changing things.
It's funny, really, when it's his ex-wife's week with her, but his daughter shows up with an overnight bag and tears in her eyes.
It's just ironic, really. That he was the villain, the bad guy, and yet his ex-wife had allowed their daughter to wander the streets all the way there.
But it was Doof's week off, so he sat. And he listened. And he smiled, and nodded, and cried. And he held Vanessa, because the woman he once loved enough to promise himself to had pushed her to the side. He held her tight, and whispered promises and swore and rocked as she cried and screamed at how unfair it all was. Because it was. Unfair.
Doof promised her that she was safe there. He promised that she could stay as long as she wanted, and her mother wasn't allowed to come by. He assured her that, in the morning, they would talk again. And no matter what, he would be there for her.
It was something he never had, and the only thing he could offer.
Someone to love her.