Dreamscapes & Brothers

Characters belong to Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh.

A/N: Lately I've been taking interest in the relationships between brothers, Edward and Alphonse, Sam and Dean, and of course Phineas and Ferb.

First, Ferb's mom abandoning him is reference to an earlier story I did titled "The Bond Only Silence Can Create."

Second, this is purely a brotherly love story, not slash. So if you're looking for Phineas/Ferb, look somewhere else.

Anybody still reading?

Phineas:

He's having that nightmare again, I can easily tell; he's tossing and turning, and I'm well aware of how clichéd that sounds. It's always the same dream too, the same person doing the same thing.

It was always confusing to me, his nightmare had been a recurring thing since we were three, and whenever I asked him about it he would always respond with two simple words. "My mum." Leading me to assume it revolved around his mother's tragic automobile accident, which I had still believed to be the real reason behind her disappearance.

About two months ago, on the anniversary of his mother's supposed death, I attempted to cheer him up, though it went well away from expected, turns out his mom was nowhere near dead, she walked out on him actually. The last thing she had ever said to him: I'll see you tomorrow. Her reason for leaving, he was crying a little too much.

He may not be my actual brother, but I love him just as much, maybe even more than a real one. Brothers we see usually fight and argue and hurt each other, Ferb and I on the other hand can't stand being separated for more than an hour, and even that's torture. Really, it's always been Ferb and Phineas, never just Ferb, never just Phineas; I doubt we've been seen out in public without the other. Being so close, you gotta understand when I say that him having a nightmare is practically a nightmare for myself.

I see him bolt to a seating position, looking around the room as if to assure himself he was really back in our shared bedroom. I hear him mutter something about it being his fault. His hand runs through his neat green hair as he throws his blanket to the ground, I wait to see what he's going to do next. He hangs his legs off the left side of his bed, and I think he's going to stand up and leave the room, or pace around it for a few minutes, but he does neither. He's just sitting there, quietly cradling his head in his palms, rather frightening really.

I could hear sobbing, not loud but it is there, and quickly jumped out of my bed, the S.S. Phineas that never seems to get childish. Silently walking over to him I hear Perry chatter as he crawls out from under my blanket now laying on the ground and make a mental note to apologize to him and focus our next big project on his benefit, until then I hope he understands.

I wait in front of Ferb and wonder if he can see me, but when he fails to acknowledge that I'm there I'm certain he's unaware of my presence. It's late at night, probably two or three in the morning but my eyes have adjusted enough that I could see his head lift slightly. "Hey bro," He greets, adding in a happy tone between sniffling, one that was easily faked.

I put my arm around his shoulder and push myself closer to him. "Are you okay?" I ask.

Ferb:

I bolt up and look around my environment, making sure I was back in my room, back in my comfortable bed across from my brother and his yellow raft bed in front of the aquarium, a nice display of how imaginative he was.

I wonder if he's awake, if he's watching me right now, knowing that I'm having that dream again, the one about my mother and her nifty little vanishing act. As if her leaving me once wasn't good enough, now she has to do it in my dream land. I can't stop picturing it; back in London, back in my old flat in my crib with the clown mobile above my head, still as scary as ever mind you. Mom leans over my crib and says goodnight, then turns and shuts off my light, before closing the door she turns around and utters four heart breaking words.

"It's all your fault." I mutter to myself, repeating it from my dream, and it sounds exactly the same, even down to the voice, to her voice.

I ran my hand through my messy hair and pushed my blanket to the ground, it was too goddamned hot for the thing. I start to get up, moving off the bed, but my head starts to pound and all I want to do is hit something so I just sit there and wait for the feeling to go away, I know it will eventually. It's never easy, knowing someone leaves you because they're sick of your voice, of how you act; it's infuriating and saddening at the same time, makes you hate the sound of your own voice, makes you think everyone will leave you if you let them get too close.

I drop my head into my open hands and feel tears forming in my eyes. I hear Perry chatter from Phineas' bed, and that draws my thoughts to my red haired brother; he's never left me.

Were in the same boat, he and I, well not the exact same boat; we were both abandoned by a parent, the difference is Phineas had never actually met the man he would have called father, bastard left a month before he was born., Candace never talks about him either, I suppose it's because she really can't remember him to well. Not everyone has as advanced a memory as I, not to brag or anything.

Crying too much, what kind of reason was that to leave your only son? Evidently good enough for Alice Fletcher, it was all it had taken to get her out of my life. Every time I think about her I feel like yelling, then crying, and finally I feel nothing. The tears start coming now, and my usually blank expression turns into one of rage and hate and other spiteful emotions. I start sniveling though I do it as quietly as possible, not wanting to disturb my brother a couple feet away.

That's when I felt something sit on my bed; I prayed for it to simply be my pet Perry, I got my brother. "Hey bro," I greet between sniffling, adding in the happiest tone I could manage, not sure why though, I was in the presence of the Phineas Flynn, the only person that was completely synchronized with me; we know what the other is feeling, no matter how well we try to cover it up.

Though I suppose that adding in a happy tone while crying in the dark wasn't exactly the perfect cover-up to my horrid feelings.

He places his arm around my shoulder and scoots closer to me. "Are you okay?" He asked me.

Phineas:

I sit there and listen to the deafening silence that followed my question, waiting for something to happen. "No." A short response but a response nonetheless and there wasn't any possibility it was a lie either; I run through possible responses, wanting to avoid saying anything that could upset him any more then he already was.

"Your mom again?" I ask, though I suppose we both know the answer to that.

"Yes." We sit there in awkward silence, I'm pretending that I can't see him cry, but truth is we both know I can. He wipes at his eyes and forces a laugh. "What's wrong with me?" He asks me.

Now one of the unwritten rules about being a best friend is to be there in the worst of times for said best friend, and when mine asked me what was wrong about him I quickly deny any imperfection. "Nothing, she's the one that has something wrong with her Ferb." It's also one of the rules when it comes to family; most time the rules of friendship and brotherhood tend to intersect, simple enough. I've done this enough times to know that it's best to just let my brother cry and get it all out, this usually keeps the thought of his mother away for a good three months. I just wrap my arms around him and wait for his breathing to return to normal and his tears to stop.

He was sweating like he always did after a particularly horrid dream, whether it is about his mom or the secret one that he constantly refuses to tell me about. I can feel tears fall onto my orange pajama shirt, like they always do.

Ferb:

God, this boy is strange. Hard to believe but that was the first thought I had ever had about Phineas, I had hated him and wanted him and his entire family to just leave me and my father alone; now I'm here, being held tightly by my best friend, I had treated him like he was absolutely nothing, and all he did was smile and continue to talk.

Phineas has never stopped amazing me though, it has to be about three in the morning and here he is doing his best to comfort me. Eventually I stopped crying, not sure how long it had taken though, maybe an hour, maybe more. Phineas continued to hold onto me just to be sure I was really done, when he was sure he looked at me with those blue eyes, smiled and patted my back.

I have few nightmares with the ability to scare me; the obvious one is my mum leaving me, but the worse - by far - are the ones involving Phineas; he's either hurt, dead, or hates me. Tell me twelve years ago that my worst fear would be disappointing Phineas and I would have shrugged and assumed you were crazy. Phineas moves back to his bed a few feet over and lays down, and Mom suddenly seems like nothing. I'm left sitting in the dark, staring at my brother and our pet platypus, each preparing to go back to sleep. "Thanks," I mutter, "For everything." I grab my blanket off the floor and lay back down myself.

"Don't mention it bro, I'm always here for ya." He says, and I can tell he's looking directly at me and smiling. I hear Perry chatter from beside Phineas, and he quickly decides to translate. "Perry says he's here for you too."

"Thanks Perry." I mumble.

Phineas:

He thanked Perry, "You have us now." I say, "Me, mom, Perry, and Candace."

"Perfect dad, perfect mom, perfect sister, perfect everything." He mutters. "So why is it that I still dream about her?"

"It's not something you can shrug off Ferb, whether we like it or not we've both been abandoned by a parent, and no matter how hard we try we will never forget it." I explain sounding as philosophical as I possibly can; it's not often I sound as smart as Ferb, no matter if I was a month older.

"So we just ignore it?"

"I don't think we can do that either." I reply, "I really don't know what we do." I admit.

"I guess we just have to live with it." Ferb had nominated.

"I guess." Our conversations turn to happier subjects and time is suddenly flying by, before we know it the sun is starting to rise and light is shining in through are curtains.

We ignore the suns light and return to whatever subject we are currently discussing, physics I believe. I try to hold back a yawn, but to no avail; Ferb forces his own yawn so I won't feel bad about falling asleep on him. It's Sunday, and while I normally don't enjoy sleeping in, I make an exception due to my brother's unplanned nightmare.

I roll onto my side, facing my brother, Perry chatters and jumps off my bed, scurrying across the floor and over to Ferb's bed, easily displaying annoyance with the number of times I've disturb his slumber. Perry crawls onto Ferb's chest and turns a full three hundred and sixty degrees before finally laying down.

Ferb:

I stroke Perry's back and listen as he purrs, finding it eerily soothing. Phineas seems to be having trouble keeping his eyes open, and I can hardly keep my own from shutting. "Phineas?"

"Yes Ferb?" He mumbled.

"I love you." Really, the phrase isn't rare between us, spoken every night before we go to sleep, but it's something that I need to hear before I fall asleep, similar to how Phineas needed to hear Isabella's "Whatcha' doin?" response at some point in the day, whether it be early in the morning, or late at night; I suppress a laugh when he has to call her on the phone and ask what had kept her from attending our projects of the day.

No matter how much Phineas depended on Isabella; it had taken him the longest time to get her signals, but I'm happy to report that they have managed to keep things basically the same while balancing their romantic life. "I love you too, Ferb." I hear, and that, combined with Perry's purring, is the final push I need to get back asleep.

Phineas:

I know that in three months he'll probably have this nightmare again, and we'll probably relive this night, but until then I take comfort in the fact that I have once again comforted my brother and best friend.

I'm scared, scared for Alice, Ferb's original mother, scared that she had only focused on a single bad quality rather than the millions of great ones he had, like his talents with tools, or his seemingly endless knowledge, or his odd sense of humor that always got me laughing; I wonder what her life is like now, and I really hope that one day she'll apologize for what she's done.

And I want Ferb to reject that apology, slam a door - figurative or literal - in her face and never look back. It's not a nice thought but I really don't care; I forgive anyone that wrongs me, but mess with my family and friends and they will see a side of me that I'm not particularly proud of.

Why is it that my brother has to go through this dream about his mom, while I never even think of the original Mr. Flynn? I wish I knew how much of a burden it is on Ferb to deal with these things, but it's not that simple.

Perry and Ferb are now asleep and I don't think I can stay awake any longer; this may not have been the perfect night, but it at least gave me an idea of what we're going to do tomorrow. I turn off the alarm clock, we can reschedule our friendly race another day, but until then we'll postpone; covering my triangular head with the blanket to create the illusion of darkness, I easily fall asleep.

My dreams, unlike the one my brother recently had, are completely fright free; most are filled with crazy inventions that will have to be built someday soon, others are filled with odd things that most likely symbolize something or other though I really don't care what that is, because in a couple of hours I'll forget all about them.

Odd place to end, but I thought it went rather well, anyway I suppose this is goodbye for now. No, don't cry! We shall meet again someday, and until then you can keep this to remember me by.

By the way, I've just found a similar story "Support" by one Danny Phantom SG-1, my apologies. I didn't mean to borrow such a similar plot. I strongly recommend his story, as it is considerably better than mine.

And thanks to cmcrox11 for pointing out a few mishaps in spelling, I appreciate it dude.

Thanks for reading and have a goodnight.

Update: Wow, people are still reading this? I've gotten a few request to write something more, and to answer that I will. But first I must continue with a current story I'm writing, but don't worry it'll come sooner or later.