A Life That Revolved Around You

Cezille07

A/N: Woohoo, second P&F fic! I got really inspired by The Illustrious Crackpot's "Show Me Fifty Times Over and I'll Believe You," and thus this fic, whose title I really can't seem to decide on, was born. (Also because of that work, I feel quite corrected on some relationship dynamics in "Where's Ferb?", but oh well. Y'all loved it anyway, didn't you? DIDN'T YOU? Kidding. Sorry. ;D )

Disclaimer: So anyway, I'm a Ferb-freak who writes songs and stories, draws decently, sings, and makes programs. What I don't do is copy off of people's CRAZY, BRILLIANT IDEAS (cough cough—"Phineas and Ferb" being one of those). Plagiarism is just sick. Got it? ;)

Chapter 1. Eternal Summer Legacy.

The alarm failed again.

Thirty minutes past six, Ferb opened his eyes and looked over at Phineas' bed. His brother returned the sleepy gaze, quietly admiring the other's still form.

"We'd better get ready now; we're running late," Phineas reminded him, and Ferb mechanically got to his feet and ambled to the bathroom with a towel.

Monday, second week of school, he thought, briskly finishing off his everyday look by buttoning his shirt. He didn't even realize he was ramming cereal by the tons down his esophagus less than a minute later. It still doesn't feel like school yet. Nope, I'm never getting that feeling. He had drawn up a large blueprint for a memory scanner that would project a holographic image of any memory—not as good as a time machine, but they had done that before. When he showed it to Phineas last night, he shot up in a "Eureka!" jump and agreed they would work on it first thing after school.

Ferb greeted Isabella as he passed by her window seat, "Hey Isabella," trailed closely by Phineas, who only waved a dismissive hello. The girl barely gave them a notice; she remained staring out at the window, an empty, glazed look on her passive face.

"Let's stay in the back," Phineas pointed to the pair of empty seats six rows away from the blackboard. "We may be able to improve the draft for our big plan today," he winked.

The teacher arrived no sooner than the boys dumped their bags on the floor and Ferb unfolded the paper that was larger than him threefold. "Well, let's start our topic again, as usual. There's no other way to start than to just start," the middle-aged, balding man cracked, shrugging at the idea. "You back there, this is Trigonometry class, isn't it? Put that thing away so we can get on with starting."

Ferb grumbled. He had tried resisting the pens, the inks, the French curve, the rest of his tools. But Phineas was always around. Phineas was always coming up with outrageous ideas. Phineas, who tried waiting for the precise time Perry would go vanish to some parallel dimension and return a few hours later, who had the million questions, always inspired him, Ferb, to create the million answers.

Candace walked into the backyard just as Ferb tacked the day's blueprints onto his portable corkboard.

"What are you doing?" she asked. Ferb almost admitted to missing her using that very tone with them; she had moved away to a dormitory the day school rolled in last week. "I can't believe this. Fifteen and still working on those summer projects during school. Don't you, like, have any homework?"

The green-haired boy tilted his head towards the sliding glass door, where a view of the kitchen showed his trigonometry work posted on the fridge by a magnet.

"Okay, so, what is that thing?" Candace had her hands on her waist. "Not like I'm still planning on telling mom. Years of that have taught me to keep my hallucinations to myself," she laughed. "So anyway?"

Ferb, still without directing a glance at his sister, cocked his head, this time at the neat blueprint in front of him.

"Fine, not talking to me eh?"

"That's Ferb, you know it," remarked Phineas as he stood by his working counterpart. The sister had no other option but to watch Ferb complete the machine.

At that moment, Linda stepped out into the backyard and saw them. "Oh Candace. I thought I heard your voice! You didn't tell me you were coming over; I could've picked up some groceries to prepare a nice dinner for you."

"Sorry mom," replied the now legal adult. "I just thought I'd drop by. I missed the house, but not as much as I missed the boys."

"Aww honey, that's so sweet! I'm just inside reading if you need me," and the woman excused herself and retreated indoors.

"So you missed us? Huh, huh, huh?" Phineas prodded. By now he'd grown taller than her, only a few inches short of Ferb's height. She didn't even look up to answer, "Of course, I just needed to make mom feel better. The only reason I'm here is the house."

"That's ridiculous. We love you, sis," the youngest said. Ferb shook his head. To be honest, he didn't miss her as much, although Phineas always wondered what she was up to as a free college student. Always wondered what they'd be like when they were in college themselves.

"So when will you be done?" pressed Candace, pacing the three meters of grass behind her stepbrother. "Maybe now that you're grown up you don't care about keeping or magically destroying whatever this is. Can I keep it after you finish using it?" She waited. "Come on, just answer me Ferb. Ferb?" With an exasperated groan she lunged for the blueprint and tore it up into pieces. "Fifteen and you're still not answering me!"

"Candace, that wasn't nice," the youngest asserted. But Ferb ignored both of them. He tightened the last bolt on the door, knocked on it twice to check if it was sturdy, and went inside. Oh Phineas...he thought, allowing the semi-translucent glass panel to hide his expression, I haven't stopped missing you at all... With a steady hand, he gripped the helmet before jamming it securely on his head, and activated the memory scanner.

Candace's jaw remained open during the horrifically accurate depiction of just last week...Phineas' last moments on earth.