Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorperateeed!

When the Flynn-Doofenshmirtz-Fletcher family arrived at the DEI, Phineas smiled at the catchy tune. It certainly was welcoming. And once inside, some carrying groceries, some carrying suit cases, Heinz suddenly came to a stop before unlocking his apartment door and looked uneasily at the Flynn-Fletchers.

"...What?", Candace asked, raising a suspicious eyebrow.

"...Well there's um.. Eheh. There's some family of mine that's uh.. visiting for a family reunion...", Heinz started off to explain. "And I already told them you guys were coming and chances are, once you go through the door, they'll... Well they'll pounce on you and go through the rituals and whatnot of accepting you into the family and everything. And they're a bit...odd. So sorry if you're a bit um... startled.."

"This oughta be good for a laugh.", Vanessa said with a smirk.

"Really?", Phineas asked, a little unsure.

Heinz unlocked the door, warned the kids to put their things on the floor, and opened it up. They walked in and no sooner had they taken five steps into the room than they WERE pounced on. By ocelots. With screams of terror, the kids were easily pinned soundly to the floor by three large cheetah-like felines. Each one with wide, green, luminous eyes that studied their characters carefully with a deep growl in their throats.

"K-keep calm! It's alright!", Heinz tried to help, though he was soon pounced on by his own ocelot mother and licked thoroughly. "Aah! M-Mom! Oh, come on!"

Candace whimpered and shut her eyes tightly as she looked away, so sure she was nothing but a meal now when a rough and sticky tongue rubbed up against her cheek. Before Candace knew it, the growling had been understood as purring from her brothers who were laughing and rolling about as the ocelots continue to lick them thoroughly on every skinned area that was exposed past the clothes, determined to make the kids smell like all the rest of them.

"Ahh! No!", Phineas giggled as one ocelot continued to lick his ears. "Stop licking my earwax! That tickles!"

"Aa-AAH! HEY! WATCH IT!", Candace growled at the cub as it began licking her legs.

Heinz had finally managed to overthrow his foster-mom as the kids began to sit up and the mother ocelot came by to gently rub her head up against each one lovingly as a loud purr emitted. The cubs then went on to sniff about the platypus that trailed behind and also clean him, much to Perry's quiet dislike.

"Now, Candace, honey?", Heinz began as he came over to help her up. "I-I'm sorry I didn't tell you that they were-"

"Oh just forget it!", Candace groaned. "Only YOU could be possibly weirder than your son to have cheetahs in your house!"

"Actually, dear, they're ocelots.", Heinz corrected with a sheepish grin.

"It doesn't matter!", she snapped back as she stood up.

"Candace, calm down a bit.", Vanessa tried to keep herself calm as she placed a hand on her sister's shoulder.

"Calm down?! CALM DOWN?!", she was practically screaming now. "HOW on earth am I supposed to CALM DOWN when my parents DIE and I'm stuck here with this FREAK!?"

She had pointed a finger at Heinz as she ranted but Vanessa only narrowed her eyes. While normally she had an issue if anyone but her was to say anything bad about her dad, she couldn't really say anything when a sibling did it too.

"Candace, let's get your bags, and you and I go to my room and try to calm down.", Vanessa repeated, trying to be nice as she placed another hand on Candace's other shoulder. "We've all had a long day. There's a lot to take in. Let's just get the bags and go settle you in."

Candace simply folded her arms across her chest, but it was what she wanted to do so she agreed. As the sisters walked into the bedroom, an ocelot tailed along behind them, but Vanessa calmly pushed it aside as they closed the door behind them.

Once the door was closed, Heinz heaved a sigh and hung his head.

"I shoulda seen this coming..", he said to himself as his foster-mother tried to comfort him with loving rubs of her head and a low, gentle, purr.

"Should've seen what coming?", Phineas asked as he stood up from the floor with an ocelot cub in his hands while Ferb carried Perry.

"...Well... It's a long term pattern that when people get to know me they...they generally tend to hate me.", Heinz said, putting his hands in his pockets as he kicked the ground a bit. "And not that I TRY to make them hate me, they just...do. For some reason or another they always do."

Phineas felt bad as he continued to stroke the animal underneath. He wanted to say something but before he could start to say anything, somebody else interrupted.

"All done with putting away the groceries, sir!", Norm said happily as he came back in.

"WHOA!", Phineas gasped as he saw Norm. "Who's THAT?!"

"Oh, this is Norm, my giant robot man.", Heinz shrugged, still in a slump

"That's...! That's...!", Phineas was actually speechless as he smiled up at Norm.

"Incredible?", Ferb offered, surprising the doctor.

"MORE than that!", Phineas said, almost squealed in response.

Heinz looked between the kids and Norm before finally setting his gaze on Phineas and Ferb.

"Who? NORM?", he asked in bewilderment.

"YEAH!", Phineas nodded. "I love robots!"

"It's nice to have someone finally appreciate me!", Norm said happily.

"Well, then, Norm, this is Phineas and Ferb, Phineas and Ferb, this is Norm.", Heinz introduced.

"It's great to meet you!", Phineas said happily as he shook hands with Norm.

"Really? ME?", Norm asked, shaking hands with Ferb now.

"Absolutely.", Ferb began. "While a number of new inventions are being made on a constant basis, robots are perhaps one of the only things that won't ever become unimpressive."

"Thank you for your very kind and touching words!", Norm replied, mentally wishing he was human to really show how touched he is by this.

Doof couldn't help but chuckle seeing the boys get along so nicely with Norm, "Come on Phineas and Ferb. Let's get the bags and get you boys settled into your room."

Norm helped with the luggage and Heinz showed the two to their room. It was a decently sized bedroom with two beds, an end table between the beds and the walls, and a small desk in the corner. As they walked in, Heinz was blathering on about how he was thinking about repainting the walls from the ocean blue they were to something more lively for the kids, but didn't have time to stop and fully think it through yet. The first thing Phineas had to say though, gave Heinz some relief.

"Cool! Is that that little electric, ball toy?", he asked, pointing at the one beside his bed.

"Oh! Yeah. It's a room warming gift.", Heinz smiled sheepishly. "I-I hope you like it, I didn't really know what to get you. Ferb, there's a bonsai tree near your bed there, Vanessa helped pick it out."

Ferb came over to the bonsai tree and smiled at it while Phineas was bubbling with his usual happiness.

"It's awesome! Thanks, Doc-er.. Dad!", Phineas smiled happily, hugging his legs.

Heinz was momentarily speechless. He was relieved to know Phineas liked the toy, he was surprised to feel the boy hugging him, he was wanting to cry in joy that his son was so loving and so nice, and yet...

"Y-you're welcome Phineas but...you don't have to call me 'dad' if you don't wanna.", he shrugged, mentally cursing himself to first go on THAT tangent instead of just being happy for Phineas. "NOT to say that I don't want you to call me dad or anything but.. Well.. You know whatever's comfortable to you."

"Well.. You are my dad, aren't you?", Phineas asked, backing up a bit and sitting on the edge of the bed nearby. "So why shouldn't I call you dad?"

"Well, I know you already had a dad and you...hadn't known me as long..", Heinz deflated, hating to bring this up more and more.

"...Why did you leave?", Phineas asked in plain curiosity.

Doof glanced back, slightly surprised, but sighed again and sat down on the bed beside him and Ferb.

"It was a long time ago..", he began. "Before Candace was even born. Your mom and I met one night while I was um...let's say I was feeling down. ...Very down about myself. I hated myself so much, that one night I was trying to get ran over by a car. It happened to be your mom's car and she drove me back home, trying to help convince me that suicide wasn't what to do."

Phineas nodded with a bit of a smile.

"That sounds just like Mom.", he said.

"Yeah. Well... After that we got to talking to each other, and seeing each other, and we fell in love as most people do.", Heinz shrugged. "But the problem is...I wouldn't marry her. See, I had only gotten out of a divorce a year before we got together, with my exwife, Charlene. I didn't wanna marry Linda, not because I didn't love her, but because I was afraid of divorcing. It was unusual, but we lived together and tried to keep things happy. Candace of course, came along and so did you, and while you were still a baby, your Mom kicked me out. She said she was tired of waiting for me to get over being afraid of divorce and putting up with my silly inventions and everything. She kicked me out and the last time I ever got to see you and Candace was for Candace's sixth birthday. I was there long enough to dress up as Ducky Momo, wish her a happy birthday, and explain I had to leave for reasons she wouldn't understand."

Phineas's smile was gone by this point, and he looked at the man sorrowfully. Even Ferb seemed hurt to hear this.

"..I'm sorry..", Phineas said.

"Not your fault Phineas.", Heinz shrugged.

"I know. ...But I still feel sorry.", he said simply.

Heinz smiled a bit and hugged Phineas.

"It's okay. At least I have you guys now.", he tried to reassure.

Phineas nodded and hugged him back. Afterwards, Heinz agreed to let the two be alone for a while, let everything sink in. He closed the door behind them and for a moment, Phineas and Ferb were simply quiet. He on his own bed. And then Ferb noticed the silence, and looked over. But no sooner had he looked over than did he fell crushed to see Phineas' sad expression. And then a tear. And more tears. Until Phineas was trying hard to at least not sob as more and more fell down his face.

"Phineas?", Ferb began, coming over to sit beside his brother.

Phineas finally caved into a sob as he wiped up his tears as best he could. Ferb knew what the cause was and couldn't help but cry a bit himself.

"I miss them..", Phineas said quietly. "I miss Mom and Dad..."

Ferb hugged him tightly and whispered, "I miss them too.."

Now that they were alone and there was enough time to sink in the whole day, it was more than what Phineas could take. It did hurt. Honestly it did. But of course he never wanted to worry anyone, so he tried to push along like he was just fine and dandy with it.

But the truth of the matter was that it IS terrifying to be told that your parents died. It DID tear his heart to shreds. He's NOT used to the idea of living with another man. He's not even sure if he wants to call this stranger "dad"! But he does wanna get along and he does wanna still try to be happy. But you can never know how painful it is to lose a loved one until you actually experience it yourself. And it was a pain Phineas had never known and never wanted to know.

It stung, it burned, it actually made him feel cold. Like all of Summer had suddenly disappeared into bleak, dark, Winter. Poor Phineas couldn't think of what to do for this pain, other than to cry and let it hurt even more. He wished for the moment he didn't have emotions so he wouldn't feel this pain. This terrible loss. Every sob he heaved, made his head throb in pain, worse and worse by the breath. Every tear that fell down his face made him feel cold and lonely. Every memory of his parents, and the fun they would all have together as a family, made him think his heart was literally tearing.