"Heinz..", his father began, his deep voice lowered, the look still stern on his face as Heinz had always known. "Is what that small child with the green hair said true? Are you actually his legal guardian? And his brother and sister, too?"
Heinz felt small and weak but he managed to mutter out a quiet, fearful, "...yes."
Almost immediately the mood changed and the man felt himself locked in a foreign embrace by his mother as she showered him with praises and delight at what a "good, strong man" he must be for taking care of such "darling little dears". Even his dad patted him on the back and smiled. It took Heinz several minutes before the words actually registered to him. The praise sunk in.
"Wait wait wait wait wait..", he began, waiting for his parents to stop.
The man's head was spinning with confusion. He tried to get a grasp on things.
"You're...happy with me?", he asked.
"Oh yes, of course!", his mother said.
"Heinz, you know that a man can only really show he's a man when he has a son. But TWO? It was difficult raising you and Roger. I am surprised your managing so well.", his father threw in.
"Oh, your father had always worried you would only be an emotional whelp with only having one daughter.", his mother continued as Heinz tried to ignore the insult that for the longest time in his parent's eyes he really DID only have one daughter.
"I have to admit, I'm surprised that my older brother actually has the guts to raise this large of a family.", Roger said with more cock in his smile than he really felt.
"You're one to speak, boy!", his father snapped, surprising both of them. "Here your failure of a brother has already had four kids to look after! Two of them are boys!"
Roger fell under to where Heinz stood and for once, felt himself shrink at his father's reprimands.
"Roger, shame on you!", his mother joined in, shaking her finger at her younger son. "Here Heinz has provided plenty of grandchildren for me to spoil! You're handsome, successful, smart, funny, and stronger than him and what do YOU have to show?"
"I-I-! W-well-! Um..", Roger stammered, suddenly unsure of what to say.
"What's the matter? You can't settle down and raise a family?", his father demanded.
"No! I-I-!", Roger's cheeks began to burn.
"Well then out with it! Why is it that your brother can support and raise children but you can't?", his father pressed. "Are you SCARED?"
"I-It's not like that! I-I'm just really busy!", Roger's face continued to flush at a rapid pace.
"Busy with what? Being the mayor? Hardly! Why not find a nice woman? At least then you'd have THAT much!"
"F-Father!", Heinz's dad had a loud voice and Roger was clearly suffering the embarrassment of it.
While this was going on, Heinz just stared. Jaw dropped, eyes wide, and when he finally snapped out of the shock, he thought his heart may have stopped for the moment, too. He could barely believe what was happening. ROGER? IN TROUBLE? And HEINZ? Being COMMENDED for having kids?
Ferb must've never said the details of how Phineas and Candace were related to him, but whatever Ferb did say, Heinz suddenly found himself in a massive amount of debt and gratitude. Ferb wasn't even his child, or a friend. BARELY an acquaintance! Yet he had managed to help Heinz's family life and have his parents give him credit, where Heinz would've least expected to see it.
After a moment of mere shock, the man found himself smiling, and then soon laughing at the whole situation. It was almost too good to be true. Like it was the weirdest, yet most amazing dream of all and the better part was that it was really happening. Once Heinz was finally able to pull himself away, still snickering every time he thought back to Roger's scared and blushing face, he managed to catch up with Ferb who was once again, tailing along with Phineas.
"You're right, Ferb.", Phineas said brightly, not entirely aware of what all had just happened. "People here are really nice and friendly to us. It's good to know we're welcomed into their family."
"Ferb!", Heinz called out, coming across the place. "Ferb, can we talk for a moment?"
Ferb looked at Phineas and Phineas gave a shrug and smile.
"Go ahead.", he said.
Ferb gave a thumbs up and he and Heinz walked off to themselves.
"Ferb, have you been telling people about what happened earlier this week?", Heinz asked.
Ferb gave a nod.
"And you haven't been saying anything about...you know? Me and Linda?", he pressed on, a little unsure of asking a kid this.
Ferb simply rolled his eyes with a hidden smile. He did know a thing or two Phineas didn't, but of course he wouldn't say any of that.
"...Thank you.", Heinz said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Very much. I.. You don't really know how much better you made things between me and my parents."
Ferb gave a smile and replied, "Well you ARE a part of my family, right?"
Heinz felt himself tear up a bit at this and the two shared a quick hug and Heinz gave another thanks before they went back to their business.
For the rest of the time spent at the reunion, Heinz found himself not caring about things anymore. Actually able to just lay back and enjoy himself. It didn't matter who won the kickball game or who really was the best or the most noticed. Suddenly, all of the pricks in the Family reunion that so often stabbed Heinz, were gone. In that bit of recognition, Heinz for once, found himself happier than ever before.
When everyone was leaving, back to their American homes or like the ocelots, catching their next flight, Heinz and Roger made one last glance at each other, he heading into his own car. Roger's face began to burn and he looked back at the door while Heinz just grinned. He climbed in the car and drove back home.
"So how'd you enjoy yourself Candace?", Heinz asked.
"Mm. It's okay..", she said. "Except for all the older Drusselstinian-speaking people patting me on the back all the time. I think they were saying sorry or something."
She rolled her eyes and Heinz shrugged.
"Yeah, it was okay.", Vanessa chimed in.
Apparently, the news didn't really hit the teenagers.
"Phineas? Ferb?", Heinz asked.
"It was awesome!", Phineas said happily. "And the family was really nice to Ferb and I. I was worried at first that they wouldn't like us, but this has been great!"
Ferb gave a thumbs up.
"It's nice to see you boys being accepted into the family.", Doofenshmirtz said with a nod.
"It is a bit of a shame though that our foster grandmother...is that right? She's a foster grandmother? Anyway, that the ocelot family had to go back. I think Perry was starting to like them.", Phineas said, stroking his pet a bit.
Perry gave a mindless chatter.
"Yeah, well, sorry Phineas, but she DOES have the den to go back and care for.", Heinz shrugged.
"I, for one, am glad for it." said Candace.
"Was she bothering you that much?", Phineas asked with something of a stern pout.
"No. It's because I got a bunch of cat hair all over my shirt...", Candace sighed and rolled her eyes. "Not to mention the way they talked gave me nightmares."
Phineas kinda shrugged and scratched his neck while saying, "Well, gee, you know Candace I thought they were kinda loving.. It was a little weird, sure, but it was still kinda cool."
"That's cause only YOU would think it's cool.", Candace retorted. "I mean come on! They sounded like a motorcycle and a demon had a child!"
Suddenly the car stopped as Heinz came up to a red light. He didn't want to yell at Candace, and especially not in front of the kids. His knuckles turned white, gripping the steering wheel tightly.
"...Candace, you DO know that that's MY mother you're talking about, right?", he asked.
"Yeah yeah. Family, I get it.", she rolled her eyes.
"NO. It's not just that!", he snapped back, trying to control how angry he sounded. "If it wasn't for that ocelot, the one you complain about so often, I would've DIED in the wilderness, leaving you to not ever exist, because my REAL mother hated me! Well guess what? Linda wasn't exactly the best mother either!"
Candace flinched as she felt a stab into her heart and Phineas and Ferb gasped.
"N-now, Dad calm down!", Vanessa said, happy to be sitting between them as she tried to keep the peace. "Candace didn't know she hurt your feelings."
"Candace..", Heinz addressed, pointing a finger at her warningly. "Every time you want to bad-mouth my mother, or my family, take a moment to stop and look at yours."
The light turned green and he drove on. The rest of the trip was in silence as the words sunk in. When they got back, Heinz left the kids in the apartment and drove out to order a pizza for dinner. Everything was still deathly quiet, but Ferb found this as opportunity to start listening to the CD he was given. He went to his room and closed the door behind him.
He turned it on and the first note to hit his ears, the title already hit.
"Moonlight Sonata.", he whispered to himself, his eyes widening a tad with surprise.
"That's good Ferdinand.", his mother's gentle, sweet, Scottish-accented voice said.
Her fingers flew by on the piano, the melody this time being something happier while Ferb danced around, loving the way his mother played. When she finished he fell on the ground with a smile and she giggled.
"Mother, I'm tired now..", he said between breaths.
"Well how about I play something slower? This song always relaxes me.", she said, and she began to play through the song.
Ferb sat up and leaned against the side of the piano as he listened.
"...it sounds a little sad.", he said. "But...nice.."
"This song makes me think of you.", she said, making him look up curiously. "When you're fast asleep in bed. The moon's shining brightly through your window. A touch of cold in the air with Fall beginning..."
Ferb thought over the scene she depicted and found himself smiling. It was sad, but peaceful, lovingly. Almost mysterious. Like the night.
Ferb thought over the scene she depicted and found himself sobbing into the pillow on his bed. The sudden memories of his mother, so long gone.
He suddenly lost track of everything, as he curled up on his bed. An icy coldness stabbed through him, sinking and seizing his entire body until he was unable to move anymore, like being out in Winter's dead night. The tears slid down his face continuously as he continued to listen, thinking of his mother, of how many hours he would spend playing this song as he mourned for her.
He felt like he was drowning, and he silently cursed the man that surfaced these memories in him. These, which he had tried to lock away. To hide. Put away so he could stand strong.
Suddenly he was back home, sitting on the couch. The man in his doorway, and telling him of his parent's death in the crash. The sudden pain that shot through him like a bullet. Phineas' tears. The corpses that laid so still and bloody in the coffins. He remembered both funerals, playing "Amazing Grace" on the bagpipes for his mother's, and having to hold onto and comfort Phineas in his father's.
When the song was over, Ferb was numb in depression, and he wasn't sure if he could listen to another song, but the CD played fast and he was doomed to the tears, again and again, throughout the whole CD.
"If everyone cared, and nobody cried, if everyone loved and nobody lied, if everyone shared and swallowed their pride, then we'd see the day that nobody died..."
"To our loves, send a dozen white lilies, to our loves, a coffin of wood, to our loves that all the pink eyed pigeons coo, that people they just ain't no good..."
"Blue on black, tears on a river, push on a shove, it don't mean much. Joker on Jack, match on fire, cold on ice, it's a dead man's touch. Whisper on a scream, doesn't change a thing. Doesn't bring you back..."
"Down in a hole, feelin so small. Down in a hole, losin my soul. I'd like to fly, but my wings have been so denied..."
"I'm so alone, I feel just like somebody else. Man, I ain't changed, but I know I ain't the same. But somewhere in between the city walls of dyin' dreams, I think her death, it must be killing me..."
"I go to school and I run and play. I tell the kids that it's all okay. I laugh aloud so my friends won't know, when the bell rings I just don't wanna go home. I go to room and I close my eyes, I make believe that I have a new life. I don't believe you when you say, everything will be wonderful some day..."
"What I really meant to say is I'm sorry for the way, I am. (I never meant to be so cold, never meant to be so cold.) What I really meant to say, is I'm sorry for the way I am. (I never meant to be so cold. Never meant to be so cold)..."
"In this farewell, there's no blood. There's no alibi. Cause I've drawn regret, from the truth, of a thousand lies. So let mercy come, and wash away what I've done..."
The songs didn't even have to be about death, just something depressing sounding. He felt so pained, that the pain itself began to become meaningless, and the blurs of memories, began to morph into nightmares of what would happen, questions of his own future. How would he handle if Phineas ever died? Or Vanessa? Or Candace? Or Perry?
Finally the last track was about to come on. Ferb was left with no tears, drained, and felt like he was drowning already in nothing more than the depression, and his questions.
"Ready? I'm ready!"
Ferb's head flew up so fast, he had to hold it in pain as the head rush hit him strong. There were two unmistakeable voices, and it sent a whole new wave of questions to flood his mind.
"Alright, in the mic, now.", Heinz said.
"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine..", Candace's tiny voice sang. "You make me happy, when skies are grey. You'll never know dear, how much I love you, please don't take, my sunshine away.."
As Heinz cheered and encouraged her, Ferb was left in a state of confusion and slight clarity. First of all, it was Heinz's CD, so what did all the dying romantic songs have to do with him? Did he really love Linda? The track was obviously made before the two broke up. Why would Heinz put Candace at the end of such a depressing CD? And for such a sweet song. It must've hurt him badly to hear Candace sing after the break up. Ferb's mind spun with questions, and he didn't know where to start. He didn't even know why the man would want himself to listen to the CD, let alone anyone else! It killed the human spirit with depression! Why did Heinz subject him to such melancholic music? The pain? The memories? Ferb knew that when he gave the CD back, he would have to get answers back tonight.
Meanwhile, Phineas couldn't help but feel the need to break the silence.
"What do you think Dad meant by Mom not being a good..mom?", he asked gingerly.'
Candace sighed and turned her head away.
"I don't know.", she lied.
Phineas looked at Vanessa and even she shrugged. It's like some sort of train-wreck just hit Candace and she was left hollow and unwilling to speak about the matter.
Pizza finally arrived and the family sat down to a movie. Ferb appeared completely normal, and he and Phineas took up their usual tradition of taking turns feeding Perry the crusts. That night, Ferb's mind was still buzzing with questions.
"Hm? Oh, you already finished? Thanks.", Heinz smiled and took the CD back from Ferb.
Ferb gave a nod and then pressed on to ask, "Why was Candace in it?"
Heinz's smile faltered and then soon disappeared. He looked away awkwardly and then sighed.
"Um.. Your.. Your Uncle Robert made it for me.", he said.
"It's depressing.", Ferb said bluntly.
"Which is why he made it.", Heinz said. "See... This isn't even the first. Way back since we were teenagers, Robert had made me an up-to-date CD full of depressing music. Every time something harsh ever came down on me, like how my parents tricked me into coming to America and didn't love me, I would feel depressed. And I would try to hold it in and fail miserably. So he made me the CD to listen to."
"I still don't understand.", Ferb replied.
"Robert explained to me, that when you're really depressed about something, sometimes, it's just better to cry it out. He said it would be easier for me to get through the pain, if I took it all at one shot than drag it out. He wanted me to hurt, so that I would feel better, faster. Am I making any sense?"
Ferb looked at the man curiously but then gave a small nod. Sometimes, pain is easier to endure, when it's fast and furious at once, rather than slow and torturous for a long time.
"...So Candace...?"
"It was after the breakup. He threw it in the end, because he knew that it would smite me.", Heinz said, staring back at the CD, wanting to choke up at the thought. "I had it saved on the computer, and I recorded it only a few weeks before Linda and I broke up. I had almost forgotten about it now."
"Did you miss Mom after you two broke up?", Ferb asked, earning a slight chuckle.
"For a long time, yes. But I got over it.", he gave a nod. "I'm sorry if any of the romantic songs on here threw you off."
Ferb shook his head. He didn't think of it at the time.
"...Have you often thought of Candace and Phineas?", Ferb asked after a pause.
"...At least once a day.", Heinz admitted. "I've gotten better about not showing it though. My only pitfall is Candace's birthday, the day I last saw them."
Ferb gave a nod. Every year, he always thought back to his mother's death, and his father would end up making him haggis to make him feel better. Heinz and Ferb looked at each other, eye to eye, and both smiled. They knew the other's pain, but both understood it would get better soon.
Laura: *Watching the sunrise.* Welp, I'm on vacation everyone. No younger siblings, except for Amber, and no parents. (Staying at my aunt's.) I've been fighting laziness to finally get this done, and I'm definitely gonna try to get more up before I leave. Hope you enjoy it. Some cute family love between Heinz and Ferb here. ^^ In the meantime.. *Cracks open twelfth can of Dr. Pepper before lifting it up in cheers.* Have a good one. =)